High and lowly

Somewhere recently I read an article about how the birth of Jesus brought together both high and lowly in society. The shepherds, probably simple folk, were keen to hurry and see the sight that a revelation of angels had told them about. The wise men, altogether different, of aristocratic line and steeped in the learning and wisdom of the East, stuck to the convictions their researches had led them to. They travelled far and displayed steely determination in reaching the new King who, they calculated, must have come to the land of Judah.

High and lowly. I sometimes worry about the likelihood that the life of any given church might appeal to one class but be off-putting to another. I think to myself, “This church is too middle class. They can never expect to appeal to the residents in that rough and ready estate across the way.” Yet we must never underestimate the power of the Gospel to jump across social boundaries.

At the moment I am excited to be reading a major biography of George Whitefield. The writer is recounting the career of this eminent 18th-century Christian preacher and evangelist, who exercised a hugely influential ministry on both sides of the Atlantic. The social divide in his day, certainly in Britain, was in many ways more acute than it is today. Yet all sides, rich and poor, clamoured for preaching visits from Whitefield.

Arnold Dallimore, Whitefield's biographer, reports this about Whitefield’s early ministry: "Charles Kinchin, Rector of Dummer in Hampshire, expecting to be at Oxford for some time, asked him to officiate in his stead, and he accepted.

“Kinchin's parishioners were poor and illiterate, and Whitefield learned a valuable lesson among them. He was becoming too fond of his University associations and admits that, at first, he was ill at ease among the Dummer people and longed for his Oxford friends. But this attitude was soon changed and he wrote, 'The profit I reaped from … conversing with the poor country people was unspeakable. I frequently learned as much by an afternoon’s visit as in a week’s study.' The experience among the Dummer villagers proved effective, for never again was there the least suggestion that he was not equally happy in ministering to the poor and illiterate as to the wealthy and learned."

Truly those were times the people of Jesus’ day would have recognised. Jesus undoubtedly appealed to the more thoughtful of the ruling classes in Israel. But as we are told in Mark 10:37 when Jesus taught in the Jerusalem Temple, “... the common people” [or, “the crowds”] “heard him gladly” (KJV).

This, I must admit, is a challenge to me when I begin to imagine that the religious “gene” in British people has somehow died out, that hardly anybody is capable any more of responding to the good news of Jesus the Saviour, and that I must content myself in the cosy company of the few that have. No, God has promised us that He has His people from “those who dwell on earth, ... every nation and tribe and language and people” (Revelation 14:6 ESV).

“He speaks, and, listening to His voice,

new life the dead receive,

the mournful, broken hearts rejoice,

the humble poor believe.”

- Charles Wesley, 1707-1788

Rich or not, influential or not, wise-man-like or shepherd-like, have you heard and thrilled to the voice which is for you this Christmas time? And have you let yourself be blessed by talking to someone from a level of society you don’t normally associate with?

Just a reminder, by the way – please view my Christmas broadcast, a new venture for this year. You can watch it by clicking on this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5hu43eamq9x68ak/bcast.m4v?dl=0

It’s quite safe and you don’t need to install any software.

Before and After

“He humbled Himself”. What constantly amazes me is the “before” and “after” of the story of Jesus. We know the story of Jesus on earth from the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each in his own way, the writers piece together a life story. Two of them recount the birth of Jesus, its humble circumstances and the mighty portents which surrounded it. Then they tell of His spotless life and matchless ministry. All four then describe the wretched and painful death on the cross, followed by the resurrection and the reactions of awed puzzlement that greeted it.

Yet in some ways what speaks most for Jesus was the height He came down to this earth from and the glory to which He returned – the real “before” and “after”. To me it is breathtaking that anyone with such exalted origins and such a glittering future should bother with us on earth at all. And yet this side of the story is easily overlooked.

For various reasons, the first three gospel writers felt the need to stress the Messiah’s earthly career rather than emphasise the “before” and “after”. Matthew wished to appeal to his fellow-Jews. Mark wanted a practical, action-packed gospel to fit the needs of his Roman audience. Luke wanted to portray the human warmth of his Master. Only John, writing in more reflective vein, gives us an assessment of Jesus Christ the eternal, pre-existing, creating Word of God.

“In the beginning was the Word,” is John’s opening salvo, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (From John chapter 1, ESV.)

If John is the great singer of the “before”, the apostle Paul is the master portrayer of the “after”.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:22-28 ESV).

To me, this eternal exaltation makes the way people treated Jesus on earth all the more outrageous.

- Still more remarkable is the fact that He was prepared to come into such a scenario, let alone put up with the arrogant and abusive behaviours that went with it.

- And more remarkable still that He should embrace the most wretched of all capital punishments as an unjustly condemned criminal, all to bring forgiveness of sins to those who hated Him.

- And yet more remarkable that He should be interceding for us with His Father in the realms of glory.

I know that if I were in His shoes, returned to my rightful place after having endured such spite, I would be more likely to exclaim, “Goodbye and good riddance”.

But then, I’m not the Saviour.

The onus is now on me to decide, “How shall I respond to One who went through it all for me, returned to such glory, and still cares?”

By the way, please view my Christmas broadcast – a new venture for this year. You can watch it by clicking on this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5hu43eamq9x68ak/bcast.m4v?dl=0

It’s quite safe and you don’t need to install any software.

Humility

What does a humble Christian look like?

Recently I enjoyed a series of devotionals by Selwyn Hughes on the subject of humility as a fruit of the Spirit. This virtue is much misunderstood. Hughes spent much time explaining what it was not before going on to what it was.

In the ancient world humility had a bad press. Christians had to more or less reinvent the whole concept, because humility was looked down on as a “servile, grovelling spirit”. Writers throughout the ages have given it overtones of hypocrisy. Witness Charles Dickens’ character Uriah Heep – “We are so very ’umble, Master Copperfield.”

Yet God’s people felt driven to work at changing this view of humility because they were so inspired and impressed by the character of the Lord Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ‬

‪Therefore God has highly exalted him ...” (Philippians 2:6-9 ESV).

Hughes quoted Philip Brooks, a great American preacher, as saying, 

“The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is. Stand at your highest, and then look at Christ, then go away and forever be humble.”

In John 13, the famous chapter where Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, Jesus begins with the breathtaking awareness that God the Father has given everything into His hands. Then, in the full knowledge of this, he takes the towel and washes the disciples’ feet. He is our perfect example. He had greatness, but it was rooted in God.

We should not get above ourselves, but neither should we put ourselves down: that is false humility. The apostle Paul urges us in Romans 12 not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly, Romans 12:3. That means we should have a balanced view of ourselves in God’s sight.

So what is humility? William Barclay calls it “a gentle, gracious and submissive spirit”. He offers us five Bible examples that, taken together, give us a composite picture.

James 1:21 counsels, “Humbly accept the message that God has planted in your hearts, and which can save your souls” (J. B. Phillips). Humility is a teachable spirit. We learn nothing if we approach the Bible in a proud and know-all way.

Then humility is needed if ever we must say to someone, “A word in your ear”. If you put yourself in the other person’s shoes, a word of warning or rebuke can come across as very threatening. Correction must be given in a spirit of humility if someone is caught in a sin (Galatians 6:1) or is in dispute with us over a vital matter (2 Timothy 2:25). It can be given in a way which discourages or in a way which sets a person on his or her feet with the determination to do better.

The same applies when non-Christians ask you why you believe and behave as you do. 1 Peter 3:15-16 advises, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you ... But do this with gentleness and respect.” Courtesy in word and deed is only wise. James 3:13 – “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Seeing that Christian humility may not be what you imagined, you may conclude that it is sadly not for you. Nature hasn’t endowed you with a mild-mannered personality or the gift of seeing yourself and others in perspective. Yet it is amazing what God can do in you if you let Him. Didn’t proud Paul eventually come to regard his carefully built up status with the leading Jews as so much muck, and call himself the chief of sinners?

Vacation pep talk

At the end of each term in the ancient and venerable school I attended, a tradition was kept up. The head boy would come out to the front during the final assembly of the term. In clipped, cultured, well-bred tones, he would recite a Bible passage. It never varied. It was this one from Paul’s letter to the Philippians:

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you (Philippians 4:4-9 KJV).

Having a rather lazy imagination, it took me a long time to start wondering why this reading kept coming up. Why the same one at the end of each term? I believe there was a strategy behind it.

During term time, the school had the bodies and minds of us lads under control for the best part of six days every week. If there weren’t lessons, there were sports, homework and other activities. What free time we enjoyed tended to happen by accident rather than by design! Traditional educational wisdom had it that, literally, the devil found work for idle hands to do. Letting boys loaf around was a recipe for moral decline. But, of course, the school had no control over what we thought and did in the long holiday weeks. So it would do the best it could – send us away with an improving pep talk from the Bible, that hallowed repository of wisdom which was then central to school assemblies every day.

“... whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ... think on these things.” These are far more wholesome topics to fill your mind with than most of the fare that is served up to us in today’s media. What a difference it would make if people actively sought these out!

Without doubt your thought life is an important determining factor for your character. I mentioned last time a form of therapy, popular today, that seeks to change the way clients think about themselves and their situations. Cognitive-behavioural therapy is used to treat many forms of anxiety and depression. Negative thoughts can lead to low self-esteem or fear of making wrong choices. When the client is trained to replace these with can-do, positive thoughts, a surge of constructive energy can occur. The client grows in confidence with each small step.

Counsellors caution that cognitive-behavioural therapy is not without drawbacks and cannot fully replace other, more traditional methods. But this approach is undoubtedly attractive because, at its most successful, it can achieve measurable progress in a relatively short time, thereby saving money and minimising lost productivity.

Yet still more important is the way it chimes in with what the Bible says. The ancient world produced a pagan mindset that could be spiritually devastating. I well remember being brought face to face with the lurid, degraded religious culture of ancient Ephesus with its many-breasted goddess Artemis. The cult of the goddess spawned a seedy tourist souvenir industry which still persists today. But the Bible encourages us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2 ESV). Thus the apostle Paul writes to the Roman Christians. He appeals by the mercies of God – Jesus’ total self-sacrifice on the cross for the rescue of sinners. He argues that this calls for our total commitment of body and mind.

What a challenge – but how good and wholesome it can be if our minds are totally focused on this, the best of all good news!

Managing Memories

The management of memories is surely an art rather than a science. It is certainly a happy hunting ground for counsellors and psychologists. People suffering from post-traumatic stress may need help to confront their demons – nightmares which surface unbidden and cause acute anxiety and agitation. One counsellor may suggest recalling the ugly incident that gave rise to the problem, blow by blow, until it is projected outside of the sufferer’s personality. Another might suggest replacing the negative thoughts with positive ones. There is no simple formula. Skill, intuition, empathy – all may play their part in the art of helping a broken person back to wholeness.

I’ve recently been using some spare time to scan my old paper photographs into the computer. Seeing them again has brought back a whole variety of memories: some pleasurable, some not. The one above is a mixture. It is a self-portrait taken in the days before the craze for “selfies”. I cannot remember the exact date but it was towards the end of my longest and happiest spell in the ministry, in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The over-exposed and out-of-focus image still manages to display contentment in the surroundings which had become familiar and pleasant to me over that time. On the other hand, it may also reveal a hint of sadness. Storm clouds were gathering over the old church denomination where I had been securely cocooned for nearly 15 years. Its national body was poised to take decisions that would lead me into a painful move and an uncertain future outside.

One piece of self-help for managing memories is to realise that my old photos are at my disposal. That photo of mixed memories is one I’ve kept. But I’ve found it useful to shred those images which really jar with me today. It is like taking charge of a bit of my history. I am not shredding people or places; I am only letting go of unfortunate images.

Nobody who does this should be under any illusions about wiping out inconvenient truths. If a painful memory represents something in me that is inconsistent with being a Christian and has not been dealt with, I need to deal with it. Shredding a photograph cannot achieve that for me. The truth will only come back to bite me.

On the other hand, it is at least as likely that I have nothing to blame myself for. The bad memory then comes from someone dumping a feeling of frustration and guilt on to me (some individuals, sadly, have the knack of doing that). The task now is to affirm that that person will no longer dictate my thought life. Of course, that also implies that I must resist all anger and any thought of revenge. True, I may not wish to see the person again, and the thought that this might happen may fill me with apprehension. But we are not Siamese twins, the person and I: I have my life to lead, the other individual has his or hers, and it is down to us to get on with it.

At first I used to worry about whether God ever meant us to leave any memory behind, however painful. There are always lessons to be learnt. But a kind Christian friend reminded me of the words of the apostle Paul. Paul carried into his new-found Christian faith baggage which could induce both pride and guilt: religious purity and murderous fanaticism. Yet by God’s grace he was simply overwhelmed by what Jesus Christ had done for him. All he wanted to do now was follow where his Master had gone before, through death and on to the crown of eternal life.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him ... 

One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:8-16 ESV)

Don’t just shred the bad memories past; strain for the prize that lies ahead!

Slavery

It was at Jersey Airport, a number of years ago. I was in the check-in area. On top of a desk stood a weighing machine. The back of it carried prominently the name of the manufacturing company – a well-known one. Someone had written in big felt-tip pen the letters “SL” in front of it. The result was there for all to see: “SLAVERY”.

I smiled. A little imagination conjured up a scenario. An employee, disenchanted with his work or perhaps just having a bad day, had added the letters to make a point. His conditions of work amounted to slavery, at least as he saw it.

Of course, real slavery, ancient or modern, is usually a much more degrading and oppressive business for the sufferer. A slave was viewed as little better than an inanimate tool. The slave could be abused in almost any way the owner chose – there were few sanctions against it from the law or from society.

In light of this, the way the Bible views slaves and slavery can come as something of a shock. Whom do the writers of the New Testament regard as the king-pin of ancient society? Is it the emperor, at the top of the social pyramid? Or the army general? Or the merchants, or the heads of families, around whom so much of social and household life revolved? No! Believe it or not … it is the slave!

“How can this be?” you ask. Did we in this country not fight a lengthy battle to rid the world of slavery? We are proud of the fact that William Wilberforce, a British parliamentarian, finally steered the Slave Trade Act through to the statute book. This struck the first blow towards ridding the world for ever of the vile practice of slavery. We rightly have a horror of this distasteful trade rearing its ugly head again in the form of people-trafficking, “modern slavery”.

I don’t believe for a moment that early Christian stalwarts like the apostles Paul and Peter ever intended to give the institution of slavery their seal of approval. Yet for them one feature at least about the slave could be an inspiration.

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:18-24 NIV)

If Christian slaves suffered unjustly and yet kept a dignified composure, they gained credit with those around them. Better still, they reflected in a small way the character of their Master. The Lord Jesus was insulted, abused and finally put to death. Philippians (2:7) says that he “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness”. He did so in total obedience to God His Father. In His wounds we find healing for our sins. He was subsequently raised from death. In His wake we followers, too, may be raised.

Jesus Christ did not endorse slavery for one moment. Yet He raised slaves to a new level of dignity by the way, slave-like, He handled abuse and unjust suffering. This is a lesson that needs to be learned again in a day when we are so ready to insist on our supposed rights. Don’t get me wrong: nobody is called to be a doormat. But by what right should we expect better treatment than our Master?

Second-hand faith

“We’ve made my son an elder at the church now,” commented the interim pastor apologetically at a cause where I was the visiting speaker. “He should be on duty tonight, but I’m afraid he always turns up late.” A quarter of an hour after the service had begun, a man in his twenties slunk into the back pew, took no active part in the proceedings and seemed quite disengaged from what was happening. Clearly this was the pastor’s son. He had nothing to contribute to the conversation after the service. If he said anything at all, it had nothing spiritual about it.

I came away from the scene disillusioned and with a poor impression of the set-up at that place. If the young man had any faith to speak of, it looked as though it had been borrowed from his father. He gave no sign of having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was an elder! Surely this was a dismal reflection on both church and pastor. The pastor was not a strong enough character to challenge his son, and the church members had not queried the son’s promotion for fear of offending the father.

In my time I’ve been privileged to meet a number of keen high-profile Christians and their families. Some children grow up a credit to their parents. Not only do they follow their good examples, but they have a lively faith of their own which they can pass on. Some children, alas, disappoint their active Christian parents by rebelling against the faith altogether. Others, lacking what their parents have, aim to please and show willing. They deserve some credit for staying under the Christian banner when their peers ridicule their stand. Yet there is a huge gulf between agreeing to uphold a Christian family tradition and having your own life-changing meeting with the Saviour.

Recently the ever-useful Our Daily Bread notes reflected on the career of King Joash of Judah – a lesser-known monarch, ninth in succession to the great King David. His career started well. He had a wise counsellor by his side – his own uncle, Jehoiada, the chief priest. Cindy Hess Kasper comments, 

“But once his uncle was no longer there to teach and lead by example, Joash fell away and his life ended badly … It seems that the roots of his faith did not run very deep. He even began to worship idols. Perhaps Joash’s ‘faith’ had been more his uncle’s than his own.

“Others can teach us the principles of their faith, but each of us must come individually to a lasting and personal faith in Christ.”

I sometimes tried to sing to my congregations an old gospel song that puts the point plainly and challengingly. There are variations on the words, but the chorus of the version I know goes:

"You've got to walk that lonesome valley; You've got to walk it by yourself. There's no-one here can walk it for you; You've got to walk it by yourself” (Traditional).
 

To grow up in a Christian home is surely a great blessing. In most cases you are surrounded by wholesome talk, mild manners, love and encouragement. Differences are settled by reasoned discussion, not aggression. There is even a strand of Christian thought which argues that the faith of parents transmits itself to the children. They absorb the Christian way, so to speak, with their mother’s milk. The apostle Paul congratulates his pupil Timothy on having faithful forebears:

“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5, NIV).

Further, he called Timothy his spiritual son. He had commissioned him to Christian work by the laying on of hands. Yet, valuable though all of this was, Timothy needed to take ownership of his faith for himself:

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:6,7).

If you’ve had a good start in life, praise God. But that doesn’t excuse you from responsibility for your own good continuation and good ending.

Blackberry harvest

For the first time this year I have managed the serious blackberrying I have long dreamed of doing. In fact it is a very suitable year for this activity, because they say the harvest is six times bigger than usual in the UK! The weather, apparently, has been particularly favourable for blackberries right from the last mild, wet winter till now. In fact there are abundant crops not far from my home. A short walk with a bag and a container, and I am ready to go.

This friendly, free food is proving good to stew with apples and eat with evaporated milk and chunks of bread. I also scatter it on breakfast cereal or take it as a snack to supplement the teatime bread and jam. It is handy to give as a gift, too.

A phrase keeps coming back to me from an old prayer: “... the kindly fruits of the earth”. “... to give to our use the kindly fruits of the earth”, the Litany says.

“Kindly” in what sense, I wonder? It seems strange to call an inanimate fruit “kind”, even if it is benign and nourishing. The Oxford English Dictionary has a bewildering array of meanings for the word. The appropriate one seems to be, “Of good nature or natural qualities”. The fruits are, quite simply, intrinsically good for us. That is what God created them to be.

“And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food’” (Genesis 1:29 ESV).

On an early visit to Cornwall in the 18^th century, the great Evangelical Revival leader John Wesley found that blackberries saved him from starvation. A travelling companion writes,

“One day we had been at St Hillary Downs, and Mr Wesley had preached from Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones, and there was a shaking among the people, as he preached. And as he returned, Mr Wesley stopped his horse to pick the blackberries, saying, ‘Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that there is plenty of blackberries: for this is the best country I ever saw for getting a stomach, but the worst that ever I saw for getting food: do the people think we can live by preaching?’”

In defence of the good people of Cornwall I must say that Wesley was given a hearty welcome wherever he went in the county once he had become better known and accepted. The tradition of hospitality continues today and I well remember the generosity of the people in the early 1980’s when I was a minister there!

Even if the meaning of the word “kindly” has changed over the course of centuries, I think the more usual signification was always there. God is kind – and not just because He has given us nourishing harvest produce. His plan to save lost outsiders is kind. This does not mean we can presume on His kindness. It is the other side of His severity towards those who will not take Him seriously. There were some non-Jews who became cocky because they had been accepted into God’s kingdom whereas some of the formerly privileged Jews were left outside. The apostle Paul warns them in Romans 11:19-22 –

Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

And we should imitate God by being kind to others. Too many Christians let the side down by not being kindly. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”, says Paul again in Ephesians 4:32. If we can’t be kind in these ways, have we truly understood the kindness of God?

Jesus the Living Bridge

Recently I read a devotional article entitled “Living Bridges”. As sometimes happens, the words sparked off thoughts that the writer never intended.

My mind made two unexpected connections, in fact. One was to do with an old Welsh proverb which may be translated, “He who would be a leader must also be a bridge.” It comes from the story of a Welsh giant who crossed the Irish Sea with an army to rescue his sister, who was being cruelly treated in Ireland. His sister’s husband, Matholwch, retreated beyond a river and destroyed the bridges. The giant laid himself down across the river and acted as a bridge by which his army could cross. “He who would be a leader must also be a bridge” was his cryptic comment.

The second connection goes back to 6 March 1987, when the MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in just 90 seconds after setting sail from Zeebrugge, Belgium, towards Dover with the bow doors still open.

A man called Andrew Parker, a 33-year-old former bank manager, placed his 6ft 3in frame in the gap between two metal barriers. His wife, Eleanor, daughter Janice, 13, and twenty other passengers crawled across his back to safety. Ever after that he was known as the “Human Bridge”. He survived and was honoured with the George Medal, though he went on to battle with depression and stress.

These powerful stories from two completely different contexts remind me of the achievements of the Lord Jesus Christ as a bridge between God and humans. Had he not fulfilled that role, there would have been no hope for us. The opening chapter of Genesis pictures the original situation where there is unbroken companionship between God’s side and humankind’s. Then sin intervenes and a gap opens up which becomes ever wider over the course of time. As early as Genesis chapter 4 we have the first murder (Cain on Abel) and the first recorded instance of bigamy (Lamech). Sin has twisted itself into the story of the human race and has long since become impossible to untangle. Every human being is born into this dismal heritage.

Since it is beyond humans to rise above sin, it is down to God to do something for us, if He is willing. And not only does that “something” need to be done, it needs to be seen to be done. The issue is too serious for God to work a few tweaks for us while remaining aloof. If He won’t visibly and personally intervene to bridge the divide, we can’t have any reassurance.

In fact God has been more than willing both to act and to reassure. In his letter to the Christians in Galatia, the apostle Paul makes an announcement of immense significance to all who are born “under the law”, in other words, under the blight of sin: 

“... when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). 

Jesus Christ lived in our sin-dominated environment but was not Himself tainted.

It was a huge risk. God becoming man sounded like childish superstition to some and blasphemy to others. The claim of Christianity that it actually happened is a key driver for much of the anger and contempt of Muslims in many lands against Christians today. But we steadily and lovingly maintain it because it is the only route to certainty that God is for us and not against us. He has met the knotty problem of human sin head-on, by tackling it Himself and tackling it at our level. Thank God for our glorious Living Bridge.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

save in the death of Christ, my God;

all the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to his blood.

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

My favourite hymn

My favourite hymn is “Jesu, Lover of my soul”. In case you don't know it, it goes like this:

Jesu, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenceless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.  
 
Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity.

This beautiful outpouring was written around the year 1740. It is by Charles Wesley, still famous today for his Christmas hymn “Hark, the herald-angels sing”. In fact he wrote thousands of hymns.

There was a time when hymns stayed around for decades, maybe even hundreds of years. Today we call them classic hymns. Some churches still love and cherish them and make sure they are sung week by week. In many other churches they have been completely replaced by Christian songs that have been composed recently and are soon discarded in favour of new ones. In a way this is a good thing. We need to be reminded that the eternal God lasts, and the word of God in the Bible lasts, but the words of man are not inspired in the same way. They are often shaped by the day and age they are written in. Each generation finds new ways of expressing praise to God for sending us Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who is “the same yesterday and today and for ever”.

However, because they are so durable, classic hymns often carry many memories for people. We used to sing “Jesu, lover of my soul” at the primary school I went to. In those days schools regularly had a Christian assembly every day where the hymns were often the same as at church. I don’t know why I loved it so much as a youngster of nine or ten. Much of its meaning was lost on me. Maybe it was the beautiful Welsh tune we sang it to, but I like to think it was because of the sense of peace it gives. God is firmly in control. Through all troubles He will bring safely home those who have put their trust in Him through Jesus.

I’ve since come to appreciate the hymn even more for the many Bible quotes it contains - to give just one example:

"... in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by ..." (Psalm 57:1 ESV)

and the way it teaches Bible truth through poetry. There are four well balanced lines in the middle where Wesley contrasts our weakness and sin with God’s perfection but also His patience and kindness:

Just and holy is thy name

I am all unrighteousness

False and full of sin I am

thou art full of truth and grace.

There are many stories from the past about how the hymn has affected people. But my favourite goes back to the American Civil War (1861-1865). A sentry in Grant’s army sang it as he paced backwards and forwards. A soldier of the opposite army had lifted his gun to shoot him through the heart, when the words

Cover my defenceless head

with the shadow of thy wing

rang out on the night. He dropped his weapon, and allowed the sentry to pass unharmed. Eighteen years later an excursion steamer was sailing down the River Potomac, when an evangelist sang this hymn. A gentleman pushed through the company and asked if the singer had fought in the Civil War. He was the man who had refrained from shooting down the singer.

Charles Wesley’s more famous brother John declined to give “Jesu, Lover of my soul” a place in his hymnbook. He thought it was too emotional and intimate. In our times we are less bothered about such things. There is a place for saying openly how much we love and treasure God. For our sakes He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die in pain on a cross. The result is infinitely good for us. We can be put right with God and receive new and everlasting life. Surely in our day more people would be blessed by rediscovering this warm, vibrant and very beautiful hymn.

The Hearing Test

Every so often my optician – who I thought was only there to test my eyesight and prescribe spectacles – invites me to come in for a hearing test. I am not sure what would happen if I went, but I can imagine a number of the checks that would be applied. The audiologist would see how far my ears could pick up noise on a range of frequencies. As likely as not, they would also be interested in how far I could filter out background noises so as to hear what was important.

I noticed an interesting spiritual hearing test in John MacArthur’s notes on Psalm 12, and thought I would share it with you. The psalm is typical of King David’s writing and has some very raw emotions:

Help, LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.

Everyone lies to his neighbour; their flattering lips speak with deception.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue

that says, "We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips – who is our master?"

"Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the LORD. "I will protect them from those who malign them."

And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.

O LORD, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people for ever.

The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honoured among men.

(NIV 1984)

MacArthur points out that men’s words hurt, but the Lord’s words heal. As the Psalm goes on, “David provides a model for passing a spiritual hearing test, in that genuine disciples listen to and properly respond to two radically different sources of speech”.

The first speech source that comes screaming into our ears is the voice of the wicked: lying, flattering, deceiving, boasting, triumphant and self-important. This voice clamours to be heard above all else and is very disconcerting. It has no apparent competition, for the faithful and godly have died out from the land.

How do we blot out this raucous din? Your task and mine is to recognise how twisted and unjust it all is and to pray, despite all the distraction it causes. “Help, Lord!” the psalmist cries out. He appeals to God’s prevailing power. God is the ultimate key to cutting off the claims of false tongues.

Then the psalmist strengthens himself with the fact that God answers him with a voice of His own that rises above the hubbub. God has not overlooked the troubles of His suffering ones even though the only voices they have heard up till now are hostile ones. God resolves to protect the oppressed. His words are pure and clear and He will persevere.

The psalm-writers are realistic, level-headed people. David does not suggest that the wicked ones with their unnerving bluster simply go away as soon as you and I think about God. “The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honoured among men”, he laments. That is a fact of life that we have with us until God’s kingdom is finally established in His Son Jesus Christ, and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. But with His guidance we are at least tuning in to the right voice.

Name That Plant

I love seeing natural places with plenty of trees, grasses or wild flowers. The trouble is, something occasionally spoils the experience for me: not being able to put a name to whatever specimen I am looking at.

It was very rewarding to do a walk on the Great Orme in North Wales recently with a couple of ladies who obviously knew their wild flowers. “That’s a scabious,” one remarked. I was grateful to be enlightened, given that I thought scabious was a disease that made your skin itch. It was satisfying to think that, next time I saw one, I would be able to Name That Plant.

Someone once became very frustrated with my lament about not knowing more botanical names. “You don’t need to know all that!” she protested. “Just enjoy the scene!” And I have to admit that something of the wonder is lost if you are forever fretting about not being able to define what you are observing.

This passion for defining is a relatively recent urge in human history. The Age of Enlightenment was all about men of science examining huge numbers of samples – be they of rocks, animals, plants, languages, viruses, stars or anything else observable – and cataloguing, codifying, classifying them until everything could be put in its place. Clearly this process has brought untold benefits. Medicine has advanced by leaps and bounds because of researchers’ patient analysis of vast amounts of data, spotting connections that may indicate an approach to treating damaged areas of the body more effectively.

Indeed, naming and defining creation has God’s endorsement. We are told in Genesis 2:19, “So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name” (ESV).

Yet, whenever the gaining of knowledge becomes entirely a matter of classification and analysis, other discoveries can be missed. For instance, there is the valuable deduction that man the classifier and analyst is not above God.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8 ESV

Fallen angels and men pretend they know better than God. Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of God, never went down that road. God the Father crowned Him with glory and honour. He also crowns those who trust in Jesus with reward, because that route is the way to an infinity of new and exciting discoveries.

How fast do you walk?

Despite being happy to stride out when taking a walk, I find that everybody seems to pass me and then disappear into the distance. Even petite females who might be expected to have short strides and not cover the ground very quickly appear to zoom ahead. Am I a slowcoach – or is the pace of my life simply rather leisurely?

With this puzzle in mind, I was interested to read a recent article in Radio Bible Class’s “Our Daily Bread” notes. “According to a study measuring the pace of life of cities in 32 countries, people in the biggest hurry live here in Singapore,” writes Poh Fang Chia. “We walk 60 feet in 10:55 seconds, compared to 12:00 seconds for New Yorkers and 31:60 seconds for those living in the African city of Blantyre, Malawi.” [If my walking speed is 3 mph, I surely ought to cover 60 feet in a respectable 13.6 seconds.]

“But regardless of where you live, the study shows that walking speeds have increased by an average of 10 percent in the past 20 years. And if walking speed is any indicator for the pace of life, we are certainly much busier than before.”

The article gave me pause for thought. Maybe people with a faster-paced lifestyle get more done. I am certainly amazed at the work rate of some of my friends, including those much older than I. The amount of positive good that people like that can generate is something to be admired. I think to myself that I wouldn’t last five minutes if I had to live at their rate, and therefore will never benefit the human race the way they do.

Sometimes I have indeed been required to speed up. Once when I was between churches I registered with an agency that sent me out to do manual work. Supervisors taught me how to carry out tasks more efficiently in order to cut out unnecessary movements. For a while it seemed to bring benefits at home – I found myself getting through more housework and doing so more quickly. Eventually, though, I lapsed back into my old rather leisurely ways.

When I see people going down with exhaustion I don’t think it’s such a bad idea to be a bit on the slow side. Maybe this is the story of the tortoise and the hare all over again, with a new twist. The hare is so keen that he runs out of steam. The tortoise eventually succeeds in reaching the finishing line on his own.

Some object that it is better to burn out than to rust out. There may well be times when Christians need to live and work flat out regardless of their health. The Protestant Reformation was possibly one of those times. A rare window had opened up for teaching and preaching in line with the new discovery of justification by faith alone. Some very frail saints pushed themselves hard to promote this revolutionary truth while the opportunity existed. But generally speaking Christianity is a life to be lived in the long run. The Lord Jesus declared, “ … the one who endures to the end will be saved” (see Matthew 24:12-13).

Poh Fang Chia challenges us, “Are you caught up in the frenzy of a busy life? Pause and consider Jesus’ words to Martha: ‘You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10:41-42).

“Notice Jesus’ gentle words. He didn’t rebuke Martha for wanting to be a good host but rather reminded her about her priorities. Martha had allowed the importance of her tasks to get out of proportion. And, in the process, she was so busy doing good that she didn’t take time to sit at Jesus’ feet.

“In our drive to be productive for the Lord, let’s remember the one thing worth being concerned about—enjoying time with our Savior.”

And in case we are still tempted to spend less time with the Lord because we are too busy about His work, the thought at the end of the article brings us up short: “Jesus longs for our fellowship even more than we long for His.”