Jesus is Coming T-Shirt

Advent is the season observed in many Western Christian Churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning ‘coming’. Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The Latin adventus is the translation of the Greek word parousia, commonly used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ. For Christians, the season of Advent anticipates the coming of Christ from two different perspectives. The season offers the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, and to be alert for his Second Coming.

Before I ‘retired’ from the Baptist Ministry in 2010 I was an unashamed advocate of the importance of following the Church Year in the preaching and teaching programme of local church life. I am not in favour of being slavishly bound to the Lectionary – a three-year cycle of set Bible Readings followed systematically in the Church of England and some other historic churches – although I would be the first to admit that simply because of this system being in operation, far more of the Bible is actually read and expounded in such churches than in so-called ‘Bible Believing’ Free Churches?! I am, however, in favour of following the Church Year more loosely but nevertheless definitely. We need to make space and time in our church programme for observing the major Church Festivals – Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday. And we also need to make much better use of the Church Seasons – Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and so on. Without being tied down by the Lectionary texts, we can profitably explore appropriate Biblical themes, books of the Bible, doctrines, stories, during Advent, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, etc. In fact, I would go as far as to say that we should deliberately plan each Church Year to specifically follow these various spiritual ‘seasons’, and explore them fully.

Personally, I would like to see the whole teaching programme of the local church geared up to unpacking the various lessons to be learned from following Church Year in a relevant and meaningful way. It ought not to be beyond the wit and ability of any Pastor-Teacher (perhaps making use of the gifts and abilities of other members of the church and congregation) to plan such a teaching programme for the year, ensure that the main weekly worship events enhance (rather than distract from) that week’s teaching theme, produce brief study guides on that theme for use in a church cell group structure, and either produce in house (or utilise existing material) for daily Bible readings on the same theme? In our last two churches Julia and I managed to do this very effectively, our daily Bible Reading Notes proving more popular than either the Scripture Union material or the International Bible Reading Association notes.

Such an approach to the Church Year would, I believe, ensure that varied and significant themes are covered in a productive way throughout the life of a local church over an extended period of time. The very nature of the varied seasons within the Church Year allow for a variety of themes to be covered in a variety of ways. Advent and Christmas allows us to explore the Coming of Christ in detail and helpfully consider stories and events that are normally ‘skipped over’ in many Baptist and New Churches at this time of year. Similarly the Lent Season, with its steady build up to Easter, allows us to explore various aspects of consecration. Easter itself, fully explored with time given to Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Saturday as well as Easter Sunday, helps us to get to grips with the whole meaning of Easter not just the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead (as important as that is). The Season of Pentecost encourages us to explore the Christian’s and the Church’s experience of the Holy Spirit in meaningful ways … and so we can go forward with the whole Church Year.

I have been repeatedly told by some of my more Charismatic and Pentecostal friends that such an approach quenches the Holy Spirit, and that rather than all this thought and planning we need to be ‘led by the Spirit’ (Romans 8:14). Sadly this phrase being ‘led by the Spirit’ has become the justification (‘excuse’ would be a better word) for all manner of rubbish!?  ‘Sin against the Holy Spirit’ (Mark 3:28-30) might be a better description in many cases? Poorly planned Worship Events, which appear to have been ‘thrown together’ at the last moment and where literally ‘the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing’ – the hymns and songs bear no relation to each other leave alone the teaching or the rest of the service. Poorly prepared and delivered preaching and teaching, where the ‘message’ is either ‘cobbled together’ from off the internet or appears to be ‘made up on the spot’ on the basis of being ‘inspired’ by the Holy Spirit. Some years ago I Pastored a Pentecostal Church in South Wales. Although the majority of people there were wonderfully supportive and appreciative people (and the church grew considerably in my time there), I found myself embroiled at one time in a battle with one of the leaders who considered himself a far superior preacher to me. He particularly objected to my systematic, expository style of preaching, and claimed that his style was ‘inspirational’ because (in contrast to me) he was being ‘led by the Spirit’?! If truth be told, his preaching was not very good at all – more perspirational than inspirational?! He always had a different text … but in reality it was always the same sermon that got preached, whatever the text?! Fortunately he was in a minority and the church progressed nonetheless. Similarly I have found that so-called extemporary prayer (rather than prepared prayer) in public worship is more often than not very repetitive and uninspiring. Such prayer, for example, is often full of ‘justs’, or has God the Father (rather than Jesus) dying on the cross for us … and all too often seems to go on and on and on interminably?! The reality is that the presence and enabling of God the Holy Spirit can be as much there in the planning of a year’s services, themes, content, and so on, as in any one particular service or sermon!

Sitting in the ‘pew’ for three years, rather than being in the pulpit or on the platform, has given me a unique opportunity to ‘see things from the other side of the fence’ in several different churches. In that time I have observed two particular things that troubled me during my time as a Pastor, and continue to trouble me today. One is the continued emphasis on our need to become ‘missionary congregations’, and the other is our ongoing inability to ‘turn believers into disciples’.  In some ways I welcome the emphasis on the need to move from ‘maintenance to mission’ that has been ‘thrust down our throats’ by the ‘powers that be’ in the Baptist Union, for the last 20 years or so. As a denomination, as well as local churches, we needed to hear this loud and clear because we were declining steadily numerically. The problem for me is that this particular emphasis has virtually taken over and one rarely hears anything else from our pulpits and platforms seemingly these days? One would not mind this emphasis if it had led to us actually engage more effectively in mission, but the reality is that we are still declining numerically, and I suspect that many Christians are now simply ‘switching off’ because of this constant ‘one dimensional’ message. This emphasis has led, in turn, to my second concern – our inability to ‘turn believers into disciples’. In fairness this problem has existed for a good number of years in our churches, and over the years I have heard it discussed many times in Ministers’ Fellowships. This problem has always existed, and probably always will because our old sinful nature will constantly tempt us to ‘easy believism’. I can’t help but feel, however, that the current constant emphasis on ‘mission, mission, mission’ has not helped believers become disciples because of the imbalance of our spiritual diet?! We no longer hear the ‘whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27) because of this over-emphasis on us ‘becoming missionary congregations’! But in order to grow and be healthy, we need a proper balanced diet!  I would suggest that re-jigging the way we ‘do Church’ in line with the Church Year, and in the ways I propose above, would give us a more healthy and balanced approach overall, and lead to greater numerical and spiritual growth as well.

A young Youth Pastor I know sports a marvellous T-shirt with the caption: ‘Jesus is Coming … Look Busy!’ Very appropriate for Advent I would suggest. One of the ‘hall-marks’ of Evangelical Christians, it is suggested, is our ‘activism’ … so we do need to be busy! But there is all the difference between ‘good ideas’ and ‘God ideas’. Perhaps the time has come – and the lull between Christmas and New Year provides such an opportunity for quiet, prayerful, meditation and thoughtfulness – for Pastors, Church Leaders, Church members, indeed all of us, to re-think the way we ‘do Church’ in the light of the Christ who came, who comes, and who will come again!

Jim Binney

In the Shadow of Christ

Shadowlands is a 1993 biographical film about the relationship between the Oxbridge academic C. S. Lewis and the American poet Joy Davidman, her tragic death from cancer, and how this challenged Lewis’ Christian faith. It is based on an 1985 television production and an 1989 stage adaptation of the same name. The original television film began life as a script written by Brian Sibley and Norman Stone, and Sibley later wrote the book: Shadowlands: The True Story of C S Lewis and Joy Davidman. For Lewis, his entire life it would seem is the story of someone slowly but surely journeying from the shadowlands into the light.

As a child, growing up in a working class  environment in the late 40s and early 50s, we had very little of the ‘creature comforts’ that we enjoy today. We didn’t have a car, or a telephone, or central heating, or even a refrigerator, leave alone a television – all the things my grandchildren take for granted today! At one time we lived in just two rooms, on the top floor of an Edwardian house in Ealing, with a shared kitchen and bathroom – and I mean a kitchen with a bath in it which we shared with the man who had the other room on that top floor?! As children, we made our own entertainment – playing out in the street and green spaces or clambering over bombsites (in ways children cannot safely seem to do today). As families we listened to the radio, visited friends and relations, enjoyed a singsong around the piano. We read lots of books – mostly borrowed from the local library – and when I was too young to read books by myself my father always read or told me a bedtime story. Quite often he would illustrate these stories by making shadow pictures on the wall simply using his hands and the light of the bedside lamp. He was very good at this and I would often fall asleep re-living the adventures in the shadowland he had created – a shadowland which in my dreams I became part of. Sometimes this shadowland was a happy place, sometimes it was a place of adventure, sometimes it was scary … but in every case it was not real. It was a place where – as a young boy, and an only child to boot with all the loneliness of being an only child – I could escape from reality.

All that was over 60 years ago. Julia and I now live in a nice home with all the mod cons and I don’t need someone making shadow pictures on the bedroom wall in order to go to sleep at night. I still love reading, however, and always have at least one book on the go at any given time as well as several books of a more academic nature that are part of my ‘stock in trade’ as a Baptist Minister and On-Line Learning Tutor for Spurgeon’s College. Over the years, however, I have come across a number of people who, for one reason or another, choose to live in shadowland. I think of those I have met whilst visiting psychiatric units who have taken on a completely different persona to their real one – seeing themselves as kings or queens or even as Jesus or the devil? I think of a young woman I knew several years ago who flitted in and out of a fantasy world she created for herself which sounded so real that people, who did not know of her condition, were completely taken in by her? I think of many other people I know to whom the world a particular  TV ‘soap opera’ is more true than life itself, and still others whose live in a world totally governed by their ‘daily horoscope’?!

Of late I have become more aware of just how many of us professing Christians also live in the shadowlands rather than in the substance of what it means to be ‘a man or woman in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). My thinking this way came about as a result of our daily readings in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. Back at the beginning of July, when Julia and myself were about to embark on a nine week camping holiday in France, we decided to take a copy of Dick Lucas’ commentary on Colossians and Philemon with us to use as a basis for our daily devotions. Nearly four months later we are still working our way prayerfully through Colossians a little bit at a time. Although somewhat dated we have found Dick Lucas’ exposition of this Letter very helpful and it has stimulated a lot of thought, discussion and prayer. We were particularly taken by a couple of verses where Paul exhorts the Christians at Colossae: ‘Don’t let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festivals, or New Moon celebrations, or Sabbath Day observance – these are only a shadow of things that were to come, the reality or substance is found in Christ’ (Colossians 2:16,17).

The Christian Church in Colossae – a one time leading city in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) but by the time of Paul’s Letter, a second rate market town – was probably planted by Epaphras, one of Paul’s friends and associates, c.57 AD. Initially the church at Colossae grew numerically and spiritually under Epaphras’ ministry but eventually began to struggle as a direct result of the introduction of spurious ‘new teaching’ into the church. We cannot be one hundred percent sure exactly what this ‘new teaching’ was, although we can make an educated guess from Paul’s comments in this Letter to the Colossians – written in response to Epaphras’ cry for help. The probability is that there were actually various strands of ‘new teaching’ creeping into the church at this time – introduced either by ‘visiting teachers’ from elsewhere or church members who had ‘bought into’ spurious teaching somewhere else and brought it back to the Colossian Church with them?! Each strand of ‘new teaching’ had gathered its own group of adherents.   There were the Ascetics, who claimed that to be a ‘true Christian’ one had to abstain from certain foods and drink – probably meat and alcohol?! Then there were the Judaisers, who claimed that to be a ‘true Christian’ one had to revert to certain aspects of the Jewish Law – strictly observing the main Jewish Religious Festivals, and the Sabbath Day, for example?! And then there were the Gnostics (from the Greek ‘gnosis’ meaning ‘knowledge’) who claimed that to be a ‘true Christian’ one had to be initiated into a ‘deeper mystical experience or knowledge’ which only they could impart – they were rather ‘new age’ in many ways, into New Moon Festivals and the worship of angels, etc. All of these strands were spurious because each of them in some way or other took away from the uniqueness of the Person of Jesus Christ, and the sufficiency of his saving work on our behalf!

Paul’s measured response to the introduction of these various strands of spurious ‘new teaching’ into the Church at Colossae is fascinating. He does not deny the need for abstinence and self-discipline in the Christian life – he speaks elsewhere of our need to ‘crucify the flesh with its passions and desires’ (Galatians 5:24) and uses the illustration of the dedication of a soldier, the discipline of an athlete, and the diligence of a farmer (2 Timothy 2:3-13). He does not deny the fact that as Christians we remain under God’s Law – he tells us elsewhere that whilst we are no longer under the Law of Moses (which he describes as ‘the law of sin and death’) we are still under ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:2) i.e. we are not free to do just what we like but are now under the direction of the Spirit of Christ who indwells us. He does not deny that for Christians there are deeper experiences of God to be entered into – in a thinly-veiled reference to himself he speaks of a spiritual experience of being ‘caught up to the third heaven’ (2 Corinthians 12:2) – but would concur with Peter that these are simply the fruit of that which God has already imparted to us in conversion – ‘By his divine power God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness’ (2 Peter 1:3). The problem was, for too many of the Christians at Colossae, that because they had been deceived by spurious ideas they had turned away from trusting in Christ, and Christ alone, for salvation and sustenance for day to day living, and instead were trusting in ‘Christ plus’ – Christ plus asceticism, or Christ plus legalism, or Christ plus mysticism?!  Pretty soon, however, their particular ‘ism’ took over so that their prevailing message – instead of being Jesus Christ – became asceticism or legalism, or mysticism?! They had bought into these various ‘isms’ on offer in the vain hope that they would ‘soup up’ their Christian experience. But in actual fact the reverse happened, and they lost all the benefits of trusting in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, for salvation in all its fullness and spiritual power and sustenance for day to day living. Because they took their eye off the ball they missed the goal completely. I am reminded of one of C H Spurgeon’s insightful sayings: ‘I looked to Christ, and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked to the dove of peace, and it flew away again!’

As Paul tells us here, all these things – asceticism, legalism, mysticism – even at their very best ‘are only a shadow … the reality or the substance is found in Christ’ (Colossians 2:16,17). Paul contrasts the ‘shadowy world’ of ethereal things with the ‘real world’ of spirituality reality. The word he uses here for ‘substance’ is the ordinary Greek word for ‘body’ – in other words spiritual reality is to be found in the Person of Christ, and in Christ alone! All these other things – these various ‘isms’ – belong to the shadows – shadows cast by the Person of Christ. Some of these ‘isms’ may have had a value at one time – those pertaining to the Law of Moses, for example – in that (as Paul tells us elsewhere) they acted in some ways as ‘a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ’ (Galatians 3:24). Nevertheless even in that sense they were at best but ‘a shadow of things to come’ (Colossians 2:17). Furthermore not all these ‘isms’ that belong to the shadowy world had value – some ascetic practices and mystical views were totally counter productive. For Paul, all of these ‘isms’ were irrelevant in the light of Christ’s coming!

‘What has all this to do with us today?’ you may ask. Well, quite a lot actually! I am constantly amazed at how ‘up to date’ the Bible is. The situation existing in the Colossian Church c.57AD is not that much different from many local churches today in the UK in the 21st century. I am not concerned so much about the various ‘heresies’ that have troubled the Church down through its history – on the whole we have been pretty good at dealing with those – as with the sheer proliferation of ‘add-ons’ that seem to have invaded the Church in recent years, and the vehemence with which adherents advocate their own particular slant!? Vegetarianism, teetotalism, legalism, moral-ism, Calvinism, Arminianism, Pre-millennialism, various forms of Pentecostalism, Restorationism, Zionism … and countless other ‘isms’ abound within today’s Church. And it is not just the Universal Church that contains such a variety of views.   More often than not they are also found within any local church of a reasonable size. Adherents of all the views listed above can be found in our own church in Dorchester, and it was equally true of my previous church in Beckenham.

I am not saying that some of these views are necessarily wrong – indeed some of them may have considerable merit – although personally I am always wary of any movement (sacred and secular) that ends in an ‘ism’?! Even the Calvinist preacher, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was concerned that ‘Calvinism’ had become a ‘system’ and described himself as a ‘Bible Calvinist not a System Calvinist’?! My own roots are in Reformed Faith, and I am also indebted to the Pentecostal Movement, so I am not saying that all of these facets of faith are without merit. No, my chief concern is the way in which, like the Colossians, any of these particular slants can adulterate the Gospel and even rob Jesus Christ of his pre-eminence if we are not very careful!? Thus our message becomes ‘Christ and vegetarianism’ or ‘Christ and being teetotal’ or ‘Christ and our evangelical version of the Jewish Talmud’ or ‘Christ and Opposition to Gay Marriage’ or ‘Christ and the Five Points of Calvinism’ or ‘Christ and How the New Church Movement Alone Has Got It’ … and so on and so forth. Once again there may, or may not be, some justification for these views, but so often ‘the tail ends up wagging the dog’ so that the particular ‘add on’ becomes the dominant  feature rather than Jesus Christ?! Thus over the last few years I have been on the receiving end of some strident lectures (I can put it no other way) from some Christians on ‘the evils of drink’ or ‘how the country is going to the dogs because of gay marriage’ or ‘why I need a new anointing of the Holy Spirit’ or ‘how the only acceptable view on the death of Christ is limited atonement’ or ‘why God has finished with the historic churches’, etc., etc. Just recently I was in a prayer meeting where a very devout person prayed most vehemently that ‘God would smite all those Christians who were not Zionists!’ I’m glad to report that I am still alive at the moment!

When the celebrated Baptist Preacher C H Spurgeon began his ministry at New Park Street Chapel (later to become the Metropolitan Tabernacle) London in 1854, his first words were these: ‘I would propose that the subject of the ministry in this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist; I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist; but if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, “It is Jesus Christ!” My venerated predecessor, Dr Gill, has left a Body of Divinity, admirable and excellent in its way; but the Body of Divinity to which I would bind myself for ever, God helping me, is not his system or any other human treatise; but Jesus Christ, who is the sum and substance of the Gospel, who is himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all glorious personal embodiment of the Way, the Truth, and the Life’.

Jim Binney

I have just celebrated my 70^th birthday! Originally the plan was to go to Sicily for a week – to follow the Inspector Montalbano Trail – to mark such a significant birthday. However the weather is not that good, even in Sicily, this time of the year so we have postponed this venture until next Spring. Instead, Julia organised a whole week of varied activities – why just spend one day celebrating your birthday when you get to my age?! We enjoyed a wonderful meal with her side of the family at The Crab House in Wyke Regis. I remember going there over 20 years ago with Julia’s parents when it first opened. In those days it was called Oysters, and it was just a wooden shack. We had a dozen oysters each then, washed down with a bottle of chilled white wine. It was very cheap to eat there then, but not now! We went to the cinema to see Gravity in 3D – a really fascinating film which I really enjoyed, together  with a large coke and a large packet of M&Ms! We met up with my side of the family in the New Forest for another celebratory meal – a great lunch at the Rose and Crown in Brockenhurst – so good to spend time with my children and grandchildren. We went out for a Full English Breakfast, followed by birthday shopping – and I finally got round to buying myself a new camera. We shared a bottle of nice champagne with Julia’s mother and toasted one another – they toasted me on reaching 70, I toasted them on putting up with me!? Julia and I went to Poole to see Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, at the Lighthouse Theatre – which was absolutely brilliant, and then stayed overnight at the luxurious Sandbanks Beach Hotel making good use of its heated swimming pool and sauna, before visiting Poole Quay and its famous pottery. It turned out to be the best 70^th birthday that I had ever had!

Reaching 70 years of age is, of course, a significant milestone according to the Bible. Speaking of the expected span of our lives, the Psalmist tells us: ‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away’ (Psalm 90:10 KJV). As with many other Biblical phrases, this was picked up by Shakespeare. In Macbeth an old man comments: ‘Threescore and ten I can remember well: within the volume of which time I have seen hours dreadful and things strange’ (Act 2, scene 4). I was reminded of this during my birthday lunch at The Crab House when one of my brothers-in-law, Jack, asked me, ‘Looking back over your 70 years,  what would you say were the key events in your life so far?’ Good question!

Surviving WWII would probably be the first key event. I was born in 1943 and my earliest memory was lying in my pram on the veranda of our house in Greenford when a flying bomb cut out overhead. It crashed into the Glaxo factory only about a mile away, but it could just as easily have crashed on our house!?

Looking back I have come to realise that somehow or other I always seem to have been surrounded by Christianity in one form or another. I was brought up in a Roman Catholic household – my parents were not Catholics but they worked for a Catholic family and we had rooms in their house. I never took to Catholicism somehow – perhaps it was because the nuns who came to visit wanted my mother to have me christened Aloysius?! Later on, when we moved into a place of our own, I was sent to the local Church of England, but I didn’t take to that either. All the talk about a ‘Holy Ghost’ frightened the living daylights out of an impressionable seven year old?!  Later I joined the local Methodist Church Youth Club. As a 12 year old, mad on sport, I enjoyed that much more but although they taught me to play table tennis they didn’t teach me anything much about God?! Perhaps the most influential aspect of my early childhood was my friendship with Duncan Edgington, a boy my own age who lived just up the road. Although I did not realise it at the time, they were a Christian family who attended Greenford Baptist Church. I was to learn much later that they felt led to pray regularly for me from that time. I did not know it then but, looking back now, I see a clear sense of what lay behind that line in Francis Thompson’s poem about God ‘pursuing us down the corridors of time’.

The next key event to stand out, in my life so far, was my conversion to Christ in 1960 as a 16 year old somewhat wayward teenager. Although outwardly I was ‘a tough lad’ (as one of my school friends reminded me only a short time ago), inwardly I was searching for something, although I would never have admitted it to my friends at the time. It came about as a result of a chance conversation between my father and the Rev Ernest Forward literally over the garden gate. Ernest was visiting one of our neighbours who was a member of his church and got into conversation with my father who was working in the front garden at the time. My father had little time for church – he was ex-army, 15 years in all – but must have been worried about me because he asked Ernest if there was anything he could do to help me. An invitation to church followed, which most surprisingly I accepted – and the rest (as they say) is history. Here at last I found what I had been looking for, and it all came to a head a few months later when I made a personal commitment of my life to Jesus Christ. Fascinatingly, the church in question was Greenford Baptist Church – the very church where the Edgington family who had started to pray for me when I was 5 years of age used to worship before they moved away to Yorkshire.

They say that one of the first signs of senility is the ability to clearly remember things that happened when we were young but forget everything that is happening in the here and now. I don’t think I am quite past my sell-by-date yet – it is just that many of the key events I recall now took place early in my life. A further key event for me was when I was accepted to train for the Baptist Ministry at Spurgeon’s College. It was 1965 and I was 21 years of age. I had started preaching when I was 16, and heard the call to the Ministry at 18, but even so it was still something of a ‘miracle’ for me – a lad from a council estate without much by way of academic qualifications – to be accepted by Spurgeon’s. It meant leaving a promising career as a draughtsman, and in many ways my four years at Spurgeon’s was not an easy time – I struggled with the academic side not having been to university like many of my contemporaries. Nevertheless it was an important time for me, not least because of my experience of what my Pentecostal friends would call ‘the baptism with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 1:5) during my third year at Spurgeon’s. It followed the sudden death of my father in 1968 – an event that left me with a great sense of need for spiritual power in my life if I was to fulfil the ministry God was calling me to. To plagiarise Samuel Chadwick: ‘It awakened my mind as well as cleansed my heart. It gave me a new joy and a new power, a new love and a new compassion. It gave me a new Bible and a new message. Above all it gave me a new intimacy in the communion and ministry of prayer’.

In 1969 I was called to my first church – Bewdley Baptist Church, Worcestershire – and commenced what was by any standards a most amazing period of ministry. Before I began my ministry Barney Coombs prophesied over me that ‘If you faithfully preach the word that I give you, says the Lord, you will lose people … but for everyone you lose I will give you two others!’ Over the years I have seen that prophecy fulfilled time and time again. Looking back it was the nearest thing to genuine Revival that I have ever seen. Over the next few years we saw the church grow significantly both numerically and spiritually with large numbers of conversions, baptisms, healings and signs and wonders. What was happening impacted the whole surrounding area and revived a number of dying churches to boot. It would be true to say that at the time we did not know what we had as a church until we lost it … but perhaps that was how it was meant to be?! It was during this time in Bewdley that I married and witnessed the birth of my two wonderful children, Caroline and David … David born with a serious congenital heart defect that, through prayer and the grace of God, he miraculously survived.

The following 25-30 years saw a number of changes in pastorate, and each one was accompanied by the same numerical and spiritual growth that we experienced in Bewdley, although never quite with the same intensity or spiritual fervour that we witnessed then, as God repeatedly fulfilled his prophetic word over me. This period in my life was not without its sadness’s and periods of darkness however. The break up of my first marriage in 1987 was particularly sad and led to a period of darkness and difficulty and ultimately caused me to prayerfully review my faith and lifestyle. By God’s grace I have come through that period a stronger, better and wiser, person. That experience has given me a greater understanding of the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God, and a greater compassion for others, particularly those who are going through difficult times themselves.

Meeting, and eventually marrying, Julia in 1991 was another highlight in my life so far. After nearly 23 years of married life I can honestly say that in Julia I have found my soul mate. Although she is 15 years younger than me we get on so well together. She is my best friend and my partner in the Ministry God has called us both to. We have worked together in ministry at Kinmel Hall, Far Forest, and Kings Heath, since we married, and she herself trained for the Baptist Ministry at Spurgeon’s College during our time in Kings Heath. Following the completion of Julia’s training we accepted a joint call to Beckenham Baptist Church, Kent. The church had seen happier days but once again we saw a period of sustained numerical and spiritual growth, during our seven years there, with numerous baptisms and over 100 new people joining the church as members.

Our time in Beckenham was ultimately not without its own sadness, however. During my years in the Baptist Ministry I had managed to overcome my lack of confidence in my academic ability and had gained a BA degree in Theology and an MTh in Applied Theology. Whilst at Kings Heath I started to work for a PhD, and continued my work whilst at Beckenham. I worked really hard and finally submitted my dissertation in 2007. Unfortunately it was not considered worthy of a doctorate, and I was not given the opportunity to re-submit despite the fact that I had worked so hard for nearly 10 years on this, although I was eventually awarded an MPhil for my efforts. Now is not the time or place to go into the ‘why’s and wherefore’s’ of this, suffice to say that I felt myself badly let down and this whole fiasco seriously undermined my confidence in people whom I had previously considered as friends, and in the college where Julia and I had trained and where we had done most of our academic study. I still feel a sense of great sadness over this although I have tried my best to put it behind me and press on.

On top of all this Julia became unwell. She began to display symptoms of fatigue, a condition that was eventually diagnosed as ME. In some ways this was not surprising. Despite the death of her father just before Christmas, and the shock and disappointment of me not getting my doctorate, she continued to work very hard and in the end it all became too much for her. Her health fluctuated – sometimes she was able to return to work for extended periods only to then have a sudden relapse. In 2010 the Deacons at Beckenham came to the decision that because of her ill health she ought to stand down from her position as Associate Minister, and that I should leave as well since I was already two years over ‘retirement age’. This seemed a very strange decision given that during our ministry the church had finally experienced a sustained period of numerical and spiritual growth after more than 50 years of steady numerical decline. Originally the Deacons had asked me to stay on until I was 70, and the plan was that Julia would then take over as Senior Minister. Sadly this was not to be and, although the Church Meeting ultimately disagreed with the Deacons’ decision, too much water had already passed under the bridge and so Julia and I accepted the decision, and left with as much grace as possible, even though we honestly believed that the Deacons had got it badly wrong and that we were leaving at least three years too early. What made it worse for us was that we really loved being at Beckenham – the church, the people – and we felt a real sense of bereavement in leaving. As a result we have ended up ‘house sharing’ with Julia’s aged mother in Dorset. Julia has made an excellent recovery and is currently in the Settlement Process seeking to find another church where she can resume her calling as a Baptist Minister. Hopefully I will be there alongside her to help her in any way I can – either simply supporting her in her ministry or as a ‘non-stipendiary’ Associate Minister if the church that calls her would like me to be so involved.

So, three score years … and then? The Psalmist speaks of the possibility of vibrant life beyond our 70s – ‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years …’ (Psalm 90:10) – and I still feel that I too have so much left yet to offer. ‘I don’t think you ever really lose it!’ Ernest Forward said to me recently … and he should know because he is well into his 80s and still looking full of vitality and, I suspect, still capable of preaching a great sermon! What a mistake for churches to rule out people like me just because we are in our 70s in favour of someone in their 30s who they hope will revive their failing children’s and youth work. There must always be a place for younger Ministers – I was one myself once – but I am sure that there are also a good number of churches who actually need someone older with more experience to help them find their way in God again!? So who knows what is round the corner for us – even for me as I enter this ‘by reason of strength’ period in my life! Three score years and then some, I hope!

 Jim Binney

Questions! Questions! Questions!

Back in the 1960s, whilst a student at Spurgeon’s College, I was privileged to study under the Rev Dr George Beasley-Murray. At that time George marked papers for London University. One day he told us that he had received a paper to mark and discovered that the only thing written on the said paper – apart from the student’s name and the question – was ‘God knows the answer … I don’t!’. ‘How did you respond?’  we asked. He told us that he wrote on the bottom of the paper, ‘God 100% … you, nothing!’

I was reminded of this incident when I arrived back from our extended summer getaway in France this year to find a number of academic papers for marking awaiting me. I ought to explain at this point that in ‘retirement’ one of the numerous activities that I have taken on is being a Distance Learning Tutor for Spurgeon’s College tutoring a couple of modules to do with ‘preaching’ and being second marker in another. The essays I received were mostly pretty poor I have to say. Essentially this was because in virtually every case the students in question had somehow failed to actually correctly read the question they had been asked to answer?! This is not the first time this has happened. New students in particular are often so keen to get on with answering the question posed that they don’t take time to actually read and think about the question they are actually being asked? They often see a ‘buzz word’ in the question – ‘suffering’, ‘judgment’ and ‘repentance’ are some examples of this – and off they go committing to paper everything they think they know on the ‘buzz word’ though the various questions never ask for exhaustive comments but only for particular specifics.

One student – asked to select a specific theme from certain units in the module, to prepare a sermon outline from a particular passage of scripture, and then show how he/she moved from the text to the sermon – chose the theme of ‘suffering’ and wrote a whole treatise on ‘suffering’ ignoring the heart of the question completely. All that the Bible has to say to us about ‘suffering’ summed up in 2,000 words! Really? Another student presented an essay on ‘Judgment and Hope’. Once again it was supposed to incorporate a sermon outline, be based on a specific passage of scripture, and show how he/she moved from the biblical text to the actual sermon. There was a lot about ‘judgment’ in the essay, and we never actually got to ‘hope’ (despite the fact that the biblical prophets have a lot to say about ‘hope’ despite the repeated failure of God’s OT people). This particular essay concluded with a strong statement that a clear sign that today’s Church was under God’s judgment was the number of Christian women who went out to work instead of staying home, looking after their husband and children, and obeying their husband in everything! Really?

Of course it is not just those who are new to academic study who make this kind of mistake. I have a friend who is a PhD who once misread just one word in an exam and as a result he got the entire question completely wrong. His examiners told him afterwards that he had in fact written a brilliant essay. It was, to quote the chief examiner, ‘the best answer to the wrong question that they had ever read!’ Nevertheless it was the wrong answer?! It just goes to show that even the more experienced of us, those who have been on the road for a long time, can still get things terribly wrong at times.

In the Gospels we find that Jesus asked people questions, and that these questions were often quite penetrating and needed thinking about before answering. Probably the most striking of these occasions was when Jesus, whilst on is way to the villages around Caesarea Philippi with his disciples, casually asks them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ (Mark 8:27). The disciples tell Jesus that there are a number of opinions: ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets’ (Mark 8:28). Rather than enter into a pointless discussion on the various reasons why various people suggest that Jesus is a ‘reincarnation’ of one or other of these people, Jesus cuts to the quick: ‘But what about you? Who do you say I am?’ (Mark 8:29). This is a key question, not only for Jesus’ first disciples but for all of us down through the generations? What do we make of Jesus? What place do we give him in our lives? It is in our answer to this question that everything else hinges!

Matthew tells us (in his account of the incident) that Peter – presumably voicing the opinion of all the disciples – replies ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ (Matthew 16:16). This was much more that an academic answer to a cutting edge question. For Peter and the others this was a ‘kairos moment’ – a moment of divine revelation when all the pieces that had been gathering in the hearts and minds of the disciples suddenly all fell into place. A life-changing confession of faith in Jesus after which none of them could ever be the same again! No wonder Jesus responds to Peter’s confession: ‘Blessed are you … for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven’ (Matthew 16:17). For Peter, and the others, the right answer took them to a new place in God and a new purpose in life!

There was much more that Peter and the others had to take on board. This experience was simply another step in the journey – albeit a significant step. Peter and the others (with the exception of Judas Iscariot) were in time to go on and seek to answer the questions of others concerning the human dilemma, our need of salvation, the meaning and purpose of life, and so on, by pointing men and women to Jesus Christ. And our responsibility today as Christians is to do much the same. But, in order to helpfully answer people’s questions, we need firstly to listen to what they are actually asking and not simply ‘go off on one’ carried away by our evangelistic zeal!?

Some time ago I was party to a conversation between a Christian and an agnostic. The Christian initiated the conversation by telling the agnostic that he had become a Christian as a result of a fear of death. ‘Do you have a fear of death?’ the Christian asked the agnostic. ‘No’ replied the agnostic, ‘I am far too worried about the trouble my teenage daughter is getting into at the moment to be worrying about what is going to happen to me when I die!’ There was a long pause … and then the Christian responded, ‘As I was saying, I became a Christian because I had a fear of death …’ How sad that here was a Christian so blinkered by evangelistic zeal that he failed to recognise the agnostic’s immediate need, and failed to empathise with the man’s situation or offer him any kind of appropriate answer or even offer to pray for the man and his daughter if he could do no more?!

Quite frequently in the Gospels we see Jesus delving deeper than the initial questions people asked him in order to answer the real questions that people were actually wanting answers to. A classic example of this is Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s Well (John 4:1-26) where the woman in question raises all kinds of questions – Jewish-Samaritan relationships, the technicalities of drawing water from the well, the respective merits of Jacob and Jesus, marital relationships, the proper place to worship, and so on – whereas what she really wanted to know was how could she be saved from the sin and shame and unholy mess she had managed to get herself in? Jesus winsomely cuts through all of her flannel in order to give her the life-changing answer she needs to hear: ‘Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from life to death’ (John 4:24).

When Julia has been to the hairdressers, or enters the room wearing a new dress, or has cooked yet another excellent meal she often asks me what I think. I always genuinely answer in the affirmative: ‘Your hair looks great!’ ‘You look lovely in that dress!’ ‘The meal was marvellous!’ Inevitably she will respond: ‘The right answer!’ Lets make sure that when Jesus asks us a key question, or people ask us for our opinion, advice or help, that we too always come up with the right answer!

What think you of Christ? is the test
To try both your state and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of him.
As Jesus appears in your view,
As he is beloved or not;
So God is disposed to you,
And mercy or wrath are your lot.

Some take him a creature to be,
A man, or an angel at most;
Sure these have not feelings like me,
Nor know themselves wretched and lost:
So guilty, so helpless, am I,
I durst not confide in his blood,
Nor on his protection rely,
Unless I were sure he is God.

Some call him a Saviour, in word,
But mix their own works with his plan;
And hope he his help will afford,
When they have done all that they can:
If doings prove rather too light
(A little, they own, they may fail)
They purpose to make up full weight,
By casting his name in the scale.

Some style him the pearl of great price,
And say he’s the fountain of joys;
Yet feed upon folly and vice,
And cleave to the world and its toys:
Like Judas, the Saviour they kiss,
And, while they salute him, betray;
Ah! what will profession like this
Avail in his terrible day?

If asked what of Jesus I think?
Though still my best thoughts are but poor;
I say, he’s my meat and my drink,
My life, and my strength, and my store,
My Shepherd, my Husband, my Friend,
My Saviour from sin and from thrall;
My hope from beginning to end,
My Portion, my Lord, and my All.

John Newton (1725-1807)

Jim Binney

Barbecue Time

It is our last day on our wonderful campsite at Le Porte de Limeuil on the banks of the River Dordogne. Tomorrow we will be packing our tent away for a final time and starting our four day meander back to Caen, and the ferry home to the UK, after nine glorious weeks here in sunny France. A lot of people have left already and there are a growing number of vacant pitches as those of us ‘under canvas’ (or in our case ‘under plastic’) sense, from the colder nights, that summer is coming to an end and that it is time to head home.

We spend the day packing away most of our stuff – dismantling our cooker, returning our tables and chairs to their storage cases, packing various utensils into various boxes – more-or-less everything except our inflatable mattress and our tent itself. We know that it will be a tight fit to get everything packed into our car, so we decide to divest ourselves of stuff we do not really need, particularly spare foodstuff of one kind or another. We manage to get rid of everything except a large unopened bag of charcoal. I suddenly have a bright idea. A new family have just moved into one of the pre-erected ‘luxury tents’ just across from us, and I know that the Eurocamp people (who manage these ‘luxury tents’) provide just about everything, including barbecues, for their clients, who prefer ‘glamping’ as it is called, to proper camping. I also know that they do not provide charcoal for these barbecues, however. I wander over and see if they can make use of our spare bag of charcoal. They are delighted with it, and accept it gladly.

I thought initially that they were a French family – father, mother, and several teenage children – because they are driving a French car. It turns out that they are actually British and that they are driving a French car because theirs has broken down and will need to be transported back to the UK. Their insurance company has arranged for them to stay here on our campsite in one of the luxury tents until everything gets sorted out. They will be here for at least a week and are actually looking forward to it since they know this site well having camped here several times before. We are pleased to have been able to help a little, having experienced similar problem with our own car accident in France a couple of years ago, and empathise with them. Later on in the afternoon we see that they have met up with another family, who they met here a few years ago, who will also be staying on the campsite for another week. We are pleased to know that they will have friends and support when we leave tomorrow.

By early evening we have finished all our packing, and after a final swim in the river, we dress up and walk over the two bridges into Limeuil for a final visit and farewell drink. It is about 5.30 p.m. and we are pleased to see that the new family and their friends have all got together in the ‘luxury tent’ to share an evening meal together. The weather is still beautifully warm and sunny and they are having a barbecue. The two fathers are ‘doing the barbecuing’ whilst the rest of the two families are sitting around the large wooden table eating nibbles and drinking wine. The barbecue coals go into the barbecue, on top of some newspaper, the implements are all laid out alongside in their proper order, a small table is alongside with various items to be barbecued on it … and each stage is perforated by the two men stopping for another glass of wine and a chat about the art of barbecuing and how it is truly a ‘male art’!? We leave them to it and walk into Limeuil, and climb right to the top of the little town, to visit the ‘English Garden’ with its amazing panoramic views. The garden is superb – everything we were told it would be and more – and we spend a delightful hour there before returning to our campsite via the riverside café where we stop for a final beer.

When we gat back to our tent we notice that that the party in the ‘luxury tent’ seems to be livening up. The nibbles and the wine are obviously going down well … although the two men seem to be having trouble with the barbecue. We have been away for about two hours but they seem to be no further forward with getting the barbecue going. There is a lot of poking and blowing of the coals but not much sign of life. Judging by the empty bottles scattered around the barbecue their dilemma has demanded some serious discussion and drinking to go with it. We sit eating the delicious stew Julia has cooked for us on the small single burner we keep to use on such occasions when we have packed up just about everything else. I am just about to wander over and help the two men … I know that there is nothing wrong with the coals, so it must be something they are doing wrong … when suddenly there is the tell tale sign of smoke!

An hour – and several more glasses of wine – later the barbecue is seemingly hot enough for the meat to go on. The two men load the barbecue with everything that needs to be cooked, and wander off to join the rest of the party who are having a whale of a time round the wooden table. The nibbles are replenished for the umpteenth time – the women seemingly long ago gave up on their men folk – and the wine is flowing liberally. The meat begins to cook, and then char, and then burn … but nobody seems to be bothered. They have had so much to drink, and the conversation has become so uproarious, that they have forgotten all about the barbecue.

I am blessed with what I call ‘a good forgettery’ – the ability to forget at will things that, for some reason or other, I don’t want to remember. Sadly it is usually important things, often things that Julia has asked me to get or to do, that I easily forget rather than negative things that I really do need to forget and let go of?! I know that I am not the only one who is like this – blessed with such a gift. Sadly, however, we have a tendency – rather like our neighbours across the campsite with their barbecuing – to forget the really important things in life and remember the unimportant.

An interesting example of this – particularly for any Bible-believing Christian – is to take a Bible Concordance and look up the various references to either ‘forget’ or ‘remember’. There are scores of them – far too many to quote in a short blog like this – but many of them prove to be a salient reminder of just how good we are at forgetting the wrong things rather the right things, and remembering negative things rather than positive things. How easily, like Job, we degenerate into inward looking and downward looking people, rather than being upward looking and outward looking?  If only Job had heeded his own advice – ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile!’ (Job 9:27). Too many of us live in the past – held back by either painful events that continue to trouble us or our false perceptions that ‘things were better then’ – instead of following Paul’s advice to ‘forget those things that are behind’ us and press on into the future (Philippians 3:13). Elsewhere the Bible exhorts us not to ‘forget the cry of the humble’ (Psalm 9:12) or ‘the life of the poor’ (Psalm 74:19). Nor are we to ‘forget all God’s benefits’ (Psalm 103:2) or the teaching of ‘God’s word’ (Psalm 119:16). The Writer to the Hebrews encourages us to be hospitable to all – ‘do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels unaware’ (Hebrews 13;2). He also exhorts us ‘not to forget to do good and to share’ because to live in such a way pleases God (Hebrews 13:16). Jesus himself encourages us to recall the miracle of the ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’ – to ‘remember the five loaves of the five thousand’ (Matthew 16:9) – because he wants us to know that God is ‘for us’ not ‘against us’ and has already provided for us in Christ ‘everything we need for life and godliness’ (2 Peter 1:3). Perhaps it’s time for all of us to get our ‘forgetteries’ serviced?

Eventually the barbecue loses its heat, and the charred burgers and chicken bits are left on the grill. The family dog helps himself to a couple of the burgers … the families simply carry on drinking and chatting and laughing, the barbecue completely forgotten. The dog wanders over to us, and growls good naturedly. I am sure I hear him say, ‘Thanks for the barbecue coals … great barbecue!’ He sits near us and eats his burgers. It’s a bit more peaceful, less raucous, over here by the river!

Jim Binney

Jim ‘tubing’ down the River Dordogne

One of the favourite pastimes amongst a good number of our fellow campers here at Le Porte de Limeuil campsite – situated on the banks of the River Dordogne at Limeuil – is ‘tubing’ down the river from just above the bridge into the town right down to the farthest point of the beach that runs alongside the campsite. Everyone seems to have these blow up inflatable tyres or ‘tubes’ that sane adults and children use to splash around with in the shallows, but which the insane campers use to launch themselves into the strong current that starts at the two bridges into Limeuil where the River Vézère joins the River Dordogne. Whilst the rest of us splash around happily in the shallows, these ‘mad people’ come hurtling past us yelling and shouting with the excitement of ‘going with the flow’!?

Julia has had several goes at ‘tubing’ during our stay here, as have most of our neighbours … and for two weeks now they have been constantly on at me to ‘join in the fun’?! Until yesterday I managed to ‘fob them off’ with various excuses – not least that we didn’t happen to possess any of these inflatable tyres or ‘tubes’. Julia had borrowed one from various of our neighbours, but me being of the ‘shy, retiring type’ did not want to impose myself upon our neighbours in this way. Unfortunately, we were bequeathed a couple of ‘tubes’ by two of our neighbours who were leaving the site a few days ago, so I was finally left without any more excuses.

So yesterday I finally agreed to join Julia in ‘tubing’ down the River Dordogne. As a result I inadvertently ended up providing Julia with the funniest 20 minutes of her life!? Complete with swimming trunks, beach shoes, and inflatable tyre I allowed Julia to lead me along the banks of the River Dordogne to a point a hundred yards above the bridge over the river into Limeuil. I put the inflatable tyre over my head … and immediately it gets stuck round my chest and I can’t get it on properly round my waist or off again. I look ridiculous … Julia is laughing, everybody on the beach is laughing … Julia has to help me get the wretched thing off again?! I decide to sit in it instead … and it immediately capsizes and throws me into the river! Julia is laughing, everybody on the beach is laughing … and I am spluttering because I have managed to swallow half the river in the process!? I eventually manage to straddle the inflatable tyre and somehow scramble out into the flow of the river. The current takes me and I am swept along … floundering to keep my balance whilst straddling the tyre … totally out of control. A group of twenty-something young French men have waded out to the edge of the current – in order to impress their girl friends. They are all laughing at me as I pursue my mad career down the River Dordogne. They stop laughing when the current suddenly sweeps me and my large inflatable tyre towards them. ‘Stop!’ they shout … as if I have any hope of stopping … and I crash into them sending them flying in all directions like a bowling ball hitting skittles! I don’t even have the time … or the breath … to apologise before I am swept on by the flow towards the bridge into Limeuil.

‘Head for the centre arch!’ Julia shouts to me, as she serenely glides by sitting elegantly on her inflatable tyre. I vainly try to steer this wretched tyre towards the centre arch … and go crashing into the support pier … before bouncing off again and back out into the main flow. I am all over the place. Sometimes I am in the tyre, sometimes I am on the tyre, but most of the time I seem to be under the tyre, legs akimbo spluttering for air. I manage a quick glance towards the shore line … it seems miles away, and I seem to be travelling so fast. Julia has sailed serenely on, enjoying every moment of the journey, and is way ahead of me. Suddenly I realise we are nearly level with where our tent is pitched and where we need to stop. Julia has pulled in to the shallows and is standing there watching me, still laughing. She calls me in … and I go merrily sailing past, legs akimbo once again, with absolutely no hope of either controlling my tyre or stopping for that matter! At my present speed, and with the current just as strong, I will end up in Bergerac?! Julia throws her tyre on to the shore and swims out and rescues me … still roaring with laughter. I stagger to the shore and collapse on the beach, completely exhausted by what has been the most frightening 20 minutes of my life. Privately I am actually exhilarated at having managed to ‘tube’ down the river at long last … however inelegantly I managed to do so!

On one occasion Jesus spoke about ‘rivers’ and our need to be ‘going with the flow’. The Apostle John tells us that one time, when Jesus and his disciples were attending the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, Jesus told the crowd that ‘whoever believes in me … rivers of living water will flow from within them’ (John 7:38). The occasion was the final day of the festival – the day when the priests collected water from the pool of Siloam and then poured it all out on the altar in the Temple recalling God’s provision of water in the wilderness. Jesus was reminding his hearers of the fact that he was the unique provider of divine life – the source of ‘living water’. John tells us later in the same passage that Jesus was speaking here of the gift of the Holy Spirit that believers in Jesus would receive following the Day of Pentecost (John 7:39). Clearly the implication of Jesus’ words here is that we need to get into the flow of God’s spiritual river and ‘go with the flow’ of God’s Spirit, so to speak. There are all sorts of ‘currents’ at work in our world today – not all of them either appropriate or healthy by any means – but God is at work in the world by his Spirit and we definitely need to ‘go with the flow’ of God’s Spirit!

To be ‘led by the Spirit’ (Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:18) – or to ‘go with the Spirit’s flow’ as we may put it – may not always be ‘safe’. We may find ourselves swept along ‘out of control’ at times. We may ‘scatter a few people’ along the way. We may ‘bump into a few obstacles’ from time to time. We may find ourselves having to rely on others – especially on God – more than we have previously been used to. But it will certainly be more exhilarating, more exciting, more dangerous, more productive … than just splashing around in the shallows?!

As I am lying on the beach recovering a new family come over to us – father, mother and a boy and a girl around 10 or 11 I would guess. ‘Wow!’ says the boy, ‘That looks great fun!’ ‘Its called ‘tubing’ I tell them, and explain all about going up past the bridge, getting into the current, going with the flow, etc. etc. ‘Can we buy some inflatable tyres and have a go?’ the children ask their father. He seems somewhat hesitant … I guess that it is because these inflatable tyres aren’t cheap. ‘Here’ I say, ‘have ours … we won’t be needing them anymore.’ ‘Are you really sure?’ the father asks me. ‘Quite sure!’ I reply.

The next day we are praying with the family on the pitch next to ours. David, Briony, and their four children, are a lovely Christian family who have been on the campsite for a few days now. We have got to know them all well … but they are going home today. When they have packed up, we go to say goodbye to them and we all stand in a circle together and pray for one another. Briony prays that we will soon return to the ministry. She prays passionately ‘That when we return to the UK we will find ourselves swept along in the flow of God’s Spirit … just like being caught up in the flow of the river that runs by our campsite …into the exciting things God has for us!’ She prays well … but I sense Julia rocking with silent laughter as Briony prays! Is it an upsurge of joy inspired by the passion of Briony’s prayer … or a surge of hilarity inspired by the sudden thought of me ‘tubing’ down the Dordogne ‘going with the flow’?!

Jim Binney

River Dordogne at Limeuil

The beach is quiet now, almost deserted, with just one or two people paddling in the shallows about 50 yards away from where I am sitting. It wasn’t always the case today. Earlier this morning there were lots of people swimming, paddling, playing about on inflatables of various sizes and descriptions, or just lying around sunning themselves in the hot Dordogne sunshine. Around 6.00 p.m. they virtually all disappeared back to the campsite to prepare the evening meal. They will be back later, however, when the light begins to fade. The children have been gathering driftwood and this evening, as every evening, there will be various small bonfires lit up and down the beach. Various groups of family and friends will bring their chairs and mats and sit around the bonfires toasting marshmallows for the children and sharing a glass or two of wine for the adults. There will be the drone of people chatting quietly interspersed by the sound of sudden laughter as a funny story or experience is shared, or the shriek of excitement as the sparks fly when another log is thrown on a fire.

I say ‘beach’ but it is probably not the kind of beach by the seaside that you may be thinking of right now. We are on the final leg of our two month sojourn in France, and we are staying for two weeks at a wonderful campsite at Limeuil (pronounced Lim-oi) in the Dordogne, called Le Port de Limeuil.  Our campsite is literally on the banks of the River Dordogne and our pitch (as well as several others) is right by the river overlooking the town. The beach is the shingle beach that runs alongside this part of the river. When we arrived, and were told our pitch bordered the river, we were somewhat shirty about it, but it turned out to be the ‘prize pitch’ that everybody wanted. We can literally sit outside our tent and watch the river flowing by and see people enjoying the beach or bathing in the river. It is a very peaceful and relaxing scene.

Limeuil is a lovely little historical town situated at the convergence of two wonderful rivers – the Dordogne and the Vézère. We know both rivers well having visited this region of France several times before. We have both kayaked down the Dordogne, and Julia has kayaked down the Vézère. Although both rivers converge at Limeuil they are very different. The Dordogne is wide and shallow and meanders gently along at a lazy pace. In this region of France it flows past various famous Chateaux and picturesque towns and, for me personally, it is a joy to kayak down. It is normally so shallow that there is absolutely no danger of drowning. The Vézère is rather different. It too has its Chateaux and picturesque towns and villages, but it is also much deeper and faster flowing. Julia prefers the Vézère simply because it is more dangerous and exciting.  The two rivers converge about 500 yards upstream of our campsite – with the Vézère flowing into the Dordogne – which means that the normally calm and tranquil stretch of the Dordogne that flows past our campsite is actually quite deceptive. Although the river by our beach is extremely pleasant, with beautiful clear water deep enough to swim in, there is also a very strong current in the middle (as a result of the more powerful Vézère flowing into the Dordogne) that one has to beware of. Just the other day one young man, who thought he was more macho than he actually was, got himself into trouble and had to be pulled out of the current by one of his mates?!

We have been to the town of Limeuil before, although we have never actually stayed here until this year. We usually come to Limeuil when we are staying in this part of France because there is an English-speakingChurch that meets here every Sunday in the Église Sainte Catherine at the top of the historic old town . The church is part of the Anglican Chaplaincy of Aquitaine, although in reality its members come from a wide range of Christian churches. France is essentially a secular society – the state owns the vast majority of church buildings – and has a rather hostile reaction to unrecognised religious groups. It therefore makes sense for the majority of English –speaking Protestant Christians to work under the umbrella of the Anglican Chaplaincy. The Anglican Chaplaincy network is very vibrant, and growing, and we have always benefitted from our visits to the church at Sainte Catherine’s (and from her sister church that meets in Sainte Nathelène, near Sarlat). Last Sunday was no exception, either, when we enjoyed a well prepared, thoughtful, relevant, spiritually vibrant service that affirmed many of the things we have felt God speaking into our hearts in recent days concerning the future.

The Bible tells us that life is like a river. The Apostle John speaks of ‘the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God’ (Revelation 22:1). John is not thinking here simply of the gift of life itself – the gift we all possess courtesy of the common grace of God which breathes life into every living soul and sustains that life from day to day – but also of the gift of spiritual life that comes to us through the special grace of God found in the person and work of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Sitting on our pitch, looking at the river and our beach, reflecting on ‘the river of the water of life’, it seems to me that there are number of helpful lessons to be found here.

Life for all of us – even the Christian life – can be just like the River Dordogne here at Limeuil. One minute everything is going ‘swimmingly’ – life is flowing along nicely and everything is tranquil, pleasant, untroubled – and then suddenly you find yourself caught up in an undercurrent you didn’t know was there that sweeps you off your feet and sends you spiralling out of control in a direction that you hadn’t anticipated. Or perhaps you were actually aware of the lurking danger but either ignored its proximity or thought you were macho enough to cope. Apparently the young man that got into trouble, that I mentioned earlier, had lost a shoe whilst swimming and had attempted to retrieve it. As he said to Julia later, ‘I found my shoe, but nearly lost my life in the process!?’ He was not to know that in fact the vicious current at this point in the Dordogne in fact peters out about 100 yards further downstream, and that if he had just ‘gone with the flow’ he would actually have come out all right in the end. And fortunately for us, life’s undercurrents do not usually last for ever – they usually ‘peter out’ eventually.  Having said all that, I am still of the opinion that the best and safest place to be is in the centre-stream of God’s will – he alone knows what is best for us, and he always has our best interests at heart. As he tell us in the Book of Jeremiah – ‘I have plans for you – plans for good and not for evil – plans to bring you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11).

With this in mind, I cannot help but wonder if the convergence of these two great rivers at Limeuil is perhaps an indication that at long last our return to ministry is about to happen. Every campsite we have stayed on during this extended sojourn in France seems to have had a convergence of two rivers nearby. These last three years ‘out of ministry’ has been a time in which we have learned so much, and a time in which God has continued to shape our lives. During this time we have had opportunities to take on other churches … but nothing has seemed right for us so far. We still feel called to some kind of ‘shared ministry’ – can a husband and wife team do anything other – although this time round Julia would be the ‘senior minister’ and I would be there to provide help and support where needed. We remain deeply concerned about the state of the church in the UK, and believe we have something to offer, although it may well be different to what most churches seem to be looking for today. We believe even more passionately – and the service at Sainte Catherine’s last Sunday confirmed this – that there is a church out there that is just right for us, and where we are just right for them. All that is needed is a convergence of the two – them and us?!

The beach is beginning to fill up again. The families have finished their evening meal while I have been writing – the children are bringing the drift wood they have collected and their parents are bringing chairs, rugs, glasses and bottles of wine. Most will be going home again in a few days time – their two weeks escape on holiday over for another year. ‘Life’s a beach!’ the escapists say …but we are wiser than that, and we are not escapists. Life – even the Christian life – can be really difficult at times and life’s difficulties have a way of following us even when we try and ‘escape’. What is needed is to find a way of coping with life’s currents. We believe we have found that way in a living relationship with Jesus Christ … and that we are better equipped than ever as a result of our unexpected ‘sabbatical’ of the last three years … and we want to return to ministry to help other people find a way through as well. Choosing to swim in the river may be dangerous … but it is better than simply being washed up on a beach somewhere?!

Jim Binney

Groupe de Resistance

‘Quick! Quick!’ cry the children, ‘You have got to see this!’ We all rush from our tents and caravans and there are the children – Jasmine and Charlie, Daisy and Megan, and Ewan – with a dragon!? Well, it is actually someone dressed up as a dragon, but it is still a very good dragon. We wonder who it is? Is it perhaps ‘Herr Flick’ … or ‘Helga’ … or even ‘Madam Fanny’? Or is it another boy from the campsite who has been persuaded to dress up as a dragon? Every weekday morning on our campsite near Bayonne there is ‘Kids Club’. From 10.00 a.m. until 12 noon the children who want to go are taken off their parents hands for a couple of hours and entertained by some of the campsite staff. They all seem to really enjoy it, and every day they come back around 12 noon to tell us what they have done and show us what they have made … and they make some excellent things … windmills, and flowers and so on. Today the dragon is taking balloons and invitations around the campsite inviting new children to come to Kids Club, and those children who already attend are helping him.

We are so impressed by the children we have got to know since we have been here. We have become good friends with Simon and Charlotte opposite, Graham and Alison on a pitch just behind ours, and Matthew and Fiona just along the road. Between them they have five children – Jasmine and Charlie, Daisy and Megan, and Ewan – ranging between 4 to 8 years of age. They are all delightful children and seem to have adopted us as honorary grandparents. They are always calling in on us to find out what we have done that day, or tell us what they have done, or just to sit with us if any of their parents have stopped by for a drink or a chat. They are full of life and energy but so well behaved – well most of the time – and a real credit to their parents. They are also very helpful and love to go and fill up our water container from the standpipe or even help with the washing up, would you believe. Not all the children on the campsite are so well behaved. Some are ‘little horrors’ and some actually obnoxious?! Having said that, we couldn’t help but laugh when two little French boys crawled under the doors of all the toilets, wash rooms and showers in the toilet block near us, and bolted every one from the inside. There was quite a queue gathered waiting for them to become vacant before someone finally twigged what had happened?!

Jasmine and Charlie, Daisy and Megan, and Ewan’s parents seem to have found the right balance between love and discipline when it comes to bringing up their children and we are impressed with them all, and really enjoy their company. Not all the parents here are like them. We have come across a couple of sets of parents – one English, the other South African – who have adopted the ‘modern’ approach of treating children as adults rather than children. We have been party to a couple of conversations where the parents were reprimanding their young children by explaining to them (in very adult language) what they had done wrong and why they were being punished, and how they needed to behave in polite society in the future. Allowing their children to ‘express themselves’ is all part of the package even if the children actually aren’t capable (because they are just children) of having an ‘adult conversation’. The children clearly didn’t have a clue what was going on – they didn’t understand half of what was being said to them or what they had done wrong or why they were being subjected to some of the (to my mind at least) awful punishments their parents had dreamed up for them. I mean telling a 4 year old that she will have to stay in the tent all day tomorrow because she has ‘spoiled Mummy’s evening’ would you believe. All that seemed to be achieved by this ‘modern’ method of treating children as adults – instead of recognising that they are children – was to make matters worse!? The screaming got louder and the behaviour worse … and all because of the arrogance of parents out to impress others by their ‘modern’ approach to parenthood. In contrast Jasmine and Charlie, Daisy and Megan, and Ewan’s parents didn’t ‘give a monkey’s’ about impressing others with their parenting skills – they just got on with it in a quiet efficient way that pointed their children in the right direction whilst still allowing them to be what they were, children!

I was reminded of the occasion when Jesus took a small child and placed that child in the middle of a crowd of adults and told the adults that if they wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven then they needed to become like this child (Matthew 18:3). It is interesting that he didn’t take an adult and stand that adult in the middle of a crowd of children and tell them that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven they needed to become like this adult? There were clearly attributes and characteristics that Jesus saw in children – their honestly, simplicity, faith, acceptance of one another, are perhaps a few examples – that adults tend to lose (particularly when we become ‘pompous’) and need to relearn. Perhaps instead of having ‘adult conversations’ with our children, it would be more helpful for them to have ‘childlike conversations’ with us?

Later on the same day – the day when the dragon appeared at Kids Club – Julia and I are sitting by our tent enjoying an early evening drink when Jasmine (aged 8) comes by on her scooter. She has a big bag tied to the handlebars full of balloons and invitations to Kid’s Club that she is taking round the campsite distributing to new families with children. ‘We thought the dragon was doing all that this morning?’ we say. ‘Yes, he was supposed to’ says Jasmine, ‘but a French boy (we will call him ‘Georges’ because it seems appropriate) didn’t like the dragon … so he punched him in the stomach … and the dragon had to go off to see the doctor … so I am taking the balloons and invitations round, instead!’ I wonder if ‘Georges’ parents were proponents of the ‘modern’ method of bringing up children as well?

Jim Binney

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Jim with a Pilgrim at Hastingues

We are sitting outside our tent enjoying the early morning sunshine after a night of rain. We are drinking our first cup of tea of the day. Jasmine (aged 8) comes over to talk to us. Jasmine is camped with her family on the pitch opposite ours. We have moved campsite again – this time right over to the Atlantic Coast – and we are staying on a very nice site near Bayonne. Jasmine is very talkative and often pops over for a ‘chat’. ‘Ah!’ she says, ‘A nice cup of tea and a slice of cake … solves every problem!’ ‘Yes!’ says her brother Charlie (aged 5) who has also joined us … ‘Especially when you are attacked by a T-Rex!’ … and off he goes again, shooting an imaginary T-Rex with his imaginary gun!? ‘As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted’ says Jasmine, ‘a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake solves every problem!’ ‘That is very profound, Jasmine’ responds Julia, ‘where did you learn that?’ ‘From a book!’ says Jasmine … and off she goes … presumably to put the kettle on?!

The other day we went to the old town of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port situated in the foothills of the Pyrénées not far from the Spanish border. In the Middle Ages St-Jean was a great rallying centre for Jaquets – pilgrims en route for Santiago de Compostela in Spain – who journeyed from all over Europe to both worship at the Cathedral where the bones of St James the Apostle are supposed to lay, and at the same time earn merit in the sight of God (by walking the pilgrim way) that will be put toward their credit account in earning their eventual salvation. They wore a heavy grey cloak, a broad-brimmed felt hat turned up at the front and marked with three or four scallop shells (the emblem of the pilgrimage), and carried a bread bag and an eight-foot stave with a water flask attached. There is a wonderful statue of such a pilgrim at the Aire d’Hastingues (on the A64 motorway in the Pau-Bayonne direction), which contains a wonderful exhibition of the famous pilgrimage. Whenever a devout procession of the pious appeared at the gates of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the town became a hive of activity – church bells pealed, priests intoned prayers, children ran out to escort the pilgrims, and the inhabitants, standing on their doorsteps, offered provisions. Thus refreshed and encouraged, the majority of the pilgrims would move on, chanting responses, whilst those too tired to continue could stop overnight. Modern day pilgrims also pass this way … and also receive hospitality in the town. A number of the houses on the Rue de la Citadelle display the scallop shell motif outside to show that they receive pilgrims. What are they offered by way of sustenance today we wonder … a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake perhaps?

The name St-Jean-Pied-de-Port is a reminder that the town lies at he foot of a ‘port’ or pass for travellers heading for Spain. It is the last refuge before the climb to Puerto Ibaêeta (or Port de Roncevaux as it is known on the French side). Beyond the crest the Monastery of Roncevaux still maintains a tradition of Christian hospitality. Roncevaux is also said to be the place where the heroic (or stupid?) Roland perished in 778 when the rear guard of Charlemagne’s army was overwhelmed by the Saracens (or more likely Basque mountain people?) on their way back from a campaign against the Saracens in Spain. According to legend Roland was too proud to blow his horn (though urged to do so by his advisors) and sound the retreat in time to save his men. There is supposed to a cleft in a rock nearby where Roland tried to break his magic sword. If only Roland had taken time out for a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake things might have turned out very differently!?

We enjoy a very happy day wandering around St-Jean-Pied-de-Port taking in all the places of historical importance – the Rue de la Citadelle with its charming 16^th and 17^th century houses with their rounded doorways and carved lintels; the Gothic Church, Église Notre-Dame, dedicated to the Virgin Mary with its huge prayer candles burning brightly in the gloom of the interior; the Rue d’Espagne, which climbs uphill to the Porte d’Espagne through which the pilgrims left the town, with its quaint shops and houses; the Citadelle itself, now a school, but with its amazing views over the St Jean basin and the neat little villages far below. It is a beautiful day and the streets are packed with tourists all enjoying this wonderful little town with an amazing history.

The pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela is another of our historic and theological interests. We have travelled much of it over the past few years – by car and not by foot. It would be lovely to walk it sometime – or at least parts of it – and to eventually visit Santiago de Compostela itself. Nevertheless it is good to be here in St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, and to be reminded of the benefits of journeying – taking time to walk prayerfully through life contemplating the things of God. We return to our campsite refreshed and renewed, enlightened and blessed, by a really good day. Time to put the kettle on and have a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake!

It is not that we agree with the motives of the majority of the pilgrims down through the ages. We are not really into ‘religious relics’ and certainly do not believe that we have to ‘earn our salvation’. Salvation is the free gift of God, won for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, on the cross. As another Apostle, Paul, tells us ‘We are saved by grace, through faith, and this is not of yourselves, but is the free gift of God, not by works, so no one has any grounds for boasting’ (Ephesians 2:8,9).  Perhaps all of us need, from time to time, to take time out to think seriously about the gift of life … and its meaning? Stopping for ‘a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake’ may not solve every problem … but perhaps it might provide space to stop and think about what is really important in life … rather than just be caught up with the rush and bustle of so much that makes for modern life today!? I am sure that I have read that in the Good Book somewhere … o.k., I know that it doesn’t actually mention taking time out for ‘a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake’ … but it does say, ‘Be still, and know that I am God!’ (Psalm 46:10)!

Jim Binney