Friday 31 March 2017

Observing the traffic Lights

While driving into Leicester recently I saw something that amazed me.  As the A6 enters the urban area it reaches a point in Oadby where three side roads intersect at different points of the A6.  Traffic is managed through this section with a series of traffic lights at three points along the main road.  As I approached the first set of lights it changed from green to amber.  Traffic slowed down.  The lights turned red and we all stopped, apart from a while car at the front which was driven slowly past the red light.  The lights at the junctions further up the road were still green at that stage, so it is possible that the driver carelessly failed to realise that it should have stopped.

The car continued at an unhurried pace towards the next set of lights which had already turned to red.  To my amazement, it continued steadily ahead towards the next red light and passed through those as well. Fortunately, traffic from the side roads have a short wait before they get a green light, so the white car made its unhurried way without a collision.  To drive through three separate sets of red lights over a significant distance is extraordinary.  It was clearly not ‘jumping the lights’ it seemed that the driver was just not recognising them.  I wondered if the driver was drunk.  What might make him or her so careless?

As the lights turned to green and I made my own way along the road, I found myself reflecting on how I have responded to signals that God has set in my way.  The Bible illustrates how various people have responded to a green or a red light.  For example, Balaam the prophet was intent on ‘driving through red lights’.  In Numbers 22:19 we find Balaam apparently checking to see if God had changed his mind, though God had clearly set a red light in front of him.  Was he tempted by the bribe he was offered.  As he travelled on, even the donkey could see the red lights, which Balaam failed to see (Numbers 22:21-31).

In Genesis 4:7 God warns Cain of the need to put the brakes on his emotions or sin would get the better of him.  He chose to drive through the red light and killed his brother.

The story of Jonah is about a man who ignored a green light and chose instead to drive through a red light.  He learned his lesson the hard way and got back on the right road.

In 1Kings 13 we read the account of a prophet who was persuaded to drive through a red light and suffered terrible consequences.

The Acts of the Apostles also gives examples of God’s guidance.  Philip obediently left Samaria and went back to Jerusalem where he led an Ethiopian official to an experience of salvation.  Paul and Barnabas obeyed the call to take the gospel into what we now call Turkey.  On the second missionary journey, Paul and Silas are confronted by several red lights that stop them from proceeding in the wrong directions, before getting the green light to proceed into Europe (see Acts 16:6-10).

Clearly, when God puts a red light in our way, that is every bit as important as when he puts a green light in our way.  I must admit that, literally, I have sometimes stopped at a green light and gone through a red light unintentionally, when driving my car.  Many years ago, I had a spiritual experience just like that.

While working within a mission organisation I became convinced that God was calling me to become the pastor of a church in Kent.  I travelled to meet with the minister of the church and told him my story.  He was delighted.  Unknown to me, he had just informed the church that he was retiring.  My ministry was known to this church and he was confident that the church members would be keen for me to take on this ministry.  I was excited.  It seemed so clearly to be a green light. 

On returning to the mission headquarters I informed the director of the mission that I would be leaving to take up this pastorate.  He was very unhappy and asked me to take 24 hours to pray more about it.  I agreed, confident of my guidance.  Behind my back, the director telephoned the minister of the church, and with tears pleaded with him not to take me from the mission.  Later the following day, I phoned the minister to confirm my availability, only to discover that another name had been put forward and their system required that he was considered ahead of me.  He was duly called and served the church well.

I then spent several months of unhappiness?  I had allowed myself to be persuaded to ignore a green light. I told God how sorry I was, and determined to try to be more sensitive to his guidance in future and act obediently.  God is good, and the road since travelled has brought many blessing into my life.  But it was a salutary lesson.

I will never know what made the driver of that white car systematically drive through red lights, but I hope that you have developed a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and take care to recognise and respect the traffic light God puts along your way.  Welcome the red lights as much as the green.  They are there for your benefit and that of others.

From the Diary
Sundays through March have been fully booked.  I have been blessed by the churches I have served and am grateful for the testimonies of blessing.  I have also been taking school assemblies each Monday, and continue with this to the end of term.  Other recent events relate to my work teaching on safeguarding issues.  I constructed and delivered two talks for the East Midlands Area of the Congregational Federation.  One of these was focused on the safe use of the Internet by children.  I also provided a day’s teaching for the Salvation Army at the Cliff College Conference Centre.  Praise God for safe travelling and God’s gracious blessing on all the activities of recent weeks.

·       Friday 31st March – 10.30 CF Area Committee Meeting in Narborough, Leics.  (several important tasks to be addressed).  In the afternoon, I will travel to Nottingham where I am engaging with students on the educational/training programmes run by the Congregational Federation.  Mt role is as a member of the Pastoral Care Board.  Some of those present will be on a vocational pathway and I am there to give support and guidance when needed.

·       Saturday 1st April – Sunday 2nd April – Nottingham for the students’ weekend.
·       Sunday 2nd 6.00pm – Newton URC (near Rugby)
·       Monday 3rd April – lunchtime school assembly; evening planning meeting for Harborough Holiday at Home outreach.
·       Tuesday 4th April – HMP Gartree
·       Friday/Saturday 7th/8th April – attending the Village Hope Conference.  VH is a partner organisation in rural evangelism.
·       Palm Sunday 9th April – Welby Lane Mission, Melton Mowbray.

Personal News – Doreen has just had a first operation to remove a cataract from her right eye, and is progressing well.  She is also starting a physio course to help her balance and walking.  I have recently completed an eight-year experimental trial aimed at preventing oesophageal cancer. I appear to be very fit and delighted to be taking less medication.

Thank you for your fellowship and prayers.


Barry

Sunday 19 March 2017

Unforgettable Characters

It has been three weeks since the last Praise & Prayer News.  I think this might be the longest period of silence from me!  It has been caused in part by a particularly busy period, sometimes most intense at the weekends when I usually write.  It has also been caused by some uncertainty as to what I should write.  I do take time to pray before sitting down at the laptop, and usually ponder over a topic for several days, hoping that what I write will prove relevant to as many as possible.

As I have passed through this period of uncertainty, some thought seeds have developed and came to fruition this morning – Sunday 19th March 2017.  What I plan to write now will have some echoes of a previous item written about a year ago.  So, I hope you will not mind a little repetition.  That also reminds me that in the interim I repeated a talk (I hate the term sermons) I gave in several churches. One former colleague called it serving up cold meat with hot gravy!  But in each case the repetition seemed to bring a lot of blessing, so justifying it.

I grew up in a home with copies of the Readers Digest.  I loved this publication, read the funny quotes that were at the bottom of some pages, the page of jokes and various articles.  But my favourite section was called “The Most Unforgettable Character I Met”. Various authors shared their experience, and I lapped it up.  I guess it might have sown the thought about what makes someone unforgettable.

One of the activities during my recent ‘silence’ was leading a Prayer Meeting in the prison where I serve as a voluntary chaplain for a few hours each week. One of the men shared some thoughts based on the account in Acts 19 about the seven sons of a Jewish High Priest who tried to drive out an evil spirit “in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches”.  The surprising response was “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”  Clearly, in the demonic realm Paul had become an unforgettable character.

This weekend brings two unforgettable characters into sharp focus.  Both had impact on my life as a child and teenager.  The first is Dame Vera Lynn with whom I often sang along as her recordings were frequently played over the radio at home.  Dame Vera is about to hit her 100th birthday.  The second character is Chuck Berry, whose death was announced this morning.  As one of the first generation to be called teenagers, I embraced his music with enthusiasm.

These various threads then combined with the invitation to speak at a church anniversary service this evening.  Anniversaries provide opportunity to look back on a journey taken.  I found myself reflecting on the unforgettable characters in my life.  For almost all reading this, the names will mean nothing, but I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about them.

Miss Hatton lived six doors from our family home.  She had a knack of recruiting young children and taking us to and from Sunday School.  She invented a competitive gave relating to the registration of new cars, which we played through the week.  She also provided us with a chocolate éclair when we reached her home on return. I started Sunday School with Mrs Roberts and Miss Osgood, who were apparently saddened when I reached an age when I could move out of the primary department.  This brought me into contact with Miss Betts (Superintendent), the two Miss Mathers, and Mrs Young who was my favourite.  I can’t remember anything they taught me but their characters made an indelible impression and played a vital part in my faith journey.

During this period our church was served by an energetic and enthusiastic Scottish minister, the Rev Angus McNaughton.  He gave fantastic flannelgraph illustrated talks on Sunday mornings, ran film shows on Tuesdays evenings, and made moving pastoral visits to our home where he knelt and prayed before giving me a ride on his motorbike around the streets where I lived.  Most especially, I remember his loving visits to me during a time I spent as a young child in hospital.

To these names I could add others such as Alan and Ame Tarling, and Brenda and Margaret Wayling.  All these are unforgettable for their love of Jesus and their Christlike service to children.

On hitting my teens, I graduated out of Sunday School and into the wider world.  As the former Christian influences in my life waned, my life style became increasingly ungodly.  But a new unforgettable character came into my life.  It was Robert Dingwall, the RE teacher in my secondary school.  He was great because he had ways of linking science with faith both through his love of archaeology and regular Fact and faith Film Shows after school.

About the time my lifestyle had degenerated the most another unforgettable man gave me a gospel tract to read.  We did not know one another, but his obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in going out that dark and damp evening to give out tracts set me a powerful example.  I was the only person he gave a tract to, but so confident was he that the young man who took it was going to be saved and used by God, that they prayed through that night and sent prayer requests to people in far off places, until the day I knocked at his door to tell him his prayers had been answered.

At this stage in my life, new unforgettable characters, whose names will mean nothing to you, came into my life.  They included Gordon Hunt who tricked me into my first public confession that I was a Christian.  Still later, Eric and Grace Kilby and Syd Thayre, and especially Alfred Lavender left their mark on me.  They are unforgettable and I thank God for them. What made each of them (and there were others) unforgettable was that they were excited about Jesus and had a strong commitment to share in God’s mission. 

I don’t suppose any of them will have a biography written about them.  Almost all they said to me and taught me are long forgotten.  But these were living messages of the good news about Jesus – my unforgettable characters.  Each had their own separate lives, but in God’s plan he wove our lives together to produce the pattern he planned.  They are the ‘warp’ through which my life has been the ‘weft’.

Who are your unforgettable Christian characters whose lives have been significant in your journey?  If they are still alive, please tell them this.  Take a few moments to remember then and give thanks to God, who gave them to you at important times.  Then take a moment to ponder on your own life as your pathway crosses those of others.  What impact are you having?  What lessons are being taught and learned?  You may consider yourself to be unimportant, but if we get it right, God can make us someone’s unforgettable character for his purpose in the lives of others.

From the Diary
These have been very busy three weeks and I am so thankful for the blessing God has given me and Doreen and the fact that he has also given us opportunities to bring his word to others and to be of service in other ways.  I could write many pages about this but will not do so here.  But please give thanks with me.  Give thanks also for colleagues who have shared, especially for Gordon Banks, one of our trustees.

The diary is full to the end of the month and we value your prayers each day for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit as we seek to be led by God.  Doreen has a cataract operation on Friday.

May God’s peace overflow in your life.

Barry