One of Garry’s birthday presents was the new live album from Matt Redman called ‘10,000 Reasons’. The title track is a song that looks at all the reasons we have to bless the Lord. With echoes of hymns such as Amazing Grace and language directly from Psalm 103, the song is fast becoming a favourite in our household!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before,
O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

The sun comes up
It’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass
And whatever lies before me
Let me be singing
When the evening comes

You’re rich in love
And You’re slow to anger
Your name is great
And Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness
I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons
For my heart to find

And on that day
When my strength is failing
The end draws near
And my time has come
Still my soul will
Sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years
And then forevermore
10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord), by Matt Redman & Jonas Myrin
© 2011 Thankyou Music (PRS) (admin. worldwide at EMICMGPublishing.com, excluding Europe, which is admin. by Kingswaysongs) / sixsteps Music / worshiptogether.com Songs / Said And Done Music (ASCAP) (Admin. at EMICMGPublishing.com) / Shout! Publishing (APRA) (sdmin. in the U.S. and Cananda at EMICMGPublishing.com) Used by permission. All rights reserved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjltP0nA0Gw

Mark preached last night from Proverbs 29:18, quoting this famous verse in several versions:

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.” (NIV)

“Where there is no word of God, people are uncontrolled.” (CEV)

“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble over themselves, but when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.” (The Message)

Vision is an intrinsic part of life, with advertisements everywhere (TV, billboards, magazines, the Internet) aiming to entice us to buy the latest products because we have seen how amazing they are. Companies even include the word in their names or logos!

What we see is the start of what we want; as the proverb goes, “the eye is the window of the soul.”

Gen 1:31 reminds us that “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Appearances can, however, be deceptive, so we need to receive God’s revelation and vision if we are to live well. The word ‘revelation’ or ‘vision’ in Proverbs 29:18 is châzôn, meaning to see, behold, perceive, referring to spiritual insight.

Without vision or revelation from God, people individually will move away from God. Spiritual death can occur if we do not see what God has in store for us. Vision encourages and empowers us on a personal level and also collectively, the church needs vision and revelation to flourish. Without this, the church becomes ineffective at spreading the gospel. If there is no revelation, there is a personal and corporate consequence. We all need ‘glimpses of God, glimpses of glory’ if we are to be envisioned!

It was Garry’s birthday yesterday as well, but this year he didn’t play the guitar to himself!

The contract on St Mark’s was signed on 5th March 2010, a red letter day for the church as we moved forward in faith to renovate the former Methodist building. On 21st July 2011, the deeds for the building were finally received!

The plans show something of the vision God gave people many years ago and remind us again of God’s faithfulness. The Methodist church wanted to build a building to accommodate the Sunday school back in 1915, but this wasn’t actually built until 1960. Nonetheless, we see God’s faithfulness in fulfilling that vision and are thrilled to be part of His ongoing work in Goldthorpe.

Mark preached last night on vision and we certainly need more of God’s ongoing revelation if we are to see His kingdom established in this area. May God continue to lead us, bless us and guide us!

A couple of weeks ago I preached on remembrance, looking at what and how we should remember. This Sunday was the follow-up.

We’re made in God’s image and God remembers. Each revelation of God reveals a faithful God who keeps His promises. From the covenant with Noah (where the rainbow is the visual aid to us and God to remind us of His promise never to flood the earth again) through to His covenant with Abraham and Israel, we are able to stand because of the fact that God remembers. “He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac.” (Ps 105:7-9)

But Jeremiah and Ezekiel (in Jer 31 and Ezek 16) point us to the ‘new covenant’ which God declared and which found its fulfilment in the New Testament (see Hebrews 8-10). And there we find an interesting fact:

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jer 31:34)

It’s not that God forgets our sins. But He does choose not to remember them any more: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Ps 103:12) And, if we’re made in God’s image, it’s quite plain that there are some things we ought NOT to be remembering!

Forgiveness is a key element to our progress in the Christian life. Jesus made it plain that forgiveness is not an optional extra for the Christian (Matt 6:14-15, Matt 18:21-35). We need to practise an attitude of forgiveness, choosing not to remember the hurt, the harsh words, the sin that so easily wrecks relationships, so that no bitter root grows up to defile many (Heb 12:15), but focussing instead on the good things in people, thanking God every time we remember them, as Paul did. We need to be sure to fulfil our vows (to the Lord and to other people) and to learn to reflect God’s character in how we live. Jesus shows us how to forgive, how to love, how to live in right relationship with God and with others. Let’s be discerning in what we remember and what we choose not to remember and let’s be thankful, for we have been forgiven much and can therefore love much!

When we were in Whitby this weekend, we visited the Lifeboat Museum. The winds were up and the sea was rough, so it was all too easy to read of the many thousands of lifeboat rescues with an eye that could vividly imagine the pitfalls and perils involved in each rescue.

The RNLI provides a 24/7 search and rescue service every day of the year. The majority of RNLI crews are volunteers. We read about famous rescues in the past, often led by Henry Freeman, in wooden boats that barely looked capable of withstanding the rough seas themselves, let alone rescuing others in danger. We read of one rescue in January where the crew had to drag the boat across deep snow in order to be able to launch at a suitable point. It was awe-inspiring and truly humbling to read of all that these men had accomplished. One such story, the start of Freeman’s career, is told below:

“During a great storm on 9 February 1861, when more than 200 ships were wrecked on the east coast, Whitby’s lifeboat capsized with the loss of all but one of the crew. The men had been attempting to rescue sailors from a stricken collier called Merchant and had put the lifeboat to sea for the sixth time that day.

The only lifeboatman to survive the capsize was Henry Freeman, who was on his first lifeboat launch and is thought to have survived as he was the only man wearing a new design of cork lifejacket. Freeman was awarded an RNLI Silver Medal for his part in the incident and went on to become Whitby’s most renowned lifeboatman, helping to save more than 300 lives during more than 20 years as Whitby RNLI Coxswain.”

And as I stood in the blustery wind surveying the new lifeboat which looked so much more robust than the wooden ones in the museum, I thought of God’s rescue plan, that plan to save mankind, which must have looked pretty rickety to the crowds watching the Crucifixion on that first Good Friday, which did not look at all good. A rescue plan which involved God becoming Man and living a perfect life, submitting to death which had no hold on the Son of Man, so that we, sinful people, could be rescued from certain death. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

“The voice of the LORD is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.

The voice of the LORD is powerful;

the voice of the LORD is majestic.

The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;

the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,

Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the LORD strikes

with flashes of lightning.

The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;

the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

The voice of the LORD twists the oaks

and strips the forests bare.

And in his temple all cry, “Glory!” ” (Ps 29:3-9)

Whitby in July…