I read a quote today; sadly, I can’t find out who first said this, but I agree with the sentiment: “When wonder is dead, the soul becomes a dry bone.” Since dry bones have been featuring so much in the blog posts this month, that quote caught my attention. How do we keep the wonder of all God is and all He does in our souls?

Ray Bradbury said, “If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder.” On a similar theme, Albert Einstein once said, “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Certainly I think Jesus meant something about the wonder of a child when He told His disciples that they needed to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:3). Children view everything with wonder. Life is so exciting to a child, so new, so full of things to explore and discover. If we become jaded and tired of life, we lose that sense of wonder.

Neil Armstrong said “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” Again, one way to keep wonder alive is to gaze on the mystery of God. We will never fathom all He is and never reach the end of discovering more of His love, mercy and forgiveness. It’s difficult not to feel wonder when we spend time gazing on Him:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Ps 8:3-4)

Let’s not lose the wonder and awe of a little child. Let’s keep wonder alive in our souls.

March is obviously a good month for birthdays – we had another to celebrate last night!
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Last night we looked at Psalm 57, one of the psalms written by David when he was in a cave, fleeing from Saul. The historical background to the psalm is found in 1 Samuel 17-24: how David was anointed king by Samuel, found favour with Saul through his musical skills and through the slaying of the giant Goliath, how he lost favour with Saul who was jealous of the people’s love for David and fearful of his own loss of favour with God (see 1 Samuel 15 for the story of Saul’s disobedience and 1 Samuel 18:7 for the root of his jealousy and irrational hatred of him.) David ended up fleeing for his life, confused and bewildered by Saul. There seemed no rhyme or reason to what he was going through, and certainly no chance that Samuel’s prophetic word would come true in his life. There are often times of great confusion in our lives, but we need not despair in those times.

Faced with this situation, David wrote a song. He showed us strategies for coping with trouble in this psalm which can help us today. He could look trouble directly in the face (verses 4 and 6 explicitly mention the trouble he was in and the pain this caused him), but he could also see God beyond the troubles (see verses 1, 3, 5, 10). He was able to acknowledge God’s character: providing mercy and refuge (verse 1), a God who sends forth love and faithfulness (verse 3), a God who delivers (verse 3 & 6). He was also able to focus on his own response to God: taking refuge in the shadow of God’s wings, crying out to God for mercy, singing and making music to God, having a steadfast heart before God, praying for God to be exalted even in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Being in a cave is an apparently restricting experience. But David knew that God was a solid foundation beneath his feet and that He was exalted above the heavens. There are no restrictions, no ‘glass ceiling’, on what God can do in our lives. David discovered, as Paul did later, that God’s grace was sufficient for Him (see 2 Cor 12:10). The wilderness wanderings can teach us much about the all-sufficiency of God!

As you will see if you look at the previous post, that was published at 9.51 a.m., just minutes before I actually left the house to go to our morning meeting. There was a real sense of God’s presence with us this morning. The songs we sang meshed with the theme the preacher spoke on. There was variety in how we approached Communion this morning, serving each other as we all stood at the front of church (not something we normally do.) God is clearly stirring and moving people in so many different ways. I really shouldn’t be surprised, but I still am rather awed by all this!

Kevin spoke this morning on the ‘two Ps’ of protection and provision. His text was Psalm 119:65-67. He talked about how we all come to church in different states and to do different things: to thank God, to remember Jesus’s example, to remember His death for the whole world and for our sins, to open our hearts to God. Through everything, we see that God has ‘dealt well’ with us.

Protection
The psalmist prays ‘keep me safe, O God, for in You I take refuge.’ (Ps 16:1) Church members have recently testified about God’s protection when they have encountered accidents but have not suffered serious injury or harm. God has our best interests at heart and looks after us. Is 41:10 reminds us “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” As the old hymn says:

“Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
God will take care of you!
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you!” (W. Stillman Martin)

Provision
John 3:16 reminds us of God’s provision for the whole world in sending His Son to save us. We often like to be able to categorise things and explain them in a structured way (rather like scientists picture the double helix of DNA):

God’s love can’t be categorised in this way, but it can be accepted! Jesus was wounded for us and we can be awed by His great love (see 1 Sam 12:24, Ps 36:7, Ps 68:19). God daily bears our burdens and provides refuge for us. He has done great things for us, which we should remember with thankfulness, but we also need Him to do something new and fresh in our lives. As Jimmy Cricket used to say, ‘There’s more!’ We need God to revitalise and re-energise us and to do new things in our lives, our churches and our communities.

It’s Sunday morning. You’re about to go to church. What have you been praying for before you leave the house?

In this month when we are praying for our local churches, it’s good to examine our prayers for our churches. I don’t just mean for the buildings themselves, but for the people inside them and for those who perhaps at the moment wouldn’t dream of setting foot in them.

Are we praying for those who will be leading us this morning? For those leading worship to be anointed by God’s Spirit and to have ears that hear what the Spirit is saying to them? For them to catch the wind of the Spirit and lead us to the throne room of God? We don’t just go to church to sing cheerful songs that will make us feel good or wake us up a little! As we sing, our hearts are gripped by the truth of the words we sing and our eyes are lifted to see the Holy One, mighty and majestic. Are we praying for each worshipper to come into God’s presence and be transformed into His likeness?

Are we praying for those who will minister the Word of God to us? Are we praying for them to be anointed, to bring us the bread of life, to bring us living words, to bring us food that will sustain us and nourish us? Just as we don’t need ‘junk food’ to eat, so we need nutritional food from God’s Word. We need more than milk. But then, if we are praying for meat, are we praying that we have the teeth to chew it? James warns us not to merely listen to the word and walk away from it unchanged. Are we praying for ears to hear beyond the voice of the preacher and the courage to do what God stirs us to do?

Are we praying for all those who will minister to people and to the Lord in whatever form? For those who greet people at the door? For those who make drinks? For those who minister the bread and wine to us? No job is menial; no job is unimportant. All that we do is holy, set apart for the Lord.

Are we praying for people who may not usually come to church? Are we praying for those we can invite to join with us? Are we asking God to remove all the barriers and excuses that people put up as defence mechanisms and move them to accept the invitation? Are we praying that God will speak directly into people’s hearts and lives and astound them with the fact that He knows us and loves us?

Let’s keep praying and let’s come to church expectant and obedient!

Tonight’s Bible study looked at James 5:7-12. In the first section, James looks at the need for patience as we wait for the Lord’s coming and likens this to a harvest, warning us against grumbling against each other; in the second section, he looks at the example of patience set by the prophets and concludes by warning us that our speech should be full of integrity and character.

Perseverance has been a recurring theme throughout the letter, with James 1:1-5 in particular looking at counting ourselves blessed even when we suffer because we know that the testing of our faith develops character. James has also looked at the importance of speech (James 3:1-12, James 4:11-12). We need to be careful how we speak about and to each other, because God is listening to every conversation. As the old plaque says:

God is the only rightful Judge and we need to be careful not to let criticism and grumbling poison our conversations and mar our witness (see also Ps 73). He is at the door, always close (just as sin is always crouching at the door: see Gen 4.)

Suffering in this life is inevitable and James gives us further advice on how to deal with it. There are numerous examples in the Bible of those who suffered and persevered. The life of faith is not always easy! The prophets suffered, but their example helps us to see that perseverance is necessary if we are to receive God’s promises (see Heb 10:36). James then talks about the example of Job, surely the greatest example of faith in adversity in the Old Testament. Despite great suffering and opposition, he clung on to God and was rewarded by God. All these things were written as examples to us (see 1 Cor 10:6-13), with the promise that God will never give us more to carry than we can bear and the knowledge of His character (He is full of mercy and compassion) to sustain us through difficulties.

This section concludes with a reminder that we do not need to swear oaths in order to be trustworthy. James quotes Jesus’s own words in Matt 5:33-37 here, a reminder that we should be people whose word can be trusted. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, our plans should not be made in a worldly manner, but we should think carefully before we speak or make promises (2 Cor 1:15-22). It seems ironic that in today’s law courts, oaths are sworn on the Bible by those who do not even believe in God, when many Christians believe there should be no need for them to swear on anything because their word should be honest and upright all the time!

In all of this, James is keen for us to see the connection between our current situations (difficult though these may be) and the presence and character of God. It is easy to doubt God’s goodness, mercy, provision and kindness when we are going through trials, but James reminds us of the facts. “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (James 5:11) As Kutless sing,

“Sometimes all we have to hold on to
Is what we know is true of who You are…

Lord, we know Your ways are not our ways
So we set our faith in who You are.
Even though You reign high above us
You tenderly love us
We know Your heart
And we rest in who You are.” (‘Even If’, Kutless)