A Double Inheritance

Along with taking up my new post as Pastor at Durrington Free Church, I have come into the occupation of the manse, or pastor's house, next door. There has not been a pastor at the manse for the past 31 years, so it is quite an honour to be here. It is also a most intriguing exercise to find my way round my new surroundings. Within a few weeks I knew most of the ins and outs of the bungalow which was my new home. But getting to know the quite sizeable garden which I have also inherited – now that is a different matter.

Gardens do not reveal themselves all in one go. A succession of plants will be coming up during the next few months, and I have no idea really what variety of plant life is available to me on this patch of land. It will be fascinating to see the plants gradually emerge as the season wears on, and to be able to identify them one by one, or get some plant expert in the congregation to do it for me.

Musing on this the other day I pondered the inheritance we have when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. He is the Elder Brother of our new family. We are adopted into this new family under God and along with the other members of that family we receive an inheritance. This talk of “inheritance” does not mean, of course, that our God is going to write out His last will and testament as though He might die on us. It is simply that we come into ownership of all the blessings and all the riches of our new family in the kingdom where God rules.

It was breathtaking when I first came to see the blessings that are listed in Matthew chapter 5 in the light of our inheritance. Just look at these verses from that point of view:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Look what's in your inheritance! You inherit the kingdom of heaven; you inherit comfort; you inherit the earth; you inherit fullness, mercy, the chance to look upon God, the status of son or daughter of God. What amazing riches!

We need to be tremendously glad and excited about our prospects as new members of God’s family. If you want to get on in life, this is certainly the family to belong to. And yet we do not join it simply because of what we are going to get out of it. We join it because we come to realise that our God wants us to be his people and He wants to be our God. He desires a relationship with us that is closer than any relationship we can have on Earth. It is a most beautiful thing to be wanted in this way.

And so I look forward to getting to know my garden, unravelling the mystery of what I have come into in this new place. I am delighted to be getting to know my church. It is a great privilege to have come into the pastorate of people who are willing to rise to a challenge and are full of good ideas. May I be a capable manager, under God, of the inheritance that I have received.

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.

Born to be family

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth (1 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV).

Perhaps I am not the only one who feels uncomfortable when eulogies are given for someone who has just died that go through a list of all their relationships to others: 

“He was a father, son, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew …”

Doubtless when this catalogue is duly recited it gives solace to many who mourn. For me, though, it brings the awkward realisation that I am none of those things to anybody still living. I was once able to tick some of the boxes, but nearly all my blood relatives of any closeness have now died out. Does that mean I shall be a non-person when it is my turn to go and eulogies are spoken over me?

I am very fortunate to have an adopted family - as I’ve mentioned before in the pages of this blog. I’m not sure whether they adopted me or whether it was the other way round, but they are a very important part of my identity. They amply make up for the premature loss of blood relatives. I meet up with them at Christmas and other times of the year. They encourage me to contact them whenever I feel the need. They look for regular contact with me. There are also other households that have been kind enough to remark when I’ve visited, 

“We regard you as part of the family, you know”. 

I thank God for all of them.

A crucial part of the wonder of Christmas is the way the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to be part of human families - including our own, if we have been adopted by faith into the household of the Kingdom of God. A writer in Our Daily Bread puts it this way:

“The mystery of Christmas is that Jesus came to us as God in the flesh. Those who believe in Him are called the body of Christ, the church. Paul uses various metaphors to describe it. In 1 Timothy 3:15 he refers to the church as “God’s household.” He is saying that God is our Father, Christ is our brother (Hebrews 2:11-12), and we are God’s children (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26).”

But what is this for? What are its implications? Is it simply there to comfort us and reassure us that we have an identity somewhere? It is more than that. It binds us tightly to the truth of the Gospel which it is the Christian church’s role to contend for. The writer adds,

“Because our Father is the God of truth (John 3:33), because Jesus is the truth (14:6), and because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (15:26), the church is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).”

By trusting in Jesus as Saviour men, women and children are being adopted into a special family. It is special not simply because the family members can tick boxes to affirm that they have an identity on earth. It is special because it stands for eternal truths and has everlasting rewards. Have you established your relationships in this family?

Role Models

One question I often like to ask people at church is, “Who is your role model in the Bible?”

Role models are a keenly discussed topic in our day. It is said that children follow news about their favourite footballers. If the player has hit the headlines because of scandalous behaviour the child may absorb that behaviour and view it as something normal and good - after all, his or her hero does it.

Much agonising is done about a lack of male teachers in some schools. Children, so the argument goes, see too few men in everyday life that they can look up to as good male role models. But then, clean living people often do not attract a child’s attention because they do not hit the headlines!

The rest of us may well feel we have lived long enough not to idolise anybody. We may admire some people more than others but experience and wisdom have shown that all are afflicted by temptations and weaknesses. We feel a responsibility to live according to our best lights, not someone else’s.

So which role model do you choose from the Bible? Clearly there are some bad ones. The Bible writers never intended that we should see them as anything else. Nobody would pretend that Queen Jezebel of Israel was anything but a bad role model. She consistently championed idol gods and the political interests of her husband, the unrighteous and misguided king Ahab.

Of course there is one easy answer to the question of the best role model, and that is “Jesus!” Certainly there are aspects of His character that I envy. I wish I had more of His human warmth and His ability to read human nature like a book. However, it is too simplistic to say He is a role model to the exclusion of everyone else we might look up to. The apostle Paul, for instance, says,

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV).

Paul is not being big-headed. He doesn’t expect people to imitate anything about him that doesn’t reflect Christ. In this instance he holds himself up as not seeking personal advantage but the good of the many:

“… I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:33).

Paul in turn imitates his Master. Jesus Christ would have been the foremost person with a right to proclaim His own importance. He is the creator of the world and is normally exalted at God the Father’s right hand. But He humbled Himself, even to the point of dying on the cross. Mark’s gospel says about Him,

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

If I were asked to choose a role model (apart from Jesus!) it would be Caleb in the Old Testament. When Moses sent out twelve men to reconnoitre the Promised Land before the people entered, they came up with a discouraging report. Only Caleb and Joshua objected and said how good the land was, just as God promised it would be. But that isn’t the last we hear of Caleb. At 85 years old he presents himself to Joshua, now leader of God’s people in Moses’ place, and announces,

“… my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said” (Joshua 14:8-12).

I don’t say I’m like Caleb, only that I aspire to be like him, with his positive spirit and his refusal to be beaten by age and frailty. May God make me a lifelong soldier for the Christ who saved me. And may I reflect Christ so well that others will see something of Him in me.

Unexpected residents in heaven?

In my last blog entry but one I wrote myself off as something of a Philistine, in the sense of not being given to appreciating art. Yet maybe even I have my moments of artistic discernment. Many years ago I went to an art exhibition in the north Welsh seaside resort of Llandudno. One item in this involved you in opening a door and entering a small room. It turned out that the room was completely unfurnished - except for a number of small terra-cotta figures dotted around the floor. These were stylised little people, just head and body. It turned out that they represented aborted human foetuses. I found myself deeply moved. I visualised a whole town full of people - people who never had the opportunity to be born. It is an image that has stayed with me ever since.

Could there be countless thousands of such individuals peopling the City of God, the Kingdom of Heaven? The status of tiny children in the sight of God has long been a matter of debate. The doctrine of Original Sin claims that we all inherit sin from our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. According to this, humans are automatically sinners simply by being part of the human race. Thus there is no such thing as a time of innocence before the first conscious sin takes place. While the matter is not spelt out in that precise way in the Bible, support for it can readily be found in its pages.

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5 ESV).

Certainly I smile when I hear of arguments about raising the legal age of responsibility. I was probably not yet four years old when I became aware, for the first time, of doing something really wrong. I wandered up the lane to the side of our house and took a fancy to a glass bauble floating in someone’s pond. I fished it out and walked down the lane with it. Soon afterwards Mum saw me. When I spotted her, to use her words, I “destroyed the evidence”. In other words, I smashed the bauble by the side of the road.

Jesus had no illusions about children. He knew their failings, including how small-minded and quarrelsome they could be. He gives us this vivid picture of children moaning when others did not join in their games:

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
 “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn’.” (Matthew 11:16-17.)

Yet He also talked as though they had a special place in God’s heart.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 18:10.)

Who exactly the “little ones” were that Jesus had in mind, we are not sure. They might simply have been new Christians. But all around this passage Jesus is talking about children.

When His disciples wanted to discourage parents from bringing children for Him to bless, He protested:

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).

We dare not speculate about heaven beyond what God says in His word, the Bible. The only sure way to heaven is by deliberate trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Yet somehow I would love to think that there is space in heaven for many who never had a chance to walk this earth because powerful and influential interests denied it to them.

Forecasting the Weather

As I prepare to move down south any time now, I am keenly following the weather forecasts to see what the conditions will be like when furniture is going into the van and coming out of it. Will it rain? Will it be windy? Both of those things could drastically affect the way the move goes.

It's all part of a lifelong interest in the weather. I love to learn about changing weather patterns mean. I enjoy identifying the various types of cloud and getting to know what they indicate. I once read the book The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. He used to spend hours and hours apparently whiling away time but was in fact intently studying cloud formations and everything connected with them. I also own a weather station that enables me to gather all the relevant information together and try to make my own forecast.

In fact simply making sense of other people's weather forecasts is hard enough. I think of the airport weather forecasts. Their detailed, coded data are supposed to help pilots of aircraft who need to be sure of weather conditions before they fly. Understanding them is often a question of trying to work out what it is indicated by probabilities. Say they give a 30% chance of rain. Well, does that mean it will rain or doesn't it? I find the whole approach very frustrating. 

In fact most forecasting involves percentages. It's a way of hedging your bets!

I am intrigued by a weather forecast in the Bible. It comes when Jesus confronted some of his opponents over their narrow-mindedness and foolishness and inability to see what was coming the way He could. You can find that story in Matthew's gospel chapter 16.

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed (Matthew 16:1-4 ESV).

The Pharisees were looking for some spectacular demonstration of Jesus' power, as if they hadn't seen enough of those already. Jesus points out the inconsistency of their position. They are instinctively able to tell the weather to come from the weather lore. Yet Jesus' coming should give thoughtful hearers a pointer to the state of God's world now and where it is heading. Jesus' opponents are blind to the signs - signs that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that new conditions are approaching where God is seen to be in charge, where wrongs will be seen to be righted and a new order of things put into place.

We too can be guilty of looking at the world around us with blinkers on. I hear people obsessing about which news item fulfils which Bible prophecy. We may well be wasting our time looking for these often fanciful connections while the real signs go tragically unnoticed.

Jesus counsels the Pharisees and Sadducees to study the sign of Jonah. That presumably means the way that prophet was three days in the belly of the big fish before emerging into daylight again. This would be paralleled spectacularly by the way the Lord Jesus would be three days dead and then after that time rise again to newness of life, to bring about conditions of forgiveness and healing for all who believe.

Let's be keen on understanding the future - as God sees it. That will mean gaining Holy Spirit wisdom to sift out the relevant from the irrelevant in our quest for signs.

(By way of a footnote: moving day, 9 November, started off wet but ended much drier. After a very long day I was finally and happily installed in my new home in Wiltshire.)