The predominant symbolism of chains these days is connected to oppression. We think of chains as being used to repress, to bind, to tie up, to enslave, to restrict. Prisoners who are handcuffed and then kept chained up remain the main way we think about chains.

Psalm 107 talks about prisoners in chains and God breaking these prisoners free from the chains that bind them. Psalm 116:6 says ‘You have freed me from my chains.’ Galatians 5:1 tells us “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Symbolically, anything that holds us back from doing what God has told us to do or from being what He wants us to be is like a chain that binds us. God wants us to be free from sin and oppression, to live as He wants us to live:

“We are free to love
Like our God has loved
We are free to give like He gave.

We are free from sin.
We are free to begin
To forgive as He forgave.
We are free.” (Aaron Shust, ‘We Are Free’)

If we are to know freedom from the chains that oppress us, we have to:
1. Recognise that Christ’s victory on the cross means victory for us
We might not be able to break the chains that bind us ourselves – which discourages us and leads us to believe that we’re doomed to be chained up forever – but God has “condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4). Because Christ has won the victory over sin and death on the cross (see Col 2:15), we are free to “receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness” and to “reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Rom 5:17)

2. Understand that Christ’s love is greater than any other force we may experience
“The wonder of Your love
Will break the chains that bind us
The power of Your touch
Releases us to worship.” (‘The Wonder of Your Love’, Hillsong)
When we really grasp the lavishness of the Father’s love for us (1 John 3:1, Rom 8:37-39), when we realise that nothing we do or don’t do can alter God’s extravagant love for us, when we catch even a glimpse of that unfailing love, we are set free!

3. Surrender to Jesus
Only God has the right to be the boss of our lives. “Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price.” (1 Cor 6:19-20)

Chains can be broken dramatically, in an instant; or unravelled gradually and patiently over time. But the chains that do bind us can be broken by the power of the name of Jesus. We only need to surrender to Him and understand that His love and His victory unlock every chain. Then we can live in the freedom He has purchased for us, with no chains on us, with our feet on solid ground.

We looked at the positive side of chains. A chain is a series of connected links which are typically made of metal. It can consist of two or more links. All the chains we looked at were made up of links of metal or thread or paper which have to be joined to other links to make an actual chain. Chains are interdependent and interlocking. Paul says “in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Rom 12:5) He says “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12) We might like to think of ourselves as the individual link in a chain, but we do need to be linked together to other links for us to become an effective whole. The church is important and we all have a part to play in the whole. God wants us to “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb 10:24-25) He wants us to learn how to serve Him by serving each other.

Whatever kind of person we are (whether extroverts or introverts), God wants us to learn how to be links in this chain of believers He is building. We will face daily challenges and tests as we learn how to be interconnected and interlocking to other believers, but our instructions are clear: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Eph 4:29-32)

When there are problems (breaks in the chain), God tells u: “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (Eph 4:26) We have to learn to love, to forgive, to bear with each other and to understand that together, we are stronger than on our own!

The family service looked at the subject of chains.

Mark’s quiz had us searching for letter to make words that could be preceded or followed by ‘chain’:

Some of the words made:
* (Chain)saw
* Toilet (chain)
* Door (chain)
* Malleable (chain)

We learnt a new song about chains, written especially for this service:
‘Some chains make a clinking, clanking sound
We see as well as hear.
Other chains are silent and hide invisibly.
Though these chains are silent, they can be very strong.
Without God’s help these silent chains will hold us all life long.

Jesus, break these chains and set us free.
Jesus, break these chains for me.’ (‘Chains’, Garry Turner, Stephen Turner & Gary Burgin)

We looked at pictures of different kinds of chains:
Bicycles with their chains

Chainsaws:


Doorchains:


Keyrings:


Chainmail:

Not all chains are metal; we also looked at ‘chain stitch’ in embroidery:

The Sunday school had been busy making paper chains for us as well for this service:

All in all, a busy evening!

No, not the Shakespeare play, but God’s providence, working all things together for good!

Dave spoke this morning from Genesis 37:12-36. We often question God, wondering what is happening in our lives and how good can come from the suffering and confusion that seem to dog us so often. The providence of God is ably illustrated in the story of Jacob and Joseph, however. In this chapter, we see how man’s schemings ultimately are woven into the tapestry being created by God.

Jacob, the ultimate con-man, the schemer, the one who was never happier than when he was plotting to retain control over his life, is sent spiralling into deep sorrow by the plottings of his sons, who sell Joseph into slavery. Jacob thinks his beloved son is dead. He has already suffered, facing sibling rivalry with Esau and then the schemings of his uncle, Laban. His sorrow at the death of his beloved wife, Rachael, is as nothing compared to his sorrow when he thinks Joseph has been killed by wild animals. His obvious favouritism of Joseph over his sons by his unloved wife, Leah, has caused deep rifts in the family, rifts that have not been helped by Joseph’s arrogant teenage boastings. Nonetheless, the problems faced by both Jacob and Joseph could not hide the fact that they were God’s sovereign vessels, chosen by God for special work. Over the years, God works through evil and the flaws in their characters to bring His glorious purposes to pass.

The family tensions in this story run high: a pitiful, self-recriminating father; a boasting teenage son with little thought for his older brothers; selfish older brothers whose jealousy and resentment spill over into differing plots (to kill, hide, and eventually sell Joseph into slavery.) The ‘sore spots’ in these lives are exposed by God and then used by Him to achieve His purposes. Jacob had great plans for Joseph, but God had even greater plans for him which necessitated removing Joseph from Jacob for twenty-two years – long, suffering, grieving years for Jacob, but years when God’s providence was being worked out invisibly so that only God could get the ultimate glory.

God wants us to take our hands off the controls and let Him have control of our lives. What He has promised us, He will fulfil (see Hab 2:3), even though we may have to wait for this fulfilment. (“For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”) We have to be prepared to leave it to God, to ‘let go and let God’. Ultimately, what mattered through the long years of captivity, arrests, imprisonments and being forgotten by those who had promised to help him was that the Lord was with Joseph (Gen 39:2). At the end of the story, Joseph can see that what his brothers meant for evil was turned into good by God (Gen 50:20). God can work in the most dysfunctional families and the least auspicious situations to bring His plans to pass (see Romans 5:8). What matters to us in the waiting periods is that God is with us, and we know He will work all things together for good.

Out on the moors on Friday, we saw lots of sheep:

The Bible says that we ‘are the sheep of His pasture’ (Ps 79:13, Ps 100:3) Sometimes the sheep analogy is far from complimentary: ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ (Is 53:6) Jesus is described as ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ (John 1:29) As we roamed the hills and saw so many different kinds of sheep, it was easy to understand the Bible’s references to sheep and to be thankful not only that Jesus Himself is described as the Lamb of God, but also as our good Shepherd!

Acronyms are words formed from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as sonar, created from SOund Navigation And Ranging). An initialism is an abbreviation formed from, and used simply as, a string of initials. Although the term acronym is widely used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters, some dictionaries define acronym to mean “a word” in its original sense, while some others include additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. The distinction, when made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a string of letters. Scuba is considered an acronym; F.B.I. isn’t.

Every area of life inevitably involves confusing initials. If you know what they refer to, they are just a convenient shorthand; if you don’t, you feel like an outsider.The word ‘Ichthus’ (which means ‘fish’ in Greek) was used to represent Christianity because these letters are the first letters of the Greek words Iesous (Iota), Christos (Chi), Theou (Theta), Uios (Upsilon), and Sotor (Sigma). The five Greek words mean “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour” or “Jesus Christ God’s Son Saviour” and thus the symbol of the fish helped Christians to identify each other whilst the meaning was initially obscure to those hostile to the faith:

Yesterday at Ampleforth Abbey, in true Da Vinci Code style(!), I looked at the Benedictine Medal, worn by some monks:

This is full of confusing initials, unless you know what these all stand for. As usual, I took great delight in uncovering the meanings:
C.S.P.B. stands for ‘Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti’ (‘The Cross of our holy father Benedict’)
C.S.S.M.L. stands for ‘Crux Sacra sit mihi lux’ (‘May the Holy Cross be my light’)
N.D.S.M.D. stands for ‘Ne Draco sit mihi dux’ (‘Let not the devil be my guide’)

The outer letters stand for the words of an ancient verse, which can be translated as:
‘Begone, Satan,
Never suggest vain things to me.
What you offer is evil.
Drink your own poison.’

The word ‘pax’ at the top (written in full!) means ‘peace’.

All that in one tiny medal!

Like the fish as a symbol of Christianity, flowers too have often been considered to be symbols. Flower symbols were used in the religious art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and reached the highest level of development in the Victorian era. Orange blossom, for instance, symbolises chastity, purity and loveliness, while red chrysanthemum means I love you. I have no idea if symbolism was considered when making this arrangement; I just thought it looked beautiful!