Joy in the Journey (38) - Going for Water

In his poem, Going for Water, Robert Frost relates how the discovery that "The well was dry beside the door" leads him and another into the woods, on a moonlit autumn evening, to see if the brook was also dry. Getting closer there is a sense of anxiety as "Each laid on other a staying hand / To listen ere we dared to look". What if the brook was dry, too? What might that mean, going forwards?

In your life, are there not also times when the well by the door - the nearest supply of all that is essential - seems to have dried completely? Just the bare echo from an empty well. Supplies of sustaining water that you have come to depend upon, perhaps over many years, are now cracked and withered, coarsened by drought.

Jeremiah spoke the Lord's word to the people of his day, who had wilfully turned their backs on "the spring of living water" (Jer. 2:13). They had forsaken the Lord and had instead dug their own cisterns, their own means of security and joy. But they were incapable of holding water. It was a hopeless sight, yet the people clung stubbornly to their faded dreams.

Our days of drought might be the consequence of our own choices. We retain a capacity for folly that is damaging to our souls and to the life of the church. If the Lord humbles us over it, that is a gift we need to receive.

But there are also arid seasons that are not the fruit of our flawed choices and tainted loves. Simply living in this world and experiencing "the sufferings of this present age" is enough to bleed dry our hoarded hopes.

The two in Frost's poem make a discovery. In the hush, "We heard, we knew we heard the brook". The anxiety was past, dispelled by "A note as from a single place, / A slender tinkling fall". There is water in the brook, and the water there has a dual quality: it makes "drops that floated on the pool / Like pearls" and "now a silver blade".

Lustrous, pearly drops and a blade's sharpness and strength. Water that is precious and strong, that hasn't dried-up when other sources have. What was this brook for Frost? Love in all its colours? Beauty in all its hues? It's hard to say. What we do know is that our Lord Jesus speaks to us, in tones crystal clear, of living water, the very life of God, in all its purity and strength.

His voice is the "note as from a single place" that our hearts are so desperate to hear. His word is the declaration that slakes our thirst for mercy and grace, for renewal and peace.

Our own cisterns - our grasp at a self-determined existence and self-sustaining joy - are beyond repair and never could hold anything for very long. They ought to remain buried in our history. But the love of Jesus and the living word of Jesus - they sustain, through trials and temptations, in seasons of suffering and ache.

Our privilege, each day, is to go for water, to the wells of salvation that will never run dry.

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I hunger and I thirst;

Jesus, my manna be;

Ye living waters, burst

Out of the rock for me.

Thou bruised and broken Bread,

My life-long wants supply;

As living souls are fed,

O feed me, or I die.

Thou true life-giving Vine,

Let me Thy sweetness prove;

Renew my life with Thine,

Refresh my soul with love.

Rough paths my feet have trod,

Since first their course began;

Feed me, Thou Bread of God;

Help me, thou Son of Man.

For still the desert lies

My thirsting soul before:

O living waters, rise

Within me evermore.

(John Samuel Bewley Monsell, 1811-75)

Joy in the Journey (37) - Blessed, rather....

As the Lord Jesus is teaching in Luke 11, warning and exhorting and calling to unfettered loyalty to himself as Messiah, a woman in the crowd is so impressed she exclaims, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you!" His speech is so captivating and clear, his challenge to the authorities so unflinching, that her heart is taken up with what it must have been like to be his mother.

A natural reaction, from one who was, perhaps, a mother herself. We do the same, extrapolating and imagining what things would be like if she or he were we or us. But Jesus disagrees. He confronts her reverie and corrects her conclusion: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

Is he denying Mary was privileged? That she herself would have had no wistful moments of nostalgia, remembering when her son was younger and embraced within her heart and home? Those experiences are an entirely legitimate aspect of life but they do not represent the peak. True and full human flourishing (which is what 'blessing' here means) is not found in physical proximity to Jesus or a cultural connection to him. It is found preeminently in a faith-filled obedience to God and his Word.

We're not liable to be tempted to eulogise a physical connection to Jesus such as those in his own day might have done. That option simply isn't on the table for most of us. But it remains all too possible to settle for a cultural closeness - for the outer rim of relationship with Jesus, sitting in a pool of reflected glory and being in the vicinity of his ongoing works of power and mercy and yet to be strangely inactive in our response to his Word and his call.

The life of a church, its busyness and activity. The joys of music, of evangelism, of Bible study. All are more than simply legitimate; they are gifts from God, valid and cherished channels of nearness to the Lord and of deepening in our discipleship, in our love for our Saviour. But they can also be the unwitting means of keeping our hearts at arms' length from a clear and uncluttered response to the Word of God, if we make them the aim in itself.

The point that our Lord makes in response to this woman is exemplified in the life of his mother Mary. When told astonishing news by the angel Gabriel, after asking how this all might be, she bows in acquiescing faith: "I am the Lord's servant...may your word to me be fulfilled." That faithful, obedient response is then acknowledged by her cousin Elizabeth who plainly affirms of Mary, "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her."

Yes, as Elizabeth so clearly states, she is indeed blessed among women - her calling to bear in her womb the Son of the Most High is an unspeakable privilege, but the accent falls heavily on her humbly committed, believing response. And it's perhaps at that very point we need to allow ourselves to be confronted afresh: the route to genuine flourishing is in taking the Lord and his Word seriously, receiving it into our hearts and working it out in our lives as worship of the living God. Do we need to see, afresh, that there is a liberating joy in both hearing and doing all that he says to us?

Perhaps the enforced inactivity of these past months, certainly in terms of church activities, has allowed us to reflect on what we have made the centre-point of the Christian life and to renew our minds in the reality that it is Jesus himself and that we offer to him "our true and proper worship" (Rom. 12:1).

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Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!

Sing, O earth, His wonderful love proclaim!

Hail Him! hail Him! highest archangels in glory,

Strength and honour give to His holy Name.

Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children,

In His arms He carries them all day long;

O ye saints that dwell in the mountains of Zion,

Praise Him! praise Him! ever in joyful song.

Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer;

For our sins He suffered and bled and died.

He, our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation,

Hail Him! hail Him! Jesus, the crucified.

Loving Saviour, meekly enduring sorrow,

Crowned with thorns that cruelly pierced His brow;

Once for us rejected, despised, and forsaken,

Prince of glory, ever triumphant now.

Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer;

Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas ring!

Jesus, Saviour, reigneth for ever and ever,

Crown Him! crown Him! Prophet and Priest and King!

Death is vanquished, tell it with joy, ye faithful!

Where is now thy victory, boasting grave?

Jesus lives, no longer thy portals are cheerless;

Jesus lives, the mighty and strong to save.

(Frances Jane Van Alstyne, 1820-1915)

Joy in the Journey (36) - For all people

Who benefits from the Lord's saving work in the life of his people, at the exodus and in all the subsequent deliverances patterned on it? And through the ultimate exodus achieved at the cross?

The most obvious answer is, without doubt, those who walked through the Red Sea dry-shod; those who through Israel's history were saved, over and again, from the hands of their enemies. And those who have been ushered into the fulfilment of every rescue story, whom Christ "loved...and gave himself up for...as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2). Why should that question even need to be asked?

The reason for the question lies in the testimony of scripture to the larger purposes of God through the salvation of his people. Psalm 66 is one such statement. It expands our vision of the blessing of God and discloses a purpose within the rescue story of individuals and churches that is further and deeper than their own experience. Why not take a few moments to read through the psalm; its emphases are far from unique and are so clearly seen in both psalms that surround it.

The whole psalm is a call to the whole earth to "Shout for joy to God" (v.1), to admire in worship "his awesome deeds for mankind" (v.5). And what exactly were those deeds for all humanity? Turning the sea into dry land so that his people might pass through. The exodus was not for Israel alone; it was for mankind. But in what sense does it have that larger import? And why should "all peoples praise our God" (v.8) for preserving the lives of the people of Israel, for bringing them into a place of abundance?

The exodus and every subsequent rescue, finding their glorious reality in salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, were to be celebrated and declared in worship, to which this psalm itself contributes. Worship in which vows to honour God are made and lives in which those vows are kept (v.13f). Lips that are opened in praise and in telling "what he has done for me" (v.16). Honouring the joy and truth of answered prayer, "God has surely listened" and "has not...withheld his love from me" (v.19f).

The experience of salvation, rehearsed in and declared through praise, makes for a winsome invitation into the same rescue through faith in the same Saviour. That is the calling of the church, our calling. The redeeming work of God, reaching its zenith at Calvary, is for the many not the few, from among all nations.

We have been saved not for our own sake but to be witnesses to, demonstrations of, the awesome deeds of the living God performed for all mankind. In the midst of crisis, in the regularity of daily life, in the collective worship of the church, our testimony is to this God and his great salvation, for the sake of all people.

As the man in Mark chapter 5, from whom a legion of demons were expelled, was commissioned to "go and tell", so too are we, through this psalm, encouraged to speak and to sing: "Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me" (v.16)

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Fill your hearts with joy and gladness,
sing and praise your God and mine!
Great the Lord in love and wisdom,
might and majesty divine!
He who framed the starry heavens
knows and names them as they shine

Praise the Lord, his people, praise him!
Wounded souls his comfort know.
Those who fear him find his mercies,
peace for pain and joy for woe;
humble hearts are high exalted,
human pride and power laid low.

Praise the Lord for times and seasons,
cloud and sunshine, wind and rain;
spring to melt the snows of winter
till the waters flow again;
grass upon the mountain pastures,
golden valleys thick with grain.

Fill your hearts with joy and gladness,
peace and plenty crown your days;
love his laws, declare his judgements,
walk in all his words and ways,
h the Lord and we his children;
praise the Lord, all people, praise!

(Timothy Dudley-Smith, 1926-)

Joy in the Journey (35) - Least in the kingdom of God

I doubt it's an accolade any of us would angle for, "Least in the kingdom of God", unless it was an exercise in faux-humility. Yet our Lord Jesus tempers the sense of dismissal and derision that such a phrase evokes when he says,

I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. (Luke 7:28)

There is so very much we admire about John. His courage in calling people to repentance; his resolute witness to the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God; his determination to recede into the background, becoming less as his Saviour grew more. We aren't on the same page, at all. He is a genuine hero. And yet Jesus' words stand true and they stand over our lives as his people.

The comparison, of course, is not upon our exploits or our characters in relation to John. It's about where we are situated in history, in particular in the history of salvation and the blessings that attend it. John was the last of the prophets who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the last in a long line who spoke of the coming glories. John spoke in the final minutes before the sun would rise on a wholly new day. The privilege of even the least in the kingdom of God - our privilege - is to live in the blazing light of that day.

To live with redemption accomplished and applied to us in the power of God's saving grace. To live in the reality of an adoption witnessed to by the Spirit who causes us to cry Abba, Father. To live within the freedom of a conscience cleansed from acts that lead to death, of an access into God's presence by a new and living way opened for us through the flesh of Jesus. To live as those who are rooted and established in love - the realised love of God in the death of his Son - and privileged to ask that we might be given power to know that love in all its dimensions. To live within a hope that is living through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

And that's just scratching the surface.

Is your status within the family of God an issue to you? Do you feel you're passed by, unnoticed? Or do you deliberately seek a back row seat because you feel that, actually, you shouldn't really be there at all? We need to do what we can to put all such thoughts aside. Here is the truth, the reality that grounds our every day: living under the saving reign of God, we are blessed immeasurably. The sun has risen, we are in its healing rays. And it will rise higher and further; all our days, here and hereafter, will be bathed in its beauty.

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O what matchless condescension

   The eternal God displays,

Claiming our supreme attention

    To His boundless works and ways;

        His own glory

    He reveals in gospel days.

 

In the Person of the Saviour

    All His majesty is seen;

Love and justice shine for ever;

    And without a veil between,

        We approach Him,

    And rejoice in His dear name.

 

Would we view His highest glory,

    Here it shines in Jesus’ face;

Sing and tell the pleasing story,

    O ye sinners saved by grace;

        And with pleasure,

    Bid the guilty Him embrace.

 

In His highest work, redemption,

    See His glory in a blaze;

Nor can angels ever mention

    Aught that more of God displays.

        Grace and justice

    Here unite to endless days.

 

True, 'tis sweet and solemn pleasure,

    God to view in Christ the Lord;

Here He smiles, and smiles for ever;

    May my soul His Name record,

        Praise and bless Him,

    And His wonders spread abroad.

 

(William Gadsby, 1773-1844)

Joy in the Journey (34) - The certainty of the things you have been taught

"I just don't get it." Ever said that about something in the Bible, about the claims it makes concerning Jesus? Or maybe it's been said to you and you've not been too sure what to say in reply?

Perhaps you've heard that these things just have to be taken on trust - there's no place for thought, for consideration, for exploring questions and finding solid ground to stand on. That the only ground you need is faith. So swallow hard and just believe, come what may.

If you've heard that you likely feel it ought to be true and yet there are moments when you seem to be shrouded in doubt. It's unwelcome and uninvited; you've tried your hardest to believe yet the nagging doubts burrow their way into your heart and mind with a desolating intensity.

That might be true even if you've been a Christian for a long time. There are questions that are knotty and troublesome and, for you, are yet to be answered. There are passages you've read that make no sense and, worse, evoke pain and mistrust of the God who gave his Word. You hate to feel that way but, in all honesty, there are times when you do. And times of stress, as these past months have been, co-opt those questions into a full-blown season of doubt.

It's not entirely untrue to say that 'all you need is faith' but it isn't sufficiently in tune with the Bible itself. Yes, we have to take things on trust - but that is a validated trust; it is belief that is warranted by the facts. You have reliable grounds for such trust.

In the first 4 verses of his gospel, Luke explains that he is writing to Theophilus in order that he "may know the certainty of the things...taught." We don't know if Theophilus is one individual or a group of people; nor do we know if he/they have come to faith in Jesus or are seriously considering owning him as Lord and Saviour. But Theophilus seems concerned that what he's been taught may lack sufficient grounds for that kind of committed belief.

In this brief introduction, Luke writes of his method and the witnesses he has spoken to. His assiduous collating and examination of the various sources and his interviews with eye-witnesses are the sure foundation for what Theophilus has been taught. They give him solid grounds to accept and to trust the good news about Jesus the Messiah. Even though the gospel transcends rationality it doesn't transgress it. It is believable, grounded in historical reality.

One of the surprising sources of strength for the case Luke makes is that he has heard "from those who from the first were...servants of the word." But didn't they have a vested interest in confirming the accounts, even if they knew them to be false? Well, no - these were the very people who were in most danger for saying all that they did about Jesus. Facing martyrdom, they didn't back away from the accounts they gave to Luke - because they knew what they had seen and heard.

The opening chapters of this gospel then take us into the company of people who were fallen but faithful; humble and pious, without any pomp or hype. Believable people. And among Luke's eye-witnesses. Within and through their witness we discover Jesus the Lord - in all his majesty, in all his compelling godliness and the sheer goodness of radiant holiness, self-giving love and tenderest compassion.

Words cannot tell the depths of that simple witness to him. Words cannot fully convey the riches of his character and his work. What Luke writes isn't simplistic; it marries conviction with humble gratitude and heartfelt worship. It encourages and nourishes faith in Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of God.

Why not open the pages of this gospel again. Bring with you your questions, your doubts and fears. Ask the Lord that as you read he will affirm in the depths of your heart the reality of the truth about his Son. That you may know the joyful certainty of what you have been taught.

(If you're looking for a book that will help you work through some persistently challenging questions about the Christian faith then Confronting Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin is a great read.)

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Christ is the One who calls,

the One who loved and came,

to whom by right it falls

to bear the highest Name:

  and still today

  our hearts are stirred

  to hear his word

  and walk his way.

Christ is the One who seeks,

to whom our souls are known.

The word of love he speaks

can wake a heart of stone;

  for at that sound

  the blind can see,

  the slave is free,

  the lost are found.

Christ is the One who died,

forsaken and betrayed;

who, mocked and crucified,

the price of pardon paid.

  Our dying Lord,

  what grief and loss,

  what bitter cross,

  our souls restored!

Christ is the One who rose

in glory from the grave,

to share his life with those

whom once he died to save.

  He drew death's sting

  and broke its chains,

  who lives and reigns,

  our risen King.

Christ is the One who sends,

his story to declare;

who calls his servants friends

and gives them news to share.

  His truth proclaim

  in all the earth,

  his matchless worth

  and saving Name.

(Timothy Dudley-Smith, 1926- )

Joy in the Journey (33) - The God of no needs

We so often, and so very easily, entertain wrong views of God and our relationship with him. This isn't deliberate on our part but it is debilitating. Psalm 50 is a great help in addressing and correcting those tendencies.

It begins by highlighting the nature of the LORD - that he is the Mighty God, perfect in beauty, shining forth in glory. He speaks, summoning both heaven and earth, to address the people united to him by a covenant of sacrifice. And his assessment is this (verses 7-13):

They have not been slow in keeping the commandments regarding sacrifices. They have been made and are ever before the Lord. However, those sacrifices have been viewed in overly transactional terms. Through them they would, somehow, sustain the LORD. They would feed him, support him, enable him to be who he claimed to be. His life would, in a strange turn of events, be in their hands.

Their obligations to the covenant had been met, its instructions followed, but from a false and falsifying perspective. The LORD has no needs that his people must meet, as verses 9-13 make so very clear:

I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains,
and the insects in the fields are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?

The same point needed to be made by Paul in idol-ridden Athens, that the living God "is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else." (Acts 17:25)

To get this wrong, as they had done, is the road into anxious bondage, into a punishing performance-driven relating that has no proper foundation in the love of God. It diminishes the Lord of glory and reduces life with him to a mechanistic, computational chore.

That is not what we are called to by the gospel. The living God has no need of us and we are not saved in order to sustain him. We are not called and chosen because he has limited resources and needs to expand what is available to him. The coming of the Kingdom of God in its majestic fullness will not be an achievement of the church.

The true centre is given in verses 14, and 15. Here is the renewing essence that relies not on human effort and success. Its emphasis is on true, heart-felt worship ("Sacrifice thank-offerings to God"), recognising and receiving the glorious grace of God. It is on a faith that demonstrates it is living through a glad obedience ("fulfil your vows to the Most High"). And it is on a complete dependence upon the Lord to rescue and save ("call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you").

Here are the central realities of the Christian life. Gospel outcomes. Called to worship, to a living faith, to a full reliance on the Lord to save. Our service does not in any sense prop-up the living God or make up for some inherent lack in him. Nor is it the missing link in the achieving of his plans to save from every tribe and language and nation.

Getting our perspective true and clear is vital to healthy Christian living, to joy-filled worship and faith-filled obedience. By these "you will honour me" says the Mighty One, God, the LORD.

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O for a heart to praise my God,
A heart from sin set free;
A heart that always feels Thy blood
So freely shed for me;

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My great Redeemer's throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone;

A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
Believing, true, and clean,
Which neither life nor death can part
From him that dwells within;

A heart in every thought renewed,
And full of love divine;
Perfect and right and pure and good:
A copy, Lord, of Thine.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;
Come quickly from above;
Write Thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new best Name of Love.

(Charles Wesley, 1707-88)

Joy in the Journey (32) - The flesh is weak

In the garden of Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus urged his disciples to sit with him, to keep watch while he went to pray (Mk. 14:32ff). They struggle to do so and he finds them asleep, twice. They have no words of excuse or explanation. The assessment is provided by our Lord himself: "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

It is a measure of his compassion for them that he both acknowledges their willingness to watch with him, while at the same time alerting them to the very real and present danger of their fleshly weakness. He isn't dismissing them, nor is he discounting their commitment to him, but he is laying before them their very real vulnerability. It is something they need to see and to face.

David knew the value of a willing spirit in the face of temptation and on the back of sinful failure (Ps. 51:10). His request remains a key prayer for every disciple of Jesus. But, on its own, a willing spirit is not enough. The innate weakness of our flesh is something that Satan can exploit and disciples who rely on the strength of their own convictions, the willingness of their spirit, will find that they, too, flee in fear (v.50).

These past months have demanded much from each of us, whatever the precise circumstances of our lives. The mental, emotional and physical toll has been high and costly. And it remains so; our flesh is weak and susceptible. Tiredness, distraction, emotional wear-and-tear; all make us prey to temptation, to fear and discouragement.

When we come to faith in Jesus we are not delivered from the weakness of the flesh. We're not yet mended. We still need, very much, to watch and pray so that we do not fall into temptation. A willing spirit is not sufficient protection on its own.

But we are not on our own. The promised Holy Spirit has come. The Comforter is at work within us, to sustain our spirits, to strengthen that willingness and to give enabling grace in the face of our ongoing weaknesses.

There is much we can do to help ourselves; advice on eating, exercising and resting is plentiful and sound. But we need the Spirit's help, both in taking hold of that wisdom and, more deeply, in guarding our hearts, in renewing our minds, in sanctifying to us our deepest distresses, in daily ladling our hearts with the love of our Father in heaven.

We need his insight to "understand the present time, that the hour has already come for [us] to wake up from [our] slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."  For, truly, "the night is nearly over; the day is almost here." (Rom. 13:11,12)

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'We rest on Thee', our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
'We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.'

Yes, 'in Thy Name', O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear Name, all other names above:
Jesus our righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.

'We go' in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph peeling:
'We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go'.

'We rest on Thee', our Shield and our Defender!
Thine is the battle; Thine shall be the praise
When passing through the gates of pearly splendour,
Victors, we rest with Thee through endless days.

(Edith Adeline Gilling Cherry, 1872-97)

Joy in the Journey (31) - Doubly blessed

As Peter wrote his first letter, he was acutely aware of not only where his readers lived but their social location - the daily experience of life in a hostile environment, the struggle for holy lives in an atmosphere of rampant sinfulness.

While empathising with the very real pain that they know and feel, he is also very keen to remind them how blessed they are as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, not to minimise and play-down their sufferings but to equip them to live through such times.

In 1:10-12 he reflects on how they are doubly blessed:

i. The Holy Spirit spoke through the Old Testament prophets, predicting "the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow" in gospel days. The prophets through whom he spoke, realising their words carried lasting significance, “searched intently and with the greatest care” to try to find out the who, the when and the where of the gospel. But they had to be content with what they knew and with what they didn’t - that they were serving others. Their ministry was arced forward in blessing upon those as yet unborn.

Peter’s point is that it is Christians they were serving; his readers then and now. Those who have had the gospel preached to them by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - applied to their hearts in saving power.

For all that their lives were hampered by harassment and tempered by temptation and trial, they were at the same time recipients of the most astonishing blessing. The Messiah had come, had suffered for sin, once for all, and had ushered in the glories the prophets had seen in outline only: the radical and glorious new birth into a living hope, a new creation dawning, the true grace of God flowing deep and wide in human hearts.

ii. This beautiful and profound work of grace through the sufferings of the Son, so radiant with the glory of God, that Peter’s readers had received by faith, was something that “angels long to look into” and yet cannot. They see many things, have a perspective that is not given to us, have a divinely-given vocation to help those who inherit salvation, but they do not know personally the loving mercies of God in the sacrifice of "the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [us] to God".

The details of history are not withheld from angels. They attended our Lord in the wilderness and strengthened him in the garden of Gethsemane. Yet there are depths to his saving work that they cannot enter, cannot taste and see the goodness of a grace that bore our pains and our punishment. They have not been redeemed from the empty life of sin and its malign deceitfulness by the precious blood of the Lamb without blemish or defect.

Our privileges are beyond telling. And they are able to sustain us through days that may be bitter and bleak. The fulness of glory is yet to come, it remains in prospect, but we are truly blessed, doubly so, as heirs of the gracious gift of life.

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Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts,
Thou fount of life, Thou light of men,
From the best bliss that earth imparts,
We turn unfilled to Thee again.

Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood;
Thou savest those that on Thee call;
To them seek Thee Thou art good,
To them that find Thee, all in all.

We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the fountain-head,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Our restless spirits yearn for Thee
Where’er our changeful lot is cast;
Glad, when Thy gracious smile we see;
Blest, when our faith can hold Thee fast.

O Jesus, ever with us stay;
Make all our moments calm and bright;
Chase the dark night of sin away;
Shed o’er our souls Thy holy light.

(Latin, c. 11th century;
tr. by Ray Palmer, 1808-87)

Joy in the Journey (30) - In a city under siege

Throughout history, in times of war, cities have been besieged. Over weeks and months, even years, they have been surrounded and threatened, assaulted and devastated. Those within the city have experienced terrible suffering and distress. Buildings are pummelled apart, stone by stone. Resources cannot be replenished and inevitably, witheringly, run dry. In the most desperate of times, the lack of food has led to the weakest becoming prey in the cannibalism of despair. Freedom of movement has been completely withdrawn. Open hostility has been the daily diet. Threats unceasing and all hope draining away. Often the siege led to capitulation and surrender or to complete destruction.

In Psalm 31:21 David recalls a time when he was in “a city under siege” - a time of desperation for himself and for the nation. They knew the reality of a horror that goes beyond words. And that suffering was compounded in David’s mind by the alarming thought that he was cut off from God’s sight - invisible, irrelevant, disposed of.

Those experiences are not limited to such specific physical and social realities. Both as individuals and churches we can (and perhaps have) know something of what David meant and what others have experienced. The isolation; the threats and endless hostility. Our resources failing; every day the line dropping a little lower. Relationships descending into emotional and verbal cannibalism (Gal. 5:15). Stone by stone, life is taken apart.

And the capstone of despair: "I am cut off from your sight". Unseen by the Lord. Not in his sight; not on his heart. Could anything feel more empty or desolating than that?

Yet David’s words are a testimony to the grace of God. They are an expression of praise: at his point of need, when he was in that besieged city, “the LORD...showed me the wonders of his love”; far from being unseen by God, his cry for mercy and help was heard (v.22).

The LORD intervened - in wonderful love. Not to fulfil a contractual obligation but in deep, tender, covenant love. David was seen by the God of all comfort and Father of compassion; seen and helped and delivered. When there was no longer any hope, the LORD kept his saving promise.

David’s testimony is written, “to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4) - even when our lives feel like a city under siege; when our minds are assaulted; when the church seems to be on its last legs; when we believe that we are utterly invisible. The certain hope of mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. The certain hope that his eye is on this sparrow, in all its seeming insignificance and frailty.

Hope that does not, will never, put us to shame, even when besieged in life, because God’s love has flooded our hearts through the Holy Spirit he has gifted to us.

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Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
O'er the world's tempestuous sea;
Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us,
For we have no help but Thee;
Yet possessing every blessing
If our God our Father be.

Saviour, breathe forgiveness o'er us;
All our weakness Thou dost know;
Thou didst tread this earth before us,
Thou didst feel its keenest woe;
Lone and dreary, faint and weary,
Through the desert Thou didst go.

Spirit of our God, descending,
Fill our hearts with heavenly joy,
Love with every passion blending,
Pleasure that can never cloy;
Thus provided, pardoned, guided,
Nothing can our peace destroy.

(James Edmeston, 1791-1867)

Labelling those who turn up - and those who don't - this Sunday

If you're re-starting church in your building this Sunday, can I make this plea to you? You have, as a church leadership, and in consultation with your church membership presumably, made the decision to do so. You've taken all necessary precautions, listened to the best advice you can find and have decided to go for it. God bless your efforts. But, please, if members of your church choose, in good conscience, not to return yet, please don't label them 'unfaithful Christians'.

Please go the extra mile not to put pressure on them to conform their conscience to the decision that you and others have made. It isn't a simple equation of 'the church is gathering physically so if you can do so but choose not to then you're sinning'. Of course, you have never suggested that was the case, but that impression can be communicated in so many small and subtle ways - so you need to be very intentional about making sure no such pressure is felt. Bend over backwards if necessary. They are not weaker brothers and sisters; they have simply made a different choice to you and they have liberty in the Lord to do so. Don't they?

After all, we shouldn't imagine that all those who do gather physically are there because they are, obviously, the faithful ones. Maybe they're there because, against their better judgement, they think they owe it to you as their pastor/elders to do so. Perhaps they're there in fear - not of the virus so much as the disapproval of their brothers and sisters. Fearful of how they will be labelled. Being there for those reasons is not a matter of faith but of fear of man - and you know how that gets described in the Bible.

Faithful Christians? It's not a matter of dividing along lines of who came and who didn't. Surely we know that, don't we? It's not about those who have disappointed you and those who have supported you, right? You're comfortable with liberty of conscience, for all God's people, aren't you?

Learning from failure

Think 'preacher' for 'writer' and this remains spot-on:

It's often failure that forces the writer to reflect on why he has given himself to writing and why he will continue to. Success in writing, however that may be defined, doesn't always promote the right motives in the writer. And as unwelcomed as failure is, in it can lie lessons that will serve the writer well throughout his creative life.

Corey Latta, C S Lewis and the Art of Writing, p.142