Be Still And Know

Matthew 18:15 [Jesus said:] “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offence. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.” Ever since the Garden of Eden, people have fallen out with one another. This is an inevitable part of living in a world of sin. Here, Jesus gives wonderfully straightforward advice about what to do when it happens: if you are wronged, you need to deal with it as speedily and as privately as possible, with the aim to achieve a restored relationship. It amazes me that this simple and clear advice is so often ignored. When we are wronged, it is very tempting to tell other people about it immediately – but that just magnifies the problem. We feel hurt, so we want other people to sympathise with us and come on our side. It is always better to go to the person who has wronged us in the hope that the relationship can be restored. So often, offence is caused by a misunderstanding which is easily set to one side with a simple conve

Matthew 18:12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?” I suspect that few of us have had experience of being shepherds. However, many of us will have memories of lost pets. I recall the time when our cat Tabitha went missing for days on end. We walked the streets and called out her name, desperately hoping to hear her miaow, but there was no response. Then one day as I was looking down our garden, I saw this poor thin creature dragging herself limply towards the house. She had a broken femur and had presumably been involved in a road accident. To say that we were delighted would hardly begin to describe how it felt to have her back, and over the coming weeks she made a complete recovery. She was just one little cat, but the news of her return home was a moment of incredible joy for our family. I can therefore begin to understand the joy of the shepherd who found his sheep.

Psalm 51:1-2 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. The background to this psalm is well known. King David had committed adultery and had been found out. The penalty for this crime in the Jewish law was death. However, David repented of his sin and God showed him generosity in forgiving his wrongdoing. This psalm is both a celebration of God’s forgiveness and of the new life which opened up for David as a result. The evil one will always seek to persuade us that sin is not actually all that serious. Everyone does it and we really shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it. And, in any event, the sins which other people commit are far worse than anything we would ever think of doing ourselves. Just look at some of the stories in today’s newspapers. We know that we would never do any of the awful things that we read about. In these, and a thousand other ways, we seek to excuse

Psalm 48:1-3 How great is the LORD, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain! It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the great King! God himself is in Jerusalem's towers, revealing himself as its defender. I will never forget my first sight of Old Jerusalem; its golden limestone walls were set against a deep blue sky. It was absolutely beautiful and immediately triggered the memory of psalms like this one, which praise the magnificence and beauty of the city. Jerusalem has a central place in the Bible. It was here that Abraham offered to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. Centuries later David established Jerusalem as his capital city and his son Solomon then built the glorious temple. Although Jesus lived in Galilee in the north of the country, he frequently visited Jerusalem and it was here that he was crucified and rose from death. It was in this city that the Spirit was poured out upon Jesus’

Proverbs 25:12 To one who listens, valid criticism is like a gold earring or other gold jewellery. Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer, said: “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” All I can say is, “Good for Johannes Kepler!” I suspect I’m not alone with that response, as we all really enjoy people saying nice things about us. Sharp criticism might be very good for us, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to hear, even if it is as valuable as a gold earring. There are two challenges here. Firstly, how can we become better at sharing valid criticism with others? Every time I have received helpful criticism it is because it has been embedded within encouragement. It has been clear that the person offering the criticism was trying to help and only wanted to make me stronger and better able to use my gifts. It has often been said that if you need to offer criticism, 80 per cent of what you say should be encouragement. This isn’t a c

Proverbs 24:26 An honest answer is like a kiss of friendship. Like most of us, I am sure, I was brought up with the saying that honesty is the best policy. But what I wasn’t taught was that it’s often the most difficult policy. It’s often easier to keep the truth to yourself and not to share it because it might not be well received. Indeed, the hearer might be deeply offended by the truth. And so we can easily end up playing a kindly and courteous game of deceit. We say what other people want to hear and never dare to go anywhere near the sharp edges of truth. Whenever someone asks us how we are, we have to decide what level of truth to share. The customary answer “Fine” often reveals nothing at all and is simply used as a polite way of avoiding conversation. However, at the same time, it would be inappropriate to share everything about your life and feelings. What is vital is that there is a time and a place where we can be entirely honest. Life is full of thrills and spills, joys and sorrows, amazing

Proverbs 24:16 The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked. The big question is not whether we experience failure, but what we do when it happens. The writer is clear that the person who knows God has resilience. We may get knocked many times, but each time we are able to bounce back because we know that God is the one who inspires and strengthens us. The writer says that we may trip seven times but almost certainly he is using the number to represent an unlimited number of times. Nelson Mandela said: “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” The reason that a godly person is resilient is because their confidence is in God rather than their circumstances. This is most powerfully described by Habakkuk who declared: “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the floc

Proverbs 23:29-30 Who has anguish? Who has sorrow? Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new drinks. The abuse of alcohol is clearly not a new problem. These verses reveal a deep understanding of a challenge which continues to test our society. In the UK more than 8,000 people die from alcohol-related illnesses every year. Hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions have risen by about 40 per cent over the past ten years. Alcohol abuse is estimated to cost our society more than £20bn a year. Clearly this is a huge challenge, and it is amazing to see these Proverbs written so long ago addressing the issue with such power. Some people might think of the writer of Proverbs as being a kill joy, but his purpose was exactly the opposite. He could see that alcohol could so easily ruin people’s lives. In the following verses he talks about the way in which wine can, when drunk

Proverbs 23:17-18 Don’t envy sinners, but always continue to fear the LORD. You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed. The writer of Proverbs tells us here that we shouldn’t envy sinners, but the tenth commandment tells us that we shouldn’t covet our neighbour’s house, wife, servant, ox, donkey or anything else that they own (Exodus 20:17). All envy or covetousness is wrong. We may admire and appreciate everything about our neighbour’s life but when it turns to envy the rot has set in. Envy is a potential problem for all of us because it has the ability to creep up on us slowly and subtly. It doesn’t announce itself with a fanfare, but slowly worms its way into our thinking. We see our neighbour’s beautiful house, lovely family and fabulous garden and start to wish that all those things were ours. After a while we start to resent the fact that our neighbour has all those things and, through no fault of our own, we don’t. We can start to think that we deserve just as much as our nei

Proverbs 22:13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!” There is so much blunt truth in the book of Proverbs, and here the writer laughs at the lazy person who has always got an excuse for doing nothing. On this particular day he fears that there may be a lion outside, and is concerned that he may get killed. He considers that he’s got the perfect excuse for staying at home and doing nothing. The writer of these Proverbs spent a lot of time reflecting on lazy people, because he was so fearful of the disease of laziness. He saw that it led to poverty and distress, and was keen for everyone to focus their attention on ants who were the exact opposite. In Proverbs 6:6 he wrote: “Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!” Ants are always busy and effective in their work, and we can all learn from them. I’m not accusing you of laziness! I’ll leave you to reflect on the issue, although I’m inclined to think that we all ha

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. This proverb, like so many of them, is just sheer good sense. It’s the kind of statement that could easily be turned into a good fridge magnet! At one level it is screamingly obvious, but we all know how incredibly easy it is to hurtle through life blindly without doing the necessary research. We live in a world that is full of potential risks and dangers and so it is sensible to come up with careful plans. This approach to wisdom is really helpful, so long as we put it alongside other wise sayings. For example, Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.” It’s good to plan but, as we do so, we need to commit the whole process into God’s hands. Jesus spoke about the importance of planning. He challenged people to follow him, but he didn’t want them to make this enormous step without first working out the implications of such a decision. He sai

Proverbs 21:26 Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give! Longing for more money and possessions is a terrible disease, but our materialistic society is built on the assumption that that is how we should all live. Long ago the Greek philosopher Epicurus wrote: “Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.” And yet the place of true peace and contentment is where you know you have enough, and have no desire to find more. The apostle Paul said that he had “learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything” (Philippians 4:11-12). God’s desire for us is that our focus should never be upon seeking to acquire more, but to become better at giving. I love seeing generosity and I hope that I am always learning from the example of other people. I have a friend who always carries a significant number of bank notes with him. He once explained to me why: “You never know when the Lord might give you the opportunity to bless

1 Peter 5:8-9 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. I have visited Africa on a number of occasions and have gone on several safaris. They are not at all like safari parks in this country where you are guaranteed to see a wide range of animals. On a safari there are some days when you will see very little, if anything, and so you need to be on the lookout all the time. On one occasion I went on a walking safari. Our guide had a gun with him because of the possibility of danger and, as you can imagine, we were incredibly vigilant as we walked together. In the event, nothing dangerous happened and I live to tell the tale. Peter was acutely conscious of the dangers that confronted the early Church. He knew from painful personal experience that the Church was threatened by the authorities and many individuals who were eager to see Christianity snuffed out. He knew that the

1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Whether they are large or small, we all carry various cares and concerns. They may be focused on health issues for ourselves or those who are close to us. We may be concerned about the future, money or what is happening in the world today. It is impossible to avoid a whole range of concerns, so the question isn’t whether we’ve got any, but what we do with them. If we hug them to ourselves, the likelihood is that they will turn into anxiety and end up dominating our lives. Peter encourages us to take decisive action by handing our worries and cares to God. The crucial statement that Peter makes is that God cares for us, and that takes us to the heart of the gospel. God could have stayed at a distance. He didn’t have to enter into relationship with us, but he chose to do so. In the Old Testament we see his care for the people of Israel, even though they frequently rebelled against him. This is poignantly described in the prophecy

1 Peter 5:5 All of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Some years ago, I was privileged to attend a conference at St George’s Windsor for key strategic leaders. We were given the task of identifying the most important personal qualities that were needed for strategic leadership. My small group included a chief constable, a general from the British Army, the managing director of a major engineering firm, a high-flying civil servant and the finance director of a large organisation. I was the only church leader. After many hours of fascinating conversation, the group decided without a shadow of doubt that the first quality that was needed was humility. This was because we recognised that a humble person is good at being flexible. They are willing to admit when they make a mistake and are eager to welcome other people’s ideas. Humility doesn’t often get a good press so I was amazed and delighted that this hugely competent an

1 Peter 5:1-2 As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. After Jesus’ resurrection, he shared breakfast with his disciples beside the Sea of Galilee, and there he commanded Peter to take care of his sheep (John 21:15-17). In today’s verses, which were written 30 or 40 years later, Peter recognises that this crucial responsibility is one that he shares with many others. All churches need shepherds, people who have the gift of caring for other people and encouraging them in their Christian lives. Some of these shepherds may be paid for their ministry, but many will do it as a natural expression of their Christian service alongside other responsibilities. The truth is that we all need caring for. However old and experienced we may be as Christians, we need others to look out for us and pray for us. This is what is known as pastoral care, but sadly th

1 Peter 4:10-11 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. The New Testament is absolutely clear that we each have a gift. But isn’t it interesting that, so often, when we identify someone’s particular gift we focus our attention on the receiver and not the giver? We talk about a gifted musician or preacher or cake maker and praise them for their gift. But if we believe that such skills and abilities are a gift from God then, surely, we should be praising him for his generosity. In these verses, Peter encouraged his readers to remember where their gifts came from, and their need to keep their eyes on God as they used them. Peter illustrated his point in two ways. Firstly, he spoke of those who have the gift of speaking. This is a particularly intere

1 Peter 4:7-8 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other. The idea of the world coming to an end is a challenging thought, but Peter wasn’t in any sense threatening his readers. The New Testament writers all spoke of this as the climax and fulfilment of God’s purposes. They felt the end of the world was something that everyone should look forward to with great excitement. The last days began with the coming of Jesus into the world and will come to an end with his return. Whether Jesus returns to this earth within the next week or in a thousand years the time is limited, and Peter was concerned that this should focus his readers’ minds. There was no time to lose. The challenge that he posed in the first century applies equally to us today as we anticipate the return of Christ: that believers should be both earnest and disciplined in their prayers. I’m sure we all know how incredibly easy it i

1 Peter 3:15-16 If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. When Peter wrote his letter, Christianity was still quite new and so I am sure that many people were very curious about it. Peter was keen that his readers shouldn’t miss any opportunity to talk about it. But it had to be done in the right way. If they were aggressive and disrespectful it could put people off for ever. So he urged them to be ready for every opportunity but to ensure that their responses were gentle and respectful. In our own society so few people attend church that there is, once again, a great curiosity about Christian faith. Most people know that Christianity exists, but haven’t a clue what it’s about, so we all need to be ready to talk about our hope as believers. I know this may sound intimidating, but it shouldn’t. We don’t need to have all the answers, and in fact none of us does. We simply need to be able to explain why Jesus is so important to

1 Peter 3:9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. If you have ever been insulted, you will know that the immediate reflex reaction is to want to even the score. In the pain of the moment, we are all inclined to cry out for justice because it’s just not right that people should get away with insulting us. It would seem that Peter’s readers were well used to being insulted. Christianity was a new phenomenon, and its teachings stood in sharp contrast to the thinking of the time. Christians faced verbal and physical attacks on a regular basis. Christians have been under attack throughout the past 2,000 years. There are horrifying stories of the ways in which the Salvation Army was attacked in this country in the latter part of the 19th century. There are distressing accounts of dead animals, some set alight, being hurled at passing Salvationists as they