V Is For Vision
Vision – the ability to see – is one of our most useful senses, but spiritual vision – ‘the art of seeing things invisible’, in the words of Jonathan Swift – is something essential to a life of faith. We need God to open our spiritual eyes; without the work of the Holy Spirit, our eyes are veiled and blinded (see 2 Cor 4:3-4). When God unveils our eyes, it’s like a lightbulb comes on and we can perceive spiritual truth.
Spiritual vision requires us to keep an eternal perspective on life (see Rom 8:17, 2 Cor 4:17-18). Without this, we are like Asaph who, in Psalm 73, found himself struggling with the same kind of problems which can blunt our effectiveness and leave us restless and dissatisfied with God. He knew that God was good (Ps 73:1), but he found himself envying the godless whose lives of ease seemed to make his struggle for godliness seem pointless (see Ps 73:3-12). He felt the spiritual life consisted of punishment and difficulties, whereas the wicked prospered and had no cares, despite their disdain for God. Asaph needed a shift in perspective which only comes as we encounter God. ‘In the sanctuary’, things looked very different and he realised that God is in ultimate control of all mankind (see Ps 73:17-20) and that only God could satisfy him (Ps 73:27-28).
We too need spiritual long-term vision, ‘long sight’ which puts our present troubles into perspective as we meditate on God’s majesty, beauty, holiness and love. Only then will we have the faith, like Abraham, to see things that are not become reality (Rom 4:17), seeing the invisible become visible as we pray for God’s will to be done and His kingdom to come, here on earth, as it is in heaven.
The Greatest Gift
With Valentine’s Day approaching, Mark spoke this morning at Cherry Tree Court on 1 Cor 13:1-13, probably one of the most passages about love in the entire world. The Bible is a love story between humanity and God, showing us how we should love God and love one another. In the first three verses, we see how important it is for all spiritual gifts to be rooted in and motivated by love. 1 Cor 13:4-7 goes on to give us a description of love which mirrors God’s love: patient, kind, loyal, longsuffering, not envious, always seeking the other person’s good rather than one’s own deisres. This description always challenges us, for it reveals our imperfections, but it also reminds us that such love is only possible as we abide in God.
To say that love never fails (1 Cor 13:8) again focuses us on God’s constant, unfailing love, rather than on our own fickleness and inconstancy. The three virtues of faith, hope and love are all important, but ultimately faith will give way to sight and hope will give way to experience. Only love will remain into eternity.
Dates for the Diary
This Wednesday (14th February), Dearne Churches Together are hosting a family fun day at Houghton Road Centre in Thurnscoe from 10.30 a.m. until 2 p.m., looking at God’s love (it is Valentine’s Day, after all!) Do join us for craft activities, decorating biscuits, crazy golf and much more. Free entry, with lunch provided.
A new church is opening in Bolton-on-Dearne. House of Grace has a launch meeting on Saturday 17th February at 7 p.m. at Prospect Road Community Centre, so if you are free then, do pop along to that event.
Next Sunday evening (18th February) we have guest speaker Yan Hadley at the evening service, so don’t miss that meeting!
Coming soon in March, we also have the Women’s World Day of Prayer at GPCC (Friday 2nd March at 2 p.m.), with the service written by ladies from Suriname in South America on the theme ‘All God’s Creation Is Very Good!‘
Then on Friday 30th March we have the Good Friday Church Crawl, so lots to look forward to in the coming month!
Thank you!
Thanks to all who helped on Thursday and Saturday with sash sewing in preparation for the Good Friday Church Crawl. We appreciate your help more than we can say. Thanks to Janet from Our Shed Dearne who organised everything so efficiently and a special thanks to 10 year old Jake (who attends the woodwork and sewing classes there) who made 12 sashes and helped with the setting up and clearing away (those thankless tasks no wants to do!)
The Good Friday Church Crawl will take place on Friday 30th March and will be an opportunity to find out more about how different churches celebrate Good Friday in our community. We’ll start at Furlong Road Methodist Church at 10.30 a.m. for a service there, and after that will walk (wearing our yellow sashes!) to the Salvation Army in Goldthorpe where we’ll have lunch and the opportunity to join in craft activities.
We’ll then move to Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church on Market Street to watch an excerpt from a film based on John’s gospel (arriving about 12.45 p.m.) and from there, will visit the Stations of the Cross at the Parish Church on Lockwood Road (1.20 p.m.) and join in quiet worship at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (also on Lockwood Church) (1.40 p.m.)
During the walks, we will be giving out daffodils and Easter eggs and literature about Easter, and from Sacred Heart, we’ll walk across Phoenix Park to Thurnscoe where we’ll take part in ‘Messy Church’ activities at Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church (Houghton Road Centre, Thurnscoe, 2.30 p.m.) before walking to St Helen’s Church Hall on High Street where 4Front Theatre will be giving a live performance ‘So On and So 4th’ about the Easter story (4-5 p.m.)
We’re so excited that so many local churches are involved with this event and hope you will help by providing us with small wrapped Easter eggs to give out as well as joining with us for some or all of the above events. If you’re not able to walk these distances, please feel free to drive between events, or just come to the ones you can make!
The Exalted Anointed One
Ps 22, the focus of our last Bible study, looked at the sufferings of Christ on the cross and how these were predicted with shocking clarity hundreds of years before crucifixion was even a form of public execution. This psalm has two halves: the first describing the humiliation and suffering of the Messiah and the second describing the glory and exaltation which this suffering would achieve.
Many other psalms look ahead to the resurrection and exaltation of the Messiah. Ps 16, written by David, talks of the satisfaction that is found in God alone: ‘Lord, You alone are my portion and my cup’ (Ps 16:5) and looks to a ‘delightful inheritance’ (Ps 16:6) found in God. Chief amongst the pleasures found in God is the fact, however, that ‘my body will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.’ (Ps 16:9-10)
It is entirely possible that David was not thinking of the after-life as he wrote this, focussing on God’s immediate deliverance from ever-present enemies. However, both Peter and Paul understand the ‘layers’ of meaning found in prophetic writings, and both assert that these verses apply directly to Jesus Christ. Acts 2:25-33 expounds this fully, with Peter saying ‘I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.’ Paul makes the same point in Acts 13:32-37. What the psalmist had only prophesied about, the apostles had actually witnessed: a man whose very dead body had been placed in a tomb with a seal in front of it and Roman guards placed outside appearing in glory and light to more than 500 witnesses, a man for whom the grave did not have the last word. No wonder Paul talks of Christ disarming powers and authorities and making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over the cross! (Col 2:13-15) No wonder he talks of Christ being exalted to the highest place and given the name above every name! (Phil 2: 9-11)
We have the benefit of hindsight and the benefit of a fuller revelation than David or any of the psalmists possessed. May these things propel us to worship and adoration, for we serve a risen Saviour!
Progressive Revelation
For Christians of a certain age, the word ‘progressive’ has very negative and worldly connotations. The adjective simply means favouring or advocating change, but when I was younger, in a Christian context, that was perceived as meaning a rejection of Biblical truth and an embracing of liberal philosophies which denied the existence of God and implied an abandonment of orthodoxy. The term ‘progressive revelation’ may well cause shivers of nervousness in people who grew up with a fear of change formed by these notions.
Progressive revelation simply means that the truths found in the Bible were not necessarily all given at once. Progressive revelation means that God did not unfold His entire plan to humanity in the book of Genesis or, for that matter, in the entire Old Testament, but that this plan is gradually revealed to us with increasing clarity, rather like those pictures which are unveiled gradually in quiz shows so that we can see fully only as more of the picture is revealed. In some ways, nothing actually changes at all; what changes is our perception and understanding of truth as further revelation is given. In this way, the New Testament completes and ‘fulfils’ all we understand in the Old Testament; both revelations are necessary and add to the whole picture, but we cannot understand the Old Testament fully without the additional revelation of the New. There are still many parts of the revelation, incidentally, that we do not yet fully understand, as 1 Cor 13:11-12 makes plain, and we do well to remember this before we allow dogmatism to become our leading tone.
Nowhere is this more evident than in understanding the progressive revelation concerning the resurrection and life after death. Some have claimed that the Jews had no understanding of this, citing verses such as Ps 6:5 and Ps 88:11 as evidence that the grave was perceived as the end of life. Others maintain that there is a difference between the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul, claiming that Jews believed in the latter but not the former. It is evident, however, that an understanding of these issues gradually developed through the prophetic voice. There are actually three examples of bodily resurrection in the Old Testament (see 1 Kings 17:17-24, 2 Kings 4:18-37 and 2 Kings 13:20-21), but some assert that this is not the same as dealing with life after death (for those affected, it must have seemed like life after death, nonetheless!) In Isaiah, however, there is an increasing understanding of life after death: Isaiah 25:8 talks of death being swallowed up and God wiping every tear away (ideas taken up in the New Testament by Paul in 1 Cor 15:54 and by John in Rev 21:4) and Isaiah 26:19 asserts belief in a bodily resurrection, with Job not only proclaiming belief in an eternal Redeemer but that ‘in my flesh I will see Him.’ (Job 19:25-26)
This belief in life beyond the grave can also be seen in the Messianic Psalms, which deal not only with the suffering but also with the glory! Ps 16:9-10 is probably the clearest indication that the Messiah would live beyond the grave, but other psalms also confirm a belief in resurrection and immortality (see Ps 30:3, Ps 118:17).
Whilst the Old Testament revelation on these matters is expanded further by the New Testament writers’ understanding of what Christ’s death and resurrection mean in practical terms for all mankind, the psalms add to our understanding of the glory and exaltation of the Messiah, thus giving us a more rounded view of the nature and role our delivering Messiah, Jesus Christ, would have.