Thought for the Week - 24th July 2022

Dear Friends, 

The quote, ‘From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow’ is credited to the ancient Greek playwright, Aeschylus, and it is true that from something tiny can come great things. This week sees the beginning of the 22nd Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and I was interested to learn that the games came from an initial idea of an Anglican clergyman, Revd John Astley Cooper, who wrote an article in The Times newspaper in 1891 proposing the idea of a ‘Pan-Britannic-Pan Anglican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing the goodwill and good understanding of the British Empire’. But it wasn’t until 1930 that the first ‘British Empire Games’ as it was then called were held in Hamilton, Canada, when 11 nations took part in eight sports including swimming, athletics, wrestling and lawn bowls! Today all 72 Commonwealth Games Associations are expected to send athletes to compete in 15 sports and it is estimated that over 1 million tickets are expected to be issued in what has become known as the ‘Friendly Games’. In the Bible, the apostle Paul often uses the imagery of an athlete competing in a race when talking about faith in Christ, particularly when we read in 1 Corinthians, ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever’ (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). It means being self-controlled and disciplined in life and any athlete will tell you that this is crucial in their lead up to a big race. But in the Christian ‘race’ we are all running, not against one another, but together, and we are running towards the finish line where the ‘prize’ of eternal life is, and the key to winning a race is in the preparation made before the race. It is foolish to enter a race unprepared, and just like an athlete who doesn’t put in the hard work of training will fail to win a race, so it is with the Christian whose ‘training’ and self-discipline if not uppermost in the mind will very easily lose their way. But Paul brings us encouragement, this time from the letter to the Philippians, ‘I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:14).

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