Last night we had another birthday to celebrate!

Yesterday was Fathers’ Day and Stephen spoken on fathers. Everyone has had a biological father (even if that person was unknown to us), but how we view our fathers changes over years:

– at 4 years – “My daddy can do anything”
– at 7 years – “My daddy knows a lot, a whole lot”
– at 8 years – “My father doesn’t quite know everything”
– at 12 years – “Oh well, of course Father doesn’t know everything”
– at 14 years – “Father, oh, he is so old-fashioned”
– at 21 years – “He’s great. Just a bit out of date. What did you expect?”
– at 25 years – “He knows a little bit about it, but not much.”
– at 30 years – “I must find out what Dad thinks about it”
at 50 years – “What would Dad have thought about it?”
at 60 years – “I wish I could talk it over with Dad once more.”

Our own fathers inevitably influence our view of fatherhood and how we decide to model ourselves. When thinking about this subject, we might think of characteristics such as being strict, or strong, or masterful, or protective or caring or trustworthy or loving. This, then, can spill over into how we view God as our heavenly Father. Are we viewing Him with the eyes of a four year old, a fourteen year old or a sixty year old?

The Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-15) talks about the relationship we can all have with our Heavenly Father. This shows us our Heavenly Father as caring, preserving, upholding and forgiving. We can communicate with Him. He is approachable. Matt 11:28-30 reminds us also that our heavenly Father wants us to come to Him with our burdens and loads and share these with Him. The Bible is full of descriptions of God and can teach us more about the Fatherhood of God. How do we see Him?

At the Bible study when we looked at James 1:12-18, we discussed the revelation of who God is as the basis of our faith. James tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God. He reminds us that God does not change like the shifting shadows. He tells us that we have new birth and new life through the word of truth. This revelation of who God is sustains us through every trial and temptation, for it is easy when we are going through difficult times to doubt God’s goodness. Ps 84:11 reminds us that ‘no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.’ Genesis 1 reminds us that God created good things (the phrase ‘God saw that it was good’ recurs throughout this chapter.) These are the fundamental facts of faith which we have to hold on to when we are facing trials or temptations, rather than blaming God for the difficulties our sinful nature leads us into.

It’s been said that what we sing shapes our theology or understanding of God more than the sermons we listen to. Certainly I believe that it’s vitally important that the songs we sing in church reflect who God is far more than our own feelings or ideas, which are obviously open to change and error. We endeavour to sing songs that are Biblically based and reflect the revelation of God given in the Bible, for we cannot know who God is or what He is like apart from the revelation He has given us.

Matt Redman seems to me to have grasped this idea well. So many of his songs contain the line ‘You are who You say You are’ (see ‘Holy’, ‘We Shall Not Be Shaken’, ‘The Glory of Our King’, ‘We Could Change the World’): after all, ‘Let God be true, and every human being a liar’, as Paul says in Romans 3:4. They focus on the nature of God as good, holy, faithful and true. We have to hold on to who God is at all times, but particularly during times of trial and temptation. As Kutless say in their song ‘Even If’,

‘Sometimes all we have to hold on to
Is what we know is true of who You are…
You are God, You are good,
Forever faithful One.’

There are many voices calling out to us every single day and not all these voices are true. As Casting Crowns sing, ‘Out of all the voices calling out to me/ I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth’ (‘Voice of Truth’, Casting Crowns) Today’s challenge is to hold on to the character of God, no matter what: and if necessary, do that through song!

You can listen to the songs mentioned above here:
‘Voice of Truth’, Casting Crowns
‘We Could Change the World’, Matt Redman
‘Holy’, Matt Redman
‘The Glory of Our King’, Matt Redman
‘We Shall Not Be Shaken’, Matt Redman
’Even If’, Kutless

At the Bible study this week we looked at James 1:12-18. Here, James continues to tell us how to persevere through trials and temptations. The first thing we must not do is blame God. It’s human nature to want to blame someone else when we do wrong (see Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden!), but we must not believe that God tempts us to do evil. Whilst God may allow trials and tests to come, He does not do so with evil intent. His own character cannot be tempted by evil and He does not tempt anyone else to do evil.

We are tempted when we are dragged away by our own sinful desires (or lusts) and enticed. “The language is suggestive of a fish swimming in a straight course and then drawn off towards something that seems attractive, only to discover that the bait has a deadly hook in it.” (R. V. G. Tasker) James outlines a process that is obvious from the earthly point of view but which also applies spiritually: desire leads to conception, then birth, then growth, then death (see Romans 5).

If the first step is not to blame God, what other strategies can we employ for overcoming temptation?

(1) Recognise our own weaknesses and the particular things that tempt us
(2) Watch and pray so that we will not fall into temptation (Matt 26:41). We need to avoid the things that tempt us, putting as far a distance as possible between us and them! We also need to pray so that we learn to depend on God more than on our own abilities and strengths.
(3) Learn from how Jesus dealt with temptation (Matt 4:1-10) and use the Word of God. It is powerful and effective!
(4) Take control of our thoughts (Phil 4:8, 2 Cor 10:5). Before ever a sinful act is committed, thoughts (desire) have led the way. If we can concentrate on taking every thought captive to Christ (‘capturing every thought until it recognises the authority of Christ’, as J.B. Phillips puts it), we will be in a better position!
(5) Don’t dwell too much on the temptation or on the tempter, but instead fix our eyes on who God is. He is Sovereign and Ruler, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
(6) Don’t try to go it alone. Be accountable to other people (James 5:16), learning to confess our sins to each other and to pray for each other. We’re not to forsake meeting together, but need to learn from each other and to be able to strengthen each other.

If we do sin, however, we need to confess our sin (see 1 John 1:9) and accept God’s forgiveness, forgiving ourselves and confessing to others and praying for each other.

James goes on to say “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” (James 1:16-18) He reminds us of the character of God:

(1) God is good (Ps 119:68)
(2) God delights to give good and perfect gifts to us (see Ps 84:11), including the gift of eternal life (Rom 6:23)
(3) God is the source of all that is good (see the Creation account!)
(4) God does not change (see Mal 3:6) – His constancy gives us a refuge and rock to stand on.
(5) God is light (1 John 1:5)
(6) He is our Father (John 1:12-13)
(7) He is truth (John 14:6) and therefore chooses to give us new life through the word of truth.

Just as the firstfruits were given to the Lord (Lev 23:10), so we should give everything we are and have to God (see 1 Cor 6:19-20). We want to avoid temptation and resist sin because we long to please our wonderful God and Saviour! James encourages us to fix our eyes on who God is so that we can continue to persevere under trial.

Dave preached from Matt 15:21-28 on the faith of the Canaanite woman last night, in a sermon that continued the theme of obstacles or barriers and how faith is needed to overcome these. In this passage, Jesus appears abrupt and unwilling to help the woman who comes to him for healing for her daughter. His primary mission is to the Jewish nation and Jesus appears to want to dismiss her without helping. We see in this woman someone who overcomes all kind of barriers between her and her goal. She is the wrong nationality or race. She is not Jewish. She is a woman. The other disciples treat her with scorn and derision; they want to get rid of her and be on with other more ‘worthwhile’ things. She has to swallow her pride and take the insults (even being likened to a dog!) if she is to receive what she longs for.

None of these obstacles or barriers prove too much for her. No wonder Jesus comments that she has great faith! She persists in approaching Jesus, secure in the knowledge that only He has the answer to her problem. Faith motivates her and leads her to overcome all the obstacles, leading to salvation and life. Overcoming obstacles comes through faith. No human barrier can stand before God. God cares for us, even if initially it seems as though He does not. This woman shows us how to approach God persistently, with courage and with faith.

June is obviously the month for birthdays, since we had three to celebrate last night at church (and one to come, as one lady was away last night!)

We hope all will have great days to celebrate this week!