Author: Adrian Clark

Near where I live there is an area of woodland, that’s largely unspoilt, and neglected, at least until tree cutting back and thinning has to take place. It’s mostly deciduous with some mature members surrounded by growths of new saplings. Recently the local council upgraded some of the paths and made it more accessible to the locals like me. A real blessing!

Every morning early I try and have a two mile walk through the wood, engaging with God in prayer for the issues that are topical at the time. But also thanking Him for the wonders of His creation. This morning a very small bird, a wren I think, flew across my path and landed on a branch close by, looking at me suspiciously. And a butterfly, a Red Admiral, flitted amongst the wild flowers. And I thought again this morning, how can anyone believe that this happened by chance. That a series of chemical reactions could have conspired to produce such wonders. I don’t have enough faith to believe that, but I do have the faith, the certainty, the assurance that there is a master Creator behind it all. And then I thought about how this is a creation blighted by sin. Where God’s wonderful design has become corrupted by the enemy’s schemes. It must have broken His heart.

Just off the path there is a bed of nettles. They are particularly vigorous at this time of year, which is bad news if you unwittingly stumble into them. They are what I call the thugs of plant life. Unfriendly, arrogant, self-centred, decidedly unpleasant to be around. But located in the middle of this patch is a clump of bluebells. And what a contrast – they are beautiful to look at, with a vivid blue hue, delicate bells hanging in a fragile humility, gently swaying in the breeze, just getting on with their purpose in life.

In another place on my walk there are the remains of an old railway platform, crumbling away into obscurity, the remains of an industrial period in the West of Fife, when coal was an important part of the local economy. And growing on what’s left of the platform, in-between some young trees, there are some wild strawberries. I’ve no idea how they found their way there, probably through seeds carried there by birds or the wind, but a growing colony has been established. And like the bluebells, they are getting on with their purpose in life, producing fruit in its season, after which they will die down and wait for another spring to fire them up into fruitfulness once again. Both the bluebells and the strawberries, the wren and the butterfly, are secure in their role within God’s plan for them. They may have aggressive plants growing next to them or predators that want to eat them, but while they can, they do what they do best – being bluebells, or wild strawberries, wrens or butterflies.

One of my favourite passages of Scripture is Psalm 139. The first six verses are:

O Lord, you have examined my heart
 and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
 You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
 You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
 even before I say it, Lord.
You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!

Apart from the wonderful knowledge that wherever or whatever we are in life, God is with us and we cannot escape from His presence. And He knows our thoughts, our struggles, our moods, what we are going to say. In fact there is nothing about us that He doesn’t know about. He even has the hairs of our heads counted. We might feel that life has dealt us a poor hand. We might have made many mistakes, made wrong choices, wish we lived somewhere else, or had better neighbours. We might wish we had done better at school, or married someone different. But we are where we are and we can be secure in the knowledge that God is here with us. He is the God of the second chance. The third chance. The umpteenth chance. While we stay close to Him, we will know His presence. How do I know? Because He says so – read the verses again.

But it’s verse five that drives me to my knees. Every step I take, He’s right there going before me. And just in case I weary of the journey, He’s right there behind me, gently urging me on. The NIV translation says He hems me in. But here’s the thing, He places His hand on my head, bringing all the blessings I’m willing to accept. How do we miss that, when we feel miserable, or depressed? When we think we are unworthy, just rubbish, in a pointless existence? But that’s not how God sees us. 

The bluebells, the wild strawberries, the wren, the butterfly – they are all secure in their existence, doing what God has ordained for them. And in the process they bring blessings to those around them.

So as we reflect on this Psalm, we can be secure in the knowledge that our loving heavenly Father is right there beside us, helping and encouraging us. Our neighbours, like the nettles, may be anti-social and aggressive. But like the bluebells, He helps us to shine with His presence amongst the difficulties of life. We might be feeling down and depressed, but just pause a minute – is that His hand I can feel gently touching my head? It’s definitely there – His Word says it is. Watch out – there’s a blessing coming!

Our church buildings are shut and for some congregations it will be some time before they can return. The “new normal” will involve social distancing, hand gel, no toilets… But wait a minute! The Early Church didn’t have any church buildings but they turned their world upside down for Jesus. How did they do it?

This is the third video in my series “Finding God in a Pandemic” and in it we start with the Day of Pentecost and Peter’s amazing sermon in Acts 2, and then move onto the life of Stephen in Acts 6, and look at what happened next. Be careful though, there’s a challenge for us all.

Our mortality, and the risks we take in living, are linked together. A risk taker, for example one of these young men who go “tombstoning” off a rocky arch located offshore in the popular English beauty spot of Durdle Door, will, most likely, discover what “mortality” means after it is too late. But someone who minimises life’s risks, for example, by only crossing a main road at a pedestrian crossing, will have to wait a bit longer before they cross the great divide.

I have put together a short video entitled, “The Risk of Life”, and uploaded it to YouTube. here’s the link if you have time to watch it. Comments and responses welcome.

My good friend Bill Wyse occasional contributes a daily thought for his church in Whitley Bay. Here’s a recent piece.

“Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens I see that in every way you are very religious—Now what you worship as something unknown, I am going to proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-28) 

The Greeks were avid worshippers of non-gods in their gaudy temples. Paul cleverly uses the inscription to tell them about his God and His temple which is a spiritual one, not a man-made one. The Bible talks about living stones, that is temples not made with human hands. 

In this time when we are not meeting together in a physical building, but as living stones (His offspring) we worship a living God whom Paul affirms. “In whom we live and move and have our being.” That is who we are!  

Ruach

There’s a remarkable verse in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” I added verse 17 for the sake of completeness.

At a stroke, this verse confounds the liberal theologians who would attempt to undermine inconvenient truths and events in the Bible, and attempt to rationalise Biblical truths to fit their world view and their preferential interpretation of who God is, and what He has said. 

But the thing that has gripped me this morning is the reminder that God breathes. My Bible notes today took me to Ezekiel 37, where a valley full of very dry bones came together. Ezekiel prophesied to them and they started to come together, and flesh and skin formed over them. But they were still without life, that is, until God breathed.

There’s a rather dodgy, in my opinion, principle I have heard preachers use called the “Law of First Mention” for Biblical interpretation. But whatever its merits, or otherwise, we find the first reference in the Bible to God’s breath in Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” God’s breath brings life. It brings physical life to all of us. Through His wonderful creation and design, we have the ability to breath and take in the oxygen we need for life through our lungs. I’m always amazed how a baby very quickly, in a few moments, transitions from getting its oxygen from its mother through the placenta to taking a breath of its own. What a wonderful God we worship! What a glorious design.

I believe the enemy constantly tries to think up ways to frustrate the plans and designs of God. One of the features of the Coronavirus illness is that it attacks people’s lungs, challenging their breathing function. The enemy knows that if he can stop a person breathing, they will die. So I have no doubts at all as to where this virus originated from.

But back to the Scripture in 2 Timothy. This reference to breath isn’t physical. It is pointing out that everything written in the Scriptures has been influenced by God’s breath, by His Spirit. The Hebrew word for breath is ruach, a word also meaning Spirit or wind. Even the very pronunciation of the word, ruach, implies a breathing function. And you have to breathe out to say it – try saying ruach when you are breathing in! So, we can read the Bible with confidence, feeling God’s breath, feeling His Holy Spirit. As the pages rustle, moved by the ruach of God, the print leaps off the page to grab our attention, and minister to our spirits within us, bringing life to our very souls. The equivalent word in Greek is pneuma, a word from which we get many of our English words – think pneumonia, or pneumatics.

The enemy is not happy about the spiritual breath of God sustaining His people. The enemy does anything he can to disrupt the spiritual flow. If he can stop God’s children from reading their Bible, from meeting with other Christians, from praying or spending time meditating on Him in His presence, then he knows that our spirits will start to shrivel up within us, in the same way as our physical bodies would, if the flow of oxygen was cut off.

To me, an important doctrinal point raised by Jesus was in John 3:5-7, where He said, “‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.”  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’” Jesus said quite clearly that there is a physical birth and there is a spiritual birth. Sadly, many parts of the Christian Church play down the spiritual birth bit, neglecting or underplaying the fact that the ruach of God provides power that keeps us alive spiritually. And it’s not just a one-off occasion – in the same way that we have to keep breathing physically to keep our bodies alive, we have to keep breathing spiritually to keep our spirits alive. But does the analogy between feeding our physical bodies and feeding our spiritual bodies extend to over-indulgence? Taking our physical food, we can, in fact often do, overeat. And we become bloated with excess fat, heading into obesity and health complications. Physical food has two functions – keeping our bodies alive with all the right nutrients and providing energy to perform physical functions. There is a balance. Get the balance wrong and there are consequences, as we can see in some of our fellow citizens. According to the statistics, 1 in 4 of UK residents are obese, with a further 62% being overweight. And the UK has the second highest rate of obesity in the world. Sadly, such statistics are emerging in our fight against Coronavirus, as obesity appears to be a significant factor in many of the reported deaths.

But what about our spiritual food? Can we breathe in too much of God’s ruach? At first sight, I don’t think we can – after all, one day we will be in that wonderful place, breathing with God in Heaven. In the natural, here on earth, we have a cycle of breathing in and breathing out, to receive oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. In the same way, in the spiritual, we breathe in the Holy Spirit, but we must breathe it out again. If it remains within us it is just wasted and leaks away. We have to perform spiritual functions to bring God and His purposes to the lost in our families, in our communities, while His Spirit is richly present within us. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is a great place to start. 

There also seems to be a connection between our physical and spiritual foods. Get the balance right and the physical energy we have complements the spiritual energy to maximise the effectiveness we have in doing God’s work. And, amazingly, there is also a connection between depriving our bodies of physical food, undertaking a ‘fast’, to make our spiritual awareness even more effective. Conversely though, undertaking a spiritual ‘fast’ doesn’t have the same benefits.

So, in this time of lockdown, I would encourage us all to get our physical food diets in balance (not too many carbs and fatty foods) and get our spiritual food by reading the Word, praying, and keeping in touch with our Christian friends and family, all in the right balance. And feel that ruach of God flowing through our very souls bringing spiritual life and health that we can then share with those around us with renewed energy and effectiveness. 

There is an old hymn written in 1878 by a man called Edwin Hatch. Back in my early Anglican days we used to sing it to a tune called Trentham. It has stayed with me ever since. 

1 Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
fill me with life anew, 
that I may love the way You love, 
and do what You would do. 

2 Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
until my heart is pure, 
until my will is one with Yours, 
to do and to endure. 

3 Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
so shall I never die, 
but live with You the perfect life 
for all eternity.

The hymnist ably and effectively caught the message about the ruach of God. So must we.

As we plod our way through the pandemic lockdown, adjusting to a way of life that is uncomfortable and restrictive, there are many positives as well as the negatives. I have been digging more in Scripture, and here’s a few thoughts from my YouTube channel.

I was struck this morning, while my thoughts formed an amalgam of Scripture and the injustices of life, about the problems and deficiencies, of living in a virtual world. Because that is in fact what is happening at this time of viral mayhem. Our places of social interaction, our pubs, clubs, restaurants, and even our churches, are all closed down. Our movements are severely limited, and we have the bizarre situation where even contact between family members is restricted to a conversation through an open window, a letter box, or over the ‘phone. 

Psalm 123 starts with the verse, “I rejoiced with those who said to me,‘Let us go to the house of the Lord‘”. Though, spiritually, the door into God’s presence is always open to His children, in our physical realm, we also yearn for the time when the door into our spiritual meeting places will be equally accessible. Because it is there where another facet of God’s presence becomes available to His children. It is there where we can bring a word of encouragement to those in need and where we can find solace for our own needs. It is there where corporate worship, the preaching of the Word, Holy Spirit ministry and the fellowship of the saints all combine into a wonderful sense of God’s presence, lifting our souls and spirits out of the valleys, up into the light of His presence, rapturing us into heavenly realms.

We are fortunate that contact can be maintained by the non-proximal use of technology, with modern digital “Apps” such as “WhatsApp” and “Zoom”, “FaceTime” and “Skype”, all enabling us to see and talk with our friends and family. But it is a poor second best. I know three dear ladies who have lost loved ones at this time and their pain and grief is compounded by the restrictions on travel and physical contact with their loved ones. Just watching their pain is almost too hard to bear, and at a time like this all you want to do is share with them a Divine hug, because our Father in Heaven is grieving too.

Thankfully, these restrictive days are numbered. There will be a time when we can meet again in a physical setting. When we can have a party with our friends and family, sharing joy and stories, unlimited and set free from governmental decree. And I, like many fellow believers, are praying that this will be sooner rather than later. But until then we need to plug into Heaven, into our Heavenly Father’s resources, His grace, His love, and continue to persevere with any means we can access, while the refining fires of social distancing drive us into our Father’s arms.

Habakkuk asked God one day what He was going to do about the wickedness and sin so rampant in the Jewish society of his day (warning – be careful what you pray for – God might give you an answer you didn’t want or expect!). And he was totally staggered by God’s response, that the cruel Babylonians would be allowed to bring about change. I don’t know if God is permitting something similar to happen in global societies today – only history will tell. But l am hearing and reading about stories of God’s grace extending into many areas where previously He and His presence were shunned. So we give Him glory for that. God will always bring about the best in adversity – Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose“.

Right at the end of the book of Habakkuk are these words: 

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 tread on the heights.

No virus can take away our joy, our access to God’s resources. Habakkuk’s Godly perspective must be ours as well.

It would be easy to become despondent or even depressed as the current, modern-day, plague continues to take its course. Recriminations bounce around the media and governmental circles, and the world has suddenly become populated by experts, all of whom seem to know better than those tasked with steering our society through this crisis.

And it seems that some people really believe that by some miracle of science, electromagnetic radiation from radio masts can transmute into a virus. Medieval alchemistic myths are still alive and well in 21st Century Britain!

Statistics are being quoted and misquoted, and arguments abound about the number of deaths, with, apparently, little thought for the personal tragedies in grieving families. The phrase, popularised by Mark Twain in the 19th century, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” comes to mind. It was probably as true then as it is today!

My Bible notes took me this morning to John 17, where Jesus prayed that His disciples would be protected from the “world”. No matter how we feel, though, He didn’t pray that we would be taken out of the world; rather that the world would be taken out of us (sanctification). We are citizens of a new world, where there is no sadness, sickness, plague, or death, though for a time we are having to remain in the old world. So we look on as the citizens of this world thrash around, riven by fear, searching for reasons, looking for scapegoats. But the reason we stay and live in this world is to share the hope that we have inside us, providing stability as people’s foundations are shaken. Jesus in John 17:21b says, “May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me“. That’s what it’s all about, folks. The closer we are to God, the more the world will see that we are of a different spirit, one that is wired into Heaven. So let’s keep praying and using every item in our technological tool box to reach out to those around us, bringing words of life. How about introducing our friends, neighbours and family to Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Or Psalm 23:4. and there are many more relevant Scriptures.

I don’t know, how much longer this house arrest will continue. But I do know that God is with us, and will still be with us long after this plague has passed. Keep praying!

All my life I have been used to the date system of “BC” and “AD” when looking at dates, particularly as I read and research the Bible. The expressions “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (The year of our Lord) have been second nature to me. So I was perplexed this morning when I found a Wikipedia article referencing “BCE” and “CE”. Apparently, this means “Before Common Era” and “Common Era”. Although there is no numerical difference between the two naming systems – they both refer to the Gregorian Calendar – the very fact that something so deeply entrenched in my psyche has been abandoned by the society in which we live, came as a surprise, even a bit of a shock. And our schools here in the UK have been teaching this system since 2002 so I’m told. I cannot see any reason why this change should have been applied, other than yet one more example of the creeping secularisation that is being imposed on Western societies.

Compared to the plethora of anti-Christian laws and attitudes in society, it is just a small thing. I am much more bothered by topical issues such as abortion and gender confusion, the persecution of Christians in this country and beyond, the repression of Biblical Christian views and values which we value so highly. But it highlighted to me again the importance of discerning the times, and being on my guard to avoid the dilution of the Christian values I hold so dear.

The Bible provides much advice about the times in which we live. Ecclesiastes 3 famously starts with, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens“. But an important point emerges from the thoughts of Solomon in verse 11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.” Eternity. Independent of any time system. No Gregorian calendar or secularist philosophies where we are heading. Perhaps the perspective we need for this life comes from Psalm 90:14, “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

My daily readings took me to John 15 this morning, and as we are in the middle of this Corona Virus pandemic, the words of verse7,  “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”, jumped out of the page at me. Surely, went my initial thought, through my, and your, relationship with Jesus, we only have to ask, and this pandemic will disappear at a stroke. But we can’t take this verse out of context. Jesus was teaching His disciples about how important it is to remain connected to Him, as a branch is connected to a vine. And Jesus’ illustration clearly shows that unless a branch has a connection to the life-giving vine, it will wither and die. Unless we stay connected to Him we too will wither and die in our spiritual lives. And the result of staying connected to Him, is that we will produce “much fruit”. 

What is fruit? I always add a chopped up apple to my morning bowl of porridge (yes – I hear the howl of protests from my truly Scottish friends – I add granulated sweetener as well – the ultimate sin!). A few days ago I found that an apple that looked good on the outside; in fact it was rotten inside, full of a brown gunge that showed what will eventually happen to an apple when it is disconnected from the tree that bore it. And so it is with us – we can disconnect from the vine that is Jesus, and keep going for a while before the rottenness in our souls is discovered.

But Jesus wants us to bear healthy fruit continually. Fruit is something that is good to eat. It contains nourishment. And seeds that can be replanted. So we must use the fruit we produce in our lives to nourish ourselves and others and plant the seeds of the Gospel whenever we get the opportunity. The fruit we bear is eternal fruit, not the fruit we find in the world; worldly fruit may look good on the outside but holds emptiness and corruption within.

So what about verse 7? Through it Jesus is saying to me that there is a higher, Heavenly, purpose at work here. As I remain close to Him, and obey His Word, any request that I have will align with His will and purposes for these times. And that is where faith and trust kick in. God is still on His throne and in due course we will perhaps find out why He allowed this virus to have such a devastating impact on our increasingly small world. In the meantime, all I have to do is remain close to Jesus, and trust Him. And pray for those around me who are fearful, sick, and who need a Saviour.