These birds have the delightful habit of congregating on the electricity wires which run diagonally across the field in front of our house.   The spectacle only lasts for a couple of weeks, always at this time of year.  Both are of the same species and have much in common.

Their melodic twittering as the make their travel plans sweeten the air.   Within the next couple of weeks, they will be heading South for the exact location in sub-Sahara Africa which they left in the Spring.    The birds which travel the furthest North to these Islands and Scandinavia are the long distance fliers travelling to South Africa to enjoy their second summer of the year!   

To prepare themselves for the journey they have been indulging themselves in a feeding frenzy.    This is when the insects get blown out of the trees into the flight path of the birds.   They are at their acrobatic best zipping past each other as they scoop up the food in their widely gaping mouths.    Drinking too is done on the wing as they skin across the water, their beaks sipping the surface.

Both Swallows and Martins make their nests out of mud.   The Martin encloses his with only a small access hole.   The Swallow makes a more conventional cup nest adding bits of straw to bind the mud.    Apparently they have a preference for nesting in open-fronted sheds alongside cattle and horses.   Most Swallows try to rear two broods each summer and some succeed in raising three if there is a warm Autumn.

These birds are equipped with tiny feet making them unsuitable to land on the ground.   The writer of Proverbs uses this inability to land as an illustration.    He dismisses an undeserved curse saying it does not alight (Proverbs Chapter 26 verse 2).  

There is a curse which did alight.   We inherited it from Adam.   It was the result of the fall when the earth was cursed (Genesis Chapter 3 verse 17).     We bear the curse.   We have the weeds and thorns which are its emblems to live with.   We needed ‘the second man from heaven’ Jesus Christ to do all that Adam failed to do (1 Corinthians Chapter 15 verses 22/26).  

Looking to Christ’s finished work, the third verse of his hymn ‘Joy to the World’ Isaac Watts puts it well:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

Let all who follow the work of our Redeemer sing with the Swallows as we look to forward the new heaven and new earth the home of righteousness (2 Peter Chapter 3 verse 13).

The popular RTE television programme delves into the background of its subject.   Aided by the largely excellent record keeping of church, state and military it is now possible to explore the life’s history of one’s ancestors.    The media, recognising our inherent inquisitiveness, have used the opportunity to research willing celebrity’s backgrounds.   

The usual format is to work on the history of one parent and then when the trail ends transfer to the other parent and carry out a similar exercise.    The information gleaned from the various sources produce interesting insights into the person’s past.   The results are not always flattering and in some cases well guarded family secrets are exposed for all to see.    The work is thorough and no stone is left unturned. What is it about identity that we find so fascinating?    Questions unasked in childhood can return to haunt us in later years when those who could answer them are no longer with us.   Misinformation can creep into the family understanding and, over time, a myth can become established as fact!     Add into the mix a bit of stereotyping and a category of ‘things not spoken about’ develops!

Of course you can have more than one identity.   Most of us can recognise the person who is a tyrant at work and an angel at home – or vice versa!    Another may wear a mask for church and drop the mask when back in the domestic scene!

The Bible was written to show us who God is.   He reveals himself as the creator of all and the redeemer of his people.    His personal qualities are revealed in his dealings with Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ we have the exact representation of his being (Hebrews Chapter 1 verse 3).

In Jesus we see an identity revealed.   He was with God in the beginning.   He was the living Word.   Everything God was the Word was.   He was the light of men.   And that light has a discriminating function in that it shows where everyman stands in relation to Jesus (St John Chapter 1 verses 4 to 9).  

The glory of the Christian identity is revealed in the phrase Child of God.   One who can call God his father.    One who is in the family of God and can call fellow believers his brothers and sisters.

The rebellious identity inherited from Adam and developed through countless ages, when confessed and renounced makes way for the new identity.    This comes by faith in Jesus, being born again by his Spirit and leading a new life as a Child of God (St John Chapter 1 verses 12 and 13).

Gambling god of today                     Word on the Week             24^th August 2019.

In a conversation this week a friend described an outing to Laydown Races.   He was in the company of a businessman who knew his way around race courses.  His method was to select one race and bet on the favourite.    This he duly did and won – his stake was £2,000.00!   

It is easy to see the attraction gambling affords.   The temptation of the big win.    The allure of something for nothing.    There is a corruption of the value system involved, summarised in Ecclesiastes Chapter 5 verse 10.

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is meaningless.”    When the American millionaire, Rockefeller, was asked when would he have enough money his reply was, “After the next $1,000,000.”  

Money exercises a godlike influence over people.   It exaggerates its importance and upsets one’s equilibrium.     It encourages greed.   It can become an object of worship, never far from one’s thoughts and never able to satisfy the desires of the heart.    Perhaps the antidote is to be found in St Paul’s advice to Timothy.  

“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.  But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy Chapter 6 verses 6 to 10).

In a newspaper report this week it was estimated there are 30,000 problem gamblers in the State.     How can they and we gain this contentment St Paul speaks about?    Although they will not look at it this way there 30,000 have dedicated their lives to gambling.   It comes first.   It is always the next bet that will win and solve everything.    Their addiction is helped by small wins engineered by the gambling operator to encourage faithfulness from his punter.

Only ‘Christ can break the power of cancelled sin and set the prisoner free’ as the hymn-writer put it.   Cancelled sin?   Cancelled by being borne on Christ’s cross and the penalty it incurred paid in full.

Deliverance from gambling (or any other sin) does not come through will-power or good intentions but by confessing the sin and turning from it to receiving the new life that comes from putting ones trust in Christ.  It was Christ who, on the cross, substituted his perfect life for our sinful lives to bear our guilt and give us a fresh start (2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 17).    Trust yourself to Jesus and his Spirit will empower you with that new life (Ezekiel Chapter 37 verses 1 to 14).

Nora Quoirin Deceased             Word on the Week                17^th August 2019.

It was on the 10^th day after her disappearance that Nora’s body was found in a forest ravine by a stream.    It brought to a halt a search which had involved a large search and rescue team, which included local people familiar with the forest in that area. The location was around 60km from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The Quoirin’s were on a family holiday at the Dusun resort when her father, on their first morning, discovered Nora’s bedroom window open and no evidence of his daughter.   They searched the immediate vicinity but found no trace.   As she had special needs and was not an independent 15-year-old, the family took the view that someone else must have been involved in her disappearance.

Previously Nora had visited many countries and never got lost or wandered off by herself.   It was completely out of character for her to do things on her own.   Describing her condition her father said, “Nora can read like a young child, but she cannot write more than a few words.   She has a good memory but she cannot understand anything conceptual.   She is unable to do maths so things like money are impossible to manage.”

Her naked body was found by some hikers who reckoned the body would have been found by the searchers had it been there earlier.   According to the post mortem death took place 2 to 3 perhaps 4 days before.    The cause of death was internal bleeding.   There was no evidence of rape of abduction.     A reward of £10K was made the day before Nora was found and has not been paid.

There is a Shamanic tradition in South-East Asia and during the search the suggestion was made to enlist the aid of the ‘spirits’.    The thinking is that with many trees felled the ‘spirits’ have lost their resting places and become malevolent.    Their ‘normal’ activities are to induce fear and hysteria in people such as schoolgirls.  These things are dealt with within the Muslim religion or by spirit possessed priests.

The Bible is explicit on these matters; – “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus Chapter 19 verse 31).       The Prophet Isaiah warns his followers not to be drawn into occult gibberish when God speaks clearly from his Word (Chapter 8 verses 19 to 20).

Jesus met death of a loved one with tears of compassion.   He restored life to the dead undoing the effects of illness and fulfilling the spoken Word.   Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (St John Chapter 11 verses 25 to 26).     The question remains valid today!

It was about this time fifty years ago that the Apprentice Boy’s Parade took place in Derry.   It provided the outlet for protest that was to occupy the North of Ireland for the next quarter of a century.    The official ending of what euphemistically was called “The Troubles” took place with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on 10^th April 1998.

Every country has a “past”.   Few countries bring the past into the present as frequently as we do in Ireland.    Annual commemorations are mixed other significant periods which fill up the calendar.   Learning from the past has produced elements of justice for past wrongs and apologies have been given where opportunities for forgiveness were evident.    Whether or not these apologies amount to repentance (a change of heart) will be revealed over time.

What is certain is there should be no going back to the tit for tat behaviour where retaliation ensured there would be no end to the matter.    It is not easy to live with feelings of injustice.   Whether these feelings are real or imaginary is irrelevant – they are always real to the one who has them!  

Anniversaries of atrocities bring testing times for those attempting to avoiding them and for those celebrating them.    They create the temptation to return to the past, especially if the expression of regret by the other is non-existent or is not being lived out.   It requires the supernatural power of Jesus to break the mould and commit to a lifestyle which lives in the new way of loving your enemy (St Matthew Chapter 5 verses 43 to 45).

It is perhaps worth reminding ourselves that the labelling ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’ are not to be found in the Bible.    Both systems of religion acknowledge the centrality of Christ’s teaching and example.   The names themselves have been largely inherited and are often used to perpetrate division.    Those who follow these traditions have these verses in their Bibles: – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (St John Chapter 13 verses 34 to 35).

We need to learn from the past as present times are uncertain.   The North of Ireland is without a government.    England has a Prime Minister who seems focussed on exiting Europe on 31^st October with scant regard to its consequences for Ireland.   To have confidence for the future we need to turn from past deeds and present uncertainties and trust in Jesus who loves his own “to the very end of the age” (St Matthew Chapter 28 verse 20).

Harvest Days                                 Word on the Week                        3^rd August 2019.

Harvest days are here again!   The fields are golden with ripened grain.   The combine harvesters are slowly clanking their way through the crops.   The grain trailers driving alongside the combine pick-up the grain as it is funnelled over their tall sides then off they go to the mill.

Precision sowing of the seed at the end of last year produced rows of oats, barley or wheat according to what was sown.    The dry weather means it ripened slightly earlier than usual but the crops will probably weigh out lighter.   The stalks or straw are gathered up by a baler, packed tightly into a cylindrical shape and secured with a membrane.    These bales are gathered into sheds and provide winter bedding for cattle or augment their feed.

In Jesus parable the seed is likened to the Word of God (St Luke Chapter 8 verse 11).

The seed falls into four types of soil.   Each soil represents a type of person.   The first is hard ground and the seed doesn’t root but is food for the birds.   Jesus said that the birds were like the devil who takes away the Word so that people with hard hearts will not believe it and be saved.

The second is stony ground.   The seed grows fast but does not last as it has no root system.   These represent those who receive the Word with joy but when testing times come they fall away.

The third soil grew thorns which choked the seed of the Word.   Jesus said the thorns that did this were worries, riches and pleasures.    

The forth soil was good for growth and the seed by persevering produced a crop (St Luke Chapter verses 11 to 15).

Just as the farmer does not stand idly by watching the seed grow but weeds and nourishes it to get the best crop.   So Jesus, at first, is seen by sinners as a threat disrupting our way of life.    This is why we hide from Him or oppose Him.   We resist the witness of other Christians and in various ways defend ourselves.    It takes time for the seed of the Word to grow – sometimes it seems a lifetime!

In quoting Jesus on the fourth type of soil – the one sustaining Christian life St Luke puts it “They are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience”.   The last word ‘patience’ could be translated

‘perseverance’ which is “persisting in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success”.     

Coming to faith in Christ is similar to farming.   It is the seed of the Word that has life.

It has many enemies but none that can withstand Jesus – the Lord of the harvest (St Matthew Chapter 13 verses 36 to 43).   He who has ears, let him hear.

Boris Johnston                                Word on the Week                 27^th July 2019.

One name has dominated the news this week, that of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to spell it out in full.    The media, always looking for a nick-name, have reverted to his old school moniker of ‘Bojo’.    An enormously popular candidate he romped home on Tuesday with a 2/3rds majority as the UK’s latest Prime Minister.  

The eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative MEP, Boris was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.   On his father’s side his great grandfather was the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.   His father’s maternal grandmother, Marie Louise de Pfeffel, was a descendent of Prince Paul of Württemberg and through Prince Paul, Johnson is a descendent of King George II of Great Britain!

His mother, Charlotte, was the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights.   She was an artist.   Charlotte gave birth to Boris in New York in 1964.  He was the eldest of four children.

Soon after Boris was born the family returned to England.   He was educated first at the European School in Brussels, Ashdown House and then at Eton College, where he was a King’s Scholar.  He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, as a Brackenbury scholar, and was elected President of the Oxford Union.   He was a contemporary of David Cameron, a former Prime Minister, who introduced the ill thought out referendum on Brexit.

Regarding his personal life his first marriage lasted a year being dissolved in 1993.   Later that year he married Marina Wheeler, a barrister, the daughter of journalist and broadcaster Sir Charles Wheeler and his Sikh Indian wife, Dip Singh.   They have two boys and two girls.   Last year Johnson and Wheeler announced their separation.

Boris was first elected to parliament in 2001 as MP for Henley.   He had a number of high-profile jobs but was dismissed in November, 2004 over accusations that he lied to the Prime Minister about a four-year extramarital affair with Petronella Wyatt, The Spectator’s New York correspondent and former deputy editor.   He was reinstated by David Cameron who had become Prime Minister but had become embroiled in another extramarital affair which Cameron chose to ignore.

During the period 2008/15 he was a flamboyant Lord Mayor of London returning to parliament as the candidate for Uxbridge.   He was accused of sexism, corruption and racism during his political career but his adolescent behaviour has popular appeal.    More than most he seems to be intoxicated with the oxygen of power without first having considered the implications of what he is saying.

Our standard of truth is the Bible (St John Chapter 17 verse 17).    It is not simply the absence of lies it is something to be lived.   It is incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ (St John Chapter 14 verse 6). It was revealed in Thomas’s response to meeting the risen Christ “My Lord and my God” (St John Chapter 20 verse 28).   The truth is lived out in Jesus – and by his grace in those who have committed their lives to him.

The Man on the Moon                           Word on the Week                                   20^th July 2019.

Full moons presented a great time for youthful imaginations to examine the surface to try to trace the face of the man on the moon.    We all imagined we saw it among the blotches that appeared on the surface.     The cross-legged goblin that appeared sitting on the crescent moon of a well-known advert did not mislead us one little bit!

Reality in the form of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin enlarged our imaginations – there were now two men on the moon!   The fuzzy pictures of 50 years ago showed the space-suited astronauts equipped with enormous backpacks make their first tentative steps on the surface of the moon.

Their feet were shod with large pod shaped boots to prevent them sinking in the lunar dust.    The scientists had calculated the rate at which the dust accumulated on the moon’s surface and, because they were all evolutionists, calculated what the accumulation over a vast time period would produce.  They reckoned on dust to the depth of three feet.   In fact, instead of sinking in powder, the surface was like crunchy snow – only a few inches deep!    The astronauts went for a walk which, because of weightlessness, was more like a series of skips where, as one put it, “you got to make sure your feet are underneath you!”

So the broadcast was made. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong famously said when he stepped down from the ladder on the lunar lander onto the moon.

But it’s the experience of James Irvine the 8^th man to walk on the moon that is significant.   He was on the Apollo 15 and along with David Scott they spent almost 3 days carrying out experiments and collecting rocks.

At one point Irwin had trouble. “He was erecting an experiment that wouldn’t erect!   Frustrated in his attempts to get the experiment to work, Irwin decided he would pray, “God I need your help right now” (Psalm 139 verses 7 to 10).

Suddenly Irwin experienced the presence of Jesus Christ in a remarkable way, unlike anything he ever felt on earth.  His wife Mary said “The Lord showed him the solution to the problem and the experiment erected before him like a little altar.”   This led Irvine, a nominal Christian, to commit himself to Christ.  

On his return from space, he resigned from NASA and formed High Flight Foundation.

“God decided that He would send His Son Jesus Christ to the blue planet,” Irwin said, “and it’s through faith in Jesus Christ that we can relate to God. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes unto the Father except through me’ (St John Chapter 14 verse 6).

“As I travel around I tell people the answer is Jesus Christ, that Jesus walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon” said Irvine and if he were alive today I am sure he would say not to look for the face in the moon but to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians Chapter 1 verse 15).

The 12^th of July                     Word on the Week                          13^th July 2019.

Towering above the neighbouring houses stood the gigantic 12^th of July bonfire.   Belfast has not seen a bigger one!    Built with thousands of wooden pallets and adorned with a necklace of rubber tyres it was formidable – an incendiary device the like of which has not been seen.

Like the Ziggurat of old (Genesis Chapter 11 verse 4) the underling desire of the builders was to make a name for themselves.    Other devices such as flags and marches (in memory of the Battle of the Boyne, 1690) go some way in keeping the old antagonisms alive but if you want to make a statement what better than setting the town alight!

Thankfully this did not happen.   The tyres were removed by those who put them there and the wooden pile was burned last night almost without incident.   A victory of sorts was claimed by its creators as the City Council’s request to remove the bonfire (it was built on their land) had been ignored.

The maintaining of an identity by highlighting what you are against by burning the flags and effigies of Nationalists and their Political posters shows the poverty of the Unionist’s case!   

Brexit has created further anxieties.    The likely new Prime Minister of the UK (which governs Northern Ireland in the absence of the Assembly) producing a solution is remote.    

Legacy issues from past unsolved crimes keep cropping up.   These are painful as they reopen wounds which, although not healed, have lain dormant.     One of ‘Soldier F’ who has been charged with murders has inspired a number of banners.    A hero on one side; villain to the other – and these murders took place in 1972!

There is another who died for all who subsequently trust in him.    This is Jesus who gives his followers a new identity erasing away the old one by his grace.    With this new identity comes the task of reconciliation as former enemies, through God’s strength, become friends (2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verses 14 to 19).

This happened on a large scale in Northern Ireland in the revival of 1859.   The land experienced similar divisions as we have today.   The local press reported nearly all parades were cancelled that year and in their place worship services and prayer meetings were held.   Protestants went to Catholic neighbours to apologise for past behaviour.

The solution to the problems of Northern Ireland is for such a movement of the Holy Spirit to arise again together with a Biblical reformation of the churches.   May God send us such a day!

Lord’s Table                           Word on the Week                          6^th July 2019.

The regular task of preparing the bread for the Lord’s Table made me think about the wisdom of the ordinance being repeated regularly.  We forget so easily.  The first recorded incident of Sunday worship including, or possibly composed entirely of, the Lord’s Table took place at Troas. (Acts Chapter 20 verse 7).  

We sometimes overlook the momentous nature of the change from the Passover celebration which had its central place in the Old Covenant (Exodus Chapter 12 verse 14) to the Lord’s Table with its central place in the New Covenant (St Matthew Chapter 26 verses 26/29).   

The change from a lamb killed and its blood saving the people of God who took shelter under it as the angel of death ‘passed-over’ their houses; to the Lamb of God – Jesus – killed and his blood now ransoming the people of God to this day (1 Peter Chapter 1 verses 18/19).  

There is continuity and completion.   Continuity in the blood of the sacrifice being spread over the wooden doorposts of the Israelites houses to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which stained the wooden cross on which he died (1 Corinthians Chapter 11 verses 24/5).   The first, the illustration.   The second the thing being illustrated.  Two pivotal events, separated by many centuries, but inexorably coming to fruition in the plan and purpose of God.

The completion is in the work of Christ finished on the cross (St John Chapter 19 verse 30).   The sin of all God’s people had been atoned for.   The ransom had been paid in full (St Mark Chapter 10 verse 45).   The offering of Himself, by its very nature, could only be made once (Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 12/14).   The work of salvation has been accomplished.

The Lord’s Table in Church is the divine reminder for us to re-focus our thoughts on the emblems of Christ’s death, which was for us.   This is not a re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice but a reminder that we owe our forgiveness and status as the people of God entirely to Jesus.

The Lord’s Table is a temporary meal.   One day there will be no need of it.   That will be when Jesus returns (1 Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 26).   Then instead of the Lord’s Table we will have the ‘Marriage feast of the Lamb’ to look forward to (Revelation Chapter 19 verse 7).     Till then we rejoice in our living and reigning Saviour.