Be Still And Know

Philippians 1.3-5 NLT 'Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.' I love this Philippian letter because it is so full of bubbling joy. That’s particularly remarkable because Paul is in prison as he writes these words! Paul had three spells in prison which we know about and we can’t be sure which one this is, but many people think that he was in Rome at the time. His life was on the line and on a number of occasions he speaks as if his end might be very close. But nothing can stop his torrent of joyfulness. Paul is particularly grateful for his Christian brothers and sisters in Philippi. He was there when the church in that city was founded and he only has to think about them to feel joyful. Christian fellowship is always an amazing and miraculous gift. The only reason we have a relationship with our Christian brothers a

Philippians 1.1-2 NLT 'This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and deacons.' The apostle Paul is absolutely clear that it is not what you know but who you know that really matters in life. And so he begins this warm and encouraging letter by focussing on Jesus. He is only writing to the church in Philippi because of his relationship with Jesus, and he identifies the fact that, as a community, they belong to Jesus. So far as Paul was concerned everything turns on knowing the Lord Jesus Christ personally. Paul describes his own relationship with Jesus as being that of a slave. Philippi was a busy Roman colony and there would have been huge numbers of slaves, probably about 20 per cent of the population. Everyone would have understood what Paul was saying. Slaves were owned by their master who totally controlled their lives to the extent that they didn’t even possess their o

READ: Psalm 59.17 NLT 'O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.' Is your life a struggle at the moment? I’m really sorry if that’s the case, but I want to encourage you with the thought that you are in very good company. In this psalm, like many others, David pours out the detail of his struggles. He feels physically threatened and describes his opponents as being like vicious dogs, snarling as they prowl the streets. He also reflects on the curses and lies that his opponents keep hurling at him. There seems to be no limit to the challenges that he faces. Whether you are struggling or not, we would all do well to listen to the way in which David faces up to his situation with brutal honesty. When life is a struggle, and we all experience that from time to time, it’s so important for us to be honest about it and especially with God. He already knows the whole story and so we aren’t informing him of anything. He knows the kind of people we are and

READ: Psalm 57.8-9 NLT 'Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations.' I have always loved singing and have sung with many choirs over the years. I suspect that many of you will have had a similar experience and you will know what a joy it is to contribute your little sound to the united voice of a choir. It isn’t surprising that singing has always played such a major role in worship. It takes our words to another level as we seek to express our love for God and our devotion to him. I find it wonderful to think of the way in which God’s people have sung through thousands of years. Whether they have been experiencing poverty or wealth, war or peace, sickness or health there have always been songs on the lips of God’s people. Wonderful as singing is, I’ve always felt a little uneasy with it because not everyone is able to sing. Some people are tone deaf and the noise that comes out of

READ: Psalm 56.8 NLT 'You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.' Everything seemed to be going wrong for David when he wrote this psalm. He was being attacked continually by the Philistines. They were constantly slandering him and spending their days spying on him, looking for an opportunity to kill him. But amidst it, all David affirms his confidence in the Lord knowing that with God on his side he couldn’t lose. He had a deep conviction that his all-knowing God had not only kept track of all his woes, but had stored them up. I love the beautiful description that God had collected all his tears in a bottle and written them all down in a book. We all experience times of difficulty and tragedy. Such times are woven into the fabric of life and there is no avoiding them. But when we are in the dark valley of suffering it is wonderful to know that God doesn’t merely know that we are there and accompany us, but also takes our tears an

READ: Matthew 5.14-16 NLT “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” On the face of it, it seems really surprising that Jesus should be describing his followers as the light of the world. Surely that was his role. But Jesus was recognising that the only way in which people would see his light would be if his followers reflected his light into their communities. It is, therefore, our responsibility to find the most prominent place to put our light so that as many people as possible can see Jesus. It is good that Christians should spend time together. We need the strength and encouragement of worshipping and sharing fellowship. But, at the same time, it is vital for us to be part of our communities in order to have opportunit

READ: Matthew 5.13 NLT 'You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.' I have often heard people say that they are happy for individuals to have a Christian faith so long as it’s a private matter. Jesus’ words here prove that there is no way in which a Christian can keep their faith private. It can’t be done because those who live close to God will be fundamentally affected by their faith and this will inevitably exhibit itself in the way they conduct themselves. Like salt their influence will have an impact on all those who come into contact with them. Salt is very different from the foods that it accompanies. It is useful and tasty precisely because it is different. So too as Christians we are encouraged to be different from the society in which we live. Our morality and standards are not shaped by our society but by God and so it should never be a surprise when we stand out from the pe

READ: Matthew 5.10 NLT 'God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.' The life to which Jesus calls us is one of blessing. This is life at its very best. But Jesus never tried to disguise the fact that his followers would face rejection and persecution just as he did. Jesus assures his followers in every age that it is inevitable that if they stand up for the truth, there will be many people who have a vested interest in bringing them down. Persecution is normally subtle. For the majority of Christians in Eastern Europe during the communist era the challenge was not the likelihood of imprisonment or martyrdom. That happened from time to time for a few, but the ever-present challenge was in education and employment. I recall talking this through at the time with parents in Romania who wanted to know how to help their children at school when they had to sit through atheism classes. Christian children would find it very hard to enter university and because they w

READ: Matthew 5.9 NLT 'God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.' In this Beatitude Jesus isn’t talking about being peace- lovers but peace-makers, and that’s something very different. A peace-lover will often do anything to avoid conflict, and will even allow bad behaviour to continue because of the desire to “keep the peace”. Sadly, that kind of attitude does nothing to bring healing to the situation and can easily lead to the situation becoming far worse. Peace-making is the tough task of not turning away from conflict but, in the name of Christ, deliberately facing it and seeking to bring his miraculous gift of peace. Robert V. Taylor, the President of the Desmond Tutu Foundation, wrote, “If you want peace, don’t talk to your friends, talk to your enemies.” I suspect we all dislike conflict. We hate it when voices are raised, and people storm out of meetings or there is antagonism in relationships. It’s exhausting, discouraging and sad. But it’s also very common, a

READ: Matthew 5.8 NLT 'God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.' If you have any gold or silver you will know that it is vital that the metal is free from all impurity. If it is even slightly impure it will be worth only a fraction of the value of the pure metal. Here Jesus is saying that the same rule applies to our spiritual lives. We need to be single-minded, keeping our eyes fixed on his Kingdom and not allowing ourselves to be distracted by any lesser objective. It reminds us of Psalm 24 where we learn that the people who were welcomed to worship God in the temple were those who had “clean hands and a pure heart”. For most of us this will make uncomfortable reading. We can easily understand the desirability of having pure hearts, but we know that our lives are a long way away from that. Even our best efforts can very easily be spoilt by unhelpful motives. When we give generously to help others, we will often feel personal pleasure and pride at what we have given. In fulfilling

READ: Matthew 5.7 NLT 'God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.' Jesus told many stories that make us sit up. One of the most powerful was the story of the king who was owed millions of pounds by one of his servants. (Matthew 18.21-35) The man couldn’t possibly pay his debt. The servant fell on his knees and begged the king to be patient. The king took pity on him and cancelled the debt. If you have ever been deeply in debt you will know what an amazing experience that was for the servant. The relief must have been incredible. The servant then went out and met a friend who owed him a fiver. It was a trivial amount but the servant demanded that he be paid back in full, and threw him into prison until he recovered all his money. When the king heard this, he was incensed and ordered that the servant, who had been let off the most enormous debt, be thrown into prison and tortured until he paid back every last penny. Ouch. Jesus concluded by saying that that was exactly how his heavenly Fa

READ: Matthew 5.6 NLT God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. I wonder when you last felt painfully hungry or thirsty. I suspect for most of us that, if it has ever happened, it is a distant memory. However, it is likely that Jesus’ hearers would have been very familiar with both. Harvests could be good or bad, and it was impossible to achieve a reliable flow of food. Additionally in a hot country people would often have felt desperately thirsty, and finding a good supply of clean water would never have been easy. Jesus wanted his followers to have just this kind of desperate longing for God’s will to be done in the world and for his justice to be established. Christianity suffers desperately from those who give it merely polite agreement. They live respectable and kindly lives and consider that Christian faith is generally a very good thing. Jesus is looking for something completely different. He wants us to have the same passion for his kingdom as a hungry and thirst

READ: Matthew 5.5 NLT God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. Mother Teresa taught the world a great deal about humility. She gave us a wonderful example of what it looks like through her costly service to the most rejected and unloved members of her society. But she also offered us many wise words on the subject. She wrote,” Learn to be humble by doing all the humble work and doing it for Jesus.  You cannot learn humility from books; you learn it by accepting humiliations.  Humiliations are not meant to torture us; they are gifts from God. These little humiliations—if we accept them with joy—will help us to be holy, to have a meek and humble heart like Jesus.” Humility lies at the heart of the Kingdom of God. Jesus once told his disciples that the only way to enter the Kingdom was to become as humble as a child (Matthew 18.4). They were still looking for power and influence, but Jesus wanted to turn their thinking upside down. We only serve God effectively by giving up all th

READ: Matthew 5.4 NLT God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. The word that is used for mourn here is also used in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, to describe Jacob’s grief when he was led to believe that Joseph, his treasured son, was dead. (Genesis 37.34) He was grief stricken. God’s promise is that those who are overwhelmed with sorrow now will find his comfort and strength. So that leaves us with the question as to who  these people are. Who are the people that are mourning so profoundly today? Jesus probably had in mind, amongst others, those who knew the agony of losing a loved one. We all know the pain of friends and family members dying, and many of us have had the awful experience of people dying suddenly or even violently. None of us would want to make light of these terrible experiences, but Jesus reminds us that death doesn’t have the last word. Even in the midst of our loss, God is there with us offering his peace, strength and love. When someone  has died

READ: Matthew 5.3 NLT “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” Robert Powell acted the part of Jesus in Franco Zeffirelli’s film Jesus of Nazareth. He claims that his life was changed by the experience and recalls the day when he was filming the Sermon on the Mount. Powell had no time for Christianity but as he preached the sermon he said that he was so affected by its beauty that he began to cry. The tears were not in the script but Zeffirelli wisely kept them in the movie. It is easy to see why he was so affected by these words because they take us to the heart of what it means to be alive. They stand before us as a challenge and encouragement to us all as we seek to understand what it means to live the Christian life. Today’s verse is the first of the so-called Beatitudes. Before we launch into it we need to be clear what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of Heaven, an expression he often used. The Kingdom of Heaven comes where God is allowed to be in c

READ: Isaiah 59.1-2 NLT Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. If God feels far away, guess who moved. Isaiah makes it clear that the answer is decisively not God. Throughout the years people have lashed out at God because he seemed so distant. Have you ever had that feeling that your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling and getting nowhere? I suspect all of us have had that experience from time to time, so we all need to listen to Isaiah and learn that God is never weak or deaf. So when we feel far away from God, the problem is entirely with us. In order to keep close to God we need to keep an eagle eye on the sins which can so easily creep into our lives and push God away. The problem with sin is that it normally presents itself innocently. Perhaps you are feeling overlooked at work. You don’t feel that you have received the recognition

READ: Isaiah 58.6-7 NLT “This is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.” It is incredibly sad that Isaiah’s words written more than 2,500 years ago still apply today. There continue to be people who are wrongly imprisoned, hungry and homeless. God’s word to us today is, therefore, unchanged from Isaiah’s day. He  declares that the reality of our worship will be revealed by our willingness to care for those who are denied justice and as we reach out to feed the hungry and give shelter to the homeless. I am thrilled that Christians are busily engaged in fighting for justice and in providing practical relief for the hungry and homeless. The need is still enormous. There are more than 300,000 homeless people in the UK. I have often spoken  with homeless people and have been struck by the terrible ease with w

READ: Isaiah 58.4 NLT “What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarrelling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.” Nothing is more unattractive than hypocrisy. When I have talked to people who don’t go to church, time and again they have pointed out the gap between churchgoers’ faith and actions. This was precisely the situation that Isaiah was  addressing. The people were regular in their attendance at the Temple and they said all the right things. They seemed to take their faith seriously but, in fact, it was all an act. Even when they fasted it was just play acting because they kept on fighting and quarrelling with one another. And the ultimate proof of their hypocrisy was that they treated their employees badly.  Jesus spent a lot of time pointing out people’s hypocrisy. In his day the most educated and committed Jews were the Pharisees. No one could doubt that they took their faith seriously. They were meticulous in the way in which they worshipped and tithed, but Jesus rep

READ: Isaiah 57.20-21 NLT “Those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt. There is no peace for the wicked,” says my God. It was Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in his famous Confessions who observed,” Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” There is no doubt that Augustine was reflecting on his own life. He had lived a promiscuous life before he became a Christian at the age of 31 and had lurched from one philosophy to another. He knew how tempestuous and unsatisfying life was when lived in his own way and it was clearly a matter of joy and relief when, through the friendship of Bishop Ambrose, he found personal faith in Christ. A few days before writing this we were in Devon as a family watching the waves  crashing against the beach. I’ve seen this a thousand times but the enormous power of the sea struck me afresh. Everything got churned up by the angry waves. This, Isaiah declares, i

READ: Isaiah 56.9-11 NLT Come, wild animals of the field! Come, wild animals of the forest! Come and devour my people! For the leaders of my people—the Lord’s watchmen, his shepherds— are blind and ignorant. They are like silent watchdogs that give no warning when danger comes. They love to lie around, sleeping and dreaming. Like greedy dogs, they are never satisfied. As a church leader I find these words incredibly challenging and agonisingly sad. I am sure that we have all known church leaders who have worked extremely hard and they have rightfully earned people’s love and respect. But there are lazy leaders as well. Here Isaiah depicts the way in which spiritual leaders in his own day had totally missed the point. They were the opposite of shepherds. They didn’t care for the sheep at all. Their only concern was to have a good time and Isaiah goes on to describe how they loved to party and get drunk, and then to plan even bigger parties.  If you are a church leader then, like me, you will want to hear the