Speak the Word

'But God put this Word into the mouths of human beings so that it may be passed on to others. When people are deeply affected by the Word, they tell it to other people. God has willed that we should seek and find God's living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings, Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God's Word to them'

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

I recently heard two women tell their stories. Two very different women, two very different stories, but both sharing their experience of having been deeply affected by the Word.

Maud Kells, a Northern Irish missionary of many years in the Congo, left us astounded and agape with incredulity as she stood clothed in the same, previously blood drenched dress she wore the night she was shot by a man in camouflage clothes and a mask. A humble woman of faith and tremendous courage, of prodigious practicality and with seemingly boundless stores of energy. Even having been through such a terrifying ordeal, Maud is confident that Jesus is her Good Shepherd.

Nancy Guthrie, a well published American author and speaker, broke everyone’s hearts with her story of loss, after the death of two children both born with a rare genetic disorder, while at the same time filling us with admiration at her strength and courage in being able to share what she has experienced of God throughout her suffering. Even while experiencing such profound grief, Nancy stands confidently under the sovereignty of God in submission and humility just as Job did.

Inspiring, challenging and encouraging stories. Their experiences have led them into the deep places of the soul where the Word embeds itself in the darkness and then reaches back out of them into the light towards others. These women have been deeply affected and so testify. We need them to tell us how there is hope and joy in the midst of deep-seated pain and fear. We are grateful to them and thankful for them.

We each have our story to tell. The trouble is though, perhaps we feel our story isn’t worth the retelling. We may say, ‘I’m no missionary’ or ‘I’m no public speaker’. We feel our story isn’t for a conference platform or a church pulpit but does that mean that God isn’t working in us and hasn’t put his Word into our mouths? No, I don’t believe it does and yet still we often shrink back and make comparisons with our sisters or brothers. I don’t think either Maud Kells or Nancy Guthrie would want anyone to walk away from hearing their story feeling inadequate or less in any way. What they’re doing is pointing us in the direction of God and when we also experience him in the unique context of our own lives, we’re all on the platform so to speak. Divine words in the mouths of ordinary human beings. Whether addressing hundreds of people, or having a conversation with just one person, we testify that God is good and God is love. No two stories are exactly the same and having been affected by the Word then surely we can all act on the words of Paul in Colossians 3:16,  

'Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.'

If, as Bonhoeffer says, God wills us to seek and find his Word in the mouths of other Christians then let’s listen and let’s speak to each other. We need to hear each other’s stories. If we believe God is at work in our daily life then we need the stories of every day, ordinary living as well as the huge life changing events.

Life together is about service. We serve as voices. Loving voices encouraging, praying, giving as well as receiving, not our own words but God’s Living Word.

‘Here are some valuable clues about spiritually productive friendships. Encouragement, prayer and the ability both to give and receive enable us to serve one another effectively.’                                                                     (source unknown)

Cast Away and Gather

A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together

Ecclesiastes 3:5

(RSV)

I spent some time in Seattle on holiday once and as I was wandering around Pike Place market, I came across a craft stall that was selling etched stones. A table top storm beach of pebbles and words. Maybe because I was literally far from home, my subconscious led me to buy one with the word HOME engraved on the smooth, grey surface. Pocket sized but still not a sensible thing to buy on holiday. The ‘home stone’ travelled to Vancouver and across the Rocky Mountains with me before making its own small weighty contribution to excess baggage on the homeward journey.

Some years later, I came across more word pebbles in a local gift shop and this time, I bought one with the word JOY written on it. Again I didn’t have a special reason for choosing it. Perhaps I was feeling particularly joyful that day. It was the word I found most evocative and it joined the first stone on the hearth. There these two etched stones sit beside another stone, pocketed while walking on Murlough beach. This third stone I did choose deliberately. It was bright white and it was an immediate reminder of Revelation 2:17. I stencilled the Bible reference on the white stone roughly in black marker myself.

‘and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.’

A George MacDonald sermon entitled ‘The New Name’ sparked my imagination and opened up this verse in a lasting and meaningful way.

‘In brief, the giving of the white stone with the new name is the communication of what God thinks about the man to the man.’

‘his own idea of the man, that being whom he had thought when he began to make the child, and whom he kept in his thought through the long process of creation that went to realise the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success – to say, “In thee also I am well pleased.”

To one day stand before God and receive our new name, to receive the full revelation of who we are as created by him is a phenomenal experience to look forward to and incorporates all three of these words.

Home,   Joy,  Revelation

Three words unintentionally brought together but a gathering that can be viewed as the representation of the solidity and weightiness of truth, the deep etching of God’s love in our lives and the immutability of the gospel. Words for these last days and also for future everlasting days. Now, we experience home, joy and revelation in part but one day in full.

In the process of His ongoing creation of me, I have stood on a beach with more stones in my hand. This time these stones represented things that were being cast away, things that I had held onto for far too long and needed to be thrown irretrievably into the depths of the sea. These dense weights within us exert a gravitational force that constantly pulls us inward. It is only the stronger, more powerful pull of Jesus that enables us to be free of those inward forces.

Two friends, who I suspect were somewhat bemused but to whom I am eternally grateful, read and prayed with me before I cast those stones as far as I could into the water. An unorthodox but cathartic experience which I can recommend.

Now almost one year later, I find myself gathering and collecting. Gathering more words. Words that have come across my path in the course of time from authors old and new. From a castaway beach experience to a new gathering.

These are the tidal like rhythms of Christian faith and life. Gathering, casting away, gathering and casting away each in their own God appointed time. I don’t know what the writer of Ecclesiastes had in mind when he wrote that particular line but it’s surprisingly literal in meaning for me as I learn to cast off heavy weights and hold onto solid truths.

‘Make our being grow into thy likeness.
If through the ages of strife and ages of growth, yet let us at last see thy face, and receive the white stone from thy hand.
That thus we may grow, give us day by day our daily bread.
Fill us with the words that proceed out of thy mouth.
Help us to lay up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.’
G MacDonald

Join in!

Belfast Community Gospel Choir - to quote the lyrics, Oh What A Night! On the recommendation of my sister I bought a ticket but was unprepared for how much I would enjoy myself.

The charisma of a flamboyant choir mistress bursting with enthusiasm was a catalyst, igniting the entire room with an infectious spirit of laughter, song and joy. The choir, full of colour and movement, exuded a relaxed yet powerful confidence and energy. The room resounded with gospel and soul music that grabbed you by the hand, yanked you out of your chair and onto your feet. There were some in the audience who found themselves quite literally yanked out of their seat by the fearless choir director much to our amusement.

I smiled, sang, laughed, clapped and swayed until my face hurt, until my throat croaked, until my hands stung.

At one point in the evening, my sister who had been sitting, or rather dancing beside me was elsewhere. I took a moment to sit back, catch my breath, relax and watch proceedings from the back row. Suddenly I felt a nudge on my arm, causing me to glance to my right. Across my sister’s empty seat, an elderly gentleman, who if he was a day less than eighty I’d be very surprised, was gesturing to me. Come on, he was saying, clap! Join in! I laughed out loud in surprise. Here was this old man, with a grin on his face, enjoying himself immensely as he clapped and jigged to the music, telling me to get on my feet and party! Regardless of the fact that he had needed to lean on someone’s arm to get to his seat in the first place, there he was twice my age and telling me not to stop. Keep dancing! Clap with me!

Just down the aisle a little girl about five years old, ran up and down, clapping out of time and unselfconsciously did her own little dance. There was I between the two thinking how appropriate it was that we were in a church. The very old, the very young and everyone in between, wearing a ‘mantle of praise’ (Isaiah 61:3). All together under one roof breathing an atmosphere that energised your whole being, made you feel alive, made you at least begin to set aside inhibition and reserve to express joy.

Is church not the best place to have someone beside you to give you a nudge and say, ‘Do you feel it?’ A place where the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit fills you up to overflowing so that you can’t help but encourage others to sing with you. It doesn’t even matter that you don’t know one another’s name and that there may be decades between your birthdays. Who is next to you? Whose arm can you nudge? Are we not anointed by the Lord as Isaiah was to bring gladness, joy and praise to those around us?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us!