“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.”
(2 Chronicles 7: 14)
As we together make decisions that will in many ways shape the directions for our church over the coming months of a very difficult season, it is timely to remind ourselves that we make these decisions under God and that it is our relationship with Him, both individually and collectively, that will determine above all else what our church will be like in the future. We therefore today, of all days, should follow God’s word and humble ourselves before Him, pray and seek His face, turn from our sin and receive His forgiveness and allow Him to direct and control by His Spirit all that we are, do and say.
“The Lord is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113: 4 – 6)
Our God is a life transforming God. This psalm talks of a God who raises up the poor and needy, who turns barrenness into fulfillment, who gives new hope and new life. Whatever our needs, physical, spiritual or emotional, this is OUR God and He will meet us wherever and whenever we call upon Him. As our modern song puts it: “There is no-one like our God, no-one at all.” As we read this Psalm, however, we see one other key thought emerge…our response to this wonderful God. “Praise the Lord…Praise the name of the Lord…From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the Lord’s name is to be praised…Praise the Lord.”
May we be a people of praise as we acknowledge with joy in our worship who our God is and all He has done for us.
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”
(Philippians 1: 9 – 11)
To be more like Jesus. To know God more and more, to understand more of His wonderful love and His faultless ways, to receive more and more of the gifts of insight and discernment that come through the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit, to live lives of purity and righteousness, as He equips and enables. What more can we ask for ourselves and for one another? As a church, we aim to be a body of Christ-like people. Even in these most trying of days, let us all seek this as our goal, that we each become more like our Lord, to the glory and praise of God.
“A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’” (Isaiah 40: 3 – 5)
Words that are often associated prophetically with John the Baptist, but which challenge us today to consider how each one of us can play a part in our own community, and in our own time, in preparing the way for the Lord to be proclaimed. Do we believe that in Ashfield, in Sydney, in Australia, in 2020, in the middle of the worst crisis faced by our country and world in many generations, the glory of the Lord can and will be revealed here in our midst and that people of our generation will come to know Him? Are we therefore willing to be the mouthpieces through whom God can speak in our day? Will we prepare the way of the Lord and make Him known around us? In the wilderness that is our world, God can use even the least of us to be His witnesses. He promises His spirit to help us and give us the power and strength that we cannot find in ourselves. May we today resolve with His help to rise to the challenge and truly become people in whom and through whom our world will see our God, our Lord and our Saviour.
“Show me your ways , O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from old.”
(Psalm 25: 4 – 6)
Everywhere we turn these days, there are “experts” trying to tell us how we should live, how we should deal with a whole range of issues in our lives, offering us one pat solution after another, all trying to suggest that their way is the best for us. Little wonder then that people feel so confused! These verses remind us that there is only one true source of wisdom and understanding, the one who made us and, in whose image, we are created. We all need help. We all need counsel and guidance. When that happens in our lives, let us seek no further than the living word of God Himself, turning afresh to Him, so that by His Holy Spirit at work in us, He may teach and enlighten us and show us His perfect way for us
“He (the Lord) gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble or fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”
(Isaiah 40: 29 – 31)
What wonderful words of encouragement are found in this familiar passage from Isaiah. All of us surely know from our own experience what it is like to reach the end of our capability, to feel as if we simply can’t go on any more, as if every last vestige of strength and capacity has ebbed out from us. But there is One whose strength never runs out, who is always there for us, no matter what. And when we put our hope in God, we can draw on that strength to an infinite level; yes, His strength will never run out and we will find in Him new energy, new power, a new ability to soar high above anything that the world and its pressures can throw against us.
“Lord God, you give us Jesus, you come into the world in the form we understand, you travel with us on the journey from birth to death. Help us to know and trust in Jesus our brother, so that we may enter into his way of obedience and, having passed through the tests of life, join in your feast of joy at the end. Amen.” (Bernard Thorogood, in A Treasury of Prayer)
What is the Christian life? What does it mean to be a Christian? How does our faith work out and survive in such testing times as we live in right now? It always seems to come back to this. T the end of the day, being a Christian is about a relationship. Not a set of rules, not a particular set of behaviours… but a relationship. A very special relationship at that – a relationship with God through His own Son, Jesus Christ – all made possible as a consequence of God’s love for us and our response to that love. In that relationship, Jesus walks with us day by day, sharing our every experience, our trials, our sorrows, our joys. Unseen, in human terms, but a presence so real that we could reach out spiritually and touch him, he’s that close to us. Are you in that kind of relationship with Jesus? If not, perhaps as we worship together today, you might want to ask him into your life and begin that walk with him.
Today is the first day of the rest of your (eternal) life!
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 4: 6, 7)
In times of great trouble, many of even marginal faith choose to turn to prayer, to pour out their innermost thoughts and concerns to God and in the hope that they might receive God’s answers to their prayers. To the Christian, prayer offers both intimacy and certainty in our relationship with our loving Heavenly Father. As the hymn writer Joseph Scriven said many years ago: ‘What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.’
May we come more and more to depend on both the power and the intimacy of prayer so that our own personal relationships with God may truly grow and deepen.
“Praise the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD; praise Him, you servants of the LORD, you who minister in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to His name for that is pleasant… I know that the LORD is great, that our LORD is greater than all gods…Your name O LORD, endures forever.” (from Psalm 135)
It is always good to praise the name of God, to recognise and publicly acknowledge His greatness and all His goodness to us. Particularly with Easter still very much in our thoughts, we continue to give thanks for the gift of His Son, the very personification of His love, His grace and His mercy, and for the mighty power displayed in the raising of Jesus to life from the tomb. Today too, we give thanks to God for new directions and opportunities, even though now born out of the most difficult of circumstances. But there is still an opportunity to move out in faith to build our ministries to individuals and families in our community even though for now we are not able to use our more “traditional” methods of reaching out and instead seek new ways to engage with those around about us. Amid the uncertainties, we gratefully give thanks for all that has prepared us for this day and look forward to the blessings that lie ahead for the Church and community.
“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways, O God, may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, O God, may all the peoples praise you.”
(Psalm 67: 1 – 3)
What a momentous year this looks like being for us all, sadly not for the most positive of reasons as we see life disrupted in our churches and across our communities. This should give us all the more reason to turn to our God and put our trust fully in His mighty hands. As the year unfolds, and we all come to terms with our new realities, let us despite the very obvious hardships, all seek to capture something of the Psalmist’s sense of enthusiasm to celebrate God and what He has done for us and to joyfully share this good news with those whom we meet in our daily lives.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one, as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them, even as you have loved me.”
(John 17: 20 – 23)
Jesus in those last momentous hours before going to the cross prays for his disciples and for all those who will come after them as the message of God’s love and salvation is passed on from generation to generation. And what a vision he presents in this prayer. Perfect unity. Father, Son and God’s family, the heirs of salvation, the Church, working together in spiritual union so that others too may come to know and experience God’s love for themselves and thus give glory back to God Himself. The church is not a building; it is the body of Christ in action in our world, no matter what.
“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what He has done.” (Psalm 9: 9 – 11)
A wonderful word of reassurance from God’s word today. Oppression can come in many ways and from many directions. It can come from people, from governments, sometimes even from within families, communities and social groupings where ordinarily we might feel safe and free from the forces of oppression. Sometimes oppression comes from circumstances as we find ourselves seemingly hemmed in and helpless in the face of events over which we have no control. Where is God in all this? The Psalmist reminds us of God’s presence, His strength and His faithfulness to us no matter what may be going on in our lives. He is the one who will never forsake us. His love and care go on and on through everything. Truly He is the one to be praised and worshipped. He is the one whose message of forgiveness and salvation we take to the world.
“Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself: ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him’.”
(Lamentations 3: 22 – 24)
It is always good to remind ourselves of the greatness of God’s love. In a world where everything is changing so fast, how reassuring to be able to put all our hope and faith in the one constant in our world – the character and nature of Almighty God Himself. Yet these verses remind us that every day brings new challenges, new experiences, new joys, new sorrows. At the same time, the love and compassion of God, as we know them and have proved them in the person of our Saviour Jesus, just keep on renewing every day, just the same as the one before, and the one before.
His character is to be faithful to His Word and to his promises. Whatever is going on around us in our daily lives, no matter how full of turmoil and confusion they may seem to be, the unchanging faithfulness of God, the evidence and proof of His love for each of us His people, is there to provide the constancy and certainty that we so much seek.
“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, His holy mountain. It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King… Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation. For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even unto the end.” (Psalm 48: 1,2 12 – 14)
These verses from Psalm 48 help us to get a vision of the greatness of God, the Eternal Father, Creator of heaven and earth. They also remind us that if we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and we are building that relationship with Him through reading the Bible and through prayer, He wants to develop that relationship so that He is able to guide us through all the issues of life, where He shows us His perfect will for us, and helps us grow our faith so that we can be obedient and follow Him.
“Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”
(2 Timothy 1: 12)
What is it that motivates someone to keep on going in the face of extraordinary pressure and even persecution? The apostle Paul knew what it was like to be abused, to be threatened, to be imprisoned and in fear of his life. Yet his faith remained firm and his confidence strong in face of everything that could be thrown against him. What kept him going? Not what, but who! Paul had met Jesus in a very special way… an encounter which totally and utterly transformed his life. Jesus was his motivation and Paul knew that Jesus was so totally trustworthy that he could put not just his immediate earthly future in the hands of Jesus but his eternal future as well. Jesus has secured our eternal salvation if we believe and receive him into our lives