J. D. Walt, a theologian at Asbury Seminary in America, has written a blog post about ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’. I was particularly struck by his closing comments,

‘By learning to “hear” Scripture in a way that kindles sight, we will learn to “read” Scripture in a way that fosters hearing. In this way we may break free from our “I think, therefore I am” Cartesian worldview and into the “I behold, therefore I become” view of God, the world and worship.’

There is a proverb ‘You are what you eat’. It’s certainly important to think about what we look at… what we listen to… what we allow our minds and thoughts to dwell on.

Colossians 3 tells us: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

The consequences if we don’t are dangerous:

“Be careful, little eyes, what you see
It’s the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful, little feet, where you go
For it’s the little feet behind you that are sure to follow.

Be careful, little ears, what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful, little lips, what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray”

(Casting Crowns, ‘Slow Fade’)

Ralph preached on ‘The Courage of Faith’ last night, looking at the story of Gideon from Judges 6 and 7. I have to say that Gideon is one of the unlikely heroes of the Bible with whom I readily identify. He’s insecure, full of doubt and finds it hard to accept God’s assessment of him, all qualities I readily identify with!

When the angel of the Lord first appears to Gideon, he is threshing wheat in a winepress to stop the Midianites from getting it. His response to being called a ‘mighty warrior’ with whom the Lord is present is:

“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” (Judges 6:3)

‘If, why, where, but?’ – these were the questions Gideon had and so often are the questions we have. We feel that God can’t be with us because of the things that are happening in our lives. We feel that we can’t see God working in our lives. We feel abandoned at times, as though we are left to struggle on on our own. It’s a lonely place to be.

But in God’s graciousness, three things happened to Gideon as a result of this encounter with God:
1) he became converted (he heard the call of God and responded to it; he built an altar of worship and sacrifice and drank from the well of salvation)

2) he became consecrated (he yielded his own will to the will of God, obeying God’s command to wreck Baal’s altar and rebuild an altar to God, acts of faith which clearly had repercussions for other people)

3) he became controlled by God (and as a result was able to become a leader and deliverer, drawing 32,000 men to follow him initially – though God reduced this number to 300 to prove that the victory belonged to Him and not to Gideon’s strategies or strengths)

God is working behind the scenes all the time (he was able to instil fear into the Midianites and bring about victory through the most unlikely of weapons, as Judges 7 clearly demonstrates.) Gideon started from a place of doubt, but ended in the place of victory through faith. We can be encouraged by God’s faithfulness (1 Thess 5:24) and by the fact that He is the Saviour of the world (John 4:42, Luke 2:11) Even more amazing is the fact that He can by MY Saviour (Luke 1:47)

Mark preached from John 15 this morning, verses which are both encouraging and mind-blowing!

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:12-17)

The fact that God not only chooses us but chooses to call us friends is amazing. Moreover, we demonstrate the fact that we are His friends by obeying His commands, the most important of which are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as ourselves.

Proverbs 17:17 tells us that ‘a friend loves at all times’. Let us learn to be true friends by loving God and by loving other people.

Stephen spoke on Isaiah 26:3 at the family service. This must be one of my all-time favourite Bible verses and one I constantly need reminding of!

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.” (Is 26:3-4)

We also looked at the same verses from the Amplified version:
“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].”

In Deuteronomy 6, we are exhorted to love God with all we have – which includes our minds! Inner tranquillity is available to those who will trust in God. The peace God offers is perfect and is so much more than simply a cessation of war: ‘Shalom’ means wholeness, health, preservation and completeness. In Philippians 4, Paul talks about the ‘peace of God which transcends all understanding’, a peace which can guard our hearts and our minds. We need to have stability of thought – rather like Tootles whose joy was returned when he got his marbles (his ‘happy thoughts’) back.

We can have joy and peace in God by fixing our minds on Him. We maintain our joy by giving Him our minds as well as everything we are and have. Trials and tribulations will still come, but God’s presence and peace are available for those who trust in Him.

The theme of the family service was ‘marbles’. Now, you may not necessarily think of this as a biblical theme and admittedly the connection is not immediately obvious. But we had a lot of fun as we explored the theme of right thinking and the peace God promises to those whose minds are fixed on Him.

First of all, the quiz. Mark took this, looking at some ‘crazy’ TV/film characters. How many of these can you name?

Maybe you are all better than I am at this, since I only named 2 of the many people! But, to put you out of your misery, the ones shown here are:
1) the Mad Hatter
2) Willy Wonka
3) Stacey Slater
4) Krusty the Clown

Then, the custom-written children’s song: Garry’s own composition, called ‘The Marble Song’. I reproduce the lyrics here (with full permission) as I have to say I think it’s pretty good to be able to get a Bible verse in a song about marbles! Can you work out the reference?

Found the reference? Yes, Isaiah 26:3 was the theme for the evening:
“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”

There was indeed a serious point to all this, but for now I will leave you with a photo of some people actually playing with the marbles they had won!

Garry continued his series on the Holy Spirit this morning, looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Initially, we looked at how the Holy Spirit was involved in creation (‘hovering over the earth’ in Genesis 1:2, or, as the Message version renders this verse, ‘brooded like a bird above the watery abyss’), especially in breathing life into man (Genesis 2:7 & Job 33:4).

God’s involvement in each human life is what sets us apart from animals. Life begins at conception, with God breathing spiritual life into each person, who is made in the image of God. God gives us life and He also ends life. Psalm 31:15 reminds us that ‘my times are in Your hands’. The difficult topics of abortion and euthanasia arouse much controversy these days, but the Christian view is that all life comes from God and belongs to God, so that life is given dignity and purpose, even when we cannot see His purposes. We cannot presume to stand in the place of God, either by claiming we know which lives should not be born or by claiming we have the right to end life.

God the Holy Spirit is the creator and sustainer of life. May we have confidence in His providence and learn to trust in His unfailing love.