Tonight’s Bible study looked at just 2 verses: 1 John 1:5-6 TNIV. Here, we looked at the fact that the message John passed on was one he had heard directly from Jesus and therefore the message he declared was truth and needs to be heeded. That message declares the basic truth that God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.

John makes other ‘God is…’ statements (John 4:24 TNIV declares that God is Spirit and 1 John 4:8 TNIV declares that God is love.) These are all statements of the absolute nature of God. In the Old Testament, light is seen in creation (Gen 1:3 TNIV); it is seen in the burning lamp which passed between the piece of the parted victim in God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen 15:17 TNIV) and God went before Israel in a pillar of fire in the wilderness wanderings (Ex 13:21 TNIV). Another instance is when God descended in fire upon Sinai (Exodus 19). John often uses both positive and negative statements to make a point: in this instance, contrasting light with darkness (which is, after all, the absence of light) – see John 1:7–8 TNIV, John 3:18 TNIV, John 10:28 TNIV , 1 John 2:24 TNIV, 1 John 5:12 TNIV for other examples of this. Clearly, if God is light, there can be no darkness in Him.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Light of the world (see John 1:1-5 TNIV, John 8:12 TNIV, John 9:5 TNIV, John 12:35-36 TNIV). In doing so, He is implying deity with God. However, He also referred to His disciples as the light of the world (Matt 5:14 TNIV). Here, the ‘you’ is plural, but the ‘light’ is singular, indicating that it is the church in a collective sense which is the light of Christ now that Christ is no longer on the earth. We are Christ’s ambassadors or representatives on earth and must reflect His nature in all that we are and do. Since He is light, we must also be light!

This has definite repercussions for how we live! Our walk must match our talk. If we are claiming that fellowship with God which we discussed last time – an intimate communion, a close association – then we must reflect God. For us to walk in darkness is to be living a lie (as the Message version puts it, ‘we’re obviously lying through our teeth–we’re not living what we claim.’) That does not mean we must live hermits’ lives in isolation, eschewing all contact with non-Christians (or how can they hear the message of salvation?), but it does mean that we have to be careful about how we live (see 2 Cor 6:14-16 TNIV). Quite how we manage to live dual lives – claiming fellowship with God but still sinning – is often a mystery to us, but it’s clearly possible! David’s affair with Bathsheba is one example of how easily we can be led astray from God and not even realise it. We need to ask God to search us and shine His light into every area of our lives so that we can reflect His light to a world in darkness.

To my immense joy, two of my former pupils bought me a book by Eugene Peterson entitled ‘The Pastor’ as a leaving present. (In fairness, I was inundated with presents which was truly very touching, with pupils, staff and parents being incredibly generous and very thoughtful in the things they bought. I’m awkward to buy for since I don’t eat chocolates and don’t much like wine, either, the staple diet for teachers’ presents!) In the book, which describes his life as a pastor, Peterson describes his childhood and how each of life’s experiences became a training ground for his adult calling. He talks about his mother’s influence on him as she taught him Bible stories and songs and how that taught him ‘the way we learn something is more influential than the something that we learn. No content comes into our lives free-floating: it is always embedded in a form of some kind. For the basic and integrative realities of God and faith, the forms must also be basic and integrative. If they are not, the truths themselves will be peripheral and unassimilated.” (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Pastor’, P 33)

Story and song… the staple ‘forms’ in which Bible truths are assimilated. I am a huge fan of the power of story. I have always loved reading and am an avid fiction fan. Stories were one of the primary methods that Jesus used to teach Biblical truth. The parables were not deep theological studies; they were stories which used everyday happenings to illustrate a deeper truth. Stories engage our imaginations and help us to enter into both familiar and unfamiliar worlds. We immerse ourselves in emotions, events and experiences when we read fiction which opens up the world and allows us to participate in something far bigger than anything we could experience on our own. “A good novelist enables us to feel someone else’s life and care about it,” Neil Hudson said.

As one of my other leaving presents, I received some vouchers to spend at W.H. Smith’s and I eagerly bought a number of books there. One of these books was ‘Just One Evil Act’ by Elizabeth George, an author I really admire because she writes detective fiction which is actually far more about life choices and character than it is simply about crime. Her novels are elegantly written, delving into a number of worlds (the lead detective is from the English aristocracy, his detective sergeant is from a much lower social class and is hopelessly inept when it comes to fashion or love, her neighbour draws us into the world of Islam and microbiology and key friends draw us into the world of forensic science, photography and the agonies of childlessness), with intricately plotted storylines and a whole host of believable characters. The real reason I love this series, however, is because the novels are about much more than the crimes. They dig deep into the human heart, looking at questions of motivation, what drives us to act as we do, and they explore both the duplicity of the heart and the way justice and mercy live side by side in the real world.

In this latest novel, the key theme is how ‘just one evil act’ leads to many others; how action always begins with a simple choice, but how that choice rarely seems simple to us. Sir Walter Scott wrote ‘oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive’ and this theme of mixed motivation – often good motivation – leading to wrong choices and therefore to evil actions is superbly explored through the storyline. The book begins with a quotation from ‘The Merchant of Venice’:

“The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, season’d with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?”

I was reminded very much of the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-27 TNIV) as I read the novel. Here, one moment of lustful thought led David to one sinful act, but that act then led to many other sinful acts: first of all, the actual adultery, but then the manipulation of both Bathsheba and Uriah (and Joab, to some extent) and the conniving to murder. Perhaps we should not be surprised that it took a simple story from Nathan to pierce David’s heart, for he apparently had no trouble living with himself despite his sinful choices. It was only when an innocent, innocuous story pierced through his complacency that he came to see his actions as God saw them and could therefore be led to repentance.

The novel shows us that every choice matters. There is no such thing as a choice made in a moral vacuum, for we do not live in a moral vacuum. Once more, the plot is not the whole story and it is this potential to keep digging into character, motivation and language which keeps me fascinated by story.

(Now just don’t get me started on song…!)

When I first became a Christian, one of the key verses that seemed to be everywhere (song, sermon etc.) was Isaiah 60:1 TNIV: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” Another popular verse was Isaiah 52:1 TNIV: “Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength!” The idea of rising up, waking up and proclaiming God’s kingdom was very dominant in the late 1980s.

Such truths are timeless, of course, so it is interesting to hear new songs being written on these same themes. Chris Tomlin’s ‘Awake, my Soul’ owes more to Ezekiel 37 than to Isaiah, but still has the chorus ‘Awake, awake, awake, my soul’. His ‘Awakening’ also uses this theme of our souls awakening to all God is doing. More recently, I learnt Luke Hellebronth’s song ‘Stand Up’, which again alludes to 2 Chronicles 20:12, 17 TNIV, Psalm 31 and Romans 8:31 TNIV in addition to urging us to stand up and see the king.

“With history behind us
And destiny before us
Every heart is bowed down.

Stand up, everybody, stand up!
Come on, lift your eyes up.
See the king!
Our God, such a mighty fortress,
You are with us, for us,
Jesus our King.” (‘Stand Up’, Luke Hellebronth)

Back in the days long ago when I studied chemistry, I can remember learning about saturated solutions. A saturated solution has reached the point at which a solution of the substance can dissolve no more of that substance and additional amounts of it will appear as a separate phase (as a precipitate). Saturation – from the Latin saturare, to fill – means that no more water can be absorbed. It’s completely soggy, wet through, dripping with liquid.

Somehow, that image reminds me of Jesus’s words in Luke 6:38 TNIV: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” God is capable of saturating us so that there is an overflow. And as we learn to receive from Him, so we must learn to give to others, so that this ‘good measure’ can be passed on, and then, in ways that we don’t fully understand, God gives back to us. Far from being a dry, wrung-out cloth that is stiff and inflexible, we are like a moist sponge. When squeezed by life, what comes out is the living water God has poured in to us! We give to others from the overflow of our hearts, which will always reflect what is in our hearts.

As we have recently experienced lots of rain again and probably face months of unsettled weather, let’s remember that when God rains on us, it helps us to be fruitful and let’s pour out all that He gives us into lives of generous service.

Al Gordon led an interesting seminar at Worship Central entitled ‘Do the maths!’ Despite not wanting to do any maths at all (!), it was a useful way of looking at the busyness of our lives and allowing God to speak into our schedules.

He started with the number 1, reminding us that we only have one life to live and need God’s help if we are to live well.

Then he looked at the addition sign:

What do we need to add in to our lives to improve them? We might need to make more time for prayer, but it could also be that we need to spend more time with our families and friends or need to add in something just for ourselves that will help us to relax or grow fitter.

Next was the subtraction sign:

Sometimes we need to remove things from our lives. This doesn’t just apply to bad habits or sinful practices (though obviously these need our attention!) Sometimes we have allowed ourselves to say ‘yes’ to too many things and are overloaded in a way that God never intended. It is difficult to be ruthless with our time, but since we cannot change the number of hours in a day, what we need to look at is how we actually occupy our time. Sometimes we fritter time away (watching TV, on the Internet, on mobile phones etc.) and we may need to have more discipline in our lives to focus on God more.

Next came multiplication:

What is God already blessing in our lives? Where are the highlights? Perhaps we need more of these things! In gold mining, once the seam of gold had been discovered, this needed to be mined in order to gain the maximum yield of gold.

The next step was the percentage symbol:

Often, what distinguishes one person from another is how they manage their time. Those involved in leadership often give time for themselves, but Christians often feel guilty if they do this. We need to look at how we spend our time and what percentage of time we give to each activity.

Then we looked at division:

Jesus wants us to ‘give away’ things – not just belongings, but often we can ‘give away’ some of the jobs we do so that other people can grow into ministries. That means relinquishing control at times. Delegation is an important principle to learn; we must never be possessive of the ministries God has given us or think that we are the only people who can do these things. God often blesses what we share with others.

Finally, we looked at a less familiar symbol:

This is the symbol for infinity, which was related to eternity in this workshop. How are we going to bring the infinite into our lives? Worship involves every part of our lives and we need to seek God in every aspect of our lives so that the eternal perspective is visible in our everyday living.

Diane and Karen were busy during the half-term holidays, painting the newly refurbished kitchen. It looks lovely!