MAKES YOU THINK...

A series of 'thoughts' written by members of St Augustine's, designed to...well...make you think! This page will be updated frequently so please keep coming back!

"JESUS” - Prayer word or swear word?

By Christine R Regas - February 2012

A few years ago the Scripture Union published a story in one of it leaflets which I am sure they will not mind my repeating: It concerned a 14 year old boy who, on hearing the Christmas story for the first time, asked: "Why did Joseph name his    son after a swear word?"  I was reminded of that painful story while watching a TV programme about Christmas lights early in December.  This showed some competitive attempts to produce the most fantastic lighting displays, and included many weird and wonderful creations from Santas, reindeer, Disneyland, snowscenes, and even penguins (penguins?  what  have they to do with Christmas?), some even with musical accompaniment.    One did include a Nativity scene;  but on the  other - the one with penguins - the only mention of  Jesus was from the mouth of the inventor when he became exasperated    with his mother.

For most of us no doubt, there are times when we exclaim "O God" or "O Lord" probably half as an exclamation, half as a prayer of desperation.   But I think so often today the names 'Jesus' 'Christ' etc. are used as expletives without any recognition of the Person who is really being addressed.   So common are such uses in some authors' books that I now try to avoid reading them.   So next time we feel tempted to 'take the Lord's name in vain' let's stop and think: 'Am I really meaning this as a genuine cry for help, or am I using His Name as a swear word after all?"

"We can't cancel Christmas, can we?"

By Christine R Regas - December 2011

A few weeks ago I picked up a newspaper dated September in which was the headline: "Christmas may be cancelled ...." This was merely to do with the possibility of having no Christmas lights in a certain area because of the cost, but it made me think: 'How on earth could anyone cancel Christmas?'

No; thank God that, however hard people today try to ignore the undeniable fact that He came down to earth 2,000 years ago, there is no way we can cancel that tremendous moment which has already happened. No amount of Christmas lights, depicting Santa Claus, reindeer, snowscenes, jingle bells, etc. etc. can take away the centrality of the manger in Bethlehem.

 

Thank God we are now beginning to put Christ back into Christmas - we certainly need to do so, for as a favourite Christmas card I once received put it, with the picture of a new born child: "A God who became so small could only be mercy and love".

Don't let us ever forget that.

 

"Are you Jesus?"

Author unknown - September 2010

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding...  ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.  

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.  

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. 

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, 'I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly.'  

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, 'Mister.......' He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, 'Are you Jesus?'

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: 'Are you Jesus?'

Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That's our Destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day. 

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

 

The teaching in a nutshell

By Peter Edgley - April 2010

Did Easter make you feel you really wanted to find out more about Jesus? And really get to grips with Christianity, giving it your best shot?

And were you a bit put off by the thought of a new course of study - reading right through the New Testament (or worse still the entire Bible!) – the whole theology bit?

Fortunately you can find the basics of Christianity in a nutshell – in probably the most familiar story Jesus ever told, the story of the Prodigal Son. “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one decided he would see life, so he asked his father for his half of the inheritance now, and took off. When he'd had his fill of travelling, he settled down to a life of wine, women and song. He soon ran through all his money and found himself destitute. He realised his life was in a mess, and decided to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy.

As he neared the house, the father ran to meet him – yes actually ran, a telling detail – and took him in his arms and hugged him. The prodigal launched into his prepared speech: 'I don't deserve to be your son, just put me with the servants', but the father swept it aside and insisted on giving a big party to celebrate the son who had come back” (The other son - the one who had stayed at home and got on with the work - didn't think much of this, but that's another part of the story, and an important one too.)

In this deceptively simple little tale, Jesus is putting across hugely important aspects of the Christian faith. No life is so worthless as to put someone beyond the reach of God's forgiveness. God never ceases to cherish and grieve over his children, however they behave. His love is unbounded and unconditional. There's a wealth of theology in there – sin, repentance, forgiveness, redemption....

Once you've really taken to heart this message about the loving fatherhood of God, you're well placed to embark on as much further study as suits you, especially the mysteries of Easter which we have just celebrated. And you're well on the way to becoming a Christian already!

You'll find the story in chapter 15 of St Luke's Gospel, along with another similar parable, this time about a shepherd who rejoices when he finds his lost sheep.

Pass it down

By Christine Regas - March 2010

I was reading part of psalm 78 the other day – about telling ‘the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.’  Sadly today, even in so-called Christian countries, the majority of children are told nothing of the Christian gospel by their parents:  they are left to “make up their own minds when they are older.”  Make up their own minds on what basis I wonder.  How can they make choices without knowledge?  

A few Christmases ago, I overheard conversations between parents and children in two different shops.   The first was in a Christian bookshop where a mother was explaining to her young son that the cribs displayed there showing the baby Jesus were what they would also see in church on Christmas Day.   Later in Woolworths, another young family was clamouring for gifts, sweets, etc. for Christmas (or ‘now’) to an indulgent, if exasperated, parent.   I could not help concluding which child was the most privileged.  

Before I even went to school, I remember having hymns sung to me by both my mother and my grandfather. Granddad knew all the old hymns, including Sankey and Moody!   One I particularly remember was ‘Rock of Ages cleft for me’.   Of course I did not understand it at the time.   In fact the line ‘Foul I to the fountain fly’ conjured up for me a picture of a chicken (granddad called them fowls!) sitting on a well!   But I did learn to love those hymns, and grew into understanding their meaning.   Are we going to deny our children the privilege of doing that today?

Most parents today would not dream of denying their children food – often what they crave;  or clothing, toys, computers, mobile phones, i-pods, etc. etc.  yet fail to tell them anything of the love of God for them, passed down to us through many generations.   Let’s do as the psalmist says, and not hide this from the generations to come.

Angel Unawares

Do angels drive cars?

By Christine Regas - October 2009

A few weeks ago, we had a sermon which mentioned a belief in angels as God’s messengers on earth.

Many years ago something happened to my mother which made me wonder whether an angel was involved. Way back in the late 1920’s she was working as a house parlourmaid in a big house in a then rural setting above Elmstead Woods station, when she received a message (only big houses had telephones in those days) that her much loved sister-in-law was dying in Woolwich Hospital and that she should come at once if she wanted to see her alive. Cissie had been born with a heart defect in the days before these were repairable, but she was a committed Christian who had had much influence on mum’s life. Mum’s employer ‘graciously’ allowed her time off provided she finished her work first! Needless to say she rushed through, and left, probably with no real idea of how she was going to reach Woolwich. As she hurried down towards the station, a car pulled up and offered her a lift – which she would not have accepted in any other circumstances, but the car (quite a rare sight in those days) was actually passing the gates of Woolwich Hospital! Duly dropped at the hospital, she hurried in while the car driver went on, never to be seen again.

Cissie was still alive, though comatose, not knowing those around her. Suddenly she sat bolt upright in bed with her arms outstretched, not towards anyone by her bed, but to someone none of the others could see. She died a few minutes later, and there was no doubt in my mother’s mind (nor in mine when I heard the story) that the Lord Jesus whom she knew and loved, had visibly come for her. Since then I have longed to meet Cissie as well as her Lord, which surely one day I shall.

But what of the car driver? He – there would not have been many women drivers in those days – could have been just a man sent by God at the right moment to get my mum there in time. It’s not a very direct route though, Elmstead Woods to Woolwich, so why those two specific locations at that hour, on that day?

Do angels drive cars? I wonder.

 

What a privilege!

By Christine Regas - July 2009

The other day a couple of lines from the well known hymn ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ kept going round in my mind: “What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.”

Yes it is, and no doubt we often do take our concerns and anxieties to God but are we, I wonder, like next door’s dog? He loves to play with an old squashed football, and wants someone to throw it for him, but at the same time when he has got it he won’t let go! Sometimes our prayers are like that: we bring our concerns to God, but we still won’t let go of them. We keep chewing them over in our minds, and worrying about them – just like the dog with the ball. It would be much better if we took a cue from another hymn (‘O my Saviour lifted from the earth for me’) which ends with the words: “Bringing all my burdens, sorrow, sin and care.  At thy feet I lay them, And I leave them there!”  What a relief it is to be able to do that.

 

Waiting for us to act?

By Christine Regas - January 2009

It caught my attention at a united Advent Carol Service:  the response to one of the series of prayers concerned with various home and world situations was 'Lord we are waiting for you to act.' The response from the congregation did not seem very enthusiastic so I wonder whether I was not the only one to be thinking:  'Perhaps God is saying exactly the same thing to us.' We can't all do much about most international situations, but as we go into 2009 there may well be issues nearer home where He is indeed waiting for us to act. It makes us think ........