Diana's Thoughts This Week
There is a lot of disharmony about at the moment. The newspaper is full of people in authority behaving like louts or sneaks and what were intended as fun pages on the internet have been hijacked to spread rumour and malicious gossip at breakneck speed – any story is around the world before the dust has settled on the incident. Laws designed to protect the innocent and vulnerable are preventing people going about their legitimate business and are actively protecting the transgressor. To an extraterrestrial being landing on earth it would appear the lunatics really are running the asylum.
When we look at Christianity today we see much of the same. We are now so wary of discriminating against anyone because of his or her religion (or lack thereof) that we hardly dare profess our faith in public. Religion is not considered a matter for polite conversation. Children of parents who have had scant exposure to the Bible themselves are being raised without any knowledge of its wonders and are given no opportunity to choose a personal relationship with God. As a child I remember everyone had a Noah’s Ark toy, now try to find one if you can, or even a toddler that has heard of Noah. Alarmingly, it was reported this week that the Bible had come second in a poll to find the most inspirational book of all time. It was beaten by Harper Lee’s novel about race relations, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. A good book no doubt but nothing like The Good Book.
Every time I have difficulties trying to make an idea work I re-examine my motives to see if it is God’s plan I am furthering or some scheme of my own. If it is not right then I change what I am doing and things slot into place with minimum effort. The Lord challenges me to examine my reasoning but He also provides solutions if I am willing to accept them. It is so easy to say, “this is what we have always done” without thinking that the world has changed and God’s Purpose is just as dynamic and up to date. God is not stuck in mid twentieth century Europe any more than He is in Biblical Israel. We need to study and pray, both individually and corporately, to be able to separate what it is essential to continue with, as the core ethos of the organisation, and what is just a “comfort blanket”, unchallenging and like an old pair of slippers.
When we pray we often say “Thy will be done” and one of the ways we can find out what that will is, is to read our Bibles prayerfully. Last week at Bible study we agreed that when we reread a passage of scripture we frequently find something new and relevant in it, often the answer to a current problem. We need to keep our radar tuned in to God’s channel, He will show us what He wants us to do but He cannot do so if our minds are closed. We have to pray that the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and our minds so that we are receptive to the plans God has for us. I urge you to join us in the midweek meetings as we explore these issues together and look to the future.
It is important for the church to pull together as a team. One of Terry Wogan’s favourite sayings is “there is no ‘I’ in team” and that is true but we have been given complementary, individual gifts by the Lord. These gifts do not mean much on their own but like a jigsaw if we all put our pieces together we can make a beautiful picture. The nearer we get to perfection the more worried the Devil will become and the more spanners he will throw into the works. We are all unique and have very different natures but we are all human and all make mistakes. As members of the church we all have equal rights but we also need to respect each other’s rights and opinions. We need to remember what we say at the end of every service. “We are one together in love”.
