Be Still And Know

1 Corinthians 1:10 In this letter, Paul does a lot of straight talking to the Corinthian church. It is significant that the first issue he addresses is unity, because everything depends on it. A disunited church cannot possibly be effective and 2,000 years of Church history have proved that to be the case. Disunity wastes time and energy and prevents any organisation from making headway. In Corinth they had started getting behind different leaders. Some supported Paul, but others preferred Apollos or Peter, while others were only prepared to follow Jesus. It was all getting very messy, and Paul appealed to them to drop this divisiveness. Unity is just as vital today, and we all have a part to play in contributing to it. Absolutely key to unity is humility. Mother Teresa wrote: “Only humility will lead us to unity and unity will lead to peace.” The humble person is willing to listen and to learn. They may have strong views, but they are willing to admit that they might be wrong. They are constantly loo

1 Corinthians 1:4-5 These are incredibly generous words aren’t they? But they are also rather surprising when you know what follows. This letter to the church in Corinth is full of very serious criticisms of their life together. Indeed, at times it feels as if they got nothing right. But Paul was determined to start his letter on a positive note, and he did so by pointing to all the ways in which God had blessed them. First of all, Paul gave thanks for the gifts that God had given them. This letter has a great deal to say about the gifts that God gives to his Church. Paul was convinced that God had given the Corinthians everything they needed to be an effective church. He would spend much time in this letter pointing out the way in which they had mishandled those gifts, but there was no question about the generosity of God. Secondly, he rejoiced that they belonged to Jesus. Amidst all the challenges of life in a hostile city, they had the security of a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that

1 Corinthians 1:1 This is a fairly familiar beginning to one of Paul’s letters, but what interests me today are the last five words “and from our brother Sosthenes”. We always refer to this letter as coming from Paul, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard reference to the fact that it also came from Sosthenes. So who was Sosthenes?. He was obviously a very significant person in Paul’s ministry to be mentioned right at the start of this letter. Unfortunately, it is impossible to be sure who he was and not least because Sosthenes, surprisingly, wasn’t an uncommon name. It is tempting to think that he might be the Sosthenes who we meet in Acts 18, who was chief ruler of the synagogue in Corinth, but we cannot be sure. If it was that Sosthenes it would be fascinating to learn how he became a Christian, but we simply don’t know. However, the presence of this mysterious Sosthenes tells us two really important things. Firstly, Paul believed in working closely with others. There is no question that Paul had a r

Psalm 10:1 This is one of many psalms of lament. Like many such psalms it is really a psalm of complaint. David is not at all happy and he wants God to know it. His life is dominated by evil people, and he can’t believe that God doesn’t get involved and do something. He sees his enemies acting wickedly and getting away with it. In fact, worse than that, their lives seem to be very successful, and they live with a confidence that nothing will ever go wrong. I draw great strength from David’s honesty. He doesn’t put on an act before God, but tells him exactly how he feels. I believe that that’s exactly what God wants. The truth is that probably all of us have had times when it has felt as if God was far away. On many occasions people have told me that they felt that their prayers were just bouncing off the ceiling. When we go through a particularly tough time, and especially when we see people doing evil things but still prospering, it is easy for us to feel that God is far away from us. But the truth i

Psalm 9:1-2 It’s good for us to ask the question: “What is praise?” It certainly isn’t simply a matter of singing a few Christian songs, beautiful as they may be. And it doesn’t necessarily happen when we attend a service of worship. It has to do with the state of our hearts, not just our mouths. We can read the Bible and sing spiritual songs all day long, but if our words are not flowing from a heart that is in love with God, then we are just going through the motions. In this psalm David speaks of praising God with his whole heart. He knew that his life depended upon God and his praise flowed from the recognition that without the Lord he would have been totally lost. This is a challenge to all of us. Half-hearted worship is totally inappropriate when worshipping the God who has given us everything. CH Spurgeon, the famous Victorian Baptist preacher, put it well when he said: “A half heart is no heart at all.” We can’t be sure when David wrote this psalm, but it has been suggested that it might have

Psalm 8:3-4 I know very, very little about astronomy. However, whenever I hear about it, I find it mind-blowing. I totally understand where David was coming from in this psalm. Let me give you a few facts about our amazing universe. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so it covers 671 million miles per hour. In a year light travels about 6 trillion miles. Even if you managed to travel at the incredible speed of light it would take 96 billion light years to get from one side of our universe to the other. Let’s leave it there! All we need to conclude is that David asks a really good question. Why on earth should God take the tiniest bit of interest in those miniscule specks of dust that we call human beings? The psalm doesn’t offer an explanation as to why God has acted in this way. It simply affirms that that’s the way it is. God has chosen to give human beings this phenomenally important status and asked us to look after his creation. The punch line of this psalm is simply an outpouring of wors

Psalm 7:10-11 Evil is an uncomfortable issue. Most of us live peaceful lives and rarely come up against anger and violence. We don’t deny that there is evil in
the world but we hear about it on the news so, usually, are far removed from it in our day-to-day lives. But as we bring our worship to God we have to acknowledge that there is desperate evil in our world. Our psalm today makes clear that God is really angry about this, and so we cannot ignore it. There are people who die in violent conflict, and many of them are completely innocent. There are millions of people who have been displaced from their homes and as they wake up today they are in a place where they don’t want to be. There are also millions of Christians who are unable to worship God openly because of their government’s laws. Evil was on David’s mind because of a particular person when he wrote this psalm. He was having terrible problems with Cush of the tribe of Benjamin. This is the only reference in the Bible to this particular Cush

Psalm 6:2-3 When we think of the Psalms, we will often think of the ones that glow with praise and worship. Many of them, of course, are exactly like that. However, the majority are what we call psalms of lament, and this is one of them. Everything seemed to be going wrong and out of the depths of pain and despair David cried out to God. We don’t know what was causing him to feel this way, but he brought his raw emotions to God. He had become disorientated, and he looked to God to put him back on track. It’s vital that we follow David’s example and come to God with complete honesty. There will be many times when our hearts are overflowing with praise and worship. But there will be days when we are struggling with our emotions too. Perhaps we have moved to a new area or started a new job and we are feeling confused and unsure of ourselves. At other times tensions within relationships dominate our minds. Health issues, whether our own or of those close to us, will hold centre stage on other occasions. I

Matthew 6:22-23 I’ve worn glasses since I was a boy. From time to time people will gaze at my glasses and enquire: “Can you actually see anything out of those glasses?” When I take them off I find that, sure enough, grease and dust has accumulated and a good clean transforms their usefulness. The principle is a simple one. Jesus points out how vital it is that we ensure that our lives are full of light. We need to make sure that we are focusing our attention on those things that will help us to see life generously and clearly. The reason that this is so important is because there is much darkness in the world. With the arrival of the internet we have instant access to destructive and dangerous material as well as resources that inspire and encourage us. Every day we have a choice to make about where we focus our attention. Jesus recognised this when he went on to say that if the light that you think you have is actually darkness, how great is the darkness! We need to know how to identify the light so

Matthew 6:19-21 The Bible often confronts us with the question: “Where is your treasure?” It’s a crucial question because the answer to it will determine the way in which we live. Clearly some people store up treasure here on earth, but Jesus points out the absurdity of doing so because earthly treasure cannot last. In the ancient world clothing was an important sign of a person’s wealth to a far greater extent than it is today. Moths were therefore much feared; Jesus points out that our clothing is always at risk of being destroyed. Jesus’ reference to rust is much less clear. The word he used normally refers to eating away and probably refers to the way in which rats, mice and worms could munch their way through a person’s store of grain. At the time that Jesus lived, most house walls were made of hardened mud. Thieves therefore had a reasonably easy task to dig through a wall and carry off an owner’s valuables. The point that Jesus was making was absolutely clear. However carefully you might look a

Matthew 6:13 Life is full of temptations. There is nothing that we can do to prevent that. Temptations come knocking at the door of our lives continually, encouraging us to cut corners and make unwise decisions. Perhaps you will be tempted today to eat foods that you know are not good for you, to be economical with the truth in conversation with others or to become angry with an awkward person. Whatever it is, you and I will find ourselves being encouraged to be less than the best. There is nothing we can do to stop temptations, but there are things that we can do to stand up to them. Martin Luther wisely observed: “I cannot keep birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from building a nest in my hair.” There are steps we can take – for example, if overeating cakes is a problem then it is helpful not to visit so many cake shops! It is often very easy to find ways of avoiding temptation, simply by ensuring that we don’t put ourselves in the way of it. The main way of resisting temptation

Matthew 6:12 The word sin is not popular. Most people will readily identify abuse, murder and bank robbing as sin but would be very reluctant to place the label on any of their own misdemeanours. I recall the time when a good friend of ours, who wasn’t a Christian, attended an evangelistic meeting. The evangelist gave an amusing and powerful message in which he made it absolutely clear that we are all sinners. Our friend is the gentlest and kindest of people, and was deeply offended by the evangelist’s language. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that she could ever be considered to be a sinner. However, Jesus was quite clear that we are, indeed, all sinners and, therefore, in need of forgiveness. The word for sin that is used here literally means debt. We have all thought, said and done things that have rung up a debt. And the problem is that we have no way of paying that debt. All we can do is to own up to our debts and find someone who would be willing to pay them on our behalf. That is precisel

Matthew 6:11 The Lord’s Prayer starts by looking at God and the coming of his kingdom. It now moves to three specific requests, the first of which is food. Nothing is more basic than nourishment – whether we are thinking about physical or spiritual food. Our bodies soon become weak and sick if we ignore the need to eat properly, and exactly the same is true of our spiritual strength. It simply isn’t possible to remain strong in our relationship with God if we are not being regularly fed with spiritual nourishment. Our bodies give us very clear signs of our need to eat. If we miss a meal, we normally feel so uncomfortable that we take decisive action. Our spiritual hunger, however, is different. Although we will immediately suffer from not being spiritually fed, it is possible to get so distracted by life that we forget how desperately we need a good spiritual meal. We put it off until we have a bit more time. The fact is that we have as much need to be fed spiritually as physically, and the result of

Matthew 6:10 Jesus often spoke about the kingdom of God. He wasn’t talking about something remote but a living reality now for those who were willing to live in line with God’s will. The kingdom of God comes to our homes, churches, businesses and communities when we decide to let God take control. It’s wonderful to see the way in which the Lord’s Prayer flows. It starts with us proclaiming that God is our Father and that we need to honour and reverence his name. That immediately leads to us into the practical task of bringing into reality the kingdom of God where we live. Incredible as it may sound, we are able to see the kingdom of God come about in our lives today, in the same way as it is in heaven. This is clearly a prayer that can only truly be prayed by people who are determined to live as disciples of Jesus. In praying this prayer, we are declaring our commitment to turn this world upside down. I mentioned yesterday that one of the striking features of the Lord’s Prayer is that it is so sho

Matthew 6:9 So begins the Lord’s Prayer. I find everything about this prayer interesting. First of all, I find it surprising how short it is! When I hear people praying, they often speak for a good few minutes. I’m not criticising that, but the prayer Jesus gave to his disciples is all over in about 30 seconds. I also find it interesting that Jesus only gave his disciples one prayer. I have a number of books on prayer on my shelves and I would have thought that Jesus might have come up with a range of prayers that could be prayed at different times. But he didn’t. That tells me that this prayer is incredibly important, and we would do well to use it as a model that shapes and inspires all our prayers. The prayer begins by addressing God as Father. That was a very significant title to use because it emphasises the fact that Christian faith is all about relationship. We come in our prayers not to a remote celestial being but to someone who looks at us as his children. Human fathers vary in quality and s

Matthew 6:7-8 Having read these verses, the obvious question is: “If God knows everything why bother praying?” The reason for praying is because of the relationship that God wants to have with us. He wants us to spend time with him because that’s what friends do! Jesus made it clear that the nature of the relationship that he wanted with his disciples was one of friendship and not of a master relating to his servants. When Jesus spoke about babbling “on and on as the Gentiles do” he was talking about a form of prayer that is found in many religions. When the prophets of Baal were up against Elijah on Mount Carmel we are told that they spent half a day crying out: “O Baal, answer us!” (1 Kings 18:26). They were wasting their breath and Elijah mocked them, helpfully suggesting that their god might be daydreaming, relieving himself, away on a day trip or fast asleep. And then in Acts 19 we read how the Ephesian mob spent two hours crying out: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34). Constant re

Matthew 6:1-2 Every Jew knew that giving to the poor was one of their key responsibilities. Jesus confirmed that this would continue to be a major duty for his followers too. However, his main concern was the way in which it was done. It needed to be done secretly because gifts were, first of all, to be given to God. Those who were trying to impress other people and win their praise had totally missed the point. There is no evidence that anyone actually commissioned trumpeters to accompany their giving, but the point that Jesus was making is clear enough. Don’t do anything to draw other people’s attention to your giving. We give our gifts because of our love for God and our desire to please him. If we do it to win the praise of other people, then the focus is completely wrong and our giving is clearly not an act of worship at all. It’s just a pathetic act of showing off. Jesus was harsh in his criticism of the religious people because their play acting was giving the Jewish religion a bad name. Th

Matthew 5:21-22 Far from scrapping the Jewish law, Jesus had come to intensify it, and here’s the first example. Everybody knows that it is wrong to murder, but Jesus dug much, much deeper by stating that it is wrong merely to be angry. What he was saying was that if you could solve the problem of anger there would never be another murder. We need to address the roots of the problem, and that’s precisely why Jesus came into the world. In the rest of the chapter Jesus talked about five other areas of the law – lust, divorce, making vows, taking revenge and our relationship with our enemies. In each case he stated the law of Moses and then went on to intensify the command. For example, everyone knew that it was wrong to commit adultery, but Jesus pointed out that what was really wrong was what was going on in people’s minds long before they took any action (v28). This radical teaching challenges every part of our lives because Jesus is saying that our thinking needs to be totally renewed. It isn’t e

Matthew 5:17 Throughout his ministry, Jesus seemed to be in constant conflict with the teachers of the Jewish law. So it isn’t surprising that there were those who assumed that his intention was to scrap it. Look at the way in which he failed to observe the regulations about handwashing, or the fact that
he healed people on the Sabbath even though the law clearly forbade any kind of work on that day. Jesus didn’t object to the law but rather the way in which it was being applied. Take the law of the Sabbath for example. Jesus completely upheld Moses’ command to keep the Sabbath holy, but he objected to the ridiculous layers of complicated regulations that the Jews had added to that vital law. The Jewish lawyers delighted in giving everything a precise definition, so a word like work had to be very precisely defined. All kinds of things were defined as work, such as carrying a burden. This meant that the word burden had to be defined. The lawyers argued endlessly on such issues as to whether a person c

Matthew 5:15-16 There are two words for good in Greek. One is agathos, which simply defines a thing as good in quality. The other is kalos – that refers to things that are not merely good but also beautiful and attractive. The word used here to describe the good deeds that we must do is kalos. This is a really important point. God doesn’t simply want us to do correct things but things that are beautiful and which are attractive to those around us. I often see Christians doing beautiful things and I have no doubt that it brings God enormous pleasure. I think of people who care for the dying. One of the most wonderful developments over the past 50 years has been the growth of hospices. Dame Cicely Saunders was at the heart of this development. She was a strong Christian and this was her conviction: “You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.” Thank God for those who have poured out the