Longest Serving Monarch

Picture taken from: http://6m2k14.global2.vic.edu.au/2014/06/09/queens-birthday-public-holiday-isnt-it/

Today, the 9^th September 2015, is the day the Queen becomes the longest serving monarch in British history. She has served the country for over sixty years, a fixture in the midst of a period of rapid and bewildering change. Prime Ministers have come and gone. Other world leaders have come and gone. Only the Queen has remained as the head of state in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. All should readily admit the tremendous achievement, especially for someone who will soon be ninety years of age!

However, the Queen’s reign and the stability that has offered to the nation amidst the tide of change is only figurative. Only one can truly be classified as unchanging, and that is God. He states, ‘I am the Lord, I change not’. Mal. 3. 7. The Queen has seen many different aspects of change in her long reign, changing attitudes being one of them. Things that were once frowned upon are now viewed as acceptable and normal. Indeed, for some, those who question the validity of such behaviour would be classified as bigots. Sadly, those who welcome the changing attitudes to immorality and other aspects of behaviour fail to remember the unchanging God to whom we will all answer in a coming day.

God does not change. His attitude to sin is the same today as it was sixty or 600 years ago. His standards have not altered. Whatever successive governments may legalise and attitudes of society accept does not change or affect a holy God. Sin is still a failure to do what God wants us to do!

Against that background of the unchanging holiness of God, there is another aspect of God’s character that is unchanging – His love for guilty sinners! Although God hates sin, He loves the sinner and wants to provide a way of salvation for all. Through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, He has done just that. Jesus bore God’s judgement upon sin. If we are prepared to accept that truth, turn away from our sin and make Him our Saviour, we can be saved. If you want a relationship with God, and forgiveness for your sin, here is the answer.

Everything changes, except God. The positive aspect of that fact is that once truly saved from sin you can never be lost. God will not go back upon His promises!

Inadequate

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/health/kirkby-gp-practice-put-into-special-measures-1-7362191

‘A Kirkby GP surgery has been placed into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). They found the quality of care at Kirkby Community Primary Care Centre to be inadequate following an inspection carried out in May 2015’.  This story was featured in the Ashfield Chad, July 2015. According to that story, over 5000 people are registered with the Centre and rely upon it for their health care when needed. I would be surprised if some of the patients are not worried by the Commission’s findings, concerned as to whether their treatment there has been sufficiently thorough. I hope that these fears can be alleviated quickly and the concerns of the Commission addressed.

 

The situation made me think. We all need to have confidence in the key services that we rely upon, whether that is doctors, hospitals, police or fire service. All of these services have an impact upon the quality of our lives. We need to know that such services are there, can be relied upon to deal with our case effectively, and enable some return to normality once that service has been used. Failure in any one may even put our life in danger. We depend upon them.

 

In my experience, albeit mainly of the health care aspect, the service and the treatment have been excellent and I would commend the staff at my GP surgery, and the local hospitals where I have been treated. But I am aware that people make mistakes. They get things wrong! Diagnosing illness is not only difficult but prescribing the right course of treatment can be harder. With something so vital, the patient wants certainty, both in terms of what is wrong as well as what needs to be done to put it right.

 

I wonder what we are placing our faith in when it comes to the matter of our eternal destiny. In the matter of our physical health, we would spare no effort or expense to keep our health and be assured that we will not die young. Sadly, many people give no thought to what lies beyond death, and have made no preparation. Some people have given it thought. They attend church; they give to charity; they are caring and generous people. They are pinning their hopes on the things that they do! If there was a ‘care commission’ that had oversight of efforts for heaven, its word for such activity would be ‘inadequate’.

 

The Bible says that all our best efforts will never be good enough for God. But isn’t that unfair? No. In medical terms, the Bible presents us with the diagnosis – we are sinners who are on our way to a lost eternity. But, thankfully, God has provided a cure for the problem of sin. In the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, we can have our sins forgiven, the guilt of those sins lifted, and the assurance of a home in heaven. Why? The Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty for my sin when He died upon the cross. When I trusted Him I found forgiveness and cleansing! What about you?

 

Politicians tell lies!

‘My point is if you are suggesting that every MP who has never quite told the truth or indeed told a brazen lie - including ministers, including Cabinet ministers, including prime ministers - we would clear out the House of Commons very fast, I would suggest’.[1] These are the words of Sir Malcolm Bruce defending his fellow MP and ex-Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael. He went on to say: ‘The SNP . . . were "judging people by standards that they do not apply to themselves"’.¹

 

The more cynical observer would probably say that Malcolm Bruce is absolutely right but is telling us nothing new. Most of us were aware of politicians who say one thing and do another. In many surveys, politicians were up amongst the top of those who were trusted least! However, the sad thing is that lying is both taken for granted and, for some, expected! What, then, do we think of God’s commandment ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’?[2] God tells us that lying is wrong. It is sin – falling short of what God expects of everyone! It’s a simple thing but one that has BIG consequences!

But there is another important point in the story featured on the BBC website. It is easy to point the finger at others. It is easy to find faults and failings, even in those in public office. It is easy to follow that up with suggestions of what penalties they should face for those failures – resign, be sacked, be fined, be imprisoned, etc. The question that needs to be asked is: ‘What would happen if we applied the same standards to ourselves?’ The Bible says ‘Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things’.[3] The reality is that we all sin. We all fail to do what God expects – we fall short of His standards. That sin or failure carries a penalty – separated from God forever, punished for our sin!

The good news is that God has provided a way by which we can escape the penalty we deserve. We can be forgiven! How? Some 2000 years ago the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, died on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem. Though He was perfect – He had never sinned or failed – He died. In that death, He bore God’s punishment upon my sin and, in so doing, brought forgiveness to me and many more Christians. Those who confess their sin to God in prayer and put their faith in Christ can know that forgiveness too. Rather than judge others, let us accept what we are before God, confess our sin and guilt and seek His peace in forgiveness. Will you?

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[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32881672

[2] Exodus chapter 20 verse 16.

[3] Romans chapter 2 verse 1

Election 2015

‘Mr Clegg said the results were "immeasurably more crushing" than he had feared . . . saying it had been "simply heartbreaking”’.[1]

 

Whatever your politics, there is something rather sad about the whole concept of rejection. Whilst some will say that such is the price of politics, and that is right, to suffer defeat is a hard thing to take, whether as a Liberal Democrat or a Labour politician. It means that your political message has been rejected. It may mean that you as a person or a leader have been rejected. That is tough however much some may feel it is deserved.

 

I thought of another rejection – one far more intense and far bitterer than that experienced by any politician in recent days. The event took place in Jerusalem some 2000 years ago. The Roman Governor paraded a man before the people and said, ‘Behold the man!’[2] It was not that the people were unfamiliar with Jesus Christ. They had seen him heal the sick, deliver those who were demon possessed, and even raise the dead to life again. Not many days previous they had greeted His arrival in Jerusalem with shouts of ‘Hosanna’. Now, the cry was a cry of hatred: ‘Away with him, crucify him’.[3] The Bible tells us that Jesus was ‘despised and rejected of men . . . and we hid as it were our faces from him’.[4] God’s Son was taken and crucified upon a Roman cross.

 

Why? There is a two-fold answer. Jesus Christ was there because mankind put him there. It was men who hated him, and hounded him to that cross. As he exposed their sin and guilt, so they rejected him and had him killed. The cross of Jesus Christ reminds us all that we are sinners – we have failed to live as God wants us to live. What I found very honest in the recent events was the words of Ed Miliband. He said, ‘I take absolute and total responsibility for the result and our defeat’.[5] The question we all have to ask is whether we are prepared to take responsibility for our failure and sin before God.

The second reason that Jesus Christ was upon that cross outside Jerusalem was because He chose to be there. The remarkable message of the Christian gospel is that ‘Christ died for our sins’.[6] As one who has taken Jesus Christ as my Saviour I can say that He was there for me, and He bore the punishment of God for my sin and my guilt. He bore the consequences of what I did wrong. Can you say that? Jesus Christ was rejected by men that I might not be rejected by God. Is he your Saviour?

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[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32633462

[2] John chapter 19 verse 5

[3] John chapter 19 verse 15

[4] Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3

[5] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32633388

[6] 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3

Funerals

Picture taken from: http://mentalfloss.com

 

What prompted this blog was the fact that I have attended two funerals in two days and I have another to attend in a fortnight’s time. But coupled with that personal situation was the story on the BBC News website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31518899. The story stated: ‘The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that in the first six weeks of 2015, just over 82,000 deaths were registered, which is 23% higher than the average from the previous five years’. The story becomes a little more startling when we realize that this is more than one death per minute for every day of those six weeks!

There is a double sadness in these statistics. For some the death of a loved one will have cast a significant shadow across their lives. They will be in mourning, trying to come to terms with the fact that someone close is no longer there. There is the enormous cost of funerals to be borne – someone has to pay! However, for me the sadness is not knowing whether that loved one is in heaven or hell. The Bible reminds us that ‘it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement’.[1] Death is not the end. It is a door of entrance into one of two destinations given us in the Bible.

 

There are many people that think that everyone goes to heaven when they die. Others think that ‘good’ people go to heaven, although what the definition of ‘good’ may be is difficult to determine. But can we be sure? Is it just a matter of what I think? Does God really put our life into some enormous scale or balance to assess whether the ‘good’ outweighs the ‘bad’? Where can we find an answer to the question of where we will spend eternity – the life beyond this one?

 

We come back to the only authoritative source of truth – the Bible, which is the word of God. One of the best loved verses in the Bible tells us that ‘whosoever believeth in him [Jesus Christ, God’s Son] should not perish, but have everlasting life [a home in heaven]’.[2] As children we used to sing a simple song which had the line: ‘whosoever that means me!’ The best example of that truth is the thief that died on the cross at the side of the Lord Jesus. Not a ‘good’ man! Yet, to him the Lord said, ‘Today shalt thou be with me in paradise’.[3] What made that assurance possible? The thief admitted his guilt – his sin – and believed that Jesus Christ was able to save him. Do you? If death was to put its hand upon you, what then?

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[1] Hebrews 9. 27

[2] John 3. 16.

[3] Luke 23. 43.

Be Prepared

Only 340-350 days left until Christmas! I wonder whether you have been out in the January sales snapping up the bargains as part of your preparations for Christmas 2015. Somehow I doubt it. Apart from the pressure upon the family budget, few, if any of us, are that well organized to be prepared so far in advance. Although we complain annually about the rush to get everything ready for Christmas, we never really start planning for it until the last minute.  

The strange thing is we do make preparations which are well in advance. Most of us will try and sort out the summer holiday between November and January, even though we may not be going until July or August of the following year. All of us will have made some preparation for illness, if only by registering with a doctor. Some of us will have made preparation for our retirement, however far away that may seem at the present. In some way or other we all appreciate the need to ‘be prepared’ – the former motto of the scouting organization.

 

On this basis, I ask the question, ‘Are you prepared?’ The Bible gives us the statement ‘Prepare to meet thy God’. Hence, are we prepared?

 

We may have made all sorts of resolutions as we entered 2015. We may have been sincere and committed to make those resolutions work. I wonder how many we have been able to keep for any length of time. How often we fail to live up to our own targets, never mind live up to God’s standards! The only way we can meet God is to be as perfect and holy as He is – not as a one-off, should that be possible, but consistently and for all of our life! To see the obvious, that we cannot hope to achieve that standard, is the starting point that God wants us to come to. If we are serious about being prepared to meet God, we need to start by seeing ourselves as God sees us! 

If we are sinners, those who have failed to live as God would have us, how can we prepare to meet God? The tremendous news is that God has already prepared a way for us to meet Him on His terms. Some 2000 years ago Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died upon a Roman cross outside the city wall of Jerusalem. On that Roman cross, Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for your sin and mine! His death can be the means of bringing new life to us – eternal life, the life of God. We have a choice. We can put things off, prepare in our own way, or ignore the issue altogether. Alternatively, we can come to God and confess that we are sinners needing His salvation and trust in Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. 

Are you prepared?

There is but a step between me and death

The title of this blog is taken from a verse in the Bible. It is a statement made by David, a man perhaps best known for killing Goliath. At the time he spoke it he was being pursued by enemies on every side, in constant danger of discovery and death. I was made to think of the verse when reading of the work of soldier Chris Scott. This extract from his story is taken from the BBC website:

‘In the difficult and dusty terrain of Helmand province, homemade bombs buried underneath the ground quickly became the Taliban's most terrifying weapon. At the time of soldier Chris Scott's first tour of Afghanistan in September 2011, counter measures had been introduced by the British army to try to locate Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) before they detonated. At just 20, Scott was given the job of "vallon" or front man, first man through to check the ground, responsible for protecting the lives of the 30 men behind him in his patrol from the dangers of IEDs’. [Summarized from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30229415]

It made me wonder how I’d cope with the knowledge that the next step I took could be my last. There was not only the danger but the sense of responsibility for all of those men following you and relying upon your skills for their safety. You have to admire the bravery that was shown by soldiers in the conflict areas into which they were sent!

However, there is one thing that the Christian has and that provides tremendous help in such situations. We have the knowledge that Jesus Christ has gone before us. He has been our ‘vallon’, our front man. Through His death on Calvary, outside the city of Jerusalem, he has prepared a way of safety into God’s presence. He has cleared the way!

The danger that every one of us faces is the consequences of our sin and guilt. We have failed to obey God’s law, fallen short of His holy standards, and stand condemned. One step could bring us face-to-face with God as our judge to be sent down to eternal punishment. As the Christian has placed faith in Christ, that punishment has been borne for them. The debt of our sin and guilt has been paid. Our way is clear! The Christian is but one step away from heaven and glory.

Another Bible verse tells us to prepare to meet our God. As you take your next step in life, are you prepared to meet God?

Photograph courtesy of: http://www.telegraph.co.uk