'Belonging'

Where do you feel that you belong? Its not an easy question to answer.  Belonging is a little like identity, it is something you feel but it is not easy to put into words.  I feel like I belong in the Highlands, with my family, with my team at work and with certain friends.  Why do I belong in some places and not others?  What does it mean to belong?  Here are a few elements I think are part of belonging.

A Shared Journey.  When we think of communities and groups where we belong there is some sense of shared journey or history.  When Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 the Children of Israel had been on a long and very hard journey.  They had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years and then another 500 years wandering in the wilderness and conquering their homeland.  Finally they have a place to call home, a king, a capital city and a permanent temple.  It must have been an incredible feeling to see the glory of God filling the beautiful and glorious temple.  Finally there was a sense of belonging.  

Very often we have a sense of belonging because we have a sense of shared journey and frequently shared suffering.  That sense of shared suffering and shared vulnerability often leads to greater connection and a sense of belonging.  Many of us have experienced this in our families.  We have been through huge adversity together and it has brought us closer.  

Safety and Security.  It is hard to feel that we belong if we don't feel safe.  When I come home to my family I feel a sense of safety and protection.  I know that they want my best so if I've had a bad day I know that home will be a safe place.  

In the Bible the story of Ruth is a story of two women seeking safety in a patriarchal society.  Ruth and Naomi have no power, no protector, no safety net and little hope.  They are at the mercy of their covenant community which Naomi had walked away from when she went to Moab.  But when they enter Bethlehem, they find safety and security under the Levitical Law and their 'Kinsman Redeemer', Boaz.  Ruth isn't just given food but is enabled under Biblical law to glean in the fields so she has the dignity of work.

It is hard to think of belonging without a sense of safety and security.  We have a sense of belonging when people have our back, are willing to defend us and welcome us in when we need help.  The Biblical imperative is that this needs to be offered to the widow, the orphan and the stranger.

Trust - As it think about the places where I belong there is a sense of trust both in others and with others in me.  When I think of family, I trust my family and they trust me.  I've spent most of my career working with families where that has broken down and often led to people being part of their families but not really feeling like they belong.  

When we think of Joseph in the Old Testament he was rejected by his brothers but ultimately accepted by the people of Egypt.  They trusted him with great power and responsibility after his brothers had tried to kill but eventually sold him in to slavery.  The reconciliation that took place is one of the most beautiful stories of redemption and forgiveness in the Bible and points forward to an even greater leader and mediator to come in the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Trust has to be the foundation for any community of belonging.  Great teams are built on trust, great organisations are built on trust and any thriving family is a place of trust and acceptance.  

Love - Can you belong in a place where you are not loved?  I guess it depends how we define love.  We might feel that we belong in a football club or at the squash club but I think that is more about enjoyment and shared interest rather than love.  I think to truly belong somewhere we need to feel loved and accepted.  In the parable of the Prodigal Son the son comes back to the father to plead for mercy but instead is showered with unconditional love.  He is received, accepted and then celebrated.  His elder brother, who has never left home, has no sense of belonging because he works for his father, not out of love, but out of duty.  The prodigal son was loved therefore he has a sense of belonging.  

We so often think that the way to help families belong is through 'support'.  This is undoubtedly part of the solution but belonging starts with love and compassion.  This is why the professional model of social care has had such a limited impact on families over the last 30-40 years. Families are not just a collection of their problems.  People in crisis need connection, compassion and love. This takes time, commitment and perseverance.  

Hospitality, Generosity and Celebration - I think belonging often comes from shared hospitality and generosity.  When we think back to the Old Testament and all the festivals ordained by God, they created a sense of belonging amongst the Israelites. The Passover reminded them of God's redeeming love, the Festival of Tabernacles or Shelters reminded them of their wilderness journey and God's protective care, and then the Day of Atonement reminded them of how God could forgive their sins through the shedding of blood.  These festivals were celebrated regularly and corporately to remind the Israelites of certain events and truths.  It must have been so exciting for Israelite children to go to a festival every year and make temporary shelters.  That is the kind if Sunday School every kid dreams of!

Most communities that inspire belonging have shared festivals, hospitality or meals.  Many of us have great memories of Sunday lunches with our families, Christmas meals and, for those of us in Scotland, steak pie on New Years Day.  These moments of shared hospitality, generosity and celebration create a sense of belonging.

Shared Values - Reflecting on belonging, I think there has to be some shared values for us to feel like we belong.  Many communities and families never work these out explicitly but every group has written or unwritten values.  

Organisations with clear core values, lived out consistently by a committed leadership team, are nearly always organisations that create a healthy culture where trust is paramount and power and politics are reduced to a minimum.  We see this in Christs ministry as he gathers a rag tag group of disciples and teaches what it means to lead.  His radical version of leadership involved service and sacrifice not power and politics.  It was subversive, shocking and revolutionary.  Many years ago I heard a preacher in Glasgow talking about his fragility.  He said 'never trust a leader without a limp'.  Great leadership is when we have an acute awareness of our own fragility and we love to see others grow and develop. Most great leaders are values driven and imbed this in their sphere of influence.

For the last 2000 years Christians have been showing love and compassion to the poor and marginalised.  Sometimes we have been very focussed on peoples physical needs and have neglected the more fundamental spiritual and emotional needs that people have.  But there are many great examples of Christians who have provided a sense of hope and belonging as they have reached out in love to those who are in crisis.

We can think of Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) who rescued hundreds of little boys and girls from ritualised sexual exploitation in Hindu temples in the early part of the 20th century.   The practice of devadasis was unthinkable to the middle class sensibilities of Victorian Britain, but Amy Carmichael was tireless it giving children who ran away a safe refuge and campaigning against the evils of the practice.  It took 46 years of campaigning before the Madras Government made the practice illegal in 1947.  Carmichael received the Kaiser-i-Hind medal for her service to the people of India.  Amy Carmichael not only rescued children, she educated them, she loved them and she advocated for them.  They went from being treated like objects so having a sense of belonging and love because one women, compelled by the love of Christ, did something about their injustice.

Another example is Titus Salt (1803-1876) who was a mill owner in Bradford.  In 1853 Salt opened the Victoria Mill beside the river Aire.  He transformed the working conditions of the 3,500 workers with large windows and reduced noise.  He created a workers village beside the mill called Saltaire which housed 4,500 people in 850 houses.  He provided 45 almhouses for the elderly, a hospital, a library and an Institute for concerts and public lectures and a gym.  There was a large dining hall providing a good balanced meal for 2pence.  A 14 acre park was added in 1871.  The only thing missing was a pub.  Salt believed that at the root of most vice was lust and drunkenness and Saltaire was a dry village. Right in the centre of the village was a large Congregational Church with capacity for a Sunday School of 800 children. Salt, along with many Christian philanthropists, not only cared for his workers health, but also cared for their souls and gave his workforce a real sense of dignity and belonging.  

Christians have a rich history of compassion to the poor.  The challenges of the 2st century are different from the past.  We face an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in our society and people are desperate to belong.  The church has a great opportunity to rise to this challenge and reach out with love and compassion to a broken and sinful world with love of Christ.  As Dr Guthrie once said: 'Religion does not consist in doctrinal or prophetical speculations; nor lie like a corpse entombed in old dusty confessions.  She lives in action, and walks abroad among mankind - calling us to leave our books to shut our Bibles, to rise from our knees and go forth with hearts full of love and hands full of charities.'

'Uncle Willie'

We were greatly saddened to hear of the passing of our uncle Willie Murray last Monday (1st November 2021) in Raigmore hospital where he had been for several weeks. Willie was born on 3rd January 1936 to Alexander and Johan Murray, and was the last surviving and youngest of three brothers, Alexander and my father John. Willie never married but was a much loved uncle to Alex's boys Sandy, Iain and Craig and to me and my late sisters. Willie spent almost his whole life on the family croft in Lonemore, Dornoch, only moving in the last two years to Golspie. He struggled with heart problems, diabetes and became increasingly frail. I saw him in hospital a few weeks ago and while there was some confusion, he had his usual concern for my boys and a desire for any visitors to read the Scriptures and pray.

We all have lots of abiding memories of Lonemore when we visited on holiday. It was quite a challenge for a family of five squeezing in to a two bedroomed croft house, sleeping on antique beds, using, for many years, an outside toilet, and playing in the wrecks of rusty cars and disused tractors. The croft house was full of family heirlooms, rare books and memories stretching back to the late 19th century. Huge piles of cassettes were stacked precariously everywhere and when you were sent to get the Bibles for worship there was often a 'Jenga type' crashing of cassettes. Willie had a low carbon footprint well before it became trendy. He cycled everywhere, burnt almost everything and used very little electricity. Shirts were soaked in the bath and dried on the garden fence. If Willie had an iron, it certainly never connected with a shirt. He had almost no sense of self and was not interested in image.

Willie wasn't keen on passing on any knowledge of farming with 'the boys', but loved discussing animal husbandry with my sister Anna (an agricultural graduate) and my cousin Craig's wife Ishbel who came from farming stock. The exceptions were feeding pet lambs, working in a 'support role' when the sheep went off to market and any rounding up of either sheep or cattle for marking or jagging by the vet.

One of my abiding memories of Lonemore is driving a wrecked Datsun Cherry along the beach with Willie on the bonnet looking for a lost sheep. He would bang on the roof, jump off, run into the field and then hop back on to resume the search. Space was tight but boiled beef, the best potatoes (literally just lifted) and the biggest array of pineapple cakes and empire biscuits from the bakery in Dornoch always made for great meal times. Mealtimes were punctuated with full family worship, and listening to Willie's prayers was, looking back, a great privilege. Latterly when I would visit with just Dad and I, presenting a Psalm with two completely tone deaf brothers was amongst one of my greatest achievements. Kilmarnock would often morph into Colshill and take a detour through the choppy waters of St Kilda!

Willie was an elder in Dornoch Free Church for several decades. His minister for many years, Rev John Macpherson, recently emailed me about Willie and said this: 'I greatly valued Willie as a friend, a brother in Christ and a fellow elder. Though he was a very shy man, I greatly admired the way he fulfilled the pastoral responsibilities of being an elder. I'm sure the number of visits he paid to the sick, the bereaved and those in any kind of trouble must have run into several hundreds. He carried with him "the savour of Christ", so that even those who didn't share his Christian faith greatly appreciated his compassionate concern.'  Willie became associated with the Free Church (Continuing) just shortly after the division of 2000. He greatly appreciated the ministry of Rev Alan Murray who he greatly missed after his death. Willie also appreciated the ministry of Rev Thomas Buchanan who has been a faithful pastor to Willie in his illness and a great help in many practical ways. Willie was greatly helped by his neighbours in Lonemore, Mable Lobban and Katherine De Jonckheere who faithfully transported him to church and looked after him in all sorts of ways. Thank you, your kindness has not gone on unnoticed.

Willie knew what was important in life. He was God fearing, Christ centred and pleaded for the power of the Holy Spirit in his own life and on the church. His great prayer was for the church to resist the gimmicks and shallowness of modern evangelicalism and for the power of the Holy Spirit to fall on the church in reforming an reviving power. Willie loved and respected the Lords Day and was grieved as the modern church abandoned it for pragmatism and acceptability. He surrounded himself with the Reformers, the Covenanters and the Puritans and was a veracious reader. Willie must have been one of the last men in Scotland to still listen to tapes of which he had 100's and never failed to find a great sermon if it came up in conversation. Every niece and nephew received the tape series of 'Al Martin on the Fear of God' for their 21st birthday present. His knowledge of Christian news and events was encyclopaedic due to the fact that he received every reformed periodical in circulation. These magazines would be recycled as he visited the elderly in the care homes around Sutherland for most of his life.

Willie was content, humble, slightly shy but was known for his godliness and a deep and reverential fear of God. He never really entered the modern world and was very at home in a simpler, pre internet world where books remained central. Willie will be remembered as a faithful man of God, who held his convictions humbly. His quietness and meekness led to him being taken advantage of by certain people who claimed to be friends. They will have to give an account to a higher court with a judge who sees and knows all things. For his immediate family he will always remain 'uncle Willie', a gentleman, a faithful Christian and much missed uncle.

The funeral will take place in Dornoch Free Church on Thursday 11th November at 12 noon followed by the burial at Dornoch East Cemetery.

Book Review 'All Things are Ready'

‘If we fail to appreciate what the free offer of the gospel is, and if we fail to present this free offer with freedom and spontaneity, with passion and urgency, then we are not only doing dishonour to Christ and his glory, but we are also choking those who are the candidates of saving faith. It is only in reference to the full and free overture of Christ in the gospel that a true conception of faith in Christ can be entertained.’ Prof John Murray (1898 – 1975).

What is the gospel? Who is the gospel for? How should the gospel be preached? What kind of people should implore men and women to come to Christ? These and many other questions are covered in Donald John Maclean’s first book ‘All Things are Ready’. Uniquely qualified, having completed a PhD in James Durham (1622-1658), Donald John takes us an a ‘tour de force’ of Biblical teaching and reformed theology. Warmly and succinctly, Maclean makes a compelling case that the ‘free offer of the gospel’ flows from the mainstream of biblical theology and reformed history.

Church history is cyclical and in almost every generation there is a move towards legalism and ‘Hyper-Calvinism’. In the 18th century Thomas Boston and the Erskines fought against it during the ‘Marrow Controversy’. Spurgeon fought against the Hyper-Calvinists in England in the 19th century and there have been skirmishes in the 20th century as churches have sought to reconcile the apparent Biblical paradox of divine command and human responsibility in the call of the gospel.

In this book Donald John Maclean beautifully takes us to the heart of the gospel. He reminds us of all the different ways the gospel is offered in the Bible: an entreaty, a sale, a command, a promise, a warning, standing and knocking and the gospel as an entreaty. The gospel call is much more that a sharing of information, it is a pleading, an entreaty a call. As Samuel Rutherford says, ‘It is ordinary for man to beg from God, for we are but His beggars; but it is a miracle to see God beg at man. Yet here is the Potter begging from the clay; the Saviour seeking from sinners.’

But to whom is the gospel offered? Is it only to the spiritually burdened, to the thirsty, the repentant, or is the gospel offer open to all? How do we reconcile limited atonement and passages such as Isaiah 45 v 22, Acts 17 v 30 and Luke 2 v 10? Well, the answer is we do not. As Maclean says: ‘Our limitations mean the one will of God may appear manifold from our perspective.’ We preach Christ to all without distinction while believing that God is ultimately calling a people to Himself. As Calvin says: ‘He invites the whole world to the hope of salvation.’

Many have wrestled with the will of God and the doctrine of election but Maclean helpfully takes us on a Biblical study of God’s revealed will in the Old and New Testament and particularly in the Gospels and the Epistles. He leaves no stone unturned in seeking to prove from Scripture that we have a God and Saviour who wants us to accept ‘so great a salvation’. As Thomas Boston says ‘Christ is willing to come into every heart. Why else does he demand open doors, but because he is willing to enter?’

Prof John Murray

The book ends with a helpful chapter on objections to the free offer such as, ‘If I am dead in sin why invite me to believe?’ ‘If God has chosen me to believe why invite me to believe?’ These are helpfully and pastorally answered with biblical answers and the best of James Durham and Prof John Murray.

‘All Things are Ready’ is a beautiful reminder to us of the glorious overtures of a loving God towards hell deserving sinners. Maclean reminds us that the Puritans and the Reformers were not cold, stoic academics, but warm-hearted preachers and pastors who pleaded with men and women to be reconciled to a loving God and a tender Saviour. The free offer of the gospel is not some departure from Biblical theology and reformed history but rather the outflowing of a true understanding of the gospel and how to communicate that to sinners. If you want to have your heart warmed and once again see the glory of the gospel of Christ, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you read this book.

If you would like to hear more about this subject, there is a Ragged Theology Podcast with Donald John Maclean available here.  He has also written further on the free offer here.  Please order the book via Free Church books here.

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What does it mean to be Reformed?

Just over a year ago my father, Rev John J Murray, died.  Eight months later I needed to pack up his study as my my mum moved through to Edinburgh.  Looking through over 60 years of papers (13 years in reformed publishing, 24 years in the pastoral ministry and then a very fruitful 18 years in retirement), it has been fascinating to read articles and correspondence relating to the reformed recovery in the UK from the 1950's.  Much of the background to this is covered in my fathers book by EP 'Catch the Vision'.  The recovery was closely connected with the ministry of Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones at Westminster Chapel and the establishment of the Banner of Truth trust in 1957.  My father was involved in the very early days of the Banner of Truth Trust, joining them 3 years after the Banner was formed.  Reformed books that had been out of print for decades were once again printed.  A conference was organised in Leicester in 1962 with 40 ministers which continues to the present day.

The key challenge in the 1960's was the lack of reformed churches in the UK.  Scotland had several reformed denominations like the Free Church of Scotland but the situation in England and Wales was very patchy.  England lacked a truly reformed denomination.  There were many independent churches and my father was corresponding with some who maintained a Reformed witness in the Church of England.  

To seek to address this, my father and others were instrumental in establishing the English Reformed Fellowship which had its inaugural meeting in Westminster Chapel on Tuesday 15th December 1970.  As well as the document reproduced below my father prepared a discussion paper as to why such a fellowship like the ERF was necessary.  Here are some of the reasons:

• Because of the misuse of the word 'Reformed'.  My Dad was seeking to address the error of those who call themselves reformed while not embracing the 'whole system of truth contained in the historic confessions'.
• Because of the great ignorance of the whole system of Reformed truth which is found amongst members and leaders of the church today.
• Because of the preferences for minimal statements of faith and the division of the faith between 'essentials' and 'non essentials'.
• Polarised opinions - the only alternatives being seen as a national, territorial mixed church or an independent, separated gathered church.
• 'Because the time has come to encourage some individuals and churches further along the road of reformation, to foster fellowship between Reformed people throughout the county and because there is not existing organisation in a position to do this.'

Looking through much of the correspondence at the time there was a lively debate about the constitution of the ERF.  This centred on a question which has been debated down through the years: 'what does it mean to be reformed?'  

In order to answer this question my father prepared a paper for a meeting on 11th March 1971 to help answer the question that was causing some tension.  I reproduce the article below:

Subject - the difference between holding to the Five Points of Calvinism and being Reformed.

1.  The Difference Viewed Historically

When the adjective 'Reformed' is written with a capital 'R' it commonly is equivalent to 'Calvinistic', i.e. it refers to the theology, creeds, churches etc. of that branch of Protestantism which accepted the interpretation of Christianity formulated by the reformer John Calvin (J.G. Vos).  

Calvinism is defined by B.B. Warfield as:

'...the entire body of conceptions, theological, ethical, philosophical, social, political, which under the influence of the master mind of John Calvin, raised itself to dominance in the protestant lands of the Post-Reformation age, and has left a permanent mark not only on the thought of mankind, but upon the life history of men, the social order of civilised people, and even the political organisations of states.'

[My father then goes on to talk about the history of the Five Points of Calvinism and to list what they are.]

B.B. Warfield

2.  The Difference Viewed Analytically

We could leave the matter here but the difference will become more marked as we seek to show what Calvinism is.  

Calvinism is an all embracing life system inspired by a well defined life system.  It is a life system, on the back of which there is a theological system, on the back of which there is a deep religious consciousness.  

It has been expressed as follows by Abraham Kuyper, one of the great interpreters of Calvin:

'Calvinism is rooted in a form of religion which was peculiarly its own, and from this specific religious consciousness there was developed first a peculiar theology, then a specific church order, an then a given form of political and social life, for the interpretation of the moral world-order, for the relation between nature and grace, between Christianity and the world, between church and state, and finally for art and science; and amid all the life-utterances it remained always the self-same Calvinism, in so far as simultaneously and spontaneously all these developments sprang from its life principle.'

The key verse as far as the life principle of Calvinism is concerned is Romans 11 v 36 - 'For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.'  

Calvin placed the self glorification of God at the centre.  It is not God who exists for the sake of His creation: the creation exists for the sake of God.  The primary principle of Calvinism therefore is the direct and absolute sovereignty of the triune God over the whole cosmos. 

The formative principle of Calvinism has been well defined by B.B Warfield:

'It is the vision of God and His majesty which lies at he foundation of the entirety  of the Calvinistic thinking.'

'Calvinism begins, it centres, it ends with the vision of God in His glory and it sets itself, before all things, to render God his right in sphere of life-activity.' 

'The Calvinist is the man who has seen God, and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand, with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God's sight as a creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners.  He who believes in God without reserve and is determined that God shall be God to him, in all his thinking, feeling, willing - in the entire compass of his life activities, intellectual, moral, spiritual - throughout all his individual, social, religious, relations - is, by the force of that strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into thought and life by the very necessity of the case, a Calvinist.'

'Calvinism is:

• Theism come to its rights
• Religion at the height of its conception
• Evangelicalism in its purest and most stable expression.'

Calvinism says Abraham Kuyper, meets the demands of a life system by providing the principles for the three fundamental relations of all human life:

• Our relation to God.  The recognition that God enters into immediate fellowship with the creature...the whole of a man's life is to lived as in the Divine Presence.
• Our relation to man.  The recognition in each person of human worth and equality of all men before God and His magistrate.
• Our relation to the world.  The recognition that in the whole world the curse is restrained by grace and that we must, in every domain, discover the treasures and develop the potencies hidden by God in nature and in human life.

'The special trait of Calvinism is that it placed the believer before the face of God, not only in the Church, but also in his personal, family, social and political life.  The majesty of God, and the authority of God press upon the Calvinist in the whole of his human existence.' 

Abraham Kuyper

3. Some Observations

i) The five points of Calvinism, historically at least, were only a Calvinistic response to 'the five points of Arminianism'.  (Warfield, J.G. Vos).

ii) Their main reference is soteriological (the doctrine of salvation). (John de Witt)

iii) While they are not synonymous with Calvinism or the Reformed Faith yet they are an integral part of it and the centre of attacks on the truth. (Warfield, de Witt)

iv) It is quite possible for a person to be a doctrinal Calvinist in respect of the five points and yet at the same time be an Anabaptist in respect of religious experience and an Arminian in his thinking.

v) The vital importance of the life principle and the religious nature of this.

vi) Calvinism emerges as nothing more or less than the hope of the world.

----------------------

At the end of 1972 the Banner of Truth moved to Edinburgh and my fathers connection with the ERF became a lot more distant.  Clearly it was not all plain sailing as a letter in 1973 announces the resignation of two members of the ERF who went on to set up the Christian Reformed Fellowship.  A vote was taken on 22nd September 1973 as to whether the doctrinal scope of the fellowship should exclude Independency and Episcopalianism.  The vote was to include these branches of the Christian church within the ERF and it clearly caused some fall out.  

Perhaps we can see in the embers of the ERF the start of wider reformed co-operation in England and the start, in 1986, of the Presbyterian Church of England and Wales.  The question of 'what does it mean to be reformed' continues to be debated but my father never swerved from his belief that 'Reformed' meant a wholehearted commitment to the 'whole system of truth contained in the historic confessions'.   

The Free Offer of the Gospel

I recently chatted to my good friend Donald John Maclean about his new book 'All thing are Ready.'  You can order it via Free Church Books when it comes out.  Here is the Ragged Theology Podcast of our discussion.  Below is a short article form Donald John on the free offer.

What is the free offer of the gospel? It is good news all are invited to embrace without any worthiness or merit in themselves. It is the message that the church has been commissioned to take and preach to all nations. It is a message of hope, of reconciliation, of salvation, against the dark background of human sin and alienation from God. The free offer is the call to all to come to Jesus Christ and find in him the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the one in and through whom our sins can be forgiven. lt is the most important message in the world, and one that all need to hear preached with compassion and grace.

However, from time to time, questions arise over how this universal gospel invitation is consistent with God's sovereignty. How can God sincerely invite all to salvation if he has chosen that not all will be saved? The answer to this question is vital. The sovereignty of God cannot be minimised, but nor can his invitation to all or his compassion for all. The two must be held together because scripture teaches them both. On the one hand, those who are saved have been ‘predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will’ (Eph. 1:11). But equally the God of sovereign salvation declares, ‘Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ezek. 33:11). God does not desire in or delight in the death of any.

If one of these truths is held out of scriptural balance then unhappy results must follow. If God's sovereignty is diminished then he is robbed of his glory and our confidence that sinners will be saved by God's grace is removed. But on the other hand if the gospel offer is denied, or hedged in so that it is no longer a loving invitation and pleading expressive of God's character but a mere announcing of truth, the pastoral consequences are disastrous. If I cannot be told that God invites me, and wants me to be saved, then how can I have the confidence to receive Jesus Christ as saviour? And if the preacher does not believe God desires the salvation of all, how can he lovingly plead on God's behalf for all to be saved? (2 Cor. 5:20) Where the well meant gospel offer is not believed and preached, the compassionate heart of the gospel is missing.

The best theologians of the past have preached the free offer in full confidence that the sovereign God would use the gospel invitation to reveal his compassion, and to save many. The great Scottish preacher and theologian Samuel Rutherford certainly preached this way in the seventeenth century: "It is ordinary for a man to beg from God, for we are but His beggars; but it is a miracle to see God beg at man. Yet here is the Potter begging from the clay; the Saviour seeking from sinners." May we share the gospel in the same spirit today.

A Free Scotland?

This article was written by Michael Veitch, Parliamentary Officer, CARE for Scotland.

The Hate Crime & Public Order (Scotland) Bill, passed by the Scottish Parliament by a margin of 82 to 32 votes last week, occupies the category of a well-intentioned but misguided piece of legislation. While all right-thinking people would of course wish to take a very firm stand against those who would stir up hatred towards others, the problem with Bill is the obvious danger that legitimate, but potentially deeply offensive, free speech be unduly inhibited.

The final stage debate on the Bill last Wednesday night turned out to be one of the best debates held within the Holyrood chamber for many years. Though many MSPs were forced to participate via video link due to Covid restrictions, this is no way inhibited what turned out to be robust and fiery discussion of the fundamental issues at stake.

The outstanding contributions of the night came from left-wing feminist MSPs, angered by a perceived lack of recognition for the status of women in the legislation. Johann Lamont, Elaine Smith and Jenny Marra (all Labour) and Joan McAlpine (SNP) were especially brave in their remarks, which are well worth consulting in the Official Report. Liam Kerr and the Justice Committee Convenor Adam Tomkins (both Conservative) attempted to ‘lead the line’ on the main free speech amendments, including attempts to persuade Parliament of the need for a ‘dwelling defence’ to protect the basic human right to privacy when conducting conversation in one’s own home. 

While excellent and very strong free speech amendments from Lamont and McAlpine were ultimately voted down, together with the ‘dwelling defence’ amendments from Kerr and Tomkins, Christians and others concerned about free speech can take heart that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf, had brought forward a relatively strong free speech amendment of his own, which was accepted, alongside an additional free speech amendment from Tomkins. In the event, the final vote on the Bill split largely (and predictably) upon party lines, with only the Scottish Conservatives, and a handful of others, voting against the Bill. It seemed that while many were keen to speak the language of free speech, few were prepared to vote for it.

We can and should be thankful that the Bill, as passed last week, was far less of a threat to free speech than when it was originally lodged. That said, it will be critical to monitor its implementation going forward, lest those who are ideologically opposed to the free expression of ideas deemed ‘hateful’ by some, seek to use the new powers in the Bill to shut down the free expression of opinion in churches or elsewhere.

 

The Mission Man

Some pieces of news just knock the stuffing out of you.  The text from my good friend Benny Anderson on 13th February 2021 that our mutual friend Bill McGillivray was moving to a hospice just floored me. I knew Bill wasn't well but I hadn't appreciated how serious the situation was.  A wave of grief came over me as I realised that Bill was nearing the end of his earthly journey.  It was a feeling not dissimilar to the depth of grief I felt when my own father died on 1st April 2020.  In many ways Bill has been a father figure to me and to so many others.  He has always been there, always full of energy, always smiling, always so generous with his time.  The thought of a world without Bill is hard to come to terms with.  Bill finally died this morning, at 11:10, 12th March 2021.  As 2 Corinthians 5 v 6 says 'he is away from the body but present with the Lord.'  Our hearts are heavy but we do not mourn as those who have no hope.

I first met Bill when I started working for the Edinburgh City Mission in September 1990.  My family had recently moved to Edinburgh from Oban.  I was a disaster at school and was at a loss as to what to do with my life so I was a bit lost and directionless.  I wasn't smart enough for university but I loved people so a year with ECM looked like a good option.  I joined the 'Year Team' and was placed in Gorgie and then West Pilton.

The Christian Centre

I still remember the first time I walked in to the West Pilton Christian Centre.  It was basically a small ground floor flat but it was a hive of activity.  The café would churn out toasties in industrial quantities, clothes were being distributed, food would be given out, the pool table never stopped.  In the middle of it all was Bill.  West Pilton in the early 1990's was quite a place:  drugs, violence, abuse, poverty and lots of very, very lost people.  It would have overwhelmed the best of men, but not Bill.  I can still see him now in the back room holding forth on any and every subject.  Jesus seemed to pour out of every part of him.  A battered NIV Bible was never far away and he would think nothing of opening it to chat about an issue he had been asked about.  He would just bring the gospel in to conversation in the most natural way.  As a young 19 year old who could hardly string two sentences together in evangelism, I was constantly amazed at Bills natural capacity to share the gospel.

A Niddrie Boy

Born in 1942, Bill was an Edinburgh man through and through.  He grew up in Niddrie with his brother Robert and John.  Bill's mother had tragically died in 1945 when Bill was only three and his father remarried in the late 1940's.  Bill came in to contact with the Niddrie Mission then run by Alex Dunbar.  Bill came to know Christ in his early teens and 'The Mission' would never really leave Bill.  He always had a love to reach the marginalised and the poor.  After a stint as a fencer Bill started his own fruit and veg business before joining ICI in Livingston.  Bill eventually felt a call to Christian service and entered service with the Edinburgh City Mission in 1984.  Bill had married Helen in 1962 and had two daughters, Joy and Julie, but his wife tragically died of cancer in June 1979.  Little did any of us understand the deep sorrow that Bill had gone through when he breezed in and out of the mission day after day.  It can't have been easy bringing up two girls on his own but I never once heard Bill complain or question God's purposes in his life.  As his current minister once said at a service I was at in  Glasgow, 'never trust a leader who doesn't limp'.  Bill's deep sorrow gave him an incredible empathy for others and also an incredible Christ like humility that drew people around him. He was a natural leader but one with the deep imprint of sorrow.

As I look back over 30 years now, those early years of the 1990's in West Pilton were life changing.  People were being remarkably saved from addiction, violence and profound brokenness.  One of my best friends, Benny Anderson, was a violent thief but was converted through the witness of his brother who came to faith in Shotts Prison.  Benny's brother and wife attended the West Pilton Christian Centre and Bill's unashamed gospel witness had much to do with Benny's discipleship. Benny would be the first to admit that his conversion was not straightforward and Bill discipled Benny through those first rocky years.  Benny and I have remained friends.  We have one of the most unlikely friendships - a Free Church ministers son from Argyll and one of the most feared men in Edinburgh now united in the gospel.  Bill brought us and many others together and many of those friendships have lasted for decades.  

Children's Work

Children loved Bill.  He was authentic, genuine and had little sense of self.  Most of all he always had time for kids.  The children's work was vibrant in the 1990's with regular clubs, outings and the most incredible camps to locations like Glenshee.  A modern day health and safety officer would have had a hairy fit at some of the things we did but the kids loved it.  Many kids had hardly been out of West Pilton never mind Edinburgh.  My own children can hardly believe the stories of throwing live frogs in to the girls dorm at 1am and the classic felt tip doodles on  the faces of some poor sleeping kid.  It used to take them ages when they wandered down for breakfast as to why the whole camp were in stiches.  But there was also real solid Bible teaching at these camps.  I vividly remember acting out Pilgrims Progress with the kids one year as we battled Apollyon and made it to the Celestial City with my tin foil shield.  Looking back they were some of my best, most formative memories, and Bill was at the centre of it all.  No activity was too silly, no problem was too small, Bill embraced everything with an infectious enthusiasm.

Sunday Nights

I can still see Bill on those Sunday night services.  Coming from a Free Church background I was used to fairly reserved Psalm singing.  West Pilton Christian Centre used to raise the roof most Sunday evenings with the most incredible praise songs and boy could those people sing!  They came with all their brokenness, sometimes with tears streaming down their faces and they sang their lungs out:  Majesty, God Sent His Son, He has Made me Glad, How Great Thou Art, There is a Redeemer and many more.  Giles and Benny on the guitar, a couple of tambourines and that little Christian Centre would be bursting with raw, heart felt praise.  Problems were shared, prayer was real and God was present.  When you preached in Pilton, people didn't glaze over like they did in most churches, they were actually hungry for the Bible.  People told you exactly what they thought of your sermon (sometimes during the sermon).  Bill and I had many differences in our theology but he preached the good news of the gospel with more passion and reality than I will ever do. 

Highs and Lows

But there were plenty of disappointments.  Bill frequently dealt with horrific situations of abuse and many who started out well soon fell away.  Abuse and trauma were intergenerational and while the gospel would have a big impact, there were years of painstaking discipleship.  Bill was optimistic, but always realistic. He knew the dark heart of man and his ministry was often a rollercoaster of highs and lows.  The centre was a constant target for vandalism and Bill operated on a tight budget.  Bill was always very circumspect but I always had the feeling that Bill's bold vision was not always matched by others.  Bill always called a spade a spade which didn't always make him very popular.  He was a man of integrity who had no time for politics and bureaucracy.  People were literally dying in West Pilton and Bill was always more comfortable at the coal face than in committees.  He was delighted to see Benny and Amanda Anderson commissioned into work with the City Mission in 2002.  In many ways it was what the mission was all about - the transformation of a violent thief into a city missionary. Bill was was delighted when Duncan Cuthill took over the Edinburgh City Mission in 2017 and began to breath fresh vision and energy into the work.  

The Magic Man

From that first meeting in 1990, Bill went on to become a life long friend.  Sometimes we wouldn't see each other for months, but like all good friendships, when we did, we picked up where we had left off.  I often confided in Bill and never doubted that I could trust him with anything.  He was a wise councillor, always steady and measured with his advice.  He became a regular visitor to our house in Livingston at Christmas.  My five boys loved him like an uncle.  His magic tricks were legendary with the kids mesmerised by ropes, hankies and cards.  Over the last three years Bill was a regular at the Safe Families Fun Day at Arniston House.  Dozens of families would attend from a a whole range of backgrounds and Bill would entertain them and put them at ease.

Leadership and Legacy

I recently worked through the life of Joseph with my team.  I asked them to write down the three most inspirational leaders they had met.  The first name I wrote down on my list was Bill McGillivray.  It was an honour to know him.  He was humble, approachable, kind and generous.  As a young, slightly unsure 19 year old, Bill took me under his wing.  I still remember spinning around all over Edinburgh in his little Nissan Micra with Bill sharing his wisdom on anything and everything.  I wasn't aware at the time but Bill was laying the foundation of so much of what I would go on to do.  Many of the convictions I hold today were forged in those early days in West Pilton.  Here are just a few of them:

• Keep the main things, the main things.  Don't go down theological rabbit holes.  Stay gospel focussed and rooted in truth.  
• Truth and love need to be held in balance. 
• Be generous to other believers.  Bill was an Episcopalian by conviction but he worked with Christians from all sorts of backgrounds who loved the Lord.
• Love the marginalised and the broken.  
• Invest in others.  Bill inspired me to become a social worker and a leader in the Third Sector.  
• Never give up hope.  He showed me that communities and individuals could be redeemed and transformed and nobody was beyond help.
• Leadership matters.  The success of West Pilton was down to great Christ centred servant leadership.  Some of the best leaders have been broken and shaped by God through suffering.  Bill knew the deep waters of suffering and it made him uniquely vulnerable, humble and compassionate.
• A passion for souls.  Bill loved people.  He didn't run programmes he just lived out his life in a needy community and taught the Bible.
• Fruitfulness needs to be accompanied by faithfulness.  In an age when Christian leaders are regularly compromised, Bill lived a consistent, circumspect life.  
• Be bold with the gospel.  Benny told me about a meeting with Bill after he had just been stealing.  Bill had no idea what Benny had done but spoke to him about standing before the judgement seat of Christ thankful that Jesus was his Saviour.  The message impacted Benny and he remembers it 30 years later.
• Stay the course.  Bill ministered in West Pilton for 23 years.  it wasn't glamorous but Bill was faithful over a long time.  
• Know when to move on.  Bill knew when it was time to go.  He retired in 2007 and enjoyed 13 years of retirement.  He travelled, he volunteered, he invested in friends and he had the joy of seeing his grandchildren grow.

Dying Well

Bill used to tell me that he often prayed for his mother to 'die well'.  That is what I prayed for Bill in his last few weeks.  While the destination may be certain, the process of death is still painful and horrible.  Death is still the last enemy.  But like all believers Bill can now proclaim 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.  Where, death is your victory?  Where, death, is your sting?' (1 Cor 15 v 54-55). The pain is for those left behind.  We pray for comfort for his two daughters, Joy and Julie, and his 4 grandchildren in America and Australia as well as his brother and wife here in Scotland.  Bills race is now done, he has finished his course he has heard those words 'well done, good and faithful servant'.  Now it is up to us to take up his mantle and tell the next generation the good news of Jesus Christ.  

10 Takeaway's from the Life of Joseph

I've been really enjoying studying and teaching the life of Joseph recently. It is exactly the teaching I needed as I deal with the setbacks and disappointments of lockdown.  I've already written about Joseph in my article 'Leadership in Lockdown' here.  As we stand back and look at Joseph with a wide angle lens what are the big themes of his life?  Here are 10 takeaways.

1. God keeps his promises.

We see in Genesis 37 that God gives him two dreams. In Genesis 41 and 42 these dreams come true.  We see this theme in the OT – God makes a promise and then he fulfils it.  Sometimes he takes 100’s of years, sometimes he works in seconds, but his promises are always fulfilled.  God works through covenant – he shows himself again and again as a faithful God.

2. God is doing a lot more than we think.

When we look at young Joseph, he was talented but he seemed arrogant.  Then he was a slave and then a prisoner - his life seemed to be a disaster.  Yet at each twist and turn God was testing him, refining him and preparing him for greatness. God was interested in how Joseph was as a slave, how he responded to menial work, how he responded to false allegations, how he treated his fellow prisoners.

God was working all the time, maybe Joseph couldn’t see it but God was at work.

3. Great leaders always lead with a limp.

If I asked you to list your three best leaders who would they be?  Many of the best leaders have been through great suffering.  One of my inspirational leaders lost his wife when he was 35 and brought up two young girls by himself.  He ministered in one of the most difficult housing schemes in Edinburgh for 23 years before urban evangelism was trendy.  Great leadership is often coupled with great brokenness and tragedy.  Humility makes us trust in a great God, it helps us to see that any talent we have is a gift and it makes us prayerful.

4. God’s best jewels are always forged in the fire of affliction.

Affliction can lead to bitterness and cynicism but in Joseph’s case it led to selflessness and God centeredness.  Robert Murray McCheyne said that 'the sweetest flowers sometimes need to be broken before they emit a beautiful smell'.  There is a Biblical principle that when we are weak, then we are strong.  When Joseph stood before Pharaoh he had nothing and he was nothing but just at that moment he was filled with the spirit.

O God, the Eternal All, help me to know that

all things are shadows, but thou art substance,

all things are quicksand's, but thou art mountain,

all things are shifting, but thou art anchor,

all things are ignorance, but thou art wisdom

If my life is to be a crucible amid burning heat, so be it, 

but do thou sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore 

that nothing be lost.

Purification, The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth

5. Never despise the path of service

Joseph became a great leader through learning how to serve.  Great leaders are ultimately servants. They hold power lightly because they recognise that power and positions are gifts.  Servant leadership empowers, it cares and it embraces responsibility.

6. Don’t waste your suffering – Ephraim and Manasseh

Joseph could have made his life story into a huge story of grievance, but he didn’t.  We see this in the names of his two sons:  Ephraim – God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction and Manasseh – God has made me forget all my affliction.  After 13 years of suffering Joseph says it is all forgotten – it was all part of Gods purpose for my life.

7. God works slow and fast

When Josephs brothers appeared before him it had taken God 22 years so fulfil his dream.  Does God do the impossible? Yes.  But often God takes years, decades and centuries to work out his purposes.  That way God gets all the glory.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

8. Never underestimate what grace can do

God works in an evil and dysfunctional family.  We read in 42 v 28 ‘What is this that God has done to us?’  It took Joseph ‘speaking roughly’ to them to awaken their consciousness and bring them back to God.

9. Forgiveness and redemption are beautiful.

We see in chapter 45 v 14, 15 a beautiful picture of redemption and reconciliation.

22 years on the brothers embrace and weep.  All the lies, the deceit, the bitterness are over. God's redemptive love wins.  ‘You planned evil against me: God planned it for good to bring about the present result – the survival of many people.’

10. Joseph points to somebody else

Every page in the life of Joseph is pointing us to the greater Joseph.  The brothers thought that Joseph had died and he almost did.  He lost everything to bring life to a hungry world.  Joseph is pointing us to Jesus who gives hope in despair, light in darkness and truth in confusion.  Joseph points us to the true bread of life.

The Bridge Battersea

Last year I caught up with Tom Dowding from The Bridge in Battersea.  Tom was interested in Thomas Guthrie and his Parochial model in Edinburgh in the 19th century.  I was so excited to hear what Tom was up to I asked him to write about his work in the blog post below.  Please pray for Tom and the team in Battersea.

I serve at The Bridge Battersea - a small church on the Surrey Lane council estate in Battersea, London. We’re in a multicultural urban community characterised by high levels of economic and social deprivation, and many of the ills that go with that: drug and alcohol abuse are rife, broken families more common than not, mental health problems affect a great proportion, and knife culture has contributed to two tragic murders in the last couple of years.

So it was with a keen interest that I listened to Andrew Murray talking about the life of Thomas Guthrie on a 20Schemes podcast earlier this year. To hear of his radical heart for the marginalised and destitute, his biblical conviction that the gospel is good news for the poor, his horror that Christianity might be kept to those with ‘respectable’ lives and his incarnational connection with the social issues of the day (even as gospel proclamation was prioritised) were music to my ears, and broadened my vision for how I’d love to pursue ministry. Guthrie’s setting up of a savings bank and a library in the parish of Arbirlot, for example, where he was brought ‘into familiar and frequent and kindly contact with my people’ is just the sort of pioneering evangelistic creativity that we need to be pursuing in a time where churches are increasingly viewed with disinterest, suspicion, or outright contempt.

When our church was planted 9 years ago one of the clear issues in our estates was absentee fathers, and the adverse effects this had on particularly young boys growing up. When Guthrie spoke in the 19th Century of a young boy in Edinburgh “launched on a sea of human passions and exposed to a thousand temptations… left by society, more criminal than he, to become a criminal, and then punished for his fate, not his fault” he could very well be describing the young lads growing up fatherless in Battersea. Without dads around their influences and role models often tend to be the ‘olders’ in local gangs, and routes from there towards teenage years of school expulsion and immersed in drugs and knife crime are sadly all too common. Into this situation the ‘RISE academy’ was launched to mentor young men, teaching them the gospel and life-skills such as cooking or computer programming. Time and funding wise it’s not as full scale as the Ragged Schools of Edinburgh, but like Guthrie the mentoring Christian men hope to give off something of what he termed the ‘almost omnipotent power of Christian kindness’.

And this era of COVID19 and lockdown is a time when we at The Bridge really want to redouble efforts to move towards those around us. We’ve recently been door-knocking on Sundays as a church, and have come across some who have had bad situations exacerbated by the pandemic (even in an area already dominated with mental health problems, it was a saddening shock to hear one local mother tell of how she’d been so anxious about the virus she was washing her hands with bleach). Others we come across profess largely to be fine, even as they remain sleepwalking in sin towards death and judgement. Not much different, then, to the crowds the Lord Jesus looked out at and felt a deep compassion for, ‘because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ (Matt 9:36).

It is this heart of the Lord Jesus for the lost that inspires us in thinking how we might reach out as labourers in his harvest field. I was struck and encouraged by Guthrie’s organising towards all members of the local church ‘working in harmony, like bees in a hive’ – reaching the thousands on our estate needs a whole church, not just one or two evangelists. So as a staff team we are planning to soon unveil 6 new outreach endeavours, praying that we can be a mission minded community with everyone in some way playing a part. Through these we aim to build new relationships with those around us, to love and care for those with pressing practical needs, and ultimately to share the good news of Christ.

I’d love to ask for brother and sisters reading this to pray for us as we seek to reach out to our hard pressed community this Autumn/Winter. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for the harvest fields! And ask that many are won by the Christ who came to bring good news to the poor, even as the good deeds of his church bring glory to his Father in heaven. When sitting in crowded flats or walking up weed-engulfed tower block staircases it is burdening to see the sights of young boys moving into gang life, men and women crushed by addictions, and Muslims hoping in a god who cannot save. But praise God that through your prayers many lives and eternities could be changed. It remains, as Thomas Chalmers might say, ‘a fine field of operation’!

Hope in the Face of Suffering

I recently interviewed Jeremy Marshall author of a book of 20 devotions entitled 'Hope in the face of Suffering'.  You can listen to the podcast here.  Jeremy is living with incurable cancer.  Shielding is nothing new for him as any infection can lead to very serious complications for him.  I can't think of anyone more uniquely qualified to write a book of devotions about fear, suffering and death.    

If the coronavirus has taught us anything it has shown us that life is fragile.  Our society thought that science and modern medicine protected us from any nasty surprises but the last year has shown us that even they have limits.  In a chapter entitled 'All Aboard' he compares the last few months to being on a boat: 'I felt like I was being endlessly tossed around in a boat in a stormy sea, quarantined, cut off from others, fearful, lonely, wondering how long this would go on for and whether I would ever see 'dry land' again.'  I think we can all relate to that feeling.

In 20 short, simple chapters Jeremy takes the reader through Genesis, Job, the Psalms, 2 Kings, the Gospels and finally Revelation.  He reminds us that suffering and death were not part of the original plan but is a result of the fall.  Suffering can be bewildering and overwhelming but the gospel gives us hope.  it is at the cross that we see a suffering Saviour taking our punishment and we are enabled, even in a limited way, to make sense of suffering in a fallen world.  Yes the seas are choppy, but just like Noah in the ark, God has a destination for His people: 'For no one can cross the sea of this world unless carried over it on the cross of Christ.'

The book is accessible, encouraging and very, very real.  Marshall points us back again and again in the book to the ultimate answer to pain and suffering, God Himself.  In the midst of suffering God's promises become real, His word speaks to us in new ways and we look to him for grace and strength.  As Corrie Ten Boom says in 'The Hiding Place': 'I only realised that Christ was all I needed when Christ was all I had.' 

You might expect a series of devotions on suffering and death to be depressing but 'Hope in the Face of Suffering' is far from bleak.  It is filled with gospel hope and encouragement.  In his chapter entitled 'The Medicine Chest' Marshall quotes the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was jailed and ultimately executed by the Nazi's.  Shortly before his death Bonhoeffer smuggled out a scrap of paper that read 'Only a suffering God can help us.'  It is only through the suffering of God incarnate at the cross that we can make sense of suffering.  This book takes us back again and again to the cross.  God became human and suffered on a cross to reconcile sinful man to a holy God.  He came to conquer fear and death.  Yes His children face suffering in this life but we have his precious promises and we have the gospel hope of an eternity with Christ.  

The book finishes in Revelation where we are reminded that Christ holds the keys of death.  But how do we face death?  Well we have the assurance that we will not be alone.  Marshall quotes Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones when he was at the deathbed of an old man whose face shone with the glory of where he was going.  Lloyd Jones says:

We are going to be with Christ...Our greatest trouble is that we really don't believe the Bible...exactly what it says - exceeding great and precious promises.  We think we know it, but we do not really appropriate this and actually believe it is true.  Here, we have no continuing city. Our light affliction is but for a moment.  We have to take these statements literally.  They are facts, they are not merely ideas.  

This is a great little book and so appropriate for the time in which we are living.  When people are asking questions about fear, death and suffering, why not give them this little book and point them to the God who suffered and died and will one day wipe away every tear for those who are in Christ?  Why not think about buying multiple copies and sending them to family and friends?  This book has been a great help to me and I am confident that it will be a great comfort to you too.  To order the book via Free Church Books please follow this link.

Learning from Lockdown - Seaton Community Church

This week I chatted to my good friend Barry Douglas from Seaton Community Church in Aberdeen about the highs and lows of lockdown. Barry talks about the challenges of life as pastor and football chaplain particularly over the last 12 months. Despite being in lockdown Seaton Community Church have built a church building (almost from scratch) and given out 7000 lunches to local kids.   We talk about preaching and pastoral care in lockdown and some of the encouragements Barry has found even in the midst of so many setbacks.  

 

Leadership in Lockdown

In R.Kent Hughes excellent commentary on Genesis, he tells the story of Robert Dick Wilson one of the great professors of Princeton Theological Seminary.  One of Professor Wilson's students came back to Miller Chapel to preach 12 years after graduating.  The old professor, having listened intently to his former student, came forward after the service and held his hand out:

"If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach.  I only come once.  I am glad to see that you are a big-godder.  When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big-godders or little godders, and then I know what their ministry will be."  His former student asked him to explain, and he replied, " Well, some men have a little god, and they are always in trouble with him.  He can't do any miracles.  He can't take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us.  He doesn't intervene on behalf of his people.  They have a little god and I call them little-godders.  Then, there are those who have a great God.  He speaks and it is done. He commands and it stands fast.  He knows how to show himself strong on behalf of them that fear him.  You have a  great God; and he will bless your ministry." He paused a moment, smiled, said, "God bless you," and turned and walked out.

The last year has tested the best of us. Who hasn't struggled for energy and wisdom during lockdown? Recently I heard of a death every day for a week of people close to me. Social media has become a place of fear, discouragement and the home of every conspiracy theory imaginable. As Michael Reeves says in his new book 'Rejoice and Tremble': 'With society having lost God as the proper object of healthy fear, our culture is necessarily becoming ever more neurotic, ever more anxious about the unknown - indeed more anxious about anything and everything...In ousting God from our culture, other concerns - from personal health to the health of the planet - have assumed a divine ultimacy in our minds. Good things have become cruel and pitiless idols. And thus we feel helplessly fragile. No longer anchored, society fills with free-floating anxieties.'

So how do we respond?  Some Christian leaders seem paralysed by inertia.  It is largely business as usual.  There is no special call to prayer, there is no special love for the people in their care, they can't reach out because they seem immune to people's pain.  There is little empathy, little love and little connection.  Others have risen to the challenge.  They have found new and creative ways to express pastoral care and love.  Many people have rediscovered letter writing and many of us have found the power of a well timed text or email.   Thankfully the gospel is not in lockdown and genuine love will always find a way to express itself.  God's word has been heard and downloaded more over the last year than ever before.  Rather than the gospel being preached to dozens we are seeing millions being reached through online services and new and innovative ways of evangelism. God is at work in surprising and amazing ways.  We all hate lockdown but leadership needs to adapt in such unprecedented times. 

One of the great examples of leadership in very tough times is Joseph in the book of Genesis.  Despite being his fathers favourite son, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold in to slavery in Egypt.  Little did Joseph know that this would be the start of 13 years of setbacks and discouragements.  But God was preparing Joseph for greatness.  The route to the palace was through the prison.  Joseph didn't rail against his enforced lockdown, he didn't seek to appeal against his false accusation, he accepted that God was at work and as we see in Genesis 41-50 Joseph was just as faithful in times of prosperity and power as he was in poverty and prison.

In Genesis 41 we read that Joseph is finally exalted. In this remarkable chapter we see Joseph plucked from prison and finds himself shaved and perfumed and thrust before Pharaoh to interpret his strange dreams. We see this solitary Hebrew man standing before this Egyptian deity at the zenith of his power. How does he respond? How does he show leadership in a strange and pagan land? Does he appeal to the law? Does he complain about how badly he has been treated and appeal for better human rights? No, he points to the greatness of God regardless of the consequences. Joseph gives us an example of great leadership in a pagan country during testing times. What lessons can we learn?

1. He was foundationally God-centred.

Pharaoh flatters Joseph in chapter 41 v 15 as the great interpreter of dreams.  He is dangling greatness and power in front of a powerless slave.  Who wouldn't take the bait?  Joseph responds with one word.  In our translation it reads 'I am not able to' but in the Hebrew it is one word 'not I'.  Literally it means that 'the answer lies outside of me'.  Joseph is saying 'I can't interpret your dream but the true and living God can'. The stakes are very high.  One wrong word and Joseph's head will be separated from his torso.  Who wouldn't have buckled before such raw power?  

As he stands before this Egyptian deity, Joseph points to ha Elohim - the God.  Through one word of explosive self deprecation Joseph confesses the true and living God at the epicentre of pagan power.  The arrogant, self assured teenager was gone and a more mature, deeper Joseph stands before the most powerful man on earth without fear.  Thirteen years of suffering had made him God centred instead of self centred.  As Hughes says 'Through Joseph, God was advertising and asserting himself in Egypt.'  Christians so often think they need power to exert power and influence.  What we need is trust in a great God.

2. He was fearlessly honest. 

Joseph could have softened his answer to Pharaoh but he didn't.  The prospect of power and favour didn't change Joseph.  He was the same with his fellow prisoners as he was with the most powerful leader in the world.   As Hughes says 'Joseph had not changed one whit in his trip from the pit to the palace.  This thirteen years of preparation were now paying huge dividends.'  Through setbacks and disappointments Joseph had learned a steeliness and fearless honesty all too rare in most leaders.  Most seek position and comfort but not Joseph.  He was like Daniels three friends about to be thrown in to the fiery furnace in Daniel 3 v 16-18.  The true Christian leader does the right thing and leaves the consequences to God.  

But honesty also involves vulnerability.  One of the best things I have heard in recent months was from Jonathan Lamb at Crieff who said; 'the opposite of fear is not courage, but trust'.  Many of us wake up on Monday mornings (or for preachers Sunday) and we don't feel very brave.  We often feel empty and weak.  But so often this is when God will do great things.  God emptied Joseph of himself so he could fill him with the Holy Spirit.  Isn't this what we see time and time again?  In Geneses 39 v 21 - 23 we read that 'the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.'  Its not talent and bravery we need during a national pandemic but more trust in the living God.  This is what will give us fearless honesty. 

3.  He learned to listen

When we go back to Genesis 37 we read about Joseph telling his brothers about his dreams.  There is no mention of God and we read the word 'me' and 'I' over and over again.  The great sign of immaturity is that we talk a lot about ourselves.  Our opinions are all that matter.  This is seen on social media, the most frequent contributors are often the most immature.  Everything is simple and black and white.  People post without thinking, without praying, without considering.  

As we grow and mature and go through adversity we see that life is painful, complex and often there are no easy answers.  We learn to listen more and talk less.  This is what Joseph had learned.  He lets Pharaoh speak.  He doesn't interrupt him. Pharaoh pours out his dreams from verses 17-24 of chapter 41.  Great leaders are great listeners.  They take an interest in what their team or their congregation think.  They take advice easily, they are easily entreated.  They are constantly learning and reflecting, they are enthusiastic learners.  They read widely but discerningly, they like to have their thinking challenged.  Great leaders are nearly always team players and good delegators.  They hold power lightly because it is a gift from God.

4. He was given Godly understanding 

True wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord.  It was because Joseph truly feared the Lord that he had no fear of Pharaoh and was able to interpret his dreams.  The fear of God is not a popular subject today even in Christian circles.  The Puritan William Bates said 'there is nothing more fearful than an ingenious love, and nothing more loving than a filial fear.' It is only as we fear God in a fatherly way that we are given understanding of things often hidden to the world.  Joseph's interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream was devastatingly simple but it was kept from the magicians and revealed to Joseph.  This is what we see in great leaders. God gives them supernatural understanding not because they are gifted or talented but because they are dependent on God.  They are men and women saturated in the word, humble, prayerful and filled with a spirit of worship.  We are to call out to insight and lift our voice to understanding, to seek for it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure (Proverbs 2 v 3,4).

5. He was given confidence and wise advice

Isn't it amazing after Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream that this pagan deity recognises the spirit of God in Joseph (Genesis 41 v 38)?  Isn't that an encouragement for those of us who lead in secular environments to stand tall for God?  People may not like our Christianity but they see us as people with integrity and wisdom.

Pharaoh now turns to Joseph for wise advice.  Joseph shows one of the great traits of a great leader and encourages Pharaoh to make some very tough decisions.  One of these is to put taxes up by 20% over the next 7 years of abundance.  His other pieces of advice were to appoint a national overseer, appoint regional governors and build more storage facilities to store food in the years of plenty.  What an amazing business plan!  Save up while you can so that when famine and recession come you will have enough to feed society.  Leaders often come up with the most incredible responses to situations of crisis.  People wonder where they get their wisdom from.  How can they come up with solutions so quickly?  As Daniel would say many years later '...the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits' (Daniel 11 v 32).  Joseph was a type of Christ who was prepared and sent to bring redemption to a starving people.  Joseph was a forerunner of the great bread of life who would come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We are in a new and uncertain landscape. It needs a new kind of leadership. Not the leadership of grievance and conspiracy, but the joy filled leadership that points to a great-God who is always working even in the midst of setbacks and disappointments. Most of all Joseph reminds us that God keeps his promises as we see all of Egypt bowing down to him in Genesis 41 v 43. They cried out with the word 'abreka' which means 'kneel'. Genesis 37 is fulfilled in Genesis 41 and again in Genesis 42 as his brothers kneel before him.

God is able to bring great good out of immense evil and suffering.  Joseph points us to the greater Joseph who died on a cross and accomplished the most incredible act of redemption the world has ever seen.  He too brought great good out of evil and could say with Joseph 'But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.' (Genesis 50 v 20).  

Joseph remained humble because he believed in a big God.  When God called him to lead in extraordinary times he was ready.  He remained God focussed, humble, prayerful and free from bitterness.  We see this in the names of his children: Manasseh (God has made me forget my hardship) and Ephraim (God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction).  God is calling us to lead in extraordinary times.  Leadership in lockdown has been and is very tough.  We need other leaders around us, supporting us and praying with us.  We need to be 'big-godders' like Joseph.  Lets remian faithful in tough times and rather than trying to be brave, lets trust in the God of Joseph who is doing all things well.  

For further study I have particularly enjoyed David C Searle's 'Joseph - His Arms Were Made Strong' by the Banner of Truth.  Also David Kingdon's Mysterious Ways is very helpful.  Joel Beeke's sermon series is invaluable as is Sinclair Fergusons sermons.