“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:8-13)

One thing I believe in is the power of God’s Word to penetrate our hearts and sustain us at all times. We meditate on it, listen to it in song, let its truths find a place in our hearts and then we reap the fruit of the work it achieves in our lives. That work is often to strengthen us and sustain us for the trials of life.

Quite often, I wake up with a Scripture or a song running through my head. I’ve not necessarily consciously been thinking of this when I go to sleep, but somehow it works its way to the forefront of my mind when I awake. The song below is based on the passage in 1 Corinthians 13 quoted above. One thing remains. God’s love will never run out on us (I love the double meaning in that phrase in English – it will never run out in the sense of being exhausted or empty, but also it will never run out on us in the sense of deserting us, as human love can do.) I also love the way the songwriter uses repetitive elements of melody to convey the sense of the endlessness of God’s love (‘on and on and on and on it goes’). That can create an impression of something that is boring, but in actual fact, there is nothing boring about the constancy of God’s love!

“Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me
(x3)
Your love

Higher than the mountains
That I face
Stronger than the power
Of the grave
And it’s constant in the trial and the change
This one thing remains
One thing remains


Because on and on and

On and on it goes 

It overwhelms

And satisfies my soul

And I never, ever, 

Have to be afraid 

One thing remains 

One thing remains



In death, in life

I’m confident and covered 

By the power of Your great love 

My debt is paid

There’s nothing that can separate 

My heart from Your great love.” (Kristian Stanfill, ‘One Thing Remains’)
‘One Thing Remains’, Kristian Stanfill

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4, NIV)

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” (James 1:2-4, The Message)

“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.” (James 1:2-4, J.B. Phillips)

Tonight, we had a visual aid for the Bible study! Here’s Mark, eagerly opening up a big present to find the little presents inside:

And here’s Diane, delving deep into the box:

The presents weren’t, perhaps, what was expected, though:

Sometimes, we face trials we would rather not endure. Financial problems, redundancy, unemployment, loneliness, fear, mental health problems, illness, bereavement and persecution are all things we would prefer to avoid.

These are not the ‘gifts’ we want to receive. But James tells us that we can have joy even when facing these trials, not because we are masochists, but because we know God is working in all things for our good. He is developing our characters, strengthening us to persevere, endure and show steadfastness, no matter what the circumstances so that we may become mature and complete. Tasker says, “Without trials, faith can never result in the tested character which should be the hallmark of a Christian.”

This goes against all our instincts and natural thinking. The way of paradox always does! (see 1 Cor 1:25-31,Luke 9:24, Mark 8:34-37, John 12:24-25, Matthew 5:3-10) Nonetheless, James reminds us that a long-term perspective is vital if we are to cope with the pressures of such trials (see also Heb 12:1-3, 2 Cor 4:17-18, Rom 8:18,1 Peter 4:12-13). We have to resist the temptation to solve our problems our own way, to fall into despair, giving up or to seek to work things out with no reference to God. Instead, we have to fix our eyes on Jesus, understanding that God’s goal is for us to be ‘conformed to the likeness of His Son.’ (Rom 8:29). The glory that will be revealed in us far outweighs the temporary trials we are now undergoing.

There are many good gifts God gives us (and these were represented by chocolates and strawberries!), but we also need to learn to accept trials as tests which can help to form the character of Christ in us.

Tonight we started looking at the ‘General Epistles’, or those letters in the New Testament not written by Paul:
1. James
2. 1 Peter
3. 2 Peter
4. 1 John
5. 2 John
6. 3 John
7. Jude

Tonight we looked at some of the background to James and then at the first 4 verses of James 1.

The letter of James is generally thought to be written by James, the brother of Jesus, described as an apostle by Paul (Gal 1:19) and head of the church in Jerusalem. Jesus had at least 4 brothers: “aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?” (Matt 13:55), but it is clear they did not believe in Jesus during His lifetime (see Mark 3:21 “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”) James became a believer after the Resurrection (“Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” (1 Cor 15:7-8))

James soon accepted as a leader in the early church. When Peter was released from prison (Acts 12), he went to the house of Mary and told his friends to give a report of all that had happened ‘to James and all the brothers and sisters’ (Acts 12:17) and Paul himself met with James on his first visit to Jersualem after his conversion (Gal 1:19). He was clearly a leader in the church at Jerusalem (Acts 15), but in the opening verse of the letter he does not identify himself as the natural half-brother of Jesus but calls himself ‘a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ’. We too are servants of God, no longer slaves to sin, but willing slaves to God.

James writes “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (Js 1:1) Following the death of Stephen, the church was scattered far and wide (Acts 8:1-3), and James writes to those who had likely lost homes or possessions or normal means of income; they had been separated from relatives and friends. There were abundant circumstances to cause them confusion, fear, loneliness, anger, sorrow, poverty, hardship–in fact, “trials of many kinds.” (Js 1:2) Nonetheless, James sends greetings (literally ‘joy’), because he knows that God is working His purposes out, even in the midst of trials and suffering.

The ‘overview’ of the letter could be summarised in this way:
Chapter 1 looks at trials, temptations and good gifts. It goes on to talk about ‘pure religion’ and how to live in a manner worthy of God.
Chapter 2 looks at the integrity of faith, how faith and works mesh together and how there must be congruence in our lives, no dissonance between our words and our actions.
Chapter 3 looks at how we speak and how wisdom is manifested in our lives
Chapter 4 looks at submission to God and humility, including how to live for God
Chapter 5 looks at how to live a spiritual life in a material world, including developing the life of prayer and fellowship

The new series for the Bible studies will start this Thursday (12th April) at 7.30 p.m. We will be looking at the ‘General Epistles’, or those letters in the New Testament not written by Paul! We will be starting with James and working our way through from that book to Jude.

And if that isn’t enough to bring you to the Bible study, maybe the lure of presents will! These will be distributed on Thursday.

Curious? There is a direct link between the Bible study and the presents, but if you want to find out more, you’ll have to be there!

We also had a birthday to celebrate last night:

Garry preached from John 18:28-38 last night, perhaps a slightly unusual reading for Easter Sunday in that it is the conversation between Pilate and Jesus before the Crucifixion. In this conversation, Pilate asked Jesus (probably somewhat rhetorically!) ‘What is truth?’

Nowadays, truth is often thought of as relative and the notion of absolute truth is rejected by many. Some truths are indeed relative (which side of the road you drive on depends on the country you are in, for example), but this should not blind us to the fact that God is the ultimate truth. We are disillusioned by the lack of truthfulness we see in others (politicians, journalists, the police) and therefore often find it difficult to believe God. Jesus taught, however, that God is truth (John 14:6, John 16:13) and that the devil’s native language is lies (John 8:44-45).

The fact of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead is not a relative truth, something that it’s O.K. for me to believe in if it makes me feel better, but it’s equally O.K. for you not to believe in if you don’t want to. It’s an absolute truth, based on God’s character. People often dismiss its accuracy nowadays by saying that people in Bible times ‘didn’t know any better’, but the fact remains that people were astounded and scornful of the truth that anyone could rise from the dead even then! The reaction of crowds to Paul’s preaching (Acts 17:22-32, Acts 26:19-27) show that this was an ‘unbelievable truth’ even in Biblical times. Moreover, it is clear from the Gospel narratives that the disciples, despite Jesus’s prophecies about His death and resurrection, were definitely not expecting this news! They fled at the Crucifixion, fearful for their own lives, afraid of what would happen, not expecting anything further from their crucified leader. Even when confronted with the risen Saviour, they took some convincing! (see Thomas’s reaction, for example!) The total transformation of the disciples from cowering, defeated wretches to bold, confident witnesses was the result of the actual fact of the Resurrection, not to some vague philosophical idea! That same transformation is available to us as we meet with the risen Lord, for the truth will set us free.