...let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:16)

What is community?

 

Jesus Christ was a great communicator of true community, teaching love, harmony, sharing with one another (especially those in need), peace etc. In fact, when he was asked the specific question of what is the greatest commandment, he answered “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. `Love your neighbour as yourself.`” (Matt. 22:37-39). Clearly, Jesus is showing us that good community relationship with God and one another is essential for personal and social well being. Another example of the perfect community model is found in the New Testament book “Acts of the Apostles” which says:”They devoted themselves to the Apostles` teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer......All believers were together and had everything in common....they gave to anyone as he had need....They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God.... (Acts. 2:42-47).

So, the big question is this!

Why do we see less and less of true community in the world today? The simple answer is that mankind has become more and more self centred, estranging himself from God and the relationship He desires for us, in order to pursue our own selfish gain. We are constantly bombarded with images and sound bites promoting “Look after number !”, “I`m alright, nothing else matters” and so on and so on. People seem to be more and more content in isolating themselves from neighbours not wishing to `get involved.` Crime is on the increase and as a result the consequences wreak havoc on the lives of the innocent, elderly and vulnerable in society. The list could go on but there is no room in this article to say anymore other than to pose the question, “What can we do?”

Well....this is why, as a church fellowship, following a community project called “40 days of Community”, we are looking at ways of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to our community by means of practical support and help where needed. Love is the key and this can only come from the love that Jesus offers. In fact, his instruction, to anyone who believes in him, is “A new command I give you; Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34). This of course, is not an easy thing to do, especially to someone we may not even like. But if we are willing to turn back to God and His ways, and rely on Jesus to impart in us his character, more and more each day, then we will experience the grace of God actively working in our lives enabling us to truly love one another and restore community values which are so desperately needed. Love is the key. The love of Jesus is the key to enable us all to gain the true fulfilled life God has planned for us. Jesus said “The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they (followers of Jesus) may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) (emphasis mine).

So, where do you stand? Where do you want to be? Do you want to love and be loved in return? Do you want to experience the transforming power of Jesus in your life in order to help make a difference, a difference in your community? Then invite Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour.

If you want to know how to take this step (the most important in your life), then please contact us at contact@preston-grangecc.org.uk   or  go to our contact page for more information. Thank you and God bless you. Gordon Picton.

Climate Change and the Christian Church

"They say to the prophets, Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions!'" (Isaiah 30, 10)

Defensive statement by David Golding! With major commitments to debt, trade justice, (voluntary) fair trade, aid and AIDS campaigns, plus my other responsibilities including academic ones, global warming is as inconvenient a truth to me as it is to anybody! However, I came to realise, when I had the chance to read the science in early 2006, that if I failed to take both public and personal actions on it, I would be betraying everything I've worked for over the past 10 years (for reasons, see below).

Initially I was very stressed by this issue and found that other sincere people felt the same - there's only so much we can cope with, and this is the last straw! However, I've toughened up a bit since then - we shouldn't start feeling too sorry for ourselves. In the 1800s, British people would have seen their children dieing like flies from diphtheria, etc.; in the 1900s they had to endure the (to us) almost unimaginable slaughter of sons, husbands, fathers and brothers in the First World War (19,000 British dead on 1st July 1916 alone, plus innumerable maimed or wounded); and then in the 20s and 30s came the great depression. This - climate change - is the challenge to our generation (albeit the greatest challenge to confront any generation) and we should face it in that spirit.

The Challenge: On 12th May 1789, a young MP, 'a sickly shrimp of a man', rose to his feet in Parliament and began one of the greatest speeches ever given with the following words: "When I consider the magnitude of the subject which I am to bring before the house, a subject in which not only the interests of this country, nor of Europe alone, but of the whole world and posterity are bound up... it is impossible for me not to feel both terrified and concerned at my inability to such a task." The man was William Wilberforce, and he was proposing the abolition of the slave trade - a measure that would finally be passed eighteen years later, in 1807.

These words seem entirely appropriate for the subject at hand. However, despite my loathing for the slave trade - "a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country", as Wilberforce described it; and despite my unbounded admiration for his achievement in bringing about what the great historian, G.M. Trevelyan, called "one of the turning events in the history of the world", I make so bold as to say that the importance of our 'subject' - that of climate change and our response to it - is an order of magnitude greater than that which Wilberforce addressed.

Climate Change: According to Lord Robert May, President of the Royal Society, "Never before have we [humanity] faced such a global threat. The longer we procrastinate, the more difficult the task becomes." Similarly, Sir David King, the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor, says that "Climate change is the greatest challenge facing Britain and the World in the 21st century".

The scientific community is overwhelming convinced that the main cause of global warming is proven beyond reasonable doubt: the culprit is increased CO2 emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). Most notably, on 7th June 2005, the (British) Royal Society, the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, the national academies of science of all the other G8 nations, and those of Brazil, China and India, put out the statement that "The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations... contribute to substantial reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions" (go to www.royalsoc.ac.uk/document.asp?id=3222 ) Such a joint statement is without precedent in the history of science.

 

We have a choice. We can accept that the evidence for rapid global warming is irrefutable and that the evidence for its human causation is overwhelming. Alternatively, we can believe that at least 99% of the top climate scientists - thousands of them, in every country in the world - are all involved in a gigantic global conspiracy. Most sensible people regard the views of the holocaust deniers with utter contempt; I believe the views of the climate sceptics deserve nothing better.

The issue is not only important, it's desperately urgent! Sir John Houghton, one of the world's leading experts on global warming (and an evangelical Baptist), says: "We are getting almost to the point of irreversible meltdown, and will pass it soon if we are not careful." Similarly, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has warned that "Climate change is for real. We have just a small window of opportunity and it is closing rapidly. There is not a moment to lose... We are risking the ability of the human race to survive".

Climate change, global poverty and posterity: There is strong scientific evidence that climate change is already having major adverse effects on the world's poorest communities, and that these effects will increase dramatically in the future unless urgent and radical action is taken. Dr Pachauri predicts that "The impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately upon developing countries and the poor... within all countries." Tearfund, the front runner on this subject among the aid agencies, put if more neatly: "Climate change hits the poorest hardest". Desmond Tutu has warned of an impending "catastrophe that will exacerbate human suffering to a magnitude that perhaps the world has not yet seen."

We personally will probably be spared the worst effects of this catastrophe, but 'business as usual' will mean that it will eventually and inevitably engulf our own children or grandchildren. "How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew about this and did nothing?", asks Sir David Attenborough. As James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, said at the Stop Climate Chaos Rally last November, "We are stealing our children's future... That's not just a crime against humanity, it's an offence to God".

Climate change and the Bible: The Bible's foundational statement about our planet is that "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it" (Psalm 24, verse 1). Consequently, our position is that of stewards of the earth, responsible to God for the way we use its resources. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it," says Genesis 2, v 15. This stewardship found expression in environmental laws, according to which, for example, the ancient Hebrews had to allow the land to lie fallow every seven years (Leviticus 25). God also commands us to "Love your neighbour" (Luke 10, 27), and says that "Love does no wrong to anyone" (Romans 13, 10). He says "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children" (Luke 1, 17) and (recalling David Attenborough's words) we should surely extend that to grandchildren. The Apostles had only one charge to lay upon Paul, and that was that he should "Continue to remember the poor" - the "very thing he was eager to do" (Galations 2, 10). Nor can we, as believers, take refuge in the "everybody's doing it" argument, since Jesus taught that "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come" (Luke 17, 1). He also made it clear that, although he offers us "peace for today and bright hope for tomorrow" (and the life to come), it's on condition that "we take up the cross". In the last book of the Bible, there's also a most explicit warning of judgement for environmental sin: "The time has come for judging the dead; for rewarding those who reverence your name and for destroying those who destroy the earth" (Rev 11, vs 16, 18).

 

Climate Change and the Church: "If you had stood on a London street corner in 1789 and insisted that slavery was morally wrong and should be stopped, nine out of ten listeners would have laughed you off as a crackpot... the British Empire's economy would collapse... To the abolitionists, the challenge of ending slavery in a world that considered it fully normal was as daunting as it seems today when we consider challenging the entrenched wrongs of our own age" (Adam Hochschild). He goes on: "Yet within a few short years, there was an abolition committee in every major city and town... more than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat slave-grown sugar... Parliament was flooded with abolition petitions... In an astonishingly short period of time, public opinion in Europe's most powerful nation had undergone a sea change." With, I might add, reverberations across the globe.

So how can we in the church take up the daunting challenge that faces us? First, there is the danger of sentimentality - of rightly doing what we can at an individual level, whilst remaining silent while our government 'fiddles whilst Rome burns'. We must take very opportunity to press our leaders to both take the lead and to draw others into vigorous and concerted international action. But there is also the danger of hypocrisy - a hypocrisy that rails against complacent government policies, whilst refusing to reform its own gluttonous and polluting lifestyle, and does nothing to reform the practices of the institutions in which it holds positions of leadership.

William Wilberforce completed his great speech to the House of Commons with these words: "The nature and all the circumstances of this challenge are now laid open to us. We can no longer plead ignorance; we cannot evade it. We may spurn it, but we cannot avoid seeing it, for it is now brought so directly before our eyes." The greatest challenge then was the slave trade and many churches brought everlasting honour to their Lord by their response to it. The far greater challenge faces the church in our day and that is climate change, but it could also be our greatest opportunity for practical witness. May God give us the strength, wisdom, and above all the grace, to serve God in our generation as Wilberforce did in his.

David Golding, 14.06.07

 

 

 

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)

 

Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone wants to be accepted. No-one likes being rejected or told they are not wanted. It lies deep within us all; the desire to be loved and to love someone in return. Love is the most powerful of emotions; the greatest force for good there is. Love creates. Love cares. Love conquers. The Bible tells us that God is Love as well as Light and Spirit and that he has a salvation plan to reconcile us back to him. This plan was allowing his own Son to give up his life, taking our place so that we may live; and live forever in the presence of his Light and Love. God’s desire for us is to experience the fullness of his Love for ourselves through an abundant life in his Son Jesus. Jesus himself said “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b). Here, Jesus is proclaiming himself to be the Shepherd of his sheep and the gate for his sheep to enter into safe pasture. But this is only one of two sides to his message. The other is a warning to us and we should take note. Let`s take another look at the passage in a fuller context by starting at John 10:7-10. It reads, `Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full”.` You see, on the one hand Jesus offers fullness and eternal life through him, but on the other hand there is another who will try to destroy that life if given the opportunity. That person is the Devil who is God`s enemy and will try all he can to persuade you not to take up God`s gracious offer of eternal life through Jesus his Son.

 

Since the beginning, God has wanted the best for us, his masterpiece of creation. He made us in his image so that we may enjoy to the full his fellowship. A relationship bonded together by his love for us and our love for him. But, and here`s the rub, because we are made in his image, we also have the freewill to choose. We can choose his ways, which lead to righteousness, and obedience or we can choose to follow our own ways that generally end up in disobedience and turning away from God. This turning away is called sin and was demonstrated for the first time in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God`s instruction not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil otherwise they would surely die.The Devil (in the form of a cunning serpent) deceived them into disobeying God convincing them that they would not die. They went ahead and tasted the forbidden fruit, and whilst they didn`t immediately physically die, because of their sin, they had now signed their own spiritual death warrant thus separating themselves from God`s fellowship. Sin then entered the world and the world has been in the grip of sin ever since.

 

Now, here`s the good news! God has firmly placed into existence his rescue plan by sending his Son into the world, being born of a virgin (according to scripture), living a sinless life (to show us how we were meant to live), dying on a cross (as a sacrifice for the sins of us all), and raised back to life (so that death is defeated). Jesus, the Messiah, completed his mission of salvation when he hung on that cross to suffer the most cruel of deaths, held there not so much by those barbarous nails but by the power of Love; his Love for us. That we may “not perish, but have eternal life”. This offer of eternal life is still available to anyone who is willing to acknowledge their need of Jesus by inviting him into their life as Saviour and to rule in their heart as Lord, to live life to the full in obedience to God the Father.

The Bible says that you can be sure you are saved by following Jesus as your Lord and Master and his teachings as laid down in Holy Scripture. And…….

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

 

If you would like to know more about Jesus then we would be happy to send you your free copy of the booklet “Why Jesus?” Just simply send a message to us at: contact@preston-grangecc.org.uk