"A LIGHT TO MY PATH"

When I was converted to Jesus, I was given a powerful longing within for a godly and upright life. I was also given a natural desire to pray. Thirdly I was given a clear inward recognition that my bible was the word of life and would be an essential guide for my life. These I believed (and still do) were the vital operations of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer. They have been the key of my Christian faith and of my experience of God. They are the proven truths of my life. It has always seemed to me very clear that they were actually the very same spiritual foundations that underlay the life of Jesus himself.

The truth uppermost in my mind at the moment is that of the bible as the word of life. The modern world and modern society is knocking harder than ever at the recognition of the bible as the word of life and the guide for life. To try to argue from the bible in public debate is more and more a non-starter. It simply meets with the contempt and arrogance that is reserved for the foolish and the unlearned. This is no more evident than in the current debate on the nature of marriage.

That debate takes for granted the liberal humanistic agenda that “same-sex” physical relationships are in order and to be welcomed, even dubbed as marriage. It is considered self-evident civilised thinking. We are not to be allowed to make the point strongly that this is not in the least condoned by biblical standards; that biblically it is retrogressive rather than progressive. We have to argue from the humanistic platform to avoid scorn. And there is plenty of scorn and vituperation ready to be poured on opponents of the same sex bandwagon.

Holding to biblical truth is, however, critical for our own lives as Christians and it is critical for our witness in the world. Whether we are scorned or not our calling is to be faithful to the word of God and not to weaken in our own standards no matter how much pressure is exerted on us. My great fear is that many Christians will compromise and weaken.

The prophets were given a clear mandate; they were to speak the truth of God, whether or not people would listen. And they were to speak openly as from Him. No threats or despite were to stop such plain speaking. They prophets were appallingly handled but they had the approval of God. They were also eventually vindicated.

These thoughts about the need for strong personal conviction in the word of God, and particularly in this current national debate, came to me whilst reading through Psalm 119, and I have listed below one or two of the salient verses that stood out as I was reading. Meditation on such truth is very crucial in our generation. It is not a co-incidence, I’m sure, that Psalm 119 is by far the longest psalm in the book.

v46-47 “I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them.”

vv 51-52 “The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law.
I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them.”

v59 “I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes”.

V69 “Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart.”

v126 It is time for you to act, O LORD; your law is being broken

Have a look at the psalm if you have time.



Bob


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THE SECURITY OF ISRAEL

The Israeli Prime Minister has been in Washington for talks with President Obama this week. The subject for discussion was Iran’s growing nuclear threat. The Israelis want an assurance that the U.S. will not go soft on stopping Iran getting a nuclear bomb. President Ahmadinejad of Iran openly denies the historicity of the Holocaust and equally openly preaches the cause of the total obliteration of Israel. His rival political figure, Supreme Leader Khamenei, takes a similar line. It’s a very jittery time for Israel, with half its people calling for a “strike” on Iran and half of them dreading the consequences. Is such a strike actually feasible? Would it backfire? It’s a situation that looks well beyond human wisdom.

It’s the sort of situation, however, that Israel has been in before in its sixty year history. At the nation’s inception in 1948, at a point of extreme vulnerability, it was attacked by overwhelming Arab forces but survived. In 1967 the same happened and again in 1973. All these deliverances had a distinct feel of the miraculous about them.

Arguably more striking than even those deliverances, however, was an event widely remembered last month. Seventy years ago in January, 1942, in Germany, 15 senior Nazis, with the support of the Grand Mufti Arab leader, were planning the “Final Solution” for the extermination of European and Middle Eastern Jewry. The threat was enormous and of serious intent, even if it the plan looked like megalomania. Hitler’s unbeaten armies were poised to conquer Egypt and overrun Palestine; they were also poised to conquer Russia. Victory on both fronts would be used to destroy Jewry, and victory looked all too possible. Within three years, however, Hitler’s Reich was utterly destroyed as victory turned to abject defeat, and the Jews found the superpowers sympathetic to their return to the “Promised Land”!

Most political analysts of the time saw that return to Palestine as marking the end of such anti-Semitic megalomania and as solving “the Jewish problem”. The Jews certainly believed that. Unfortunately nothing could have been further from the truth. Anti-Semitism did not die. It transmuted into a much more focussed and virulent strain to become Anti-Zionism. The violence and hatred were once again to be seen and heard. We have now had sixty years of it, and it is not diminishing. I am in fact writing at this moment about a new peak in its threatening history.

Despite the world’s explanations, this violence and hatred is not a social or a political problem; it is a spiritual problem. It is to be explained only in categories which this humanistic and “enlightened” world despises and rejects. It is a spiritual problem because its causes are spiritual; that is to say we are looking not at human forces of hatred at work but supernatural spiritual forces. I find this most clearly presented in an “apocalyptic” prophecy in Revelation. John saw in his Revelation (Chapter 12) a picture of a woman giving birth to a child. The woman unmistakably represented Israel. A dragon, equally unmistakably representing Satan and the Powers of Evil, sought to devour the child. The child, however, who was obviously Jesus, was swept up into heaven. The dragon then went to war and sought to destroy the woman (Israel) and her other “seed” which are the followers of the child Jesus. The woman was, however, kept safe “in the wilderness”, despite frequent floods from the Dragon’s mouth to drown her.

Apocalyptic is hardly a modern idiom, but any serious student of Jewish history will recognise immediately that this vision is profoundly in tune with what actually happened to the Jews in the following 2000 years. They were caught up in a supernatural battle. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism defy any other convincing analysis.

At this juncture of history one of the most relevant aspects of this revelation is to be found simply in the prophesied safety of the woman (Israel). Nothing could be clearer, and nothing more demonstrable from history than its amazing preservation both from violence and from assimilation by other nations . Floods of all sorts over two millennia, though inflicting much loss of life, have not destroyed Israel. The reason for that is that God has a purpose for the nation. That purpose remains, and the purpose is that Israel has a significant part to play in the Lord’s return.
Israel remains the key to the turmoil in the Middle East. I find it fascinating that two of its worst opponents, Iraq and Syria, are now in complete disarray after years of threats against Israel. Iran in its turn is now no more an obstacle to God than they have been. And God is very much on the field. These are extraordinary times. They may be violent and vicious times, but the battle in the Middle East must inevitably go God’s way. Rest assured!

We can, therefore, be confident, but that does not mean complacent – it means watching and praying. But God’s victory is sure.


Bob


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COALITION FOR MARRIAGE

I’m sure a good many of you reading this column will have already been alerted to the launch this month of the Coalition for Marriage. It is an umbrella body representing faith groups, MPs, Peers, academics, lawyers, pro-family organizations and grassroots supporters of traditional marriage in the U.K. and opposed to any attempt to redefine it. CARE trust is part of it and putting its full weight behind it. The Coalition already has over 50,000 signatories. Like everything else these days it has its own code – C4M! But don’t let that put you off. Sign up!

It is a very welcome response to the government’s announced intention of re-defining marriage in order to include same-sex unions. This is to happen this year. The Home Secretary has made it clear that a consultation on the issue before the legislation is introduced will not be about whether the change should happen, but simply how it should happen. This is an astonishing example of blatant political bullying on a most profound issue and without any consensus whatsoever as to whether public feeling is really behind any such change. The Government is in fact attempting to stifle public debate on the issue. Happily C4M is demanding a debate. It’s up to us to support and make sure feelings are properly aired. We need a road block against such an irresponsible Juggernaut.

One of the most disturbing features about modern government is that it simply doesn’t seem to listen to any advice, tries to do everything too quickly and consequently in most cases does it badly. That’s the Achilles Heal of our kind of democracy. George Carey, the former Archbishop, put his finger on the source of the problem when, at the launch of C4M, he said, “The Government – egged on by pressure groups and image advisors, but not the general public – is pressing ahead to re-write the legal definition of marriage”. My reaction is simply, “Image advisors!!” What have they to do with such a serious issue? Is it a case of, “Yes, Mr. Cameron, we must be seen to be progressive; a change in marriage would look OK”? Is that where we have come to? What about substance and principle?

It would be very difficult to overstress the absolute centrality to society of the building block called marriage, in the way it has been defined for millennia. A man and a woman meet, commit themselves to each other, have children and then over the years that follow seek to provide the stability and love for those children to grow up happily. That love and stability comes out of the mutual love of the parents. It provides an essential place of belonging, security and resource with a true male-female balance. The particular man-woman relationship does not become redundant when the children grow up; it can still be fundamental not only to the well-being of the couple but to a growing family which includes grandchildren. The cycle is repeated by their children as they grow up. Marriage is the hub of life. To blur this clear definition is dangerous in the extreme.

Some marriages, of course, do not produce children, for a variety of valid reasons. But there remains at the heart of marriage the simple and natural biological physical engagement between man and woman which underlines their mutual companionship, complementarity and love. With or without children it remains the core ingredient of personal affirmation and social cohesion.

When the family fails (which unfortunately it can), society fails. When the family is broken, society breaks down. When the family fights, violence is found everywhere. The most important task of the powers that be is to strengthen marriage, educate for marriage, encourage marriage, and honour marriage. Government has no warrant to tinker with it in the interests of minority pressure groups who are well catered for. It does not need changing in essence – it was a “given” before governments were thought of.
Same sex relationships have also been known for centuries. What has never been acknowledged is that they can be considered as a form of marriage.

For a Christian, of course, the creation ordinance of one woman given to one man, with complementarities which include an extraordinary sexual complementarity, will always underline the basic relationship we call marriage.


Bob