Mark continued his series on Joseph this morning, looking at Genesis 42:1-24. In this passage, Joseph comes face to face with ten of his brothers again as they journey to Egypt for food because of the severity of the famine. As they bow down before him (the second-in-command in Egypt), Joseph is reminded vividly of his dream and is suddenly face to face with the realisation that God is still working all things out. He must have felt shocked, maybe even angry, towards his brothers and perhaps his judgment was clouded because of the rush of emotions as he recognised them. Maybe this was the reason he spoke harshly to them and tested them.

Joseph had never forgotten the dreams God gave him so many years previously, but he was a busy man and had learned to get on with life in the meantime. God gives us all dreams and visions, but often does not tell us the timescales and sometimes we have to wait years for the dream to be fulfilled. When we see signs of that happening, the temptation is to ‘help the dream along’, to give God further assistance through how we behave. We need to understand, however, that God does not need us to work out His plans: He is perfectly capable of doing that Himself!

It must have grated on Joseph to hear his brothers describe themselves as ‘honourable men’, given what they had done to him. But in spite of any wrong reactions on Joseph’s part, fear of God was an integral part of his life and after throwing his brothers into prison for three days, he comes to an alternative arrangements that provides food for them whilst still working out the truth of the story. How do we react when the ‘time is fully right’ and God moves? Are we willing to pray and allow Him to continue to work out His plans, or do we constantly try to work things out in our own strength? We need to know that God accepts us just as we are (failings and wrong reactions included) and is fully able to complete the work that He has begun in our lives. (Phil 1:6) We also need to know that God’s timing is perfect (Ps 18:30, Eccl 3.)

‘Can You take me by the hand?
Can You use me as I am?
Break me into who You want me to be.

When the time is finally right
Will You open up my eyes
And show me everything You want me to see?
This life is not my own…’ (‘To God Alone’, Aaron Shust)

Last night’s Bible study looked at 1 John 4:7-12, where John continues his emphasis on the need for us to show our true identity as Christians through the love we have for one another. We are loved by God (dear friends, beloved) and that is the source and inspiration for our love. Jesus gave His disciples a command to love (not a suggestion or an option for us to merely think about) in John 13:34-35 and said that this would be the hallmark of discipleship, the means by which others would recognise Him. God is invisible, but through the practical love of Christians, He is seen by all. Christianity, as G. K. Chesterton said, has not so much been found tried and wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried!

Our love has to be defined by God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8) We can have many different ideas about love, but all of them will be wrong to some extent. Only God can definitively define love. So often, we cannot reconcile the different aspects of God’s character (holiness, justice, wrath, love, mercy etc.) because we have a faulty view of love. We think love must always be ‘nice’, failing to see that God always acts out of love, even when He disciplines us. (Hebrews 12:7-11) We do people no favours when we paint a distorted picture of God’s love that pretends all will be saved without any need for repentance.

God gives us evidence of His love in Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us and this becomes the cornerstone of our faith, for there will be many times when we do not feel loved. This motivates us to love even our enemies (Matt 5:44) because while we were still enemies and sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8) God never asks us to do more than He has done for us. As we meditate and dwell on His love, it will move us and motivate us to love. Nothing else will do; no other characteristic is to be our identifying mark. As the Pharisees exclaimed ‘See how he loved him!’ when Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus (John 11:35-36), so love must distinguish us from all others and demonstrate to others the reality of the invisible God.

Work in the children’s room was completed today, with the boilers being boxed in and the sink unit fitted.

How it looked at the start:

Making the frame:

Adding doors to allow access for the boilers to be serviced:

The completed work:

Then work started on the sink unit (to allow for access for messy activities such as painting at Sunday School):

All finished, including tiling!

Our thanks to Dave for his very capable organisation of these works and to Russ for his joinery skills. Most of the refurbishment work is now complete, though some work on the stage area (replacing the curtains with a concertina partition and laying a carpet in this area) remains to be done next week.

Instant coffee (derived from brewed coffee beans and commercially produced by freeze drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated through adding boiled water) has been around a long time now. It was first patented in 1890, by David Strang and was first available commercially in 1910, with the Nescafé brand, which introduced a more advanced coffee refining process, being launched in 1938.

The advantages of instant coffee are obvious. Instead of waiting to grind beans and then allow these to brew through the addition of hot water, a hot drink is available in seconds rather than minutes. In today’s busy society, such time-savings are highly prized.

Whether the taste is worth it is debatable, of course. And the whole question of instant gratification raises a number of questions when applied to the spiritual life. Our fast food society urges speed and haste on us above every other consideration, including taste, nutritional value and the pleasures of slowing down to eat amongst others. If we are not careful, the values and attitudes of this society are transferred to our perception of spiritual growth.

Discipleship cannot be instant. ‘No one is given an instant relationship with God. We must go through a process of learning what it means to live in relationship with Him,’ Richard Foster says in the book ‘Longing For God.’ (P 229) The process begins with conversion, but we must then go on to grow up in God and this cannot be rushed. Eugene Peterson says ‘maturity cannot be hurried, programmed or tinkered with. There are no steroids available for growing up in Christ more quickly. Impatient shortcuts land us in the dead ends of immaturity.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Practise Resurrection’) First of all we learn to harness our misdirected desires so that we can cultivate moral virtues, but we then need to understand that ‘moral achievement is not God’s ultimate intention for us. Rather, our destiny is a life-giving, ongoing interaction with God.’ (Richard Foster & Gayle Beebe, ‘Longing For God.’ P 229) We have to understand that spiritual growth cannot be rushed and that the lessons learned through perseverance, suffering and endurance are important to the shaping of who we become.

Here is a prayer for all who are in a hurry:

“We come humbly and bow before you, God. The world we live in has taught us to short-circuit our relationship with you. We’re taught to expect an instant relationship, instant answers to prayers, instant growth in grace, instant spiritual maturity. O God, truly merciful, forgive us our sins. Forgive our impatience. Forgive our arrogance. Forgive our impetuousness. O Lord, our Lord, forgive.

Teach us to take one step at a time. Teach us contentment in growing into your life little by little. Teach us the humility of unanswered prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” (prayer taken from ‘Longing for God’ P 236)

So let’s perhaps abandon the fast food and the instant coffee, even for a day, and take time to realise that God’s not in as much of a hurry as we are but is wanting and working to shape us into the image of His Son, moulding us as the potter moulds the clay, breathing life into us even in the tedium of dailiness, where not much seems to happen and growth is infinitesimal. Sit down with a real cup of coffee and let God’s thoughts and ways percolate your soul…

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The ongoing saga of the chilli plants continues. Having reaped a rich harvest of chillies from Mummy & Daddy plants, we were not exactly sure what to expect next. Did the plants then wither and die? Would they produce more chillies? Would they flower again next year or were they one-hit-wonders, so to speak? This whole business of growing things successfully is so new to our household that we were a little bemused.

Meanwhile, Runty, our little plant who had appeared to give up on life, continues to grow. From where I sit at the computer, I can clearly see him peeping over the soil box, where once he had been so small as to be invisible from this vantage point. He clearly has a long way to go before he produces chillies, but he is still flourishing, living proof that growth is personal and its rate cannot necessarily be predicted. Quite why this third plant is so slow and small compared to the other two, when all were planted at the same time and have been exposed to the same soil, water and light is beyond me, but I am reminded that individual growth cannot be measured by comparisons against others. We need to rejoice in all individual growth, secure in the fact that it is God who makes us grow and He is in control of all growth.

Then, last week, we noticed new flowers growing on both of the larger plants. It seems that they haven’t given up on producing chillies yet by any means! The buds and then the flowers are the first signs that chillies will soon be on the way again. It seems chilli plants can receive a second wind!

Micah 7:8 says ‘Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.’ There are many times in life when we fall, when we stumble, when we fail. The temptation at those times is to write ourselves or others off, to remain on the ground, defeated. Sometimes we have fallen because of pride (1 Cor 10:12 reminds us that if we think we’re standing firm, we have to be careful we don’t fall); sometimes sin has tripped us up and we are left wounded and winded on the ground. That is not the whole story, however. God is able to pick us up again and help us to rise. He is the God of second chances… and third and fourth ones too.

If we’re in that place of having fallen, we can declare over despair that Jesus is the hope of the world and we can rise again.

‘No surrender, no retreat.

We are free and we’re redeemed.

We will declare over despair

You are the hope.’ (‘More Than Conquerors’, Rend Collective)