Be Still My Soul
We sang this song at church last night and the words seemed so apt so I thought I’d share them here. These are the truths I need to be reminded of constantly at the moment and this song does it so well!
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, be leaving, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.
What is faith?
Have spent today looking for illustrations of faith for Girls Brigade Parade on Sunday where we’re looking at Hebrews 11. Was using my old trusty friend google and came across this from Piper which I thought was really helpful
Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let’s say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, “Jump, I’ll catch you. I promise.” Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that moment? Answer: trust him and jump. Have faith in him and jump. That makes him look strong and wise and loving. But if you won’t jump, if you shake your head and run away from the edge, you make your daddy look bad. It looks like you are saying, “he can’t catch me” or “he won’t catch me” or “it’s not a good idea to do what he tells me to do.” And all three of those make your dad look bad.
But you don’t want to make God look bad. So you trust him. Then you make him look good–which he really is. And that is what we mean when we say, “Faith glorifies God” or “Faith gives God glory.” It makes him look as good as he really is. So trusting God is really important.
What a great illustration, especially to explain faith to children!
Cancelled
“Hereby cancelled, voided, avoided, nullified, set aside and is of no further force and effect”
This is the BBC’s quote of the day for Thursday 26th November, it’s the quote of a judge deciding in favour of a couple who were set to lose their house because of debt. He ruled against the banks and scrapped the $500,000 debt as the banks were apparently unfair in their administration of the debt. The couple in question must have felt such a relief! They “went to court expecting to be evicted after interest and penalties on their mortgage took their debts to $500,000 (about £300,000). But as the bank had rejected their every attempt to settle the debt, the judge branded the bank “repulsive” and wiped their slate clean”. Totally clean!
Not a perfect picture, but nonetheless a reminder that our debt against God has totally been ripped up to. He’s said to me :
“Sarah your debt is hereby cancelled, voided, avoided, nullified, set aside and is of no further force and effect”.
And this is true for all who trust in Jesus 
And my debt wasn’t unfair to begin with, I owed it but now I don’t – Jesus has paid the price!
woop!
Looking Back
Last weekend I was back in Preston for a friends (well two friends!) wedding, which was a great opportunity to catch up with lots of people. Also though, I found it really weird to be back in Preston. Preston was “home” to me for three years and I’ve now not lived there for nearly as long, so as the train was going through Preston and I saw my old lecture halls, my old flat and places once so familiar I got to thinking about how much I have changed and how I am not the same person that left Preston (which is a good thing!)
Seeing places evoked memories (good and bad) and the more I saw and thought, the more I realised that God has been changing me and as much as I didn’t want my time at uni and CU and church there to end, I’m really glad it did!
Maybe the above doesn’t make any sense to anyone else . . . sorry!
Also, found this video (through some facebooks statuses!) which kinda underlines the above! When I was on UClan CU committee, I grew to having some of these convictions but wouldn’t have verbalised them like this, or held them so strongly. It’s so great to see that the CU has grown in boldness and is totally set on the vision on “Living for Jesus and Speaking for Jesus” on their campus with a passion that is so strong! I am really passionate about CUs and how they can really impact their campuses with the gospel, but as a student I wasn’t that passionate about CU, because (to be honest) I was a little ashamed of the gospel. That’s why I’m now so excited to see a group of students at UCLan so passionate and holding firm to the truths of the gospel
Awesome!
Living on a prayer
So last night I was driving to Ferndales prayer meeting (which took a record 20 minutes! the joy of living next door to a football ground!) and Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” came on the radio.
The last time I remember listening to this song (because I’m sure I’ve listened to it hundreds of times in between!) was driving back from a Relay Training Day in Manchester. It was memorable because it was about five months into relay and therefore halfway through! But, also one of the things that Relay really taught me was to rely on God for everything . . . literally “living on a prayer”!
It was slightly bizarre, but great to be reminded of this in a secular song that really isn’t about relying on the amazing God of the universe for all things!
Legacy
Today, I’ve listened to loads of my music collection as I’ve been working, and most of them I couldn’t tell you what they were right now, but there’s one that’s really gotten me thinking.
It’s by Nicole Nordeman, and it’s an album I’ve had for a couple of years but the first line of the song really made me think in relation to stuff that’s been going on recently. The line is “I don’t mind if you’ve got something nice to say about me“. I (like lots of other people I would guess) find it really tempting to not mind so much what negative things people say about me as long as there are others being nice to and about me! This is a situation that’s occurred recently and I realised today that my thinking has been pretty much along those lines which is totally wrong because I am becoming the centre of it all!
Nicole’s last words sum it up pretty well I think: “ I don’t have to look too far or too long awhile, To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy, It’s an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile , Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy , Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred , Just want to hear instead, “Well Done” good and faithful one…“.”
It’s like the old “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me”, except for the fact that names can indeed hurt us (a lot!) and it’s the fact that names don’t matter that’s important. What matters is hearing “ Well Done good and faithful one…” for fixing my eyes on Jesus and not wavering even when it’s so tempting! That has to be our motives for doing all things, not the praise we may get from “the world” because that won’t last – it’ll rot away. Others are important in encouraging us to keep going but it can not be their words alone that cause us to keep going, otherwise we are doing it merely for flattery!
Now there are issues of reconciliation and forgiveness involved here, and of course we must forgive those who have hurt us (even before they ask for it!) and must seek to be reconciled – but we do this because we are relationship with the God of the Universe and not because we want to leave a great legacy that screams in years to come “How great was s/he!”, but we want them to realise how great He is!
Ultimately I want to be one who “ hang[s] my hat on more besides the temporary trappings of this world” and constantly points to the one who made all things!
Here’s the full lyrics of the song:
I don’t mind if you’ve got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all who’s who and so-n-so’s that used to be the best
At such’n’such … it wouldn’t matter muchI won’t lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an ‘Atta boy’ or ‘Atta girl’
But in the end I’d like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this worldI want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacyI don’t have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy
It’s an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroyNot well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, “Well Done” good and faithful one…
Light in the World
This morning at church we looked at Matthew 5:14-16:
14″You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Bonnet, the pastor of Brethern in Christ church that shares Ferndales building was speaking and it was brilliant. He explored so many ways in which we are called to be light in this world! |The one that really struck me however was about ‘Doing the Unusual’.
He made the point that we often as Christians ‘do the usual’, so do what other people do. Do what is culturally acceptable. And we do! This links into conversations I’ve had friends this week to do with Halloween and how we as Christians should celebrate it. i.e. do we totally avoid any dealings with it, or make a value judgment depending on what it is we’re doing. e.g. spending time with non Christian friends which has some Halloween content such as pumpkin carving and dressing up? I think I’d tend towards to the second but can understand why people would go for the first because we are called to be children of light . . .
But back to this morning, Bonnet gave the example of Desmond Tutu’s conversion which really struck me. Desmond grew up in South Africa during the apartheid so was used to the fact that he had to give white people the right of way whilst walking. According to wikipedia (not the most reliable of sources but pretty accurate this time I think) the story is as follows:
“One day”, said Tutu, “I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest’s clothing walked past. As he passed us he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn’t believe my eyes — a white man who greeted a black working class woman!”
This white priest did the unusual! He looked beyond the cultural norms and loved his neighbour, even though it would have been seen as awful.
This felt like such a challenge!
What I’ve been doing . . .
So, thought I’d update what I’ve been doing (as that was partly the aim of the blog to begin with!)
The first half term has flown by! I can not believe that it is November tomorrow!! It is madness! I’ve really been enjoying doing things for a second time though. One of the frustrations about being in Lancaster for just a year was that I felt I was just getting to build relationships and then I left. That’s even more true in church life I’ve discovered as relationships take a lot longer to build than in the student context. If I’d left Essex after a year, I would have been really sad I think, even though staying isn’t always all that easy!
Has made me think about the importance of relationship building in churches and how they don’t just happen overnight most of the time, but really do need investing in. It’s definitely giving me food for thought in terms of thinking about next year.
So, this week has been half term and for one reason and another I’ve been able to spend it with
people I’ve not seen in varying lengths of time which was such a blessing! I managed to explore a bit of Southend that I hadn’t been to before and found the most amazing independent coffee shop – I’ve been feeling for a while that Southend is missing one! What made it so amazing was partially the old fashioned amazing room it’s in and partially (possibly more so . . ) was tea from a proper old fashioned tea pot with loose tea leaves! Awesome! Also, tried cockles for the first time (well they are a local delicacy . . . ) but I didn’t actually try them . . the reactions of my friends who did was enough to put me off! Touching them was bad enough!
I discovered that Canvey Island (known locally for not being the best place) is quite pretty at sunset and that some shop names in Leigh try to sum up stereotypical Essex (see below)!!
The end of the week, I got to travel North (though that meant too much time on the M1 with a sign telling me there was a queue caution 45 minutes after I had been in it and gone 3 miles! Ironic!), sadly not as north as I would have like but to Leicester to see my lovely school friends
Next week, I’m off the Lindisfarne with the leadership team at church which I’m really looking forward to . . . will update after that!
Marvellous Moldova 2009
Ok, so last week I got dragged up the front of church with no notice to report on my trip to Moldova earlier this year (I got home 3 months ago now!). If I wanted I could list a whole list of reasons (excuses) as why I’ve not told that many people about the trip. . . . instead . . . here’s my report!! Which after writing I realise is quite long . . . feel free to skip to the end where I say what I learnt!
So, Moldova has been and gone. This years experience was so different to last years in so many ways, but one thing stayed exactly the same - God worked amazingly and shown His grace in ways I’d never thought about before!
There’s so much I want to write about, but I don’t think there’s space or time to do so! There’s so much overflowing from my mind about the trip so here’s some of it . .
As we left . .
I was really torn about whether or not I really wanted to be going (true but majorly suprising I know!). There was a lot of things in the UK that had consumed my every minute for weeks and was feeling that there’d be no way that I would be able to focus on the mission trip without being distracted. Loads of doubts about being good enough also managed to creep in! Meeting the team in Luton and preparing to fly out put some of these at rest though, through other people and being reminded over and over of grace!
When we arrived . .
Orientation took up the first week of our stay and we were staying in a lovely Church near the centre of Chisnau, which also is home to a Christian school (with nice dorms!).
The hospitality we received those first few days was immense. CSC (Moldovan UCCF) staff had arranged between them to cook all of our meals even though it meant sacrificially early starts and late nights for most of them to travel to where we were staying. Also, it meant that we got amazing Moldovan food! The sessions in orientation were all geared towards loving one another and working as a team. There was so much I learnt that week, including yet another reminder that God doesn’t get his address wrong! The reason I was on the trip was because God wanted me there! Towards the end of Orientation, although things at home still preoccupied my mind, I genuinely was feeling refreshed and way up for camp! I’d been reminded of so many gospel truths that are too easy to allow to slip away and been able to chat and pray things through with people and been reminded of the privilege that it is to be in Christian work!
Just before camp . .
The day that we left for camp we were informed that we had to visit the doctors for a Polio test. This turned out to not be totally accurate and sadly the tests weren’t all that nice for some of the team. This experience was tough and painful, but turned out to be in so many ways, good. Issues relating to previous things were able to be talked about and prayed about and the post Soviet culture became more real to us. We’d been aware that as it was pre election time (round 2) things were difficult for Christians and students and that other Christian camps had been closed down by the authorities, so in a way we were a little prepared for something to happen, but not for something to occur that would affect some of us as individuals.
Camp . .
So, the team that arrived on camp was a broken, hurting team and yet I was amazed by the way in which they all get totally stuck in! Although there was every reason to not be as a whole hearted on one hand, the team chose to be whole hearted for the same reasons and because of their commitment to the gospel! The first morning of camp was when I saw “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15) lived out like never before, and that really set the camp tone in some ways,people being sensitive and speaking the gospel wisely!
The brokenness of the British team was apparent in many ways to the Moldovans, so much so that one of them said to me towards the end of the trip, that although she’d been involved in many camps before, knew as a Christian that no-one is totally sorted, she’d this year seen that was true of the British team. Previous years she’d seen the team as being “sorted” (wrongly!) but this year she realised that being Western didn’t make us anymore sorted in God’s eyes!
Camp revolved around English lessons, which we taught ever morning for a hour and a half . . . . I’d love to say the time flew by, but my lovely group did their best to make sure that it didn’t! They weren’t easy but I am quite fond of them now! English lessons are the main attraction for many of the Moldovan students that come along, which is why so much time, energy and preparation goes into them. Also, they’re great for building relationships!
We also did bible studies every morning which was great! We went through “The world we all want” by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. It really is a great course, it had been adapted for our use as there is no way we could have done the normal one as it contains a lot of scripture (a great thing, but a real hindrance when you are doing a bible study in English, and the native language of those participating is Romanian or Russian or other with very varied English fluency levels!). Opening the bible for yourself is quite a novel idea for a lot of Moldovan students so studying it came as a huge shock to some! Having an opinion and voicing it is also novel!
I didn’t have my own bible study on camp this year which made the whole camp experience really different. It meant that I got to spend time with loads of different people on camp which I enjoyed, especially praying with some of CSC women. But, it was definitely strange! Amazingly, the one girl that I managed to spend a lot of time having gospel conversations with was a girl called Alina! Now, Alina and I had history! She had been in my group last year and had pretty much been a nightmare as a group member. It was really interesting to catch up with her and see the ways in which she had changed and had become so much more open to the gospel since last summer! She’d attended so many CSC events throughout the year that she’d failed her year at Uni but was asking some great questions (a great reminder that CSC continues without the Brits!)
During the camp four people made a commitment to Christ for the first time which was so exciting!
Post Camp . . .
We had four or five days left at the end of the camp before we were flying back to the UK. We spent in debrief, allowing people to talk and pray out what had happened pre camp and
really immersing ourselves in scripture which was a real joy!
We also had the ‘traditional’ UCCF and CSC day of fun! This year we got to go the Soroca in the north of Moldova and wave across the river to the Ukraine (something I was highly excited about!).
What did God teach me . . .
The simple answer is loads, the more detailed (but not full answer!) is here:
- That He is God wherever I am and therefore nothing is out of His control even when it really seems like it
- That the prayers and encouragement of fellow Christians really makes a difference (even when they are in a different country!) Receiving texts and mega long phone calls that will have been very expensive for them, just to encourage me was amazing and really showed true fellowship.
- God will provide! Due to a human error, we’d started the trip financially on the edge . . . . we left Moldova being able to leave CSC a significant amount of money AND offer our team a refund!
- God guides and leads – many times, it seemed we were following in the dark, but He guided us, provided the right people in the right places to help
- We can pray and rely on God for all our needs!
- I love mission!!
My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me
We’ve been going through a DVD series on the History of Christianity on Sunday evenings for the last three weeks which I’ve found really interesting, although it is a little biased in places!!
Last Sunday we did the Reformation which was extra interesting for me., as I’d studied it in A Level History but never from a Christian perspective.
What really struck me was in connection to Martin Luther, and the fact that when he read “My God My God why have you forsaken me” he clearly identified with it, being a young man in a monastery feeling that although he had done everything to make himself nothing (freezing himself, praying for hours on end etc) to please God and still felt like God was a million miles away from him.
It’s how Jesus felt on the cross, but he was quoting a psalm when he said it (Psalm 22) which led me to the realisation that it isn’t wrong to feel this way! The bible clearly expects that we will feel like this from time to time! What freedom, to know that feeling that way isn’t wrong – in fact God has given us emotions. The “wrongness” comes in when it leads us to sin. So, I feel like God has abandoned me so it’s ok for me to ignore him, to not love other people sacrificially etc. Actually, it’s the opposite. If I’ve learnt one thing over recent months it’s that our feelings aren’t always right! So, although I feel that God has forsaken me, I know that he hasn’t and that as the old Relay motto goes “God is still God and the gospel is still true” no matter how I am feeling at any given point.
I’ve been really blessed to have friends reminding me of this over the last few weeks, and although it feels like an uphill struggle at times, the truth of the gospel is no less true and there is someone who totally gets it! Jesus! They are the very words he uttered on the cross (Matthew 27:45-46). Our Saviour gets it! He knows the pain because he’s been there! And, best of all – because of his suffering on the cross we can come to God even when we don’t feel he’s there!
Amazing! And, it shows church history is relevant!!!
