Recent questions

Covid willing?

Have you had to change any plans over the last year?  That probably sounds like a stupid question in the light of Covid19!  Businesses had to stop trading, people stopped travelling, diaries full of plans were cancelled.

Did you feel aggrieved about this?  Even when plans have to change for a good reason, we can find it hard to let go of them.

The book of James in the Bible has some advice on planning ahead.  We are given a scenario:  Somebody has big plans for their future.  They are going to travel to a town, spend a year there trading and make a big profit.  They have their life mapped out for a whole year.  Yet James 4:14 begins: yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.   It’s true – we don’t!  James continues:  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that”. If the Lord wills… only God knows whether or not we will live to see another day.

God is eternal, so He can look forward in a way that we can’t.  When God makes plans, they happen.  Saying “Covid willing” is not a very accurate summing up of the situation.  It is God who is able to make things happen, not Covid.  “God willing” is a phrase that makes a lot more sense.  We can rely on God to change the world in a way that is beyond the power of any human on this earth.

Bible quotes are from the ESV.

Can faith make you well?

The man was desperate.  His only child lay dying.  Hearing that a man who was able to heal all sorts of diseases was in town, he ran out of the house to find him.  It wasn’t difficult – he was the one surrounded by crowds of people.  Pushing his way to the centre, he begged him to help.

They were heading for his house when Jesus stopped.  “Who touched me?”, he asked.  His friends were amazed that he would ask that, when so many people were pushing to get close to him!  Perhaps the sick child’s father felt even more anxious, “Hurry, hurry!”   But Jesus was determined to identify the person who had touched him.  Suddenly a woman stumbled out of the crowd, falling down on the ground in front of them.  She’d had an embarrassing complaint, loss of blood that had plagued her for twelve years, and now she was explaining how she had been healed by touching the hem of the Jesus’ robe.  Maybe the anxious father was desperate to get Jesus to his house, but maybe hearing this woman’s story gave him courage.

Jesus spoke kindly to the woman, “Your faith has made you well!”.  Now they could continue on their way.

Luke chapter 8:40 – 56 tells us what happened.  The child had actually died when Jesus got there, but he could still heal her.  Soon the thankful parents were rejoicing to see their daughter alive and well.

No wonder the man, Jairus, was anxious.  We don’t expect anyone to recover from death!

Jesus himself was betrayed and executed as a criminal.  It broke the hearts of those who were close to him.  They had seen him raise people from the dead, but now he had gone.

Yet he had told them this would happen.  They hadn’t wanted to believe it.  He had also told them that after 3 days he would rise from the dead – and it happened!  Jairus’ daughter didn’t live forever after she was healed, but Jesus would not die again.

Jesus wasn’t just a healer. He taught people how they should live, and he promised that death would not be the end for those who lived by the word he spoke.   There were those before the time of Jesus who understood that God was going to send a Saviour to the earth.  Some of them are mentioned in the book of Hebrews. “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised…” (Hebrews 11:13).  The return of Jesus could happen at any time, but it won’t matter if we die first.  Dying in faith means that God will remember us and we can be confident that Jesus will raise us from death when he comes. Our faith can make us well!

Bible quotes are from the ESV.

Is it too late to save the world?

In February 2021, Sir David Attenborough told the UN Security Council, “There is no going back – no matter what we do now, it’s too late to avoid climate change and the poorest, the most vulnerable, those with the least security, are now certain to suffer.”

This makes the future seem very bleak.  Whatever we think about climate change, there is no doubt that there are many problems that appear to have no solution.  How do you deal with that?

Some people focus on keeping occupied so that things that are beyond their control are not allowed to take up space in their minds. Others feel so low that they have no motivation to do anything.  Then there are those who put their energies into trying to improve the situation.

There is a fourth option.  Sir David Attenborough is speaking from the viewpoint of someone who assumes the world will continue as it is now, albeit with some deterioration.  The apostle Peter wrote about this idea, “… all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation”.  (2 Peter 3 v4)

Does God care?

The fact is, things haven’t continued as they were from the beginning, and Peter points this out in the next verses.  God is still very much involved with His creation.  He has not abandoned it, and He has plans for the earth.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah put it like this: “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45 v18)

The big picture

When we can’t see the big picture, it is easy to be shaken by the destruction we see in the earth.  What we don’t see is God preparing for change.  “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45 v 22)

The fourth option is to believe that God will not allow man to destroy the earth.  He has promised: “…For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water” (Isaiah 35:6-7).  There is no going back, but there is definitely a future.

Bible quotes are from the ESV.

Don’t You See?

Different people learn in different ways.  Some of us find it helps to write things down; others can remember things better if they move about.  Many of us need something visual to help us understand.

In this particular group, they were a bit slow to get what the teacher was telling them.  He was a patient man.  He realised that sometimes people have to be shown rather than told.

We forgot the bread!

The disciples of Jesus had not taken enough bread with them for their journey.  This was taking up all of their attention, but Jesus was trying to teach them something.  “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?”, he asked. (Mark 8:18).  He knew they were having to learn fast, and sometimes they forgot the amazing things he had already shown them – even the fact that he had fed 4,000 people from a very limited resource.  The crowd had enjoyed the free meal, but many weren’t really interested in what Jesus had to say.  Now his own disciples were worrying about having only one loaf, when there had been baskets full of leftovers after that miraculous meal!  Jesus simply wanted them to focus on his message.

Do you see anything?

They reached a village and a blind man was brought to Jesus.  He led him out of the village, spat on his eyes and laid his hands on him.  “Do you see anything?”, he asked.  “I can see a bit”, was the response.  The figures he could see walking around looked more like trees than people.  Jesus laid his hands on him again, and he could see clearly.

Why did Jesus do it like that?  He could easily have healed him with one word or touch.  “Having eyes do you not see…?”  He was showing his disciples that it can take time to see things clearly.

Don’t give up!

Jesus never gave up on his disciples when they were slow to learn, and he won’t give up on us either.  Don’t be put off if the Bible seems complex.  Like the disciples, we can learn if we persevere.  It is the message God wants us to read, so that we can be ready for the things He has planned for the earth.  Now that will be worth seeing!

Bible quotes are from the ESV.

Is Life Unfair?

There was a man who seemed to have everything.  Then suddenly he lost it all.  His wealth was taken from him, his children were killed in a freak accident and finally he was struck by a disfiguring skin disease.  As he sat there, stunned and grief-stricken,  his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  His reply was surprising: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

The man was called Job and we can find his book in the middle of the Old Testament of the Bible.  His suffering continued for most of the book, with three of his friends supposedly coming to comfort him, but instead trying to work out what terrible thing he had done to merit such punishment.

Job knew he wasn’t faultless, but he also knew that he had been doing his best to be upright and blameless before God.  His friends tried to guess what terrible things he might have done, and became increasingly frustrated by Job’s insistence that he had never done any of them.   To them, bad things only happened to people who deserved it.

In your experience, is this true?

Karma

People speak of “karma”, the idea that events in our lives are directly related to our actions.  The Bible doesn’t teach this.  Our lives have ups and downs and some people seem to have more “downs” than others.  We might wonder why some people enjoy life while others suffer.

Jesus explained to his disciples that those who make an outward show of being good people are getting it wrong.  If somebody is kind and giving in secret, God sees.  Those who are ostentatious about their giving “have received their reward” (Matthew ch 6:2).  They need not expect any more, because they have chosen to reward themselves instead of waiting for God to do it.

A greater reward

Jesus taught about a much greater reward than anything we will receive in this life. What happens to us now is temporary.  When the Lord Jesus returns and raises the dead, he will reward people according to God’s view of them.  Not only can He see what we do, but why we do it.

Job went through a terrible time, but ultimately God rewarded him for his steadfastness, and his friends realised they had been wrong.  His story is there to show us that God is “compassionate and merciful” (James ch 5:11).

Bible quotes are from the ESV.

Can the world be reset?

Have you ever wanted to just erase the past 24 hours?  Perhaps you wish you could go back to the moment before you said or did something.  We all feel like that sometimes.

Think back over the last 12 months.  With hindsight, political leaders would probably have done things differently.  None of us could have predicted how the COVID-19 crisis would unfold.

The fact is, we can’t erase the past.  We can only try to do things better in the future.  This is the thinking behind the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset Initiative”.  The idea is to have a more uniform approach to the pressures and uncertainties of life, building “a new social contract”.

Has this ever been tried before?

Actually, yes.  The difference was that it was not a group of nations trying to work together.  God reset the whole world, and the account is given to us right back in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6 v 5).  The result was that the whole earth was flooded, and only 8 people, the man Noah and his family, were saved.

Jesus referred to this when telling his disciples about the future: “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark…” (Matthew 24: 37 & 38).

“You do not know on what day your Lord is coming”

Jesus said that we need to be looking for him now.  In Matthew chapter 25, he gives various examples of people who are prepared … or not!

Jesus spoke of it being like a burglary.  If the householder had known the burglar was coming, he would have been ready.  Yet the return of Jesus to set up God’s Kingdom will be a good thing.

What will this “reset” be like?

The World Economic Forum wants to address the problems of “inconsistencies, inadequacies and contradictions of multiple systems”.  Jesus will do this.  Does that seem too good to be true?  The Bible says it will be better than we can possibly imagine!

Bible quotes are from the ESV.

Praying –  is it worth it?

There was a large group of them gathered together in a house, but this was no party.  None of them smiled; some looked frightened and it was clear that they hadn’t slept for some time.  They had come together to pray, and had been doing so for hours.  Sometimes they prayed in silence and sometimes one of them tried to put into words what they were all thinking.

It was dark outside, as one would expect in the middle of the night.  When the knock came, they all froze.  After a pause, a girl went to see who was there.  Before she could open the door, she heard a familiar voice from outside.  Instead of opening up, she dashed back to the others waiting in the house.  “Rhoda, what is it?”, asked one of them.  She was grinning from ear to ear and could hardly speak.  “It’s Peter!”, she gasped.  The others shook their heads sadly.  It couldn’t be Peter.  He was in prison, due to be executed the next day.  That was why they had gathered together to pray for him.  But the knocking continued.

Rhoda wouldn’t be silenced.  “It is! It’s him! Come and see!”, she shouted, grabbing hold of the nearest arm.  When they reached the entrance, they could hear laughter.  Drawing back the bolts, they opened the heavy wooden door and there was Peter, looking highly amused. “Didn’t you think your prayers might be answered?”

You can read the full story in Acts chapter 12.  Many times in the Bible we read of people praying.  Their despair, joy, fear, trust, hope or gratitude come across clearly.  It is never the wrong time to pray.  But we can’t assume that God’s answer will be “yes” all the time, which is why some think praying is a waste of time.

Think of it as a parent knowing what their child needs.  Sometimes he asks for things that would be a bad idea.  He doesn’t like it when the answer is “no”, but the parent is actually showing love by denying his request.  God’s answer might not be what we expect.  Hindsight will reveal that He has cared for us, even through the darkest times.

Bible quotes are from the ESV.