John spoke this morning at Cherry Tree Court from Psalm 23, telling a story about 3 shepherds and a minister.

A minister from Scotland moved to England, but returned to his home church once a year to speak at their anniversary celebrations. Each trip back to Scotland proved quite eventful! The first year, he ran out of petrol on the journey, so the following year, he remembered to take petrol in cans for the journey. Unfortunately, that year, his radiator over-heated and it turned out he had forgotten to take any water with him, so he could not cool the engine!

He prayed for help, and in the distance heard bells ringing. A shepherd called Peter approached with his flock of sheep and pointed the minister to a nearby brook. While they waited for the engine to cool, the minister talked to Peter about a shepherd in the Bible called David and read Psalm 23 to him, telling him that the fourth word was the most important in the psalm. He told him that it was important he knew God personally if he was to experience the guidance and help promised in the psalm, and that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

The next year, the minister thought he had made the journey safely when the sunny day suddenly turned misty and it was difficult to see where he was going. He came across a house and asked for help; when he was invited in, he was surprised to see a picture of Peter on the walls. The lady told him that Peter was her son and the minister explained how he had met him the previous year. Unfortunately, he had died that winter in a severe blizzard, but the mother told how when his body had been found, his fourth finger was gripped by his right hand, reminding them that the Lord was his shepherd.

We tend to wear wedding rings on the fourth finger of our left hand in this country to indicate that we belong to someone and they belong to us. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, belongs to us and we belong to Him. We need to be sure He is our shepherd.

Last night’s Bible study looked at 1 John 3:1-3, a passage where John is overwhelmed with the knowledge of our identity as children of God. He talks about how great is the love the Father has lavished on us, or, in the KJV, ‘what manner of love’.  The word ‘manner’ or ‘type’ is used infrequently in the New Testament, but indicates coming from another country or race, being a different type altogether. Sometimes, other country’s customs are strange to us (the French habit of dunking croissants – or Weetabix! – in coffee or drinking coffee from a bowl at breakfast, for example, or the Malaysian tea ceremony which is part of the wedding rituals) and in many ways, the depth and range of God’s love seems totally alien to us. We find it hard even to love our friends at times, but God’s love is demonstrated in that whilst we were His enemies, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8-10) God never asks us to do that which He has not done Himself. (see Matt 5:44)

Not only is God’s love so much stronger and deeper than anything we have ever known, He has lavished it upon us – extravagantly, overflowing, oozing, not lacking anything. His love is like an endowment which makes us rich. (Rom 9:22-24, 2 Cor 6:10, 2 Cor 8:9, Eph 2:7, Col 1:27) In addition in this passage, we read that our spiritual riches – which are greater than anything the world can offer us – are tied to our spiritual identity as children of God.

What God calls us supersedes what we  may call ourselves or what others may call us. He who spoke creation into being (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 24, 26, 29) is able to speak into being things that are not. (Rom 4:17) He has called ‘my people’ those who were not His people (see Rom 9:25-26) and we need to understand what God calls us and agree with His assessment of our identity if we are to flourish spiritually. Other people may well not recognise that identity (as they did not recognise Jesus as God’s Son), but our lives are now defined by our relationship to God and that governs how we live.

One of the unusual features of our church is the birthday box and the birthday hat, our means of celebrating people’s  birthdays each Sunday. Sometimes, however, circumstances prevent members from actually being able to come into our building and thus stand on the birthday box. That is no guarantee of escape, though! Here is another birthday photo from this week:

Last week as we explored the Peak District in drizzle and murky clouds, we went on a walk in Tansley which took us past the Lumsdale waterfall:

I love waterfalls, especially listening to the noise of cascading water which always reminds me of the fact that God’s voice is described as ‘like the sound of rushing waters’ (Rev 1:15) or ‘The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.’ (Ps 29:3) Chris Tomlin has released a new song called ‘Waterfall’ which says ‘Your love is like a waterfall, waterfall/ Running wild and free…/ Raining down on me.’  It’s good to know that in the dry and desert land, God leads us to streams of mercy and refreshes our souls.

Clouds feature in several places in the Bible. The Israelites were led by the pillar of cloud by day during their wilderness wanderings (Ex 13:21) and God’s glory was seen in a cloud. (Ex 16:10) God’s glory filled the tabernacle (Ex 40:34) and covered Mount Sinai (Ex 24:15):

Clouds are perhaps seen as a symbol of God’s presence because our eyes could not cope with His pure glory.

Another cloud story is told in 1 Kings 18:41-45. Here, Elijah has prophesied that there will be no rain in Israel until he declares it as God’s judgment on the evil king, Ahab. Three years later, in 1 Kings 18:1, we find God saying now is the time that He will send rain again. As Elijah prays and sends his servant to see if the rain is coming, the servant finally sees ‘a cloud the size of a man’s hand’, which is the precursor to a deluge which will drench the land:

This story does not simply demonstrate God’s sovereignty over rain. It reminds us that if God has promised something which has not yet happened, we need to hold on until we see the fulfilment of the promise. Elijah bowed facedown in prayer before God, humbling himself as he prayed rather than demanding from God. This attitude of humility is one we should all emulate.

Elijah knew how to persevere in prayer, for it was only on the seventh occasion that the servant actually saw the small cloud which probably did not look big enough to threaten rain. He kept a watch and kept praying. We too need to learn to persist in prayer.

Elijah gave Ahab the opportunity to flee while he could, speaking out in faith that the deluge was coming. We need to speak God’s word in faith and proclaim by faith what we do not yet see. The tiniest cloud can be the start of something big; faith in God leads to the floods of promise which will come in God’s time.