Be Still And Know

Hebrews 4:16 Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I only spoke with HRH Queen Elizabeth II on one occasion. I had the privilege of attending a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and afterwards there were refreshments. I was chatting with a couple of friends and suddenly saw the Queen approaching us. It became clear that I was the person who needed to speak first. I anxiously tried to call to mind the correct way of addressing her. She then asked various kind questions and I felt frankly overwhelmed. I had never imagined that I would actually get to speak with her. However, as the Queen herself would have acknowledged, our God is of infinitely greater power and significance. In our verse today we are told that we can enter his presence with boldness. This is an almost incredible word to use. How can we, as weak and unholy human beings, possibly come boldly into the presence

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. If you thought that the Bible was just another piece of literature you have totally missed the point. The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us and he does it with devastating power. It can, and frequently does, turn people’s lives upside down. Through it, God is able to speak to the deepest places of our lives and can bring us forgiveness and renewal. It is the most exciting library of books imaginable. When I started to train for ministry, one of my real fears was that through studying the Bible in depth and then ministering week by week, the Bible would lose its wonder and power for me. I would like to report that the exact opposite has happened. Through the decades the Bible has become more brilliant, exciting and powerful and I enjoy studying it more now than at any time in my life. Why?

Hebrews 3:13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. I still vividly remember the warnings that my mother used to give me when I was a child. They had to do with what I ate, how I crossed the road, the people I spoke to, the way I cycled my bike and so on. I suspect that many of you have similar memories. And the reason we were given all those warnings was because we were loved. If our parents or carers hadn’t been bothered about our safety and wellbeing they would have kept quiet. The warnings weren’t always welcome, but they were good for us and I am sure that we all look back with gratitude for them. In today’s verse, the writer was encouraging his readers to keep on warning one another. He was conscious of how easily they could slip away from the Christian faith, and didn’t want them to go the same way as the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings. Time and again they had refused to listen to God’s word an

Hebrews 3:6 Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. Confidence is important in every part of life isn’t it? I find it interesting that many people who are supremely confident in one area of life have no, or very little, confidence in another. We can probably all think of an area where we don’t feel confident, but here the writer speaks about an area in which we all need to be confident – our faith. The word he used here for confidence is sometimes translated as boldness. He knew that as we look to the future we all need to be strong in faith. Everything depends upon it. Here the writer talks about being confident in our hope in Christ. Hope is a very important concept in the New Testament and we need to make sure that we are understanding it correctly in this context. Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, once described the word hope as we use it in normal life as “a weak and flabby word

Hebrews 2:18 Since Jesus himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. For many years I have suffered from back pain, which I have in common with many of you because 60 to 70 per cent of people have back pain at some point in their lives. I find that people are very caring and sympathetic, but there is such a difference between those who are kindly sympathising but have never had back pain, and those who have. I am, of course, grateful for anyone’s kindness but when it is clear that the person I am speaking to has, in some measure, shared my experience it is a particular blessing. Here in Hebrews the writer is keen to show that Jesus really understands the challenges that we face in life because he himself went through suffering and testing. Later in this letter the writer makes it clear that the Church had suffered terribly for the faith. It must have been so difficult for this group of relatively new Christians to have suffered so much. He wrote that the

Hebrews 2:14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. The fact that Jesus was fully human was of crucial importance to the writer of this letter. Salvation depended upon it. In the first chapter, the writer spoke of the fact that Jesus was the divine Son of God; now he wanted to explain that Jesus was also fully human. This meant that, in common with every other human being, he experienced death and this enabled him to break the grip of the devil. Through the centuries many people have struggled with the idea of Jesus’ humanity. This was a particular problem in the Greek world where gods were seen as being completely detached from this world. The idea of a god becoming human was nonsensical. All sorts of different approaches have been adopted to try to explain away Jesus’ humanity. Some have suggested that he wasn’t really

Hebrews 2:1 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. We can be sure that this letter was written to Christians from a Jewish background and that it was written to a particular church. Later in the letter we learn that the believers had suffered for their faith soon after they came to faith in Christ, but now they had become complacent and lazy. The writer was anxious that they might drift away from the truth. The expression “drift away” is one that is well known in Greek literature – it is used to refer to a ring slipping off the finger, some food slipping down the wrong way or a ship carelessly slipping past a harbour because the person at the wheel wasn’t paying attention. The writer wants the congregation to realise that in just the same way it is possible to drift away in their faith In my experience when people stop attending church it is rarely because they have come to a conviction that Christianity is wrong. They have simply drifted away. Perhaps

Hebrews 1:3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. None of the original manuscripts of the New Testament exist today. But there are many very early copies still around, and on a number of them this letter is titled “to the Hebrews”. Therefore, there can be no doubt it was written specifically for Christians who had a Jewish background. The writer wanted them to realise that Jesus was the perfect fulfilment of everything that they had heard about in their Old Testament scriptures. Jesus revealed the very character of God and so, having been present with his Father in creation, he was able to sustain everything by his command. Then, having made the perfect sacrifice of himself on the cross, he was able to return to the right hand of his Father in heaven. In short, the letter to the Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. These opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews declare that God has always spoken to people. He did it in the Old Testament as he spoke through the prophets and then in the New Testament through his Son, Jesus. It is good for us to stop and reflect on the fact that he didn’t have to speak. He could have chosen to create humankind and leave us alone. He could have looked at what a mess people made of the world and decided to remain silent. But he didn’t. His choice was to communicate and before taking a closer look at this wonderful letter we should stop for a moment and praise God that his desire is to communicate with us. In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets in various ways. Often the communication was in the form of words, bu

Jonah 3:10; 4:1 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened…This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So far as Jonah was concerned it was bad enough to have to go to Nineveh at all, with its terrible reputation for sin. But at least he was given the responsibility for sharing a message of God’s judgement upon them. They certainly deserved it. But to his great surprise the people repented and so God changed his mind about destroying the people. This was all too much for Jonah who became extremely angry with God. These evil people needed, in Jonah’s view, to be blasted off the planet rather than offered forgiveness. Jonah reflected that he ought to have remembered that God was “a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah’s reaction helps us to reflect upon the mystery of God’s grace, which we meet in a very powe

Jonah 3:1-3 Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. Jonah had learned his lesson. He had tried running away from God and spectacularly failed in the attempt. So, when the Lord called him for a second time he obeyed and went. The task before him was colossal. Nineveh stood at the heart of the great Assyrian empire and had a population of more than 120,000 people. It was one of the biggest cities in the world at the time, occupying a strategically important location on both north to south and east to west trade routes. Today it forms part of the large city of Mosul in Iraq. Nineveh was the last place on earth that Jonah would have chosen to be, but that’s where God wanted him. The Bible introduces us to many people who were led by God to places they didn’t want to go to. Moses is a particularly powerf

Jonah 2:1-2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!” The thought of spending three days and nights inside a large fish is well beyond my imagination. And the book of Jonah doesn’t do anything to satisfy my curiosity! This is no newspaper account of exactly what it looks and feels like to be swallowed by an enormous fish. Rather, it is the story of a man meeting with God at a time of extreme need. Jonah’s words echo many of the Psalms and reveal his sense of despair and abandonment. Life seemed to have come to a shuddering conclusion but, amid his confusion, he cried to God and God heard him. Jonah had walked the path of disobedience and now, in the belly of the fish, he needed to set off in a new direction. God had not abandoned him, but was ready to hear his cries. Jonah’s situation reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)

Jonah 1:1-3 The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. Most Bibles will have the title ‘Holy Bible’ on the cover, which could give the impression that it is a book stacked full of stories of really holy people who never take a step out of line. It is surely a relief to us all that the Bible is nothing like that. At times it feels like the complete opposite! Take Jonah for example. He was called by God but was appalled by the command. Going to Nineveh was absolutely the last thing that he would ever want to do. The city was, at the time, one of the largest cities in the world and was famous for its sin. It stood at the heart of the great and menacing Assyrian empire and everything about it would have been repulsive to Jonah. So, he went to Joppa and found a boat that was heading in the opposite d

Isaiah 42:1 “Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations.” I became absolutely fascinated by the law when I was in my teens. I often visited our local magistrates’ and crown courts in Southend and was completely gripped by the whole process. On a few occasions I went up to the Old Bailey in London where they tried the most amazing cases. My mind was well and truly opened up to the darker side of our society and I was given a good crash course in justice. It became clear to me that the difficult work that these courts were doing was vital to the stability of society. But when we read about justice in Isaiah the subject is much wider than merely what happens in courts of law, vital as that obviously is. It refers to God’s desire that everything should be done fairly throughout society. Relationships need to be healthy and strong and the way people treat one another needs to be considerate and loving. Our vers

Isaiah 40:28-29 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. It was Samuel Butler, the 19th-century author, who observed: “Life is one long process of getting tired.” However young and fit you may be, the time comes when you need to rest. Our bodies demand it. Isaiah points out that God is completely different and is able to work continually without any rest. He never grows weak or weary. What an encouragement this is! It means that God can be completely relied upon at all times. We are more than aware that our work level changes if we are tired or it is getting towards the end of the day. How wonderful that God is not subject to these variations because it means we can reach out to him at any time with confidence. Even though people are making demands upon him all over the world he never needs to take

Isaiah 40:25-26 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.” I have never studied astronomy but I find the scale of the universe totally mind boggling. Light travels at 186,282 miles per second. That’s fast! But to go on any significant journey into space we too would need to travel at that speed. In one minute we would have travelled over 11 million miles and by the end of the day we would have covered 16,000 million miles. After a year we would have travelled nearly 6 million, million miles. That’s good going but it would still take more than three further years before we reached the nearest stars. No doubt we would feel a great sense of achievement to have got that far, but we would need to keep going for another 20,000 years at the same speed to reach the edge of our g

Isaiah 40:3-5 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together.” I’m no lover of airports, but I do love flying. Having flown to many parts of the world, I have always been amazed by the huge expanse of mountainous areas so was not surprised to discover that mountains form nearly a quarter of the earth’s land surface. As I have flown over them for hours on end, I have tried to imagine the way of life for the people who live in such areas. Mountains are beautiful, but they must make travel incredibly complicated for the people who have them as their home. In today’s dramatic reading we hear that our mighty God can flatten the mountains and fill in the valleys. What Isaiah is telling us is that we should never

Isaiah 40:1-2 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned.” We all make mistakes, but some have far greater impact than others. Many mistakes are of minor importance, and are soon forgotten, but others can change the whole direction of life from that moment. The people of Jerusalem and Judah had made a long succession of disastrous decisions but in this passage God told them that things were going to change because he would forgive them. When we make mistakes, and especially when they have long-term implications, it is easy to imagine that there is no hope. But God is always in the business of restoration. He is always looking for ways of bringing salvation and renewal. This is truly a message of comfort and one which our world desperately needs to hear. I have spent many, many hours of my life with people who have tried to persuade me that they were beyond God’s help. Their lives had gone from bad to much, much

Psalm 47:1-2 Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! For the LORD Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth. Clapping uses no words but conveys very powerful messages. There is all the difference in the world between clapping that is dutiful and polite, and clapping that is enthusiastic and heart-felt. I am glad that the Bible encourages us to clap precisely because it takes us beyond words. However well-chosen and eloquent our speech it can never fully express how great, majestic and awesome our God is. I was not brought up to make much use of my body in worship. Standing up, sitting down and shutting my eyes were the sum total of my bodily worship! I had an aunt who was high church and she did a lot of kneeling. Lifting hands or dancing in worship were well outside my experience until I was in my 20s. What mattered were the words. Of course, the words do matter and we will always want to use them as we praise God, but I am glad that we live in days when many

Psalm 46:1-2 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. When disaster strikes it’s often without warning. A death, a car accident, a serious illness or a fall. Although such events come without announcement they can, in an instant, completely change the shape of our lives. In those moments of shaking, it’s so important to know that we can look to God as our refuge and strength. As a minister I’ve often visited the homes of people at times of traumatic change. I remember once visiting an old lady who knew that she had terminal cancer and only had a short while to live. She lived in a dark cottage in a village; when I visited her it was late in the afternoon and there was very little light in the room where we met. But I will never forget her glowing smile in the fading light. She knew the Lord well and had every confidence that her life was in his hands. He was her refuge and strength. The next