A Good Read

I am currently reading a really helpful book called “Did You Think to Pray”, by Dr R.T. Kendall (Hodder and Stoughton, 2008). As its title suggests, it stresses the importance of prayer in the Christian life.

The writer is passionate and engaging on his subject and gives priority to prayer in his own life. As I read it, I hear a lifetime’s experience talking and feel enthused as well as challenged about my own devotional life.

Guess where I picked up this gem! At a Christian bookshop? From a church bookstall? At a church jumble sale? Actually, no! I found it on the shelves of a local public library.

What a surprise! You always think that public institutions have to be extra cautious these days about what material they carry. Critics are always on the lookout for bias towards a particular religion. Some will even complain about any religious beliefs being promoted at all. Yet if any institution should be a bastion against creeping censorship of the thought life, it ought to be the public library.

Christians are sometimes encouraged to present books to their local library. The library service is often strapped for cash in these days of economising. Free gifts of good, reasonably sturdily bound new books may well be welcome.

Of course, undesirable cult literature may benefit from the same welcome you hope for. I remember once picking up in a library a cult-inspired work that denied the Trinity. As cults do, it de-throned my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, from His proper status as fully part of the Godhead.

So what did I do? Of course I was not legally entitled to steal or deface the book. In the end I slipped a tract into the back cover which was a corrective. It stressed Jesus’ place as a full Person of the Trinity, forever one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Then I simply returned the book, with the prayer that the next reader might discover the tract at the back and be led to consider the alternative viewpoint.

Thank God for those who are still producing and selling good Christian tracts, books and other materials. Christian bookshops often have a hard time surviving. They may have to diversify. This can take the form of running a café area or a craft shop or Fair Trade shop within their premises. But they fulfil a hugely valuable function.

Sometimes they are literally a “shop window” on the church. Those who staff them - often volunteers - may have time to spare in sharing the gospel with those who come, spiritually curious, through the doors. Many a person has become a Christian through entering a Christian bookshop. Patrick Johnstone of Operation World is quoted as stating,

“More than half of the born-again Christians in the world testify that literature played a part in their conversion …”

The discovery of a book can sometimes change not just an individual but also a whole people. In the book of Nehemiah we read that God’s people called for the scribe Ezra to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses and read it to them publicly. They listened with riveted attention. They were dumbfounded by the amount of the Law that they had neglected. They almost went into mourning there and then. But their leaders advised that feasting and rejoicing were more appropriate:

“Then Nehemiah the governor … said to them all, ’This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.’” (Nehemiah 8:9 NIV)

And why should they rejoice first? Mainly, because they had heard God’s intentions read - and had understood them.

Out of Season

Even the seasons seem unseasonable at the moment of writing. I have daisies growing in my lawn. Daffodils, in full flower, are to be seen in the roadside verges. We are all left wondering what on earth is happening to our climate. The question persistently goes up, “Is this the effect of global warming?” The repeated answer is that nobody can be quite sure. All we know is, Nature’s rhythms seem disrupted. Things happen out of season.

Recently there has been quite a trend in favour of eating food that is “in season”, as opposed to what has been brought in from distant countries with a different climate and seasons at variance with our own. The “Eat Seasonably” campaign claims that “Eating seasonably means better taste, better value and a better deal for the planet” (www.eatseasonably.co.uk, accessed 11 January 2016).

Our forebears in ancient times had to study the seasons far more closely than we do. It may surprise you to know that in July food stores in the barns were at their lowest point. The crops sown in spring had not yet matured. On the very eve of the August harvest the poor could find themselves starving.

The Bible has memorable things to say about there being a right time for everything. The most famous is a passage from a wise preacher, probably Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV)

But there is at least one thing that the Bible says should be done out of season.

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 4:2)
The question is: “out of season” - for whom? For some zealous souls this verse may seem to supply a licence to pester. At the drop of a hat they may challenge some unsuspecting stranger with the full diet of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. They may do so in complete ignorance of the issues facing the person at that time. On the other hand, if someone is known to be complacent in his or her sin, that one may need a timely jolt.

But isn’t it equally likely that Paul, the writer of the verse, means “Preach the gospel even if it is out of season for you, the preacher”? Someone may long to hear the message of Jesus from you even when you don’t feel like giving it. Are you ready? After all, Christ died for our sins even when He felt He would like to steer clear of suffering.

Often great work is done for Christ because the time is just right. Just as much to be celebrated are the efforts faithful Christians make when they are tired, suffering and jaded. Thank God for them.