One thing I love about God is how He says the same things to us in different ways and it doesn’t matter where we go, we can never outrun His messages! Last week we had the pleasure of being away on holiday on the Isle of Man, a truly wonderful place. As is our custom, we looked around for a church to attend on Sunday and found an Elim church in Onchan, a few miles from where we were staying, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, which directed us to the front doors with no problems! We had a wonderful time there, savouring God’s presence and enjoying meeting new family we didn’t even know we had!

The pastor there (John Powell) preached from Luke 5, the story where Peter and James and John are mending their nets after a hard night’s fruitless labour, and Jesus comes into Peter’s boat to preach and ends up commanding them to fish again. This time, the catch is so huge that the boat begins to sink and the nets begin to break and Peter and the disciples begin to understand something of their new destiny as fishers of men.

It’s a familiar story and one that seemed even more relevant on an island where fishing is still an important part of everyday life. Everywhere we went, we saw boats and nets! (We even saw the oldest yacht in the world, the Peggy, at Castletown’s Nautical Musuem.)

But what struck us most of all was the reminder, as so many sermons here have done recently, that God is with us in all circumstances. He actually gets into our boat, into the messy, stinky circumstances of our everyday lives, and helps us. He is the one who can direct our lives anew and give us fresh purpose and hope. After the death and resurrection of Christ, Peter and his friends went back to fishing. Then they were met by Jesus on the shore, cooking a fish breakfast for them. They may have thought that their lives would just carry on as before, but Jesus had other ideas for them! And He has plenty of ideas for our lives too…

Last Sunday, Dave preached from Matt 14:22-33 about having faith even in the midst of the storms of life. He started with the joke about a man who gets too close to the edge of the Grand Canyon, loses his balance, and slips over the edge. Just before falling 1000 feet, he grabs on to a root sticking out from the edge.
“Help me!” he cries out. “Is there anyone up there? Help me! Save me! Is there anyone up there?”
A voice answers, “I am the Lord. I can save you. Do you believe in me? Do you really want me to help you? ”
“Oh, yes, Lord, I believe in you, more than you’ll ever know. Please help me.”
“OK,” the Lord says. “I’ll save you. Now, let go.”
“What?”
“Just let go of that root you’re holding on to, and I’ll save you. You have to trust me.”
The man pauses a moment, and then shouts out, “Is there anyone else up there?”

Faith often seems a risky business. The disciples had just witnessed one of the most amazing miracles, the feeding of the five thousand, and they had been told by Jesus to go to the other side of the lake. They were doing exactly what they had been commanded to, yet they found themselves in the middle of a storm. Sometimes when we are following Jesus, we find ourselves in a storm. But then, the disciples saw Jesus walking on water – not calm, mill-pond-like water, but stormy water – to reach them. Peter, impulsive as ever, asks to walk on this water to Jesus and he does so. But then, like so many of us, he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the waves all around and begins to sink. His only hope is to cry, ‘Lord, save me!’ And Jesus did. Peter found the strength and help that he needed.

There are times when we all look at what is going on in the world around and wonder where Jesus is in all that. We look and we wonder whether we actually heard God right. At such times we again face the temptation to doubt and falter, to focus on the storms that rage around us, instead of focusing upon Jesus, the Lord of life, the Master of the winds and the waves. Our prayer is “Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the endings, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us, and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Some time ago, Mark and Dave preached a series of sermons about the body of Christ, looking at His eyes, ears, heart, hands and feet. They looked at how Jesus used these parts of His body and what we can learn about how we should live through His example.

I was reminded of this sermon series when I was listening to a song this week. It’s called ‘Safe’ by Phil Wickham and talks about the refuge we find in God’s arms. Sometimes we do indeed feel that ‘everything is falling apart’; sometimes we feel that we are in the middle of a raging storm and don’t know where to turn. It’s at times like this when we need to know that God is holding onto us.

These are the hands that built the mountains
the hands that calm the seas
These are the arms that hold the heavens
They are holding you and me

You will be safe in His arms
You will be safe in His arms
‘Cause the hands that hold the world are holding your heart
This is the promise He made
He will be with You always
When everything is falling apart
You will be safe in His arms (‘Safe’, Phil Wickham)
‘Safe’, Phil Wickham

A similar song is ‘Rest In the Arms’ by Aaron Shust:
When you’re broken, when you’re weak
When you turn the other cheek
When you cannot speak of the bitter sweet, the bitter sweetness
When the floor gives out beneath
And everything that you believe cannot bring you peace
You’re broken inside, broken in pieces

You can rest in the arms of the One who holds you
Rest in the arms of the One who knows you
Rest in the arms of the One who won’t let go
You can rest in the arms of the One who holds you
Rest in the arms of the One who loves you
Rest in the arms of the One who won’t let go (‘Rest In The Arms’, Aaron Shust)
‘Rest In The Arms’, Aaron Shust

Does God have a sense of humour? I believe so. We are, after all, made in God’s image and we certainly have a sense of humour!

Jesus may well have been known as the ‘Man of Sorrows’, but he was also the one who told His disciples “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11) I can’t imagine that someone who was always woeful and gloomy (Eeyore-like in personality) could have made that statement and not been ridiculed for it! The one who nicknamed James and John ‘sons of Thunder’ clearly had a twinkle in His eyes at times!

Proverbs 17:22 says that “a cheerful heart is good medicine” and for years, Reader’s Digest produced a jokes’ section entitled ‘Laughter The Best Medicine’ which endeavoured to lighten the atmosphere through jokes.

Good friends tend to be those who know us best and accept us as we are; they also tend to be those with whom we can laugh most easily. Sometimes there is a fair amount of teasing in the jokes. Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin, both worship leaders who are not especially tall, endlessly tease each other about their height. Their amicable rivalry often takes the form of hilarious presents on this theme: when Passion City Church moved to its new building, Chris Tomlin showed a picture of a doll’s house seat named in honour of Matt Redman; Matt Redman has just presented Chris Tomlin with a small child’s T-shirt in honour of the 2012 Olympics!

Some time ago, I wrote a blog post entitled ‘Musings on Fish’ Sadly, our fish died shortly after that and we were left, for the first time in years, with no fish and no real idea what had caused their deaths. The tank, as a result, stands empty. Mark has been teasing us about this for weeks, threatening to buy us a variety of pets to fill it. Then, last week, it was Garry’s birthday and the threat turned into reality.

Meet Igor the Iguana:

I have a feeling you will be seeing more of Igor in weeks to come. Rather than residing in the fish tank (as Mark had anticipated), he spent last week on the tank of Garry’s motor bike. He has been to church and joined in the music practice. I suspect he will be travelling much further afield too!

There is great joy in silliness at times. We can take ourselves far too seriously and often need to learn to laugh at ourselves and with others. Such jokes may not count as the kind of joy Jesus promised us, but I am sure that smiling and laughter are good for us!

Garry spoke last night from Matthew 5:1-12, looking at the subject of what it takes to be a hero for God.

We generally think of heroes as someone brave, fearless, with exceptional strength and courage. Soldiers often have to perform heroic tasks, saving the lives of other people, earning medals for their bravery and heroism. In films, heroes used to be portrayed as virtuous, honest, steadfast and perfect in every way. More recently, the concept of the ‘flawed hero’ has been promoted: heroes who are perhaps easier for us to relate to because they are not perfect but still do good, heroes such as Batman, Spiderman or Superman:

More recently, Hollywood has created the ‘antihero’, where someone perhaps performs good deeds almost against their will, since they stand for values which may not be seen as good! Then, of course, there are the ‘unsung heroes’ of everyday life, people who do good on a regular basis and yet whose good deeds may never receive recognition or fame.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us what God is looking for in people and what, therefore, He classes as heroic. Garry looked at the first Beatitude: ‘blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

The spiritually poor recognise that they have nothing of worth to offer God. All of us are in this position of being wholly dependent on the grace and mercy of God, but many of us fail to realise it. Eph 2:1-3 clearly shows us the state of all mankind without God. The spiritually poor are those from whose eyes the scales have fallen, so that we can see this present reality as it really is. We recognise the beauty and value of the now, but we understand that there is so much more to be revealed. We understand that what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. The spiritually poor actually see life the way God sees it.

The reward for a hero in the world’s eyes may be medals, honours, recognition. God also rewards His heroes. The reward promised to the poor in spirit is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is everything that the earthly kingdom is not. It is eternal, will not pass away or fade; it is a place of no more suffering or pain or tears. Rev 22:1-5 paints a vivid picture of this kingdom, showing us that the poor in spirit will reign forever and ever. God is in the middle of this kingdom and will be with us forever. He has given us this inheritance freely because of His grace and His Spirit is the guarantee of this inheritance.

God’s heroes maybe look very different to the world’s heroes, but we need eyes to see eternal values and to look at life the way He sees it so that we can be His heroes.

Dave spoke from Psalm 51 this morning, the psalm written by David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and connived in the death of her husband, Uriah. Unlike people (who tend to want to emphasise the good parts about themselves without mentioning anything bad!), God’s word is honest in showing us people as they really were. Nonetheless, despite all our shortcomings, God is able to use us if we have a heart set on Him (see Acts 13:22).

The background to the psalm is David’s realisation, through the word of God in the mouth of Nathan the prophet, of his sin. He has managed to ‘get away’ with his sin for months, but now he prays with heartfelt sincerity ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner.’ He realises that he needs God’s forgiveness and that he can do nothing to earn this. The cleansing and washing he requires to renew and restore his relationship with God cannot be earned by his own efforts. Sin makes us unfit to be in God’s presence. Nonetheless, even after Nathan proclaims God’s forgiveness to him, David finds it hard to forgive himself (a common problem to many of us) and he has to live with the consequences of his sin (the child conceived in adultery dies.)

David reaches the place where he acknowledges God’s sovereignty and understands that God is not so much interested in the outward trappings of sacrifice as with a broken and contrite heart. He wants us to be humble and willing to serve.

The psalm teaches us:
(1) the importance of a close and current relationship with God
Clearly, things have gone awry in David’s walk with God. The problem for all of us is that deterioration in our daily walk with God generally comes so slowly that it is imperceptible to us. It’s a ‘slow fade’, as Casting Crowns sing:

“It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade, it’s a slow fade.” (‘Slow Fade’, Casting Crowns)

(2) the importance of self-image
If we forget who we are in God, we get a distorted picture of ourselves. David had been made king by God’s grace and needed God’s grace for his daily living. We owe everything we have and are to God. Once we lose sight of that, we are in a dangerous place.

(3) that nothing we do can earn God’s forgiveness.
God is the one who will ‘blot out my transgressions’. The reason Christ came was to redeem those under the law (Gal 4:4). Christ lived on earth, experienced temptation, knew what it is like to walk in human flesh, yet did not sin. He is the one who will make everything beautiful in its time.

When we receive and understand God’s forgiveness, our mouths are filled with praise; we want to tell others of God’s ways and we become lights to Him rather than relying on or needing self-importance. We are who we are, after all, only because of who God is.

‘Create in Me a Clean Heart’, Keith Green