Be Still And Know

Hebrews 4:14-16a NLT  'Since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.' Every Lent I ponder the temptations of Jesus. There, he was invited to satisfy his human appetites; for food, recognition and power. All three, over the years, have tried to draw me from my first desire to serve God. There is always that small yet persistent inner voice that justifies slight adjustments, so that I might apparently love God and myself at the same time.   I find it easy to look beyond myself to establish a frame of reference against which to measure my decisions. But the reference points I select owe little to God. I’m also consistently invited to consider God who is within me when making my decisions, and these may well fly in the face of the external landscape, together with its a

2 Timothy 1:8 NLT  'So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.' Do you ever feel that, as a Christian, you are swimming against the tide? Our culture has largely abandoned the idea of God, and our faith is accepted only as a private preference, just as someone might choose golf for recreational purposes. Yet even golfing appears to gain greater understanding than any pursuit of the Divine.   All of us want to get on with others. Our lives are lived within a web of relationships, created by the contexts within which we find ourselves. From neighbours to work colleagues, classmates to family, we need to ensure we’re accepted if we are to function effectively. This relates both to the outward necessity of getting on with co-workers to our own inner need for self-esteem and belonging. Yet, Paul makes it clear that while following Jesus doesn’t ch

2 Timothy 1:6-7 NLT  'This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.' Years ago, I moved to Leeds for work. Just after I’d moved, my car died. Wondering how I’d get to work, everyone in church said: “Catch the bus.” This was a revelation. The bus stop was outside my front door and I discovered not only were the buses frequent and reliable – everyone travelled on a great public transport system – but that Yorkshire folk, unlike my south of England experience, all chatted with complete strangers without a second thought. Travelling, therefore, was a great community experience.  In my view, a great public transport system is essential for a successful society, although during the Coronavirus crisis this wasn’t the case! But what does an effective Christian community demand? While God’s promise is unique for each individual, Christianity isn't a private faith.

1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT    'So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.'     If Peter is to be believed, all earthly trials are a means of testing our faith that it might grow deeper roots into its source, God alone. It’s not that the storms are imaginary. Nor will some powerful prayer instantly deliver us from the raging storm surrounding us. I have cared for a loved one through a degenerative neurological condition, eventually holding her hand as she passed into her eternal joy. One thing I did observe was that as her physical strength waned, her spiritual fortitude increased. The base mortal form that had housed her divine essence was transformed into the priceless gold of resilient and enduring faith.    Fire will burn, yet will also purify. Despondency may well be both the sign and the sourc

1 Peter 5:7-8 NLT    'Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.'   As a young man I was all emotion; reactive, angry and self-conscious. My encounter with God was so very real the memory clings to me still, redolent with the great joy I experienced upon first bowing the knee to Jesus. While the bending of my physical frame proved easy, it took time before I recognised that my will rigidly resisted acknowledging a new landlord. Here was the initial ground of my battle with God and self.    What worries did a young overachieving man face in the 1970s? Especially one who entered the University of Oxford and inhaled its heady atmosphere of self-confidence? There was much growing up to do. Slowly God chipped away at the granite that enfolded my heart.     While God wooed me, the enemy sought to intimidate me, and I often cowered when confronted with the real me. Yet, des

1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT    'The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.'    Temptation is an inner compulsion to do something. I can control it, until I give in to it. Then I am subject to its consequences in ways that I wasn’t while only tempted. Temptation is never sin, but the physical fulfilment of temptation is. All of us are tempted, and all of us sin. The consequences vary in the degree to which they impact me and the world around me, yet each is equally offensive to God, and a denial of his grace. My long-term challenge is in identifying what’s temptation and then in resisting its allure.    Sin, those times when we’ve fallen to the allure of temptation, can be the reason for our despondency. I often feel I’ve failed God, myself and those who trust me. I do, of course, have the opportunity to confess and find forgiv

Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT    'So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.'    Have you ever been tempted to run away from life? It can be a seductive thought, appearing to offer instant relief. Why not quit my job, walk out on my relationship or abandon the church? A temporary relief from pressure, with perhaps some moments of euphoria, then quickly gives rise to a whole new set of challenges I’d not anticipated.     Israel experienced this as the euphoric celebration after crossing the Red Sea gave way to the discomforts of the wilderness. As Moses reminded them, their only way forward was to reinvest their trust in God’s long-term strategic plan. What was true for them is true for me. I have a choice to make, and there is nothing comfortable about it. I can let my fears run their course and become blindsided to the will of God. Or, with some great difficulty, I can look for the inner c

Exodus 6:9 NLT    'So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.'     August is normally the heart of the British summer. Schools are closed and families head off on holiday. The rhythm of life feels slower, the traffic on the roads much lighter and each day feels longer and brighter. When the sun shines, I am generally encouraged and my mood lifts. However, despite the season, or whether I’m on holiday or not, I always run the risk of falling into despondency. When we have days (or longer) like this, it’s as if the very essence of our being has drained away. The petrol tank needle’s on empty. We simply want to give up. In such times it’s easier to lay the blame at God’s door than consider any solutions.     Moses faced this challenge with Israel, when he gave them God’s message that they were to leave Egypt. The pain of the present stopped them imagining any future other than the cruel slavery

John 14:5-6 NLT    Thomas said: “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”   In an age of uncertainty such as our own, where clear confidence is immediately treated with suspicion, Jesus declares he is the Truth. Of course, we have our understanding of truth today as data that is proven to be either factually correct or incorrect. Sadly, facts can be marshalled in a number of ways, so determining truth on the basis of fact needs to be subject to closer examination.   Yet, belief is a better measure of truth since it refuses to locate truth in just one narrow experience or piece of information. Belief requires me to journey quite some distance to discover the precise nature of my belief. When first a Christian I had no experience of the facts of my faith. I took the testimony of others, I had what I could identify as an encounter with God (always subjective and beyond objective anal

1 Samuel 16:7 NLT    But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”    What is beauty to you? We don’t agree on what constitutes physical beauty. This reflects God’s own estimation that beauty is more than skin deep: it is located within a person’s hidden depths. Our eyes need opening to find God’s beauty in someone, while the Holy Spirit invites us to collaborate and nurture our inner beauty.   God has slowly opened my eyes to determining beauty. It’s not based upon any criteria I’d assumed. External beauty is, of course, attractive, not just physical beauty but that of art, literature, music, in fact across all of culture. Yet, God’s words to Samuel still resonate today: don’t judge a book by its cover. I am invited to take time, to perceive and discover the hidden beauty, the God seed, that’s so often overlooked. The shame of it is that ind

Proverbs 29:1-2 NLT   'Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery. When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.'   The word ‘justice’ is often quoted across the media. Single issue causes attract a strong following and generate large income streams. Yet, at times it’s difficult to discover if the world in which we live is any more just than it was 60 years ago. The word isn’t limited to our legal system; it conjures up ideas of fairness, equality, honesty and integrity.   We all love the idea of justice, yet the price demanded of us is often too high to ensure we turn our aspirations into anything enduring. I was recently talking to someone who manages an asylum centre. He believes slavery within Britain is growing, operating in plain sight. We may speak of Wilberforce and the movement that stopped the transatlantic slave trade, but slavery hasn’t ended.   Our desire for justice proves elusive in implementatio

2 Chronicles 9:7-8 NLT   'How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom! Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you...'   The search for happiness has been important for thousands of years. The queen of Sheba travelled from her home to visit Solomon, because of his famed wisdom, which she observed produced ‘happiness’ among his subjects. I have also travelled widely, extensively and studied to PhD level. I love seeking to discover truth and have an insatiable appetite to understand how I tick and how I might realise my greatest potential. After many adventures in self-discovery, I find myself today content simply to acknowledge that I know God. I spend large amounts of time very happily on my own. But, in reality, I’m not alone. I meet God within all the daily routines of my existence. And where I fail to do so, it is merely that I’ve taken my eye off the Lord.   Paul declares: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil

John 14:6-7 NLT   Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”   We are all selfish beings, and we all know it – whether or not we are believers. We know that, left to itself, our self-centred nature is destructive, but we don’t agree on how to stop this happening. Is natural selection the inbuilt means to manage a self-perpetuating society, or does a personal God lie behind the many layers and textures that make up human existence and personal interaction?   I believe that St Augustine was right when he said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.” In a non-religious world, the concept of God can prove elusive. Despite the advances of scientific enquiry, however, the question of where everything comes from remains. God, of course, is quite content to leave it to each of us to make up

John 15:7-8 NLT    'But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.'    What do you think is the primary purpose of prayer? There are many opinions on it, but it can only be understood through our relationship with God. My own view is that prayer is entering into the very presence of God. There are many reasons we would want to take that step, only one of which is to make demands of God.     Today we too easily understand the word ‘want’ in its material context; goods or services to improve my life. Jesus appears to approach ‘want’ from an entirely different angle. In the Lord’s Prayer, the only prayer Jesus taught his disciples, the opening declares: “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). This tells me that when we pray, we’re always to be conscious that we’re part of something so much greater than our own personal horizons. Everything Jesus and the whole of the Ne

John 15:6 NLT    'Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.'   When we arrived at the Oratory, we knew little to nothing about gardening, so we set about learning a new craft. One of the first tasks was to prune the many overgrown trees. We discovered this strengthened the remaining growth and ensured greater fruitfulness. The wood we removed was eventually burned on our log fire.    Moving from the specific to the metaphorical, Jesus is speaking here of those who choose to stop abiding in him. I think this is a challenge we all face; moments when we doubt our faith or blame God for the realities of our life. Choosing salvation does not risk-proof us: we are subject to the anomalies of human existence in the same way as everyone else.   In Christ, I can find the resolve and resilience to navigate my way through such anomalies. In doing so I may discover some wood that is reducing my fruitfulness. This I can easily su

John 15:5 NLT    'Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.'    Standing along a stretch of dual carriageway near to us are a series of apple trees. Every year we see the blossom, the fruit and finally the harvest: the trees shedding their fruit on the ground. No one gathers it. Initially, I thought this was a waste. But as I reflected upon the fallen fruit, I recognised these trees were unable to stop doing what they were created for: to be fruitful. Nor can we. Even if we feel disconnected through circumstances, cut off from our family, or are no longer participating in a life-affirming Christian community, we cannot stop being fruitful if we remain in Jesus.    What is the purpose of fruitfulness, however, if we are alone? Perhaps simply that God will never stop pouring out love into and through us. As I considered those trees, I realised the soil that nurtured them was itself enriched by their fallen frui

John 15:3-4 NLT    'You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.'     Christian discipleship remains something of a mystery. Since I chose to surrender my life to Jesus, I have, in Jesus’ words, been ‘purified by the message’. In one sense, I have crossed the threshold of acceptance and belonging. So what is discipleship?     I spent many years creating and delivering discipleship courses. I’m not sure how useful they were. They were laden with well-constructed information in an attempt to apply biblical truth to explain the character of Christian behaviour. The intention was always sincere, but I realised I often failed to embrace much of the application I was advocating.     We live in an age in which performance is measured against external criteria. But discipleship is not a pass/fail course. It is a relationship. And re

John 15:1-2 NLT    'I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.'   Last year I decided to train for my Trinity Certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I wanted to have something that I might trade with as I grew older, that would also be recognised internationally and enable me to live outside the UK if necessary. It was also a deepening response to my call to walk the way of a contemplative. God does not expect his people to live off charity, but to be able to meet their own immediate needs. Living on the edge of Southampton, there were many foreign language speakers, and I could arrange tutoring around the Oratory.    In determining if I should train, I had to consider the value of the course to what God wanted for the Oratory and my life of prayer. I knew life would be disturbed by the training and teaching. I was fairly comfo

Psalm 25:10 NLT  'The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.' I find ‘unfailing’ a difficult word to comprehend. Living in Britain, I have grown up confident that the weather that greets me in the morning will have completely changed by lunchtime. I cannot rely upon weather, nor the weather forecaster who advises me on the day ahead. So I’m unsurprised by the nature of my character which is equally changeable. I move from affability to tetchiness as easily as sunshine gives way to rain.   So, the idea of a character who never changes is difficult to comprehend, even harder to trust. Yet this is how our God is described. A lover who never falters. A love that’s consistent in its intensity. Such constant love is the very definition of faithfulness.   Often, I feel distant from God. My prayers appear unanswered, or answered with a response I find less than consoling. I apply my inconsistency to my apparent friendship with God, who I can barely discern. Dou

Psalm 25:7 NLT  'Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.' Despite not having a particularly colourful past, I often realise I’m mulling over past events. An insistent, inner voice wants to use such memories to prove that I have no right to call myself a disciple; I am a fraud. It can become a significant distraction. If I allow it to establish a hold, it becomes all-consuming and I begin to doubt, even denigrate myself. I have had to learn to contest this voice and surrender such memories to God. I simply acknowledge the memory and immediately turn to God. I recall that I cannot be loved by God more than I am in this moment. No action can or will enable him to love me more. The fullness of his love for me was demonstrated at the crucifixion, and I can only gratefully accept that I am loved entirely. And what’s true for me is true for you.  If necessary, I may need to apologise to someone. I also need to surrender my self-p