Matt's Blog

All Through the Night

2009-03-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

I remember in primary school bottling up all of my courage to enter the singing competition on St David's day and having to memorise the words to the welsh folksong 'All through the night'. There's quite a few different versions, here's one I found, whilst playing around on the internet:

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.

While the moon her watch is keeping
All through the night
While the weary world is sleeping
All through the night
O'er they spirit gently stealing
Visions of delight revealing
Breathes a pure and holy feeling
All through the night.

I went to see the film 'Knowing' the other day and the song features. It brought back lots of memories, although if I were to wake up and find angels which look like those in the 'Knowing' are patrolling my bedroom at night, I would be really scared!

Blind Bart

2009-01-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

In Mark 10, we find the story of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who presents Jesus with a simple but challenging request: 'I want to see.' The Greek word used by Mark to describe Bartimaeus's request is 'anablepo', which literally means 'to look up; by implication, to recover sight'*. Its clear that Bartimaeus understood in some sense what it meant to have perfect vision and wanted to experience that again. His words have in many senses become a prayer for me over the last year as I've found myself constantly asking Jesus to see again in a whole variety of different situations. Let me explain...

In the song 'Amazing Grace', John Newton uses sight as an analogy for him conversion. Many people including myself, can relate to the line 'I once was lost but now I see' because when they became a Christian they were no longer lost but could see a purpose for their life. The only problem that I have with this concept is that even though sometimes I should be able to see perfectly as I'm no longer blind, I blatantly don't. One rather funny example of this happening was last Summer when I was in London with some good friends. We'd had a great evening at the Passion concert and I had been really challenged by God. Ten minutes later though in Hammersmith tube station, we were all arguing about when our tube tickets would soon run out and whether we would be able to get home in time! Suddenly I had gone from the position of seeing God very clearly in the concert to completely losing perspective and acting like I was blind again!

Marketing companies today have realised that people like you and me don't always see perfectly. I remember the 'Phones 4 U' mobile advert which was on TV a few years ago, which tried to make out that if you didn't have the latest mobile phone, you should be 'ashamed of your mobile!' The crazy thing was, I actually did feel ashamed of my mobile as it was a bit of a brick at the time. However, despite being a rather chunky mobile (a bit like my thighs I'm told), it still enabled me to very easily communicate with over a billion different people across the earth in less than two seconds flat - hardly something to be ashamed of! Its at times like these when we need to renew our sight and how we view the world - my mobile is pretty amazing just as is it! Similarly, with our faith, we don't just see once, we need to constantly be renewing our sight, just like Bartimaeus.

Claiming that we personally want to see in our faith comes with a challenge though. We have to desire to see everything that God wants us to see, not just what we want to see. When I'm on a rollercoaster, I purposely make myself blind and cover my eyes. In the English language we describe this behaviour as 'turning a blind eye'. Certainly I'm guilty of turning a blind eye to all sorts of things; poverty, injustice and the persecuted church to just name a few. If we really do want to 'see again' like Bartimaeus, we have to want to see everything that God wants us to see, we can't pick and choose.

A final point which strikes me about the whole concept of 'seeing again' is that sometimes we think we can see perfectly clearly and we simply can't! Last Summer I was reversing off my driveway and accidently hit my neighbours van. It was quite embarrasing and a little messy but shocked me into realising that I always have to be fully alert when driving. In Exodus 32, we read about the time when Aaron made a golden calf for the Israelites, believing he was doing right and that he could see perfectly. The consequences of such an act were disastrous though and in Exodus 32:27, Moses orders on God's behalf that everybody should be killed - even 'brothers, friends and neighbours'. When we think we can 'see' and we really can't the consequences are fatal: I hit a van, everybody was killed after Aaron's foolishness. Just like you should always have regular checkups at the opticians, we also need to have regular checkups concerning our faith. Reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, having fellowship with other Christians and accountability are just a few ways that we can achieve this.

Discovering who God is can't be compared to an activity like riding a bike because you simply can't perfect the skill and reach a level where you know all there is to know. We need to be constantly discovering who God is and the different sides to his personality - healer, redeemer, saviour, counsellor, friend and king are just a few of these. One day in Heaven we'll see God in Heaven and won't ever be able to say "I want to see again". That day will be amazing but until then, we need to keep repeating that request of Bartimaeus and ask Jesus to help us see again.

* http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=308

Hannah's Prayer

2009-01-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

What new years resolutions have you made for 2009? What dreams do you have for the year ahead? Perhaps you’ll consider taking on an extra resolution: to pray more actively throughout the year ahead, just like Hannah, whose story can be found in 1 Samuel 1-2.

From Hannah’s devotion of prayer, we can draw out four very simple but challenging points to try and follow for the year ahead:

1. Hannah endured problems – she didn’t have any children and her rival wife treated her cruelly. It may not be nice to think about it but in 2009, we are all going to face some form of disappointment, sadness or displeasure – you’ve probably already experienced some problems in the first week of the year. Hannah could have quite easily used her misfortune to turn away from God but instead the passage says that year after year she continued to faithfully worship God. We can’t force the problems that the year ahead will bring to disappear but we can make a conscious decision that we are going to bring our grief and problems to God in prayer throughout the whole year.
2. Hannah prayed with determination, she was devoted to prayer, just like we are called to be in Colossians 4:2. The Bible says that Hannah cried and cried out to God inconsolably, faithfully believing that God would answer her prayers. This year ahead we need to pray with determination, making sure that we have a routine of prayer and that we devote ourselves to it.
3. Why did Hannah persist in prayer? She believed that prayer worked and it obviously did, God didn’t forget Hannah’s prayers and gave her a son. In 2009, we can be confident that God will hear our prayers and that both individually and as a church, we will see our prayers answered. We can pray and see the world around us changed.
4. When Hannah had her prayers answered, she was extremely grateful. It says in chapter 2 that she rejoiced in the Lord! In the year ahead, when God answers our prayers we should also rejoice and thank God that he has heard us!

In short: In 2009 we’re going to face problems, just like every other person living on the planet, yet we can bring all these problems to God. Just like Hannah prayed and the world around her changed, we can stand firm in the knowledge that God hears our prayers and doesn’t forget them. We can be confident that we are going to see prayers answered for us as individuals and as a church in 2009 and when that happens we can thank him and pour our rejoicing out in worship.

Why not meditate on these thoughts while watching this video of the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus gave us to teach us how to pray.