Prayer from Kansas              Word on the Times               31^st December 2022.

A prayer uttered 25 years ago in the State Legislature building in Kansas created waves when it was first created.   A friend sent it to me recently, as large parts of it are still relevant today!   Here is an edited version.

Almighty God, our loving Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask Your forgiveness for the sins we now confess and to seek Your guidance in our lives.

We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good.’ And that’s exactly what we’ve done.  We’ve lost our spiritual sureness.  We’ve inverted our values.

We confess that we’ve denied the absolute Truth of Your Word in order to conform to the prevailing culture.

We’ve endorsed perversion and called it ‘alternative lifestyle.’

We’ve exploited the poor and called it a ‘lottery.’

We’ve neglected the needy and given them our small change.

Father, in the name of ‘choice,’ we have killed our unborn.

We’ve neglected to discipline our children and called it ‘building esteem.’

We have abused power and called it expediency.

We have short-changed the tax-man and called it creative accounting.  

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it ‘freedom of expression.’

We’ve ridiculed your time-honoured values observed by our forefathers and called it ‘enlightenment.’

Guide and bless the men and women in Government who we have elected both at local and national level.   Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions be guided by Your will.  And for each one of us personally…

‘Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’   Psalm 139 verses 34/4.

I ask it in the name of Your Son the Living Saviour, Jesus Christ.          Amen.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS.

Mary’s Song                      Word on the Week                     17^th December 2022.

Have you ever burst out in spontaneous singing?   Has the Joy of the Lord ever reached your lips in an unrestrained way?   There was a time in my life when it happened frequently.   For obvious reasons it was when I was alone in the car!

In Mary’s case it happened in the midst of the miraculous!   Herself pregnant, she had gone to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was in her 6^th month.   When they met the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth enabling her to ‘see’ that Mary’s baby was the Lord Jesus.    She also recognised Mary’s faith in what the Angel had passed on to her.  The message was that of a virgin birth (St Luke Chapter 1 verses 26 to 38).

Out of this cumulative blessings came the song known as the Magnificat.   The title comes from the desire to magnify the Lord in a majestic worship song.   She expresses joy in God her Saviour recognising her own sinfulness and believing the Angels choice of name – Jesus, indicated his calling…to save his people from their sins (St Matthew Chapter 1 verse 21).

It was a time of singing.  Elizabeth’s husband, Zachariah the priest waxed eloquent in a song in which his son, recognised by the Holy Spirit, would prepare the way for Jesus.   In it he predicted that his son (John the Baptist) would present an alternative way for people to get right with God.   This John did with his baptism for repentance (St Luke Chapter 1 Verses 68 to 79).

There was also Simeon’s song.   Moved by the Holy Spirit he was led to Mary and Joseph who had brought Jesus there for the child’s Temple ritual.   His song of salvation included the Gentiles (St Luke Chapter 2 verses 28 to 32).   Finally, we have the Angelic choir appearing to the shepherds Praising God and promising peace with God to those on whom his favour rests (St Luke Chapter 2 Verses 13 /14).

Returning to Mary’s psalm (like many psalms she starts praising God then explains why he should be praised) we can see echoes of Hannah’s great prayer of joy at giving birth to a son for the Lord (1 Samuel Chapter 2 verse 1 to 10).    

Bearing in mind that Mary was probably in her early teens she must have been well read in the scriptures.    There are lines inspired from a number of Psalms, Genesis, Job and Jeremiah to name a few.  Her hymn of praise ends in recalling the promise to Abraham that a seed (singular) had now arrived and was growing in her (Mary’s) womb (Genesis Chapter 12 verse 7 and Galatians Chapter 3 verse 16).

Such a time – she would probably have sung ‘Joy to the World’ had it been around!

Mary’s Song                      Word on the Week                     17^th December 2022.

Have you ever burst out in spontaneous singing?   Has the Joy of the Lord ever reached your lips in an unrestrained way?   There was a time in my life when it happened frequently.   For obvious reasons it was when I was alone in the car!

In Mary’s case it happened in the midst of the miraculous!   Herself pregnant, she had gone to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was in her 6^th month.   When they met the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth enabling her to ‘see’ that Mary’s baby was the Lord Jesus.    She also recognised Mary’s faith in what the Angel had passed on to her.  The message was that of virgin birth (St Luke Chapter 1 verses 26 to 38).

Out of this cumulative blessings came the song known as the Magnificat.   The title comes from the desire to magnify the Lord in a majestic worship song.   She expresses joy in God her Saviour recognising her own sinfulness and believing the Angels choice of name – Jesus, indicated his calling…to save his people from their sins (St Matthew Chapter 1 verse 21).

It was a time of singing.  Elizabeth’s husband, Zachariah the priest waxed eloquent in a song in which his son, recognised by the Holy Spirit, would prepare the way for Jesus.   In it he predicted that his son (John the Baptist) would present an alternative way for people to get right with God.   This John did with his baptism for repentance (St Luke Chapter 1 Verses 68 to 79).

There was also Simeon’s song.   Moved by the Holy Spirit he was led to Mary and Joseph who had brought Jesus there for the child’s Temple ritual.   His song of salvation included the Gentiles (St Luke Chapter 2 verses 28 to 32).   Finally, we have the Angelic choir appearing to the shepherds Praising God and promising peace with God to those on whom his favour rests (St Luke Chapter 2 Verses 13 /14).

Returning to Mary’s psalm (like many psalms she starts praising God then explains why he should be praised) we can see echoes of Hannah’s great prayer of joy at giving birth to a son for the Lord (1 Samuel Chapter 2 verse 1 to 10).    

Bearing in mind that Mary was probably in her early teens she must have been well read in the scriptures.    There are lines inspired from a number of Psalms, Genesis, Job and Jeremiah to name a few.  Her hymn of praise ends in recalling the promise to Abraham that a seed (singular) had now arrived and was growing in her (Mary’s) womb (Genesis Chapter 12 verse 7 and Galatians Chapter 3 verse 16).

Such a time – she would probably have sung ‘Joy to the World’ had it been around!

Christ in the Desert         Word on the Week           10^th December 2022.

It was with some misgivings that we saw FIFA set in motion a train of events ending with the world football cup being hosted by the Muslim world.   Qatar borders Arabia where the city of mecca is the epicentre of Islam.

The oil revenues enabled the tiny nation state to build seven world class stadiums and to have them finished on time!    News of the toll in human lives lost in their construction blighted the early days of the tournament. That changed when someone mentioned it was like colonial times and the conversation ceased!  

The talking moved to the football field where the opening game between Ecuador and Qatar resulted in the host team being beaten.   Both Ecuador’s Goals were scored by Enner Valencia.   After each goal the team gathered round and dropped to their knees acknowledging their allegiance to the Christian God. 

A widely-circulated video showed Ecuador team players praying in a hotel room. “We always do it, in a group, before and after the games,” one of the team explained, adding in his own brand of English: “We are all very believers. At the end, regardless of the result, we thank (God) for leaving the field well and not having hurt anyone.” 

Western commentators are familiar with players acknowledging their prowess comes from God but in Muslin lands this silent witness to Christ is not normally permitted. Those who are led to witness usually end up in jail.            I am indebted to Jeff Fountain of the Schuman Centre for Europe Studies for the following piece of research.

Many of the European players who are outspoken about their faith have migrant roots. In the Dutch team alone, Denzel Dumfries (Aruba/Inter Milan), Jurriën Timber (Curacao/Ajax), Coady Gapko (Togo/PSV), Georginio Wijnaldum (Surinam/Liverpool), and Memphis Depay (Ghana/Barcelona) pray together and share their Christian faith on the field.  

Gapko scored three goals during the group phase, and after scoring against Senegal posted Psalm 121:1 on Instagram: ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.’

Memphis often points to the sky in his goal in winning celebrations and writes on social media, ‘all the glory to God.’ In thankfulness to God for his talent, he has set up a foundation in Ghana to help blind and deaf children.

 The centre of Christianity has moved to the Southern hemisphere.   Their players are carrying the cause of Christ into the world of Islam.  God never lacks a witness (St Luke Chapter 19 verse 40).   Praise Him.

Creation and Revelation            Word on the Week          3^rd December 2022.

In a lovely week, topped off with the annual Pensioners Luncheon, it was good to find the blog is still in circulation among some of my fellow pensioners.   In selecting a topic to write about one thing is apparent and that is the relative popularity of blogs which have the natural world as their topic.   Nature trumps revelation!

The old-timers had a measured view in which God has two books.  They are: –  

God’s book of Works &

God’s book of Words.

God’s book of works is Creation.   The Psalmist understood that the whole cosmos was created by God.   He declared it to be the work of his hands (Psalm 19 verses 1 to 3).   Then in Psalm 24 verse 1 it is plainly stated that the Lord owns the earth and all who live in it.  We belong to him!  

There is a fallen-ness seen in the thorns and weeds which need no planting and in the childbirth pains in a woman (Genesis Chapter 3 verses 16 to 18).   But the creation, Paul tells us, is eagerly awaiting being set free from its bondage to corruption.   So nature is under the stress of diseases which affect bird and beast, tree and livestock till the end of the age (Romans Chapter 8 verses 19 to 25).

God’s Book of Words is the Bible.   From it we learn of Mankind’s relationship to God.   We find that God sets about providing a remedy for sin as soon as it enters the world (Genesis chapter 3 verse 15).   One that is to come will be the serpent-crusher who will himself suffer (Genesis Chapter 3 verse15).

This person is revealed to Abraham (St John Chapter 8 verse 56).    He is the long expected Messiah who was made known to the Virgin Mary by an angelic proclamation “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (St Matthew Chapter 1 verse 21).

“Jesus became what he was not without ever ceasing what he always was” (Athanasius 4^th Century).   Jesus became the God-man and walked on earth for 33 years.   He was fully man and fully God and he was without sin.   Because of his great love for us he took our sin and died our death upon the cross so that all who put their trust in Jesus might be saved (St John Chapter 3 verse 16).

For the believer Jesus took our sins and laid his righteousness to our account so that in the judgement we will be as he is (2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 21).   We are not saved by our works but by his work.   We are not left in the rags of our righteousness but given the robe of his righteousness to wear (Isaiah Chapter 64 verse 6).  The old hymn says it well – Fairest Lord Jesus!
  Ruler of all nature!
Son of God and Son of man!
  Thee will I cherish,
  Thee will I honour,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown!