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
Charity Number 1095904.
Have you ever wondered what’s “good” about “Good” Friday? I have, but a sermon preached by an African pastor helped me to understand.
He went through all the horrendous events of our Lord Jesus being betrayed, unfairly tried, unjustly condemned to death, whipped till the blood ran down his back, hailed as “king” with a crown of sharp thorns, nailed to a cross - one of the most painful ways to die. But at the end of each horror, the pastor declared: “It’s Friday - but Sunday’s coming.” Gradually the truth dawned. “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!”
And that’s why Friday is good. Our good God sent his beloved son to suffer where we should suffer, right to the point of death, “... even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Hallelujah! “Sunday’s coming!” Our Lord Jesus has risen, the victor over evil. The evil of Good Friday has been turned to good by our great God.
Sheila Armstrong and the editors.
by Gordon Temple
Last Easter, on Maundy Thursday - the day before Good Friday - I went to a local village church for a communion service. Simple though the service was, it connected for me. Here we were, offered and taking bread and wine just as Jesus had offered bread and wine and the disciples had taken it at the “last supper” - on the eve of the first Good Friday.
Had I been there at the time, would I have been among the disciples? I could never have been worthy to be counted among this select band. Yet here I was at the same moment in time - though displaced by many centuries - doing just as they had. Like me, they were just ordinary men. Did they really know what they were doing as they ate and drank? Did they realise the consequences, and the cost?
It occurred to me that if I have been given the incredible privilege of sharing in the last supper with those disciples I must also be prepared to share in the responsibility they were just beginning to shoulder. They were selected not just for company at a meal table but to tackle the job of representing Christ in the world after his death, resurrection and ascension. Shortly they were to be commissioned to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15), something that would consume them for the rest of their days, right to the point of death.
How often we take communion looking only backwards - thankful for our salvation secured at the cross and the grace that accepts us just as we are, bringing us into the security of the kingdom of God. Seldom do we remember that Jesus invited his disciples to take up a cross daily, and that he challenged them - and us - to release the security of family and possessions.
That same night in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus struggled to accept the “cup” of what lay ahead of him: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). Though we freely take the wine under Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me” maybe we too might struggle to take a cup that contains more than sweetness.
Paul warns us about drinking without recognising the blood of Christ. If we are to declare like Peter, “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew16:16) surely we cannot reserve any part of our life as our own private domain, reserved from the demand to worship God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. As I have in past days said myself, I have recently heard of someone who has declared that it’s just too much to ask.
But is it? The maxim “no gain without pain” trips easily from our lips when thinking of a sporting challenge like running a marathon, for example. Surely if we accept this to be true in such a mundane matter, then why should we expect to get the “priceless pearl” without releasing the comparatively pathetic examples we hold onto so tightly. And recognising the unparalleled gift of God’s grace, how dare we reserve it for our private collection.
The answer surely lies in the cross. With the prospect of securing abundant life for us, Jesus accepts the cup and endures death itself. But the cross is on the path to the resurrection, the victory over death and the beginning of our eternal future. Though Good Friday is the day when we remember the death of Jesus, it’s not about death, it’s about life. And when we take bread and wine at communion we are to have an eye on the future: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
What is an adequate response to someone who gives their all for me? Only to give my all.
Communion links us back to that momentous and agonising day - the eve of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. It also bonds us with those pioneer disciples who “sold out” for God, took on the task to live and preach the gospel and, as a direct result, turned the world upside down.
by Norman Hillyer
A few days after her husband died, Catherine saw him in a vision. Peter was pruning roses in a lovely garden. That, she remembered, had been his favourite relaxation during his life on earth.
It was explained to her that his sudden death (at 46) had been as much a shock to him as to the rest of the family. Now he was being allowed quietly to convalesce. Let me explain.
“We shall not all sleep,” St Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:51). He is using a familiar Bible metaphor for death. We read that Old Testament worthies “sleep with their fathers”. The daughter of Jairus is “not dead, but asleep”. When Mary and Martha’s brother, Lazarus, has died, Jesus tells the disciples, “I go to awaken him.” Even when Stephen was martyred under a murderous hail of stones, we are told that he fell asleep.
It is a comforting metaphor. The process of dying may be painful and drawn out. But the moment of death for the Christian believer is not something to be feared. It is a gentle falling asleep.
It was so with Jesus. True, he suffered unimaginable agonies nailed to the cross - physically certainly, but supremely in the spiritual realm, as he took upon himself all our sin.
But what of the actual moment of death? It is then that he calmly prays, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”. And that was every Jew’s nightly prayer as he lay down to sleep.
Yet to view death as sleep does have problems. Are we to think of Christians who have died as still fast asleep - millions of them for hundreds of years? What are we to make of verses that speak of death as “going to be with Christ”? How are we to understand what Jesus meant by his promise to the penitent thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”? And what of the undoubted fact that many Christians as they die report seeing something beautiful on the other side, and familiar faces there to welcome them?
The trouble is that we assume that one who is asleep is unconscious, unaware of what is going on. But sleep does have another aspect. Scientists still do not know what sleep is. But we know its purpose: to give rest and refreshing, to restore tired cells after the wear and tear of the day. So when the Bible speaks of death as sleep, we are to view sleep, not as unconsciousness, but as the state in which renewal takes place.
Other Bible word-pictures teach the same lesson. The penitent thief on his cross was promised Paradise. The term comes from an old Persian word meaning a walled garden. “Today,” says Jesus, “you will be with me in Paradise”, in a beautiful walled garden, with all outside noise shut off; a place of restfulness, of quiet renewal.
In Jesus’ story of the beggar at the rich man’s gate, Lazarus dies and finds himself “in Abraham’s bosom”, reclining at rest, in a place of security, contentment and comfort.
The familiar “many mansions” in the Father’s house (John 14:2) are resting places, as on a journey. And Jesus adds: “I go to prepare a place for you” - somewhere personal, just suited to your own immediate needs - a resting-place.
Different pictures - but they all teach the same reassuring lesson. In whatever form our own death may come, gentle or harsh, early or late, the believer’s passage into the next life is prepared by the Lord himself, who by his death has destroyed death (2 Timothy 1:10). And that means that every believer shares in the triumph of Easter.
[Ildi, a librarian from Hungary, has recently joined the library team at Torch House, Market Harborough. She tells her story.]
I grew up in a family where knowledge and reason were very important. My parents were intellectuals, very sensible and also very sensitive people, who were quite sceptical about anything that was outside the material world. It was even harder for them to accept the idea of a loving God when my brother died at the age of 15 after being in hospital for 12 years. They could never get over it.
As I had to face death and all sorts of tragedies quite early in life - including the breakdown of my parents’ marriage when I was 10 - I kept thinking about why things happen as they do, and what is the meaning of life.
I was 15 years old when people from a small church came to my town to evangelise, and that was the first time I heard the gospel. I became very enthusiastic about Jesus as He had answers for most of my questions. But it was hard to tell my parents about my experience. In the end I did, and of course they were not very happy about it. Most of the time when I started a conversation about God, my father’s answer was, “My daughter, just think. Use your brain, that’s what it’s for. If there is a God, then why is it that ...” He would ask me questions which I had no answers for, and in the end I started to give it all up. I visited that small church once, but found it a bit strange, so I felt maybe my parents were right, and Christianity was not for me after all. So I tried to get it all out of my mind, but I still had many questions I wanted to find answers for.
At university I met lovely Christian people, who invited me to their church, but for quite a long time I refused to go. I thought I had decided about that for good. But deep down I felt that Christianity was true, and I should give my life to the Lord. Those friends were very patient with me and helped me a great deal to find my way back to the Lord. I still remember those evenings of never-ending discussions about God and Jesus.
Then when I was 24 my father died unexpectedly which was a great shock to me, but what really broke me was that soon after that my mum was diagnosed with cancer. She lived for two more years. I spent as much time as I possibly could with her, and losing her was a great tragedy in my life; we were so close and went through a lot together. But through this time God strengthened me in a wonderful way, and I learnt a lot about Him, His power and love. I know that I simply wouldn’t have been able to go through all that without Him.
I still have those precious friends - and even more now; the Lord has really blessed my life. Although I don’t have a family, they make me feel that I do belong to one, and it’s the greatest blessing anyone can have, to feel part of God’s great family and to know He has a plan for our lives.
New Groups: Prayer and Planning groups have started in Bedford, Coventry, Nottingham, Southwark, Market Harborough and Scarborough, and there is interest in beginning groups in Colchester, Rochdale, Kendal and Wellington.
Malawi: Serious flooding in two of the Southern districts of Malawi have caused many blind people, among others, to lose their houses and crops. Aid agencies are trying to help with tents, and with marquees for schools that have lost their buildings.
Hausa braille: A consignment of Hausa braille New Testaments is on its way to Nigeria from Torch’s production unit in Malawi. They will be obtainable from the Bible society of Nigeria, in Apapa, Lagos.
Staff retreat: Recently we enjoyed a retreat day. This is held each year to renew our relationship with God. This time the devotional talks were on Song of Songs.
Day of Prayer: A day of prayer will be held at Torch House, Market Harborough on Tuesday 1st May.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
taken from UCB Word for Today
[A story which, just a little, illustrates Jesus’ willingness to be “marred” in order to come where we were.]
“... He made himself nothing ...” (Philippians 2:7)
Dr Maxwell Maltz tells of a man who was severely burned attempting to rescue his parents from a fire. He did not succeed and they died. Depressed and disfigured, he went into seclusion refusing to let anyone see him, not even his wife.
Desperately looking for help his wife went to Maltz, a prominent plastic surgeon. Even though he told her he could probably restore her husband’s face, the man stubbornly refused treatment. So when the woman came back to see Maltz he was surprised.
But this time her question blew him away. She asked, “Can you disfigure my face, so that I can be like my husband and share his pain? That way maybe he will let me back into his life again!” That is how much she loved him!
Maltz was so moved, he prevailed on the woman’s husband to accept his help and thankfully the story has a happy ending.
The Bible says before Jesus left heaven He “was like God in everything ... But gave up His place ... and made Himself nothing. He was born to be a man and became like a servant.” Our limited human minds cannot begin to comprehend the world Jesus left. The homes of the rich and famous are like run-down shacks by comparison, and our finest clothes like dirty rags! The Bible says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us ...” (John 1:14 NRSV). Just think: the God of the universe willingly left the splendour of heaven, was born into poverty and died on a cruel cross for wayward humanity.
Why? Because that is how much He loves us!
[Dr Bitrus Gani was the first blind child in Nigeria to be enrolled in primary school at the school for blind children in Gindiri in 1955 where Rosina Sharp was the principal. He has been to Torch on a number of occasions and Torch representatives have visited Hope for the Blind in Zaria and enjoyed fellowship with Bitrus and his son Andrew.]
Although blind from childhood, Dr Bitrus Gani studied physiotherapy and worked as a civil servant for 30 years before he retired. Along with three of his friends in 1976, he started Tape Recording Services for the Blind, which was the precursor of the modern day organisation, Hope for the Blind in Zaria, Nigeira.
It is a Christian-based ministry and their services to those who are visually impaired include, among others, braille transcription and library, counselling, books on cassette, orientation and mobility training.
The centre also has a craft department where those who are blind are taught the skills of craftwork. This is preceded with rehabilitation, and tuition in mobility, together with the provision of white canes.
Jummai, a blind student at St Barth’s Senior Secondary School in Wusasa, Zaria said: “When I went blind I thought the world had ended. Then when I met Uncle Bitrus Gani and Hope for the Blind, I knew I could go back to school. I will be completing my Secondary School in two years time after staying back at home for seven years. I thank God for Hope for the Blind. I want to become a lawyer.”
Over the last few years, they have been quietly building an addition to the property in the Hope House. The new structure will expand their residential facility for trainees by nine rooms and a conference hall. Even before completion, the facility had affected the lives of people positively. Many courses, meetings and conferences have been hosted in the meeting rooms over the years; the benefits of such activities were being reported from different sources.
Dr Biturs Gani’s son, Andrew, took over as executive director in 2001 and has enhanced and forwarded the work greatly over recent years. Many blind people have received help both practically and spiritually.
by Michael Stafford
Chapter three is a Psalm, written by Habakkuk, who may have been a member of the Temple Choir. The word “shigionoth” is the plural form of “shiggaion” which indicates a hymn of praise sung excitedly and triumphantly.
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth. Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. (verses 1-2).
Habakkuk glories in God’s greatness. He is oozing with confidence following a revival of personal faith, replacing doubt and despair. It has been said, “Doubt is a darkroom where the Devil develops negatives”. Are we troubled with doubt? We need a revival of faith so that we no longer dwell on the negative things in life, but have confidence in the goodness and power of God.
This psalm was designed for public worship, to be used during the long exile in Babylon during which many doubted God. Verse 2 is a look back at God’s dealings with Israel in the past, and a look forward, asking God to repeat His great acts. The psalm then divides into these two aspects:
God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendour was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden. Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps. He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumpled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal. I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish.
Were you angry with the rivers, O Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode with your horses and your victorious chariots? You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high.
Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations. You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters.
These verses present vivid pictures of God’s actions from the crossing of the Red Sea (v8) to the Midianites slaying each other in Judges 7:22. There is the pillar of cloud and light in verse 3 ... the lightning and earthquake at Sinai in verses 4 and 6 ... the plagues following the worship of the golden calf, after eating quail, after refusing to enter the land and after grumbling about Moses’ treatment of rebels ... the sun and moon standing still in Joshua 10:13 ... and Israel’s enemies smitten in verses 12 and 13. But note that these events are not stated in chronological order.
I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls.
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
Habakkuk is given a new joy as fear and faith are interwoven: terror because of the Babylonians, but faith that God would judge them.
The invaders would destroy the small farms which were the economic backbone of Israel, yet Habakkuk would rejoice - literally “jump for joy in the Lord, and spin around for delight in God”. This is the exuberance of faith which is also to be seen in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas were in a hopeless situation in prison, yet were singing psalms.
The questions about suffering have not been answered. Habakkuk’s joy is not in knowledge, but in faith.
The last verse speaks of sure-footedness in the life of faith. A deer in this context is a small animal which jumps from rock to rock on the mountain tops. In the Christian life we can have confidence if we trust God even when we don’t understand what He is doing.
Tho’ my income is poor and my bank balance is low; tho’ my job has gone and employment prospects are few; tho’ my health is failing and the prognosis is not good; tho’ my family have fallen apart and reconciliation seems impossible; tho’ my friends don’t understand me and don’t want to share my faith; tho’ my church is weak and doesn’t seem to want to grow; tho’ many things are going wrong and so few things are going right
Yet I won’t pull the plug on You, Lord. I won’t resent You and become bitter or walk away from You in despair.
Yet I will still rejoice in You, I will still find strength in trusting You. For you are always there and you will never fail.
Chapter One: A double question - faith sighing
Chapter Two: A double promise - faith seeing
Chapter Three: A double outcome - faith singing