Bulletin Number 152 ( 31st Dec 2008 )
Look to the Rock …

A few months ago, when the credit crunch was beginning to bite, I was in Birmingham New Street station with an Anglican colleague. We sat in a café waiting for our train. The café was surrounded by a large mall of shops and as I looked around at the shops, I said to my colleague, “I can imagine that half of these shops will be closed by this time next year.” Afterwards I thought I was painting too gloomy a picture but here we are on the threshold of a new year with the banks in chaos, high street stores closing by the week, the pound at parity with the Euro and a dramatic collapse in confidence in the business world. In the main shopping area of West Bridgford we spotted another shop, Max Spielmann, with a ‘closed down’ sign in the window today.

Any of us in the church who rely on secular employment for their living will know the pressures on the leaders of industry and commerce and will be ever fearful of what 2009 might bring. And yet, Christians are people of hope and we should be pointing ourselves, and the people we meet, to the source of that hope. I love those words in Isaiah 51 – “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and seek the LORD. Look to the rock from which you were cut and the quarry from which you were hewn.” The writer of these verses directs Israel to remember where they came from and what made them great in the past. It was God who took a small handful of people, and through the faith of their ancestors made them into a great nation. Sadly, that greatness faded and the people were whisked off into slavery and endured years of hardship and alienation. We need in our churches to set aside time to pray for our nation, especially those in authority and those who will struggle most in times of economic depression.

But despite all the doom and gloom, the Israelites were reminded that certain things never change. Firstly, you can’t change your past. The triumphs and achievements of past generations are still there for all to see. The men and women of faith who led them to the present moment cannot be erased from the history books. Secondly, God’s faithfulness never changes and his salvation is for all generations. See verse 8, “But my righteousness will last for ever, my salvation through all generations.”

I love taking photographs of buildings and I take special notice of those which used to be banks. These are strong, imposing stone buildings which were built to last. They were seen as symbols of security where people could invest their money with confidence. How things have changed! No, as Christians we need to remember that our confidence is not in the transient institutions of this world but in an eternal God who holds the whole cosmos in the palm of his hand. Do we truly believe that? Do we act as if we do or are we ‘practical atheists’?

I believe, having spoken to many friends and colleagues who, like me, run a business, that things will be very different in the future. We have been shaken up and once the dust settles, we will need to cling to those things that are important. This can only be a good thing for the nation as a whole because there is much goodness within our society and it has been handed down to us from past generations, especially from people who, like Abraham and Sarah (v2) were people of vision, faith and courage. As long as we hold fast to our faith in the Living God and respond to his leading, we shall ride through the turbulence of the present age and see miraculous transformation in years to come.

Isaiah’s prophecy includes these words: “The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD, joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.” (Isaiah 51:v3).

Happy New Year...

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For more information on these bulletins and other matters relating to evangelism in the Nottingham and Derby District, contact Roger Johnson on 0115 923 5221 / 07913 252541 or email dee@ionian.co.uk