Dave preached from Song of Songs 3:1-4 last night, looking at the relationship between the church (the Bride) and Christ (the Bridegroom), a relationship based on love.

Song of Songs is a love story, telling how King Solomon finds a country girl with whom he falls in love. Although King, he doesn’t reveal his identity to her and returns from his country estate to Jerusalem, urging his beloved to wait for him and to prepare for the wedding feast. It is also an allegory, mirroring the church’s relationship with Christ, which is frequently pictured in the human terms of marriage.

Christ is our Lover, our Bridegroom. He came to earth to suffer and die for us, a ‘joy set before Him’ (Heb 12:2), the joy of welcoming His Bride, ‘spotless and without blemish’. We are currently in the position of waiting for His return and there can be doubt and fear in our hearts at times, just as there was in the Beloved’s. Sometimes, like her, we miss the intimate presence of the Lord and need to seek that afresh. We need to seek Him in church, where He has promised to meet with His people, but we need to seek Him everywhere, abandoning our pride to ask those who know Jesus to help us find Him.

How do we hold on to the presence of Christ? We do this by faith, trusting in Him even when we don’t feel His presence. We need to rest on Him, letting our whole hearts go out to Him. We need to pray constantly and urgently, showing our love through our obedience. We keep close to God by ‘prayerful, holy, careful living and loving.’

Ultimately, Jesus asks us the simple question, as He did Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ Only we can answer that.

As we wait for Jesus to return for His Bride, let’s ‘hold on’, for there is ‘mercy in the morning light’:
Phil Wickham, ‘Hold On’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9DUKJEYd6Q

We also had an upcoming birthday to celebrate:

Stephen preached from Gen 12:9-20 this morning, talking about putting your trust in God. Abram has received two amazing visits from God and been told that he and his offspring will be made into a great nation. But at this time in his life, there is famine in the land (Gen 12:10) and so he decides to go into Egypt. Things don’t always go well for us and difficult circumstances and trials often come into our lives, even when we have heard God’s voice. Even when we have received God’s amazing promises, things can look very different on the outside; they often look like life is falling apart…

Abram saw the famine and tried to sort things out himself by going to Egypt. He was trying to look after his family and his own needs. He tried to manipulate circumstances by lying about Sarai’s true identity. How easy it is for us to be led astray and to try to solve our problems ourselves, instead of trusting in God.

Even then, Abram apparently prospered, being given sheep, cattle, servants and so on. Material blessings can’t be seen as a measure of God’s blessing, however. Pharaoh was the one to realise something was wrong and the deception was revealed.

If we leave God’s promise and provision, we bring hardship to ourselves and to others around us. The grass may look greener on the other side of the field, but it’s not necessarily so. We need to learn that God is our Provider and Redeemer and trust in Him and in no other powers.

God has promised us great things. The timing may not be now, however, and we may have to wait longer than we want to! But God is with us and we need to trust in Him for His promises to be fulfilled in our lives.

Last night I was in Salford, Manchester for an evening about the 27 Million launch and A21 Campaign against human trafficking. The cause of worship wedded to justice has long been one that speaks to my own heart; I’m very aware that it’s easy to become comfortable in our lives and think that it’s all about God blessing us, whereas in truth we are saved to serve and blessed to be a blessing to others.

Manchester-based hip-hop and rap band LZ7 have worked with Matt Redman (one of my favourite songwriters) on a song called ’27 Million’ which will be released on iTunes on 27th February. More on that later…! LZ7, headed by Lindz West, started the evening with a series of their songs (‘We’re Gonna Party,’ ‘Sold Out’, ‘Ditto’ and most memorably ‘This Little Light’.) This last song, a new version based on the children’s classic ‘This Little Light of Mine’, much loved at Goldthorpe, can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C4XwH7UitU

After that, Beth Redman spoke from Matthew 14 and 1 Samuel 17 about how, when we give the little have to God, He can do amazing miracles. It’s easy to be overwhelmed when faced with statistics, desensitised to issues or feeling the hopelessness of the sin that is all around us. The figure of 27 million sold in human trafficking, effectively modern day slaves, often working in the sex industry, is almost more than we can comprehend or imagine. We like to think it is only happening abroad, but Beth spoke about a recent case in Salford itself where a deaf and dumb 10 year old girl had been kept in a basement and repeatedly raped and used in the sex industry. Such things rightfully shock and horrify us, but we can feel that there is nothing we can do about such things. Just as one little boy gave his lunch to Jesus and the overwhelming problem of how to feed thousands and thousands of people was solved by the combination of his action and God’s miraculous power, just as David’s stone and faith in the Almighty God toppled the mighty giant, Goliath, so too our actions, however small and insignificant they may seem to us, can make a difference in God’s mighty hands.

One way in which we can do this is to bring the matter to the attention of those in authority and power, working with the police to prosecute those involved in human trafficking and seeking to provide shelters for people who are brought out of this, offering them hope, restoration and true love. The song ’27 Million’, which hopefully will make it into the mainstream charts, tells the story of one woman who was sold into slavery, used as a ‘human commodity’, ‘dead from the inside out’, and urges us:
‘We’ve got to rise up,
Open our eyes up,
Be her voice, be her freedom,
Come and stand up.’
For the cost of a download, we can actually bring what is happening in our society into the light of recognition. Who know what God can do when we offer Him all we are and seek to work for justice?

Matt Redman ended the evening with worship:
* Blessed Be Your Name
* You Never Let Go
* Here For You
* From the Inside Out
* Chains, Be Broken
* 10,000 Reasons
* Our God
* We are the Free
* Dancing Generation

Once again, I was struck by the notion that God has set us free to serve… to make an impact… to live out love and forgiveness… to let our little lights shine. May we receive grace and strength to do that wherever we are, doing whatever He calls us to do.

POSTSCRIPT
Saturday evening 6:30 p.m.
There’s a live webcast with further information about this tonight!
http://twentysevenmillion.2xstreamlive.tv/

Last night’s Bible study looked at Romans 1:5-13. This continues the idea that God gives endurance and encouragement and that when we have the same attitude as Christ (see Philippians 2), we grow in unity and where there is unity, God commands the blessing (Ps 133.)

We are commanded to be imitators of God (Eph 5:1). That means loving like God has loved (Eph 5:1-2) and forgiving as He has forgiven (Col 3:12-14). It also means accepting others as Christ has accepted us (Rom 15:7). There must be no strings attached to our acceptance. The Jews traditionally looked down on the Gentiles, not accepting them as being loved by God (a view Paul refutes from the Old Testament in Rom 15:8-12). So often in church history, Christians have looked down on others, apparently unable to distinguish between who a person is and what he does. Christ, as always, is our example. Change may be needed, but acceptance does not include a list of changes required before we can be welcomed in: none of us would have made it into the Kingdom of God under those membership rules! Instead, God accepts us freely and gives us the power to change; He asks us to accept others with the same generosity of spirit, opening our hearts to welcome people in. It’s a heart attitude.

This section concludes “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 15:13). Jesus promised to give us His joy (John 15:11) and His peace (John 14:27). Then we will not let our hearts be troubled or be afraid, for this joy and peace guard our hearts and allow us to experience hope, not despair.

Mark preached from Daniel 6 last night, looking at the theme ‘Why worry? God’s in charge!’ The story of Daniel in the lions’ den, much loved by children in Sunday School, is far more than the story of what happened to Daniel. It teaches us about good and evil and shows us vividly that God is in control of our lives.

Daniel was a man of God in whom there was an excellent spirit. His integrity and godly living had taken him to a high position in a foreign land. But there were others who were jealous of his success and who wanted not only to cut him down to size but to get rid of him permanently. Fuelling those plots was the devil himself, who wanted to get rid of any godly influences in that country.

It was no accident that Daniel ended up in the lions’ den, and God was not looking away when this happened, taken by surprise. Sometimes, our lives change in a matter of minutes and circumstances send us crashing, but God knows it all and can turn the devil’s schemes into good.

Daniel did not know what the outcome would be as he stared into the mouths of ravenous lions, but He trusted God to be with him. Daniel was saved by God and his enemies were destroyed. The results were more than his personal salvation, however, for King Darius came to know that God was great through this miracle and issued a decree acknowledging Daniel’s God. Good had triumphed.

Daniel shows us how to face great stresses and trials with courage and hope. Peter urges us to ‘humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.’ (1 Pet 5:6-7) So often, we go through life with a rucksack full of worries on our backs that weigh us down like a ton of bricks. Jesus tells us not to worry (Matt 6:25-34), promising us that God will meet our everyday needs, no matter what they are. God’s Spirit lives within us, as He did within Daniel, and we are assured that God is working all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom 8:28). God opens and closes doors in our lives and we need to leave our worries with God so we can walk through the doors He opens, unencumbered by worry, guarded instead by God’s perfect peace which transcends all understanding.

We started the sermon this morning by looking at photos from unusual angles. Can you guess what it is?!



The answers are:
1) spaghetti (taken from above)
2) a chair (taken from below)
3) a kebab skewer (just for Mark!)

How we view life largely depends on our perspective and on the vision we have. We can be focussed on the immediate (since this is clearly visible to us), but this is largely like living looking through a telephoto lens: good for close-ups, but not very good at seeing the whole picture. For that, we need a wide-angled lens. We need panoramic vision if we are to see life the way God sees it.

Peter tells us he needs to remind the church of basic truths if they are to be firmly established in truth (2 Pet 1:12-15). We need to ‘forget not all His benefits’ if we are to have true panoramic vision.

These benefits are listed in Psalm 103. There, we see that God forgives all our sins, the starting point for living a free life. This psalm reminds us that “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Ps 103:12) It tells us “He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” (Ps 103:9-10) Forgiveness is the best cleansing agent we could ever have, unblocking our hearts from grudges, resentment and bitterness and leading us into freedom.

God brings redemption and compassion into our lives (Ps 103:4). When we look back at where we were (Eph 2:12-13), we see all the more how amazing it is that God has lifted us up and set us on solid ground (Ps 40:2). God is our healer (Ps 103:3). He satisfies us with good things (Ps 103:5). The revelation of God throughout the Bible is that He treats us as a loving father, showing care and compassion for us. God is good and what He does is good (Ps 119:68). His faithfulness toward each of us is perfect and everlasting (Is 25:1, Ps 119:90). His kind thoughts toward us are as numberless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world (Ps 139:17-18). His saving presence is everywhere (Ps 5:12, Ps 139:7-12). Ps 84: 11 tells us “no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” James 1:17 tells us “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” This is the kind of God we have. He satisfies us with good things. Yes, there will be times when we don’t get our own way, when God says no to us, when we can’t have the things we think are what we want most in the world. But when God says no to us, it’s because He loves us. It’s because He can see the bigger picture. He knows what is best for us. We think we know what’s best, but we only have this limited telephoto lens to view our lives with and we often cannot see how refusal can ever be for our good. One thing a right view of God does for us, however, is it encourages us to trust the goodness of God even in the dark times of life when things don’t seem to be going our way. If God is good all the time, then even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we can fear no evil, for He remains with us and remains good.

God renews our strength like the eagle’s (Ps 103:5, see Is 40:31). He helps us to rise up above the circumstances and soar. He is at work in our world, even though there is injustice and oppression (Ps 103:6-7). God’s character is summarised (if you could ever hope to do that!) in Ps 103:8 (“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” See also Numbers 14:18, Ps 145:8, Jonah 4:2, Neh 9:17). This is the kind of God we serve – no wonder we have ten thousand reasons and more to praise Him! Nothing can separate us from that love or stand in His way, for He is firmly in control (“The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” Ps 103:19). No matter what is happening in the close-up of our lives, we can know that the bigger picture includes a sovereign God who is over all and above all and in all (Eph 4:6).

When we look through a telephoto lens, there are two dangers. One is that we seem really big, important, the centre of it all. Ps 103:14-16 reminds us of the fragility of life: men are just like flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. The other is that we feel overwhelmed by all the troubles that surround us and feel afraid. Ps 102:19 reminds us that God is in control.

Our view of God absolutely, totally, desperately matters because it will determine how we live today and every day:

“A big view of God is a cure for so many of the things in life that would stand in our way or slow us down in ministry. When we really grasp the heights of who He is, and the depths of His heart for us, and the strength of His power in us, we can live a whole different kind of life. The way we view God will radically affect how our lives operate… We must see and believe Him as big enough, kind enough, real enough and strong enough to move in power in our everyday lives – no matter what we’re facing. The first step for a worshipper is to confidently get to grips with just how magnificent and mighty He is. The next step is to let that confidence in God seep into the very depths of our hearts and minds, forming a holy confidence on the inside of us. When that truly happens, we will dream bigger dreams and live brighter lives.” (Matt Redman)

When we ‘forget not all His benefits’, we can live life with that wide-angled view which will enable us to have confidence in every situation and to trust in Him, no matter what we are going through. God is good and all He does is good! No wonder the psalms exhorts us so much to praise the Lord!