The Anointing of David

Oct 5, 2023

In our Bible study tonight we looked at 1 Samuel 16:1-13, the account of David’s anointing to be king by the prophet Samuel and a vivid reminder that God ‘does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ (1 Samuel 16:7) The story involves many people: the prophet Samuel, the king Saul and Jesse and his family, a reminder to us that God chooses to work with and through ordinary people! He does not have to do this, but the fact that He chooses to work in partnership with us is one of the great miracles of a life of faith.

The fact that Israel had begged for a king instead of living under God’s rule was a source of sorrow to Samuel, and the fact that Saul (the first king) had proved so unfit to rule because of his disobedience and impatience had deeply grieved Samuel, as the opening verse in this chapter indicates. But God was ready to move on; sometimes, we need His word to us to move us from the place of grief and lament. God had another job for Samuel, to anoint a new king, and Samuel faced this with not inconsiderable fear. Faith is not an absence of fear, but choosing to be obedient even when we are afraid. The key to Samuel’s success is found in 1 Samuel 16:4: ‘Samuel did what the Lord had said.’

God did not tell Samuel everything at once; He directed him to Jesse’s family, but there was a period of uncertainty after each of his sons was presented to Samuel and no further direction was heard. It was only when the youngest son was brought in that Samuel heard God’s voice: ‘Rise and anoint him; this is the one.’ (1 Samuel 16:12) It can be hard to wait for the word of the Lord, but it is this word which transforms situations. David was to become Israel’s greatest king: how much do we owe to Samuel for his faithful obedience to God?!

Building a road

Oct 1, 2023

Tonight we looked at road-building and obstacles based on Isaiah 57:14 which says, “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” (Isaiah 57:14) The children watched a video about how roads are made and then made their own paper road with the verse on. We looked at how Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and is the only way to God the Father (John 14:6), how we must choose the narrow road to life and how God wants us to walk on the way of holiness. (Is 35:8)
Just as there has to be preparation in building a road, removing rubble, making sure the site is level and appropriate drainage is present, so too there must be repentance and a clearing away of the old way of life for us to follow Jesus. But obstacles can make travelling very difficult; sometimes, roads are blocked because of fallen trees or damage, as we are currently experiencing in Goldthorpe with the bypass closed after a car was set on fire in the underpass to Phoenix Park. Obstacles in life come from the trials and temptations we face and our sinful tendency to try to remove problems in our own strength rather than asking for God’s help.
We may be unable to move a tree on our own, but a team of people could do this. Perhaps this is why God gives us the church to help us on life’s journey. We are here to encourage each other, listen and help each other. (1 Thess 5:11, 14) James tells us to pray for each other. (James 5: 13-16) In this way, we are helped to continue with perseverance on the road marked out for us by God.

Handling Guilt

Oct 1, 2023

This morning Garry spoke from Genesis 50:15-21 about handling guilt. Joseph’s brothers had a guilty conscience, aware of how badly they had wronged him as a young man, and were afraid he would now seek revenge. They were haunted by their prior actions; guilt is not easily ignored or dismissed.
Our first reaction to wrongdoing is usually to hide (see Gen 3:8-10). We feel there is no way out and no way back (as Judas demonstrated, Matt 27:3-5) The purpose of guilt is not to torment us, however, but to lead us to the path of repentance. Joseph’s brothers had never sought forgiveness for their wrongdoing, and even when he offered this to them, it was as if they could not believe him. Our hearts can condemn us long after God and others have forgiven us (1 John 3:19-20), but we need to receive both God’s forgiveness and other people’s.
Forgiveness is a choice, as Jesus made plain in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matt 18:23-34). Some say they can only forgive if forgiveness is actively sought, but Joseph forgave his brothers even when they had not asked for forgiveness. Jesus did this also on the cross (‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ Luke 23:34) God’s forgiveness was offered to us freely while we were still sinners (Rom 5:6-8) and therefore if we are living in a place of unforgiveness, it is by our choice. Joseph’s brothers had been forgiven by Joseph, but they did not receive his forgiveness initially. We must learn to live as forgiven people and to forgive freely if we are to live under the blessing of God as Joseph did.

The Story of Elizabeth

Sep 24, 2023

Dave spoke this evening from Luke 1:5-25, looking at Elizabeth. Her response to God’s intervention in her life – promising her a son in her old age and after years of barrenness – was to accept God’s will for her and continue to serve Him faithfully. She was upright and blameless and had great faith, not doubting Zechariah, even though he was the one visited by the angel!
Elizabeth was faithful, holding on in prayer when nothing seemed to be happening. She blessed God for His blessing and withdrew from society, meditating on being the mother of a great prophet. She was filled with the Holy Spirit and this is so important in understanding her spiritual life.
Elizabeth was a woman of obedience; it was her intervention that ensured John was named as the angel had commanded. She may not have understood why this name was chosen, but she obeyed all that God had said to her (see 1 Sam 15:22). Trusting God and obeying Him are what is required from all of us – and like Elizabeth, we will reap the rewards of trust and obedience.

Pick & Mix?

Sep 24, 2023

As a child, I used to love the ‘Pick & Mix’ section in Woolworth’s: different kinds of sweets in different tubs and I got to choose the selection of sweets which I personally liked best. This seemed to me much better than a box of chocolates where there were always flavours I did not really enjoy!

Life truly is more like a box of chocolates, though, as Forrest Gump said, than it is a ‘Pick & Mix’! Things happen in life which we do not want, which we do not understand, and which we definitely don’t like. To pretend this is not so is not reality, and truth, ultimately, is what is real. It would be wrong to teach on miracles without including those miracles we wish weren’t there. It would be wrong to treat the Bible like a ‘Pick & Mix’ section of a shop. Paul says that ‘all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ (2 Tim 3:16-17) If we want to be thoroughly equipped for every good work, if we want to be trained in righteousness so that we can live lives that please the Lord, then we must come to terms with the God who is, not the God we would like or the God we imagine. Such images are idolatry. It behoves us to wrestle with the difficult parts of the Bible, the parts we wish weren’t there, the miracles that seem to contradict what we know of God’s love and mercy, so that we can know the God who is. We can’t afford to be ‘pick and mix’ Christians, living from isolated Bible verses. We need to know who God is and surrender to His sovereignty in all things.

The Miracle No One Wants

Sep 24, 2023

This morning in our series ‘The Miraculous & The Mundane’, we looked at a miracle in Acts 5 which we prefer not to think about or even acknowledge. In this chapter, we see God’s judgment on two believers (Ananias and Sapphira) and how the hypocrisy and deceit of this couple led to their unexpected and sudden deaths. We prefer not to think about the judgment of God or we reduce this to something that only happened in the Old Testament, but the Bible urges us to accept the whole revelation of God and we must, therefore, wrestle with passages which upset and offend us in order to be sure we are worshipping the God who is rather than the God of our imagination.

At the end of Acts 4, we see a picture of the unity of the church, with believers (e.g. Barnabas) selling possessions and property and pooling the money from these transactions to help the church overall. There was no compulsion to do this, but the love of Christ overflowed into generous living. Ananias and Sapphira, however, sold a piece of land and kept back part of the price for this. God revealed this deceit to Peter through a word of knowledge and Peter condemned Ananias for lying to the Spirit of God and then condemned Sapphira for testing God’s Spirit. The result was both people died instantly.

The facts of the story are easy enough to understand: a supernatural word of knowledge exposing sin and hypocrisy in this couple and God’s power striking down the couple as He had done with Korah, Dathan and Abiram who rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. (Numbers 16) What is harder for us to understand is why God chose to act in this way (and why He doesn’t act like this always!) It seems that we must learn to view sin the way God views it. The holiness and authority of God are very much in evidence in this story, and we see also how the authority of the apostles is reinforced so that, as one commentator puts it, ‘God laid the bodies of Ananias and Sapphira in the path of every hypocrite who would seek to enter the church.’ [1] The result of this miracle was a fear and awe of God (Acts 5:5, 11) which helped the church to see that God is not to be trifled with.

Miracles are not simply entertainment for a bored people, ‘clickbaits’ to lure us to God, ‘enticements’ to persuade us that God might be worth looking at. They are evidence of who God is and how God works. This miracle shows us God in awesome power, absolute purity and unconditional holiness. God gave His all for us; now, in the words of the hymn, ‘love so amazing, so divine/ demands my soul, my life, my all.’ (‘When I Survey The Wondrous Cross’, Isaac Watts)

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/Ananias-and-Sapphira.html