Tonight we looked at Phil 1:1-11, one of Paul’s most joyful letters, written in unpleasant circumstances while he was in chains in prison, not for any crime, but simply because of his faith in Jesus Christ. It’s a timely reminder that joy and peace are not dependent on circumstances, that we are not the only ones facing restrictions on our movements and that God is able to make His grace abound so that we don’t just survive but thrive! Paul showed us that we might not be able to control our situations, but that does not mean we have to succumb to despair; as Rend Collective sing:

‘I will not let the darkness steal the joy within my soul.
I will not let my circumstance become my compass, no.
I will not let the fears of life and sorrows of this world
Dictate to me how I should feel
For You are my true north.’ (‘True North’, Rend Collective)

These opening verses give us great help about how to pray and what to pray. Paul prays for the church he founded (Acts 16) with joy, with confidence and with emotion. He is glad of their partnership in the gospel with him and is sure that the God who began a good work will carry it on in them. He misses them intensely, and this is true of us in our current situation (even though we have more means of staying in touch than he did!), but one of the greatest things we can do in these times is to pray for each other.

Paul’s prayers were not vague or aimless. In Phil 1:9-11, he tells us exactly what he is praying, and this can become a model prayer for us. His focus is on their love abounding, a love that’s based on knowledge and insight. He longs for them to know discernment, to be wise. He prays for them to be pure and blameless, looking ahead to the Lord’s coming. We need to live for eternity, not just for now, not just for the end of lockdown, and Paul shows us how to pray with long-term goals in mind. He also prays for the fruit of righteousness to be seen in their lives. We can pray for the fruit of the Spirit to be grown in each one of us as we face new challenges each day. The weary parent may need patience; the fearful may need more peace; all of us need to learn self-control in different areas.

Here’s a challenge for us all in our praying:

• Let’s learn to pray with joy, confidence and emotion, really caring about each other.

• Let’s learn to pray for love to abound in knowledge and insight, for discernment for what is best, for us all to live for eternity and not just for now and for God’s righteousness to be grown and seen in practical fruit in our lives.

• Each tree is known by the fruit it grows (Luke 6:44), so let’s pray for the fruit of the Spirit to grow in our lives so we’re known as spiritual trees!

• Most of all, let’s learn contentment with Paul and let God into every part of our lives so that we can react to every one of life’s challenges with joy and confidence in God to see us through to the day of Christ Jesus.

Stephen continued speaking on Mark 12:30 which tells us to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Last time, he looked at loving God with our hearts and minds and today spoke about strength and soul.

Love the Lord Your God With All Your Strength

Usually we associate the word ‘strength’ with physical strength, and unless we’re bodybuilders or athletes, that can leave us feeling disqualified because we don’t perceive that we have much physical strength. Strength can be hidden within us, however, and can refer to emotional, mental or spiritual strength. Eph 6:12 reminds us that ours is a spiritual battle and we need to be strong in the Lord’s strength (see Eph 6:10-20).

Love the Lord Your God With All Your Soul

It can be difficult to define ‘soul’, but the soul is really the essence of a person, the part of us which was made for God and which only God can fill. We all have a ‘God-shaped hole’, part of us which only God can satisfy. We must love God with all that is in us, being unafraid to long for God and desire Him above everything else (see Ps 42:1-2)

The thing which ultimately sets God’s people apart from everyone else has nothing to do with people’s skills, righteousness or goodness. The thing that marks us out as God’s people is God’s presence.

God with us is what makes us different, special, chosen and loved. ‘Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.’ (Ps 146:5) Throughout the Old Testament, we see God reminding His people that their privileged position came as a result of His grace and mercy, not because of their own merit. Moses, at the end of his life, reminded them of the promise of His presence: ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.’ (Deut 31:6) To Joshua, he said, ‘The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’ (Deut 31:8) These words were reinforced by God at the beginning of the book of Joshua: ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ (Josh 1:9)

The writer to the Hebrews also reminds us of the promise of God’s presence, quoting from the passage in Deuteronomy.

‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”‘ (Heb 13:5-6)

In times of adversity, trials and persecution, it is easy to feel that God has abandoned us. That’s a reaction recorded in the Bible too (e.g. Is 2:6, Ps 22:1), but ultimately. we have the promise of God’s word that He is always with us, no matter how we may feel. The promise of God’s presence has sustained Christians throughout the centuries and will sustain us too.

Last night we talked about the importance of worship in the life of a church, and said that worship is more than just singing songs (important though our sung worship is and I absolutely affirm that it is!) Today, I came across this quote from William Temple, former archbishop of Canterbury:

“Worship is a submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness… the nourishment of mind with his truth…the purifying of imagination by his beauty… the opening of the heart to his love… the surrender of will to his purpose… and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.”

So as we choose to worship God today, here is a prayer to help us:

Quicken my conscience by Your holiness, Lord. Help me to see every situation in that light. Let Your purity purify me.

Nourish my mind with Your truth, that the lies of the enemy find no resting place in me, but that my mind may flourish and bring forth fruit from knowing Your truth which sets us free.

Purify my imagination as I gaze on Your beauty, so that I may find beauty from ashes and learn to see the world with Your eyes. Unleash creativity in me that is fuelled by an imagination sanctified from time in Your presence so that others may find Your beauty too.

Open my heart to Your love, a love without ending, a love that never fails. Help me to live in the knowledge of Your abundant and overflowing love lavished upon me, and let that love wash away all hatred, bitterness, fear and doubt from my soul like the streams that pour down the mountains leaving only crystal-pure water.

Help me to surrender my will to Your purpose, even when there is pain in that offering. Let me be like Jesus, praying not for relief from suffering or for my will to be done, but only that Your will be done.

And let me spend much time in adoration, learning to do what I will spend eternity doing: adoring, gazing, worshipping the One who alone is worthy.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sometimes we can get very confused when reading the Bible because people either have more than one name or there are so many different people with the same name! There are several ‘Herods’ in the Bible (Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa I and II, for example), and this applies to many other people too, leaving us to have to clarify which Mark or Joseph we are talking about! Often, a name change is given which signifies God’s action in people’s lives (Abram became Abraham, ‘exalted father’ becoming the ‘father of many nations’; Jacob the deceiver became Israel, the one who had wrestled with God, for example.) So it can be important to be sure to define who we are talking about when names change.

In the book of Acts, we read about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9) and until Acts 13, he is referred to by this name. In Acts 13:9, however, we read that ‘Saul… was also called Paul’, and for the rest of that book, and in the many letters he wrote, it is by this name he is known. We might find this confusing, but it’s important to remember that this man was both a Jew and a Roman citizen, and as such would have had more than one name (just as we often have two or more given names.) Saul was a Hebrew name, and it’s highly possible that our New Testament apostle was named after the first king of Israel (both were from the tribe of Benjamin.) In Greek, however, this name was translated ‘Saulos’, which in that language was also an adjective describing someone walking or behaving in an effeminate way. Perhaps it’s because now, at this point in the story that Paul is starting his missionary journeys to the Gentile world, that the transition is made to use his Roman name Paul: we don’t know for certain. But one thing we do know. Names define us and identify us and it’s interesting that as Paul fulfilled his divine calling to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he adopted a Roman name. Hudson Taylor, Barnsley missionary to China, invested his whole life in evangelising the Chinese, even adopting Chinese clothing in order to identify himself with their culture. Paul would later say, ‘I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.’ (1 Cor 9:22) We may well have to change and adapt many things to reach people (including names), but what is important is that the gospel is taken to the ends of the earth.

One of the things I have found difficult during this period of lockdown is being bombarded by statistics on a daily basis. Mark Twain popularised the saying, ‘There are lies, damned lies, and statistics’, and despite my fondness for the Radio 4 programme ‘More or Less’ which deals with statistics, I generally find that statistics overwhelm me, and I run from them. I’ve found it hard to deal with daily death tolls, numbers of confirmed Coronavirus cases and other statistics being thrust at me by news briefings and struggle to put these into any meaningful context. Awful though these statistics have been, for example, it’s probably more shocking to look at other causes of death (including abortion) and see how these figures compare. They are generally so much higher that it’s mind-numbing.

We generally don’t cope well with statistics because most of us need the personal touch to identify with situations. Thousands of deaths wash over us; the death of someone we know touches us personally. It’s the reason war films often focus on a family or group of characters for whom we care and with whom we can identify: ‘Saving Private Ryan’, for example, brings us the horror of the D-Day landings, but gives us real individuals whose destiny matters to us.

It can be a little bit like this in the Christian journey too. We need the personal stories in the Bible to give us insight into God’s personal dealings with individuals. Not only can we relate to these stories so much more easily, we see from these that God really does care for and value the individual. Jesus said, ‘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.’ (Luke 12:6-7)The abstract truth that God loves the world can be just as daunting as statistics; this reminder that we are personally known to God brings the truth home to us in a much more vivid way.

Luke tells us many stories of evangelism in the book of Acts, but these are often filtered through the medium of personal stories. We hear about the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius and his family, Saul’s conversion. When it comes to the first missionary journey to Cyprus (Acts 13:1-12), we find that the main focus of attention is on the Roman governor there, Sergius Publius, and on a sorcerer named Elymas. This type of personal detail reminds us of the proverb: ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’

World evangelisation sounds as scary to me as the daily statistics being poured into my ears each evening. How on earth can we evangelise the whole world? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and therefore to give up. But, as with so many other things, the method is the same throughout history and wherever we are. How do we evangelise the world? One person at a time.

Every person matters. Every conversation is important. Every prayer, every testimony, every time we share something of God’s goodness with someone else, we are involved in the Great Commission. Never forget the personal touch (even if you can’t physically touch someone right now!)