A Scottish Angel

Perhaps I saw and angel today and he is Scottish.  I was driving into town and ran out of petrol.  I got the Jerry can out of the back of the car and was walking to the garage passing by a van driver who was parked in a roadside parking bay. I could see the word, Dumbarton on the van.  The driver said he would give me a lift, which he did.  I am so thankful to God for that man for giving me a lift, it saved me so much more effort.  Perhaps he was an angel sent to assist me

Saturday in Shrewsbury Shakespeare and Batman

Last Saturday, I went to Shrewsbury to joing some other people in reading portions from Shakespeares plays in the market square.  All the protions were on marriage.  One company were advertising their forthcoming production of, "The Merry Wives of Windsor".  We were also raising money for a hospice.  I found it fun.  I took part in several readings. Our own people had chosen Anthony and Cleopatra.

I saw people there whom I had first seen in the attfield ten years ago.  Like many amature companies the youngsters present were the children of the adults who were members of the company.  It was a fun day.

When it was all over, I did some shopping.  I saw the batmobile pass by with batman at the wheel. He looked like he had come staight off the film set.  One man standing beside me said, "Did I really see that?"  I said, "Yes you did, I saw it to".  Batman must have spent a lot of money on the car and the costume. it really looked great.

Last Saturday

Last Saturday at Digbeth was lovely. For me the day started when I thought that I had left enough time to get to the train and on the way, I stopped at a shop to get a newspaper and to my horror, I found that I had forgotten my wallet. I realised it was in another jacket and I had to go back for it. I left the newspaper in the shop. I was going to a Rally in Digbeth and I really wanted to go. I thought that by going back to the flat, I would miss the train, but if God really wanted me to be at that Rally, then making the train a few minutes late would not be a lot of trouble for the lord.

I drove back to my flat, got my wallet and drove straigtht to the station and as I parked I could see the train coming in. It WAS late. There was our minister beconning me on to run to get the train. I did and boarded the train.

We were to meet other people at Moor Street Station. We were very early, I had a coffee and bought a newspaper. I also took photos of a steam locomotive that is permenantly in the station.

Other people arrived and we went to the Digbeth institute which is now a night club. I took more photos. We went to the top of the building where there was a bar. (There is a bar in every room) It was in that bar that the minister gave a talk on the minister of the nearby church. It was good to see how God had blessed the area in days gone by, but we need to see things happening in our own day.

Those at the Rally were middle aged. we need to see younger people coming to the lord.

We went to the cathedral and then to the host church where we were given an address on how Joshua, met the commander of the lords army ( who is the lord) and all the men were circumcised. This was a strange thing to do from a military point of view as they could have just gone in and started the invasion immediately. However, Gods people should be consecrated unto him and they were still under the Abrahamic covenant, but none of the men had been circumcised in their years of wandering in the wilderness. Now they were being prepared for what God had for them. To go in and take the promised land.

So we in our way, should be available and consecrated, set apart from the world for the lords purposes.

All in all, it was a lovely day

Moses, the reluctent servant

The Passage James chose on Friday in Hebrews 3 spoke of Moses, the faithful servant. Baring this in mind let us read

EXODUS chapter 3 and 4

This is an example of how chapter and verse is good for references, but not always good for the narrative and for that reason I read both chapters

MOSES DID THREE 40s

His first 40 years were in the palace where he would be educated and would learn palace ways, though his nurse was in fact his mother

His second 40 years were in the desert and we see him tending the sheep of his father in law Jethro (Godly Arab)

His final 40 years were spent leading the people of Israel through the wilderness.

I like curiosity. Some things catch my attention and I just have to investigate. In the hot conditions he worked in, to see a bush on fire would have been a common site. It was not the flames that got his attention; it was the fact that the bush was not consumed

We are told that he was tending his father in laws sheep. This would have been his daily work. He was doing the task that he did daily, when something out of the ordinary happened that would change the direction of his life.

He probably thought that working and family life were to be his lot until his death.

In providence, he led the sheep to the far side of the desert to a place called horeb ( the mountain of God) I am not sure if it had that name at the time, or if that is a name that was given to it later. In this passage, we do see that it was there that God revealed himself and spoke to Moses.

God told Moses not to come any closer, and to take off his sandals for the place upon which he stood was holy ground. I do not believe that there was anything special or holy about the ground; it was God’s presence in this special way that made it Holy, apart from that it was no more significant than the rest of the desert.

When God introduced himself, Moses hid his face. For he was afraid. (Remember that later Moses face would glow because he spoke to God face to face)

He tells Moses that he has heard Israel crying and is concerned about their suffering, and he was sending him MOSES to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt

Moses 1^st objection V11

Moses questions God. Who am I that I should go to pharaoh and bring Israel out of Egypt?

God assures him that he will be with him and they will worship him on this Mountain (the Mountain of God)

Moses 2^nd objection V13

V13 suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me ( note he said Your fathers, not Our fathers. He had been out of it for 40 years) And they ask me, What is his name? then what shall I tell them?

God says tell them I AM who I AM

He then is told the assemble the elder of Israel and pass the message on to thm

Moses 3^rd objection

What if they do not believe me or say the lord did not appear to you?

God give Moses some signs to authenticate himself

The staff turned into a snake and back into a staff (taking it by the tail. Moses had run from it)

He put his hand in his cloak and brought it out Leprous, he put it back in, took it out and it was normal

The third sign was that if he took water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, it would become blood.

One would have thought that would have been enough to convince Moses What it actually did was leave him without any excuses.

Moses 4rth objection

I am not a good speaker.

God assured him that he would give him what to say.

Finally Moses has no more excuses and says “OH LORD, PLEASE SEND SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT”

Do we baulk at a difficult task that has to be done? Moses was saying in all his reasoning and excuses, I DO NOT WANT TO DO IT.

God was angry. Moses was an extremely reluctant servant. We are told that God told Moses that the people who wanted to kill him were all dead. Presumably Moses was afraid of them.

God was not going to let Moses get out of his responsibility. I think it was probably true that Moses was not a great Speaker, but God said what about your brother Aaron? He is good speaker. He will speak for you.

As humans we experience fear. However when we see that God has commanded us to do something, do we give in to fear?

MOSES DID NOT TELL JETHRO THE TRUTH

I wonder why Moses did not tell Jethro, his father in law the truth. He told Jethro that he wanted to go back to Egypt to see if any of his people were still alive. He did not tell Jethro what God had told him. Perhaps he thought that things would get worse for him if his father in law said No, you will not obey God and you will not take my daughter, (Your wife) or my grandchildren into danger.

The one thing we can be certain of is that Moses lied. He already knew that there were Israelis who were alive because God had told him

Jethro told him to go, and he took his wife and son.

Chapter 5 verses 24 and 23

I wondered what these verses mean. The only thing that I can find that the scholars agree on is that they are difficult.

The personal Pronoun HIM, seems to refer to Moses, but could refer to his sons.

Also why was God angry?

If it is Moses and God was sending him to Israel, why would God want to kill him? That would be self defeating.

It seem to me (and you may disagree) that the lord was angry with moses because he had not taken his responsibility of circumcising them under the Abrahamic covenant, as he should have done

Was God angry just because they were not circumcised OR was God angry because their lack of circumcision would look bad at he Palace when Moses would tell pharoh to let his people (?the circumcises go)

His wife Zipporah was furious with Moses, and did what he should have done on the 8^th day after their births circumcised them.

There is a difficulty with the singular and plural in this passage as it seems to refer to more than one son, yet singular foreskin which Zipporah touched Moses feet with.

Aaron also had to obey the lord. The lord told Aaron to go into the desert and meet Moses. They met at the Mountain of the lord, i.e. the same place where God had revealed himself. They then got down to business. Moses told Aaron everything God had said and Aaron told the elders, the signs were performed and they believe

God had told Moses the truth. He told him that Pharaoh would not listen and would not let them go and that he God would harden Pharaohs heart. The task was going to be difficult and that may be another reason why Moses asked God to send someone else

OH GOD, IT IS GOING TO BE HARD. SEND SOMEONE ELSE. LET ME JUST KEEP GOING THE WAY I AM. I HAVE A GOOD UNEVENTFUL STEADY LIFE RIGHT NOW. I WANT IT TO STAY THAT WAY.

I suspect this is what Moses thought. He had been tending the sheep for up to 40 years, he had a wife and family. Life was good.

Whatever we may think is comfortable for us, sometimes God comes in and says, I have a new and difficult task, and I have chosen you to do it. Are you willing and will you go, or are you reluctant like Moses?

The visitors and the things it reminds me of

It has been good to have PM, MP and FH visit us this week. I met PM on my first day in when I starte with the company I am now with. I have met MP both here and at international meetings, and I met FH a good number of years ago when I did a short term mission in Austria. I feel that in this visit I got to know FH in particulare very much better.

At a BBQ last week, I happened to see some of the books that PH is using that speak on issues that young people face. this includes things like sexual abuse and annorexia. We live in days when in presenting Jesus Christ we need to be in relationships with people that let them know that he cares about these matters.

I understand a just little of the sexual abuse issue because as a small boy, I was abused by the next door neighbours daughter and my parents did not know about it at the time. My mother found out about it many years later when she saw it written down in a journal I kept. I am so glad that we moved house when I was five and that put an end to it. I also remember the strange feelings I had when the neighbours daughter was baby sitting me and I knew what would happen. I wanted to play with my fire engine but I knew that she would take me up to the bathroom and do what she did every time.

This has not effected my life in my view because of the fact that in Gods providence we moved house and as it happens the neighbours left the country shortly afterwards. However, I do think it has given me a little insight into how abuse starts and why it starts. Unlike me however for some, it goes on and on and on for years and wrecks their lives.

Being where I am now, I think I have a very broad view of the work of the lord, and I have a part in it both in the company that I am in and outside it through things like church and things that I do privately such as this blog, and I am in the middle of writing a large blog that will be a one off. It will not be a journal and it will be available to as wide a readership as I can muster.

I think this blog is currently a learning curve for me as I have only just found out that if I were to choose, I could open it to facebook (But so far at least I do not want to do that) I have however recently opened it up to email and worked out how to successfully do that, and the other blog that I am still creating will go to facebook.

I am so grateful to a certain young woman whose blog I once saw and that gave me the idea for starting this blog. Who knows, it may lead to other things.

4 Years Old

When a 4 year old girl keeps smiling at you, laughing at you and huggs you, it is lovely

Moses and the Question

I read something this morning about the call of Moses and how he made excuses about not doing what God told him to do. He said he was not a public speaker yet God still told him to go and tell his people.

That stirred my heart. I put forward some questions in an appraisal some months ago. The first appraisal that I have ever taken seriously in my life if I am being brutally honest, and so far there has been nothing. I feel that I have to ask the question again, so some time next week, I will do just that.

I have no idea what the reaction will be or what I may spark off by bringing the question up again, but I know that I will not be happy until I have done so. Watch this space.

visitors

We have a number of visitors this week. P whom I met on my first day in OM. F whom I first met in Austria and M who arrived today. Who knows what God may teach me this week through the ministry of these men?

A death

I sent a letter to an old school friend recently. I used my battered old address book to send it to the last address I had for him about 35 years ago. this afternoon I got a message that was left on our office answering service. It came from his son. He said that his father passed away yesterday morning.

I am shocked. I may not be a youngster, but I am not at that stage in life where it is common for those I grew up with to die.

It was A who introduced me in my final year at school to the local Pentecostal Pastor. A had been in a major accident at the time. I also met A again at Glasgow University.

One never knows when the end will come. It is vital therefore to right with God and trust Jesus Christ for salvation. Our end may come when we do not expect it and then there is the judgement. We need to have that matter settled now while we are still under Gods Grace or else face his wrath.

Phantom of the Opera

I went with some collegues to see Phantom of the Opera in Manchester on Saturday. I found it interesting to see what different directors do with it. This was the third time I have seen it. I had never seen joseph hung in full view of the audience before and I had never seen Meg Girly catch the phantom by putting her hands on his shoulders before at the end when he disappears. Als the maquarade set was very different. There was so stairway. It looked like a hall of mirrors.

I loved it

Walking

It is spring. Yes believe it or not, spring is here. With it come opportunities to get along side people and I will be doing that tonight. In recent years, I have taken to walking, initially I did it purely to engage with people, but I now also value it for the exercise. Tonight will be the first of the village walks.

I like to indulge one of my other passions when I am doing it, which is photographing things that I think are interesting to look at.

I have no idea who is going to be on tonights walk, or what I may see that I find interesting. Exciting. Isnt it?

The seven cries from the cross, last in series

My God My God, why have you forsaken me?

Mathew 27: 32-55

Mark 15: 33- 40

Psalm 22:1

We see Jesus cry in the first verse of this psalm and also some other things concerning the crucifixion. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is amazing what one can see with it that one did not see at the time. I think only Jesus had that psalm in mind that day. I doubt if the crowd did, or even the disciples, but now we can see that it was a prophecy and it was fulfilled that day.

When he was being mocked and the crowd said, “If you are the son of God, come down from the cross and we will believe”. This would have been a temptation for Jesus.

You can only be tempted to do things that you are actually able to do that would be wrong. These people were scornful, but Jesus really was the son of God. He could have done it just like in the wilderness he could have turned the stones to bread, or he could have jumped off the top of the temple and been saved or he could have taken what would have seemed a short cut to reigning over the world by worshipping the devil. All these things were sore temptations. Let us not gloss over the things that were going on as he hung there. The devil was offering him a way out and he could have taken it, and you and I would be lost.

I think that when we read this we are so familiar with it that we have lost the sense of what a terrible temptation it was for Jesus.

They were saying that if he were the son of God, he should prove it now. They ignored the fact that he had proved it many times in the miracles that had been witnessed and in his power to forgive sin. They were looking for a show.

I cannot think of any other passage of scripture, where we are given a translation. But here, we are told that Jesus cried out

ELOI ELOI LAMA SABACHTHANI. We are told that this means My God My God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus said this in Aramaic, a widely spoken language of the time. I think he said it in this language rather than Hebrew so that many of the Non Hebrew speaking people would hear it, or at least grasp something of what he said, however, we are told that some thought he was calling upon Elijah. My guess is that those who thought this would be Hebrew speaking.

Mathew and Mark have translated it for the Hebrew readers and hearers ( for in their day the word would be read out in church for illiteracy was rife, so that there could be no mistake, he was not calling for Elijah, he was expressing his agony of being cut off from the father.

We see that not only has God taken great care that we can see the spiritual agony of Christ, but that in having the cry translated we can understand as much as we are able of his agony. It is like God has pulled a veil partly aside for us to see what is beyond it, even if our minds cannot fully comprehend it.

Perhaps they were thinking of the prophecy that said that Elijah would return before the Messiah. This in fact referred to John the Baptist.

Having mocked him, they said let us see if Elijah will come to save him. This too would have been a temptation for Jesus, for on the Mount of transfiguration, he did speak to Elijah and also to Moses.

There is a debate about whether they meant what they said. The author of the gospel knew what Jesus said and meant and these people heard the same words, so it is possible that they did understand what he said and were simply mocking, OR out of curiosity they thought that if God were going to save him then surely he would do it by sending Elijah.

I think that in saying that, the crowd were there for entertainment. At the very least watching someone die was entertainment to them, and then they think that they could be further entertained it Elijah were to come. Their whole approach was wrong.

Note that he did not cry out about the terrible physical pain he was enduring, nor the shame from the mocking because he prayed that they would be forgiven. NO.

Instead, we see in this cry, a glimpse of the spiritual pain he was in for our sake to glorify the father. Let us be in no doubt. Jesus did not die just for us. He died in obedience to Glorify the father and yet in that moment the father had forsaken him. God will not look upon sin, and he became sin for us and the father forsook him.

Being forsaken by God (the father) was in my view by far the most excruciatingly painful part of the crucifixion and in it we not only see the spiritual dimension of Jesus, we see in the emotion it expresses his total humanity as well.

You and I will not experience that sort of pain, because he has endured it for us

In Hebrews 13:5 we are told, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

However he was forsaken, in a way that I can scarcely imagine.

I wonder what your comprehension is of what it was like to be forsaken like that.

I find that the more I try to think about it, the more I realise that it is beyond my comprehension because I do not have nor will I have that experience.

At the start of this series, we saw in Luke’s gospel that the centurion said, “surely this was a righteous man” In Mathews gospel we are told that he and those with him were terrified. We have the is image that Christ died and it is all peaceful and quiet. There was in fact an earthquake as he died and the curtain in the temple was torn. The earthquake alone would terrify anyone. They would have thought God’s wrath was coming upon them.

The crowd having thought they would be entertained by his death would find nothing entertaining in the earthquake. Or the tearing in two of the curtain in the temple. Instead they saw the terrifying power of God and they were afraid.

My God My God, why have you forsaken me? He knew the answer. But that does not diminish anguish that he felt. I believe he uttered that cry knowing that it would become public knowledge that he said this and it would give us insight to price paid for our sin.

I have no experience of being cut off from God. I find this a mystery, if father son and the holy ghost are all one and the same god then how can one forsake one of the others, yet still be complete? I will never know the answer to that question, but I know that somehow it is true and I accept that by faith. Somehow the father forsook the son and yet what the father did is Holy.

I need to see that, I need that perspective so that I do not treat sin lightly. Even in that cry, he still acknowledged the father. God was still God, but he was doing something new. He was carrying out the promised plan of salvation and doing away with the temple sacrifices.

We are given hint in scripture that temptation was something that happened to Jesus a lot. It was not just the one period in the wilderness, nor do I believe it was just then and the cross. I think it would have been a daily occurrence as the devil sought to thwart Gods plan. Yet Christ did not yield.

As we move into the Easter Period, may we be mindful, not just at this time, but all the time, that our lord paid a heavy price to buy our salvation, and in so doing we see that his grace is magnificent. The seven cries from the cross, should touch us and have as much meaning now as they did then. May we remember what our Lord has done, not just at Easter, but every day.

AMEN

Good Friday 1998

Good Friday fell on the 10th of April in 1998. I know that because it was the day that the agreement for Power sharing was signed for Northern Ireland and it was also the day that my father died. I am mindful of that every good Friday and also on the 10th of April.

Good Friday

I went to St Johns last Friday night. It was Good Friday. It was a strange experience. I had a agreed to do one of the readings. Everything without exception was written down on sheets of paper, ie all the things that would be said between the readings including responses. One by one the readers would come up and read an easter passage and then blow out a candle. The largest candle represented christ.

At the point where christ died the pianist turned up the volume and hammered on the keyboard. the large candle representing christ was put under the table.

One of the ladies who read was very emotional and started to cry. My own reading ( the longest one) was also emotional, but I did not cry and this was followed by another lady whom I knew would cry because she always does.

It was the end that surprised me. It was abrupt. there was no opportunity to remain and talk, we all left as quickly as we could and went home.

Easter weekend 2

The Easter Weekend in Dunfermline was lovely. I met F in Edinburgh and took her there. She was very tired having just come back from Belguim.

I thought that Sunday Morning at the North Parish was probably the most uplifting I have seen it in some time and I pray that the survey they are doing will give them the information they need to minister to those who as yet do not know the saviour.

I really enjoyed being with family and they made F really welcome. I am so grateful to them

Easter Weeked

The Easter Weekend, is here. I wonder what will happen over the next few days. I am about to go out and fuel up, then I am going to see if I can source some props for the theatre and get a haircut, and pick up a few discs of photos.

I need to do a bit of housework as if things go to plan, F will arrive tomorrow night and the next day we will be going to Dunfermline

I enjoyed preaching on the 7 cries from the cross. I think teaching is the biggest thing I do. With that in mind, I will give a prompt soon to see if more of my plans will be actioned.