The Burning Bush

Nov 5, 2023

On this Bonfire Night in the UK, Dave spoke this morning from Exodus 3:1-6 on the burning bush – the means that God chose to call Moses to set His people free. Moses, at this stage of his life, had possibly forgotten his calling to lead God’s people; he was in a dead-end job in Midian as a consequence of his murder years before. Sometimes, we feel our past holds us in chains, but Moses was about to discover that God had not forgotten him.
Often, we view good and bad as being like weights on a scale; we hope our good deeds will outweigh our bad and then God will forgive us and let us be with Him in heaven. Ultimately, our good deeds can never be enough to wipe the slate clean, however (even if we have not sinned as Moses did), but God is able to free us and cleanse us totally through Jesus because He wants to. Salvation is unearned and undeserved. Moses was told to take off his shoes for he was standing on holy ground; God’s holiness means that sin can never be ignored, but He has made the way for us to be holy.
Holiness means to be ‘set apart’ for God. We need to stop making excuses and depend on God to help us to live for Him. We need the Holy Spirit living inside us: the burning bush Moses experienced needs to be a fire inside us as God dwells in us by His Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is working in us, He will make us holy and enable us to live for Him.

Blu-tak thoughts?

Nov 3, 2023

I spend a good deal of time sticking posters up with Blu-tak. I don’t know the history of this amazing product, but I do benefit from it!
My husband, an engineer with infinitely more patience than I have, rolls a small ball of Blu-tak between forefinger and thumb before affixing a poster to the wall. It’s noteworthy that his posters tend to stay stuck to the wall much longer than mine do…
Attaching something to a wall sometimes requires more than Blu-tak, though. Sometimes we need a picture hook to hang a photograph. Sometimes we need screws and rawlplugs. It all depends on what we are attaching and how permanent we want the attachment to be!
Hebrews 3:1 says, ‘Fix your thoughts on Jesus.’ The word translated in the NIV as ‘fix’ means to ‘observe fully, to behold, to consider, to discover.’ It means to think decisively to a definite and clear understanding.
To fix your thoughts on Jesus is, I feel, a job for superglue, not Blu-tak! It requires effort, determination, a set attitude. What we think determines to a large extend who we are and what we do. The battle is won in our thoughts.
But the Bible goes on to tell us to fix our hearts and minds on things above, not just our thoughts (see Col 3:1-2). It’s not enough simply to think about God intermittently, as an optional extra in our lives that enhances us in moments of need. God must be the centre always. He must permeate every critical decision we make, our assessment of the world and our situations. The popular phrase ‘What would Jesus do?’ needs to penetrate our everyday thinking.
For this to happen, we need more than Blu-tak thoughts. We need the concentrated power of real glue, the fixed attachment of screws and rawlplugs, and an ongoing determination to look to Jesus in every situation of life.

Losing Heart

Nov 2, 2023

One of the most significant statements in 1 Samuel 17 is found in verse 32: “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” (1 Samuel 17:32) Difficult circumstances are not the real problem in our lives. Losing heart is. As the saying goes, “An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”

The Bible has much to say about not losing heart:

  • Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. (2 Cor 4:1)
  • Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Cor 4:16)
  • Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb 12:3)
  • Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Gal 6:9)
  • Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor 15:58)

The secret to not losing heart is to keep remembering God’s love, mercy, renewal, commitment and faithfulness. This is also where fellowship can be so important, for other people have a wider perspective at times and can encourage us when we feel like giving up (see Ecclesiastes 4:12). David’s actions gave heart to the Israelites; we can celebrate other people’s victories and rejoice with them. (Ps 20:4, Rom 12:15)

Defeating Doom & Gloom

Nov 2, 2023

1 Samuel 17 shows us the relentless pressure of living with doom and gloom, with the Israelites ‘dismayed and terrified’ by Goliath’s constant taunting and fear-mongering. We live in an age of doom and gloom, with 24/7 news telling us of wars, disasters, catastrophes and injustices all the time. Social media and the ever-present presence of the smartphone add to the picture; there is no wonder that people feel despairing, depressed and defeated most of the time. It’s very hard to be positive when there is a one-sided drip-drip-drip of negativity and hopelessness pounding your brain every day.

What can we do to combat this? David had not lived in a stress-free environment as a shepherd; he had had to deal with lions and bears wanting to decimate his flock. Nor was he universally popular; his brothers were scornful to say the least when he arrived on the scene: instead of protecting him, they simply criticised and ridiculed him. So we cannot say it was easy for him! But he had soaked himself in God and therefore he was not afraid of the enemy or of ridicule and scorn. If we want to avoid living life dismayed and terrified, we must learn to fix our hearts, minds and thoughts on God (see Col 3:1-2, Heb 3:1, Heb 12:1-3) and must learn to take control of our thoughts. (2 Cor 10:5, Phil 4:8) The battle was won long before David launched the stone at Goliath. The battle is always won in our minds first.

David & Goliath

Nov 2, 2023

The story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is one of the most well-known stories in the whole Bible; even people who have never read the Bible have heard of this epic tale. It’s a great hero story, the underdog David triumphing against the giant Goliath, and it reminds us that God is able to bring victory out of seeming defeat. All he needs is a person soaked in God-truths and unintimidated by the relentless taunts and hostility of the enemy – the battle belongs to Him, after all!

The story has much to teach us about human relationships (and how easily we are crushed by intimidation, ridicule, taunts and criticism), about the relentless battering of words (for forty days Goliath kept on putting the Israelites down) and about the impossibility of trying to do things in our own strength or according to other people’s ideas (David in Saul’s armour clearly didn’t work!) Mostly, we see in David a shepherd who had fought off the lion and the bear because he trusted in God; his knowledge of God and his conviction that God ruled (not an uncircumcised Philistine!) were the keys to his confidence. ‘God was the reality with which David had to deal: giants didn’t feature largely in David’s understanding of the world.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Leap Over A Wall’, P 40)

David shows us that trust in God is the key to victory. Whatever the giants we may face – unemployment, recession, illness, bereavement, anxiety, fear (the list is endless) – we can have confidence that God is bigger and more powerful, and therefore we have hope.

Let Your Light Shine!

Nov 1, 2023

Yesterday I bought a light picture from Wentworth Garden Centre on my quest for props for our Narnia Experience. It’s a snow scene with lampposts and twinkling LED lights wich shine brightly. The snow scene is attractive (I always find snow prettier to look at than to experience first hand!) but nothing really special; it’s the lights that make the picture captivating.
As I gaze on the picture, I am reminded of Matthew 5:14 – ‘let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’
I look at the twinkling lights and individually these are not particularly bright, but the cumulative effect of these is powerful. That is a picture of the church. Individually we may feel our light is not very bright, but cumulatively we have a positive effect.
Today, as we look at heroes of the faith, we may well feel daunted rather than inspired. “I could never be like Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King,” we say. “I’m no hero.”
Biblical heroes are not heroes because of their talents and strengths. One of my personal favourite heroes, Gideon, was a ball of insecurity, inferiority and inadequacy (it’s why I identify with him so much!) But Biblical heroes made a difference to their worlds because they trusted a miracle-working, extraordinary God. This can be our experience too. We simply let His light shine through us!