God’s Everlasting Love             Word on the Week          21^st August 2021.

This week, for many, the world must seem to be an increasingly alien place.   There are effects of global warming, the conquest of Islam and the pandemic that will not go away all causing some to despair.  We need to look into the heavenlies for help from the Lord.

Romans Chapter 8 verses 31 to 39 says that because God’s plans are immutable the believer is assured of God’s love.  The verses are paraphrased:

The Saviour died but rose again, triumphant from the grave                            And pleads our cause at God’s right hand, omnipotent to save.                        Who then can e’er divide us more, from Jesus and his love                            Or break the sacred chain that binds the earth to heaven above?

In view of the growing corruption that forces us to devise ever increasing security and surveillance equipment for our protection Paraphraser goes on:

Let troubles rise and terrors frown and days of darkness fall                          Through him all dangers we’ll defy and more than conquer all.                      Nor death nor life; nor earth nor hell, nor times destroying sway,                  Can e’er efface us from his heart, or make his love decay.

During the time of the Covenanters in Scotland many were killed rather than renounce Christ.   Margaret Wilson was one who was staked out in the Solway Firth and told to deny Christ when she would be released before the rising tide reached her.  

In response to their entreaties from the shore she is alleged to have quoted the last two verses in our passage.   “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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” (Romans chapter 8 verses 38/9). The paraphrase concludes:                                                                             Each future period that will bless, as it has blessed the past;                              He loved us from the first of time, He loves us to the last.

Imagine                            Word on the Week                     7^th August 2021.

The late John Lennon’s humanist hymn “Imagine” has become a regular at the Olympics.   This is the 5^th games in which it has been sung.   Some will recall Lennon dressed in white at a white baby grand piano in a large white room of his mansion with his wife Yoko Ono adjusting the white curtains.   A surreal setting for the poetical tirade.

In his imagination there is no heaven or hell, only the present.   No countries, no religion, nothing to fight for because no one has any possessions.   No need for greed or hunger because there will be a sharing of the world’s things leading to us all living as one.   There are shades of Lennon’s brush with Hinduism where the goal was to merge into an impersonal oneness.

Here in Dublin we had our own personal Guru who established Yoga in the country.   He used Scripture quoting Mark Chapter 11 verse 24 – “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it will be yours.”   This became the basis of ‘visualisation’ – imagining people were well.

Read in context Jesus is teaching the praying person to set aside his doubts and have faith in God coupled with forgiveness to those who he has something against, then he would be ready to pray – verses 22 to 25.   Thus the passage takes into account not only what is to be prayed but the state of the one who prays to almighty God.

Sadly, there are plenty of John Lennon’s around when it comes to understanding Christianity.    Our imaginations are engaged at an early stage.   I can remember firmly believing that good people go to heaven and bad people go the hell.   It seemed logical that you should at least try to be good!  The trouble was I wasn’t much good at it and all the churchgoing didn’t make me any better!

I had bought into the false hope of salvation through right behaviour and moral reformation.   I became a first class hypocrite!     Clean on the outside but a mess on the inside!     But it was the outside that appeared to be all that mattered so I got on well with all my hypocrite friends.

Then the preacher, Robert McGhee, told me I was a sinner in need of repentance.   I could understand the first bit but this repentance, turning around and going in the opposite direction, brought the usual argument – I am not so bad etc. to my mind.

It was when he added that my faith was to be in the sinbearing work of Jesus on the cross that it became personal and I knew that he died for me (1Timothy Chapter 1 verse 15).   And that needs no imagination!

Holiday Season                          Word on the Week                     31^st July 2021.

It’s that time of year when cities empty out and the flight to the country begins.

Staycations not vacations have become the watchword in these Covid constricted times.   In the midst of the joyful scamper to the seaside pity the poor President who has had to consider 19 Bills since the 1^st of July.

Of course it is possible that not all Presidents would have been as diligent in their duties as Michael D. Higgins.  He has suggested that a better way be found to avoid this unseemly end-of-term rush to have the Bills concluded.   The record so far was to have 9 Bills deposited on his desk in one day!  The rush is also replicated in the period before the Christmas holiday!

This focus on holidays masks the shrinking of work in Western countries.  Many work less hours per week whilst technology permits increasing volumes of work to be done in the reduced time.    The Covid pandemic has opened eyes to alternative work patterns that reduce or remove the commuting time.

In the Bible we seldom read of people taking a holiday.   There was an occasion when King David ‘put his feet up’.  He ended up in deep trouble!   It was the time when Kings went off to war but David stayed in bed in his palace.   One evening he got out of bed, saw his neighbour’s wife having a bath, coveted her and the rest is history (2 Samuel Chapter 11 verses 1 to 5).

What punctuated their year was Holy Days and Religious Festivals.   These marked out the child’s growth in Judaism or acted as reminders of Israel’s history.   These were times of great rejoicing and still are today.

With the coming of Jesus who fulfilled all that the Prophets foretold, rejoicing today occurs when a sinner repents and believes the Gospel (St Luke Chapter 15 verse’s 5 to 7).    This ‘joy in heaven’ finds its echo in the hearts of converted sinners on earth as the Kingdom of God expands.

This expansion is the work of the Holy Spirit operating through believers.   It was once thought to be the work of paid professionals in ministry but, whilst certainly not excluding them from witnessing it is primarily the task of believers to make Christ known (Ephesians Chapter 4 verses 12/13).

This is a task which believers are well suited for.   Having themselves been bought by the blood of Christ they do not consider their lives to belong to themselves any more (1 Corinthians Chapter 6 verses 19/20).   This frees them to have a ministry mentality, thinking about being part of what God is doing in the locations where he places them (St John Chapter 9 verse 4).

This gives a deeper meaning to all of life (holidays included!).

Tokyo Olympic Games              Word on the Week          24^th July 2021.

The Olympic Games got off to a stuttering start this week.    Having been cancelled totally last year, due to the Covid pandemic, the Emperor was firm in his resolve that the games must go on!

This decision flew in the face of the will of the people.   Apparently around 80% did not want the games for fear of Covid spreading.   At present Japan has a very low uptake of the disease but with the influx of competitors from many different countries no amount of testing will be able to keep the pandemic in check.

The games opened last night to an almost empty stadium with muted fireworks.   Representative groups of athletes from the 205 competing countries strutted their stuff as they marched round the stadium behind their national flag.   In an act of defiance, the games, cancelled last year because of Covid, retain the 2020 label.   Perhaps the organisers thought it would confuse the disease to be called the 2020 Olympics in 2021!

The honour of lighting the Olympic flame went to the Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka.   She carried out her duties in the stifling heat of a Tokyo night adding to it as she lit the hydrogen fuelled cauldron on top of a Mount Fuji shaped stage.  

Perhaps the film “Chariots of Fire” captures the spirit of the Olympics best.   It was in 1924 when Eric Liddell, who was entered to run the 100 meters, withdrew because it was to be run on a Sunday.    Eric, a Christian, with a high view of the 4^th Commandment was prepared to sacrifice all his training and the opportunity to represent his country for God’s honour.

Fortunately, a vacancy arose in the 400 meters, which was run on a weekday and Eric ran in it, beating the opposition and securing the Gold Medal.   He is quoted as saying, “Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them”.

What has Eric Liddell to do with Japan?   He died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1945.   He was serving Jesus as a missionary in China when it was over-run by the Japs in ww2.    In this he was following Jesus who said, “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends” (St John Chapter 15 verse 13).

Eric was ‘fully prepared’ by trusting Jesus.   Am I, are you?

The Demise of Morality              Word on the Week             17^th July 2021.

The tide of immorality shows no signs of turning.   Fed by an openness to tell their stories the media delivers detailed accounts that become ever more explicit.   What yesterday was frowned upon, today is accepted and tomorrow we can expect restraints to be further eroded.

The Apostle Paul lived in similar times.   Lack of any belief in an afterlife had led to the coining of the phrase “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die”.   To which he replied “Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians Chapter 15 verses 32/34).   The Apostle attributes their sinning to an ignorance of God.   The same could be said of today.

Nowhere is this flow of filth more evident than in social media.   In Facebook they employ ‘content moderators’ whose task is to sift through the material posted on its platform.    These moderators sit at screens in offices and work to protect users of social media from the worst possible “content” imaginable. In order to do that, they have to see distressing images, videos and texts every day which include extreme violence and child abuse.

For this work to protect Facebook’s reputation they work, not as employees but under contract.   Although there are moderators in other countries Dublin is a centre for this work.   Presumably there is a reason why they are not given employment status but their work keeps Facebook in business and saves them from many a lawsuit!

Part of the problem is the historical view that Companies exist to maximise shareholders’ financial return.   Facebook’s treatment of its content moderators is an example of how other considerations are overlooked.    A more enlightened approach is offered by B Corp.  This involves companies signing up to a statement of intent that they will not only serve their community, but their customers, environment, governance, and workers also.

In the past there were firms such as Lever Brothers who were exemplary at looking after their employees.   Many were created by Quaker families.    This modern creation, B Corp, is growing as companies take on board the values.   They can be viewed at bthechange.com

In Scripture the converted thief is told to stop stealing but must work doing something useful with his hands, so that he may have something to share with those in need (Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 28).   This is echoed in Acts Chapter 20 verses 34/5 where the Apostle introduces the work ethic and quotes Jesus in support!   B Corp follows somewhat along these lines.

Angela Merkel Retires               Word on the Week                    10^th July 2021.

The retirement of Angela Merkel, after 16 years as Chancellor of Germany, was hailed by the population applauding throughout the land for six minutes.   Such was the popularity of this remarkable leader.

Angela came from East Germany.   Her father, a Lutheran Pastor, had moved there at a time before the building of the Berlin wall, when many were travelling West.   There was a need in the East and he went to meet it.

Reared in an academic family she followed her brother who had become a physicist.   She completed her PhD in quantum chemistry in 1986 and after three years doing research went into politics with the Christian Democratic Party becoming Chancellor in 2005.

Her leadership was soon challenged by the financial crisis of 2008. Her tough, unpopular budget cuts were at the heart of the response to the debt crisis which led both Germany and Europe back to growth, with the chancellor emerging as Europe’s de facto leader.

Merkel has acted on what she deemed to be morally right, rather than politically expedient; ending nuclear power in Germany following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, and opening Germany’s borders to over a million Syrian refugees in 2015.   Of the latter she said ‘If we can save the banks, we can save human beings’.

Her humble lifestyle would be the opposite of Trump.   Yet she defended his right to express himself when he was banned on Twitter believing that adding warnings to his posts was the better approach.     Merkel shops for groceries herself whenever possible, queuing up at check-out counters. With no household help, she shares chores with her husband: ‘I arrange the clothes, and my husband operates the washing machine.’ When asked by journalists why she wears the same clothes so often, her answer has been: ‘I’m a government employee, not a model.’

In contrast to so many leaders she did not assign any of her relatives to Government posts nor did she salt away millions into foreign bank accounts.  No transgressions have been recorded against her nor has she extolled her achievements to garner popularity.   She lives in the same house as she did before she was elected Chancellor.   She does not own a villa with a swimming pool and gardens but lives with her husband in an apartment.

Regarding her faith, she said: “I am a member of the evangelical church. I believe in God and religion is also my constant companion, and has been for the whole of my life. We as Christians should above all not be afraid of standing up for our beliefs.” 

As Jesus said, “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God” (St Luke Chapter 12 verse 8).

John Stott Remembered           Word on the Week          3^rd July 2021.

A decade has passed since Stott died.   His influence on evangelicals over the last century was enormous.   He remained within the Church of England and was based at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London.   From there he was able to carry on a global ministry assisting churches with the Gospel.

What is this Gospel which turned his life around?   He heard it at age 17 from the evangelist Eric Nash.   The sermon was taken from Pilates pathetic comment recorded in St Matthew Chapter 27 verse 22 “What Then Shall I Do with Jesus, Who Is Called the Christ?” Afterwards Nash pointed Stott to Revelation Chapter 3 verse 20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Stott later described the impact this verse had upon him as follows:

“Here, then, is the crucial question which we have been leading up to. Have we ever opened our door to Christ? Have we ever invited him in? This was exactly the question which I needed to have put to me. For, intellectually speaking, I had believed in Jesus all my life, on the other side of the door. I had regularly struggled to say my prayers through the key-hole. I had even pushed pennies under the door in a vain attempt to pacify him.

I had been baptized, yes and confirmed as well. I went to church, read my Bible, had high ideals, and tried to be good and do good. But all the time, often without realising it, I was holding Christ at arm’s length, and keeping him outside. I knew that to open the door might have momentous consequences. I am profoundly grateful to him for enabling me to open the door. Looking back now over more than fifty years, I realise that that simple step has changed the entire direction, course and quality of my life.”

Stott’s abiding passion was summed up in what he called “double listening”.   It involved listening to the culture and discerning where it was at.  He then would listen for the voice of God to speak to the culture scriptural truths to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ.    The link would be made in texts such as “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter Chapter 3 verse 18).

I heard him preach on his 80^th birthday.   It was on the same theme.   His ability to handle words with precision had not left him.  Indeed, it is reflected in his many books not least of which is his “Through the Bible through the Year” which is our household’s this year’s breakfast fare!

Gender Distress              Word on the Week          26th June 2021.

We were reminiscing this week about some of the characters we have known and the peculiarities that marked them out from others.   The conversation turned to one called Peter (not his real name) who had a habit of wearing his underwear as outerwear.    He would often visit us at church especially when there was a clean-up day.  He came at other times too when we were closed and would break into the premises.  We would know it was him because he always emptied the tin of chocolate biscuits!

Apparently before he had reached teenage years he was told he was someone else.   This had a confusing effect which never left him.   The bizarre wearing of clothing was one way he attempted to deal with it.    Sadly, we seem to be in a day when there are many suffering from gender distress and feel they have been born into the wrong body.  Although one could be forgiven for thinking that the current wave of gender dysphoria is being encouraged by the media.

Having cast off from its traditional moorings the nuclear family has morphed into variegated arrangements, some looking for stability others looking for excitement.    Children, for economic reasons or else for hedonistic ones are late in arriving and may no longer be greeted with pink for a girl and blue for a boy!    Gender has become fluid!   The medics have the tools in their bag to arrange gender reassignment.    Naming the child could be more complicated.

The sexualisation of Western Society proceeds at a pace.    In a few days we are to have the ‘pride parades’ publicising the LGBTQ etc. movement with its rainbow colours.   It was interesting to hear the RTE’s ‘Morning Ireland’ commentator remonstrate with a Cabinet Minister who had failed, in her eyes, to censure the Football Association for acceding to the request not to festoon the Munich Stadium with LGBT colours.    “We have to be inclusive” she said.

Now we have talk of a conversion ban.   It seems that having turned their back on God, society does not wish to have their form of conversion upstaged by Him!    Imagine if the tax-collector Matthew responded to Christ’s call to follow him today and to celebrate his conversion he held a large party.  The wider society complained to Christ’s followers, “Why do you celebrate conversion?”   “We want to have it banned!”    Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.   I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (St Luke Chapter 5 verses 29 to 32). And He still does.

How we need the winds of Christian revival to sweep through this land and in its loving wake produce from the broken and disorientated lives followers of Jesus.

Conversations                            Word on the Week                    19^th June 2021.

The G7 (Group of Seven) is an organisation of the world’s seven largest so-called advanced economies. They are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States. Included, by invitation, is the EU.   They met, last weekend, in the Carbis Bay Hotel near St Ives in Cornwall in blazing sunshine!

There followed three days of face to face conversations following the guidelines their subordinates had prepared to produce an agreed joint statement on health, vaccines, the economy, the environment and foreign policy.

The elephant in the room – the UK’s non-compliance with the Northern Ireland Protocol which, although only agreed earlier this year, Prime Minister Johnson wished to ditch!   The US sent a rebuke to the UK over this matter some two weeks before the G7 meeting.   It wisely singled out the discordant matters from the conversation!

Speaking after the G7, Boris Johnson said that there was “complete harmony on the need to keep going, find solutions and make sure we uphold the Belfast Good Friday Agreement”.  This piece of fiction presumably allows Johnson to make a meal of the British sausage which will have to pay a tariff to enter Northern Ireland at the end of this month!

Meeting of leaders is deemed to be important in order to get to know each other, to some extent and see how they react to the various crises.  Biden’s meeting with Putin gave each a better understanding of the other.   The fact that the meeting terminated earlier than the allotted time probably means that the existing views of each were confirmed!

On an everyday level sometimes a conversation will stick in your mind.   John Chapman was a well-known evangelist in Australia who visited this country a number of times.   He told the story of the time he brought his vestments to the dry cleaners to be laundered.   There was a feisty assistant behind the counter.   She asked, “Are you a clergyman”?   “You know I am” John replied; “Well why are you not wearing your white neck thing”?   “We are out to get you” John said, “there are hundreds of us you know”!

The conversation paused then she asked, “What I want to know is this, can you forgive sin”?  “Not in a million years John replied”.   “That’s what I thought to” she said – “but I know someone who can” John added.   John then introduced the lady to Jesus!   

He always carried a Bible and took her to the passage where the Apostle Peter wrote about Jesus, who was God incarnate, bearing our sins when he died on the cross (1 Peter Chapter 2 verse 24).   

He explained that another of the Apostles, John, had written that Jesus’s death had the power to purify us from all sin when received with faith by the believer.   He went on to encourage the acknowledgement of our sins in prayer to God and to rely on His faithfulness to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John Chapter 1 verses 7 – 9).

Gospel, (that is ‘good news’) conversations can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, bring about lasting change for the better and grant the forgiveness she was looking for.  She would also receive the peace of mind that the Apostle Paul speaks about in his letter to the church in Philippi “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians chapter 4 verse 7).

And that peace does not need a protocol it is guaranteed by Christ!  

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs   Word on the Week   12^th June 2021.

Christians sing!   The singing may not always be very musical but since it comes as an expression of the heart it will express profound feelings.   The King James version of the Bible translates Psalm 100 ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord’!   It is an exuberant call to ‘all the earth’ i.e. including the Gentile nations to join in thanksgiving to our Maker for his love and faithfulness extend to all generations.

Hymns do not need to be sung!   The Apostle Paul writes in his Ephesian letter to “Speak to one another in Hymns”.    In a testimony which we heard this week the speaker punctuated the different episodes of his life with a hymn which summed up his relationship with the Lord.   Sinclair Ferguson, in his book dealing with the 20 centuries of Christian witness since Christ, concludes each chapter with a hymn written in that century.   Some of these hymns are still being sung today!

One of the earliest accounts of singing in the Bible is Miriam’s song recorded in Exodus Chapter 15 verses 1 to 18.   In it she rejoices in Jehovah’s display of power in delivering the Israelites out of the hand of the Egyptians.    Never before nor since has an entire nation been brought out of another after hundreds of years of captivity.

The book of the Psalms is the ‘songbook’ of the Bible.    During a second period of exile the Israelites find themselves being taunted by their Babylonian captors to sing to them the songs of Zion.   These must have been known to the Babylonians who wanted to hear them.   Indeed, in recent years the words of one of these songs have been recast to produce the popular “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept – when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137 verses 1 to 6)! 

It was music and singing that marked the celebration at the sinner repenting.   The joy was not found in the elder brother who saw only the misdeeds of his young sibling.    We are told that even the angels in heaven join in the rejoicing on earth when a sinner repents (St Luke Chapter 15 verses 10 & 25).

This is the redemption which Jesus accomplished for all those who repent and believe the gospel.   It will culminate in that great festal gathering in heaven when the redeemed will sing a new song of praise to the Lamb of God (Revelation chapter 5 verse 8).

Why do Christians sing?   Because they have plenty to sing about!