VICAR'S LETTER

In my letter last month I wrote about the various Bible reading notes that I have found so helpful over the years and referred to a book I had been given recently by Angus Buchan entitled “A Farmers Year” and quoted one of the daily passages which talked about our relationship with the author of the book. When I was in primary school our doctor’s wife came to my school and explained about the Scripture Union’s daily notes which involved reading a small portion of the scriptures each day  as contained in a little booklet they published and I signed up and was sent the daily readings for a good number of years - and did try to read the daily passages. 

So I did grow up believing in a childlike way (I was a child!) that the Bible was God’s word and it was a “good thing” to read and study it. It was a decision I reached by myself, although it was not discouraged by my Mum and Dad. As Mum had been brought up in the Pentecostal faith I guess she was pleased when I started doing this. 

When I became a Christian some years later, it was in an evangelical church where it was taught that the Bible was the living word of God and that God still spoke to us through His word. It was taught that the Bible was written down by people inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit and was for everyone to read - not just scholars or theologians - people who studied the scriptures. When I went to theological college - training to be a Vicar - we were taught about the different authors, historical context, how the Bible came together and much more. The Bible was taken apart and then reconstructed -but I retained the basic belief and understanding that through it God spoke to us today. So I was interested to read the comment of Angus Buchan about the Bible and it reverberated with the childlike faith that made me start reading it: 

God is not man, that he should lie, nor a Son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” -Numbers Chapter 23 verse 19. 

Why do people always argue about the word of God? The Bible says He is not man - He is God. Men lie but God cannot lie. He cannot be untrue to Himself. What He says stands. He doesn’t have to repent (change His mind and go in the opposite direction) because He has not committed any sin.

How much it would simplify our lives if we would concentrate on having childlike faith, believing whatever God says is best for us and for our loved ones, instead of always questioning Him. Imagine an ant trying to question the Lord! We are nothing in the sight of God yet, amazingly, He has created us to be His friends. Let’s make a decision today to stop questioning God and start being obedient to His word.

The Bible says quite clearly that without faith we cannot please God. Faith is believing in something you haven’t yet seen, trusting that what God has promised He will do. Our part is to make sure that we have done everything He expects of us- the possible - and He will do the impossible. 

Over our summer months, why not read it, have faith and believe that God may use it to speak to you through it and that nothing is impossible -then just wait!!

With Love, Stephen.