- Mar 3, 2016
I am one of the ‘undecided’ in respect of the forthcoming referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Based upon what the Bible tells us about the shortcomings of human nature, I do not believe that a group of more than two dozen nations could ever function as one. When push comes to shove, human nature being what it is, I think each nation will still put its own well-being ahead of the whole.
I know that I am being sceptical. Critics level similar scepticism even contempt, towards Christianity, pointing to the many denominations which they see as failing to be one united worldwide church. It has been reported that there are more than 2000 Protestant denominations in the USA alone! On balance I would concede the point. I recently spoke with a lady who told me that when she came from the Punjab to this country, she was amazed that there were many ‘Christian religions’ not just one as she had previously thought; a mistaken notion resulting from denominationalism.
So what is really meant by the Christian Church? At the purist level I would say it is an umbrella term for all the individual people who have reached a point of personal trust in Jesus Christ as the one who mends their fractured relationship with God. They have turned away from things that would impair this restored relationship and may well have made a public declaration of their faith by being baptised. As with any group of people who have a common interest and goal, they will gravitate towards people like themselves. In this way, local churches are established. From here they reach out to the wider community wanting to bring in others. This is a natural thing we all do when we discover something important - we want to share it.
While Christians have lost confidence in the ability of their own human nature to live life as God intends, they are now a work in progress as he sets about working within them. One thing God does is to place them in local churches so that they might learn, as the song says, ‘to know him more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more nearly’. Does this stir your heart? If so, are you in a local church and, if not, I urge you to find one that feeds your soul. However, remember that the people you meet there are a mixed bag. They will be at differing points on their Christian journey and some will not yet have begun it.
- Feb 5, 2016
It is hardly surprising that people struggle with the idea of belief in God when they see the tragedies and upheavals caused by wars, both now and in the past, which are apparently conducted in the name of God. A couple of weeks ago it was Holocaust Remembrance; did you know that Hitler, in his skewed reasoning, thought that by killing Jews he was doing a service for God?
Yet, asked whether they believe in God, about half of the people in this country answer in the affirmative. What do we mean when we say that we believe in God? Some will mean that they are prepared to acknowledge the existence of something they call God which lies behind the visible world; perhaps an impersonal force or maybe a grandfather-like being. This definition of belief is like when I say that I believe in the existence of the planet Neptune, even though I have neverseen it.
To say that I believe simply in the existence of something falls short of what Christians mean when they say that they believe in God. The Bible has little time for such narrow expressions of belief. ‘So, you believe in the existence of God do you? Big deal, so does the devil and his minions!’ (paraphrase of James 2 verse 19).
First and foremost, Christians believe in a person. If you have a doctor, friend or relative that you trust implicitly, then you might express that trust by declaring, ‘I believe in him (or her) absolutely.’ This is how it is when Christians say that they believe in Jesus – a belief which expresses itself in trust.
‘Hold on,’ someone may say, ‘I thought we were talking about belief in God and now you have switched it to belief in Jesus.’ Yes, that is quite right. Jesus asserts that he is the way to God and that if we will trust him, he is able to sort out and fully satisfy every issue that would cause God to keep his distance from us. This is why God, loving a world made up of people who were ignorant of him, sent his own Son Jesus that we might trust in Him and come to know God as our Father in heaven. This being the case means that trust in Jesus is, at one and the same time, trust in God himself.
So next time you hear or see some news item that tempts you to despair of belief in God, perhaps you will blame man’s ignorance of the true God. You may then wish to consider Jesus who says that he can change our hearts, bring us to God and, step by step, give us renewed thinking.
- Jan 1, 2016
Traditionally, this week will see many churches presenting sermons based around the account of the wise men from the east who travelled to Israel in search of the infant destined to become King. This visitation of wise men, probably Kings in their own right, makes a stark contrast with the peasant shepherds who had visited the baby Jesus earlier. What we see here is the availability of Jesus to all sorts of people. With the shepherds and wise men, we see Jesus available to Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles); peasants and nobility. Often it is those men and women we would consider to be at the low end of the social pecking order, who are more willing to give their attention to Jesus.
It is with some irony that Jesus would speak to the religious nobility of his day saying, ‘look, the tax collectors and prostitutes (a euphemism for those who were social outsiders) are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you.’
I believe that in 2016, we in Europe may well witness a similar irony. At a time when indigenous Europeans are, for the most part, indifferent to the availability of Jesus Christ, we have seen hundreds of thousands of ‘visitors’ coming from the east. Many of these migrants will hear, for the first time, of how Jesus can bring us to the one true God. Some are arriving as economic migrants with others being genuine refugees. Whichever they are, as both groups are currently unencumbered by the pitfalls and distractions we enjoy in the West, it may well prove easier for them than it is for us to welcome the new life with God that Jesus offers. I have in mind what Jesus said, ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God’. A hyperbole yes, but it is there to drive home a point.
If this talk of migrants and Jesus sounds a little fanciful let me refer to a Lebanese pastor currently working with Syrian refugees in Bourj Hammoud. He quotes refugees as saying, ‘We thank God that we lost our houses, we thank God that we left our country. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have heard about Jesus, and that God is our father and loves us.” This pastor says, ‘I have a word for Europe. They are going in millions to Germany, to Britain, to all Europe. You should now move quickly for them, show them love. Tell them about Jesus. If we don’t do it quickly, their hearts will become rocky…’
As these migrants welcome the Christian gospel perhaps they should be considered wise men and women from the east!