As an 8-10 year old, I had local neighbours about my age and we used to have supper with them sometimes. They have stuck in my memory because their son was taller than me and always hungry.

We used to call him ‘the dustbin man’, because he was always last to start his plateful and first to finish - like he just emptied the bin!! Maybe that's why he grew so fast!

I came across a lovely story recently¹ of a family where the children used to bicker over the size of the piece of home-made pie they were given. One time their Dad smiled at their Mum, lifted up his plate to receive his portion, and said, 'Please just give me a piece as big as your heart!'. All were stunned when their Mum laughed and gave him the largest portion of all!

What are we given?

It's a part of our fallen nature that when we focus on the possessions of others, jealousy often results. Better to learn to say 'thank you' for what we have been given, because it comes from a Father whose heart is bigger than we can ever imagine! In this way, like Paul (Phil 4:11) we can learn to be content.²

Psalm 119 is a wonderful devotion on the Word of God as it follows each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in 8-verse mouthfuls. Verses 57-58 tell us: “You are my portion O Lord – I have promised to obey Your words, I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your word” (emphasis added).

The Hebrew letter for these eight verses (vv57-64) is chet, whose pictographic meaning is a fence or a separate inner room, and the verses are about God's word and His grace. They represent a fence to keep us safe within and keep our enemies out. What better portion could we have than our loving Heavenly Father?

What can we give?

The question we may ask in response is: which piece of the pie should we give to Him to express our thanks? In ancient Israel, the priests always gave God the best bit of the offering. Did you have (like I did at home) the plan ‘You cut, I'll choose!’ - to guarantee an exact 50:50 split? (or I got the bigger piece!)

I was at a meeting last year where we were given little encouragements. Mine said 'You have a generous spirit'. I thought, Hmm, I like that, but I'd like to give more.³ What does our Father want us to give? Even in a bleak mid-winter, the Christmas carol has the right answer: What I can, I give Him - give my heart.

Author: Greg Stevenson

References

1 James Banks, Daily Bread.

2 The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want (Ps 23:1).

3 Then the people rejoiced...because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord (1 Chron 29:9).

When on a cycle ride recently in the late afternoon sunshine, I was delighted by a wonderful autumnal aroma of wood smoke. A mist was settling in the valley, leaves on the trees were starting to display beautiful reds and yellows and through this vision, the silhouette of a church tower in the next town created within me thoughts of chestnuts roasting on a fire and the joys that come with winter.

And then another thought popped into my head - different season, but the same principle. When His disciples asked what the signs will be of His coming and the end of this age, Jesus taught them:

Now let the fig tree teach you its lesson: when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear, you know that summer is approaching. In the same way, when you see all these things, you are to know that the time is near, right at the door. (Matthew 24:32-33)

Staying Alert

So, following the principles of this lesson, I need to be watching for the signs Jesus gave in chapter 24, in order to understand when “the branches begin to sprout”, so I can get ready for the approaching summer. Or, in my own autumnal picture, having seen the start of autumn I know I need to prepare for winter.

Paul gave a similar lesson in 1 Thessalonians 5:3-6:

When people are saying ‘Everything is so peaceful and secure,’ then destruction will come upon them, the way labour pains come upon a pregnant woman…But you brothers, are not in the dark, so that the Day should take you by surprise like a thief…so let’s not be asleep, like the rest are; on the contrary, let us stay alert and sober.

None of us know the day when summer, winter or a pregnant woman’s labour pains will start, but we all understand the signs when these are drawing close and the wise ones among us start to get ready in good time. Now, I believe that the miraculous re-birth of Israel back in 1948 was such a sign. We need to be watchful and ready for the last prophecies of this age to unfold, culminating in the return of Jesus. On a national scale I believe God is giving us warnings of coming judgment upon our land.

Riding the Wave

I remember another analogy along similar lines: surfers have to always be watching for the wave. If they see and time it right, they then ride the wave - with all the exhilaration it brings. If they get distracted and don’t see the wave, they get embarrassingly dunked! Jesus also says in Matthew 24:43:

…had the owner of the house known when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you too must always be ready, for the Son of Man will come when you are not expecting him.

Author: John Quinlan

There is currently a lot of discussion about what it means to be British. Having for some decades endeavoured to re-define our national identity through membership of the EU, we are now withdrawing – and wondering, in this new era, who we are.

The definition of Britishness was already somewhat confused when we made the early alliances with other European countries in the 1960s in what was then the Common Market. Following this, we were gradually drawn into a tightening political and economic alliance. There was no clearly discernible voice at the time calling for the nation as a whole to recognise that ultimately this would become a union that would neutralise the Christian heritage of our nation.

Even now, when we are withdrawing from the alliance with Europe, discussion centres more on finance than faith. For most who voted to Leave, their motivation was political rather than spiritual.

There is Yet Time

Yet, if we were to ask God why He opened the door for this miraculous deliverance, which is on a par with the miracle of Dunkirk in the Second World War, we would understand that there are biblical principles that He would have us embed more deeply in our culture. He would cause us to look at our history and see where His hand has been at work on our behalf. He would help us to see where we have strayed, in every area of our society, and help us recover.

From now until the so-called ‘divorce’ with Europe is completed, we will hear constant analysis of the topic from our media channels. But we are unlikely to hear any deeper analysis of how a nation can become a nation under God again, through the last days. If we are to become such a nation, the time is urgent for Christians to consider this prayerfully on behalf of all, while there is yet time.

What would British identity be if we were a nation under God? The answer to that question must be a motivation for our prayers over the coming years.

Who Should Britain Be?

The injunction of Peter in 2 Peter 3 was addressed to disciples of Jesus, not to a nation as a whole. In reminding us of the coming Day of the Lord he asked, “what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…?” (verses 11-12, NKJV).

There may be a little time left for Britain to gather together and answer that question as a whole nation, but soon that opportunity will pass. Then it will be for Jesus’ disciples in our day, as in the day of the early Apostles, to be a community set apart waiting for the Lord’s coming.

So let us, with some urgency, while there is still opportunity, consider prayerfully what it might mean to be Britain under God in an increasingly apostate world, in a way that would please Him. Let us begin by praying for clarity and enabling over the next couple of years, at least.

Author: Clifford Denton

When I was 3 or 4 years old, near the end of WWII, our family lived in a little village in Devon, in a quiet rural environment. The kitchen had an old Rayburn solid-fuel stove. I knew little of the war except that we were fighting Germany. Apparently, early one summer morning I came downstairs and, feeling helpful, began to rake out the cold ash from the range (onto the floor!).

Although absorbed in this activity, when I heard a knock on the back door, I went to open it. It was the coal-delivery man who I hadn't seen before, though he knew me.

Imagine my horror when he leant his blackened face down to my level and said, in a gruff German accent, “Gut morgen, younge man. I have ze coal for you!” I ran in terror, shouting for my mother to rescue me!! Why had no-one told me that they had invaded our village?

What I clearly needed was someone who had watched out for the coal delivery (like we used to for the Corona man!) and warned me. But that morning I was taken completely by surprise. The Home Guard were our watchers for external danger in rural Devon in those days. Indeed, a German plane landed in a field near us, and the pilot was taken in and given tea and biscuits.

The Danger Within

Today, there is another danger, but it comes from within the nation. God watched over Britain during the war, and prevented invasion, but the present danger is as serious though far subtler. It comes from a national lifestyle in which everyday functions like eating and drinking, buying and selling have become increasingly secular, our culture becoming preoccupied by the accumulation of wealth with its associated anxieties, and increased demand for various liberal activities and human 'rights'.

Acknowledgement of the God of Creation, and pursuit of spiritual, Kingdom values like righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, are increasingly being exchanged for values of self-fulfilment: each one doing what is right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25, KJV).

Deception about religion, sexual choice and 'freedom', corruption, suppression of the truth (even in the Church), social engineering especially in children, and a lack of personal moral character (2 Tim 3:1-7) make it very easy to miss the signs of the times in these last days.

Against these dangers from within, we need strong warning. Who will watch for these 'enemies' that can blind us to the anti-God changes in our society, and dull our hearing to what God is saying and doing in our nation? His call to us is 'Wake up, Britain!'

Watch for the Signs - Be Prepared

Jesus told us clearly many times to be on our guard: to “be always on the watch, and pray” (Luke 21:36, note the order). The signs are all around us if we are not asleep. Where are our watchmen, to blow the trumpet and warn us, our shepherds to protect the flock from unsuspected danger?

Jesus is returning, as He promised. But when the flood comes, it will come quickly. Read His warning in Matthew 24:37-42. God has appointed watchmen over you and said, Listen to the sound of the trumpet (Jer 6:17)! But will we? We need to be like the sons of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do when danger threatened (1 Chron 12:23, 32).

This warning applies very much to us in Britain today. Thank God there are faithful watchmen among us.

This is the question: Are you prepared? Do you know the Lord Jesus? Will you listen, and watch, and warn those you know of the present danger?

Author: Greg Stevenson

This summer, whilst the media has shouted loudly about all the secular music festivals that have become so popular in Britain, tens of thousands of Christians have also been gathering at annual camps like New Wine, Newday and CreationFest.

Last week we took a party of young people from our church to Soul Survivor in Peterborough, where they enjoyed a week of worship, teaching, fellowship and fun. Gathering with roughly 9,000 others to worship the Lord (and this was just one week, of four) is always a huge encouragement to our youth group, who often struggle with feeling isolated in their faith at school or college.

Desperation for Rescue

I am aware that events like Soul Survivor are not perfect, but setting such debates aside for a moment, I was struck this year particularly by a palpable sense of desperation amongst young people for rescue by the Lord Jesus.

From the very first meeting – and this didn’t let up through the week – it seemed that the Lord was wasting no time in urging teens to draw near to Him, whether simply in asking for prayer or in surrendering their whole lives into His care for the very first time. Teenage shyness seemed absent from the room as hundreds jumped at the chance to come forward and express their need, receive prayer and pray for each other.

Three of our number gave their lives to the Lord which prompted much celebration in our camp – and I imagine even more in Heaven! One was so overcome that she spent most of the week crying with joy and grinning from ear to ear, her face seeming to glow with the beautiful presence of the Holy Spirit.

Across the four Soul Survivor festivals this summer, 1,350 young people committed their lives to Jesus. That’s encouraging news if ever I heard some! Do pray for these vulnerable youngsters as they head back to ‘real life’ (often to very challenging circumstances), that the Lord will complete this work and bring them to a full knowledge of their rescue and safety in the Messiah Jesus, strengthening them to stand firm and overcome in every trial that lies ahead.

The Harvest is Plentiful

We live in devastating times and it’s easy to become downcast and overwhelmed. Jesus Himself said that “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matt 24:12-13). It is important to keep reminding each other that the point of God shaking the nations – the reason He is allowing disasters and traumas to affect so many - is to turn a great many hearts to Him before the end.

The point, in other words, is the harvest that is ripening (or, if Soul Survivor is anything to go by, is already ready), even now. God’s immense work of salvation is alive and well today in Britain - “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matt 9:37). Will you answer the call to the fields?

Author: Frances Rabbitts

A question came up in a television quiz the other day that caught my attention. Apparently, there has been a recent survey of what people consider to be the best decade in Britain. At last, I thought, we will hear a sensible opinion from this sample of the British public and I will be encouraged that all is not lost.

Then the answer came: the 1960s were voted as best. What?! That decade where all those subtle changes of law began to take place, taking the nation on the slippery slope down? That decade where so-called ‘freedom’ among young people began to be expressed, freedom that has turned into licence and permissiveness?

I was hoping to hear that it was the 1950s - that decade of re-building after the war years when a generation of children grew up in a framework of safety and hope! That was surely the decade of unending sunny blue skies. But of course, we who experienced this are an older generation now and so the sample of people who gave their opinion in the survey would mostly not have shared this experience.

Yearning for the Best of the Past

We all have favourite memories and a point in time on which those memories pivot. I read a book recently in which the author reflected on the years prior to the Great War, generally focussed on what became the Edwardian era. The book was entitled When the lights went out. The author described how he ‘felt’ the change just as war was about to break out in 1914 and an era was left behind that has never returned. Of course, I don’t have an experience of that, so my nostalgia is rooted in the ‘50s!

No doubt we all reminisce on these matters sometimes, yearning for the best of the past. But in these momentous days in which we now live, we must be careful not to set our standards of expectation too low.

I am told that to the Jew the word ‘restoration’ means a return to how Israel had a special relationship with God through the wilderness years at the time of Moses. That seems a better benchmark to me, the desire for which echoes from the heart of the prophets:

Restore us, O God; cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved! (Psalm 80:3)

O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)

The Best is Yet to Come!

But let us look higher still than the 50s, 60s, 1910s or even the wilderness years of Israel. Let us look back to the dawn of time and forward to the return of Jesus, no less. What was lost to Adam and Eve in their brief blissful life with God will be restored fully to Jesus’ family in the coming days, and it will certainly be infinitely better than any experience on this earth that any of us have had. That is what we are waiting for and that should be our meditation:

…that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:20-21)

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. (Luke 21:28)

Author: Clifford Denton

Heatwaves and weather events “could kill over 100,000 a year in Europe by 2100”.¹

This recent news, no doubt published in the light of the unprecedentedly scorching weather recently in Italy, caught my attention last weekend. The article predicts searing heatwaves, droughts, floods and wind storms, all as a consequence of global warming.

Does this sort of warning have a familiar ring to it for those of us who read our Bibles? The physical threat of fire should always be a sobering reminder for believers, for we know it will also be the form of the Lord’s final judgment upon the earth (e.g. 2 Peter 3:10-13). It is not surprising that as we approach His return, then, things are ‘hotting up’ (so to speak) – physically, politically and spiritually. Through physical signs we are being alerted increasingly to the times of urgency in which we live.

The Lord Will Come with Fire

My wife had a dream back in 2012. It went as follows:

I dreamed that a tornado was coming through the city and it was very wide, lifting up in its way houses, people, cars…We had to run away to the forest but the forest was on fire in various parts. Where we went the fire would be, not large bits but in small pieces. So we decided to go back but were pushed to where the tornado was still touching down. I felt we had to get below street level and warn people to join us. Many came but lots wanted to go back for things. Bodies were strewn everywhere. So down we went and as it passed over we saw a glimpse of heaven / peace / sun and then it left. We were still there among the debris, water and mess as the tornado went on its way.

She told our family about this dream one evening. As usual at that time, after the meal we read from the Bible. This night, seemingly by coincidence, we reached Isaiah 66 and verses 14-16:

When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment on all people, and many will be those slain by the LORD. [emphasis added]

Time is Short

So, what are we to do about it? We have to do something, both in prayer and action. Just as the scientists are warning the world of the need to change lifestyles in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have to warn people that God’s judgment is coming closer.

There is still time for multitudes to escape the fire of God’s judgment. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, the opportunity still remains for them to turn their lives about and join our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom. But time is getting short.

Author: John Quinlan

References

1 Press Association, see here.

What will be the lead item on BBC news broadcasts and what will be the headlines in our national newspapers on Monday 31 July and Tuesday 1 August? What will Christians be reading in their Bibles on those same days? Mostly, I do not think it will reflect Israel’s priorities.

From sunset on 31 July to sunset on 1 August Jews around the world will be deeply engaged in fasting and prayer. Their Bible reading will be from the Book of Lamentations. This is the 9th of Av, Tisha B’Av, on the biblical calendar.

Historic Tragedies

Several major tragedies in Israel’s history have fallen on that day. In the Mishnah we read:

Five misfortunes befell our fathers…on the ninth of Av...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6)

Tisha B'Av primarily commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed on 9th Av (the first by the Babylonians in 586 BC, the second by the Romans in 70 AD).

Also remembered is the time when the Jews rebelled against Roman rule, believing that their leader, Simon bar Kochba, would fulfil their messianic longings. But in 133 AD, the Jewish rebels were brutally defeated in the final battle at Betar. The date - the 9th of Av.

Jews were expelled from England in 1290 AD on Tisha B'Av. On 31 March 1492, Queen Isabella of Spain and her husband Ferdinand ordered that all Jews be banished from the land. The Jews were given exactly four months to put their affairs in order and leave Spain – leading up to the deadline of Tisha B’Av.

To add to the list, we can trace the road to the Holocaust back to its beginnings when Germany declared war on Russia in 1914 - on the 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av.

Our Response

For observant Jews, all these things are brought to mind on Tisha B’Av. So what should Christians do? How shall we spend the day? Perhaps we too should read the Book of Lamentations, written by Jeremiah and concerning the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. We might also read how Yeshua wept over Jerusalem concerning what was about to befall the city (Luke 19:41-44), and consider prophesies of the times still ahead of us (e.g. Matt 24, Mark 13, Luke 21).

With all the buzz of the world’s news priorities filling the airwaves this week, let us re-adjust our own priorities for study and prayer. We alone, of Yeshua’s family, can understand the past in terms of the present and future. Let us join with Israel in their day of mourning.

Bring back our captivity O Lord, and the streams in the South.
Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. (Ps 126:4-5)

Author: Dr Clifford Denton