Category Archives: Pastor’s Desk

A New Command

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

This edition of “Chronicles” has several articles referring to Pastor Colin and Judy and deservedly so! We shall greatly miss them and their amazing personalities. Our lives were immeasurably enriched just because we knew them and for that we are grateful to our loving Heavenly Father. We do not idolize them, but we do as the scripture calls upon in Romans 13:7 “Give everyone what you owe him: …if honour, then honour.”

I was just thinking about some of the things that I learned from Pastor Colin and one thing really stuck out for me. He would often remind me that we should be careful to tell people how much they mean to us while they are still alive. He would say that it’s pretty useless to wait for a funeral to hear how much people appreciate you. He would then proceed to tell me what I meant to him and I would then reciprocate. A little ritual we held every now and then!

But how true this is! I’m sure all of us have been to funerals where there is either so much syrup flowing from the eulogies that we do not recognize the person, or where we sit in regret that we did not say what we could have said while the person was still with us.

Of the more than 1000 commands found in the New Testament, there is only one which an author claims as “new”. The Apostle John records Jesus as saying: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34,35
The concept of loving one another has its roots in Jesus, our example giver. This was different to any other explanation, this was about the example that Jesus himself modelled for us. Totally un-deserving, totally unselfish, totally without reciprocity and very, very specific—one another. The spin off is obvious—the world will know!

How sad it is when we instead live in a world where Christian chews Christian and spits him out without a thought. A world in which the church spends a fortune in courts of law fighting against the church for their denominational or other rights. We are the laughing stock of the earth and will be until we decide to heed Christ’s new command. And it starts with appreciating one another.

Will you join me in 2016 in finding ways to value the people in our lives?

In His Presence

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

I am enjoying our “Journey through the Psalms” on a Sunday morning so much. Never before did I realize just how rich and complete the psalms actually are. It’s clearly no wonder that these were used by the ancient (and present) lovers of God to express their devotion, confidence in, inner feelings, fears, faith, hope and pure love for the God of Gods. They are filled with real life people, in real life situations, with real life questions and answers as they interact with a real life God.

One of the many questions which can be found in the Psalms is David’s human attempt to understand who is actually entitled to be found in God’s presence. In Psalm 15 he provides an answer to his question, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary”, listing 11 things:- blameless walk, does what is right, speaks truth, no slander, no wrong to neighbour, no slur against fellow man, despises a vile man, honours those who fear the LORD, keeps his word, lends money without interest, does not accept a bribe. That’s quite a list! It would become a burden above burdens were we to attempt to follow that for the sake of following it by the letter, every day, all day. If you think otherwise, just start with always walking blamelessly and always doing the right thing or being righteous. It’s just not going to happen—if you think you are then you’ve already missed the plot!

I prefer to think that these things are the fruit of true God-lovers. These things will follow those who follow hard after God, who love him with fullness of heart, soul, mind and strength. God’s attributes flowing through his people. The new covenant teaches us in many different ways that “It does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” It’s really all about what he has achieved on our behalf—his righteousness become ours because of what he has done for us. What a relief! My end of the agreement to is keep loving him and allowing him to change what needs to be changed. Co-operation with his ways, led by his Spirit is what’s needed, not an exhausting attempt to keep a list of rules and regulations.

When I look around at the practices of some “Christian” churches and see the cloaks of religious practice in order to please God, I am just so thankful that this is not what Jesus came for! I choose to enter His rest rather than my struggle.

WHO MAY DWELL?

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

I am enjoying our “Journey through the Psalms” on a Sunday morning so much. Never before did I realize just how rich and complete the psalms actually are. It’s clearly no wonder that these were used by the ancient (and present) lovers of God to express their devotion, confidence in, inner feelings, fears, faith, hope and pure love for the God of Gods. They are filled with real life people, in real life situations, with real life questions and answers as they interact with a real life God.

One of the many questions which can be found in the Psalms is David’s human attempt to understand who is actually entitled to be found in God’s presence. In Psalm 15 he provides an answer to his question, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary”, listing 11 things:- blameless walk, does what is right, speaks truth, no slander, no wrong to neighbour, no slur against fellow man, despises a vile man, honours those who fear the LORD, keeps his word, lends money without interest, does not accept a bribe. That’s quite a list! It would become a burden above burdens were we to attempt to follow that for the sake of following it by the letter, every day, all day. If you think otherwise, just start with always walking blamelessly and always doing the right thing or being righteous. It’s just not going to happen—if you think you are then you’ve already missed the plot!

I prefer to think that these things are the fruit of true God-lovers. These things will follow those who follow hard after God, who love him with fullness of heart, soul, mind and strength. God’s attributes flowing through his people. The new covenant teaches us in many different ways that “It does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” It’s really all about what he has achieved on our behalf—his righteousness become ours because of what he has done for us. What a relief! My end of the agreement to is keep loving him and allowing him to change what needs to be changed. Co-operation with his ways, led by his Spirit is what’s needed, not an exhausting attempt to keep a list of rules and regulations. When I look around at the practices of some “Christian” churches and see the cloaks of religious practice in order to please God, I am just so thankful that this is not what Jesus came for! I choose to enter His rest rather than my struggle.

PEACE!

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

“Peace” is a most interesting concept. To some it simply means the absence of conflict. To others it means the presence of systems which ensure order. As long as things are adding up and everything is working as it should, that would imply peace. People will sacrifice, fight and even die to ensure that peace is theirs to enjoy. I do believe that all humanity longs for peace. Who would not want to be left alone to live life quietly and comfortably without terror, crime and wars?

The biblical concept of peace is an interesting one. It may include some of the above, but it also encompasses a huge amount more. The Hebrew “shalom” includes such things as safeness, completeness, total health, satisfaction, companionship, tranquility, rest, prosperity and blessing. The Greek “eirene” adds the concept of being free from worry.

Jesus completely demonstrated this type of peace, oozing it wherever He went. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace! And He said that He would give it to us. The same peace which enabled Him to endure temptation, insult, the cross and even death, is the same peace which He offers to us today. It is not dependent on any external factor or specific conditions. It comes from Him and is valid whenever and wherever we find ourselves. Re-member the story of the violent storm when Jesus was asleep in the bottom of the boat. His disciples where absolutely terrified, and the Master just slept. He offers that to us!

Peace like that speaks of total trust in God, which we are only able to know when we understand who God actually is. As the psalmist declared in Psalm 9:10 “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Jesus invites us to follow Him, to learn from Him, to be yoked with Him. As we surrender ourselves completely to His sway over our lives, we will begin to enjoy the gift of peace which He promises to us. We do not serve and love Him in order to get something out of Him. Rather, as we serve and love Him, He pours out His very own life into ours. And the result of that is simply, WOW!

IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

One of those many weird, unanswerable ponder-ings in life for me, at any rate, is to attempt to fathom how we are able to be “in Christ” whilst at the same time, He is “in” us. The Bible says, for ex-ample, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” and also “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The clos-est explanation I can get to satisfy my pragmatic mind, is to think about a thoroughly soaked sponge in water. The sponge is in the wa-ter and the water is in the sponge. Not that the God who created this water should ever be compared to anything remotely like a mere facet of His creation, but at least it helps me to understand a little more how something can be in something else and at the same time be the thing that something else is in. Confused properly now?

The important thing is that we are in Him, and he is in us! He is our life. He is our past, our present and our future. He is everything we need, and we are the fulfilment of His plan for our lives. Nothing more, nothing less. In Acts 17:28 the Apostle Paul quotes the Greek poet, Aratus, from the first line of his poem on astronomy, “Phaenomena”, which is dedicated to the god Zeus as follows “For in him we live and move and have our being”. Obviously Paul was referring to the God who made the world and not Zeus, but he uses this line to emphasize the incredi-ble relationship we have with Al-mighty God. We live, we move, we have our being – all in Him!

I encourage you never to lose sight of the inexplicable closeness of God. He in us, we in Him. Through good times, through bad times, in celebration, in temptation. He is there! Our promised “Emmanuel”, “God with us” is a truth that, as believers, we should hold dear and high. God is not far removed from our human exist-ence, only popping in occasionally to see how bad things have got be-fore He shuts up shop. Rather, He in us, and we in Him, all the time, forever. Thank you, Jesus!

Paul