- Steve Richards
- Sep 6, 2019
As a World War Two historian, the month of September features large for me, one significant date being 15th September 1940, which is generally celebrated as Battle of Britain Day. The young Hurricane and Spitfire pilots of Fighter Command were immortalised in Winston Churchill’s words, ‘Never… was so much owed by so many to so few.’
Churchill’s early years saw him starved of parental affection but he found solace in his nanny, Elizabeth Everest, who, being a Christian believer, gave him spiritual input as well as the love he craved. In the light of this, I do wonder whether in 1940 he borrowed the concept of ‘the many’ set over against ‘the few’ from the words of Jesus.
Here’s what I mean: in the portion of Jesus’ teaching, known as the Sermon on the Mount, he presents a stark illustration: ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’
Now, as when Jesus first spoke those words, we find ourselves having to choose between two possibilities concerning him: either he knew what he was talking about in regards to things such as our eternal destiny, heaven and hell and God, or he was a deluded religious eccentric character from Middle Eastern history.
Jesus’ teaching becomes even more astounding when he says that he is himself that ‘narrow gate’ through which he tells us to enter, and he is that ‘narrow road’ which leads to life. It is not hard to see why he says that only a ‘few’ find it, leaving ‘many’ opting for the easier ‘broad’ option, which doesn’t require having to stake their lives on what he says.
Christians are those people described as the ’few’ who have entered into a new life by putting their faith, their trust and their hope in Jesus; the one who opens the small gate for them and leads them along the narrow road to a final happy ever after end. That narrow road is far from a joyless slog. I have been on it for 40 years and find it most engaging! While travelling, Christians are given resources by Jesus according to their individual ability. He wants these resources (or gifts) to be used in a faithful way that will honour God and help others.
Just as the Christian way starts with the concept of ‘few’ and ‘many’, so it finishes in like manner. Speaking of the end of the Christian’s journey, we read in the Gospel of Matthew, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’
Those Battle of Britain pilots seemed pitifully few as they fought against the larger German Air Force, but they took courage and did what they believed to be right. Will we follow their example of courage and conviction, irrespective of whether we be in the minority or majority, and take Jesus at his word?
- Steve Richards
- Aug 9, 2019
‘Lord I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief’. This was the exclamation of a father whose seriously disturbed son needed to be delivered from his affliction. The father was responding to the challenge of Jesus who had said, ‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’
How many ‘seekers’ after God could benefit from this father’s heartfelt prayer, ‘Lord I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief’’? Often Christian believers pray a similar prayer as they seek to grow in their faith in Jesus.
Doubtless, in a moment of anguish or crisis, many people will have cried out to the God they don’t believe in. Some will have received what they might have expected – nothing; others may have received the help that their distrust in God didn’t warrant. This being so, it seems rather hit and miss. The Bible, however, offers us a firm basis for reaching out to the God who can meet our real needs.
Firstly, we are told to, ‘…understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.’ Is that so hard? To my knowledge, no one has ever put forward a robust alternative as to what brought the universe into being.
Secondly, and again from the same chapter in the Bible, the next foundation block is equally reasonable, ‘…anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.’ At this point there is a promise to us that God will not turn a deaf ear to anyone who will deal with him earnestly; that there is a reward to be given in due time.
This notion of seeking and reward were confirmed in the familiar words of Jesus, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.’
Jesus was speaking to people like us who were to pursue God’s agenda for their lives in a way that honours him with the promise that, if we do, we will not be left to go it alone; we will be rewarded with God’s provision, help and strength, not to mention joy and wonder. Can we believe this? Can we trust this? ‘Lord I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.’
- Steve Richards
- Jul 5, 2019
‘Whenever we go into town as a family you’re always wandering off and getting lost.’ We are in a Cotswolds tearoom reminiscing about previous holidays and my wife is addressing our eldest daughter.
Daughter - ‘No, I’m not lost. I always know exactly where I am!’
Mother (a little indignantly) - ‘Well, you were lost to me.’
It was just good-humoured family banter. We were each feeling relaxed and enjoying a long weekend in the Cotswolds.
The area has a long history in the wool trade and there are still many sheep to be seen, heard and smelt! As one who reads the Bible quite a bit, the proximity of so many sheep invariably turns my thinking towards those verses (and there are very many of them) which use the analogy of sheep and Shepherd. Probably the most famous portion using this theme is Psalm 23 ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I’ll not want’. In the New Testament, Jesus tells of the lost sheep which the Shepherd, leaving the 99, goes in search of and, having found it, carries it back home to the flock. Now, here’s the thing, did that sheep consider itself lost or is the point of the story that it was lost to the Shepherd?
At this point I’ll go back to our weekend away in the Cotswolds and to the caravan site where we were staying. My other daughter and I had just come out of the toilet block when we came across a lady who was obviously lost and a little bewildered. It turned out that she had been in the laundry room, which is integral to the other toilet block on the site. Having discovered that she needed coins to operate the washing machine, she walked out and headed for the site office to change a banknote. In the event, she took the wrong pathway and eventually came across the second toilet block; that bamboozled her. She now realised that she was lost but she had, in reality, been lost from the moment she started off in the wrong direction.
We may go for a long time not considering ourselves to be lost souls. God, on the other hand, says, ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way’. In other words, as far as God is concerned, we are lost to him. It is for this reason that he sends Jesus as the Good Shepherd who goes out looking for his own lost sheep. He is even calling them by name because he knows them; indeed, according to the Bible, he has known them from before time even began. Is that an attractive notion to you? It certainly is to me.
Many, like my eldest daughter at the beginning of this article, are affronted when it is suggested that they are lost. The lady on the caravan site had to walk its full length before she realised her lost predicament. God is for today and in his word, the Bible, discourages us from having to walk the full length of this life before we come to realise our spiritual predicament.
He has sent Jesus to be the Good Shepherd. Jesus is still calling people back to God’s flock. Do you recognise his voice? We may be assured that he wants people like you and me to be able to say, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’.