This is an uncropped photograph which is the first time I have been able to take a picture of a bird of prey in the wild that did not need cropping. Usually by the time you see a buzzard or similar bird of prey and manage to focus on it is so far away. So the caption is self-explanatory.
David Rose, 2015.
When we read the account of Joshua and the battle of Jericho and learn that the only ones saved from destruction were Rahab and her family part of us wants to cry out that surely there could have been someone more righteous in Jericho to be saved? After all Rahab was named as a prostitute, and one would hope that there would be more respectable people in Jericho who would have been worth saving. Surely there must have been someone whose probity was beyond question, the equivalent of a chartered accountant? Apparently not. There may have been many who had a veneer of respectability but Rahab would have known more than anyone else how thin that veneer actually was. We may quibble about the lie she told to the men seeking the spies to protect them but it is a measure of how much she was certain of the danger that Jericho was in of destruction. She had no pretension as to her own righteousness unlike most people who like to think they stand in a better moral position than they are actually in. Our righteousness might be filthy rags but we like to think that there are designer clothes. We think that if we hide behind our walls like the people of Jericho then we will be safe. Little knowing how fragile our defences actually are and that we will be exposed to the judgment to come. We despise the Rahabs of this world, but if we look at the history of revivals it is often those looked down upon by society that turn to Christ in humility. “Decent” folk often distance themselves from such an overt passion for Christ. Yet most churches in the western world have targeted most of their evangelism at “decent” folk, fearing that those outwith the middle classes will require too much effort to disciple, especially those with chaotic lifestyles who are liable to have a few wobbles on their Christian journey. Yet only Rahab and her family were saved and not only that, because she would be allowed to be come one of the forebears of the Messiah. So sometimes we have overrule our logic and obey God instead.
David Rose, 2015.
Sometime years ago whilst doing historical research going through old newspapers on microfilm up in Inverness Library I came across an article recording an historic incident that I had not previously heard of. It was in the Inverness Advertiser of April 13 1860 and reported that there had been an adverse reaction in the Southern States of America to remarks made by Charles Haddon Spurgeon disapproving of the institution of slavery. To put it in its historical context this was on the eve of the American Civil War which broke out the following year. The Southern States felt themselves under increasing pressure to abandon slavery. Today the South is often referred to as the Bible Belt and there were no less a Christian sentiment in those days and many were fellow Baptists who had previously been avidly buying copies of his books. Now there was no demand for them anymore, so incensed that he was apparently actively supporting those who threatened the economic basis of the South. And that was on the more moderate end of the scale of reaction with others threatening to lynch Spurgeon should he venture to cross the Atlantic. The Christians in the South had argued that because slavery was mentioned in the Bible, therefore it was “Biblical” and were blind to the obvious evils that arose from it. All in all it was not the Southern Baptists finest hour. Spurgeon had gone from hero to zero overnight.
This story has a number of potential lessons that can be drawn from it. Firstly, from the point of view of Spurgeon and those who find themselves in the reproach of others, and secondly from the viewpoint of the Southern Baptists who had a moral blind spot. It should be remembered that Spurgeon was speaking in a country that had abolished both the slave trade and then slavery itself throughout the British Empire several decades previously and therefore it was unthinkable there that he would think that slavery was a good thing. One question that we could ask ourselves is how much of our interpretation of Scripture is coloured by the society in which we are brought up in? The economy of the American South was dependent on the buying and selling of slaves. Once a person bought a slave the only way that they could recoup their investment was by selling that slave to someone else. Just abolishing it would leave all the slaveholders effectively bankrupt. Clearly this coloured the opinions of the Southern Baptists and their kneejerk reaction. Can we be equally guilty of a similar reaction when we meet people from different backgrounds? There are many theological issues that divide the Church today which can easily lead to strong differences of opinion not to mention the pressures on the Church to modernise/compromise on social issues. One can easily find oneself in a proverbial minefield to the unwary. Some people have very strong views on some issues, whether from creation to end times, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the role of women in the Church, etc. The list is endless. In this age of social media it is very easy to say something that which can easily be taken out of context and produce a barrage of abuse. Now nobody is perfect. We can all change our opinions on theological issues so we need to be gracious with others when they say something questionable after all Jesus said things which people wanted to stone him for. On the other hand it is easy just to stay silent and let things pass unsaid. As usual there is a question of balance and wisdom as to the right moment or approach to our concerns. There are many instances where we criticism is justified, equally there are many instances where criticism is mere gossip and if we respond to that and go in with all guns blazing then we are not doing God’s work but the Devil’s. Also when the Holy Spirit begins to convict someone on some issue or another our reaction tends to become defensive giving rise to the possibility of a kneejerk reaction. It is quite possible that many of the Southern Christians in 1860 knew deep down that slavery was wrong but could not handle the criticism of others, hence the reaction. With hindsight it seems perfectly obvious that slavery was wrong but to those living in the South at the time it was unthinkable as it was source of great wealth which even the poor whites aspired to. We have to ask ourselves are there not times when we have reacted against criticism which if we are honest we have to admit that there is some justification to it? It is like the example in the Sermon on the Mount of the person with the plank in their own eye. We are unable to see clearly, even if our reactions may not have been as extreme as the Southern Baptists. We all have certain areas of our lives where we are works in progress and are sensitive to things that prick our consciences and if we are not careful are liable to react strongly. Once we have uttered unwise words we cannot take them back, it is too late. We do not need to start a civil war do we?
David Rose, Aviemore.
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Last year I posted that I had put up a bird feeder in my garden. I had long resisted putting one up my reasoning was that I would be interfering with nature. How easy it is to justify being stingy! Likewise we try and justify being mean to God. When we ask “How much should we give?” What we really mean is “How little can I get away with giving?” There are many instances of people who have after giving generously have reaped even more generously. Yet the principle of sowing and reaping has been exploited by some as a means of obtaining wealth a bit like a heavenly lottery ticket. Along the lines of give so much to this ministry then God will reward you so much you will become fabulously wealthy. This discredits more worthwhile ministries who struggle to make ends meet. After all, if God owns the cattle on a thousand hills why should he need the widow’s last mite? Obviously not. But the funny thing is that the more I am generous in feeding the birds in my garden then the more opportunities I find that have to photograph wildlife. Now one could argue that is because I have been practicing my skills and therefore I am finding better opportunities to take pictures. For instance, a few weeks ago I noticed a warbler in the tree in my garden and was amused to find that one of the pictures showed it having a good scratch.
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A couple of months ago whilst out walking I managed to take a photograph of a female black redstart which is a rare bird in the Highlands. Again these opportunities seem to arise more often. But one cannot just expect to these opportunities to happen, you have to go looking for them. Likewise, with God’s blessings how many Christians expect God to bless them with some spectacular wonder when they sit at home on their sofas watching Christian television without any real effort on their part.
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Again here is another picture I took, though heavily cropped, I was walking along by a partially dried up backwater of the Spey when I noticed in the distance a small bird apparently trying to wash itself in a pool. As I walked closer it flew away before I could identify it. I then noticed a tree creeper in a nearby tree but I was unable to get clear a photo of it as it moved around until it flew away. Shortly afterwards the tree creeper returned to bathe in a pool in front of me, though between me and the bird there was a large amount flood debris which both acted as a barrier and a makeshift hide. Again it flew off, but soon returned to a tree on the opposite side of the backwater and managed to some more photos, but I soon noticed a second tree creeper and they flew off together. I began to think they might be a nesting pair. I might have tried to look for their nest if I had the faintest clue as to what a tree creeper’s nest looked like. I was totally ignorant. But it so happened that I had a week’s holiday so that I was able to walk along that stretch of the river at leisure. A few days later I was walking along the same backwater near where it rejoined the river when I again saw a tree creeper. Normally when a tree creeper lands on a tree it lands near the base of the trunk a proceeds to climb up it looking for insects, but this tree creeper landed on the stump of tree near its top and disappeared round the other side out of view. After a few seconds it flew away in a different direction from which it had come. I waited a few minutes before it or its partner returned with more food. I had found the nest.
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Within ten days of my finding the nest the chicks had fledged, so there was only a window of opportunity in which to find the nest. I could have said to myself that only expert ornithologists find would be able to a tree creeper’s nest and thus dismiss the possibility of finding the nest from my mind and not recognise what I saw as a nesting site. So there is the possibility that we will fail to grasp the opportunity to receive God’s blessings through disbelief or disobedience. One of Satan’s favourite tricks is to tell Christians that they are not good enough to be Christians. But then you have to admit you are a sinner to before you can become a Christian. We are all works in progress. Our righteousness is filthy rags, as Paul says, so we are dependent on the Blood for our salvation. So if a Christian feels that though they are giving to God but not receiving the blessings they expected then that may be because he may be blessing them in other ways that were not on their wish list. As the old chorus used to say “Count your blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
David Rose, 2015
In Chapter 30 of 2 Chronicles there is the account of a great public celebration of the Passover. Isaiah is not mentioned in person but as a member of the priesthood his involvement in the events of this chapter is there by implication. As one of the few people who seems to have kept himself ceremonially pure then he would have been heavily involved in the purification of other members of the priesthood and temple servants. There being so few that the celebration was delayed by a month. King Hezekiah crossed over into what had previously been the northern kingdom of Israel and invited the remnant that had been left behind by the Assyrians to join in the celebration of the Passover at Jerusalem. Indeed, many did even though as a nation they had fallen away from God’s laws so prayers were given to the effect that despite that they should be allowed to take part and be accepted. These people together with the people whom the Assyrians had settled in the land in time became known as the Samaritans. Their descendants today still celebrate a version of the Passover though different from how their Jewish brothers do it today. Today the Jewish people do not eat lamb in their Seder meal. But the Samaritans cook a whole lamb in an oven which consists of a hole in the ground with a fire in the bottom. In order to do this they insert a thin piece of wood under the flesh of the lamb along one foreleg to the shoulder and through and along to the other foreleg. Another stick was pierced under the skin down the back of the lamb with the hind-legs tied to the end of the stick. Thus the lamb is spreadeagled over the fire with the ends of the stick through the forelegs resting on each side of the oven. There being room for several lambs to be cooked at the same time and therefore a suitable method of preparing the vast number of lambs needed for a mass celebration of the Passover such as that recorded during the reign of Hezekiah. Of course, before this happened the lamb had to be slaughtered and in Isaiah 53 verse 7 it states “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a shearers is silent he did not open his mouth.” So Isaiah would have had plenty of witnessing lambs being slaughtered. Whether Chapter 53 is a result of Isaiah’s reflections on the preparations of the Passover or as a reflection after the event I cannot say. The Passover is also referred to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The bread used in the Seder today and is called matzo which is in the form of a crispbread with rough corrugations or stripes and also pierced with small holes. Hence, it states “He was pierced for our transgressions,” and “by his stripes(or wounds) we are healed.” But equally there much in this passage that cannot come about by anything but divine revelation. but how often does not that revelation come to us but by starting by either reading the Word or observing something physical that God uses to trigger a train of thought.
David Rose, 2015.
In a recent post called “Looking for more signs of Maturity” I recommended that in order to get spiritual food we should visit a Christian bookshop and have a good browse. Shortly afterwards I made a visit to my nearest one and came across a newly published book entitled “Land of Many Revivals” written by Tom Lennie. The book is prefaced by a poem/prayer, written by a gentleman named Alex Muir, entitled “Lord Have Mercy.”
Lord have mercy on our country
Turn our hearts to You again,
Though we’ve grieved Your Holy Spirit
By our deeds of sin and shame:
Though our sins rise like a dark cloud
May our prayers rise even higher,
Pleading for divine forgiveness
Pleading for the heavenly fire.
Bold Reformers, Covenanters
Interceded with their blood,
For the land they loved so dearly
For the freedom of Your word:
May the heart cries of our fathers
Now be mingled with our own,
As we intercede for Scotland
As we bow before Your throne.
May Your Spirit move in power
Until all the land is blessed,
From the North Isles to the Borders,
From Kinnaird Head to the West:
Bring the day for which we’re waiting
And to which our hearts aspire,
Visit Scotland with revival
Send the fire, Lord send the fire!
The book is subtitled “Scotland’s extraordinary legacy of Christian revivals over four centuries 1527-1857” and he argues that there has been a revival of some sort or another in each of these decades except the 1610s. No explanation is given for this but I note that this is the decade that the King James Bible was published, which rather a shock to those who regard this translation as the only translation in English.
So far I have found the book easy to read and would recommend it to others who have an interest in revival movements. As the writer is keen to point out that the book is not a history of the Scottish church as such but only certain aspects of it. Knowledge of Scottish history is not necessary but certainly no hindrance.
David Rose, 2015.
Some time after I posted The Spear in His Side I read through the account in John’s Gospel of Jesus trial before Pilate and the thought occurred to me, that while there may have been Jewish sources that John could have used for the accounts of Jesus trials before the High Priest, the Sanhedrin and Herod,they would fall short of giving the in depth account of the trial before Pilate. The only part of the trial that Jewish sources could report accurately would have been when Pilate consulted the people outside on the Pavement. But that does not explain the dialogue between Pilate and Jesus away from public gaze. So where did John get the details that seem to come from an eye-witness? Pilate? Highly improbable as it is extremely unlikely that the two ever met. An unnamed Roman officer or official, who might have been present, such as Cornelius? Possible, but still unlikely, especially as there is no hint from Acts Chapter 10 that Cornelius or any of his circle had witnessed Jesus’ trial before Pilate. In any case John was not present in Acts Chapter 10. Though he could have visited Caesarea subsequently. So who else would have been present? Well Jesus had just been flogged nearly to death, so he was probably dragged as much as marched into Pilate’s presence. Possibly, if not probably, he was being held up by legionaries on either side of him, who would have been members of the punishment/execution squad. If this was the case then it is likely that one of them was the man who pierced Jesus’ side. I suspect that in order to hear Jesus speaking to Pilate you would have had to be pretty close to him so the details of the conversation ruling out the possibility of an eavesdropping snooper behind a door or curtain.
For those who have not yet read my previous posts then I should explain that I suspect that the source had retired to the Roman colony of Philippi and may have been the Philippian gaoler who later in his life may have deliberately sought out John and Mary the mother of Jesus to ask for Mary’s forgiveness. In so doing he would have been able to relate many of the details of Jesus’ trials and crucifixion that other accounts left out/
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There are number of questions that this chapter raises. Not least the fact the Holy Spirit came upon the listening Gentiles before Peter had given any formal call for repentance. This appears to be in the wrong order. It occurred to me that the reason it happened in this way was because if Peter, and the Jewish believers who accompanied him to Cornelius’ house, had waited until he thought that his listeners satisfied any conditions he might have given we would still be waiting for the Holy Spirit to be given to us Gentiles. Such was the attitude of the Jewish people at that time to non-Jewish people. Previously, Peter had a vision of a large sheet being lowered from Heaven containing all sorts of animals which God had previously forbidden the Jews to eat. Then God spoke to Peter “Kill and eat.” Peter refused saying “I have never eaten anything unclean.” This happened three times, and the number three is usually considered very significant in theology, so God was trying to get a very important message across to Peter. Peter was puzzled. He was probably even more puzzled when Cornelius’ messengers arrived looking for Peter and the Holy Spirit told Peter to welcome those he would normally consider unclean and eat with them. Now we are all aware of anti-Semitism in this world, and the Church is not without such prejudice. Equally there is the attitude of Jews to non-Jews. It was the purpose that the Jewish people should be separate from the other nations so that the truth of God should not be diluted until the Messiah came and fulfilled the Law. So Peter’s difficulty in seeing the great commission as going to tell the Jews around the world the Gospel, with the possibility of including those who were partly Jewish like the Samaritans, or converts to Judaism. But taking the Gospel to Pagans was not something that Peter and his fellow Apostles had taken on board despite the hints from Jesus such as saying “I will only give you the sign of Jonah”, true he only directly referred to the three days and nights in the belly of the fish or whale, but Jonah’s mission was to the pagan Assyrians. Later Peter would revert to type under the influence of the Judaisers and Paul had to rebuke him. When Peter had to report his actions to the church in Jerusalem he had a frosty reception. He had to convince them that this was the work of the Holy Spirit. God knew the mindsets of the other Jewish Christian leaders. One should also remember that while Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism then it was under the protection that Judaism had under the Romans because they were exempted from calling Caesar Lord so there was pressure not to differentiate too much between the followers of Jesus and non-believing Jews. When this came about then the Church was open to persecution from the Roman authorities. The news that Gentiles were being converted made it more difficult to persuade religious Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, something hinted at by James when Paul met James at the end of his third missionary journey. If you were living cheek by jowl to Jewish Temple authorities in Jerusalem the last thing you would do would be to emphasise the distinctive aspects between Christianity and Judaism. So God had to intervene, to use a pagan metaphor, because once the genie was out of the bottle it could not be put back in. It was on God’s agenda that the Gentiles would be reached with the Gospel if not the Jewish Church.
David Rose, 2015.
This morning when I looked out of my kitchen window I noticed a fledgling sparrow sitting on a small branch adjacent to my bird-feeder. A series of adult sparrows helped themselves to the seed in the feeder. At one point, a female sparrow, presumably the fledgling’s mother, fed it by taking seed from the feeder and landing next to it. The mother eventually flew off leaving the young one alone. It continued to chirp, flapping its wings and opening its mouth wide as if saying “feed me,” trying to attract the attention of its parents. It edged nearer the feeder but seemed unwilling to make the short flight of a few inches to one of the perches on the feeder. Bemused, it flew off in search of its parents. When we are young in the faith we expect to be spiritually spoon-fed and cry out to those involved in our spiritual new birth to be fed. But there comes a time when we have to learn to feed ourselves, even if it means we are bemused when the spoon-feeding stops. One of the reasons people give for changing churches is that they are not being fed spiritually. Surely, it should be a sign of maturity that we learn to feed ourselves. True, we have the Christian media these days, though that can be a rather passive way of learning. Reading Christian literature is a good thing, but many of the newer titles are produced by television ministries, which are able to advertise them heavily. When buying Christian books you cannot beat browsing in a Christian book shop, if you can find one these days, rather than just clicking on the internet. A new believer may be unaware of many Christian classics of previous generations. Spiritual truths are timeless, biographies of those of an earlier generation of Christians may be easier to digest than Bible commentaries for newer believers. Just because someone has a big television ministry it does not mean that they have greater spiritual insight than those who do not. The suspicion will always be that some of the books produced by television ministries are made to provide a revenue stream rather to fill a God-inspired need. Discernment is something that should grow in time providing that we feed our minds with a spiritually balanced diet. It is equally as important as with our physical diet.
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