Only one reign

As the Queen's Diamond Jubilee approaches, I find myself thinking about the passage of time. I was born in coronation year. George VI had died and Elizabeth II was officially reigning, though still five months away from being crowned (you can do the sums). I have therefore only "seen" the reign of one monarch. I have no idea whether I shall ever see another. In earthly terms, I am content to remain under the rule of this one.

Maybe someone will calculate how many people so far have been born and have died within the reign of this one Head of State. The story of many of them would be regarded as tragic, because to die under sixty is to live far less than the average lifespan today. When Queen Victoria's corresponding Jubilee occurred in 1897, many would have lived out the full expected span of their natural lives during the course of her reign.

In a way, you could say those who only live through one reign have missed out. Others can boast, "I have seen two (or three or four) monarchs come and go". But isn't it reassuring to have stability? When a king or queen dies, there is a bleak period, a time of uncertainty. At one time the government and all civil servants had to give up office and be re-elected or re-employed, though this is no longer the case.

It is good to know that in the spiritual realm there is eternal stability. There are no awkward gaps and questions about successors. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

There is a little-known verse in Henry Francis Lyte's famous hymn "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" which goes like this:

Frail as summer’s flower we flourish;

blows the wind, and it is gone;

but while mortals rise and perish

God endures unchanging on.

Praise Him! praise Him!

praise the high eternal One.

But if that makes us look disposable, ponder the previous more well-known verse:

Father-like, He tends and spares us,

well our feeble frame He knows;

in His hands He gently bears us,

rescues us from all our foes:

Praise Him! praise Him!

widely as His mercy flows.

Jesus, the unchanging One, showed love and care for those whom society thought of as throw-away people. Call out to Him today in faith and trust and He will turn His face to you.

Human sympathy and divine care

At the moment there is in the media a crop of stories about people raising funds to help those who either live with adversity or die from it. Often sponsorship is involved. The person doing in the fund-raising may engage in some demanding feat of physical endurance. In some high profile cases the situation touches the hearts of sympathisers on a grand scale. Hairdresser Claire Squires had raised just £500 for Samaritans before she ran in the London Marathon. She died tragically shortly before the finish. Her fundraising page has now raised more than a million pounds. Researchers tell us that there are two main triggers to giving: a sense of emotional involvement and the urge to donate in memory of somebody.

 I wonder how much the average donor knows about Samaritans (formerly "The Samaritans")? They have some 17,000 volunteers who must submit to a rigorous training programme. They aim to offer a 24-hour service for those who are despairing (not necessarily suicidal). Many of the telephone calls come at the "unsocial" hours of 9pm to 2am each night. In one year (2007) Samaritans received 5,319,462 contacts. This work will benefit massively from the influx of funds from Claire's Just Giving appeal site. Samaritans wish to apply the money to aspects of the work which would be close to Claire's heart.

 Countless thousands of lives will have been saved and prolonged by dedicated workers, volunteers or professionals in the realm of caring, supported by generous giving. But do we understand the detail of that care? Even more, do we understand the detail of God's care for those who struggle with adversity - and His wish that their souls as well as their bodies may prosper?

 In Jesus' teaching we read these words from Luke 12:6-7. "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Jesus also remarked, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" (Luke 9:24-25 NIV).

 O teach me what it meaneth, 
that cross uplifted high, 
with One, the Man of Sorrows, 
condemned to bleed and die! 
O teach me what it cost Thee 
to make a sinner whole; 
and teach me, Saviour, 
teach me the value of a soul!
 Lucy Ann Bennett, 1850-1927

Sudden change

Being fascinated by history, I am following the 100th anniversary remembrance of the Titanic disaster with interest. It isn't a question of ghoulish obsession with the fate of so many hundreds of passengers. Yet it is sobering to think of all those people setting out on a luxury cruise, excited maybe, but not suspecting any danger. They found their way to their berths and cabins, sorted out their luggage and established a new routine for the duration. A few days later there would be an abrupt change. All around them there would be chaos, cold and darkness. They would meet with death or, if they survived, their lives would never be the same again.

In more recent times there was a spate of terrorist hijackings of aircraft. On one occasion an observer saw people boarding a certain flight. The following day that flight made the news headlines because it was the subject of a particularly nasty hijack. A few passengers lost their lives. The rest were put through a terrifying ordeal lasting many long hours. Again, on boarding, their behaviour was ordinary and routine. They had no inkling of what was about to happen to them.

What is it like to live as though a life-changing event was only days or even hours away? We couldn't cope with living life that way all the time! Yet, as I read through the gospels again, Jesus constantly taught His followers that anything could be just round the corner.

"No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back — whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'" (Mark 13:32-37 NIV)

We are creatures of habit and regular routine is comforting for most of us. Some people learn to live with constant change and even welcome it, but that is not everyone's cup of tea. The Bible tells us that we can depend on the routine of day and night and the changing seasons. But if we have not made at least one change in our lives - the change of turning our lives round, receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour and preparing for His glorious return - a sudden and unpleasant reckoning faces us.

The Eye of the Storm

We all know times when some troubles are past and we have a time of calm. We cannot yet say we are completely out of trouble. It may be just a breathing space. But it is very welcome even so.

These times are like the eye of the storm. This is a remarkable feature of tropical cyclones. It is a circular area 20-40 miles across where all is calm. Around the eye there may be ferocious winds. I certainly remember a time some years ago when the barometer reading dropped alarmingly low but we were not seeing the strong winds you would usually expect. They were in different parts of the country. We were in the eye of the storm. Of course, if the storm then blows towards you, you will soon be back in the thick of it.

Sometimes a Christian finds him- or herself in a time when some distressing trouble has passed. We never dare to feel that we are immune from more troubles. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7 ESV). But we are grateful for God-given rest from worries and battles.

In 1 Samuel 7 the prophet Samuel was leader of God's people. At a place called Mizpah the people's army defeated the Philistines. They were subdued for a generation. Not for all time, though! They would be back. Samuel handed over power to Israel's first king, Saul. Saul came to a sticky end when the Philistines defeated him and his army and killed him. They were always a thorn in the flesh of the people of God. It is not for nothing that the Holy Land today is known as "Palestine" by the Arab population. "Palestine" is connected with "Philistines".

But there was one incident which should teach us to thank God for the eye of the storm. When Samuel had defeated the Philistines, he set up a stone. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the Lord helped us." We need to be mindful of the many times when God has helped us "thus far". It would not be right to expect no more trouble on this earth, but every "eye of the storm" is a sign of the rest and deliverance that God promises to those who trust Him. The death and rising again of Jesus Christ bring believers into this rest (Hebrews 4:3).

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

Robert Robinson, 1735-90

Crosses and toads

At a school assembly I was trying to explain about the cross at Calvary. Today we see many beautiful crosses, works of art, on public display. Yet they had their origin in an early form of capital punishment which reduced its victims to a degraded and disgusting state.

To help the children understand how people would react to this, I asked for suggestions of disgusting things you might find on a pavement. One girl replied, "Bugs!" I didn't understand her Northern accent at first, and looked round desperately for someone to translate. "Creepy-crawlies," somebody explained helpfully, "like worms or frogs or toads".

This took me aback because I don't see frogs and toads as being disgusting. They are fascinating creatures. As a child I loved to take frogspawn home and see tadpoles and then frogs emerge. In fact, only the other day, I had picked up a toad and taken it to the other side of a perilous major road which it was about to cross!

What was disgusting to some local children brought out the best in me.

Over the centuries many people have looked at the state the Son of God was reduced to on the cross and turned away disgusted. Yet others have looked at that scene and found blessing and healing for their souls.

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:1-6 NIV)

Glass half full?

This morning I enjoyed a short written word from the General Secretary of SASRA, the Soldiers' and Airmen's Scripture Readers Association. He referred to the way individuals can be classified as "Glass half full" or "Glass half empty" people. "Those who are optimistic in life see there is still plenty left in the glass, whereas the pessimistic see the glass will soon be empty."

I have often asked myself whether Christians should be optimists or pessimists. The General Secretary's answer is, "Neither".

Our God wants us to have a glass that is not only completely filled, but running over: "You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows" (Psalm 23:5). One of my favourite promises of Jesus is where He states, "A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Luke 6:38). He apparently said this in connection with a number of different points of teaching. Several times in John's gospel Jesus wishes for the disciples that their joy will be full (15:11; 16:24). Since a full glass is a promise from God to those who follow Jesus, we can behave as though our glass was already at least half full!

But on the bad side there is another type of completely filled cup in the Bible - the cup of wrath. Where God's judgment is on His wayward people or on the heathen nations, they are said to drink their fill of this cup of wrath. It has a fearsome effect. The drinkers stagger around helplessly. Many in our land and day are cheerfully drinking out of this cup, little knowing or caring what it will do to them when they have drained it to the dregs.

Yet there is a ray of hope even for those deluded people. Isaiah prophesies, "This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God, who defends his people: See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again" (51:22). This remains true today because Jesus, the Son of God, took the cup of wrath that was destined to come our way and drank it Himself. That is a picture of what happened on the cross. The way is then open for us to receive the full glass of God's salvation and blessing instead.

The upshot of this is that you will certainly end up with a full glass. But it is important to make sure that the one you are holding in your hand is the right one!

Storage bins

The aftermath of my move nine months ago is still with me in the form of about 50 storage bins of differing sizes and colours. They await me, all stacked up, in a spare
room at the church. Between them they hold upwards of 4000 litres. If ever I had to store water I would have room for over a year's supply.

That amazes me, but it's a drop in the ocean compared to God's storage space.

Some of the biggest surviving buildings of the Middle Ages were tithe barns, massive empty structures designed to hold a tenth of everyone's produce as an obligatory contribution to the church. The system was resented. Yet all the produce we can store does not match what God has available for you and me.

Even back in the days of the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, God's people were suffering from tithing troubles. Those were dark days, and the Jews were obsessed with looking after "number one". As a result they resented God's demands and begrudged God any gift or service which might leave them short. God does not dwell on their problems, but instead highlights His own generosity. "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need" (Malachi 3:10 ESV).

Isaac Watts penned a beautiful hymn about the crucifixion of Jesus, "When I survey the wondrous cross", which ends with these lines:

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all."