Talking about God

We're shy about talking to others about God.  We'd more readily recommend our local Indian restaurant than a personal relationship with a risen Saviour.  Our world is screaming out for a hefty helping of real hope and it seems all we offer is the usual comfort food.

I went to a service at a different church yesterday to do my Reflection on a Service for Section D of my local preacher's course.  It was a wonderful service and the guest speaker, a Pentecostal Pastor was brilliant.  He preached a message that really struck a chord with where I'm at.  I came away feeling empowered to engage in more God talk.  He told the story of a chance encounter that led to a young man finding his faith and coming into a new and wonderful experience.  It's heart-warming to hear testimony like that.  It's encouraging to hear that people are still finding God through chance encounters with his people.

The chorus of the final hymn really reached somewhere deep - Hymn 662 from 'Singing the Faith', the new Methodist hymnbook.

‘We will walk the path that will cost us much and embrace the pain and sorrow.  We will trust in One who entrusts to us the disciples of tomorrow’.

What are you doing to help the disciples of tomorrow?  It's a path that will cost us much, we may have to endure pain and sorrow along the way, but we owe it to God.  The same God who loved each of us so much that he sent Jesus to win for us the salvation we could never win for ourselves....go talk about God and help others find the faith we hold so dear.

Blessed Assurance

The hymn 'Blessed Assurance' ranks as one of my favourites.  It is a hymn that sums up perfectly the assurance we have through Jesus. It reflects our response to God as his children.  For me, it sums up my relationship with God in that I have felt his presence at the most difficult and most painful times in my life.  The memories of those difficult times do still hurt.  There are times when the pain shows and I realise that it hasn't gone, it remains in the shadows.  My consolation comes from knowing that God is there 24/7 to pick me up and keep me moving forward.

Some might consider that ongoing struggle a sign of weakness, a sign of lacking Faith, but in reality that vulnerability can be beneficial.  I know I need God's help, I know I need his sustaining power to deal with the challenges.  

Paul had absolute confidence in the God he served, in his letter to the Romans he reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God:

Romans 8:35-39 NIV

[35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [36] As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us share in that confidence, no matter what the world throws at us.

Enduring Convictions of a Local Preacher in training

I have now completed all of the reading associated with the final unit of Faith and Worship, the local preachers' training course.  The end of that journey is now in sight and no doubt a new chapter will open up.  I am now contemplating the assignment that is all about enduring convictions and statements of faith, and particularly those that are relevant for a Methodist today.  It's not often that we are challenged to state clearly the convictions that are on our hearts that drive us forward, but having reflected over the last 24 hours, I have come to the conclusion that it is a good thing.

So, what are my enduring convictions?  My enduring convictions relate to the nature of God himself, he is a God of Love who loves us unconditionally.  The Greek word 'agape' is used to describe God's love and it something so much deeper than anything we understand.  He is a God of Grace and for us his grace comes unlimited and free, through the saving work of Jesus.  We cannot earn our salvation, it is a gift we receive by faith and by faith alone.

God gives us assurance of our salvation: through the work of the Holy Spirit that indwells every believer.  We are inspired, we are guided, we are changed.  We become Kingdom people, and will be part of God's kingdom when it is fully realised.

We are adopted as sons - we become part of God's family and are co-heirs with Christ.  That idea of adoption comes from the first century understanding where the old life is completely abandoned and we take on a whole new identity.  We are brought into a life of personal holiness.

We are given gifts, spiritual gifts.  They may be varied in their nature and in their application, but we are called to use those gifts, whatever they may be to God's glory.

We are also empowered, empowered to take the Good News of the Gospel to people who have never heard it.  It's a bit like Quality Street chocolates - made for sharing.  We're meant to be ambassadors for Christ in a world who doesn't  know him.

These are the enduring convictions that influence my life and my preaching.  There are others, but these sum up for me a lot of what my faith is all about - a living faith, and a very dynamic and personal relationship with God.

What if?

Today has been a 'what-if' day.  It comes about as our region is once again battered by severe weather.  I headed out this morning to visit a local church coffee morning in the spirit of good inter-church relationships and just seconds after I'd walked past the front of the church, their large sign with their name on was blown off by a gust of wind and shattered on the pavement where I had been walking just seconds before.  I couldn't help think, "What if I had been just a matter of seconds later, or had lingered to read the notices on their notice board?"  It would surely have ended in injury and a trip to hospital.

What if?  It's a question we often ask ourselves and not only after a near miss such as I had this morning.  We will often look back on our lives and ask 'what if I had done things differently?'  Sometimes those moments are affirmative, and at other times a source of regret.  Sometimes the scenario could have had a different outcome if only we had acted differently.

We look back with the benefit of hindsight.  We look back with that additional experience on our side and often there's no way we could have predicted the outcome.  I have struggled with some very painful 'what-if' scenarios - scenarios that had resulted in horrendous human suffering.  I can come to only one conclusion - I did the best I could at the time, there was nothing else I could have done.

When those 'what-if' moments are a source of pain, as they have been for me, the only solution is to take it to the Lord in prayer and seek the forgiveness we so desperately need.  Not just God's forgiveness, but we need to be able to forgive ourselves.  Sometimes accepting those failures are part and parcel of moving on and growing as a result.  Letting go is the hardest thing in the world, but it is what we must do if we are to be at peace with ourselves and with God.

The Power of Prayer

For many people, prayer is really difficult.  The idea of talking to someone you cannot see, cannot physically feel and who never answers back in the normal sense, well - it just seems like one step away from madness.  Prayer is however, one of the most important aspects of the Christian life.

When I was a child, my Mum had a wooden plaque in the bedroom with the words 'Prayer Changes Things' on it.  As I've grown up, I have realised how true those words are.  Her old scrapbook contains another quote 'Prayer doesn't change things, it changes people'.  I have to admit that from my own personal experience, the latter is so true.  Sometimes God's answer to our prayers isn't to change what is happening, but to simply equip us to deal with it.  It doesn't matter whether it's a problem at work, a sick relative, or frustrations about our future direction - God's answer isn't always what we want to hear, but he does nevertheless equip us to walk the path that is before us.

The hardest thing of course, is when someone we know is seriously ill, many people pray for that speedy recovery, but it just doesn't  happen.  They get worse, or the battle is lost and we must face a future without them.  That can be difficult, difficult for those who have prayed, difficult for those who have sought that prayerful support.

For years, I prayed for my severely disabled Mum - that the pain of her rheumatoid arthritis would be taken away.  It wasn't.  She had some periods of remission, that is true, but the progression continued in a painful downward spiral.  In her latter years, severe leg ulcers removed what little dignity she had left and it was simply agonising to see her suffer so much.  Faith was stretched to the absolute limit, often I feared that it would reach breaking point, and there were times when I was almost at breaking point.  I faltered, but I did not fall.

Paul too pleaded with God to remove his 'thorn in his flesh', time and time again he pleaded that it would be taken away, but the message that came back was that God's strength is made perfect in weakness.  All too often our prayers are for the removal of the difficult things, the painful things that impact on our daily lives, when perhaps our prayers of request need to be balanced with adoration, confession and dedication.

When I was a young person attending the local Gospel Hall in Belfast where I grew up, we were told that seven days without prayer makes one weak.  It's true, for there is nothing more blessed than to feel the warmth of God's presence with us in our daily lives, for I can truly say that God has heard and answered my prayers, even in the times when the difficulties have remained, God has changed me.

Salt and Light

The Inspire Bible Fellowship at Goffs Oak have been studying the Sermon on the Mount.  Last time, we looked at salt and light.  In the course of preparing for the session, I learned a few things.  I have often puzzled as to how salt could lose its saltiness, sodium chloride isn't a chemical that degrades.  It turns out that the reference in the Sermon on the Mount refers to a crude mixture of sand and salt that was used to disinfect latrine areas. The crude salt would be stored in a pile outside and when it rained, it was possible for the salt to get washed away, leaving the sand and grit behind.  When that happened, it was rendered useless for maintaining the hygiene in the latrine and had to be thrown away.

The idea of being salt and light seems quite strange to is in the 21st century, but to the folk of the first century had no such problems.  Jesus used the everyday things to illustrate what he was trying to say. We need to get to grips with Jesus' message and follow his concepts as Kingdom people.

Counting my Blessings!

This week I am counting my blessings - just over a week ago, I was overcome with frustration.  Thanks to some tactful intervention by someone who knew exactly what he needed to do, I was able to put that situation into God's hands and the load was immediately lightened.  I have much to be thankful for and most of all, for friends who are supporting me in various ways, including through prayer.

How often do we stop to count our blessings?  When the going is good, it's only too easy to become complacent and assume we're in much more complete control than we actually are.  So many things are beyond our control and we can at any point find ourselves brought to a grinding halt as our defences are overwhelmed, a bit like the flood defences in some parts of the country.

Let us all take time out and count our blessings, and maybe just as the old hymn suggests, it will surprise us what the Lord has done.