Be Still And Know

READ: Acts 1.8 NLT Jesus said “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” What an amazing day this must have been for the disciples. They are just about to see Jesus disappear before their eyes and before he does so he gives them their marching orders. They are commissioned to take the Good News to the world, no less. These days we know a great deal about the world and can easily communicate across the globe. But for Jesus’ disciples this must have seemed an overwhelming challenge. Where on earth would they start? Jesus wanted his disciples to know that they were all witnesses. They had seen and heard things which needed to be shared. We don’t all have an evangelistic gift, something which is often said to have been given to about 10 percent of Christians. But we are all witnesses. Our means of communication have changed completely since the first century

READ: Acts 1.3-4 NLT During the forty days after Jesus suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised.” Dr Luke wrote two books – his gospel and what is often called “The Acts of the Apostles”. The first tells us what happened during Jesus’ earthly ministry and the second describes the story of the birth and growth of the church. However, before Dr Luke launched into the story of the church, he wanted his readers to know that there is no doubt about Jesus’ resurrection. He knew that everything hinged on the historical resurrection of Jesus. He informs us that Jesus met with his disciples on a number of occasions and even shared meals with them. It was clearly a tumultuous time for the disciples. They had experienced the trauma of Jesus’ appalling death,

READ: Psalm 56.1-3 NLT 'O God, have mercy on me, for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long. I am constantly hounded by those who slander me, and many are boldly attacking me. But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.' On a number of occasions I have stayed in Benedictine monasteries in this country and in France. Their way of life is very different from my own, but I have been incredibly blessed by the opportunity to worship with them. Honesty forces me to admit that I didn’t attend all eight of the daily services! What I found particularly impressive was that, at every service, psalms are read and the whole psalter is read every week. There is huge value in reading all the psalms because they explore so many different themes. If you stick with your top five favourite psalms, the danger is that you may come away feeling that they are all about praising and glorifying God and you might overlook the fact that many of them reflect times of agony, rejection and threat. The psalmists met G

READ: Psalm 52.8-9 NLT 'But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love. I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.' This passage from Psalm 52 begins with a ‘but’ as David contrasted himself with Doeg the Edomite, who had been seeking to stir up trouble for him with Saul. David has some harsh things to say about Doeg who had been bent on David’s destruction. David reflects that he had decided to live his own life very differently. His desire was to be like an olive tree, a tree that was not only famous for surviving well in a demanding and hot climate but also for its longevity. Olive trees often survive for over a thousand years. They only have a shallow root system but their tap roots keep them supplied with moisture even in the harshest terrain. Like David, many of us will have met people like Doeg, who see it as their business to trip us up. It’s really tough w

READ: Psalm 51.1-2 NLT 'Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.' The background to this psalm is well known. King David had committed adultery and he had been found out. The penalty for this crime in the Jewish law was death. However, David repented of his sin and God showed him generosity in forgiving his wrongdoing. To suggest that David was relieved would be a piece of ridiculous understatement. This psalm is both a celebration of God’s forgiveness and of the new life which opened up for him as a result. The evil one will always seek to persuade us that sin is not actually that serious. Everyone does it and we really shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it. And, in any event, the sins which other people commit are far worse than anything we would ever think of doing ourselves. Just look at some of the stories in today’s newspapers. In these, and a thousand other ways, we seek t

READ: Psalm 48.1-3 NLT 'How great is the Lord, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain! It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the great King! God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers, revealing himself as its defender.' I will never forget my first sight of Old Jerusalem. The golden limestone walls of Old Jerusalem were set against a deep blue sky. It was absolutely beautiful and immediately triggered the memory of psalms like this one which praise the magnificence and beauty of the city. Jerusalem has a central place in the Bible. It was here that Abraham offered to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. Centuries later David established Jerusalem as his capital city and his son Solomon then built the glorious Temple. Although Jesus lived in Galilee in the north, he frequently visited Jerusalem and it was here that he was crucified and rose from death. It was in this city that the Spirit was poured out

READ: Psalm 47.1 NLT 'Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!' I once went to visit some friends who were doing mission work in Southern Pakistan close to the Sind desert. It was very, very hot. I remember how keen they were to prevent any draughts because the searing heat was too much to bear, even through the smallest gaps. On Sunday I went to their mud hut church and, as I entered, I was given a percussion instrument to play. I wasn’t asked if I wanted one or if I had any musical gifts! Everyone was given an instrument. The service that followed was in a language that I didn’t know at all but it really didn’t matter because it was clear that we were worshipping the Lord and I was totally involved in it with my newly acquired drum. The psalms very often encourage everyone to get involved in worship. Whatever our gifts, background or mood we all need to worship God. Whatever kind of worship we are used to, whether it is based on a prepared liturgy or is free and charismatic, there c

READ: 1 Corinthians 14.1 NLT 'Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy.' 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is a really famous chapter and rightly so. But the fact is that Paul didn’t write in chapters. Chapter divisions arrived about 1,200 years later! So, whenever we see a chapter division, we need to, at least, peer at what happens next. This is really important in this particular letter because if you only looked at chapter 13 you might think that love is so important that you can forget about the gifts of the Spirit. After all, they have got a limited shelf life as Paul has just explained. But here at the start of chapter 14 he makes it plain that we all need to make love the goal of our lives and, at the same time, we need to seek after the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit wants to give us. The church in Corinth had got into a horrible muddle about spiritual gifts and Paul is trying to straighten them out. Their meeting

READ: 1 Corinthians 13 8, 9 and 13 NLT 'Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.' I don’t know about you but I don’t like throwing things away. I am writing this on a laptop. A new laptop. I hung on to the last one for as long as possible. It was starting to run very slowly, and sometimes didn’t want to start at all. I was prepared to concede that it had good days and bad days, because we all do, but, in the end, I had to admit that I was devoting too much of my life to waiting for it to spring into action. The truth is, of course, that all our possessions have a limited life. Our cars, our microwaves, our beds, our desks and even our homes don’t last for ever. The same principle exists in the spiritual realm as well. Our spiritual gifts are a wonderful blessing but they come to an end. Speaking in tongues, prophecy, preaching, words of knowledge are

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.11-12 NLT 'When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.' When I was about four years old I can recall being very confused when I met new people. I presumed that they had just been made, because I had never seen them before! I had recently tumbled to the fact that people die, and that was probably because one of my grandfathers died at around that time. I came up with a theory that God probably took the bits of dead people and used them to make the new people that I had just met. It was all very logical and, in its way, quite impressive. It just happened to be wrong! When we are children, our minds struggle to understand the world around us and that’s absolutely fine be

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.4-7 NLT 'Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.' I am sure that you have often heard these famous words. They give us the most beautiful description of love and, understandably, they are often read at weddings. Love sounds incredibly attractive doesn’t it? We would all long to be as loving as this. But there’s a problem. A very big problem, and we won’t make any progress until we have recognised it. The problem is that no amount of human effort will enable us to be as loving as this. However hard we try we are bound to fail. The reason for that is that the only way to show perfect love is by enabling God to work through us. Hard as we might try, we will never succeed in being truly lo

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.1 NLT 'If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.' I will never forget Sheila. She was in her early 70s when I first met her and every Friday evening, without fail, she helped out with her church’s youth club. The church was on a rough estate and the evenings were full of action. The young people were rarely appreciative and at times violent. The language they used was normally rude and often deeply offensive. I could go on but I am clearly not describing a relaxing evening, to put it mildly! And yet, Friday after Friday, Sheila would faithfully go and support the youth club with the hope that it might be a blessing to the young people and possibly even lead them closer to finding faith in Jesus. I only know one word to describe that kind of commitment – love. Sheila truly loved those young people and nothing would stop her seeking to help them. I’ve started with a personal example because we all

READ: 1 Corinthians 12.14 and 16-17 NLT 'Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?' I love Paul’s sense of humour! He imagines a conversation going on within the body which is plainly ridiculous. It would be crazy if the ear were to complain that it wasn’t a proper part of the body because it wasn’t an eye. But, funny as it is, Paul is making a very serious point. He is talking about inferiority complexes and they get everywhere. Many people in churches look down on themselves. Some think they don’t count because they are only a Sunday school teacher, or only a cleaner, or only a newcomer. Paul wants to make it clear that, so far as God is concerned, there are no “only” people in the church. Every single person is vital. Paul recognises that there is another prob

READ: 1 Corinthians 12.4-7 NLT 'There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.' I often hear people being described as gifted. They may be a particularly able pianist, flower arranger or speaker. I totally understand what is being said, but it could be very misleading. It seems to suggest that there are two types of people – those who are gifted and those who are, sadly, not gifted at all. This passage makes it clear that every one of us is gifted. Whatever your age, strength, ability or disability, background or temperament you have got a unique gift that God, in his generosity, has given to you. Our task is therefore to discover the gift that God has given to us and to make sure that we use it. People have often told me that they don’t know what the

READ: 1 Corinthians 11.27-28 NLT 'So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.' If you are employed then you probably have the delight of an annual appraisal. The intention is to stand back from how things are going in order to acknowledge what went badly and what went well, and to reflect on how things could be strengthened for the year ahead. Conducted well, appraisals can be a great blessing and I have always been grateful for the ones that I have had. Here Paul is suggesting that we need to conduct a self-appraisal on a regular basis before we meet together to celebrate Christ’s death for us on the cross. The Corinthian church had clearly made a huge mess of their services. When they had a meal together to celebrate Jesus’ death some of them ate so much that there was nothing left for others. It makes their services sound like a riot!

READ: 1 Corinthians 10.31 NLT 'So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.' Life throws up many challenges for us in the 21st Century, and it was no different in Paul’s day. One of the issues that he had to face was that sometimes meat was taken to pagan temples as an act of worship before being sold by the butchers. Paul is quite clear that pagan gods were not true gods and so it really didn’t matter if the meat had been waved in front of them. But if someone were to point out that they had been presented in the temple then he concluded that it would be better not to eat it, out of respect for the informant’s conscience. It was a tricky issue but clearly a live one in Paul’s day and he had to find a careful way of handling it. The key principle in all of this was that whatever you do it needs to be done for the glory of God. Every day we have to make decisions. Most of them are simple and straightforward but, like Paul, we need to be clear about the guiding principle.

READ: 1 Corinthians 9.19 and 22-23 NLT 'Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ... When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.' I love meeting people who are passionate about something, whatever it is. It may be their love of horses or of a particular football club or their devotion to gardening. You sense that their whole life is tuned into their passion and I find it fascinating learning how they organise their lives. Paul was clearly passionate about people finding salvation in Jesus and here he gives us a very clear insight into how he was wired. He lets us see his strategy for spreading this amazing message. His method was to get alongside people whatever their background or their way of life. Whether they were a Jew or a Gentile, weak o

READ: 1 Corinthians 4.16-17 NLT 'I urge you to imitate me. That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.' The disciples learnt how to follow Jesus by looking at his example. They saw the way in which he responded to the constant demands of his ministry. They saw his kindness and patience and the way in which he welcomed every kind of person. They were often shocked by the things that he said and by the sort of people that he spent time with. Until now they had steered well clear of prostitutes, tax collectors and people with leprosy but Jesus always seemed to have time for them. As the disciples looked at Jesus, they learnt what it meant to be one of his followers. Paul wasn’t around at the time of Jesus’ ministry but he recognised the crucial importance of people learning by example, and he offers his life as one to be imitated. How else would people learn how to put Christian teac

READ: 1 Corinthians 3.5-6 NLT 'After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.'  Think for a moment about the Christian leaders that you have known. I’ve been a Christian a long time and I could easily come up with a list of hundreds of leaders who have helped me to understand the Christian message. I am so grateful to God for them. I can remember very few words that they have spoken even though I must have heard thousands of sermons, but I can easily remember their sincerity, kindness, humour, love, compassion, thoughtfulness and their strength of faith. Every one of them has been different and they have each made their unique contribution. But, at the end of the day, they were all servants. They made their contribution but the person who really matters is God himself because he alone gives life and growth. It is impo

READ: 1 Corinthians 2.1-3 NLT 'When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling.' I once heard about a church that regularly visited the houses nearby. They sent out people two by two and many people got involved. A young girl nervously agreed to join in. She came to one house and a large man came to the door asking in a gruff voice what she wanted. She struggled to speak and then, in a quivering voice, she blurted out, “I’ve come to tell you that Jesus loves you.” The man didn’t know what to do and slammed the door in her face. He went inside and slumped into a chair weeping like a baby. His wife asked what was wrong and he told her that a young girl had just come to their front door and told him that Jesus loved him. He had never had an experience like this before a