Kevin spoke from John 14:1-7 this morning, talking about the goal we have in life and the perseverance that is needed by all of us. Our goal is to be heaven-bound, for as Jesus told His disciples, He is going to prepare a place for us. Peter tells us that the goal of our faith is the salvation of our soulds (1 Pet 1:3-9), but as with anything in life (such as the cycling he does regularly), we need to persevere and not give up when the going gets tough.

Our salvation is so great and our God so majestic and merciful that we need to keep the end goal in sight always. We not only have a definite goal in life, but also a defined pathway. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Sometimes when cycling on the Trans-Pennine trail, signposts get moved and point in the wrong direction, which can lead us astray; in the same way, there is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death (Prov 14:12).

God knows the right way for us and is willing to take our burdens and loads. Ps 31:3-4 reminds us that God is our Rock and Fortress who can free us from the traps set for us; Ps 61:1-3 talks about ‘the Rock that is higher than I’. God hears our cry and is willing to shoulder our burdens; we need to call out to Him and understand that He will help us to reach destination’s end.
‘Lead Me to the Rock’, Compassionart

I recently came across a blog where someone has summarised each book of the Bible Twitter-style (i.e. each summary must be 140 characters or less. “In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written form of a natural language.” Just in case you were wondering how some books like Philemon feature 140 characters, as in people…!)

You can read the summaries here: Phil Green’s ‘Joining the Dots’ I was particularly interested to hear how he’d summarise James, since that’s the book we’re currently studying at church: “Practical theology. Faith and life should be forever intertwined; we separate them at our peril. Theology should be lived.” A pretty effective summary, I think!

A long time ago, I had to take an exam which basically involved summarising a long, complicated text. It was called a precis, and at seventeen, I couldn’t really see the point of this. The idea was to capture the core intent of the text and ensure that you had summarised all the important parts, but in a limited number of words. Bear in mind, this was before your computer counted all the characters or words for you, so it was a painstaking task. I’ve always had a tendency to waffle, so I found it quite hard to learn to summarise and always found it vaguely disquieting. If the author had needed 1000 words to make his point, how could I be expected to do the same in 100?!

Since then, I’ve had to precis countless things and learning to summarise is possibly one of the most useful skills I have ever learned. (I certainly use it a lot more than trigonometry or algebra, but perhaps that’s because my job involves words!) I’ve found that most things can be summarised without necessarily losing meaning and it’s helpful to me to learn to be succinct.

How about coming up with your own Bible summaries?

Pentecostal meetings are not renowned for silence. They are often full of loud praise, fervent singing, enthusiastic comments, passionate prayers and the gifts of the Spirit (words of prophecy or tongues and interpretations are all spiritual gifts which use words!) There’s nothing wrong with that and indeed we are urged to bring our songs of praise to God (“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skilfully, and shout for joy.” Ps 33:1-3)

But there are also times when God urges us to be still before Him. The vow of silence has long been part of some monastic orders, such as the Benedictines and Cistercians. At last night’s prayer meeting we were urged to wait silently before God and listen for His voice. We read Psalm 131, with its unhurried tone (“I have calmed and quieted myself; I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content” (Ps 131:2)) and Isaiah 30:15 (“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.”) And we waited in silence before God, quietening our hearts, listening for that ‘still, small voice’. In a world where noise is everywhere, from background ‘muzak’ in supermarkets to tinny tunes when you’re holding on a telephone line, it is good to wait quietly before the Lord (see Ps 27:14)

Many of us live frenzied, hurried lives. Our lives could be said to be in a state of constant hyperventilation. There is something very practical about intentionally slowing down and listening to God. God, unlike us, is never in a hurry. When we listen carefully, we hear Him speaking words of reassurance, challenge, commission and love. Our perspective is changed. Though outwardly we may be wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed (2 Cor 4:16). We are like Samuel: ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening’ (1 Sam 3:9)

The prophet’s primary task, before he could speak out on behalf of God, was to hear what God was saying. John, in his marvellous Revelation, is repeatedly told ‘Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ (Rev 2:7, 11, 17) We need to listen more than we speak, for as James reminds us, ‘Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.’ (James 1:19) The challenge for us is perhaps to believe that in the silence, God really does speak.

In stillness and simplicity
In the silence of the heart I see
The mystery of eternity
Who lives inside of me

So seek the One who dwells in you
The kingdom that’s within is true
That innermost reality
In stillness and simplicity (Michael Card, ‘In Stillness and Simplicity’)
Michael Card, ‘In Stillness and Simplicity’

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrates 60 years of her reign, diamond being the jewel chosen to represent 60 years. Wedding anniversaries are remembered with different items each year: the first wedding anniversary being paper, the tenth tin and so on. The ‘special anniversaries’ are well known (silver for 25 years, pearl for 30 years, ruby for 40 years and gold for 50 years).

Anniversaries are good, because they cause us to stop and remember all that has happened. On 6th June this week, we celebrate 2 years since our first meeting in the Market Street building and in July will be having an anniversary weekend to celebrate our official opening in this building. We do that to remember God’s faithfulness and work in this place. We have seen something of who God is and want to let others know about this!

Jubilee, so widely used in the UK this year, is a Biblical word. Leviticus 25 talks us through the origins of the Year of Jubilee. God established the Sabbath principle right at the beginning of Creation (Gen 2:2-3) and gave the commandment to keep it holy to Moses (Ex 20:8). Leviticus 25:2-5 goes on to talk about a Sabbath year, when the land was to be left unattended and fallow and no sowing or reaping was to be done. Even the land was to have a year of rest!

The Year of Jubilee happened once every fifty years, rather than once every seven years. “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land and its inhabitants.” (Lev 25:10) In this Jubilee year, everyone was to return to his family property and to his own clan. It was to be a Sabbath year, so there was to be no sowing or harvesting of the land. It was to be a year of restoration, so if land was sold, it had to be done without taking advantage. This year required the compulsory return of all property to its original owners or their heirs, except the houses of laymen within walled cities, in addition to the manumission of all Israelite slaves. In other words, there was a strict limit on what people could do with their land and with their servants. God was reminding His people of the value and worth of all that we own and reminding His people that ultimately, everything we own is simply loaned to us by Him. He is the real owner. He was also keen to prevent our abuse of all we own, which so easily happens when we forget who God is and think that whatever serves our own interests must be the right thing to do.

The whole Sabbath principle and Year of Jubilee introduce us to the topsy-turvy kingdom of God, where the first shall be last, where the least shall be greatest, where we gain our lives by losing them, where ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.’ (1 Cor 1:25) How can we be more productive if we rest for one day rather than working for seven? How can the land produce food for a year if we don’t work at it? How can we prosper if we let all the slaves go once every fifty years?

God’s ways are not our ways. In Lev 25:21 -22, He said:“I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.” This is the same principle that is found in Malachi when the principle of tithing our income is discussed: God says “’Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.’” (Mal 3:10) God can do so much more with all we have than we can!

As a church, we have proved the generosity and provision of God first hand over the years. When we were buying the building on Market Street, we had just over £7,000 in the bank, which is definitely not enough in the 21st century to buy a building of this size! The provision of a grant from CRT was a miracle, yet still the asking price kept rising, beyond what we had. In the end, we took the risky and scary decision to put in every penny the church had to the bid: £7,257.07. How would we pay the next gas bill? What would we do if God didn’t step in?

From this safe vantage point of hindsight, the story is an exciting testimony of God’s provision and faithfulness. By the time we moved into the building, we had as much in the bank account as when we had committed every last penny to the bid. We were able to do renovations and refurbishment costing thousands of pounds even before we sold the building on Beever Street. The money poured in. Even now we cannot say where it all came from. But the fact remains that the very week that the building on Beever Street sold in December 2011, we had paid back every penny of the loan we had been given (itself a miracle) and done far more to the building than we had possibly imagined. God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine! (Eph 3:20)

Jubilee, though, is more than a God-given principle of how to live. It is a reflection of God’s heart. It acts as a pointer to His amazingly generous character, to the mercy and grace which are such an intrinsic part of His divine nature. It shows us something of who God is and what He is like. I can’t put it better than to quote the words of the Michael Card song ‘Jubilee’, with which we finished the service:

‘The Lord provided for a time
For the slaves to be set free
For the debts to all be cancelled
So his chosen ones could see
His deep desire was for forgiveness
He longed to see their liberty
And his yearning was embodied in the year of Jubilee

To be so completely guilty
And given over to despair
To look into your Judge’s face
And see a Saviour there.’ (Michael Card, ‘Jubilee’)
‘Jubilee’, Michael Card

Last night the family service rather unoriginally took the theme of the Jubilee!

We had a variety of Jubilee prizes on offer:

We had a game called ‘Pin the Crown on the Queen’, using amazing resources painstakingly produced by a friend of mine (thanks, Sam!)

We also had a Jubilee Quiz, featuring questions about the Queen’s 60 year reign:

Despite the puzzled looks, this was the winning team, scoring an impressive 22/25 (though the other team did point out, rather unflatteringly perhaps, that this was not surprising given the average age of the team!)

We sang the children’s song ‘Love is the flag flying high’ and waved flags during this, remembering the King of Kings as well as the British Queen!

The children continued the royal theme by making crowns, ably helped by Tony. (Thanks to all these amazing creative people!)


Even our youngest member was in on the act!

After the service, we had refreshments on the Jubilee theme:

For all those away on holiday, you missed a royal treat!

Garry preached from Romans 12:1-2 this morning, focussing on the ‘renewing of our minds’. God wants all of us, every part of our live, and that obviously includes our minds – that faculty of perceiving and understanding, our capacity for reasoning and thinking. Jesus reminded His disciples that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Matt 12:29-30); both our feelings (emotions) and thoughts are to be used in our love for and service of God.

The way we think develops over time and the world influences the way we think in ways that can, at times, be difficult to discern. Our cultures, families, friends and the media all influence the way we think. There are different ways of learning things, but often life is lived from procedural memory: we have done something so many times (eg riding a bike or driving a car) that it has become ‘automatic’ and we no longer think about it the way we used to when we were learning how to do that thing. Procedures can be helpful in establishing the correct way to do things (eg the ‘standard operating procedures’ necessary to operate certain kinds of engineering equipment, for example), but we have to recognise that the world has made its mark on us, rather like the mark made on a tile by a tiler, so that when pressure is applied, the tile cracks according to the line made on it. If we are not careful, the world, with its sin-filled thinking (see Romans 7:23), influences and shapes our thinking and consequently our behaviour. When the pressure comes, we ‘crack’ according to the world’s way of thinking, instead of responding in the way that God wants us to respond.

We need to get out of this groove and allow God to fill in the cracks so that we can follow God’s reasoning and God’s thinking. God has to reveal to us where our thoughts and ways are wrong (see Ps 139:23-24) and we are cleansed by the Word (see Eph 5:25-27) so that we can recognise the faulty thought patterns and understand that there is an alternative way to live. This brings with it the challenge to live in ways the world perceives as failure or weakness, being willing to lay aside our rights and embrace an alternative method of living, where love, forgiveness and meekness are the path to the crown of life.