- Steve Richards
- Jan 5, 2018
So, we now know that Brexit will be visible to millions of Britons in that their passports will change from a burgundy colour to a blue one. I know that this ages me, but when this pronouncement about passports was made a couple of weeks ago, I immediately thought of the lyrics from a George Harrison song…
You don't need no passport And you don't need no visas You don't need to designate or to emigrate Before you can see Jesus If you open up your heart You'll see he's right there Always was and will be…
George was clearly spiritually aware by the time he had penned these lines in 1970. Although I cannot embrace his religious philosophies, I can welcome the lyrics quoted above. Indeed, we don’t need a passport or a visa to enter the Kingdom of God. There are no restrictions based on nationality, ethnicity, criminal history, nor financial or social status. This does not mean, however, that the actual passage into God’s Kingdom (God’s Heaven) is a free-for-all affair.
People are used to thinking of the fanciful image of St Peter standing guard at the pearly gates vetting who will enter and who will be turned away. Christians prefer to stick to biblical teaching about such things. Here we do find a divide at the point of entry, but not one that is based on brownie points accrued on the ‘goodness’ scale. Instead, Christians are trusting in Jesus Christ to personally vouch for them before God both now and into eternity. Jesus himself is their passport into his Father’s kingdom. The Gospel writer, John, assures us that Jesus and his Father are one in this matter. ‘who ever acknowledges me before other people,’ says Jesus, ‘ I will acknowledge them before my Father in heaven.’
Men and women have been known to pay a high price to secure a British passport. Jesus paid with his life to become the passport which brings his people to God.
If you want to know more, why not resolve, at the start of 2018, to seek out a church which runs sessions such as Christianity Explored; the Alpha course or the Uncover course.
- Steve Richards
- Dec 1, 2017
Leonardo da Vinci’s painting entitled ‘Jesus Saviour of the World’ has sold at auction in New York for £341 million. Sixty years ago the same item sold in London for a mere £45! Back then, the painting was judged by experts to be a mere copy.
When Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago, the religious and legal experts heard what Jesus said and saw what he did. However, they reckoned him to be a pretender. Yes, they were waiting for the coming of a Saviour (or Messiah) for their nation, but Jesus simply was not ticking what they considered to be the right boxes.
Now, over the period of a few decades, the experts have come to recognise the genuineness of Leonardo’s painting ‘Jesus Saviour of the World’; they have given it their validation so that it has become the most costly painting ever sold. Question: Has the Jesus of 2000 years ago ever been similarly validated, or were the experts of the day correct in saying that he wasn’t the genuine article?
The validation that Jesus was indeed the promised Saviour/Messiah comes from God himself. After Jesus had been put to death as a blasphemer and fraud, God raised him to life three days later. He had never done that before, nor has he done it since. God would not have performed such a feat for someone who wasn’t the real deal.
At Christmas, Christians celebrate the arrival of Jesus the Saviour of the World. The Jews were expecting someone to come and save their nation, but God has a bigger agenda. It is one that encompasses not just people of a single nation, but people from all nations, hence Jesus is known as Saviour of the World.
He has come to save men and women from living lives where God simply isn’t in their picture. He tells us not to settle for some image of God that has no more life than paint on a canvas. Instead we are told to acquire the genuine and most costly article which is Jesus himself and for this we don’t need money. We can receive him as our saviour in the way prescribed by the traditional carol In The Bleak Mid-winter: ‘What can I give, poor as I am? ...what I can, I give Him; give my heart.’
- Steve Richards
- Nov 3, 2017
When I was still in short trousers, there was a song out which I liked. It was performed by the Teddy Bears. The first lines went like this:‘To know, know, know him, is to love, love, love him. Just to see him smile, makes my life worth while.’ A song by teenagers for teenagers and the sentiment went something like this: Girl gets to know boy in such a way that she can’t help falling in love with him hook, line and sinker. Now her only desire in life is to bring him joy.
Press the rewind button and go from the light pop culture of the 1950s to Westminster Abbey in the mid-1600s. Here, Parliament had commissioned a gathering of clergy and theologians to work on putting together a written confession of Christian faith. The aim was to consolidate the reforms that had swept through the Church of England over the previous century or so. It was done in a question and answer style. Listen to the first tenet.
Question: ‘What is the chief end of man?’ In other words, ‘why are we here?’
Answer: ‘The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.’
Both the Teddy Bears and the devout Christian-thinkers at Westminster Abbey made a similar connection between knowing someone, loving them and desiring the other party’s joy.
What that question and answer states is simple yet profound, because it says why we are here.
Unlike any other creatures, we are uniquely equipped to come to know God, which leads to our loving and adoring him. This in turn WILL show itself in our wanting to bring him pleasure. It’s not one-way traffic either, for God himself knows us, loves us and desires for us to enjoy a relationship with him.
Going back to the Teddy Bears’ lyric, girl meets boy and gets to know him sounds natural enough, but how does a man or woman get to meet God and start to know him? This is where Christianity is unique in that it directs us to Jesus. It is he who spoke and acted in such a way as to say, ‘if you want to know what God is like just look at what I do and listen to my words.’ In essence Jesus was saying, ‘Know me and you know God.’
We meet Jesus, and through him God, when we hear about him or read about him, and God’s own Spirit speaks to our hearts, pricks at our conscience and challenges our mindset. If we will sincerely follow through with this introduction, then we may anticipate experiencing a two-way loving relationship with him, where each side desires to be the joy of the other.