Be Still And Know

Romans 3:29-30  'After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.' The apostle Paul was a Jew and was very proud of the fact. In this letter he goes to great lengths to show that Jews have a very important place in the plans of God, but he wants his Roman readers to understand that God’s love wasn’t in any sense confined to the Jews. Indeed, God sent Jesus into the world for non-Jews (who he calls Gentiles) as well the Jews, because all of them had an equal need for forgiveness. Jesus’ death on the cross was for every kind of person because we all fall short of God’s standards.   Earlier in this chapter Paul asks the question whether Jews were in some sense better than other people and he flatly rejects the idea. Privileged as the Jews undoubtedly are, they all stand in the same place before God. Just like every Gentile they are sinners and

Romans 1:20  'For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.' People often ask how God will judge those who have never responded to him. Here Paul makes it clear that everyone has had an opportunity to respond to God, because he has made it so clear in creation. People have no excuse. The tragedy is that people have ended up worshipping what God has created rather than the Creator himself. They have got things exactly the wrong way round.   Of course our mission, like Paul’s, is to present the Good News to people. We want to help people to understand why Jesus came into the world and we can all have a share in that. We are not all evangelists but everyone who follows Jesus is a witness. We have our story to tell from our own personal experience, and our stuttering words are often far more persuasive than any silver-tongued

Romans 1:17  'This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.' I once heard about a group of rowdy young people who had too much time on their hands and decided that it would be great fun to push a piano down the stairs in the building where they were meeting and see what happened. With great gusto they launched the piano and the result was inevitable. The piano was wrecked. Hearing what had happened an elderly man decided to take the battered and damaged piano on as a project and he spent the following year restoring it to its former glory. Don’t you love stories like that? We all love hearing when bad situations have been turned to good. But when we look at the world today the problems are so overwhelming and at the heart of them is the fact that humankind is out of step with God. Here in Paul’s amazing letter to the Romans he is going to set out with meticulous care how we can be put right with God. Nothing could possibly be more impo

Romans 1:16  'I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – the Jew first and also the Gentile.' We are told that the apostle Paul had a particularly unimpressive appearance. According to tradition he was an ugly little chap with heavy eyebrows, bandy legs, a bald head, a hooked nose, bad eyesight and with no great gifts as a speaker. How could such a person have an impact on the awesome city of Rome which stood at the heart of a vast and confident empire? The fact is that his ministry had an enormous impact on that city and it was because he was absolutely sure of what God had called him to do. He was bursting with pride about the Good News. I love the expression that he was not ashamed of the Good News! It almost sounds like a joke because he was the complete opposite. He was willing to give every second of his time and every ounce of energy to letting people know about Jesus and his gift of salvation.   I wonder what you speak about

Romans 1.9 NLT 'God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.' Prayer is a blessing in every way. It is the way in which we communicate with God and so it is at the heart of the Christian life. Prayerlessness is the surest path to spiritual weakness and discouragement. By contrast, the person who takes prayer seriously will find every aspect of their life being blessed. However, the blessings of prayer don’t end there. They also strengthen our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters. One of the greatest privileges of my life is the knowledge that every day people pray for me. I couldn’t demand or deserve it, but I receive it with enormous gratitude. Here we get an insight into Paul’s life as we hear that he was persistent in his prayers for the Christians in Rome. He prayed for them night and day which shows the intensity of his commitment to them. These were not

Romans 1.7 NLT 'I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.' Paul’s letter to the church in Rome is sometimes described as the Gospel according to Paul. It’s not a bad description because in this letter he gives the fullest explanation of his understanding of the Good News of Jesus. Paul never met Jesus during his earthly ministry but his miraculous meeting with Jesus on the Road to Damascus turned his life upside down and from that moment on he lived for Jesus and sought to encourage others to do the same. Paul began his letter by explaining that he had been called by God and was a slave to Jesus. Paul had an incredibly tough ministry but it was founded upon the complete security of his relationship with God. That’s what sustained him when he was imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, mocked, accused and betrayed. As foster carers my wife and I often reflect on the importance of attachment, that is to say the relationship which a child has with their parent

Psalm 88.1-3 NLT 'O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near.' This is possibly the saddest of all the psalms. The psalmist cried out to God in a state of total despair. Many of the psalms are referred to as psalms of lament but this one goes even further and is full of absolute desperation. It is painful to read the psalm because it is so bleak, but I am so glad that it is part of the Bible. It reminds us that God is there for us, whatever the circumstances. His love reaches out to us even in the darkest of places. It reminds me of Psalm 139 where the psalmist declared that it is impossible to escape from God’s Spirit. “I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.” (Psalm 139.7-8) We are all different and it may be that you have never been through such desperate times and never will. But from time to time

Psalm 86.11 NLT 'Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth!' I wonder what your school teachers were like. I suspect that we all had a wide range experiences. I reflect on my own teachers. Some of them were strict, others were encouraging, a few were inspiring, some seemed to be in the wrong job, others were funny and more of them thought they were funny! Teachers vary enormously. But when it comes to learning about life itself, we need the very best teacher, and here David recognises that God is that teacher. God is often spoken of as Israel’s teacher. In Isaiah 2.3 the prophet identified Jerusalem as the centre of education for the world when he wrote, “People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem.” Sadly, God’s teaching was often rejected by the people. In

Psalm 86.8 NLT 'No pagan god is like you, O Lord. None can do what you do!' There have always been lots of gods on offer. A god is anything that calls for our commitment and devotion and in every age there has been a colourful variety of options. I once stayed with a journalist in Mumbai in India who had a remarkable variety of gods in his flat. There were pictures of many Hindu deities but Jesus and Mary were there as well. But gods come in other subtle forms. A person’s family or their job, house, bank balance, hobby or sport can be their god. All of those things are good in themselves but when they are turned into gods they take on a completely different and potentially destructive significance. King David was well aware of the wide range of gods that he could worship but he concluded that the God of Israel was incomparably great. He alone was worthy of David’s commitment and devotion. The prophets spent a lot of time mocking the false gods of their time. Isaiah mocked the wood carver who carefully wor

Psalm 86.5 NLT 'O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.' I am sorry to remind you of this but, sooner or later, everything breaks down. Whether you are thinking of your health, car, bicycle, microwave, vacuum cleaner or heating system all of them will, one day, encounter problems. No one can go through life without facing these challenges. It is simply a fact of life. In this psalm David faces up to the fact that all of us sin. It’s not a pleasant fact to face but we would be crazy to suggest that it doesn’t affect us. Of course, we may try to wriggle out of this by suggesting that our sins are not nearly as bad as other people’s sins, but, at the end of the day, we need to acknowledge that we are sinners, falling well short of God’s standards. The Bible doesn’t draw our attention to our sin in order to humiliate us, or to encourage us to beat ourselves up. It shines the light on our sin in order to show us the remedy. In Romans 3.23 the apost

Psalm 86.1 NLT 'Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help.' Finding peace and purpose in our lives is something that we all want, and the first step to achieving it is recognising that we need God’s help. David, the author of this psalm, was Israel’s King about 1000BC and had that experience time and again. This is clearly one of those times. He knew that, although he was incredibly wealthy and powerful, he couldn’t manage without God. Bernard Levin was one of the most respected political commentators in this country. He once wrote, “Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it. . . it aches!” I firmly be

Psalm 85.8 NLT 'I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people.' Listening is crucial to every part of life. But that doesn’t mean that it is a simple process. It requires a huge amount of thought and care so it isn’t surprising that courses in listening are widely available these days. There are essentially five stages to the listening process – receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding. I am sure that the psalmist would have totally agreed with this and seen it as a good description of what it meant to “listen carefully” to the Lord. It’s possible to hear someone speaking without taking on board anything that they have said. But, when you listen you deliberately receive what they are saying. However, even that isn’t enough because you need to understand the words that they are using. Without that their words are nothing more than sounds. Having understood the words they need to be evaluated. What exactly was the person trying to say

Psalm 84.10 NLT 'A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.' I wonder if you’ve ever experienced home sickness. I certainly have. I loved the years I spent in India and my Indian friends couldn’t possibly have been more kind or welcoming. But there was still a deep longing to see my family and friends and, if I’m honest, to experience cold weather! At the time, the phone connection between India and the UK was very poor and in two years I only managed to make one call to my parents and it was incredibly expensive. The line was very crackly and it was very difficult to hear anything, but there were tears rolling down my cheeks as I succeeded in hearing the distant voices of my parents. I think the only significant information that we shared that could be clearly heard was them telling me that it was raining in Essex, and me informing me that it was hot in India!! The psalmist

Psalm 82.3-4 NLT 'Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people.' When I was in my 20s I lived in an Indian village for a year. I had the incredible privilege of living with a family of Dalits, who have generally been known as untouchables. Dalits form about a quarter of the Indian population and have always been regarded as the lowest of the low. My Indian family was a typical extended family with a granny, mum, dad, three children, and various aunts who would stay with us from time to time. They generously opened their home and their hearts to me and gave me the most amazing insight into their way of life. In doing so they opened my eyes to injustice on a scale I had never seen before. Every part of their life was defined by the fact that they were Dalits. Life was a daily struggle as they lived with the certainty that they would never receive fair treatment from society. It was dist

Luke 2.13-14 NLT "Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased." The shepherds received the news of Jesus’ birth from a single angel who was then joined by a vast crowd of angels to sing an amazing chorus of praise. The language used recalls Job 38.7 where when God created the world “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy.” With the coming of Jesus into the world there is a new creation and so the whole population of heaven needed to join together in bringing a triumphant act of worship. I am sure that artists through the centuries have been right to depict the whole sky being alight as the angels sang their praises to the surprised shepherds. The message of the angelic host is interesting and it begs the question, “Who are the people with whom God is pleased?” It’s not an expression that we often find in the New Testament but it reminds

Luke 2.10-11 NLT The angel reassured the shepherds. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Saviour—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” The angel’s message is fascinating because its content is both incredibly Jewish and yet embraces everyone. The angel makes it clear that the baby who has just been born is the Messiah, the one who came to fulfil the Old Testament scriptures. But, at the same time, the coming of Jesus was for the whole world. Although Jesus was to focus much of his ministry on his own people, the Jews, he consistently made it clear that he had come to bring salvation to the world. The responsibility of those of us who call ourselves Christians is to do everything in our power to make it clear that Jesus came for everyone. Sadly, churches can be extremely unfriendly and intimidating places, and people often get the impression that they are full of old people who do things in strange old-fas

Luke 2.8-9 NLT 'That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified.' It’s not very surprising that the shepherds were terrified. They were well used to facing dangers in the desert. They were constantly threatened by wolves and other wild animals but angels were a different matter! This was completely outside their experience. But more than that, as shepherds they would have had no expectation of receiving such important heavenly news. Shepherds were widely despised. They were considered to be unreliable and for that reason they were not allowed to give testimony in the law-courts. Although it is likely that they were caring for sheep that would be used for the temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, their way of life made it impossible for them to comply with the requirements of the law. They were outsiders. Time and again the gospels show us

Luke 2.6-7 NLT 'While they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.' When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, they found that it was heaving with people who had come for the census which the Romans had demanded. In the Jewish law, censuses were forbidden and so the holding of a census was a further reason for the people to resent the occupying power. However, Joseph was a law- abiding man and if required to go to his family’s ancestral home he was willing to comply. The fact that there were no lodgings available when they finally arrived in Bethlehem must have been a horrible surprise for the young couple, and especially for Mary. We are in fact told nothing about the location of Jesus’ birth, but it is most probable that it happened in a cave. All we know is that he was placed in an animal feeding trough, a manger, when he was born. That ma

Luke 2.4-5 NLT 'Because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He travelled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.' If you travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem these days it is a relatively easy journey. The roads are good and you should get there by car in about two and half hours. Mary and Joseph’s experience would have been completely different. On foot the 90 mile journey would have been arduous and dangerous. They would probably have gone down the Jordan Valley which, at the time, was heavily wooded and was home to wolves, lions and wild boar. They posed a significant threat to the young couple but, in addition, they had to face the ever- present threat from robbers. The journey would normally take walkers about five days but because Mary was in the last stages of her pregnancy they may well have taken a few days longer than that. The weather would also have bee

Matthew 1.22-23 NLT All of this occurred to fulfil the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Loneliness is one of the greatest problems of our society and it is on the increase. This matters because loneliness is incredibly dangerous. It increases the risk of death by 26 percent, is more damaging to health than obesity, and increases the risk of high blood pressure. Loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day (Holt-Lunstad 2010). But the person who knows Jesus personally need never experience loneliness, because he is Immanuel “God with us” and, when we live with him day by day, we are instantly connected to a worldwide family of his people. The difference between our relationship with God and with other people is that God never leaves us. He is always by our side. We may have the warmest of relationships wit