Verity Christian Fellowship

So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord.

1Kings 12:15

So the general election is over, but we do not have an answer. The people have spoken but who has heard?

The British Parliament has been through some pretty rough storms over the past year. They have all struggled to cope with the sudden world economic recession which no one can honestly say they saw coming. Also even those who have not been judged to have behaved badly in the expenses scandal have been be tarred with the same brush. This is not just the government but all the elected representatives. Things have been pretty bad all round and no one can truly say they have the answers. The outcome is that the British people have basically said ‘we don’t trust any of you’

There are of course those who say ‘they have brought this on themselves’ and I would have to agree with this. They have lost their moral compass and have gone away from Gods teachings. Throughout our history there are men who have achieved great things such as William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury who brought about the abolition of slavery. They lived by Gods standards. This was not the exception but the norm. As such I believe that God blessed this country.

But it seems that over recent years the leaders of this country, whatever their political colour, have turned their back on God and have moved away from the teachings of the Bible. I am not questioning whether or not they are Christians but their following of the basic moral laws the Bible teaches. Although there are some who still stand out as trustworthy, they are considered a few good apples in a rotten barrel. They should have been above reproach but they have broken the moral laws of our society and are suffering because of it.

The Bible gives an example of this in Solomon. When he came to power it was with all the promise of a righteous king. He asked for Gods help to rule wisely and because God recognised this righteous, selfless request he was blessed and the land of Israel with him. But down the line his government went rotten. He stopped following God and started worshipping false idols. God therefore declared he would do something about it and that their would be consequences.

When Solomon died his son Rehoboam came to power and he was given a choice. The people said to him ‘treat us fairly and we will serve you’. His advisers said ‘ If today you will be a servant to them and give them a favourable answer, they will always serve you’ The people asked for change.

But Rehoboam wanted to play the big king and said ‘if you thought my father was tough, wait and see what I will do’. With this rejection the people rebelled, found a new leader and Rehoboam was left with a divided kingdom in which he controlled only one of the twelve tribes.

All of the party leaders are now faced with this dilemma. The people have spoken. They want something different. If they choose to carry on in the same old ways then they will fail. David Cameron seems in danger of this. He wants the Libdem’s to join him and give him power, but only as long as they don’t get in his way on anything he considers important.

Gordon Brown seems to be offering a little more but in the past has proved himself to be inflexible. Therefore he will probably try to make it business as usual.

Nick Clegg is in a difficult position of choosing between two evils.

Let us pray that they will all show the courage to try something new and to return to God. Otherwise we could be in for a very rough time.

Enlarge the place of your tent

Isaiah 54:2

Verity Christian Fellowship first started at Easter 2000 with about 10 people. We began meeting at a local community centre which has been our home for the last 10 years. Over that time we have grown until we are now some 60 strong. Not spectacular growth by any means but in the right direction.

We know have about 25 children from 1 to 16 as part of the fellowship, a number who have been born to members in the fellowship. A form of internal growth.

Last Summer we realised that we had become to big a group for the community centre. The problem was with the kids. Although the hall was large enough for us there was not enough rooms to accommodate the various kids groups we needed to run. Our older kids even had to go to a neighbours house for their Sunday morning group.

We therefore felt God was leading us to move. We never said anything to our guest speakers before hand but time and again they came with a message of moving into ‘The Promised Land’. We were so surprised every time the message came.

When God keeps on you have to listen. So this year we have sought a new home and have finally found one at the Howard de Walden Centre in Maidstone. It is not huge but for the first time we have our own rooms. We can now run mid week meetings and also we have space for the kids. It has taken some time to fix up but we were in for Easter and I hope to be able to post some pictures in due course.

The good thing about it is that it also has additional rooms we can move into as we need them. We could not afford them full time but can rent them by the hour. This gives us all we need for the foreseeable future. God did not give the Israelites the promised land all at once. The rest of the quote from Isaiah says ‘for you will spread out to the right and to the left.’

So if God keeps giving you the same message, act on it. It may be frightening at first but if he is truly in it it cannot fail.

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel

1 Chronicles 21:1

When David took a census of all the fighting men of Israel, God became very angry with him. I have never really understood this passage before. Why would God get so angry with David just because he wanted to know how many fighting men he could call upon if needed? After all Israel at this time was always having trouble with its neighbours and any good general would want to know what resources he has available wouldn’t he?

However God in his wisdom has given me a practical lesson just recently which has helped me understand this passage. Our church is a small fellowship of about 35 adults and the same number of children. Our outgoings are minimal and so we have never had any problem with money. This has been good as I don’t believe church should be a financial burden on people. In the past when we have had a need God has always prompted someone to provide and we have had some generous gifts. It has also meant that when there has been a time of trouble, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, people have been generous and responded. I have never doubted their generosity.

However we have now outgrown the building we worship in and have been looking for new premises. We have found somewhere but this will cost considerably more than we currently spend. However I believe it within our grasp. In order to assist people to make a decision about the move, I worked out how much each person would have to pay per month. As I was doing it, I had this nagging doubt that it was not right to do so, but could not think of a rational reason not to. I thought it would be helpful for everyone to know what they would be committing to. I was surprised how little the figure worked out at.

This is where the enemy stepped in and used this information against me. For I realised that some people already give far more than this. Therefore some people give far less or even nothing. I suddenly changed from believing the fellowship to be a group of generous people to thinking of then as penny pinching.

This was not good and not true. People give out of their ability and commitment. Some don’t have much money to give (like the widow in Mark 12) but give in other ways, such as time and friendship. Others are only on the edge of the kingdom and so don’t have the commitment. Putting more burdens on them would only drive them away and not draw them in as we want to.

The truth is God had always provided when David needed it. By taking the census David was effectively saying he did not trust God to provide. I did the same thing. God has always provided for us financially as a church. By trying to analyse what we had I gave him no room to work.

It is always right that we should count our blessings. We need to do so in order that we can realise just how much God does for us and be grateful. But we should not ask how he does it or try to control them. That just takes God out of the situation.

The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered…..

Genesis 39:2

If you have ever had a problem with your computer will will know that it is possible to reset it to its default settings and that sometimes it is necessary to restart it in ‘safe’ mode. These default settings are the basic settings that it was provided with at the factory. This will hopefully return the system to operate in the way it was designed to.

If only that were possible for us sometimes. Just as our computers pick up ‘bad habits’ in the form of rogue programs, trojans, viruses etc. we can pick up bad responses to things. These bad responses are learned by bad experiences which give us a negative outlooks on life. As a child if something bad happens to us we learn not to trust people or if we are not give correct guidelines we don’t learn how to behave well in a situation. We have bad lessons and so we learn bad ways. Then if someone comments over our bad attitude we say ‘its not my fault, its because of….’ and find someone or something to blame.

In reality though we are responsible for our own actions and we can decide how we should respond to any given problem. A good example of this was Joseph. He had a terrible experience. Although he was loved by his father, he was despised by his brother who made fun of him. They then beat him and sold him into slavery. If anyone had an excuse to be negative and have suppressed anger at the world around him it would be Joseph.

But Joseph displayed a positive attitude which the Bible describes as ‘The Lord was with Joseph’. We cannot say if the Lord was with Joseph because he was positive or if he was positive because the Lord was with him. These are two sides of the same coin. The point is that Joseph stayed positive and followed Gods ways which were written in his heart. This is why when he was offered the opportunity to have an affair with Potiphar’s wife he refused. He could not go against God.

Even though this landed him in prison, he still refused to be negative. So again the Lord was with him and he ended up working for the warder. Do you see the common thread? Even though things seemed black Joseph refused to be beaten and become a complainer. And because he always went at whatever he did with a positive attitude, the Lord was with him.

So perhaps if we can always go at things with a positive attitude and do our best, whatever it may be, and don’t let the circumstances get us down, the Lord will be with us. Let our default setting be a positive one.

Teacher I will follow you wherever you go

Matthew 8:18

There are always times when we are feeling full of the Holy Spirit and on fire for God. At those times we generally say ‘whatever you want God, Just let me know.’ But do we really mean it?

The truth is we are usually happy to do Gods will if we think it is in our comfort zone and will not cause us too much grief. But if it looks difficult and may cause us some discomfort either financially or in commitment of time or we think it is outside our talents we are not so sure.

But by limiting ourselves in this way we can prevent God really working in our lives. The Bible is full of stories of people who thought they were not up to the job but achieved great things when they actually stepped out of their comfort zone and tried. Moses and Gideon come immediately to mind. One thought he was not a public speaker and one thought he was not a warrior.

Jesus however does not look at the outward initial enthusiasm but at the heart. That is why in Matthew he responded in what seems a discouraging way to what was probably a genuine flush of enthusiasm by the scribe. He knew that when it came down to it the man’s head would not be able to meet the commitment his heart was jumping to.

The second man, a disciple, was perhaps being more honest and his head was telling him to get things sorted first before making the commitment. However Jesus knew he would always come up with excuses not to act but these were just that – excuses. When truly judging priorities they were not ultimately important.

The truth is we can always come up with excuses for not doing things. The second man thought of these straight away, Jesus knew the first man would think of them latter.

The point though is Jesus was there then. He would not be in the same place a week later. God gives us opportunities once. Each one is unique. He may give you other chances, but never exactly the same one twice. If there is an emergency or an opportunity we need to respond whilst the window is open. Once it is closed it is gone forever.

We need to properly asses each chance to make sure we are prepared to pay the price, but never underestimate Gods provision. We sometimes need to take a risk.

Some people never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. But don’t make excuses. Don’t be one of them.

I seek you with all my heart.
Do not let me stray from your commands

Psalm 119

Every year we make new year resolutions. And generally without fail, every year we break them. To me Psalm 119 reads like a very long new years resolution.’Lord I will get closer to you.’

Unfortunately we start out with good intentions but generally they come to nothing. But that should not put us off from even trying. It is believed Psalm 119 was used for teaching and as such it uses a form known as an Acrostic to help in this. This means that each section begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 22 section in all. Therefore if you knew the alphabet you could remember the Psalm and its teaching.

Perhaps we should do something like this to help us remember our resolutions for they do matter. You see if we really want to, we can make a difference in our community. We can count for something. We just have to keep trying. So this year lets make a resolution and try to keep to it.