The Word Of God?

The Bible is called “The Word of God” and for good reason. The canon of scripture handed down to us contains the creation account, the prophecy of the coming Messiah, and the arrival of the promised baby which we celebrate at Christmas Time. When that baby grew up to be a man He suffered and died for our sins, was resurrected and ascended back into heaven where He pleads to the Father on our behalf. What a story, and the full account is faithfully recorded for us in the Bible.

 

Someone who can save us, and ensure our place in heaven is truly the Messiah, the Christ, Son of the Living God, Emmanuel, God with us! Since the Bible contains the very words of life, how do we treat it? With respect? Do we read it regularly? Take it to church? It has been 500 years since Martin Luther started a movement which would result in the Bible being made available to everyone in the land. People of conviction died and many were tortured to give us this freedom which thankfully remains until this day, and all that is left for us to do, is read it. We are indeed blessed to have the Word of God freely available, and the choice is ours to read it thankfully, or ignore it.

Shame

It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. Ephesians 5:12

 

You don’t have to look too deeply to see the wisdom in these words from Paul. Recently, the media has been highlighting the seedier side of the celebrity world, with all the force of their hedonistic worldview. Of course, some even openly report these tasteless activities under the guise of being informative and open with their readers and viewers because it is in the public interest.

 

As believers, we can see through the fog. There is good reason for the sinful lives of people who have become famous, to go without comment. We don’t benefit from the exposure of the sin, do we? And that is what it is, it’s sin. The Bible calls it for what it is, and tells us not to help gossip the sin, because Paul reminds us that it is ‘shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret’.

 

Did you catch that? Even when these shameful acts are done in secret, or in the privacy of their own lifestyle, we do not have to mention it. In order to protect ourselves from this lifestyle, there are some things we can do or, to be more accurate, not do which will help.

 

How about not reading those newspapers and magazines which glorify the things that deliberately pander to the senses? How about being more careful with the TV programs we watch where adultery is commonplace and homosexuality is shown as normal? How about the movies we watch, and it doesn’t matter where the film is screened?

 

In all of this, ask yourself what the church is doing to combat the sinful lifestyle in our nation? We are reminded that the church is not the building. The church is me, and the church is you. What are we doing to try to turn the tide of what is acceptable, and those things which are now seen by the majority as normal? I’m sure God knows we should have a stronger voice from the pulpits of our churches, and more so from the lives of our leaders to start with. At pew level, we do not have to give the oxygen of ever more publicity to ‘what the disobedient do in secret’. It’s not that we can’t do it, more a case of do we want to?

Impressions

First impressions are not always wrong. Over my long-ish life, I have discovered that first impressions are usually confirmed as correct as time passes. What starts as a feeling, or thought, almost always turns into a certainty. But we do not, and should not, act on any first impressions because on occasion they can be wrong, and we do not have confirmation either way, well at least not quite yet. More time is needed for that.

 

I’m not saying this requires the gift of discernment. Perhaps you have been gifted in this, but experiences over the years may also have resulted in us recognising characteristics which draw people together, or maybe make us think ‘caution’, or ‘beware’. Don’t misunderstand me, I am certainly not advocating making an enemy, after all, we are told that a mark of a true disciple is Godly love for all, including our faith brothers and sisters.

 

Perhaps I need to be corrected, but I have found that we can almost immediately and naturally be attracted to a person and really get along with them. However, there are other times when I will love my brothers and sisters, but wouldn’t usually choose to have a coffee together. On a personal level, I do not like confrontation, so the ability to ‘love but not necessarily like’ a very few of my friends may work for me, and all the while does not affect my Christian walk. Question: Am I on my own, or is this your experience too?

Nearly

Having been around churches of various denominations throughout my life, I can usually recognise the differences, and even appreciate the things that separate us in theology and practice. I’m not going to argue that we have more in common, than that which separates us, but make another observation which has been growing in my mind over the recent past.

 

The one thing we all share, is the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ. Or it should be a common thread running through all evangelicals to some degree.

 

It concerns me that we are becoming ever better at talking about what the gospel is, than we are at preaching it. We have become clever and intelligent as we learn more about Bible times, and how the early disciples changed the world. Armed with this great knowledge, why do we not preach the gospel instead of talking about it? I see a real and fundamental difference, and in this case ‘nearly’ is not good enough for all and any of the mainstream church denomination family.

 

I well remember the induction service of a new pastor, and an old saintly pastor, close to retirement after many good years in the pulpit say to the new minister, “The pulpit is not here to have a conversation with your congregation, it is here to preach the Gospel”. The words were spoken many years ago, are true today, and nearly is still not good enough.

Blogger’s Block

You have heard of writers who get writer’s block, well its distant cousin is Blogger’s Block. There is little known about what causes it, but apparently it can be a small thing. I don’t know how you deal with the things on your mind, for my part I tend to write it down. I suppose that makes me a blogger of sorts. Not so much to get a response, but as a kind of therapy to face the issues that mean something to me.

 

I usually end up writing about matters of faith, because that is the subject that means the most to me, and in a normal week about 2 or 3 blogs will be written and possibly published on a couple of systems. Responses are good for the most part, and even those who would not claim to be of the same church or faith group will be positive in their comments. So, what has happened during this month’s dry spell?

 

When something rocks the foundation of your belief system, it drags you down, and in dragging you down you stop doing those normal routine things. The bottom line is that you don’t see a way to work through your ‘problem’, and so the Blogger’s Block happens. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often, and my solution is to give it enough time to percolate through my subconscious and convince myself the thing I worried about was never really a problem in the first place. Was it? Or is it still there?

Festive Cheer?

It’s that time of year again, so take a deep breath and get right in among it! There’s the gift of giving, scented candles, decorated trees inside and outside the house, the laughter of children, the mystery associated with Santa, a table set for a lavish family dinner and prepared so well by a wife or mum, carol singers, Christmas jumpers, the church services, and the list could go on. These are just some of the things that bring happiness for so many, both young and old.

 

Looking at the day from another angle, these are exactly the same things that bring sadness to the hearts of many in our nation. For some, the season has lost some of its magic and sentiment. It was lost with the loss of a loved one. Perhaps a parent, spouse, sibling, or a favourite aunt or uncle. Those things that once brought a smile, now bring a tear.

 

However, for the believer, this has little to do with the list of activities mentioned before. Behind all of the glitter lies the baby Jesus who really is the reason for the season, no matter what the commercial world tells us. Because of that, and only that, the believer can lift their face to the heavens and say, “thank you Jesus” for being the baby in the manger who became our Saviour on the cross. From the Christmas story to the resurrection. Whether we show a smile, or shed a tear during this Holy season, we each recognise the value of the baby on that very special day.