Read Galatians 5:13-26 (read again 13-15) I suppose that the examples of using our freedom unwisely are plentiful and apply to every one of us. Recently though what has concerned us most is the behaviour of those who for their own pleasure continue to ignore the best medical advice on social distancing to slow the spread of Covid-19. After weeks of advising and urging people the government finally moved to give police the power to break up gatherings of people and if necessary to fine or arrest those who don’t comply or are frequent offenders. The old response we used to give as kids when someone, usually our parents, made us do what we didn’t want to do can be heard, if not literally at least imagined...”it’s a free country isn’t it” . Well in this case if we don’t as a nation use our freedom wisely and endanger others we will lose part of that freedom. Freedom of will was something God gave us in the beginning but having blessed humanity with everything we needed he called for obedience, which really was a call to trust him when you boil it down. We as a race made the wrong choice, exercised our freedom not to trust God and ended up enslaved to our own desires. Freedom lost! Jesus though has restored that freedom to those who trust in him – Here’s what he said “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8) So that is where Paul is coming from in verse13, but there’s a choice to make – free will always involves choices. Do we want to choose again the things that once enslaved us, not a clever thing to do, or do we choose obedience. If you’re saying to yourself right now, “What’s he talking about???” I don’t blame you. I’m talking about Jesus command to remain in his love John 15:9-10. How do we do that, remain in his love? By keeping his commandments, and that, to be specific, is to love one another as I have loved you, or as Jesus answered on one occasion, “love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt 19:19). So action towards others should be the visible outworking of a new relationship with Jesus when we come to put our faith in him. The deeds should be the proof of faith. So love is more than talk in this sense, it is an act. We act for the best interest of the other person though to tell you the truth, we may not even like them. Who is your neighbour? The person in need! It was interesting that Boris, from his sick room, commended the population for being neighbourly and caring saying that there really is such a thing as society. Something that’s actually the reverse of Margaret Thatcher’s famous comment in the 1980’s, “There’s no such thing as society, only individuals and families.”. I was listening to the radio the other day....well it was on in the background which isn’t really the same thing, but the contributor to the show said she was out walking and as people were crossing the road to avoid each other they were at the same time greeting each other in “an old fashioned 1950’s way”. In an unexpected way, the present crisis seems to have reversed decades of our obsession with privacy and individualism by causing us to look out for others but it was always something believers were called to do with their new “blood bought” freedom in Christ. Loving others in the sense Paul means it here is not romantic or a soppy sentimental feeling, but it is an act of the believer’s will to live in obedience to Jesus, and in that way keeping his command to love one another. CONSIDER
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LISTEN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FSZ_iSYO8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVesi-4A52w The clock showed the time 7.54pm and I said to Karen ....”If no-one else is out there I’m not standing applauding like an idiot.” “I am” came the reply; applauding she meant, not an idiot. I’m likely to get into bother for that one so keep it to yourself. It’s our secret! Anyway as the special BBC News item came on the TV we went to the front door and there, to my relief, were our neighbours across the street already out with the family cheering and applauding, and from all around we could hear but not see others doing the same. Applauding in gratitude for the doctors, nurses, clerks, porters, radiographers, ambulance personnel and all the others of the NHS staff who have remained at their posts to serve the public in these last hectic days and who will be there as the crisis deepens if it progresses as we’ve been told. It is good to be thankful, and a relief in these dark days of grim news to have something to cheer us. One is the number of ordinary people who have volunteered to stand in the gap and make up the short fall in social services. Another is the retired medics and nurses who have willingly return to help where they can. A third is to hear, as I’ve spoken to people in the church family over the last two weeks, how you are keeping in touch by phone and social media and supporting one another. We ought not to underestimate the significance of small acts of kindness and help given to one another in times like these, and we must make the effort to keep it up and maintain the attitude of caring for the vulnerable especially, when normal life resumes. I wonder though, what the longer term effects of this will be on the country and the community. Will it make us a more unified country, a more compassionate society, a community with a real heart for others, a church that is thankful which no longer takes for granted the privilege we have of meeting Sunday by Sunday to worship and for fellowship, a spiritual family in which even the youngest or the most insignificant as the world regards them, is valued? More good news is when we hear of the people recovering, some coming back from the brink of death after days when their life hung in the balance, and being restored to their families, many in answer to prayer. In such conditions the victims are powerless to help themselves and must receive intervention from others if they are to recover and come back to health and the picture is much the same when we consider our spiritual need. In our natural state we are dead to God, without spiritual life. Without intervention there is no prospect of life and no hope in eternity and in our reading from Colossians 2:6-15 Paul reminds his friends of this very thing V13 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.” (ESV). Just to make the picture a bit clearer, at least I hope so. Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham. What Paul is saying is that before God made them alive they were outside the people of God. He was a stranger to them and they to him, and while alive physically they were dead to the life of God. Still more good news then and another reason to be thankful for if this describes you then God has pulled you back from the brink and has made you alive when you were dead. CONSIDER
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LISTEN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSbJPZLNIuc Living hope. Phil Wickham Human beings aren’t all bad, we were after all created in the likeness of God, and he has allowed us to share many of his attributes. We are loving, we are creative, we have freedom of will and so on. Unfortunately the image of God in us is broken and many of these attributes have been corrupted. Love turns to hatred or control, we are creative in immoral or destructive ways, and freedom has been squandered in some cases to enslave ourselves to base passions and selfish pleasures. The present emergency has brought out much that is good in people, but along with that there will always be some who seek to profit by fear and the misfortune of others. We hear examples of those who are profiteering on sanitising gel or preying on the fears of an older generation and offering to disinfect the paths and driveways of their homes, for a fee of course, even though it’s of very limited benefit. If you read again Colossians 2:8-9 you will find that Paul is concern by the possibility of someone, and commentators say it’s likely he has an individual in mind, coming in to deceive the Colossians. How? By pushing an idea that is deceptive because it claims to be deeper than the gospel they received, and built on yet more ancient traditions but in reality is hollow because there is nothing in it and no value to it. As we know by experience ideas that depend on human traditions come and go because what appears sensible and good to one generation looks daft and repressive to another. The result as we move from Christ is not greater freedom and deeper knowledge, but captivity, and the word Paul uses describes being kidnapped. Behind the person or persons he has in mind and their enticing ideas stands the enemy of the soul. Such ideas are dangerous and appealing because they flatter us. They make us think that we are a cut above others; that we have something they don’t have, a deeper understanding, a greater ability, or knowledge not open to all. The truth is, there can be no greater knowledge of God that that open to us in Jesus Christ. One author, a man called Douglas Moo put it like this “All that human beings can know or experience of God is found in Christ. And so Christians, simply by being Christians have access to all this knowledge and all these experiences.” When Paul writes, as he does in verse 10, “and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” he leaves no doubt there is nothing further open to any one of us that has not been opened in Jesus all we have to do is press on in Christ. My shed is falling apart and yesterday afternoon I looked out what I hope are enough materials to repair it, it hasn’t stood the test of time, though for a shed, I suppose it wasn’t too bad. I’ve had it for about 13 years. All this, our reading and the experience with the shed reminded me of Jesus parable about the two builders. One who built on the sand and one who built on rock. The sand washed away in the storm and the house fell, though once it looked sound, but the rock didn’t move and the house was saved. The lesson Jesus draws has nothing to do with construction but life. He says in effect, the wise person is the one who builds on the foundation of his word. It’s an idea that the Psalm writer expressed before. “Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.” Ps119:111 PRAY
LISTEN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ-AiiVB7Sc Last night around 8pm we went out for a walk with our retriever Pepper. a bit of a strange experience in two respects, nothing to do with the dog. While walking up towards the main road there wasn’t one about, no-one walking, no-one driving. Silence! When we reached the Upper Newtownards Road we met a young couple pushing a pram, and about 5 or 6 metres behind them another person likewise giving her dog a walk. As they passed on the footpath we walked in the middle of the bus lane. No buses coming fortunately! Coronavirus or a bus, life’s full of dangers, but it felt a bit like the Levite in the Good Samaritan parable.... passing by on the other side. We are having to think in new ways and I think, discovering what is essential in life and what we can learn to do without. Of course we miss an evening out or the cinema, or the football leagues, but the present health emergency has shown who the real heroes in society are and it’s not the footballers with their exorbitant wages or actors and their fame but the NHS workers and health professionals, the delivery drivers and shop assistants those who day in and day out do their work without fanfare; the services we enjoy and never notice. Last night on the news a report on the effects of the Coronavirus in France ended by showing the residents of one apartment complex coming onto their balconies or appearing at their windows to applaud and cheer health care workers. This morning I heard that Smooth Radio is calling people in the UK to do the same at 8pm tomorrow night. I wonder how long we will be thankful for or if, when things improve we will forget again. Ingratitude or forgetfulness is something we’re warned about in the bible, and that is why perhaps we hear consistently the same call as Psalm 136:1 “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever”. Paul takes the same line in writing to the Christians in Colossae as we discovered yesterday. After encouraging them to live or walk in Christ, to be rooted as they grow deeper into him, and anchored securely in the faith, he urges that they should be built up in him, so to produce the framework for a life that honour’s Christ and gives strength and purpose to their daily walk. All of this is from God and by his instigation and working. Then he writes verse 7, “...and overflowing with thankfulness.” Thankfulness ought to be the mark of the Christian, it is what people should see in us as those who trust in Christ. Not simply saying thank you to people who serve us which is good to do. No, it’s more than good manners, it’s a thankfulness to God who has filled our lives and blessed us with all good things, and given us every spiritual blessing in Christ. And when the cup is full it overflows as when the life of the Christian is filled with the fullness of Christ and the goodness of God it overflows in thankfulness and praise. About this the commentator Dick Lucas writes..... “It sees no merit in man’s receiving but only in God’s giving. It marvels at his mercy. It is the language of joy. It is the expression of dependence on another. It is the speech of the Psalmist and the natural tongue of the apostles. It is also heard on the lips of the weakest Christian on his knees.” So today get on your knees and bless God, or if you can’t manage the knees bit, do the rest it’s the most important part. The psalmist adds and I’ll end with this..... “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Ps116:12-13. Maybe a true expression of thankfulness is to be like a spiritual Oliver Twist. “Please Lord, can I have some more?” PRAYER
It’s happened finally, what we have been expecting for days, the lockdown. Ahhhh!!! What are we going to do, no more “retail therapy” for at least three weeks? Some humour of course might help us through, but there is a serious side to it all, and for some a deadly serious side let’s not forget that or the people in that life or death position.
I was talking, by text of course, to a member of the church family who told me that people of her acquaintance were asking why this has happened and I have to say that I was surprised. I didn’t think that those big questions seeking a deeper answer to the crisis would be asked. Not generally anyway. Then this morning I received two messages from friends saying more or less the same thing and that made me think is there a prompt here from the Holy Spirit. So it is the idea that people are asking why that has occupied me this morning. All sorts of ideas and opinions have been and will be floated again, that this is a plague visited on people because of this, that or the other, that it’s a sign that the end is right around the corner. Maybe it is, but not because of Coronavirus specifically. There is of course an answer to the question why, but not one that people necessarily want to hear or will accept and some will object to it. Looked at from the perspective of the entire bible this epidemic, like every other evidence of a broken world and decaying culture is the outworking of Genesis 2:16-17 and the warning of God that disobedience to his command would bring death. The devil of course persuaded Adam and Eve, the first humans otherwise, and held out the dream that they could be like God, know everything and decide for themselves what was good or bad. The dream promised hasn’t turned out so well has it? If we’d been sold that as a product in a shop we’d be looking for our money back. Move forward then to Mark 13, the passage we looked at in church with David a few weeks ago and we find the warning of Jesus that many will come in his name and claim to be the Messiah, that there would be wars and rumours of wars, earthquakes, famines and the like but these are just signs of the times, “the beginning of the birth pains” Mark 13:8. A similar theme emerges in Revelation, the book we studied in evening services last year. These troubles are signs of the end times we are already living in and have been since Jesus announced the in- breaking of the Kingdom of God Mark 1:15. So where does that leave us? Coronavirus is not the first epidemic or pandemic others have gone before it, The Spanish flu which lasted for 3 years from 1918-1920 and killed millions world-wide, Asian Flu, swine flu, Sars , and looking further back in history you had the Black Death in London and so on. We’ve just forgotten about them when the danger passed but what lessons have we learned? This lockdown has imposed on us time to stop and ask those questions and maybe that’s something new. If there is any “silver lining” to these times directly it’s that’s they seem to have stirred good in many people and a deeper appreciation of the people and services we take for granted. So continue to pray for those who are seriously ill, the front line medical staff in the NHS, your GP’s and other health professionals. Add to that, delivery drivers, the staff in your local shops, your postmen and those providing an essential service for example the emergency services, cleansing operatives (bin men!) and many others. But perhaps more than any others as Christians we should pray that God in his providence and sovereign grace will bring good from this and that there will be an fresh awakening to Christ in the nation and to these spiritual realities in the nations. A wee bit longer this morning. Hope you don’t mind. Look out for another post with some devotional stuff later. Have a listen to this meantime and ignore any ads that come up first we don’t endorse any product. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efI5r615fdw WELL, yesterday was difficult for lots of mums and daughters out there and a lot of emotional phone calls no doubt as in our family. As the Coronavirus crisis deepens and we see how things are headed in Italy there is a growing sense of fear particularly for and among an older generation. Simply telling people not to worry isn’t really helpful so if you are fearful pray for a sense of peace, and ask the Lord Jesus for grace and faith not to fear. Remember too, the Lord has given us minds to use so please be sensible.
PSALM31 is another of those Psalms where David expresses his anxiety to God and appeals for help. It’s important for us to remember that this is not the failure of faith but it’s outworking; it is God to whom he looks. So then, in the heart of the Psalm in verses 14-15 we find he expresses his confidence in this... “But I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ my times are in your hands.” His growing confidence is expressed as the psalm draws to a conclusion and his experience of answered prayer is shared as he calls others in the final verse. “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”. Maybe that’s enough for now and I’ll close with Jesus words which perhaps we should read before the day ends. Matthew 6:19-34 “..... if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?" (NLT) That doesn’t guarantee an easy ride, but Jesus himself assures us of God’s loving care whatever the day brings. To believe that in trouble does honour God” I THOUGHT TODAY we might use St Patrick’s Brestplate (IPH 162) as the basis of our prayer I bind myself to God today, the strong and holy Trinity, To know his name and make him known, The Three in One and One in Three. I bind myself to God today To his great power to hold and lead, His eye to watch me on my way, His ear to listen to my need; The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, his shield to ward, The word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard. Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ to seek me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ sustaining all who love me, Christ uniting friend and stranger, Praise God my strength and my salvation, Praise in the Spirit, through Christ my Lord. AMEN. Further resources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_yv5yGZnBc (Stuart Townend) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc8N7-miYSg (Alistair Begg Ps31) In TV dramas, thrillers and so on you perhaps like cliff hanger endings, those designed to keep the viewers keen for the next episode but as a conclusion, the last ever edition, they’re dire. In Psalm 27 we don’t have that exactly, but neither do we know the outcome precisely. Was David’s problem resolved, was the issue settled? In a sense however that’s not important for what we end with is the psalmist’s confidence that God will answer conclusively with his blessing in a way that secures his life. “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” That leads to the encouragement of others to faith and patience in the same Lord.
Waiting for answers is one of the most difficult things in almost every aspect of life, but it is especially so when we find ourselves in a tight spot. Faith is difficult to maintain when we are short on answers. Uncertainty is a perfect breeding ground for fear. Yet, just as muscles which aren’t used become weak, faith that isn’t sometimes tested is shallow. In the coming days our faith individually and our patience may be tested in many ways, so the psalmist’s words are words we need to hear, not only hear but heed. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” v14. Ask yourself.
(Bob and Michael Benson. Disciplines of the Inner Life) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rayr0MwKwo8 (as always we don’t endorse any ads that might appear) |