[All the articles in this magazine are selected from the last three months’ issues of the Christian Herald weekly newspaper.]
From:-
TORCH TRUST FOR THE BLIND, Torch House, Torch Way, Northampton Road, Market
Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 9HL, U.K.
Telephone: (01858) 438260, Fax: (01858) 438275, email: info@torchtrust.org
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Is honesty always the best policy?
It’s Friday night and we’ve nothing to live for
In many ways it’s been a long, hot summer. “The silly season” of August used to get on my nerves at times, but this year I felt sad when I realised that tension in London and other concerns have generally prevented people from being relaxed and a bit “silly” this year.
Whilst some of these concerns are raised in this issue of Christian Herald Digest, they’re discussed with hope and not despair – because of our great God, revealed to us through the life of our Lord and King, Jesus.
With this in mind, we wanted to let you know about the new books that have been added recently to our library. New titles are listed, with more details given on books which Lydia has selected for special mention. However, if other titles not reviewed appeal to you, just contact us and the librarians will be delighted to tell you more or add the title to your personal bookshelf.
If you’ve never tried our library, why not do so this autumn, in readiness for those dark nights when reading is such a pleasure. We have loads of uplifting biographies; thrilling accounts from people proclaiming Jesus in all sorts of countries and situations; inspiring books to help you in your daily life; books that explain the Bible, and “can’t put it down” novels for those lighter moments.
Our books come on cassette, in giant print, in braille – and just recently on DAISY CD. The DAISY CDs are the same as those used by RNIB’s talking book service. They can be played on the special DAISY CD players but will not work on other CD or DVD players. If in doubt, please contact us. To date we have sixteen DAISY books, but this number will keep growing.
We pray God’s blessing and encouragement for you through this magazine. We’re always happy to hear from you, so do get in touch.
Sheila and the editorial team
by Alison Farnell
It’s a common word in youth culture. Ali G highlights it. Before the General Election, teachers were asking politicians for it. Education unions were calling for it. George Galloway stood for it.
Since the Election, Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Education, says teachers have it from her. It’s a word that crops up in almost every speech about education or society at the moment.
Yet, “respect” is one of those weasel words. It can mean different things to different people. What do you understand by respect?
Most schools say that respect is one of their values; it’s something their school stands for. They encourage pupils to have respect for themselves and respect for others. There are lessons about respect in citizenship and personal, social and health education.
I believe that respect for oneself and for other people is a fundamental Christian value. Everyone is made in God’s image, is precious and therefore worthy of respect. So, can respect be taught in school? And if so, how?
Where do pupils see respect modelled for them? At home? Possibly. In school? I would hope so, but not always. In Parliament, with its yelling and mud-slinging? Rarely. In the media, when journalists rudely attack and question their interviewees? Hardly. At a head teachers’ conference when delegates stand and turn their backs on the Secretary of State to demonstrate their disapproval? Certainly not!
The Oxford Dictionary tells me that respect means a feeling of deep admiration for someone elicited by their qualities or achievements. Or alternatively, due regard for the feelings or rights of others. As a verb, it means to avoid harming or interfering with someone or something. I’d want to encourage this in pupils.
Respect sometimes gets mixed up with other words like tolerance (allowing the existence or occurrence of something one dislikes or disagrees with), deference (humble submission and respect) or civil (courteous and polite). Neither does it just mean being polite, although we tend not to be rude to those we hold in high esteem, and esteem means respect and admiration!
Respect doesn’t just happen. It has to be modelled and earned. It is freely given. Teachers know that the best way to earn it, is to show it. By demonstrating belief and confidence in another person, you are showing that they have worth and value, you are offering respect. Respectful relationships take time to achieve, they have to be worked at. No‑one can legislate for it. Politicians will need to earn respect before they can legislate for it.
[Alison Farnell is Director of The Stapleford Centre – afarnell@stapleford-centre.org]
[“Will the UK Church face persecution?” asks Jonathan Bartley.]
“The Church will go through a time of great persecution.”
Such a statement might have been expected from one of the many organisations that campaigns for religious liberty around the world in places where churches face constant discrimination, oppression and death at the hands of repressive regimes. But what made this warning somewhat surprising was that it referred to the UK.
Nor was this a statement from someone who could be written off as a crank. It came in fact from a member of the Church of England’s Archbishops’ Council, who predicted that Christianity could soon be driven underground in the West.
Although at a glance appearing extreme, she articulated the feelings of many Christians who believe that persecution is not just a future possibility, but rapidly becoming a clear and present danger.
The government’s proposed legislation on incitement to religious hatred . . . Jerry Springer – the Opera . . . the outcry against European Commissioner Rocco Buttiglione . . . the removal of religious symbols and Bibles from public places . . . the sacking of people who refuse to work on Sundays – almost daily, new events unfold which set alarm bells ringing.
As Christendom continues its decline, and the Church loses the privileges and protections that it has enjoyed in the West since the time of Constantine, the list will undoubtedly grow longer. But those who feel that these are forms of persecution, or at least discrimination, now face a clear choice. Will they campaign to have Christendom restored, or respond in a new way?
Today’s Church would do well to look to the pre-Christendom era, and a time when the early Church underwent persecutions that make anything currently experienced by Christians in the West, tame by comparison. But those followers of “The Way”, rather than seeing their own hardship as something to be eliminated, viewed it as an opportunity to seek protection for others who also follow in the footsteps of their Saviour.
Writings from the first few centuries contain the most amazing accounts of how the early Christians embraced suffering, and took seriously the command to “bless those who persecute you”. Baptism was understood as indicating a willingness to die with Christ. Sometimes they even sold themselves into slavery in order to buy the freedom of others, or purchase food for the poor.
This is not the soft option. But the choice is clear: follow the crowd, or the way of the cross.
[Jonathan Bartley is Director of Ekklesia, a think-tank that promotes radical theological ideas in public life www.ekklesia.co.uk]
The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill is a well-motivated piece of legislation that simply won’t work.
Hatched in the aftermath of 9/11, it is intended to prevent hatred being stirred up against faith groups because of their beliefs.
But while no intelligent Christian wants to “stir up hatred” against another faith group, we believe that freedom of speech is a vital right in a democracy, allowing those with beliefs to disagree with others, and to debate with passion.
The likely effect of this bill is, as Evangelical Alliance spokesman, Don Horrocks, points out, that faith groups who got on well enough before end up with deteriorating relationships, typified by costly “testing the water” court cases.
And deciding exactly what is “likely to stir up hatred” is an extremely subjective judgement. What offends or upsets one group may not bother another. Applying the law will be a nightmare.
The UK already has existing legislation that protects against racial hatred, and other laws cover public order offences. We simply don’t need the proposed law – and many faith groups (including, if the recent BBC documentary is representative, many younger Muslims) don’t want it.
Scrap it, Mr Blair.
[Rob Frost takes issue with the doom merchants.]
Recently I’ve become very irritated by the growing number of “doom and gloom” merchants whom I seem to meet in all the usual ecclesiastical places.
I meet these “doomers” and “gloomers” at conferences of clergy, where they gather in clerical huddles and mutter about the dire future that awaits the denominational structures.
I meet them in musty vestries, sitting on church committees and conducting whispered conversations about the “disappointing church membership returns” or the “worrying trends in church accounts”.
I meet them in ecclesiastical organisations, as they reel from the dark news of the latest church statistics and look to forward planning with a seeming paralysis of fear!
So where is the Risen Jesus in this prevalent school of “doom and gloom” theology? And where does resurrection fit into this churchmanship of death? And why do these people sound so credible when they are preaching a gospel without an empty tomb?
Every one of us, without exception, should be living in the joy, light and power of His resurrection power every day of our lives! Christ’s resurrection has to be the greatest hope for the world and the most sure certainty for the future of the Church. And if you believe it . . . you must believe that His life is stronger than any negative force that would seek to overcome it.
When I was a young teenager in Birmingham I used to hear stories of the great preacher in that city called Dr R W Dale. Once, when he was preparing his sermons for Easter Day, the truth of the Resurrection suddenly dawned on him.
From that time on, whenever he conducted a service – even during Advent and Christmas – he always included at least one hymn which proclaimed the Resurrection message. He described this experience in his diary . . .
“‘Christ is alive,’ I said to myself: ‘Alive!’ . . . Can that really be true? Living as really as I myself am? I got up and walked about repeating: ‘Christ is living! Christ is living!’ At first it seemed strange and hardly true, but at last it came upon me as a burst of sudden glory; yes, Christ is alive. It was to me a new discovery. I thought that all along I had believed it; but not until that moment did I feel sure about it. I then said, ‘My people shall know it. I shall preach it again and again until they believe it as I do now’.”
That’s the answer! Whenever you come across the doom and gloom brigade, preach the Risen Jesus to them. For it’s only in glimpsing Him that they will ever glimpse the answer.
Let’s start a campaign to say the words: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again” before every church council, synod, conference or committee. For this is the context of our business. Ultimately, we have a different agenda to the world and a different solution to our problems. Christ is Risen. Hallelujah!
When Canon David Watson was very ill and dying of cancer, he wrote: “The words: ‘Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again’ should not be mumbled – but shouted with ringing confidence. It’s the greatest good news that we could ever know on this earth – whatever may happen – the best is yet to be!”
[Rev Dr Rob Frost is the director of Share Jesus international.]
by Alison Hull
Whether you are familiar with C S Lewis’s book or not, you still need to see this powerful play when it tours again in November.
Adapted from C S Lewis’s masterpiece by Nigel Forde, The Screwtape Letters is the story of Screwtape, a senior devil, and his attempts to ensure the damnation of a young convert. Set just before and during the beginning of World War 2, we see the devils in action – and the subtlety of their tempting.
The play is written from Hell’s point of view, but with glimpses of grace. Screwtape inadvertently admits that God really loves his creatures – this, in Hell, is heresy and he is reduced to saying that obviously, there is another reason behind it, but they haven’t been able to find out what it is.
The dialogue is extremely rich and provides huge food for further thought, but by the end it is the depths of Screwtape’s despair that will move you. Superbly acted by David Robinson, Screwtape is almost a sympathetic character – and in that lies the only problem with this production: the audience ends up with divided emotions. You will feel for the despair of a devil, destroyed by his failure to damn the Christian.
The cast – all of whom double up on their parts – are also very strong. Serena Stanton has to switch from being the martinet, Grabslatter – endlessly efficient and a thorn in Screwtape’s side – to the martyred wife and then the overenthusiastic church member – and she does it brilliantly.
Richard Hasnip is wonderfully enthusiastic, while I found Miriam Sarin more believable as Geraldine, the girl the convert (who is only given the name Subject) falls in love with. And incidentally see if you can work out why allowing someone to fall in love is so frowned upon in Hell. Michael Taylor plays the Subject but it was his earlier part, that of the Husband, that impressed me most – you’ll need to see the play to understand why!
[Check out November tour dates at http://www.saltmine.org]
by Dr A Fergusson
Lord Joffe’s 2004 Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill sought to legalise “for people who are terminally ill, who are mentally competent and who are suffering unbearably, medical assistance with suicide or, in cases where the person concerned would be physically incapable of taking the final action to end his or her life, voluntary euthanasia”.
It ran out of time in the last Parliament but he will reintroduce a similar bill after the Lords on 10th October debate their Select Committee report on the last one. That Committee was divided but did not condemn the concepts outright and the next bill will be revised to seem more acceptable. Legalised euthanasia has never been nearer.
The next bill will emphasise physician-assisted suicide (PAS) rather than voluntary euthanasia (VE). What are these? Euthanasia is the intentional killing, by act or omission, of a person whose life is felt not to be worth living. The doctor both prescribes and administers lethal medication. In PAS the doctor prescribes lethal medication but the person administers it himself or herself.
Why push for PAS? There are two reasons. First, the body count would be much lower. Based on reported statistics from the four jurisdictions that permit either VE or PAS or both, legalising PAS alone in Britain would mean about 650 deaths a year while legalising PAS and VE would lead to about 13,000. Society might therefore find PAS more acceptable politically. Secondly, as some doctors might feel less hands-on involved there could be less resistance from the medical profession.
So, is PAS significantly different from VE? Looking at principles, the key concept is intention. In both, the doctor means to bring about the death of the patient. He is the moral agent without whom the death could not happen. PAS is simply euthanasia one step back.
In practice, because some patients would be physically incapable of ending their own lives (perhaps through paralysis) VE back-up would be required. And even with a prescription, PAS has a failure rate and in such situations, a doctor will always be required for the coup de grace.
Lord Joffe is known to want to extend the scope if his bill is legalised. What might begin with accepting 650 PAS deaths a year could lead to VE with 13,000 deaths a year. In God’s eyes even one such death would be wrong.
The bill will again draw on the Oregon experience. Their Death with Dignity Act allows a “capable” adult patient resident in Oregon with less than six months to live to request voluntarily a lethal prescription. At first glance, statistics appear reassuring: numbers are low and at a plateau. But we should be concerned that psychiatric evaluations take place in only 5% of those receiving PAS, that 22% report inadequate pain control, that 35% fear being a burden, and 85% state fear of losing their autonomy as a main motive. There are many concerns and no reliable experience.
Both euthanasia and PAS are fundamentally wrong, are always unnecessary because we do not have to kill the patient to kill the symptoms, and could never be policed. We must resist both.
[Dr Andrew Fergusson has a portfolio career at the interface of medicine and Christianity.]
by Fran Hill
I attended an interview for a post on the counselling team at my school. They asked me what qualified me for the post, so I said I was a very good listener.
Then one of the panel asked me another question, which I started to answer, but then my mind went blank. So, after an awkward silence, I said: “I’m really sorry, but I’ve forgotten what the question was. Could you repeat it, please?” Obviously, I wasn’t quite as good a listener as I’d claimed. I got the job, though, so perhaps my brilliance, beauty and charm made up for the fact that they appointed a counsellor who ignores what people say.
Then again, perhaps they liked my honesty. I mean, I had a lot of options open to me just at that point. One was just to burble on about nothing and hope they didn’t spot the mistake. Another was to go silent and hope they would put it down to nerves. Another option was to pretend I didn’t understand the question, making it the interviewer’s fault for not making himself clear.
I did consider fainting, but it was a small room and if I’d crashed to the floor I’d have taken the whole panel of three with me. Not good interview technique.
So I went for the honesty option, which I recommend. Unless you’re in church, that is.
I know the Bible says we should speak the truth in love, but I’ve seen this tried many times now and, I don’t know what everyone’s doing wrong, but it never works out the way it’s supposed to.
For a start, you, as the speaker-of-truth, may feel love for the other person, but you can guarantee that as soon as you’ve spoken, the feeling won’t be mutual. This gives you another problem, and so it goes on.
Secondly, you may think that it’s love you feel for the other person, but more often it’s something completely different that is so easily misinterpreted as love, like murderous intent, suppressed hatred or a desire for them to be ritually and publicly humiliated.
Finally, there is a tendency for people to quote the “speak-the-truth-in-love” verse just before they say their piece, just so that you know they’re speaking as a Christian sister or brother with only your true welfare at heart.
Then they tell you the truth, that you’re a useless worship leader with no dress sense and a spot on the end of your nose the size of Africa.
Something tells me we haven’t quite cracked this one yet.
[Fran Hill is a secondary school teacher and writer based in Hampton.]
[Adrian Barnard looks forward to the 2012 Olympics.]
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling I had listening to the radio when IOC president, Jacques Rogge, calmly announced: “The International Olympic Committee has the honour of announcing that the Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the city of London!”
This is brilliant news for London and the whole of the country. There will be some of course who feel the money needed to host an Olympics should be spent on other things, but 79% of Londoners are in favour and the vast majority of people in the UK, even those who are not naturally sports fans, have welcomed the announcement. It will bring regeneration to the East End, employment and not least, a much-needed injection of hope, to many.
I have been to the last two Olympics, in Sydney and Athens, and can honestly say that there’s nothing to compare with the atmosphere in a host city during the Games. As well as 17 days of spectacular sport, there’s a carnival atmosphere with parties in parks and town squares and an overall friendly rivalry between sports fans.
The Olympic Games also provides the opportunity for Christian groups to showcase their unity. In 2000, Sydney churches and organisations came together under the banner of Quest Australia to coordinate Christian witness, service and outreach. Quest worked with the Games organisers to host a marquee offering Christian books and videos in the main stadium complex. It also helped groups from overseas, including our own, find accommodation in the city.
In Athens it was the same story with Christian ministry coordinated under the banner of Flame Athens. Expertise from Quest Australia was passed on and Flame worked with the Games and city authorities to stage a range of events including Christian arts festivals. On the opening day of the Games 5000 people attended the all-day event in Syntagma Square featuring artists such as Delirious? and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, a jazz band from the USA.
Our plans to cover the 2012 Games with a Christian perspective for radio stations worldwide have already started. A church in Homerton has offered us its facilities as a base – it’s in an ideal location just 20 minutes’ walk from where the main Stadium will be built. Finding appropriate accommodation for our team at the next Olympics in Beijing may present a slightly greater challenge!
[Adrian Barnard is chief executive of 2k+ international sports ministry – www.2kplus.org.uk]
by Kathy Eareckson
[Joni’s sister, Kathy, writes 28 years on from the accident.]
I know you care about Joni very much and, like me, you’ve watched the way God has used her in her wheelchair. I would guess that you’ve read her books and seen her artwork. I know you’ve been inspired just as much as I have been over the years and, like me, you’ve seen how her ministry, Joni and Friends, has helped thousands, even millions.
The inspiration and encouragement I feel is a little different, however. Joni is my little sister. My name is Kathy Eareckson and I am the one who was at the beach that day when Joni dived off the raft and broke her neck.
I’ll never forget that Saturday afternoon in July 1967. I was a teenager, like Jon-Jon (that’s what I’ve always called her), and I had planned a swimming date with my boyfriend. We started out but then had to come back to the house because I forgot something. While there, I asked Joni if she wanted to go with us. I knew she had hoped to play tennis with her friend that afternoon, but it fell through. When she said she’d like to join us, I was really surprised – it was a last minute thing and she didn’t usually hang around with my boyfriend and me.
We drove to a beach near the Magothy River on the Chesapeake Bay. Joni and I, along with our nephew and my boyfriend, wasted no time in heading for the water. My sister and I swam over to a big sliding board to the side of the beach area, but decided at the last minute not to go down it. Joni made a beeline for a raft anchored further out in the water. I turned and started for shore.
What happened next, I can’t explain. A crab bit my toe. At any other time, I would have raced out of the water, but oddly enough, I didn’t. I turned around and shouted to Joni, “Watch out for crabs!” She was nowhere in sight – not on the raft and not in the water. And then . . . I saw her blonde hair floating on the water – she was face-down and I thought she was looking for crabs. When Joni didn’t respond, I knew something was wrong. I went swimming after her and reached her just when she began to drown!
Now I ask you: what are the chances of a crab biting someone’s toe and getting their attention just in time to respond to an emergency? A million to one. Isn’t God amazing that He would use a little crab?
And isn’t it amazing that God would take my little sister from a depressing, tragic accident to a story of triumph in Him and His grace? She and her friends had Bible studies going on all the time at our house. God was teaching her a lot. Joni took what she was learning and wrote about it all in the book, Joni, which was published in 1976 – our whole family was excited to think that Joni’s story (our family’s story) might encourage others.
On 30 July this year, 38 years will have passed since Joni’s accident, and so much has happened since then. Millions around the world have been encouraged by the story. An international ministry, Joni and Friends, has developed to reach many more with Jesus’ love. Sometimes when Joni and Ken – oh, yes, she got married in 1982 – come to Maryland and visit, we marvel at the plan and purposes behind that fateful day in 1967.
I teach in a school in Baltimore City and I recognise that there are new generations of young people coming up who need a godly perspective on their disappointments and hardships. When Jon-Jon asked me to write this article – and she said I could write anything I wanted to you over there in Great Britain – I told her I would want to encourage the readers of her column to keep sharing the good news of Jesus Christ among young people, like the ones I teach. This is a desperately hurting world and if God can turn my sister’s tragedy into a triumph, then I know He can do it in the life of anyone.
So thank you for letting me tell you about my little sister. I’m glad I can “celebrate” how Joni’s life changed on 30 July. And thank you for allowing me to encourage you to be bold for Jesus, just like Joni is (even after so many years in a wheelchair). May God bless you and, oh yes, one more thing: be careful around the water this summer!
[Kathy is a school teacher in Baltimore City.]
by Margaret Storey
You’re in a foreign country. You can’t speak the language. You’ve got 24 hours to collect an assortment of unusual items. Fail – and you could be chucked over Victoria Falls in a barrel.
The energy and enthusiasm on Rebel Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best and The Apprentice are extraordinary. The competitive, nasty, infighting I can do without.
Like its British counterpart, the American version of The Apprentice, on BBC Two and BBC Three, is a serious, urban affair – with aggressive 20-somethings in expensive suits racing against the clock to invent a new ice-cream and flog it on the streets of New York, before facing the judgement of the enigmatic Donald Trump.
Over on ITV2, Sir Richard Branson, with his cheeky grin and dynamically different style, asks candidates to scale a hot-air balloon mid-flight, some 3,000 feet over the English countryside. (And yes it was Sir Branson, not Trump, who sent contestants hurtling over the world’s tallest waterfall – although to be fair, he went over with them.)
I love the creative problem-solving and the amazing teamwork under pressure. But there’s one thing about the shows I can’t stand – the focus on money.
From luxury hotels to expensive meals, the constant subtext is: “What if you could have it all?”, while The Apprentice USA theme song goes: “Money, money, money, money. Money!” (and repeat).
And that’s my problem with reality shows. Want to lose weight? Do it for the money. Meet new people? You could win big. Have a makeover? Clean up your house? Go on a date? There’s always a cash reward at the end – after all the weaker links have been eliminated. And there’s always someone who says: “I’m here for the money – not to make friends.”
What’s really worth celebrating is the creativity and hard work of people who don’t do it for the money. The church which holds an amazing, life-changing outreach event. The youth group that finds an ingenious way to raise money to Make Poverty History. The short-term missionary team who push themselves to the limit whilst sharing their lives with a group of strangers. The family who feeds a multitude of guests on a stretched tight budget.
No fanfare. No applause. No six-figure reward. Just ordinary Christians doing extraordinary things, one challenge at a time, with every bit as much courage, ingenuity, hard work and teamwork, of any would-be billionaire.
[Margaret Storey is a reporter/sub-editor with Christian Herald and Families Together.]
We read the letter from Dr Trevor Stammers with interest as the greatest number of searches which lead people onto our website, Echurch-uk.org, are those on “weddings”. Not on “marriage”!
With half a million hits in total last year, that makes a lot of people seeking guidance on this important subject.
Though the aim of Echurch-uk.org, is principally to give support, information and fellowship to people who are blind and those who want to help them, we know that a lot of people from all over the world come seeking spiritual and other guidance.
We decided to write an article for the website on our preparation for marriage and our wedding day in March 2002 as we felt that so many couples concentrate on the first day of a marriage and forget the rest of their lives together!
With modern weddings costing upwards of £15,000 we had a great celebration and honeymoon for £1,500, another good point in these days of extravagant expense for a single day which often causes debt problems from the start of the new marriage – Catherine Davies, Bristol, kate@echurch-uk.org, http://www.echurch-uk.org/lite/carer.php
If you cannot make it to church on Sunday, and are missing weekly worship, we may have an answer for you. Each month, free of charge, our team produces a different 60 minute audio cassette tape packed full of Christian hymns, poems, prayers, stories, testimonies and a short message.
You can play the tape as often as you want, returning it when you receive the replacement four weeks later. You have only to pay for a second class postage stamp.
Our aim is to reach people who live alone, or who cannot attend a place of worship, but we also supply many folk who feel they need spiritual uplift in the week as well as on Sunday.
Our work is well established; we have scores of appreciative letters. We supply nearly 300 listeners throughout the Midlands and as far afield as Yorkshire, Wales, Republic of Ireland and Germany. Our patron is Churches Together in Stafford.
If you would like to try one of our tapes to see if you like what we have to offer, then please contact: Stafford Churches Audio Magazine, 34, Barn Common, Stafford, ST20 0LR, ring: 01785 284358, or e-mail: margaret@gothere.uk.com – Margaret Phillips, co-ordinator, Stafford Churches Audio Magazine, (via e-mail).
Reading the report concerning the incitement to racial hatred legislation, I am led to wonder if we have forgotten the words of Jesus Himself (Mark 13:9-13, Luke 21:7): “All men will hate you because of me”. Nobody can take away our freedom to speak. Acts 4:19-21 shows us how Peter and John dealt with this – can we do any less? Who are we afraid of? The Lord made it clear we are only to fear God. After all, the days of burning at the stake, beheading or cutting in two have long gone in this country, true prison is less than inviting, but better than eternal hell I think.
All we are called to do is preach the word fearlessly. As I read it, Jesus didn’t condemn the worship of Zeus or Diana, or obeying the law of the Romans. On the contrary, he paid taxes. Why would we be guilty of offending anyone? Without being deliberately offensive or provocative, who could we offend if we take Him as our example, and preach the Word and answer anyone who asks us about our faith, truthfully?
Is it that we have become too attached to our affluent lifestyles, our lovely holidays and comfortable lives to contemplate any discomforts? Many of the family of faith across the world suffer just such discomforts and worse every day. Why not us?
It was never going to be a rose garden, as Paul demonstrates in 2 Corinthians 11:22-28, and Hebrews 11 makes clear. Where is our courage and perseverance? Let us follow the Master and all the saints who have gone before, and for the love of God and His Son our Saviour, do what we are called to do fearlessly, not forgetting that this bill would apply equally to us.
And the Jerry Springer Opera fiasco would not happen again, if anyone protested, let alone 45,000. Let’s see it as a great opportunity to stand and be counted for our faith, like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Believe that as it says in Romans 8: “If God is for us who can be against us?” – E S Martin, Lichfield, Staffs.
by Rob Frost
I was travelling through London’s rush hour when the bombs went off. For some reason I took the bus that morning, because I just couldn’t face the underground. It was such a rare event for me that I ended up taking a bus going in the wrong direction! I was involved with Premier Radio’s coverage of the events all day, and there was a strange stressful atmosphere everywhere which was reminiscent of 9/11.
Our coverage was carried across the USA, and it was a great strength to know that thousands there were praying for London on that awful day. During a phone-in at 2pm, people called in from all over the country. Some folk were just bewildered, two non-Christians called in saying that it made them want to have a real faith, but I felt deeply strengthened and comforted by those who called just to say they were praying.
Two days later I found myself at a hi-tech TV studio beside a field of large satellite dishes, and hosting a global prayer meeting for London in the aftermath of the carnage for the God Channel. In the midst of the electronic panoply of cables, satellites and screens, I felt a tingle of excitement that believers across the whole world were united in prayer for the city I love. On both occasions I was reminded of a phrase we used to use, half jokingly, during my student days. “If all else fails . . . pray.” But this time it isn’t a joke. I felt it for real.
Whilst politicians drone on about “business as usual”, and the police race around the country in what seems a blur of flashing blue lights and sirens, it’s important to remember that we Christians also have an important role to pray. We need to get real about the serious business of intercession for our nation.
A few months ago I stood on the Mount of Olives and looked down over Jerusalem. I remembered the time when Jesus looked over that same city and wept: “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times have I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me” (Matthew 23:27).
Jesus had an aching burden for the people of that great city. He knew their needs and wanted to embrace them with His love. These were no empty sentiments, but the expression of one who lived entirely for others. Jesus loved the world with a depth of compassion that we can’t begin to understand.
We need that kind of emotional engagement in prayer for London, and indeed for the whole of the UK. My view of intercession has changed over the years. I used to think of it as a kind of shopping list of need, for me, my loved ones and the world. But now I see it as expressing my deepest feelings to Jesus. We need to cry out to God for the United Kingdom.
He wants to read my heart. He wants to see if I care, to know I feel the burden, and to recognise that I am emotionally engaged with what I’m asking Him to do. I believe that true intercession transcends words. As I prepare to intercede for the world, I must move from seeing the suffering around me to feeling it! As I weep with those who weep, I really intercede! Why not join me in praying that God will do something new in our nation?
by Margaret Storey
Tony Blair has thrown down the gauntlet to foreigners living in the UK: turn your back on what we stand for – and we will turn our back on you.
As part of new strict anti-terrorism measures, the Government is planning on strengthening its powers to deport foreigners who encourage terrorism – even if that means amending human rights legislation.
Preach hate? You’re not welcome here. Glorify terrorism on your website? We’ll ask you to leave. Belong to a radical extremist organisation? If you’re a naturalised Briton – you could even be stripped of your citizenship.
“We are angry,” Tony Blair has said. “We are angry about extremism and about what they are doing to our country, angry about their abuse of our good nature. We welcome people here who share our values and our way of life. But don’t meddle in extremism because if you meddle in it . . . you are going back out again.”
I am a “foreigner” of sorts. My father was born here but I was born in Canada. Therefore, according to my passport, Her Majesty the Queen considers me “British”, but my foreign accent sometimes gives people pause for thought.
My citizenship is a privilege and I’m humbled to remember that countless people have been willing to fight and die for something that was mine by birth. I’m also amazed to realise there are thousands of others worldwide who are willing to leave their families and sacrifice their savings in the hope of becoming British themselves.
The Bible has a lot to say about welcoming foreigners. “Love the foreigners among you like you love yourselves,” God says in Leviticus. Demonstrating that love could mean listening to people we don’t want to listen to, giving money we would rather keep for ourselves, caring for people we find it easier to hate, and making sacrifices so that someone else has a chance at a better life.
But love is not always the same as tolerance. Love doesn’t mean letting people run roughshod over your country’s values and people. In fact, as God lays down the law in the Old Testament He frequently adds: “this applies to the foreigners among you too”. (In fact, He threatens to expel unlawful foreigners from the land too – in rather stronger language than Tony Blair used.)
Balancing love and law is a tricky thing and it will be interesting to hear the debate as the Government tries to figure out how to value freedom whilst clamping down on extremism.
But love doesn’t mean tolerating evil or allowing hate to thrive.
by Jo Glen
Imagine that you were an alien and that you landed your spaceship in one of our city centres on a Friday night. Firstly you joined a group of young girls squeezing themselves into tight mini skirts ready for a night on the town. Next you called into the local curry house where groups of white customers mocked their hosts’ accents and vomited on their white tablecloths. You proceeded to a few local pubs, perhaps a night club or two, ending up on the pavement in the early hours to witness further displays of vomiting, exposed flesh, under-age sex and mindless swearing and violence.
Many Muslims, I’m told, consider the West to be arrogant, racist, irreligious, intemperate, immoral, uncommitted and materialistic. As we watch our young people living out the values we have gift-wrapped in pretty paper and handed them with a smile, it’s quite hard to disagree.
We watch on television the shameful tragedy of a family in Niger sitting down to share a barbecued rat for dinner, and consider our youngsters blessed to grow up in the affluent West. And of course they are. But just how blessed is a generation whose weekly goals are realised in Top Shop changing rooms or racist violence or sex with strangers? That’s if they have any goals – which many, apparently, don’t. Until someone gives them a cause and a community to commit to, and suggests that a bomb around their waist is the highway to paradise.
It is said that one of the reasons we Westerners find it so hard to understand the psyche of suicide bombers is that there is nothing we would be prepared to die for. Of course there is a world of difference between being prepared to die for something and being prepared to kill for something. Jesus Christ rejected a violent response to His arrest in Gethsemane, and chose instead to submit to the violence of his enemies, dying for the world as it, literally, killed Him.
It’s a tragedy that these young terrorists hate us and want to kill us. And it’s a tragedy that our young people of every religion and ethnicity are hanging around on street corners, easy prey for drug dealers, sexual predators, bad role models, petty criminals and indeed dangerous extremists.
I wonder where Jesus would have been on Friday nights.
[ Jo Glen is an author, editor and Christian communicator based in London.]
Cassette Book C2392 Philippians: Crossway Bible Guide by Ian Coffey – Category: Commentaries: Philippians
Cassette Book C2275 He Never Said. . . by Steve Chalke – Category: Doctrinal: Christ (His person & work)
Cassette Book C2350 Fire and Blood by Mark Stibbe – Category: Doctrinal: Holy Spirit (incl. Gifts & Fruits)
Cassette Book C2125 The Passion of the Christ by Brian Mavis – Category: Homiletical & Pastoral: Evangelism
Cassette Book C2304 Victory Over the Darkness by Neil T. Anderson – Category: Philosophy & Religion: Healing
Cassette Book C2211 Esther by Jill Hudson – Category: Bible Characters – Esther
Cassette Book C2367 Disappointment with God By Philip Yancey – Category: Apologetics
Cassette Book C2286 Taming Your Emotional Tigers by Tony Ward – Category: CHRISTIAN ETHICS: General
Cassette Book C2302 A Voice in the Night by Brenda Sloggett – Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2230 Beyond the Final Whistle by John Boyers – Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2217 From Whitewashed Stairs to Heaven by Maureen McKenna – Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2376 Pelican Crossing by Hilary Cotterill – Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2321 Rebel with a Cause by Franklin Graham – Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Cassette Book C2359 Seven Guides to Lasting Love by Colin Whittaker – Category: Biography: Groups
Cassette Book C2306 Angels on the Walls by Wallace Brown – Category: Biography: Organisations
Cassette Book C2351 Autumn Return by Sally Brice Winterbourn – Category: Fiction: General
Cassette Book C2408 Finders Keepers by Mae Cheeseman – Category: Fiction: General
Cassette Book C2196 The Crossing by Tony Dobinson – Category: Fiction: General
Cassette Book C2352 Beyond the Gathering Storm by Janette Oke – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2332 Sons of an Ancient Glory by B. J. Hoff – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Cassette Book C2175 When Tomorrow Comes by Janette Oke – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2277 Crash Course on Church History by Christopher Catherwood – Category: CHURCH HISTORY: General
Daisy Book D2376 Pelican Crossing by Hilary Cotterill – Category: Biography: Auto Biography (Review below)
Daisy Book D2361 The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada – Category: Biography: Auto Biography
Daisy Book D2368 John G Paton by Kay Walsh – Category: Biography: Individual
Daisy Book D2099 A House Divided by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2138 Heirs of the Motherland by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2278 Passage into Light by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2082 The Crown and the Crucible by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2156 The Dawning of Deliverance by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2116 Travail and Triumph by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Daisy Book D2228 White Nights, Red Morning by Judith Pella – Category: Fiction: Series & Sequels
Giant Print Book G2131 Ecclesiastes by John A. Davies – Category: Commentaries: Ecclesiastes
Giant Print Book G2106 Amos by Ron Buckland – Category: Commentaries: Amos
Giant Print Book G2071 Zephaniah by David Hewetson – Category: Commentaries: Zephaniah
Giant Print Book G2023 Love Changes Everything by Muthena Paul Alkazraji – Category: Biography: Groups (Review below)
“I kept hearing the phrase, ‘personal relationship with Jesus Christ’. But I never saw God or heard Him, or felt Him. Either there’s something wrong with what I was told, or there’s something wrong with me.”
In Disappointment with God awarded-winning author, Philip Yancey, searches for answers to this and other issues, asking questions we rarely ask aloud: is God silent? Is God hidden? Is God unfair?
For precisely when we need Him the most, it often seems that God is not there. When we ask for help and none is given, when we pray for healing and nothing happens, our faith in God’s unconditional love for us is shaken. Where is God in our emotional pain?
A searingly honest and powerful book that takes our doubts seriously, yet points to a faith we can live by and a hope that will not let us down.
Ordained as a Christian minister, Franklin is Chairman of Samaritan’s Purse International in the UK, Canada, and Netherlands. He serves on the board of directors of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Blue Ridge Broadcasting and is chairman of the board of Mafraq Sanatorium, a medical mission in Jordon.
He says of himself, “I enjoy my life, even though there have been many moments of struggle and pain. I share my life, not because I think there is anything particularly special about it, but because I want you to understand how great and capable God is of using anyone’s life to accomplish His goals. If there’s anything special about my story, it’s not because I’m the son of Billy and Ruth Graham – it’s because I’m a son of the living God”.
Hilary Cotterill, aged 18, takes her first steps through the snow towards her dream of becoming a nurse. Her grim, grey lodgings – a warren, built on a tilt, and complete with mice – are a far cry from her privileged home in warm ex-pat Hong Kong.
Over the next four years Hilary struggles with bossy sisters, spiteful senior nurses, impatient doctors, recalcitrant patients, demanding relatives, the impossible workload, and her own crushing sense of inadequacy. She discovers a personal faith in Christ and with His help learns to handle the daily brushes with life and death, professional bullying, and a first romance.
Whether it is comforting a newly bereaved wife, babysitting a friend’s hamster, struggling with a misbehaving cardboard cap or a violent drunk, Hilary’s compassion, keen observation and cheerful good humour keep breaking through. Readers will savour every vivid detail through to the awarding of the coveted Pelican nursing badge. This is a winning account of personal discovery by a born storyteller.
Seven remarkable real-life stories.
These are true stories of real people. Meet Bob, imprisoned for a heat of the moment crime, Catherine who struggled through long-term illness, Robin, a festival goer who overcame drug addiction and Hans Segers, the former Wimbledon goalkeeper accused of match-swinging.
Like them, so many of us sooner or later face situations where life seems to career into crisis and we don’t know what to do.
Love Changes Everything tells the stories of seven individuals in real need, whose lives are transformed when they encounter Jesus. If you identify with feeling “up against the wall”, or if you’re just intrigued to know how things worked out for someone else, this book is for you . . .