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Glen Park Gospel Church >> Archive >> Editorial >> 2012
Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Some months include a topical article or report. We thought you might appreciate reading those previously published.
2012 - A Year of Change
One thing is clear, 2012 will be a year of change. This is not a prophecy, just an observation of the change already in train.
It is blatantly obvious that it will be a year of economic change. Economic instability for many people and nations is already entrenched. It has but to play its self out, and that will affect millions. With chaotic economics come social unrest and violence. It is already happening. How far will it spread? Can any escape? Technological change has sparked revolution and unrest in the Middle East. People are dissatisfied with their lot and the electronic media is depriving even despotic overlords the power of their authority. It is spreading to Asia and Europe. How far will it go? The UK riots were a more malignant form of people power. Where will it all end? Is anyone safe?
Personally, we are all a year older. A year at any age depletes to a greater or lesser degree our physical reserves and wellbeing. It is harder to be enthusiastic, to maintain vigilance, to cope with it all, to not be sucked into the whirlpool of the world.
Morally, social change is rampant. Youth no longer respect authority, no longer value property, personal or community. Overt crime is commonplace. Drugs, alcohol, teenage and even sub teenage pregnancy is on the increase! Fractured marriage is everywhere. There is little security. Society has only just begun to feel this malevolence, its cost and its pain. The justice system, the hospitals, the social systems cannot cope. But what do we expect when our children are taught that they evolved and are not different from animals, that there is no God of holiness, no such thing as sin - just legality, no accountability, no deterrent. If it feels good, do it! Laws are made to be broken - you can get away with it, so why not.
When our society which was built by the reading and respect for God’s word loses its knowledge of and desire for God in Jesus Christ, it loses its spirituality. When it loses its spirituality, it loses the authority of its ethics. When it loses its ethical standard it loses its morals. And today we are reaping what we have sown!
But be encouraged. Take heart. God has not changed. He is still in control of the lives of those who are truly His. Here are just a few of the thoughts He has stored away for you in 2012:
Hebrews 13:8* Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.
Malachi 3:6&7* "For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts.
Proverbs 24:21&22* My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change; For their calamity will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?
If you don't do anything else today, read all of Psalm 103* and note verse 17 & 18
But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, To those who keep His covenant, and who remember His precepts to do them.
*From NASB
Learning from Life
“Jesus said to them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”
Matthew 21:16
Rummaging through the book shelves of an ‘Op Shop’ I found a chest of treasure; Streams in the Desert by Mrs Cowman. It was old and only a few dollars, but gems glittered from every page. And, nostalgia too. For in it were some old newspaper cuttings, the photo of a freshly filled double grave and a list of six reading dates. These in particular were interesting. There was a simple notation. “These have been a help to me.” Each tell of insights to the life of faith. Here is a part of someone’s pilgrimage. It is holy ground, but we too will walk some of it. Let's just take one which was for February 18th:
When my little son was almost ten years of age his Grandmother promised him a stamp album for Christmas. Christmas came, but no stamp album; and no word from Grandmother. His playmates came over and they told each other of their gifts.
“. . . and a stamp album from Grandmother!”
He said it several times, so I called him over.
“But, Son, you didn’t receive an album from grandmother!”
“Well Mummy, she said, so it’s the same as!”
I could not say a word to check his faith. A month went by. Nothing from Grandmother, and it was a test to my faith.
“Well Georgie, I really think Grandmother has forgotten.”
“Oh, no Mummy, she hasn’t.”
He was very sober.
“Do you think I should write to her, thanking her for the album?”
“I don’t know, but you might try.”
It did not take long for the letter to get into the post. A spiritual truth began to dawn on me. And in a short while a letter came:
My dear Georgie, I have not forgotten my promise to you. I have not been able to get the one you wanted, try as I might, and I am still waiting for it to turn up. I meanwhile send you the money, and perhaps you can make the purchase direct.
His face was that of a victor,
“See Mummy, didn’t I tell you.”
While he was trusting, Grandma was working and in due season faith became sight.
(Precised of the quotation from a Mrs. Rounds p57.)
Paul summarises his response to our experience of delayed prayer in these words: ‘Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.’ Colossians 4:2. Giving thanks for what we have already received is a gracious response, but giving thanks for that which has not come is an act of faith. It is a lesson we need to learn. This is the faith that God respects and it is the faith that God expects from His people.
All that God requires of us is . . .
We can inadvertently cause our faith to be involved, our discipleship difficult and our service stressful, but in reality what God requires of us is very simple. All He wants is a heart filled with love for Him.
At the inauguration of Israel as a nation Moses made the matter clear.
“Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes which I am commanding you today for your good”
Deuteronomy 10:12
Joshua his successor reaffirmed this leader’s charge when he handed on control to each of the tribal leaders:
“Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Joshua 22:5
We too can please the Lord our God when we serve Him with all our heart and soul. For heart read desires and for soul read faculties. If we fully observe this rule we will not go very far wrong no matter where we go or what we do, because in all those decisions we will always put God first.
There is an example in 2 Chronicles 14, the story of king Asa who constantly sought the Lord in his reign. Zerah* the Ethiopian Pharaoh with a far superior army came against him. Asa called on God who enabled him to rout mighty Zerah. The victory was greater. It gave peace and prosperity to the whole region for many years.
The prophet Azariah reinforced the lesson to Asa:
“The Lord is with you when you are with him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you . . . be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work”
1 Chronicles 15:2&7
Asa did take courage. He brought the people back to God. They then entered into the covenant with him to seek the Lord God with all their heart. And God gave them peace and prosperity all their days. Asa was not perfect, thus it is recorded of him, ‘ . . . nevertheless his heart was blameless all his days.’ That can be true for us too, see 1 John 1:7.
‘True-hearted, whole-hearted, faithful and loyal,
King of our lives, by Thy grace we will be;
Under the standard exalted and royal,
Strong in Thy strength we will battle for Thee.’
Francis Havergal
*Zerah - This name was Israelite not Egyptian. Kings then had multiple names even in their own countries, which generally has made identifications difficult even for the ‘experts’. Scripture quotations are from the NASB.
The Way of the Cross
The cross of Jesus Christ is a goal to be reached for those who are enslaved by their sin. Life begins at the cross. And for those who have chosen to walk in this life with God, it is a gateway leading from darkness to a pathway of rising light and the reality light reveals. Ahead is the sunrise. That which before was unclear begins to take shape. The void increasingly becomes meaningful substance. The cross of Jesus Christ is the only entry point of eternal life and the path in the end leads to glory in the presence of the Lord Himself.
Walking with God is an ongoing pathway and life a pilgrimage. The temptation is that having progressed to become satisfied with the little we have. The need is to press on and on.
Some of us stay at the Cross,
Some of us wait at the tomb,
Quickened and raised with Christ
Yet lingering still in the gloom.Some of us bide at the Passover Feast
With Pentecost all unknown:
The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place
That our Lord has made our own.If Christ who had died had stopped at the Cross,
His work had been incomplete.
If Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb,
He had only known defeat.But the Way of the Cross never stops at the Cross,
And the way of the tomb leads on
To victorious Grace in the heavenly place,
Where the Risen Lord has gone.
by Annie Johnson Flint
Priorities
During my orientation week at Uni, I was amazed at some of the various clubs that students can join, such as the Cosmic Hitchhikers Appreciation Society and Friends of Unnatural Llamas club. One that stood head and shoulders above the rest when it came to making its presence known was the Socialist Alternative club, advertising that it’s “active…in whatever radical campaigns are happening” such as refugee rights and equal marriage rights. There were flyers coating every noticeboard and people trying to raise support all around the campus.
People love to be involved in causes, and it’s clear that the Socialist Alternative club is passionate about supporting various causes, especially radical ones. It just makes me wonder how much of a heart many of those that join have for the issues at hand, rather than the cause itself and the excitement of rallying for many of the controversial issues faced by today’s society.
Christians similarly can get caught up in Christian causes without a heart for the real issues at hand. Paul tells us in Romans 12:9-10 that “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves.” It is important for every single one of us to be seeking to have eyes that see what God has a heart for, and praying for a heart that loves the things that God loves and hates the things that God hates. How are our motives any different to that of the Socialist Alternative club if we get caught up in the hype of supporting causes out of a sense of Christian duty and try to make society the way we would like it without any consideration of the way that God views the situation at hand? If we support an anti-abortion campaign, may it be because we have a heart for the value that God places on human life. If we sign a petition against gay marriage, may it be because we have a desire to promote marriage being as God created it.
Jesus prayed “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” after he asked for God’s name to be hallowed. Our priorities can often be our priorities, rather than God’s priorities. May we seek to see God’s name hallowed in our own lives in order for God’s name to be hallowed in the lives of others when God uses us to draw people to himself. It is through God’s work in our lives that his kingdom will come and his will is done. May we not see it being up to us alone to change the world, but acknowledge that it is God alone that can change the hearts of the people that make up our society. If we are to change the world, we need to be praying and trusting in God for him to use us and be actively involved in the things that he would have us do.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
May we not have a love of causes, but instead may we submit ourselves to God, be passionate about the things that God has a heart for and be set in his priorities. Only then can we support a cause in a way that is fixed around God alone.
Sam Heckathorn
New Every Morning
‘In the morning . . . when the layer of dew evaporated,
behold! On the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake
like thing, fine as the frost on the ground.
‘And
Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given
you to eat.” (1)
‘Jesus said to them “. . . it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives light to the world . . . I am the bread of life.” (2)
We sometimes like to think that their gathering manna is like our daily morning Bible reading. There are many similarities that can be quite instructive. Jesus made it quite clear that the manna only pointed to Him. He is the one who nourishes and sustains our souls. The Bible likewise, no matter how trustworthy, instrumental and inspired only points us to Jesus. (3) Make sure that you turn to Him every day and you will never face the demands of the day without His enabling.
Yea, "new every morning," though we may awake,
Our hearts with old sorrow beginning to ache;
With old work unfinished when night stayed our hand,
With new duties waiting, unknown and unplanned;
With old care still pressing, to fret and to vex,
With new problems rising, our minds to perplex;
In ways long familiar, in paths yet untrod,
Oh,
new every morning the mercies of God!
His faithfulness fails not; it meets each new day
With
guidance for every new step of the way;
New grace
for new trials, new trust for old fears,
New patience
for hearing the wrongs of the years,
New strength
for new burdens, new courage for old,
New faith
for whatever the day may unfold;
As fresh for each
need as the dew on the sod;
Oh, new every morning
are the mercies of God! (4)
Daffodils
It’s only just past winter solstice, and we’ve just had our coldest day for some years with more to come, yet every time I pass my little patch of daffodils I scan the flower buds for every sign of yellow.
You see, daffodils are beautiful in themselves, but they are more than that, they are the promise of an abundance to come, when spring has burst with full force on the garden and orchard and all the world is a riot of colour. Daffodils are not just beautiful, they are the promise of so much more to come.
Coming to faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, and the relief and joy it gives is in itself a beautiful thing, but it is the promise of so much more that is to come. A wise man of another age caught the mood perfectly, ‘But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day*.’ The earliest rays of the sun will soon break into the full glory of the coming day.
Motoring in England recently I was taken with many unbroken rows of golden daffodils sheltering under the hedgerows along the highways where community minded citizens had planted them. Every one of them was a promise of the blessings to come. My maternal granny had a promise box. She would call us to her to come and take a promise. It was filled with small rolls of paper that we would extract with a small pair of tweezers. On each was printed one of God’s promises found in the Bible. They were a daffodil bud every one of them. She was watching them to see them flower in our lives and lead us into the fullness of all that God opens only in His Son.
In this world of ours, the daffodil is not a native; it is an exotic. They don’t just happen. Some caring person must plant them. It is a divine ministry that, planting bulbs in young lives, watching for the shoots to appear, then the bud, then the flower; and the promise of a life lived for God in the power of the risen Christ.
*Proverbs 4:18 (AV)
As an Eagle . . . so the Lord
"As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wing, so the Lord . . . "
Deuteronomy 32:11
When a peoples heart is to the Lord, when they seek, obey and honour Him. He is mighty on their behalf. He will build nations. He will guide its churches. He will establish its homes and He will bless and strengthen its people.
But the God who builds also as the Eagle stirs the nest that He has made. Moses uses a picture with which the people were quite familiar to encourage them to leave their old ways of life and then go on and on with God.
When the time was right and the chicks have been there long enough, the Eagle stirs up her nest. She pulls out the soft lining that protects the eaglet from the rough sticks of the nest and makes their tenure there untenable. So also the Lord . . .
So also the Lord . . . The Lord also stirs us in our day. Strength is abated, the old family breaks up, trusted neighbours move away, parents pass on, church leadership changes, finances are depleted, strange faces everywhere, familiar methods are no longer effective, the attractions of the world impinge on our devotion time, and the pressures of living strip us bare. So also the Lord . . .
She flutters over her young. She makes the breeze refresh their bodies and wind flow through their feathers. . So also the Lord . . . The Spirit of God moves and calls in our heart and life urging us to respond to His presence
She spreads out her wings as an example and an encouragement to her young. She shows them what is expected of them. They must learn to respond to the movement of the wind. As they see the might of her wings they are tempted to try their own, it is the way of all young things. So also the Lord encourages us to test the movement of His Spirit.
When at last they do test their skills of flight and fail, falling headlong, she gives them ample time to struggle in the frightening void, until at the right moment she darts beneath them catching them on her wings. Again and again they try, each time learning another secret of flight, until at last they acquire the skills that will eventually see them soaring on thermals that can lift them into the bluest of heavens. So also the Lord . . .
God’s people are not meant to be earthbound. They are meant to fly. Anyone can do the possible. But eagles were created to fly. So also the Lord . . .
Now that is where faith begins to work.
When God is forgotten
The apostle Paul couldn’t be everywhere so sent Timothy to lead the Church in Ephesus. Timothy was overwhelmed by what he found there and sought Paul’s guidance. Paul’s measured and intuitive teaching reaches through the generations even to our own time. Indeed, the ‘later times’ apply to now as much as to Timothy’s time when Paul said that ‘some would abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons’.
Isn’t it awful that the list above is incomplete, yet as a Christian it is evident that many do these things. Their ‘teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron’. Timothy found it in the Ephesian church, and as then, today the world beyond is telling all to deny truth and faith in favour of the petty and contrary.
‘If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus...’. We must guard against letting the world creep in to corrupt the church. Paul ended, ‘Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers’.
This is a sober passage of scripture, yet thankfully there is a positive side. Paul’s counter testimony written to the church in Philippi: ‘But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own... but that which is through faith in Christ’.
While we remain on guard against a spoilt world, let’s also search out and make room for the sinner seeking redemption.
See 1st Timothy chapter 4 and Philippians 3:7-9, quoted from the NIV.
The God Who Delights in Mercy
“Who is a God like unto you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retains not his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
Micah 7:18
Micah is amazed at the depth of the mercy, power and grace of God.
Here is a promise that will bring hope and confidence to anyone who learns to rely only in God. Look over your shoulder. What do you see? What of the past? What would you give for a new start?
Micah's message is to a minority, those who rely on God. God calls them His heritage. Those who remain true to Him. Jesus died for all mankind. None are excluded. The way to Him is open to all, but the entry is by acceptance, a step of faith. Whosoever will may come! Unbelievably most pass by, but to the remnant all these promises also remain true. It is in His nature to delight in mercy.
The text tells us what is accrued by faith. He pardons iniquity, that is all the moral perversity of our sin, all that we ever have or ever can do wrong. He passes by or steps over our transgression, that is our revolt, our going against Him. This includes not only our past hostility but even our reluctance to trust Him further. He does not keep His anger going against us as sinners, but opens wide the door to His fellowship and even enjoys the company of those who once were His enemies. Can you believe it?
Then in compassion he turns again, or as the meaning of that word is, He returns to the start. It is a new beginning with God and not a re-run of the old, but new from here on in. Amazing. More than that He subdues, or captures and imprisons, our iniquities, and we can reckon our selves to be dead to sin, and raised to a new life in Christ. But still more! What about those times we slip and fail Him? After all, we still are human and to err is human. Here is the answer. He casts all our sins into the depths of the sea. The sea is deeper than Everest and covers two thirds of the surface of the earth. The inference is that He buries our sins, never to be seen again.
Why does He do all this? Because our God delights in mercy. It gives God joy to do all these things for those who trust Him. He can do all because when Jesus died upon the cross for all people, God looks at those who believe through the Lord Jesus. He does not see our sin, He sees Jesus’ righteousness. Oh! Won’t you trust Him?
Grandma’s Text
My first memory of her was a day that she was minding us when our parents were out. We must have riled her somewhat because she chased we three children out of the house with a straw broom. We made for the back door and took off in three different directions. My brother climbed the apricot tree. I hid behind the glass house. My sister who was quite small at the time was the one to get caught.
It was the only time I ever remember her being angry. She was generally a most placid woman, forgiving, humourous and generous to a fault. She had known her share of sorrows. She lost an infant child. She also lost her home when her husband fell ill and died during the great depression. She nursed a heart condition that eventually claimed her and preferred living alone as a single pensioner, renting a bed-sitting room with shared facilities from another widow lady.
She came from a family who migrated to Melbourne shortly after
the settlement was founded. She was a sincere Christian, having
been reared as a Methodist in what is now the inner suburbs. She
met and married an English migrant shoemaker and they set up home
in the outer suburb of Northcote.
She had a secret that gave to her her charm and placid nature,
a secret which she was willing to share with anyone who enquired.
Her secret was that she had selected a verse from the Bible that
to her encapsulated her response to the holy nature of her God,
and duty to others as a Christian:
He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 (NASB),
and she determined to order her life by it. Accordingly she was able to put her life in order. Her frugal means was enough. She always had something to give away. She had time for others and could get along with them. I cannot remember a complaint or anyone telling of her making one. She was always grateful of any small service done for her.
The text she chose has deeper theological thoughts worth pursuing. It was God’s appeal to the princes of the day to rule their people righteously and in their best interests. But it is also good commonsense for anyone in a place of leadership, to business men with their staff, to teachers with their class, to parents with their children. And it is good commonsense to anyone, like Grandma, or you or me, who desire to experience the abundance of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness to reign in life by one, Jesus Christ, as the apostle instructs us to do.
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