Tonight’s Bible study looked at just one verse: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.” (James 5:13)

Trouble can come in many shapes and forms: health worries, financial concerns, problems with work (or the lack of it), relationship problems, and many other issues. We may also face trouble and persecution because of our faith. James has already taught us much about the way we should respond to troubles, however: with gladness and rejoicing, because we know that the testing of our faith develops perseverance (see James 1:3-5). James shows us that prayer needs to be our response to trouble. It’s all too easy for us to be overwhelmed by troubles and to feel alone and forsaken during times of testing. Prayer enables us to draw close to God and to see things in perspective: God is always with us and is much greater than any trouble we may face. As we pray, we receive His wisdom in our situations and learn to see things from a different perspective (see also 2 Cor 12:7-10).

It’s easy when we are happy to forget about God, but James is keen for us to involve God in every situation in life. When we are happy, we need to show a thankful heart and involve God in our joys as well as our woes (many of us are better at complaining to God than thanking Him!) Whatever our lot in life, God is with us at all times and loves to bless us. As we pray and sing songs of praise, we align ourselves with God and learn to live with a keen awareness of His presence and purpose in our lives. There is something very powerful about singing: as Eugene Peterson has said, “When there is more in us than we can contain, we sing.” The psalms show us both aspects of prayer: many psalms are psalms of lament (eg Ps 44:9-16, Ps 86:5-6), but there are also psalms of great rejoicing as the psalmist meditates on God’s nature (eg Ps 44:26, Ps 33:1-3, Ps 149:3). However we pray, there is something powerful in God’s word and in singing this, for we then see God as He really is and are aware of His workings in our everyday lives.

As Matt Redman sings in ‘Blessed Be Your Name’, our response to God, whether in good times or bad, should be the same: we are called, by faith, to bless God and to praise Him.
“Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say,
‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ ” (‘Blessed Be Your Name’, Matt Redman)
‘Blessed Be Your Name’, Matt Redman

After preaching on the unchanging nature of God on Sunday, it’s not surprising that I am still meditating on that great attribute of God’s nature. Two songs I’ve been listening to recently also focus on the immutability of God. One looks at the fact that God is constant and faithful and never changes (see Malachi 3:6); another looks at the unchanging love of God.

‘From the darkest night to the brightest day
Constant You remain
Every single breath to my dying day…
Constant and faithful, You never change…’ (‘The Constant’, Al Gordon & Ben Cantelon)
‘The Constant’, Al Gordon & Ben Cantelon

“My God, You are the unchanging love.
My God, Your heart sends hope from above,
The great Creator, beautiful Saviour,
I’ve been redeemed.
There is life now from Your victory.
You are my God.
You are my God.”(‘My God’, Jeremy Camp)
‘My God’, Jeremy Camp

The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, ’God is a spirit, whose being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.” As we discussed on Sunday, God has no beginning and no end, unlike His creation:
“In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” (Ps 102:25-27)

The fact that God is unchangeable offers us one of the greatest insights into the differences between mankind and God: “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” (1 Sam 15:29) We are often changing our minds (especially women, apparently!), but God’s plans and purposes are fixed: “People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 6:16-19)

God’s immutability defines all His other attributes: He is immutably wise, He cannot help but be merciful, good, and gracious. “The same may be said about His knowledge: God does not need to gain knowledge; He knows all things, eternally and immutably so. Infiniteness and immutability in God are mutually supportive and imply each other. An infinite and changing God is inconceivable; indeed it is a contradiction in definition.” (quoted from article on Immutability)

Plenty for us to think about!

There are defining moments in history and in a person’s life, that point at which the essential nature or character of a person is revealed or identified or shaped. There are moments in life which seem especially significant or important, decisions which are made which can change the course of our lives or, depending on the person’s influence, which can shape history.

This week has seen the death of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister in the UK from 1979 to 1990. I cannot change the fact that I grew up during the ‘Thatcher years’, years when this woman had significant influence in the area in which I lived for the majority of those years, years which changed the nature of the local area and which were incredibly defining for the place and people among whom I still live. As I have listened to political comment over the past few days, it is clear that she was loved and hated in equal measures and obviously left a political legacy which will be written about in the history books for years to come. (It’s always strange to me to think that I am now hearing about events in my life as historical markers, which is beginning to make me feel very old!)

Nonetheless, I am constantly reminded that we are not necessarily defined by the conditions or circumstances in which we live. These have enormous influence over us. The ‘nature vs nurture’ debate of sociology obviously does have a good deal of impact on the people we become. But as I have been meditating on the life of David – who lived among the Philistine culture for a good part of his life – and on the life of Jesus – who lived among Roman and Greek influence and yet who could never have been said to have been dominated by these cultures – I have begun to see that the kingdom of God is about more than being shaped by the culture and conditions all around us, however pervasive or dominant these may be.

The defining moment of my life occurred in October 1983, in the middle of Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister. That moment has nothing whatsoever to do with the political climate of the time. The defining moment which shaped the essential nature of my life occurred when I surrendered to Jesus for the first time and understood that His death on the cross was sufficient to atone for my sins and allow me to become a child of God. His influence on me became the defining essence of who I am.

We don’t ‘escape’ the influences of the world around us necessarily and have to be careful not to be moulded or shaped by the culture we live in. Paul tells the Romans: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom 12:2) In the Message version, we read: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

God becomes our defining moment, the point at which we are changed from the inside out. Our values, thought patterns and actions are influenced and shaped by all we learn of Him and from Him. We will always, like Margaret Thatcher, have a date of birth and a date of death that are historical points which will tell future historians something about the times in which we lived. But when we think of great heroes of the faith, it’s not the historical circumstances they lived in which define them. It is the power of God working in their lives, often to transform the cultures, which impress us. Think of William Wilberforce influencing the prevalent culture of slavery, or Hudson-Taylor, shaping the religious life of China, or Mother Teresa, working to help the poor in India. These people lived in historical circumstances which did not define them. The power of God in their lives and their obedience to the call of God were the things we remember nowadays.

Let’s allow God to be the only One who defines us and let’s understand that what He can achieve through surrendered hearts is greater than we can possibly imagine – so great that it really can leave His impression on our culture and on history.

Aaron Shust, one of my favourite Christian artists, is set to release a new album (‘Morning Rises’) this July, an event I was already eagerly anticipating even before the release of this video of one of the tracks thereon!

The God of brilliant lights is shining down over us.
Breaking through the darkness, covering all the earth.
His love is like an ocean,
Forever overflowing,
The God of brilliant lights is shining over us. (‘God of Brilliant Lights’, Aaron Shust)
‘God of Brilliant Lights’, Aaron Shust

story behind the song

I’m just glad Garry has a birthday in July!

Last night Mark reminded us that God’s motivation for all He does is love. He also said that the thing God does best is love! So often, we value things differently, looking for manifestations of power that seem ‘remarkable’ to us (speaking in tongues, prophesying, gifts of healing, words of wisdom etc.) and scorning the everyday expressions of love. Yes, as he reminded us, it is love that is eternal, not the ‘remarkable’ things we value so much.

Ultimately, John tells us that ‘we love because He first loved us.’ (1 John 4:19) He tells us that God’s love was manifested through practical action: ‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.’ (1 John 4:9) Love was seen through Christ’s sacrifice for us and through the Father’s generosity in giving us His Spiri. (1 John 4:10, 13)

Jeremy Camp sings about this love in the song ‘The Way You Love Me’, rightly identifying God’s love to us as the motivation behind our love, the impetus to reach out and show others God’s love. Nothing less than our abandonment to God and our willingness to be used by Him can fully express our gratitude for His love for us.

We learn to love one another
Through the love of the Father
Who gave a righteous King…

I will reach
I will touch
Give myself
The way You love me
The way You love me (‘The Way You Love Me’, Jeremy Camp)
‘The Way You Love Me’, Jeremy Camp

Mark spoke from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 at the family service on the theme of Faith, Hope & Love.

At Easter we think especially about all that God has done for us to allow us to become His children, the motivation for which is His love (see John 3:16). God is love (1 John 4:7-11); the motivation for everything He does is love, because love is the essence of His nature and the thing He does best!

Paul talks about love being the ‘more excellent way’. 1 Cor 12 has looked at the gifts of the Spirit and Paul urges us to desire these things (and as a Pentecostal church, we do indeed long to see the gifts of the Spirit manifested in our lives and meetings.) Nonetheless, unless these gifts are motivated by and operated in love, they are useless. The gifts are essential to healthy church life, but they are for this present age, whereas love is eternal.

1 Cor 13 gives us the true definition of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13:4-7) True love is hard and requires commitment and effort on our part. The eternal qualities of love are contrasted with the temporal qualities of the spiritual gifts. Faith will give way to sight; hope will give way to reality; but love will always remain. Love never fails.