I can only imagine

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I can only imagine

Hymn Histories : I can only imagine
Written by : Bart Millard

Post author : Nicky Donald

This hymn was written by Bart Millard, founder of the Christian band MercyMe.

It is surprisingly difficult to find the stories behind more modern Christian hymns. Perhaps most stories are only told by others looking back at a hymn writer’s experience? It certainly can’t be because modern writers don’t experience the same grief and pain, comfort and wonder that our older hymn writers did – as we can see from today’s story

Bart Millard says that he wrote his song in only a few minutes but that it took at lifetime of chaos, heartache, abuse and broken relationships to craft which makes it all the more surprising when you hear the words of the first verse, which take us straight to the gates of heaven and asks the question ‘What will it be like the first time we see His face?’
I can only imagine what it will be like
When I walk by Your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see
When Your face is before me
I can only imagine

So how did Bart get to that point, from the background he had where to call his home life rough is an understatement? His father physically and verbally abused him on multiple occasions throughout his early life, making his life a misery. The only constants in Bart’s life were his faith and his music, anchoring him in the deep love of a heavenly Father who was so different from his earthly one. But despite that, the weight of a broken relationship with his father haunted him.

Bart left home to follow his love of music and had nothing more to do with his father. It was only when his father was diagnosed with cancer that they eventually were brought closer together. Bart was amazed to see first-hand how dramatically his dad had changed after he too had come to trust in the Lord as his Saviour. He says, ‘I got a front row seat to see this guy go from being a monster to falling desperately in love with Jesus. He was like the godliest man I’d ever known.’

When his Dad died, Bart was left with the assurance that he had gone to a better place where there is no crying, or pain, or tears. This led him to write this song expressing what it would be like when he was reunited with his earthly father where they could rejoice together before their heavenly Father:

‘Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?

Will I dance for You, Jesus
or in awe of You be still?


Will I stand in Your presence
Or to my knees will I fall?

Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine.’

Isn’t it wonderful to know that we will be reunited with our loved ones who have died trusting in His redemptive love and that we will be able to sing hallelujahs together before the throne?

And is it not also a challenge to us to be bold and to make sure we share this best news of the gospel with our families, our friends, our work mates so that they too can be there

I can only imagine: Bart Millard

Forgive as God forgave you

John Johnstone Sermons

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 10th September, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35

Every true Christian church is a family where we should expect to be loved. Remember what Jesus said: ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:35)

But let me make another statement which is also true: every true Christian church is a place where we can expect to be hurt and offended and let down. That doesn’t sound so good. But it is both true and realistic, and it’s important that we think about that, so that when others do let us down, we’re not surprised.

1. Be realistic

Peter understands this. He comes to Jesus with a question (verse 21): ‘Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

Peter’s question is ‘when’ my brother sins against me and not ‘if’. It is inevitable. When they do sin against me what am I going to do? Will I go in a huff? Will I leave the church? Will I stop speaking to them? Will I give them the cold shoulder?

I suspect he might have been asking out of his own personal experience. Perhaps some of the disciples had offended him and treated him badly. ‘But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.’ (Mark 9:34)

So, how realistic are you in this area? Do you recognise that people in this church will sin against you? And that you will sin against them from time to time. People will hurt our feelings. In the church? Other Christians? Yes.

We live in an age where people are hyper-sensitive as to how they are treated. When wronged by others, many react like hedgehogs and curl up into a ball in a defensive position, refusing to deal properly with the person we feel has wronged us. Others might react like a rhinoceros, charging around, fighting fire with fire, and retaliating against those who have hurt us. Neither reaction is godly. We must understand this basic truth: when we become Christians, yes, God forgives us, but that doesn’t mean that we stop sinning. That only happens when we reach Heaven! We live in a fallen world, and all Christians still struggle with sin. To put it bluntly, if you stay in this church, you will sin against me and I will sin against you. Peter is realistic and we need to be too.

2. The limit of forgiveness

Peter knows he should forgive others. What does he want to know? How many times should he forgive? In other words, is there a limit?

Jewish rabbis said you should not ask for forgiveness more than three times. That was enough. Asking a fourth time is asking for too much. You can’t just keep on doing the same thing can you? Peter is more forgiving than the rabbis. Perhaps Peter expects Jesus to praise him for his generous heart. Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’ In other words, an unlimited number of times. Just keep on forgiving your brother or sister, without counting, and without stopping. It’s not a matter of arithmetic (counting up) but attitude (being a forgiving person). We don’t think, ‘That’s the eighth rude thing he’s said to me this week.’

If we’re honest, we find it hard to forgive sometimes. So, what should we think about in order to become more forgiving people? Why should we forgive others?

That brings us to the parable. A man owes billions of pounds to the king but claims he can pay it back. He couldn’t even pay back the interest on his debt! Who is the king, and who is the first servant? God is the king, and the servant with the huge debt stands for all Christians.

3. Our forgiveness

Let’s just pause here. What is God telling us through this picture of a servant with a debt so big that he can never possibly pay it back? We are the servant. We are in a similarly desperate situation, in that we owe God a moral debt that we can never hope to pay back. Did you know that? No one likes to be in financial debt – it’s a horrible thing. But there is something far worse and far more serious, and that’s to be in moral debt to God.

Every single day I fail God and let him down. I do not love my neighbour as myself, and I certainly don’t love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. We all offend God with our pride, greed, lust, selfishness and anger. Imagine I sinned just thee times a day. In one year, this would be more than 1000 sins against God. Multiply that by your age and it is an enormous debt.

What does the Bible say about how big our debt to God is?

‘My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head’ (Psalm 40:12)

‘I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.’ (Ezra 9:6)

The only hope the first servant has is for the king to show him mercy. God reminds us this morning that we can never pay him for the debt of our sins. Our only hope is his mercy, revealed to us in the cross of Jesus Christ. Our only hope is for Jesus to pay that debt for us.

4. Forgiving others

Let’s move to the heart of Jesus’ parable. ‘But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.’ (Matthew 18:24)

This seems crazy. We get angry as we listen to this part of the story. A servant who’s been forgiven billions, and is owed a few thousand but refuses to cancel the small debt. It seems unbelievable! Surely someone wouldn’t behave like that. Yet, when we refuse to forgive other people that’s exactly what we are behaving like. For we have a huge debt before God, which we can’t pay. If you are a Christian it is because you have been forgiven. So, to refuse to forgive is to contradict the gospel. We are needy sinners and have received forgiveness and that’s why we must forgive. We must forgive a very little as we have been forgiven a great deal.

“When I see myself standing before God and realise what my Lord has done for me, I am ready to forgive anyone anything.” Martin Lloyd Jones

‘Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’ (Colossians 3:13)

The following questions might be uncomfortable, but it is necessary to reflect on them. Is there someone in your life whom you need to forgive? What is keeping you from forgiving that person? Is there someone in your life that you need to ask for forgiveness? What is keeping you from seeking that person out and confessing to them?

“Unforgiveness is too expensive: The toxins of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness are too deadly to store in our heart-pantry. May the wonder of our forgiveness be 10,000 times more real than the pain of our heart-wounds.” (Scotty Smith)

“As we respond to God’s way in a daily lifestyle of confession and forgiveness, we begin to experience things we never thought we would see in our relationships. We begin to see bad patterns break, we begin to see one another change, and we begin to see love that had grown cold becomes new and vibrant again. When we experience hard moments and God gives us the grace not to give way to powerful emotions and desires that would take us in the wrong direction, we experience the practical help and rescue his wisdom gives us again and again. All this means that we no longer panic when a wrong happens between us and those with whom or to whom we minister. We no longer take matters into our own hands in the panic of hurt and retribution.” (Paul Tripp)

Let’s go back to where we began. We will fail one another in this church. We will all need to practice forgiveness.

What are we saying if we refuse to forgive others? It’s a serious and solemn mistake to make: ‘Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’ (Matthew 18 32-35)

In other words, if we refuse to forgive others, we need to ask ourselves the question: have I really been saved myself? Have I truly been forgiven by God?

More positively, one of the evidences that we are a child of God is that we do forgive others. And if we struggle to forgive others, we need to come back to this parable again and again, and remind ourselves of the enormous debt God has forgiven us. Will you do that?

Lead, kindly light

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Lead kindly light

Hymn Histories : Lead, kindly light
Written by : John Henry Newman in 1833

I’m sure that some of you have never heard of this hymn! If not, why don’t you listen to it in the link at the bottom of the page. I chose it not only because of the story of the author but also for the stories of those who were, much later, comforted by singing this hymn in their own terrible times.

Lead, Kindly Light was written in 1833 by John Henry Newman, an Anglican vicar, out of a time of frustration. Stranded in Italy through illness and travel disasters, he was desperate to get back to England to work. The final straw came when, having eventually boarded a ship, it was becalmed for a whole week just off shore. His plans were frustrated again. But, there on the deck on that motionless ship, it came to him that perhaps God’s plan was not his plan, and wrote these words.

‘Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home
Lead Thou me on! Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene, one step enough for me.’

Maybe you’re feeling frustrated just now – not able to work, not able to see family, not able to serve the Lord in the way you want to, not able to serve others, not able to see the way ahead, the ‘distant scene’. Perhaps we need to trust that our Saviour knows the way, and can light our path, one step at a time.

Here is one of the many stories of this hymn being sung in dark times:

In the book ‘The Hiding Place’ by Corrie Ten Boom she wrote of her arrival, with her sister Betsie, at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. As they were driven out from their tents into the darkness she wrote: ‘Women began spreading their blankets on the hard cinder ground. Slowly it dawned on Betsie and me that we were to spend the night here where we stood. We laid my blanket on the ground, stretched out side by side, and pulled hers over us.
‘The night is dark and I am far from home . . .’ Betsie’s sweet soprano was picked up by voices all around us. “Lead Thou me on. . . .”

As you listen to this beautiful version of the hymn close your eyes and imagine how the words comforted and blessed, and still do today.

The Lord is our Keeper

Geoff Murray Sermons

VideoSermon: Sunday, 27th August, 2023
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Psalm 121

Who do you ask for help? Your parents? Your friends? Someone in church? Google? This psalm tells us in verse 2, ‘My help comes from the Lord.’ He is the source of help, the Lord. As the psalmist makes his way to Jerusalem, he looks up to the hills where Jerusalem is and where the temple in the Old Testament was and he reminds himself that his help is in the Lord.

What can we say about the Lord’s help? Well, it says six times in this psalm that the Lord will keep us or he is our keeper. We need to know what to do with that though. If we read that literally to mean physical protection, we will be hardened against God and we will treat him like a liar. Hard things happen in life and God doesn’t stop the gunman from pulling the trigger, or the deadly illnesses from coming and taking us, or the relationship from breaking down. ‘What’s the script, God? I thought you would protect me!’

Jesus prayed this psalm, Jesus sang this psalm. How was he able to say these verses in Psalm 121 when he knew about his own sufferings, when he saw the sufferings of those around him, when he told his followers they would suffer?

  • ‘Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.’ (Matthew 10:28) How can he promise this unless God keeps a soul?
  • ‘Pray that your faith may not fail.’ (Luke 22:31-32)
  • ‘… unspoiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.’ (1 Peter 1:3-4)

You may feel weak, needy, helpless because of your sin, you may fear your faith will fail but God will keep you close. How will he keep us close?

1. The Lord’s keeping is constant

‘He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.’ (Psalm 121:3-4)

We’ll come back to the first line in verse three but we see that ‘he who keeps you will not slumber, he who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.’

He’s like a coach keeping an eye on the training session ensuring that everything is going as it should be.
He’s like a gardener keeping close watch over their garden to ensure that their plants/fruit/veg has the perfect growing conditions and is growing as it should.
He’s like a parent watching over their newborn baby with care and caution and delight.

The only difference, of course, is that God doesn’t take his eyes off the ball. The coach’s mind might drift and wander to other things. The gardener has to step away and do other things in their life. The parent has to sleep.

But not God. God doesn’t have to sleep, his mind never wanders. God has got his eye on you and on this world and he never, for a second, takes his eyes off you. This psalm says, ‘God’s got you!’

You may feel weary and broken, you may feel depressed and depleted, you may feel like you’re at the end of the rope and think, ‘Where is God?”. God is in control and he has his eye on you. He keeps you when the unwanted health diagnosis comes in, when you live through the darkness of depression, when your relationship breaks down.

What else is constant about his care? ‘The sun shall not strike you by day or the moon by night.’ (Psalm 121:6) There is this recognition that the sun could be shining, the moon might be glowing, at any and all times of the day God will keep you. You could be going to sleep, you could be in the midst of sleep, God doesn’t stop watching over you then. Isn’t it amazing that when we sleep God is still keeping his watchful eye on you? Isn’t it amazing that when we rest, God is at work? Even when you’re asleep he takes care of you.

Lastly on this point, when will God stop being watchful? Being caring? Keeping you? Never. ‘The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.’ (Psalm 121:8) Not from this time on as long as I can be bothered. Not from this time on until I lose my patience with you. Not from this time until I find someone better, more important, more intelligent, more likeable, more holy. No, if you are a Christian this morning, God is never going to stop keeping his eye on you. You might doubt his patience to bear with you, he will bear with you. You might doubt whether he really cares enough to stick around, he cares enough to stick around! And that promise does not have an expiration date on it.

As you parent, as you work, as you serve your neighbours, as you go about the smallst and most mundane tasks in life God has his watchful, caring, keeping eye on you.

Where does your help come from? At all times, in every season, in every circumstance, the Lord! Look to him for your help. The Lord keeps you. He doesn’t have limits. He doesn’t take his eye off the ball, he doesn’t slumber or sleep. It may be night time, it may be day time. It may be today, it may be 20 years from now, he will keep you. How can you carry on as a Christian today? Because the Lord keeps you.

2. The Lord’s keeping is comforting

Whenever we do something for the first time, we maybe unsure of ourselves and so we try to get reassurances from a book or a video on YouTube or a friend we know to make sure we’re doing the right thing and we’re on the right path. We need similar assurances as Christians. Not necessarily that we are doing the right thing, though God’s word reminds us how we ought to live, but rather that God isn’t going to drop us, that God isn’t going to give up on us.

We’ve all at times wondered if the promises of God are for us. Is there really no condemnation for me? Is God really patient towards me? Do I really have peace with God? And the underlying thought is. ‘Have I undone it all?’

There are promises in this psalm which tell us that if we are his people he will keep us. Verse three tell us He he will not let your foot be moved. On a dangerous road like the psalmist was likely to have been walking towards Jerusalem, the city of God, a wrong step could be fatal, God promises not to let the foot of his people to be moved.

Maybe you’ve been hill walking and the path is really narrow and you need to be careful otherwise you could fall. It was like this for the psalmist as he walked this road, it’s like that in a spiritual sense for us today. One wrong footing and we can begin walking away from God. We have the outside danger of the Devil who Peter tells us ‘… prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour.’ (1 Peter 5:8) We have the world trying to tempt us with so many things that would lead us away from God, we have ourselves as we often are aware of our sin which can easily develop into patterns of behaviour and habits if unchecked.

There are so many dangers in the Christian life. We are, as the hymn says we are ‘prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love’. It isn’t plain sailing, a piece of cake, it isn’t easy. But, friends, there is one with his watchful eye on us, who is making sure our foot will not be moved, that it will not slip. You might feel your weakness and vulnerability spiritually speaking, yet the God of all the universe keeps his eye on you.

There is another image used. Instead of feet slipping, it’s sun melting! ‘The sun shall not strike you by day. Nor the moon by night.’ (Psalm 121:6)

It’s not immediately clear what the reference is to the moon, but what is clear is the reference to the sun. We need umbrellas in this country for the rain but in hotter climates, its not uncommon for an umbrella to be used in the sun. Why? To protect them from the sun.

As they pass uncertain paths they knew he would be with them. As they travelled down the Jordan Valley southwards and then turned west to ascend the steep roadway to Jerusalem, the sun would be on their left side. The Lord then was likened to the shade on their right hand where comfort and protection was felt. The psalmist making this pilgrimage to Jerusalem would have been exposed to extreme heat from the sun without much cover. God says in verse 5 that he will provide shade! ‘As the sun is melting away, I will be your shade, I will be your protection.’

Again, this idea that the walk, the pilgrimage was dangerous. Not just in terms of feet slipping, but in terms of the sun being so strong. As the devil fires his attacks at you, the Lord is the one protecting you, being a shield about you, being a shelter, being a refuge, being kept safe in him. It’s not that we won’t be attacked spiritually by Satan, we will, but we will be protected from the full extent of it. If he didn’t, we would fall away.

Be reassured, if you love Jesus, though you are weak, though you battle against sin, the Lord is your keeper. He keeps your feet from falling, he is your shade protecting you, he is your keeper.

3. The Lord’s keeping is a journey

The psalmist is making that journey towards the city of Jerusalem, where the temple of God was, on his way to worship. Why does he lift his eyes to the hills looking to Jerusalem – to God’s city where the temple was. That is his direction of travel, thats where he is journeying to, that’s where he is aiming for. Jerusalem was the hub of spiritual life for the people of God. It’s where the temple was, it’s where God lived by his Spirit in the temple.

As Christians, we ultimately travel, not towards modern-day Jerusalem but towards the New Jerusalem. And the best part about the New Jerusalem is that God is there! (See Revelation 21:9-27)

But for now we travel. For Christians, that is our direction of travel. We’re on a journey aiming for that heavenly city, that New Jerusalem. In short, towards God. Where is your direction of travel? Are you travelling towards God or away from him?

If you’re travelling away from him, you ultimately travel alone, God is not there. You have no keeper. You have no helper. You are like a sailor without a navigation system, a mountaineer with no map and your end destination is not the New Jerusalem where peace will reign, but a place where there will be a marked absence of peace. There will be an absence of light, there will be an absence of hope.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this world you will have trouble, but you don’t need to walk it alone, the Lord is here right now saying to you, ‘Journey towards me, journey towards the New Jerusalem. The way is hard, narrow, dangerous, but I will be with you. I will be your keeper.’

Why don’t you begin your journey towards God today? Ask him to forgive your sins because of what Jesus has done and live your life for him. Know the care and keeping of God today and forever! Put your trust in him. Say with the Psalmist, “My help comes from the Lord!’

What about if you are a Christian today and you are journeying towards God, what does it have to say to you? It says that we can trust God with our lives. As we face the hard things in life let’s remember, God is the creator of the world, nothing is too hard for him, he can keep you even when you face the hardships of life. He never takes his eye off the ball for a second but has his eye on you the whole time, and his heart towards you is good – overflowing with grace and mercy to keep you. Your life may be hard, it may be very hard, but God promises to those whose faith is in him, he will keep you. There won’t be a single circumstance, season, time, or day where God will not be keeping his eye on you. Do not give in to self-reliance, you are awake only so many hours of the day, you’re capable of making mistakes, getting it wrong, but not God.

As you fight your sin, he is your keeper, as you feel discouraged, he is your keeper, as you go to work, he is your keeper, as you parent, he is your keeper. As you go through ordinary life you will experience hard times spiritually, but when our trust is not in ourself but is in God he promises you, reassures you, he is your keeper, he is your help and he always will be. You may be weak, but he is strong, you may take your eye off the ball but God never does.

There is a balm in Gilead

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There is a balm in Gilead

Hymn Histories : There is a balm in Gilead
Written by : African-American Spiritual, author unknown
Tune : There is a balm in Gilead
Composer : African-American Spiritual, composer unknown

After two hymns arising from heart-ache, today we’re focussing on something soothing and healing – although ultimately challenging! – the old African-American spiritual, ‘There is a balm in Gilead’.

I was driving through Perthshire one evening when I first heard this in a recording by Paul Robeson. I was so moved I had to stop the car just to listen properly – you might want to listen to it now before you read on.

‘There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul.’

Gilead was famous in Old Testament times for its skilful physicians and an ointment with special qualities made from the gum of a tree peculiar to that area which many believed had mysterious, miraculous powers to heal the human body. In fact, when Joseph was sold into slavery, he was sold to a caravan taking balm from Gilead to Egypt.

Jeremiah referenced this when he cried out to his broken people, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?’ (Jeremiah 8:22) The answer didn’t come then, but African-American Christians answered his question in this spiritual with a resounding ‘Yes, there is a balm in Gilead.’

Despite whatever condition we are in, or whatever misery or difficulty we are going through, Jesus can heal our wounds and make us whole. Do you feel today that you need the balm of Jesus Christ? How wonderful that we can call out to him now for its soothing and healing powers.

We certainly know that the world is crying out for a healing balm. Many are in pain, in so many different ways, and are reaching out for answers. We wonder how, in our Church, we can serve in these times. Could we bring the balm of Jesus Christ today to our family, to our neighbours, to our community? What would that look like for me and for you?

Maybe we can echo the spiritual as it ends:
‘If you can’t sing like angels, if you can’t preach like Paul,
Go home and tell your neighbour that He died to save us all.’

There is a Balm in Gilead sung by Paul Robeson

O love that wilt not let me go

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O love that will not let me go

Hymn Histories : O love that wilt not let me go
Written by : George Matheson in 1882
Tune : St. Margaret
Composer : Albert L. Peace

Probably most of us find that we have hymns or Christian songs that we know off by heart – having a tune makes the words much easier to remember somehow. As we continue to look at the stories behind some hymns and Christian songs, some old and some new, we see how these stories, often borne out of pain and longing, can speak to us now today in all that is happening in our lives.

George Matheson was a Church of Scotland minister in Innellan in Argyll. Having become blind at the age of 19 he was rejected by his fiancée and had to struggle to excel. He found himself, at the age of 40, sitting in his study on the eve of his sister’s wedding facing a life alone. The weight of his pain was heavy on him and he suffered a real ‘dark night of the soul’ as he put it. As he sat that evening crying out in desperation to the Lord, these words of the hymn poured out. He said, ‘I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself.’

I have always loved the story of the third verse most of all.

O Joy, that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

Because on that night, as he wrestled with his darkness what he first wrote was, ‘I climb the rainbow through the rain’.  How much more does the word climb reflect our own experience – perhaps in pain from bereavement, with money problems or the worry of job loss, struggling with our own dark night of the soul.

It can seem hard to climb that rainbow, to hold on to God’s promise that He will never leave us. But, as we do, how much more brightly do the following lines shine that we can ‘feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be’.  As we listen to the hymn, let’s remember that we believe as George did that God’s love will not let us go, that His light will guide us on our way, that His joy will seek us through pain – and that makes all the difference.

Footnote: You may be interested to know why the word ‘climb’ was changed to ‘trace’. When George Matheson submitted his hymn to the Hymn Board of the Church of Scotland he was asked to change the word because ‘trace’ was deemed a more suitable sentiment.

It is well with my soul

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When peace like a river

Hymn Histories : It is well with my soul
Written by : Horatio Spafford in 1873
Tune : Ville du Havre
Composer : Philip Bliss

It seems that many of our well-loved hymns are composed out of loss or despair, as indeed are many of the Psalms. This is certainly the case with this hymn.

Horatio Spafford was, without doubt, someone who had suffered. A lawyer by profession, his company had been hit by two financial crises in the early 1870s, so he decided to move his family from the USA to Europe for the start of a better life. He sent his wife and four daughters ahead, but tragedy struck when their ship sank with a great loss of life. Horatio received a telegram from his wife some days later, ‘SAVED, BUT SAVED ALONE. WHAT SHALL I DO?’

It’s almost impossible to imagine how terrible this loss was for them. Horatio set sail as soon as he could to be with Anna and when his ship reached the exact spot where his four daughters had drowned, and as he no doubt called out to the Lord in despair, these words filled his heart. He returned to his cabin and wrote his hymn:

‘When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.’

It seems almost incredible that he could write these words, but he did. He was given the strength to do so because he overwhelmingly knew that, in his Saviour, it was ‘well with his soul’.

I am sure that not one day passed when the couple didn’t think of their daughters, but their terrible loss had a profound impact on what they did with the rest of their lives They gave up a life of plenty and moved to Jerusalem to dedicate their lives to charity work with anyone in need. Their legacy is still there in the Spafford Children’s Centre set up by one of the daughters born to them after their loss, and still managed by the family.

Their lives turned out so differently to what they had imagined; yet they trusted in God and He used them in a new way. And, who knows, at some time that might be true of our lives; and how will we react? May we be ready and willing to step out in a way we perhaps never expected, in His strength, upheld by His love, and sure of His promise.

‘For I know the plans I have for you; plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Jeremiah 29:ll)

Great expectations

Geoff Murray Elijah

Sermon: Sunday, 30th July, 2023
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:41-46

There are certain moments in life where you’re not really sure what to expect and then there are times where you know exactly what to expect. In our passage today, we see the Lord sends rain on Israel which had experienced drought, yet before the rain comes, Elijah is expecting it. He didn’t have a smart phone to tell him what the weather was going to be. So how did he know to expect it? What was it that made him expect rain to come after such a long period of drought?

Well, ultimately because promises God had made to his people in the book of Deuteronomy. God is in many senses unpredictable, there are so many strange and challenging things that happen which catch us off guard, but in another sense God is totally predictable. We know what to expect with God. If God has promised something, we know that he will be true to his word and that we can expect him to follow through on his promise.

1. Expectant Elijah

There had been drought in Israel because Israel turned their backs on the Lord to follow a false god called Baal. And last week, we saw that many turned back to the Lord. So we’re really in the immediate aftermath of that in this passage. In 1 Kings 17 Elijah predicts a drought and I don’t think it’s because of our mystical notion of prophets being able to magically tell the future, I think its deeply rooted in the Old Testament law. There was a drought and the law of God tells us why.

In Deuteronomy 28, after God has given his law to his people, he gives two long lists. The first list is: here are the blessings you will enjoy if you obey my law and the second list is: here are the challenges you will face if you disobey my law.

Deuteronomy 28:22-24 – if you will not obey the Lord, no rain, drought.
Deuteronomy 28:12 – If you obey, rain, fruitfulness.

The people of Israel, as I said last week, turned from the Lord to follow Baal and so the consequence is drought. But in the last episode at Carmel they turned back to the Lord therefore they can expect rain to fall and fruitfulness in the land to follow.

So for me it makes perfect sense that what Elijah is doing here when he sends his servant up 7 times to the same spot is he is expecting that God will send rain like he promises when Israel turn back to him. In many ways, you see him sending up his servant 6 times and nothing happens and you think, ‘That’s totally bizarre!’ Elijah is pleading with God in prayer for rain, whats going on?

He is pleading the promises of God. We read Deuteronomy 28 and part of this covenant, this promise of God committing himself to his people and his people committing themselves to him is what is written in Deuteronomy 28, this is what happens when the covenant is going well, and this is what happens when you break covenant with me.

This is not God saying, ‘If you obey me, I accept you. If you disobey I reject you.’ It could never be because Israel were never accepted based on what they did in the first place. But God is saying that there are consequences in life when you don’t walk in his ways because his ways are for your good and flourishing, walking away from me is the opposite!

So Elijah prayed for rain to stop because of Israel’s disobedience, and he prayed for rain when Israel obeyed. He isn’t doing anything weird or strange but he is pleading God’s promises.

God pledged himself to this, he said there would be no rain if Israel turned away and there would be rain if Israel turned back. And so, by faith, Elijah is saying, ‘God you promised this, act according to your word.’ And both times he did, and every time he does. There’s the old saying ‘God can do anything’, he can, but one thing he can’t is go against his character and his character is to be true to his word. If God makes a promise, he will keep it. If God says he will do it, he will do it.

So what do we see here? Verse 44, the servant at the seventh time of trying goes up and sees a cloud which looks like a man’s hand rising from the sea. This is followed in verse 45 by the description of great black clouds filling the sky and then a great outpouring of rain.

Israel disobeyed and the turned from the Lord and the rain stopped. Israel returned and rain falls. This is no coincidence, this didn’t happen simply and only because Elijah was expecting it, it happened because those were the terms of God’s covenant commitment to his people and God, being true, followed through.

2. Expectant Prayer

Sometimes God’s answers to our prayers are ‘Yes’ and sometimes ‘No’. But we can guarantee, we can be certain, we can expect that when we pray in line with God’s promises, he will answer, ‘Yes”. God has promised it! It might be quite a quick and sudden ‘Yes’ like at Mount Carmel, it might be a persistent and patient time of praying before the ‘Yes’ comes like we have in our passage today, but ‘Yes’ will come.

You can pray:
• If you’re feeling weighed down by life – ‘Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.’ (Psalm 55:22)
• When you are repenting of sin – ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:34)
• When we’re feeling discouraged at our lack of progress in the faith – ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 1:6)
• If we are not a Christian but want to trust in Jesus – ‘All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.’ (John 6:37)

These are a number of promises from the Bible we can pray and we can pray with utter expectancy that God will come through with. It’s not like a prayer to feel better which might be answered or not, but its praying things that God has specifically promised.

God has promised, he will fulfil it. Therefore we can be down on our knees like Elijah, praying, trusting, pleading with God to be true to his word and he will do as he has promised. He can be trusted, God is true, he does not lie. If he says he will do something, he does it. If he promises to sustain, he will sustain. If he promises to forgive the repentant, he will forgive. If he promises to complete the good work that he started in you, he will complete. With God and his promises, there are no ‘ifs, buts or maybes’. But rather, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, ‘For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.’ (2 Corinthians 1:20) Therefore pray to God, call out to him in prayer with his promises that he might fulfil them to the glory of his name.

3. Expectant Living

Now how do we make sense of this passage in light of the cross of Jesus and the words of the New Testament? How do we understand God doing good and blessing when his people are faithful and doing harm when his people are unfaithful? As I said, it’s not the case that God is saying, ‘If you obey me, I’ll accept you, if you disobey, I’ll reject you.’

Christ became the curse of the law by dying on a cross. He took on the punishment, the guilt that our wrongdoing and our sin incurred. He took it all. Meaning that the curses are not endured by us because Christ endured them on the cross. However, it’s not to say there isn’t some overlap.

And the overlap as I understand it is that there are still consequences for sin.

In our relationship with the Lord
What I mean by this is that when we sin against the Lord, our relationship with the Lord, the fellowship we enjoy with him can be hurt. Just like in any relationship where we hurt the other person or do wrong to them it can harm the relationship.

It doesn’t mean that wrong isn’t forgiven, it doesn’t mean that the person holds it against you, but it has marred and scarred the relationship. It can be the same with God that when we sin, even confessed sin, even forgiven sin can mean difficulties in our relationship with the Lord. It doesn’t mean the Lord gives up on us, leaves us behind, doesn’t forgive us, he does. But it’s to say that this can create difficulties in us connecting with the Lord.

If you’re not following on the path of obedience, you can’t expect to enjoy the fulness of God. Of course when we live in obedience, however imperfectly, there is that joy of fellowship with him. So, when we walk in a path of disobedience it does damage and bring harm to our relationship with the Lord.

Externally
What about externally? When hard times come. What is that? Well, sometimes the Lord brings hard things to our lives to discipline us because we have gone astray.

Hebrews says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’ (Hebrews 12:5-6)

When life is going easy and well, when life is all as it should be, its easy to forget God, its easy to put him aside, but when hard times come, that’s when we know we need to rely on the Lord! So looking at this in its entirety, though we may fall on hard times and it may be because the Lord is bringing us discipline for our disobedience, though not necessarily. The bottom line is that the curse ultimately fell on Christ on the cross.

But what does Deuteronomy 28 and this story of a three year drought followed by rain have to say to us? It says we can live expecting God to be true to his word in regard to today and the future.

He will judge those who do not turn to him
when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
This is God’s commitment, for all who do not know him, who do not trust in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for acceptance with God, they will experience eternal judgement and damnation. (See 2 Thessalonians 1:7–9)

He will save us when we put our trust in Christ

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)

If we believe in Jesus Christ as our saviour who took the punishment for our wrongdoing and sin, we know, we can be certain that we will be saved from perishing from judgement. And so if you’re here and you aren’t a believer in the Lord Jesus, those are your options lying before you. Ignore Jesus, reject Jesus and you will experience eternal judgement for your sins. Accept Jesus, embrace Jesus and you will be saved.

You know exactly what to expect on this matter whatever way you go, let your way be towards Jesus and not away from him. Amen.

Who is the true God?

Geoff Murray Elijah

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 23rd July, 2023
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:16-40

What is real thing and what is fake? What is genuine and what is false? We have that same thing here, who is the true God?

1. The Conflict

‌We have in our passage what will settle the dispute John addressed last week. Let’s see whose god is the true God. He instructs Ahab to call all 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah and meet on top of Mount Carmel. And here they gathered. Elijah challenged the people. ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, if Baal is God, follow him!’ (1 Kings 18:21)

(‌A brief aside; Elijah isn’t encouraging them to follow Baal as we’ll see.)
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Now this kind of to-ing and fro-ing from Israel on whether to follow the Lord or not, or to follow the Lord and Baal together, is really significant. In our age of pick’n’mix religion it doesn’t really have the same impact, but for Israel in Old Testament times and for the church today, it’s serious business to have any other god beside the Lord or have someone in place of the Lord.
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Yahweh is the only true God and as such he wants to be the only one to be worshipped. The first of the 10 commandments is, ‘You shall have no other god before me.’ (Exodus 20:3)
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Years before, Joshua posed a similar question to the people of Israel. ‘Choose. Are you going to serve the Lord or are you going to serve the gods of the Amorites?’ (See Joshua 24:15)
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And Jesus makes it clear in Matthew’s gospel. ‘You can’t serve two masters, choose.’ (See Matthew 6:24)
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We have that choice always before us, we have that choice before us right this very second. Will we follow the Lord, or will we give our lives to another? We can’t do both. We can’t serve two masters; God will not share his glory with another or give his glory to another. So, this is the conflict: who will you serve? We’ll come back to that at the end of the sermon.

2. The Contest

It paints this picture of the animation of the Baal followers and getting themselves hyped up and in a frenzy trying to whip up religious favour with their god and what are they met with? Silence. No response, no answer, no one paid attention. What a commotion all for nothing. Silence. For all the devotion and lively worship given to Baal, Baal was silent.
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And of course Baal wasn’t silent because Baal exists but for whatever reason didn’t do anything, Baal was silent because Baal was made up, not real. Gods, whether religious or irreligious, whenever the God of Scripture is out of the picture, when the rubber hits the road, they will let you down. When it really counts, like Baal, they’ll be utterly silent.

Everything that happens is very significant. It’s more than just Elijah’s personal beef with Baal worship; Elijah is leading the nation in a moment of restoration. Restoring the altar of the Lord as it should be. But Elijah proceeds with his less than flammable sacrifice and calls on God in prayer and simply asks, ‘Let it be known that you are God!'(1 Kings 18:36-37)
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Elijah’s prayer is not, ‘Come on God so I’m not shown up here.’ but rather ‘May they know that you are God.’

3. The Conclusion

‌So what happens? Fire falls from Heaven, the Lord answers and burns up the sacrifice and all the water which drenched the sacrifice. Elijah’s prayer is, ‘That they may know that you, O Lord, are God’ twice and how do the Baal worshippers respond? By saying twice ‘The Lord, He is God!’
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Now you think, ‘Of course they responded that way, what’s so special?’ Let’s not forget the many miracles that Jesus performed, and they crucified him! It wasn’t a given that they would turn back to the Lord! But the Lord turned their hearts, He led them to confess him as God. And whilst Baal is silent, it shows God as powerful! Whilst Baal is inactive, it shows God as being at work in his world and among his people.

Again, the things that we think are important and bank our lives on are powerless to save us, powerless to do very much of any significance, whereas God, God can save you, he can transform your life and give you knew life.

4. The Crux

‌What does this have to do with you and me? Is God calling us to challenge those of other religions to some kind of bizarre religious fight with those of other faiths? No. I think he is saying to us that we can be as devoted as we like to anyone or anything but anyone or anything other than the God of the Bible will ultimately fail us.
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In Elijah’s day, people turned to false gods, idols like Baal or Asherah and whilst we don’t worship false gods like Baal or Asherah today, we worship other things. We put other things first in our life, we put things in the place of God by giving them the status of ‘ultimate’; ‘This is the thing that will make me happy’ or ‘This is the thing that will give life meaning.’ or to flip it, ‘If I didn’t have this, my world would fall apart.”’
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Whether it’s ourselves and our own identity that we give pride of place; our family, our possessions or our experiences. We turn to these things all the time, inside and outside of the church, Christian or non-Christian. But, when these things take the place of God, they will ultimately fail us. Knowing who you are is important, your family is vital, possessions are important, it’s good to have good experiences. But when we make these things the source of all meaning, fulfilment, joy, we will ultimately be failed by them. We will ultimately be failed by them in this life and in the life to come.
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(a) In this life : The problem in trying to fill the void left by God is that we can’t fill that void with anything else because there isn’t anything or anyone apart from God who is supposed to be God. We could be sincere and devout like these Baal worshippers in whatever it is we use as a god substitute, but it will ultimately come short.
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(b) In the life to come : Some of the most chilling words in the Bible come from the mouth of Jesus where he says, ‘What will it profit someone if they gain the whole world but forfeit their soul?’ (Matthew 16:26)
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All this money and wealth, all these experiences gained, your children performing highly in school and growing up to go to university and get a brilliant job, have all the identity security we can dream of, being secure in who you are and being affirmed by others. Have all that, you can have it all right, you can have the world, Jesus says, but it is possible to gain the entire world yet forfeit your soul.
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We see this in our passage, the worship of Baal, or this that we have just talked about in our lives where we put the ultimate emphasis on things other than Jesus, the Bible calls that idolatry and we’re all those who have been guilty of idolatry and are guilty of idolatry by putting things in the place of God. And idolatry really is the pinnacle of sin, it’s saying, ‘God I don’t want you, I want this instead.’ and that attitude and mindset is what separates us from God, in sending us to Hell and not to Heaven, God is essentially giving us what we want, an existence free from him forever. And that’s not a good thing as you might be imagining, it’ll be painful and sad, that we’ll know we had our chance and we blew it forever and instead of eternal bliss and joy, we have instead eternal judgement.
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You may well have this, that and the next thing in this life, but it is time limited. When you die, that’s it. What you’re living for won’t last.

(a) To the unbeliever : However, what you’re living for now needn’t be what you live for forever. What Elijah prays for these Baal worshippers in front of him can be true in your life too. That you would know that the LORD is the one true God. The proof lies in this encounter here in 1 Kings 18, the LORD is the one true God, and the proof ultimately lies in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Baal could not defeat God and neither could death. Though Jesus died on the cross, paying for our wrong doing, death couldn’t keep Jesus in its grip, the grave could not hold him, but Jesus rose again from the grave so that we could have forgiveness with God and life eternal, so that we could have hope for this life and the life to come.
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So, if you haven’t yet, put your trust in Jesus for acceptance with God where we find true meaning, purpose, and life. Know that he paid for your sins on the cross and rose again from the grave defeating death. He is the one true God, follow him. Whilst things that we put in the place of God promise so much, they will ultimately deliver little. Baal couldn’t defeat God and neither can the things you put your trust in instead of him.

(b) to the backslidden : Maybe you are a Christian this morning, but you realise you have been living like OT Israel, swithering between the God and whatever god-substitute you have made. You love the Lord, but you realise you’ve also been trusting in family or finances or possessions to give your life meaning or significance. You already have it in the LORD. You have one who sees your sin and failings, yet is willing to forgive your wrongs and call you his child, who loves you with an everlasting love, and isn’t wavering. You might be wavering today, but he isn’t. He’s as committed to you today as he’s ever been, he loves you today as much as he’s ever loved you.
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The words of Elijah are so fitting, stop wavering between two opinions, return to the Lord. These things won’t last, but the Lord will, these things won’t satisfy, but the Lord will, these things won’t give you significance, but the Lord will.
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Come back to him and receive the welcome of Jesus today. That is just how merciful our mighty God is. You may have turned away, but there’s always a route back when we come back to God through Jesus.
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(c) To the weary Christian : Maybe you’re a weary Christian this morning. You hear this story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18 today and you think ‘Where was God when this happened?’ ‘Why doesn’t he seem to act in such decisive ways today?’ It’s true, God may not act in the ways we’d like, as quickly as we’d like or in clear demonstrable ways like fire from heaven like this, but we have in the resurrection of Jesus a clear decisive action on the part of God which shows in the hardships and the sorrows of life you can still bank on God.
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Sometimes God takes away the hard situation, sometimes he doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t worth it. The empty tomb of Jesus shows us that we can trust him in the hard times, we can still bank on him. God was not defeated by Baal and God is not defeated by death, but for the Christian, death gives way to eternal life in Jesus Christ, it gives way to an eternity free from pain, sorrow, grief, death, sin. There will be one day where Jesus will wipe away every tear from every eye. Every loss, every hurt, every heartache gone.
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Persevere, keep going, keep trusting in Jesus and following him because just as Jesus rose from the dead, so he will lead us to a future resurrection where there will be no more tears, sorrow, or pain, no more suffering or sickness, no more sin.

Life-changing faith

John Johnstone Elijah

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 9th July, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:7-24

Do you want to know what true and life-changing faith looks like? Has God ever brought circumstances into your life which you find really difficult and perplexing? How did you respond? Would you like to be certain about a place in Heaven after you die? Believe it or not, these wide-ranging important questions are all answered in this ancient piece of history. There’s so much we can learn this morning from the prophet Elijah’s time with the widow of Zarephath.

Let’s briefly remind ourselves of what life is like in Israel in Elijah’s day. Israel’s wicked king Ahab has married Jezebel who is a queen taking wickedness to new levels. She is intent on wiping out the worship of the LORD in Israel, replacing it with false Baal worship. Baal worship involves sexual religious rites with shrine prostitutes and has become a massive snare to the Israelites. And so, God punishes Israel for forsaking the one living and true God and turning aside to idol worship. He brings a time of drought and famine, something which he had said he would do were the Israelites ever to forsake him. Physical rain has stopped in Israel, as has spiritual rain, as the Lord’s prophet Elijah has been taken out of Israel, to a stream in the Kerith Ravine. Here, God miraculously provides for his prophet, sending ravens to feed him twice a day.

But God has other plans for Elijah and does not leave him by the stream. The stream dries up, begging the question, how is the Lord going to provide for Elijah now? What’s going to happen to Elijah? He receives an unusual command from the Lord (verse 9): ‘Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have instructed a widow there to supply you with food.’

1. God often supplies our needs in unexpected ways

Now, God’s command for Elijah to go to Zarephath might seem like no big deal to us. But it is. Zarephath is in Sidonia, where Jezebel’s father rules as king, making it a dangerous place to go to. It is also the heartland of Baal-worship. And Elijah must have been scratching his head to be told that of all people a pagan widow would look after him. It’s also fascinating to note what the name Zarephath means – it means ‘crucible’. The Lord seems to be taking Elijah into a crucible, a fiery furnace, in order to test him and refine him in his faith.

This in itself is a really important thing for us to understand. God never promises Christians an easy or untroubled life. In fact, God tells us the Christian life is a battle, full of persecution, testing circumstances, and frustrations. That’s what makes the false teaching of ‘prosperity gospel’ so dangerous. What is the ‘prosperity gospel?’ It’s a false teaching that if Christians are faithful to the Lord he will reward us with good health and great wealth. This is nonsense. Jesus plainly tells us what the Christian life will look life: ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ (Luke 9:23) God calls us to a life of self-denial, and often uses suffering to make us more like Jesus.

‘In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Let’s take a step back and look at chapter 17 as a whole. Who does the Lord use to provide for Elijah? He uses unclean scavenger birds – ravens – and he uses a poor, vulnerable, hopeless pagan widow in a foreign country. God’s ways are not our ways. His channels of grace are unexpected.

Those of us who are already Christians should be able to relate to Elijah here. We can testify that God has brought us into the crucible of life in order to refine us. It’s not an easy place to be, but again and again God supplies our needs, and at times from unexpected people or things. In my own life, I can testify to the fact that the crucible truly is the place where I’ve learned the most, and have been stripped of pride, self-reliance and selfishness. God has used times of adversity to draw me closer to himself, and along the way has used people I would never have otherwise encountered.

Have I always responded in the right way during these times? Absolutely not! Sometimes I have doubted God’s provision and at other times tried to sort my life out in my own strength. But how should we respond in times of testing? Look at Elijah’s example. He is asked to go to this dangerous place. He doesn’t complain. He trusts God has a reason for sending him to Zarephath and he obeys the command of God. He doesn’t become anxious, but is faithful to God, trusting that if the Lord has promised to supply his needs through a widow, then that’s exactly what the Lord will do. Elijah rests in the promise of God, and obeys God. This is how we need to respond when we are tested.

2. A clear picture of faith

Faith is very thing which God wants from each one of us. He wants us to trust him. So, this widow’s faith should be precious to us. Elijah sees the widow at the town gate gathering sticks and asks her for a drink of water, and a little bread. At first, this might seem like a reasonable request. But then we come to understand the poignant truth – this woman has only a tiny amount of food left, enough for just one last meal with her son. After that, she expects to die of starvation. She is a vulnerable, poor, hopeless widow, in a desperate situation. Her own resources had come to an end.

Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ (1 Kings 17:13-14)

The widow now has a decision to make. Will she keep the flour and oil for herself, or will she believe the promise of the Lord and give away the last of her food? We know what happens. She trusts in God’s promise, given through his prophet Elijah. Verse 15: ‘She went away and did as Elijah had told her.’

And what does she find? Verse 16: ‘The jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.’

Friends, this is what faith truly means: we stake everything on God’s promises, even when it seems risky to do so. We realise that we cannot provide for ourselves and trust in God’s Word. For the widow, God’s promise comes through the prophet Elijah. For us in Fife in 2023, God’s promises are contained in the Bible. We need to read them and know them. Then we too, like her, have decisions to make. Will we continue trusting in our own resources, or rest the whole of our lives on his perfect and trustworthy promises?

Listen to God’s promise in Romans chapter 10: ‘If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Romans 10:9)
And again in Acts chapter 4: ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)
Will you trust in Jesus and his death of the cross to save you? Or will you trust in your own efforts, which will lead to spiritual starvation?

For those of us already Christians, will we continue in the life of faith, trusting the promises of Jesus in the Bible for all our needs. When we are struggling on in life’s journey and we hear Jesus’ promise: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), will we trust that he can indeed give us rest and come to him in prayer? When he promises to be with us when we go and make disciples of all nations, will we share our faith, resting on his promise to be with us as we do so?

The miracle of the jar and the jug went on day after day. Each day was a fresh reminder of the goodness and trustworthiness of God. We might be tempted to think: ‘God doesn’t provide for me like that’. In a way, I think that we have something better than the widow had – we have in Jesus everything we could possibly need for both this life and the life to come. We have forgiveness for our sins, and a place prepared for us in Heaven, and we have the promise that our Father will give us our daily bread, until it is time for us to leave this world.

3. Responding to the life’s traumatic experiences

I can imagine the widow going into the kitchen each morning with a smile on her face. The Lord is so good to me, she must have thought. But then something shocking happens. Her son becomes seriously unwell and then dies. We cannot imagine what it must have been like going from the high place of daily miraculous provision down to the depths of death and despair. :

“The Lord both provides and perplexes. He seems to be both faithful and fitful. He sustains life and then takes it away. What is one to make of him?” (Dale Ralph Davis)

The widow reminds us of the widow Naomi in the book of Ruth, who also loses more of her loved ones. How does this widow respond? At first, she takes it out on Elijah: ‘What do you have against me, man of God?’ She also has an understanding of her own sin and wonders if that is why her boy has died. In other words, she lashes out against Elijah and against herself. You can understand that. Elijah doesn’t respond with trite words, pretending to understand the deeply mysterious ways of God. He responds with prayer, knowing only the power of God can change this situation.

Perhaps the way Elijah stretches himself over the dead boy is a powerful image of what Jesus does to each one of us. Contact with a dead body would make Elijah unclean, but his Christ-like intervention brings life back to the boy. In the same way, Jesus takes away the uncleanness of our sin, and imparts new spiritual life to us.

As the widow was an example of faith for us earlier, here, Elijah is an example of how to respond to the God who both gives and takes away. Prayer must be our response too. And the Lord listens to and answers Elijah’s prayer in a quite wonderful way, bringing the boy back to life again.

Do you believe this really happened? Remember Paul’s words to Agrippa: Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? (Acts 26:8) We shouldn’t disbelieve such things. If God is the Creator who made this world out of nothing, then of course, he’s able to bring life to the dead. Only the Christian faith has meaningful hope in the face of death. When we go to funerals, we can remember our loved ones who have left this world, but apart from Jesus, there is no hope at a funeral. However, if the person who died trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, then we know that person will live eternally in Heaven, even though they die. Only God has an answer for death. Do you have that hope yourself. Have you entrusted your life and death to Jesus? Baal couldn’t help the widow’s son. Science cannot help us. ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’ (Revelation 1:18)

4. A preview of God’s widening grace

What do I mean by that? Well, the LORD doesn’t send Elijah to an Israelite widow to be cared for, but a foreign one. This was actually a sign of God’s judgment on Israel for her idolatry. Remember that this is Jesus’ commentary of this event: ‘I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.’ (Luke 4:25-26)

But as well as being a sign of judgment, it is also a preview of what would happen on the day of Pentecost, when the gospel message would be sent around the world. We have these Old Testament clues in the conversions of ‘outsiders’ such as Ruth, Naaman and the widow here in this story. God grace extends far beyond the boundaries of Israel, at this would become so clear on the Day of Pentecost. The church of Jesus is an international church.