It would be impossible to have any other word than ‘God’ for the letter ‘G’ in our essential alphabet of Christian faith! God is not only the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end of our faith (Rev 22:13), He is also the centre of it. Right at the beginning of the Bible, we read ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Gen 1:1) and are told ‘the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’ (Gen 1:2) Jn 1:1-14 and Col 1:15-17 make it clear that Jesus was also involved in this work of creation. The Bible does not ‘prove’ God’s existence, but simply reveals God to us and asks us to respond to that revelation. It shows us God as the Creator and Maker of heaven and earth (Ps 121:2); it shows us God as a loving Father, a powerful Spirit, a mother yearning for the safety of her children, a dutiful Son delighting to do the will of the Father. It talks of God’s powerful love for mankind, of His plan of salvation, of the lavishness of His love and the magnificence of His power; it gives us layer after layer building up a truly awesome picture of the God who calls us to follow Him and serve Him and love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. God’s story is a love story intended to win our hearts and prompt our obedience.

A.W. Tozer said “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (‘The Pursuit of God.’)

Other religions worship God and have very different ideas about God, so it is important to explore what the Bible reveals to us about God. What we know about God, we know because He has revealed Himself to us (see Amos 4:13, John 1:1-18). We believe there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries to us (Dan 2:28) and without this supernatural revelation, we would never be able to work out what God was like! Without that revelation, we would all have our own ideas and views of God and all be vastly wrong (!), but we can be confident that however limited our understanding is, God has revealed enough of Himself to lead us into light and life and truth.

Christianity is a monotheistic faith (like Judaism or Islam), but although we believe in one God, we believe also in the Trinity: that is, that one God exists in three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. There is a relational aspect to the God of the Bible which is not found in other religions, where good and evil are often seen to be vying with each other in a desperate attempt to prove the relative supremacy of one or the other. The Godhead is portrayed as a loving unity and Jesus came to reveal this God to us (see John 17, John 5:19-20). God took the initiative in revealing Himself to us; as the song says:

‘You did not wait for me to draw near to You,

But You clothed yourself with frail humanity;

You did not wait for me to cry out to You,

But You let me hear Your voice calling me.’ (‘Forever Grateful’, Marty Nystrom & Mark Altrogge)

Garry spoke this morning from Phil 2:12-13, commenting on how obedience is a key ingredient to working out our salvation. God gives us many commandments (rules) to guide and guard us. So often, we perceive obedience negatively, viewing it as restrictions, but actually obedience is the pathway to freedom.

A phrase such as ‘biGe.hthO,useredexPen,sive’ is hard for us to understand because it does not follow the usual rules of spelling, punctuation and syntax in English. When we re-write this as ‘the big, red, expensive house’, it is much easier to understand. All languages have rules to follow if we want to communicate well (German uses capital letters for nouns, for example; in French, most adjectives follow the noun, unlike English.) Obeying rules is actually the key to freedom. In DIY, using the correct tool for the job makes life much easier; trying to make a screwdriver do the job of a chisel usually leads to problems!

Freedom comes when we follow God’s rules, when we allow whole-hearted obedience to be our modus operandi (see Rom 6:17, Eph 6:5-6, Rom 12:1-2). This kind of obedience has to become our way of living, not just something we do when we think someone is watching. Salvation is God’s free gift to us, but He expects us to work with Him with the basic tools He gives us (just as in a woodwork class, the raw materials are given to students, but they must, following the pattern and with the teacher’s help, make a tray by themselves.)

We have to ‘unlearn’ the wrong patterns of thinking and behaving acquired before salvation and work out our salvation with fear and trembling (having a reverence for God, listening attentively as one under His authority, distrusting our own sinful tendencies and developing a sensitivity towards God’s ways.) We need to set good examples (see Eph 5:1, 1 Cor 11:1, 2 Thess 3:9), understanding that these examples of diligence are contagious! Responsive obedience is the best way to live.

Igor (injured, alas, from his endless adventures) has been to Wales.

He explored an adventure park aptly named ‘Greenwood Forest‘:

He eyed up swans and cygnets at Llanfairfechan:

He wasn’t overly impressed with the animals at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, but we were!

He saw the magnificent castle at Caernarfon:

There were amazing views from the Great Orme in Llandudno:

We enjoyed time in Betws-y-coed, even learning how the locals pronounce the town! (Bet-oos-ee-coid) The signpost is to the nearby Swallow Falls, but also gives distances to Victoria Falls and Niagara Falls!

He was glad to miss the rain on several occasions, though! This view is of the lake at Llanberis:

He didn’t get to ride on the Welsh Highland Railway, either:

Last week, before our holiday, we had a music practice at church where we were learning the Phil Wickham song ‘The Secret Place.’ Coming back from holiday and reading Dave’s sermon notes reminded me of the absolute need for there to be no difference between how we are in private compared to how we are in public and the importance of the need for us to run to God and develop our relationship with Him in that secret place (see Matt 6:6). Our faith has to be lived out in the home, in church and in public; there must be consonance (‘agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions‘) and congruence (‘agreement in harmony’) in our lives if our witness is to be effective. We can’t afford to be hypocrites; we can’t afford to wear masks and be different people in different settings.

I believe God wants there to be no dissonance (lack of harmony or agreement) in our lives. He wants us to be genuine, authentic people who do not live fragmented lives. Much heartache is caused when we say one thing and do another, when we model something other than reality to ourselves, let alone to others. Our mental and emotional health is damaged when we pretend to be something we’re not; our witness is damaged if we don’t practise what we preach.

We cannot start at the end, however. What we are in public is the end result of what we are in private; it doesn’t work the other way round! That’s why the ‘secret place’ with God is so important. We have to carve time out of our busy schedules to be with Jesus; we have to learn to communicate with Him privately before ever we can come before Him in public. When the wells run dry, when the winds start to blow, we have to know where to run and hide; we have to know where to find shelter. (Ps 91:1-2)

Then, when we have been with Jesus, we have the boldness, love, humility and forgiveness Dave preached about. We have the character of Christ formed within us. We are changed from the inside out. Life in the company of Jesus, Eugene Peterson says, ‘is not a discussion group but an act of becoming.’ (‘Tell It Slant’, P 65) We become like those whose values and company we share. Let’s become like Jesus.

Dave spoke from Acts 4:8-14 on Sunday evening, and as we read of Peter’s amazing witness and testimony which caused the Sanhedrin to be astonished (and ‘took note that they had been with Jesus‘), we see quite clearly how the power of the Holy Spirit and the influence of Jesus changed this ordinary fisherman who had denied even knowing Jesus before the crucifixion. The same should be true of us today, for we too have access to the presence of Jesus and the power of His Spirit. The best picture of Christ that we have is His living picture, shown in the words and actions of His people.

We will not be sinless like Christ, but we should reflect Him in different ways, through:

1. our boldness (the Sanhedrin commented on the boldness and courage of John and Peter, and we see the boldness of Jesus when He returned to Nazareth to preach from Isaiah, even though in His home town, He was known only as the carpenter’s son. He was not afraid to stand for the truth, even against those in authority, and we too should be willing to take our stand for Christ)
2. our love (for Jesus also loved all people tenderly, welcoming even little children; showing love and kindness is one way we reflect Christ’s character)
3. our humility (for Jesus was willing to serve the poor and those scorned by society; there is no place for pride or arrogance in God’s church)
4. our forgiveness (just as Jesus forgave those who crucified Him, we should be willing to forgive all who wrong us, trusting in God’s justice and allowing His nature to live through us.)

Being a Christian is not just for a Sunday; our life in and with Christ needs to be lived out every day of the week. There is never a time when we can strip off our uniforms, unbuckle our armour and blend in with the crowd. We must be imitators of Christ at all times. (Eph 5:1)

We must imitate Him in public. We all live in the world outside the church, and the world observes everything we do, and are quick to criticise. We must live the life of Christ in public and take care that we show our Saviour, and not ourselves; so that we can say, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.”

We must take care that we carry this into the church too.  We need to ensure that we carry the spirit of Christ, even in church, so that all who see us will say, “He has been with Jesus.”

We must, though, carry Christ with us especially in our private lives. Our home needs to reflect our imitation of Christ; as Rowland Hill once commented, he would not believe a man to be a true Christian if his wife, his children, and even the dog and cat, were not the better for it! Our imitation of Christ begins ultimately in secret. Remember how, after preaching the whole day, Jesus would steal away in the dead of night to seek help from His God. Remember how His entire life was constantly sustained by fresh inspirations of the Holy Spirit, obtained by prayer.

Take care of your secret life; so that you will not be ashamed for it to be revealed at the last great day of Judgement. Your inner life is written in the book of God, and one day it will be opened before you. We cannot hope to imitate Christ in public if we have not learned to imitate Him in private.

There is a saying ‘great minds think alike’ (with the ending ‘while fools seldom differ’...), and a recent visit to Chester Cathedral made me smile:

This is another ‘alphabet of faith’, with Jesus Christ firmly at the centre (it says ‘The Cross of Christ’ and ‘Jesus Lives’ in the centre), with the other letters used to describe different roles people have within God’s church (eg ushers, vergers, welcomers, deans and so on.)

I love cathedrals, for they are places of history which connect our present-day worship with the worship which has gone on through the ages. At Chester, there was a permanent reminder of the Nativity:

… as well as a pictorial reminder of the Last Supper (heavily allegorical, since all the disciples except Judas are framed by haloes):

… plus my all-time favourite stained glass window, created for the Millennium, showing the six days of Creation:

More unusually, there was a Lego exhibition also on view in the cathedral!

Garry liked the Lego bikes:

The 220,000 piece Titanic was impressive:

I’m still not quite sure why the Lego exhibition was in the Cathedral, but each visitor was invited to contribute to the model of the cathedral which is being built over the next three months, so if you fancy a day trip to Chester, you could join in with this too!