If You Want to Be Happy, Be Kind!

Feb 4, 2024

It was our ‘Little Big Church’ service tonight, with Garry speaking about the Beatitude ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.’ (Matt 5:7) Still working on our bee theme, he re-told the story of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt 18:21-35), but this time, the character was a bee who had not saved enough pollen to last the winter…and who received mercy from the Queen Bee of another hive only to withhold mercy from another bee who needed help! The memorable message from tonight’s service was ‘if you want to be happy, be kind!’
Kindness, mercy, forgiveness and compassion are all key aspects of growing with God. We receive these things from God and therefore must reflect His character to others.

The Promises of God and our ‘Amen’!

Feb 4, 2024

The second half of Psalm 119:76 focuses on God’s promises to us (‘May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant.’) God’s promises to us form the foundation of our lives, for they are based on His character, and He who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:23) Throughout Scripture, we see how God promises things to people: a son and heir to Abraham and Sarah, even though Sarah was barren, a glorious future to Joseph beyond his wildest dreams, rescue from the land of slavery, for example. The fulfilment of these promises may well take time, but the outcome is secure because of God’s faithfulness.
Paul tells us‘‘No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.’ (2 Cor 1:20) What do we do while we wait for God to fulfil His promises? Waiting can be difficult, but Peter reminds us that God is not slow in keeping His promises (2 Pet 3:9), even if it may feel like that to us! We need to speak aloud the ‘Amen’, speaking God’s word above the doubts and fears that crowd into our minds as we wait. As we wait, we trust in God’s unfailing love; we are comforted by His unfailing love. We hold on to that love and rest secure in it. God’s timing will always be perfect and we will see the fulfilment of His promises in due season if we do not waver through unbelief.

God’s Unfailing Love

Feb 4, 2024

This morning we looked at the verse ‘May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.’ (Ps 119:76) The subject of God’s unfailing love is one of those foundational truths which enable us to live securely, strengthened and supported by God Himself. However, like so many other things, we must move from a theoretical knowledge only to practical application of these truths if we are to live according to God’s ways (akin to learning our times tables by heart but never knowing how to apply this knowledge to real life, so often our heads accept knowledge of God, but our lives don’t reflect these truths in daily living!)
The first thing we have to accept about God’s love is that it is not based in emotion, but rooted in the very essence of God (since God is love, 1 John 4:8, 16). God is never whimsical, cruel, fickle or capricious in HIs love, but neither is His love ‘soft’; His love will challenge us whenever we are wrong, since our highest good is His concern. If love never fails, however (1 Cor 13:8), then we can look forward to certain things if we are comforted by God’s unfailing love:
1. We can be unshaken (see Heb 12:28, Ps 21:7, Is 54:10) We can be like Weebles; we may wobble, but we won’t fall down – and if we fall, we will arise! (Micah 7:8)
2. We can be forgiven (God’s mercy to us is because of His unfailing love, as David prayed in Ps 51:1-2)
3. We can be satisfied (not needing material satisfaction, but finding satisfaction for our souls in God – Ps 90:14)
4. We can have joy (Ps 21:7, Ps 13:5). Jesus promised to give us His own joy (John 15:9-11)
5. We can flourish like the olive tree (Ps 52:8). The olive tree is an emblem of prosperity and beauty and religious privilege in the Bible. Jeremiah likens Israel to a ‘thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form’ (Jer 11:16); Hosea speaks of the ‘splendour’ of the olive tree. (Hosea 14:6) We can flourish in God not because of our efforts or talents, not because of our own goodness or righteousness, but because we are loved by God.
6. We can be supported (Ps 94:18)
7. We can be saved (Ps 109:26)
All these benefits can be ours because of God’s unfailing love.

Confidence in God, Confidence in the Future

Jan 28, 2024

Dave spoke this morning from Joshua 3:1-4 about confidence in the future. Joshua was the leader appointed by God after the death of Moses to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land. They had been wandering in the wilderness after the miraculous exodus from Egypt for forty years; only Caleb and Joshua were left from that generation, as the rest did not believe God could help them to take the land. At this point, the Israelites were on the brink of the River Jordan. They were in unfamiliar territory, about to enter the Promised Land, but this was an unnerving situation for them. How would they respond? Would they have the faith to go in?
Each new year brings with it possibilities and challenges, but most of all, it brings the unknown to us. We can feel daunted and even afraid of the unknown, but ulltimately we need not fear, because we have a God who will lead and provide. All we need is faith that He will do this.
A fear of new things can greatly hinder us; it can prevent us from obtaining what God has for us. Fear, uncertainty and doubt cloud our vision, but we can be delivered from these things. The word of God to Joshua was encouraging and positive, but he needed to meditate on this, as do we. We must be proactive in letting God’s word push fear away. We have to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Lord and commit ourselves to following Him wherever He may lead. Our natural tendency is often to say no, but we must learn to depend on the faithfulness of God. The future may be unknown to us, but it is not unknown to God, and because of this we can have confidence in the future.

Change

Jan 28, 2024

Change is difficult but inevitable. All around us we see change: the weather changes on a daily basis in the UK; circumstances can change swiftly; families change each year as people are born, grow and die.
Most of us find change difficult to manage, because it involves the unknown. We prefer change we can control (such as deciding to exercise or changing what we eat) to unexpected and unplanned change, as the latter threatens our carefully constructed world and leaves us feeling vulnerable.
Our lives, however, are in God’s hands, and when viewed this way, change becomes less threatening, for God is never taken by surprise and has long-term plans for us which are rooted in His goodness and love.
Spiritual growth will always involve change, the putting off of the old self (with its familiar tendency to manipulate, control, worry and fret) and the putting on of the new (with its emphasis on trust, even when we don’t understand or see what God is doing.) The disciples asked Jesus ‘Who then can be saved?’ (Matt 19:25) when He had told them that human wealth was no guarantee of entering the kingdom of God. His reply may surprise us: ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’ (Matt 19:26) We have, in other words, ‘no chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.’ (Matt 19:25-26, The Message)
Change involves trusting God to do the things you can’t do. Change can be painful and unwelcome, but God works in all circumstances for good. When we despair and feel things will never change, we are leaving God out of the equation. With Him, all things are possible.

A ‘Can Do’ Attitude

Jan 25, 2024

There is a meme that features the picture of tin cans and the line ‘success comes in cans, not cannots.’ It’s meant to encourage a change in atittude, from the negative ‘I can’t’ to the positive ‘I can.’

 

The Bible has a similar verse, but one which is anchored in God and reality rather than in our own ability: ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’ (Phl 4:13) The context of the ‘all things’, the ‘all this‘, is contentment in God – learning to trust Him whether we are in plenty or in need, learning to be content whatever the circumstances because God’s presence with us makes all the difference to how we live.

Yesterday I had to go to the dentist’s to have a broken wisdom tooth extracted. I don’t know where my fear of the dentist originated, but anyone who knows me knows that this is an irrational phobia. I have actually been blessed to have had wonderful dentists in my life, and my current one is both kind and understanding. This does not, however, reduce the fear I feel when entering his surgery. I am that patient who is so tense even during routine check-ups that my nail marks remain on the chair arm after I am gone. So you can imagine how I felt at the prospecct of a tooth being extracted, especially since I had had to have an X-ray beforehand and he had warned me that I might need to go to hospital if the X-ray showed potential complications.

He patiently explained all the risks associated with the procedure (the tooth breaking, leaving roots which would necessitate hospital treatment, sinus infections, bleeding problems), something I understood rationally that he had to do but which actually only succeeded in accelerating my heart rate still further. He told me I must give informed consent for the procedure as the child in me yelled, ‘Just do it!’, the war between what I wanted (to be miles away) and what I needed (to have the procedure) raging as hard as any military conflict.

I gripped the chair arm for dear life, closed my eyes and endeavoured to keep my mouth open while he prodded and poked other teeth to test them, anaesthetised me twice (gum and roof of mouth) and then began.

I could feel fear coursing through me, but focussed on repeating Philippians 4:13 silently in my head. ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I can do this. I can bear it.‘ Occasionally I would flinch (‘that’s my finger, please don’t bite it,’ he intoned.) The dentist, well used to my paranoia, kept a running commentary going throughout (‘open a little more,’ ‘now close’, ‘that’s just my finger’, ‘nearly done’), whilst at the same time my own internal dialogue (think Smeagol and Gollum) was running (‘hurry up; I can’t stand this’, ‘yes, you can, I can do all things through Christ; you can do this.’)

It’s taken longer to write this than the procedure did, and in the end the tooth was taken out cleanly (‘I’d give that a 10 out of 10’, the satisfied dentist said as I bit down on gauze to stop the bleeding, nearly gagging as I did so.) Slowly my heart rate returned to normal, and I left a few minutes later, poorer by £70.70 but strangely exhilarated. That which I had feared and dreaded for months was over; still numbed by the anaesthetic, I felt exuberant. It was done! The agony of toothache solved!

Sometimes in life we have to go through experiences we wish we didn’t have to experience. My dental trip was nothing compared to the difficulties some people have to face day after day, year after year. The truth remains that we have to focus on the cans, not the cannots, and most of all on the God who gives us strength. A positive attitude in God’s ability (not ours) will see us through difficult, even desperate, days.