Be Still And Know

James 1:2-3 Talk to anyone involved in business or sport, and they will tell you that they learnt the most when things have gone badly. Times of financial loss or heavy defeats forced them to reflect and learn the most useful lessons. By working through the challenging times, they gained resilience - and that’s what we all need to be effective in life. We might wish that everything would always go smoothly and easily, but the truth is that, in those circumstances, we would never make progress. It’s for this reason that James rejoiced in the troubles his readers experienced. He wasn’t suggesting that troubles were, in themselves, good. The persecution that the Church was experiencing was extremely bad but, amazingly, God was able to use it to bring blessing. That’s why James saw their challenges as an opportunity for great joy. Testing times often make us stronger and help build our resilience and ability to endure in the face of difficulties. This was particularly important for James’ readers as t

Proverbs 3:13-14 Everyone wants joy. Of course we do. Talk to any parent and almost everyone will say that they want their children to be happy. They don’t mind what career they follow, where they live or who they marry but they want them to be happy and joyful. The words of the book of Proverbs are timeless. The writer tells us that the route to joy is through gaining wisdom. So we need to be absolutely clear what is meant by this grand word ‘wisdom’. It is not the same as knowledge. Knowing a huge number of facts may be really interesting and useful but it may also cause headaches and lead to arrogance. Wisdom takes us to the heart of how life ticks. To be wise is to understand the greatest truths about life. The writer of Proverbs is clear that those truths are found in God. As we get to know God better, we learn more about ourselves, our neighbours and our world. We learn those things which bring peace, love and joy. It is perfectly possible for someone to have very little knowledge but hu

Proverbs 3:9-10 Abba’s famous song ‘Money, money, money’ sums up a lot of our modern world’s thinking about wealth. The lyrics say: “In my dreams I have a plan / If I got me a wealthy man / I wouldn’t have to work at all, I’d fool around and have a ball / Money, money, money / Must be funny / In the rich man’s world / Money, money, money / Always sunny / In the rich man’s world”. I’m not suggesting that people base their philosophy of life on Abba’s lyrics but the longing for money, and the belief that it solves all of life’s problems, is widely held. It just happens to be wrong. There is, of course, nothing wrong with money. It is part of God’s creation, but it is vital that we handle it in the right way. In today’s verses, the writer of Proverbs reminds us of the need to give God first place in our lives by giving to him of what we have. This principle was firmly established in the law which decreed: “As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the LORD yo

Proverbs 3:5-6 One of the greatest privileges of my life is to spend time talking with people about guidance. I don’t do this because I am an expert at advising people which way to go, but because I know the Guide who wants to lead them. It has helpfully been said that the Bible never uses the word ‘guidance’ - it simply introduces us to the Guide, and that’s precisely what we read in these verses. God loves us so much that he wants us to make good decisions in life, so we enjoy our lives to the full. Everyone needs guidance. Sometimes this is because we need to make major life-changing decisions but, most of the time, the decisions are small and relatively unimportant. However, every decision we make is significant, and even apparently small decisions can have consequences. That means every single decision matters and needs to be taken carefully. The writer of Proverbs encourages us to trust the Lord completely. It has been suggested that the Hebrew word for ‘trust’ originally held the idea of ly

Proverbs 2:3-4 I have never had a metal detector, but I have a number of friends who rave about their hobby. They head out into muddy fields to eagerly search
for treasure and, most of the time, find nothing of interest. But the rare success stories are amazing and, of course, continue to inspire and motivate detectorists. The biggest and most spectacular discovery in the UK was the Staffordshire Hoard, discovered in 2009. It was the most significant collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artefacts that has ever been found on these islands. It consisted of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lbs) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lbs) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It was sold for more than £3m. The writer of Proverbs tells us that we need to have the detectorist’s enthusiasm and determination to look for real treasure; in other words, godly wisdom. Gold and silver are impressive but fade into insignificance alongside the lasting treasure of i

John 17:20-21 This is an amazing prayer. Within moments Jesus would be betrayed by Judas and arrested by Roman soldiers and Temple guards. Jesus knew exactly what was going on but, in the middle of it all, he calmly prayed this prayer to his Heavenly Father. He rejoiced in the unity they enjoyed together and longed for his followers to have a similar experience. It is a tragic truth that the Church has never experienced much unity. There are said to be more than 45,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. The variety is staggering in terms of what they believe and how they worship. People find their way into different denominations for a wide variety of reasons. I used to think that people would support one particular denomination because of strong doctrinal convictions, but it is much more complicated than that. Some people attend a particular church because it’s close to their home or because a friend goes there. My father’s family was split along gender lines. His mothe

John 17:3 You can sum up Christianity very easily with the expression: “It’s not what you know but who you know that counts.” Christian faith is all about a personal relationship with God the Father and his son, Jesus. Everything hinges on that. Here in Jesus’ prayer to his Father, he reflects on the relationship they enjoyed. They lived in complete unity and Jesus expresses his desire that everyone else should experience a similar relationship. It is amazing to think that it is possible to have a personal relationship with the God of all creation and with the Son of God. But it is possible - because God has chosen to enter into such a relationship with us. In the book of Jeremiah, we learn about the new covenant that God wants to have with his people. God said: “I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbours, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will kno

John 15:18-19 Jesus faced opposition throughout his ministry. It was important that his disciples knew the same would be true for them. In these verses, Jesus gives the reason for this. Fundamentally, they no longer belonged to this world. Of course they continued to live in the world, but their values and objectives had totally changed since they met Christ. This was an important message for the disciples, all of whom were going to face brutal opposition in the years to come. Indeed, apart from John, they were all killed because of their faith. Peter was martyred around AD 66 during a time of persecution headed by the Roman emperor Nero. Peter demanded that he be crucified upside down, not feeling worthy to be crucified in the same way as his master. Thomas, who is generally believed to have taken the gospel to India, was pierced to death by the spears of four soldiers. Matthew is said to have been stabbed to death in Egypt. James was stoned and clubbed to death, and Matthias burnt alive. Such ap

John 15:16 If you are a follower of Jesus, you can probably remember the time when you chose to start following him. But one this is for sure: our step towards following Jesus came long after he took the first move towards us. What you and I did was merely responding to his love. He took the initiative. This is a really important point because, at times, it sounds as if we have done the Lord an enormous favour by following him. The reality is that we have simply responded to the love and grace he showed us long before we knew anything about him. As the apostle Paul put it in his letter to the church in Rome: “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). Because we have been chosen by God, we live lives of continual gratitude. God has showered his love upon us in a way we could never deserve. I love how the apostle Paul summarised this in his letter to the Ephesians. He wrote of the way in which we have redemption through the blood of Jesus

John 15:15 To be Jesus’ slave would be the greatest possible privilege. But Jesus wanted his disciples to know that he was looking for a much more intimate relationship than that. At the end of the day, a slave, however trusted and respected, had no rights at all and would certainly not be taken into the confidence of their master. But friends are different. The barriers are down. There is an intimacy that a slave would never experience. In the Old Testament, we hear God referring to Abraham as his friend (Isaiah 41:8). And in Paul’s letter to the Romans, the apostle reflected on the fact that it was through the death of Jesus on the cross that we are now God’s friend, rather than his enemy. Friendship is the most incredible privilege. It cannot be forced. A friendship only occurs because two people want it to happen, and are willing to be flexible enough to make the relationship work. The essence of friendship is that it is open ended. It isn’t based on a contract, but simply on love. As a result

John 15:5 Jesus’ language in this verse is uncompromising. We live in days when such language is deeply unpopular. People want to hear that every way of life is equally valid; it is just a matter of your own personal opinion. But that is completely different from Jesus’ approach. He claimed that, if we’re not living our lives in union with him, we can do nothing. He wasn’t offering an interesting and fulfilling way to find purpose in life. He came to bring the only way to find life. Just as branches will die without a connection to the vine so, too, are we as good as dead without a relationship with Jesus. What, then, does it mean to remain in Jesus as a way of life? Most of us live a busy life with lots of relationships, pressures and responsibilities. Many of the things we do are simply practical: we must eat, drink, exercise, work, walk the dog, clean the house - and a thousand other things. We may wonder how remaining in Jesus affects any of these things. But this is where the rubber hits the

John 15:1-2 I often drive past a large vineyard. When the vines are not in leaf there are few sights more unattractive. Just lines of contorted branches looking completely dead and useless. But then, in the spring, they burst into life and gradually produce the fruit for which they have been carefully cultivated. The whole purpose of a vine is to produce grapes, and a gardener will be absolutely decisive in the way in which they prune it to ensure the best possible crop. In the growing season, dead branches must go, and good branches are carefully pruned to encourage even more growth. The picture of the vine is often used in the Old Testament. It was God’s intention that Israel should be his vine. Psalm 80: 8-11 describes the way in which God brought the people out of Egypt as transplanting a grapevine, clearing the ground for it to take root and fill the promised land. They would have room to spread their branches all the way to the Mediterranean in the west, and to the Euphrates river in the eas

John 14:27 Peace is critically important for all of us. It has said that with peace of mind, a poor person is rich and, without it, a rich person is poor. The Bible tells us that Jesus was the Prince of Peace, and his intention was to offer his peace to everyone. But unfortunately, in our broken and tempestuous world, the word ‘peace’ tends to be seen negatively, or as merely the absence of war and conflict. When we look at the peace of Jesus, we need to tune our minds into thinking differently. Peace is the Lord’s gift to all who open their hearts and minds to him. Peace treaties are certainly impressive achievements, and they are often the result of many hours (sometimes years!) of careful negotiation. The Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, was far from perfect. Yet it has led to a period of much greater peace in Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, the peace that Christ makes available to us is quite different. It isn’t something which we can achieve by clever negotiation and hard work. It is

John 14:26 How’s your memory? You will doubtless know the joke about the person who goes upstairs to get something only to totally forget why they went. They then return downstairs with something else simply to justify the journey. For me, that’s no longer a joke but a way of life! Forgetting is part of the human condition, and it undoubtedly gets worse with age, so it isn’t surprising that the Bible has much to say about it. When Moses gave instructions to the people of Israel before they entered the promised land, he anticipated that they might well forget the Lord’s commandments. So he urged them to “tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:8). Sadly, the Old Testament is full of instances when God’s people totally forgot about him. Jesus wanted to prepare his followers for the years to come by giving them tools to remind them of the things he had taught them. During Jesus’ last supper with h

John 14:15-17 The word that is translated ‘advocate’ in today’s verses is hard to pin down. Some of us were brought up with the term ‘Counsellor’ which was the word used in the Authorised King James’ version of the Bible. The Greek word literally means ‘someone who is called in alongside’. Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit is an advocate and he will definitely bring comfort, but we will never find a word which embraces the Spirit’s whole ministry. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as being our supreme friend. He is always with us, continually pointing to Jesus and leading us in the right direction. One key role that the Spirit plays is to lead us “into all truth”. Earlier in this chapter, we learnt that Jesus is the truth, so the role of the Spirit is principally to keep us focused on Jesus. The world can be full of lies and half-truths. The truth can be hard to find, and people often choose to hide away from it. So the role of the Spirit in leading us into truth is a continual one. Jan Hus was a ch

John 14:13-14 On the face of, it this sounds like Jesus is writing us a blank cheque. If you hadn’t read anything else from the Bible, this passage might give you the impression that we can come to God and ask for whatever we want. Request a jet aeroplane, the latest electric car, the biggest house in the area or a guaranteed income for life and it will be yours on a plate! But, mercifully, that is not what Jesus was talking about. I say mercifully because if God were willing to do whatever our selfishness dictated, we would soon transform our lives into a living hell. We would be fully in control and God would be pushed out. And that’s never good. Jesus was describing to his disciples what it is like to live in obedience to him. As they followed him, they would be doing the work of God, with his full authority. They wouldn’t be thrust out into the world all by themselves but, as they were soon to learn, they would have the power of the Holy Spirit. They would, therefore, be able to pray with confiden

John 14:12 When the disciples heard Jesus say these words, they were doubtless in a state of shock. They had just learnt that their master and friend was going to be leaving them. Given that they had abandoned their previous ways of life to follow Jesus, this was going to mean a colossal challenge. Surely everything, from now onwards, was going to be much worse. But Jesus had a surprise for them. He told them that, in fact, much more was going to happen after he left them. And it would be good. Jesus spoke along the same lines again in John 16. There, he explained it was to the disciples’ advantage that he went away because, “the Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave” (John 16:7, CEV). Jesus wasn’t saying that more powerful miracles would happen after he left, but simply that there would be more of them when the Holy Spirit was poured out. During Jesus’ ministry he accepted the limitations of being human. He could only be in one place at one time. But with the release of the Holy Spirit on

John 14:6 Jesus had just told his disciples that they knew the way to where he was going. But Thomas denied it. He didn’t know where Jesus was going, so how could he have any idea how to get there? Jesus’ answer is one of the most crucial statements in the whole of the Christian faith, because he makes it clear he is not talking about geography at all. He is talking about relationship. Thomas wanted to know the destination, and then be given a map to get there. But Jesus simply offered himself. He is the true and living way. Religions come in many shapes and sizes, but they all tend to have rules or practices which must be followed, and which lead to understanding or enlightenment. Christianity is different. It is all about a person - Jesus. It is through a personal encounter with Jesus and a relationship with him that we find what life and truth are all about. He is the one who shows us the way to live our everyday lives. When I lived in India, I often struggled to find a particular house in the

John 14:1-2 The disciples were facing the biggest challenge of their lives. For the previous three years, their life had been defined by Jesus. They had intimately shared all the daily challenges and excitements of his healing and teaching ministry. But now, suddenly, Jesus had told them he will be leaving. His pronouncement was followed by Jesus informing Peter, one of the inner circle of closest friends, that he was going to betray him. They must all have wondered what would happen to them, knowing Peter was the most devoted of all the disciples. There was much to make them very anxious. However, Jesus tells them not to be worried but to trust in him. He was indeed going to leave them, but he promised them a completely secure future. Jesus spoke about the rooms in his Father’s home as if he had booked them all into a hotel. All they needed to know was that the booking had been made, and there was room for everyone. Life can, for all of us, often seem very predictable for a long period of time.

John 13:34-35 It’s not entirely clear what was new about this commandment from Jesus because the command to love one’s neighbour is firmly embedded in the Jewish Law (Leviticus 19:18). Perhaps Jesus was pointing to the new example of love which he had set for his disciples. Certainly, when he died on the cross not long afterwards their understanding of love would be totally transformed. Jesus knew that the most effective way for the good news to be communicated to the world would be through love. Looking back through Church history, there have been attempts to influence the world through power, prestige, grand buildings, art, poetry, books and music. But the only language which is truly effective is love. The tragedy, of course, is that the Church has so often gained a reputation for the exact opposite. Only the other day, I was talking to a friend who doesn’t go to church. She was saying that all she heard about one of the churches in her village was that they were “always bickering”. I felt so e