Mark spoke from Hebrews 2:5-10 last night, looking at the whole question of what we see and what we do not see. He started by showing us some pictures that illustrate how different perspectives affect what you see.

On the first picture, we can see either a vase or two people; on the second, pillars or men having conversations! It’s all a matter of perspecitve. What kind of people are we? Are we optimists or pessimists? What do we concentrate on in good times, in bad times, in humdrum times? What motivates us or stops us dead in our tracks? How we look at things affects what we see. Verse 8 reminds us of things that are not yet subject to man – the weather, health, time, the economy, war, death, all these things are beyond our control. We need to understand, however, that God is in everything. As we looked at the photos of Goldthorpe around the main hall, Mark challenged us to see God in these pictures. Some saw Him in the sunset picture; others in the clock picture, since God holds our times in His hands. But ultimately, God is in all of them, for He is everywhere. No matter what situation we may find ourselves in, God is there, for He has promised never to leave us or forsake us.

With natural eyes, we may see a world spiralling out of control, but when we see Jesus, we see that God is in control. The ten spies who only looked at the giants and the problems did not enter into the Promised Land, but Caleb and Joshua saw the same things they did and believed that God was greater than the problems (Numbers 13:26-33). We need to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2), throwing aside all our doubts and being confident that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6). We are able to complete the things that God wants us to do, for He writes the story of our lives and is able to help us to finish. Psalm 121 reminds us that God is watching over us. We need to see Jesus so that our perspective is transformed.

Garry continued his series on 2 Peter 1 this morning, looking at perseverance. This is defined as ‘steadfastneess, constancy, endurance, a patient waiting for, not being swerved from a deliberate purpose’ (or, as Eugene Peterson translates it in the Message, ‘passionate patience’, not at all the stoic, passive attitude we often associate with the word!)

1) Persevering problem
Why do we find it so difficult to wait? Obviously, we are impatient people who want things now and live in a society which values instant gratification. But the underlying problem as to why we find perseverance so difficult is that we define ourselves more in terms of what we do than in terms of who we are. We find being harder than doing. Losing a job or facing retirement can seem utterly daunting to us because we feel worthless without an external activity to define us. We need to accept that who we are is more important than what we do.

Sometimes God makes us wait so that we can understand the value of being. He defined Himself to Moses as ‘I AM’ – not just the God who did things, but the God who is there.

2) Persevering perspective
God’s perspective is often very different to our own. There are numerous verses (Eccl 8:6, Rom 5:6, Gal 4:4, Eph 1:9-10 and 1 Tim 6:14-15) which remind us that there is a propoer time and procedure for every matter. God has never been late, the saying goes, but has missed countless opportunities to be early! God has set right times, appropriate times, in place. We have to persevere in trusting God that He will work all things out ‘at the right time’. We need to carry on in the path He set our feet on until we hear otherwise (Deut 5:32, Prov 4:27, Is 30:21). Sometimes, rather like with a SatNav, we have to ‘zoom out’ of the close-up picture to see the bigger picture. God is working all things together for good in His time.

3) Persevering produced
No matter how much perseverance we have, we can always use more! Rom 5:3 urges us to ‘glory in our suffering because suffering produces perseverance.’ James reminds us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance (James 1:3-4). We do not like to view suffering in such a positive light but often want to flee from it. Nonetheless, we have to face the fact that suffering develops us and we can learn some things only through experience as God imparts patience to us (Col 1:11). All Scripture is there to encourage us (Rom 15:4), but so often, it is not until we have experienced something for ourselves that we learn the lessons God has for us.

4) Persevering produces
Luke 8:9-15 reminds us that the good soil produces a good crop by perseverance. Waiting (apparently doing nothing) is what produces the crop. Growth often results from the passage of time; it cannot be rushed. It requires wisdom to know when to do (action) and when to be (waiting).

5) Persevering possesses
The ultimate goal of perseverance is the possession of eternal life (Luke 21:10-19, Rom 2:6-7). If we persistently do good, we will find that God rewards us. Rom 8:25 reminds us that often we have to wait patiently before we can possess and Gal 6:9 tells us that at the proper time (that phrase again!), we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. We need to persevere in all we do (including prayer), so that we actually go on to possess all God has promised. Heb 10:36 reminds us that when we have done the will of God, we will receive what He has promised.

6) Persevering pictured
Did you know that God wants us all to be models? No, not the supermodel variety, but people who model Christ to others (see 2 Cor 6:3-4, 2 Tim 4:10, 1 Cor 11:1). We are to encourage one another daily to persevere and to model perseverance for people so that they can see how to live (and how to die). When you see a good example, it leads you on and spurs you on. Let’s persevere in the things of God and rest assured that He is working in our waiting.

Future hope has always fuelled present action. Paul told the Romans, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) To the Corinthian church, he said, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18) Contrary to the belief that ‘Christians are so heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good’, Christians have always sought to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, conscious of the great debt they owe God and eager to please Him in every way they can. Nonetheless, the anticipation of Paradise has always been part of the equation. We are not living for this life alone. “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Cor 15:19). There is far more to come.

The song ‘Paradise’ on Jeremy Camp’s new album looks ahead to the future hope we have.

“Can’t wait to walk along Your side
And feel the beauty of Your love
And the fullness of Your grace now

Can’t wait to look into Your face
And see the majesty and glory
That makes the Earth shake.”

The anticipation of what is ahead protects us from the attractions of the world, which seem so dazzling at times, but which are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us:

“Don’t let this life take hold of my desires
And I won’t give up the fight

Cause one day I will be with You in paradise, paradise
But until that day, I will surrender all my life, all my life
We’ll sing Hallelujah, Hallelujah, every knee will bow and say
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we’ll bring glory to Your name.” (‘Paradise’, Jeremy Camp)
‘Paradise’, Jeremy Camp

Funnily enough, since the map project started, maps have been cropping up everywhere, it seems! A book I am reading (‘The Road Less Traveled’, by Scott Peck) talked about life being like a series of maps and just as maps become outdated over time as new roads and buildings are constructed, so too our lives are not static and we cannot assume that things will always stay the same but have to adapt and grow. (“If our maps are to be accurate, we have to continually revise them. The world itself is constantly changing.”)

Then I was struck by how the Bible talks about itself as being like a map to guide us on life’s journey. The Message version of Psalm 119 in particular makes this very clear:
“You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by GOD. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. That’s right—you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set.” (Ps 119:1-3)

“God charts the road you take.” (Ps 1:6)

It seems that maps have plenty to teach us! May we not only use the prayer map to pray for the streets of Goldthorpe, but may we also allow God’s Word to be the map that directs and guides our lives.

Maps have been featuring a lot in my life recently. This started with the prayer walks in January, since it’s helpful to have a map to know where you are going when you are dividing up an area among several people so that you avoid all going to the same place and leaving some streets unvisited! It was decided to have a ‘prayer map’ of all the streets in Goldthorpe so that we could continue to pray even when we were not physically walking on the streets. Having a cartographer for a friend proved useful, as she was able to access Ordnance Survey maps and edit them to show just Goldthorpe. Thus began an ongoing process to produce a large ‘prayer map’ to go up in the foyer at church to remind us where the things we are praying for are located.

The map was produced and personalised with the church name and logo.

Compass points were added (not only to orientate the map, so to speak, but to remind us of Ezekiel 37:9 (“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live’ “) and Isaiah 43:5-7 (“I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back”), verses which have been significant words from God to the church.)

Then the map was taken to a printer’s so that we could have a large version. The laminated A1 version then needed to be fixed to a board so it could be hung in church with stickers to remind us where things were and photographs to remind us of the prayer walks. I assumed (naively, as it turned out) that we would sail into B & Q, pick up a large board, stick the map to it and that would be that. I ought to have known better (B & Q is not that kind of place…!) There were no suitable boards large enough, so we had to buy two boards to fit together and at that point, Garry decided that to make this suitable, we also needed to make a frame for the boards.

Collaboration is definitely the name of the game in church work! Mark donated his mitre saw to this project (thus making Garry’s job of making the frame from off-cuts of wood easier) and the making of the board began.

Two separate boards…

Two becoming one…

The board was then covered to give a more finished look:

Now all that remains to be done is to attach the map, labels and photographs to the board and hang it in the church!

Jeremiah 31:34, quoted in Hebrews 10:17, says “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” The Bible reassures us that our sins are forgiven through Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. Psalm 103:9 says “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” This reassurance is the basis for our acceptance into God’s family and should never be forgotten.

Jeremy Camp’s song ‘We Must Remember’ contrasts our need to remember this forgiveness with God’s willingness to remember our sins no more. Technically, God does not forget; He chooses not to remember. But the song’s poetry contrasts remembering and forgetting:

“We must remember
That You have forgotten
And You don’t remember our sins anymore.
We must remember
That You have forgotten
And You, You died once and for all.” (‘We Must Remember’, Jeremy Camp)
‘We Must Remember’, Jeremy Camp

Christ has won for us a great victory and we are cleansed from all our sins.
“The power of Your blood is all that we need.
You laid down Your life and the captives were free.
The veil was torn and there was victory.”

The wonder of God’s forgiveness is that it is all-encompassing and ongoing. 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” God’s forgiveness is available to us on a day-by-day basis. Let’s remember that daily and live in the freedom of forgiveness.