Thought for the Week - 5/9/2021

Dear Friends,

In his daily devotional book, Soul Fuel, the adventurer Bear Grylls writes, ‘Success does strange things to people. It can so easily go to the head and lead people to think that they’re special, set apart and somehow elevated above others. People can start to get self-centred, and if it goes unchecked, it makes them unhappy and isolated’. But what does success look like for you? And how do you measure success? Everyone’s answers will be different because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all to measuring success, but things might include, having a sense of giving back to the world and making a difference, it might mean a sense of accomplishment or achieving some recognition or progressing in a chosen field. Success might mean being able to do the things you love to do or feeling satisfaction with your lot in life. Sometimes we can be blinkered in our pursuit of success in things like career titles, money or social status, and yet when they are found we don’t always feel successful. I heard the story this week of the death of Margaret Loughrey who won the EuroMillions top prize eight years ago, but who said that the winning the jackpot had destroyed her life. What perhaps we might have thought would be success actually turned out to be too much of a burden. The Bible tells us that if we want our plans to succeed then we should commit to the Lord whatever we do (Proverbs 16:3), and that ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength’ (Philippians 4:13). It is about living in union with Christ whereby we will see good fruit coming from our lives and enabling us to live out ‘successful’ lives in the eyes of God. The prophet Isaiah records the words of the Lord that should bring us all encouragement, ‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand’. (Isaiah 41:10).   

Grace and peace,

Neil

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Week - 28th January 2024

Dear Friends, In 1985 the Congregational minister and hymn writer Fred Kaan reflected on ‘For the healing of the nations’ saying, ‘Of all the hymns that I have written, this is the text that has been more widely reprinted and incorporated in major hymnbooks than any other’. It was first used in 1965 and it expresses something of the deep longing and desire for peace and reconciliation, for God’s justice to be known, and for an end to all conflict and violence. Fred Kaan was a committed pacifist and, in an obituary, following his death in 2009 at the age of 80, it read, ‘His theology reflected a God committed to and immersed in a world crying out to be set free from every form of injustice. Fred’s poetry centred on a Jesus who embraced the whole of creation and excluded no one and nothing from his love. In Fred, the Christian peace movement found its voice.’                      ...
Read more

Thought for the Week - 29th October 2023

Dear Friends,  Today we are celebrating two things, firstly it is the Bible Society’s Bible Sunday, a day when we can give thanks to God for the scriptures and echo the apostle Paul’s words, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Timohty 3:16-17). And secondly, as a church we are celebrating the 140 th Church Anniversary of Beckenham Baptist Church, founded in 1883 as Elm Road Chapel, the opening services took place on Wednesday 31st October – 9.30am Prayer Meeting, 2.45pm Public Service, 4.45pm a Meeting in the Chapel, and at 6.30pm another Public Service – with various Baptist luminaries of the day in attendance. The public reading of the Scriptures has always been at the heart of all we do as a Christian community, for it is there that we can hear the stories of the Bible and reflect upon our own place in God’s never-ending story ...
Read more

Thought for the Week - 4th December 2022

Dear Friends,  ‘Census 2021 will probably be remembered as the one in which Christianity became a minority religion in England and Wales’, so read the article in a leading UK newspaper. It went onto say that ‘the number of people identifying as Christian dropped 5.5 million in the past decade’ ( The Guardian , 29/11/2022). Responding to the findings the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said that the country has ‘left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian’, and that the Christian church would continue its work in the face of both ‘revival and decline’ ( Sky News , 29/11/2022). He went on to say in an interview for BBC News, ‘ It's not a great surprise that the census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past, but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known’. The Bible Society says that the findings of...
Read more