Storm Christoph has been raging in our area this week, with heavy rain bringing flooding to some areas and strong, gusty winds adding to the rather miserable January weather which is often a feature of winter. It has made me realise that sometimes taking refuge indoors from the storm is not a bad idea, and Jesus’s words about strong foundations (Matt 7:24-27) have taken on new relevance at this time.

Ps 2:12 tells us that ‘blessed are all who take refuge in Him’, and the idea of God as our refuge is one found 43 times in the Psalms, perhaps most famously in Ps 46:1, which says ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.’

Other psalms talk of God as a refuge, rock, fortress, shield and stronghold (Ps 18:2) and remind us that it is better to take refuge in God than to trust in humans. (Ps 118:8) At this time of lockdown, when we may feel that ‘Storm Coronavirus’ is raging even more fiercely than Storm Christoph, we may feel helpless and hopeless, unsure what to do and how to respond. As we make God our refuge, hide ourselves in Him and put our hope in His word (Ps 119:114), we are not simply being passive; we are actively shielding in God until the disaster has passed. (Ps 57:1) God will protect us and deliver us as we trust in Him, enabling us to sing and be glad even in these hard times. (Ps 5:11, Ps 59:16)

When my father died, we discovered thousands of photographs in a wardrobe at his house. Looking through these was not only a trip down memory lane but a literal snapshot of eighty years of family history.

Before digital photography, taking and developing photographs was a skilled and fairly expensive business. Films of 24 or 36 photographs were developed by experts; you couldn’t ‘see’ what photos you had taken before they were developed, and so photographs tended to be of special events. Birthdays, holidays and Christmas featured on these photographs alongside weddings, christenings and significant events (in our case, the arrival of pets!) Everyday momnets tended not to be captured as they are nowadays, and so a family’s history was crystallised into these ‘significant’ moments.

Nowadays, most of us have cameras on our phones and can take photos and videos at any time. We capture the ordinary as well as the ‘significant’ events, the silly moments as well as the special. Although the sheer wealth of material this generates will make it difficult for our descendants to work through this material in the way I sorted through my father’s collection of memories, it gives us a more balanced view of our lives.

Life is made up of more than memorable moments. It consists of more than special events and staged scenes (photoshoots of special occasions). It is made up of the ordinary and the mundane: children playing, learning to bake in Grandma’s kitchen, parents reading stories at bedtime. All of life is worth capturing: the sunrise on the way to work, the scenery which surrounds us daily, the splashing in puddles and building of snowmen.

I was amazed at how much I had forgotten of my childhood and how the photographs offered proof of who I was and what I had done (much of which I could no longer recollect.) Don’t wait for a special occasion to mark a moment. Capture the memories now and create your own record, for even the ordinary marks moments worth cherishing.

The hymn ‘Blessed Assurance’ talks of ‘echoes of mercy, whispers of love’ and all of us need to hear these on a regular basis. Love is so needed in our world and the constancy and unchanging nature of God’s love needs to be shared with those who don’t know Him.

As part of our desire to be with God in the community and with God for the community, we, along with other local churches, will be giving out hearts on Easter Saturday – knitted hearts, crocheted hearts, decorated wooden hearts. Following on from our ‘Advent Angels’, we hope to inundate our local area with these hearts which for us are God’s ‘whispers of love’. If you can help by knitting, crocheting or decorating a wooden heart, please contact us and bring us the hearts so we can distribute them around the villages for people to take home a visible reminder that God loves them.

At Easter, we celebrate that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) What better way of celebrating than sharing His love? We’ll be distributing the hearts on Saturday 3rd April, leaving GPCC at 10 a.m. Please ensure all hearts are given to us by Wednesday 31st March at the latest.

Under normal circumstances and with the proper conditions, growth in the natural world is a given, a part of God’s natural order. Seeds are planted and crops grow. But as Jesus teaches in the Parable of the Sower, there can be barriers to growth which hinder fruitfulness.

In Matt 13:1-23, Jesus talks about these barriers, naming them as lack of understanding (Matt 13:19), a lack of roots (Matt 13:21) and a lack of trust. (Matt 13:22) It is interesting to note that both the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth can cause us problems. Worry and anxiety cause us to focus on problems rather than on God, feeding doubt and insecurity which both stunt spiritual growth. We would not perhaps expect the benefits of wealth to cuase issues, but the temptation there is to put our trust in wealth and come to depend on its material pleasures rather than on God.

Jesus concludes this parable by looking at which soil produces good crops. Understanding, roots and trust will produce fruitfulness and growth. (Matt 13:23) This is God’s desire for our lives.

The Israelites were commanded to bring the firstfruits of their harvest to God as an offering, something which required obedience and trust that God would provide from the rest of their crops all that they needed. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is a promise of what is to come (Eph 1:13-14). The Greek word ‘arrabon’ means something given in security, a pledge or deposit. Once given, a person was legally obliged to complete the purchase; the deposit was a foretaste of something much greater to come.

We are fortunate to have a coffee machine with a programmable timer, so we often wake in the morning to the delicious aroma of coffee. The smell is a draw, inviting us to come and taste the drink.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit works in our lives to draw us to Christ and to promise us even greater things in Him. This requires patience (see Rom 8:22-25), and God often requires us to wait far longer than we would like! – but we can be sure that our adoption to sonship is secure and that God is working in all things for our good. (Rom 8:28) We have been brought into the family of God, and all He requires from us now is our yielded obedience and service to Him.

Garry continued his series on ‘Being & Doing’ tonight, looking at the family of God and how the Holy Spirit helps us. Col 1:1-2 reminds us that we are God’s holy people, ‘brothers and sisters’, and Rom 8:9-17 talks about how the Spirit of God confirms our identity as God’s children, enabling us to cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ We have been adopted into God’s family and are now heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

Most of us have little expereince of adoption. Marriage is the closest relationship we know where we acquire not only a spouse but a welcome into a new family, who will undoubtedly have different ways of doing things. But when a child is adopted into a family, there is a transference from one family to another, and the old family has no legal claim on the child anymore. Our adoption into God’s family means we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light; the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us and opens up a whole new spiritual realm to us. He guides us, guards us, protects us and leads us (as Paul experienced when the Holy Spirit stopped him going to some areas and drew him to Macedonia, Acts 16.) He also reminds us of what God says to us and lights our lives and paths (Ps 119:105).

The Holy Spirit’s words are powerful (like dynamite) and creative, encouraging and helping us. He reminds us that we are no longer slaves to sin, ruled by the evil one and destined for destruction but are now children of God, cherished and given access to all that belongs to God. The Holy Spirit confirms or corroborates our identity, but we see that there is sacrifice involved. Paul was warned of this (Acts 9:15-16) and we too need to understand the need to give up some things in order to gain what God has for us. Sacrifice may not always be seen or rewarded in this life, but we can trust that God sees all we do and will reward us. As Rom 8:22-25 reminds us, there is so much more to be revealed. The Holy Spirit acts as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (Eph 1:13-14). He is a pledge like an engagement ring that there is a wedding to come, that if God is for us, no one can be against us. Can we trust the Giver of Good Gifts with our lives?