A Refuge!

From September 26:

As usual the days fly past and I notice how quickly events pass us by. a couple of weeks ago the 10^th anniversary of the 911 attacks took place. President Obama as his speech for the observance simply read Psalm 46. It is short and to the point yet speaks into our lives these many years after it was written. They are words of comfort and it reminds us that in our dark times God is a place of refuge and hope. It tells us that in our times of greatest distress and places of conflict in life that sometimes it is best to just be still and know that God is God, experience him as he is, because in him there is victory over troubles. So I share it with you to ponder what challenges in your life may need that refuge and hope:

1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble
2. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea:
3. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.  Selah
4. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
5. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help here and that right early.
6. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
7. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
8. Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he hath made in the earth.
9. He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder: he burns the chariot in the fire.
10. Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Thankful for the refuge,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Catching up Again...

OK here I am way behind again... Looks like I am about 8 instalments behind... so will get them all caught up and you can catch up as well.

Cheers,

Rev. Jon Bergen

From September 22:

In 2004 some of the churches in Greater Manchester had an idea of inviting folk ‘Back to Church’ as they realized that a lot of folk had had connections to the church but hadn't been in quite awhile.  In the past several years more than 150,000 folk have reconnected with their link to faith and many stayed.

It reminds me of the story of Jesus as he called his disciples. He called them to ‘come follow me...’ They had little idea of what that journey might look like but they did it anyway. An interesting side story that can relate to a lot of folk that have disconnected with the thought of faith is that of Philip and Nathaniel: the Gospel of John shares that ‘Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, “we have found the Christ... Jesus of Nazareth.” To which Nathaniel replied... Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip simple said back to him; ‘Come and See’. And like the early disciples many will not know what is in store as you also hear the invitation of friends to ‘come and see.’ 

I think there are many here that will read this and think to themselves; can there be anything good about going to church? After all Sunday is my day to have a long lie, it is my day to do more chores around the house, it is... and you can fill in your own blank of why you may have lost touch and can’t be bothered to reconnect. Maybe you are one of the ripped off that never had a ‘church’ connection in the first place and so you have no idea what it is even about and maybe no one ever asked you to ‘come and see.’ 

Well this Sunday, 25 September is Back to Church Sunday.  Many of you will have been invited and many more will not have been. We have the day planned for special services that will address the idea of connecting to faith and finding out who Jesus really is. This can be one of the most important days of your life, you won’t know unless you check it out. You may have to take a couple of weeks of ‘Back to Church’ to check a few of us out... but it will be worth the effort in the long run...

The main thing is know that we invite you as Philip invited Nathanael with the words:

COME AND SEE!!!!

Inviting the Whosoever will,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Selah

Psalm 67:1-3 says “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, (Selah) that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!”

There are three things here that many of us want and need in our lives. 

First we need graciousness for our lives. The other word often used for the word gracious is merciful. ‘God be merciful to us’ is how the text can read. I know as I look at my life short as it has been so far there is a lot that I need God to be merciful to my life about, things I need to be forgiven for, things I am glad God didn’t just squish me like a bug about. Truth is all of us have these things in our lives. And in the Lord’s prayer we are also reminded to forgive as we want to be forgiven. Some days harder than others to do and I am glad God does forgive out of mercy. 

The second thing we are to ask God for is his blessing. The hard thing is sometimes knowing that blessings are not always things we can see or touch. Sometimes there are things that are real challenges that in the end we learn are true blessings. I know I don’t like pain and suffering but often I hear from folk how even those are blessings as one learns the lessons of life. Too often we look at bigger and better as being blessed and that is not always the way God works in our lives. May we not only be blessed but also have the spiritual eyes to recognize the blessings God sends our way for what they really are. 

The third thing God wants us to desire is that ‘his face may shine upon us’. This has to do with his glory shining through us into the world in which we live. The old catechism asked the question of what is the chief end of man? Or as I modernize it so I can understand it: what is the purpose of our lives? And the answer comes back: To glorify God and enjoy him forever. It is nice to know something so eternal can still be a part of our day to day life if we ask for it. It comes out of the relationship we can have with Jesus.

There is also this wee odd word –Selah—that simply means- Stop... Think about it.

And as we find these three things in God we can then be part of the ‘peoples’ who praise God...

So my prayer for my life this week is Psalm 67 and my prayer for your life this week is that you too find Psalm 67 for your own life...

Hoping you will take time to Selah Psalm 67 in your own life,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Seeing Past the Waves

“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36

The story is told of the preacher who kept a painting in his study of a shipwreck. There were sailors in lifeboats reaching out their hands to people floating on debris from the broken sinking ship. A little boy looked at the painting and asked his daddy, “Are those in the lifeboats trying to save those people or are they just shaking hands?”

Life can be a challenge and there are days that we have the challenges and struggles and there are days it is our friends who struggle with life. As I think about reaching out to save someone or just shaking their hand, I find it can be a fine line between which is needed. Some days it can take a lot of hand shaking before someone that needs ‘saving’ will reach out and take advantage of that help and get into the boat.

The challenge for us is that too often we cling to our own piece of the world like that piece of drifting debris, as if that is all that exists and we don’t even see the helping hand being offered let alone the lifeboat behind that hand. And yet as I watched a wee clip on the BBC the other day about lifeboats I also noticed that the lifeboat came from somewhere even more secure than the lifeboat itself. It came from a place of hope, in hope it was sent to the sea, in hope that it would make the journey there and back, in hope that they would be in time to rescue those in need. The hope of those who go, the hope of those who send it out and the only hope of those about to drown.

And so it is in the storm of life. We cling to the debris and miss the helping hand and fail to see the lifeboat that can be a refuge and even more miss that the lifeboat can get us to a safe place of refuge above the storm.

Can you see the hand outstretched to help you? Can you see the lifeboat and imagine the place of safety that it can get you to? Or do you just see the debris you cling to? Can you see the way to safety and yet all you do is shake hands with the rescuer?

Having friends is great and all of us need to do that. But, the question must also arise in each heart: Are we just shaking hands or making a difference? Maybe you are the one to offer hope to those you know. Day by day we can be one or the other. The key is to be willing to take the help when we need it or offer help to others.

Oh if only we can see, not only the hand and the life boat, but also the place of hope from which the lifeboat came, that final place of safety from the storm...

Cheers from life’s storms,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Suffering For Jesus? Not Really what you think...

Well another week has flown by. I am not so sure that I like that what ‘old’ people used to tell me is coming true - that the older I get the faster the days fly by.

With that in mind I was reminded last week that we have now been in Brechin for 9 and almost a half years and that September 4 we will celebrate 9 years of the Brechin Baptist Fellowship being around here in Brechin. Someone who shall remain nameless, but he knows who he is, said something about nine and a half years of suffering in Brechin. My reply was along the lines of 'suffering for Jesus' and that eventually lead to a rather joking conversation about Jesus saying “suffer the little children” to come to Jesus. Suffering has for sure changed meaning over the past 400 years since the AV/KJV Bible was printed. 

We should know that what Jesus was saying was ‘allow the children’ to come see him and be blessed by him. Sadly we now say that like children coming to church to hear about Jesus suffer in misery. I can’t imagine not making learning about Jesus an awesome thing. My problem is, like I said last week, I still have a lot to learn even in the art of preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus. I wish in the last 9 years I had become the most engaging in this endeavour but though I know the truth of the gospel my stammering tongue still doesn't always get it as interesting as I would like. As ministers and Sunday school teachers we have a passion for Jesus and the gospel of redemption he taught but we have to keep working so our listeners don’t ‘suffer.’ 

I just know that in the past 9 years that sometimes seem like only 9 months and sometimes seem like 90 years that the call of Jesus is still the same: you who are weary, heavy hearted and run down—or maybe over- come to me and I will give you rest. 

So suffer yourself , err, allow yourself to encounter Jesus and get blessed. Though this earthly life flies by, I rejoice in that there is an eternity to live...

Oh yeah and to be clear for the record: I love Brechin and you can’t get rid of me that easily... 

Looking forward always,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Summer is Done--Time to Study

Well that is for sure summer holidays done and dusted. The Brechin young people are back in school and studying hard... or is that hardly studying. Well if you see a young person on the streets in the next couple of days encourage them to get after their studies so they can excel in their futures. If you see a teacher encourage them even more to invest their lives into the lives of our youth.

But the reality is that all of us need to learn more. I have often heard the lines that reflect the thought that the day we stop learning is the day we might as well die and get dirt thrown in our faces... I have said it as well and mostly hope that is true. I want to keep learning all the time. There are not too many topics I can’t talk about, some I only prove how little I know but even my little is more than some folks. And some days as I chat and prove how little I know someone feels sorry for me and gives me a wee bit of education. 

I just know I don’t want to be like the guy from Iowa I knew that at the end of his high school days looked at his head teacher as he walked out the door and said: “I’ve had twelve years of book learning and fetching up and I aint learned nothing yet.”

2 Timothy 2:15 says ‘Study to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth’. This really is a thought we can all grab onto and try to live. Learn, study, like it matters, like it can change our lives and the world around us. I think knowing scripture helps in a lot of ways. If you read it, it forces you to think about what you read and if you digest the thoughts it gives guidance for how we live our lives.

I probably should leave the rant alone but I confess I am really bothered by the rioting in England last week. I keep thinking 'if those folk had studied the Bible and took to heart the thoughts of not killing, not stealing, even not coveting, would they have been able to do that junk and done so much damage?' I think not.

My brother-in-law sent me the following: “So sad... Please put this on your status if you know or are related to someone who suffers from stupidity. People need to understand that stupidity is REAL and should be taken seriously. You could be sitting next to a stupid person right now. There is still NO KNOWN CURE for stupidity and sympathy does not help. But we can raise awareness!”

But ignorance can be changed—STUDY does it. And for life the best study I can think of is  foundational book—the Bible.

Always more ignorance to grow past,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Moving on...

It has been a long hot summer with too much sun and not enough sarcasm. Actually it is more like where was the summer? I fear I spent too much of mine being sick so I am a bit tired and worn out. And sadly I am talking to too many others that kind of feel like me. The energy to be creative is many days just not where I want it to be and someone else has it. And yet the days flit by at an ever faster pace. So summer holiday is about finishes so back to work. Somehow the thought that I had figured I had worried to death like a dog with his rawhide chew bone will just not leave me alone as I preach my way through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. “Let brotherly love continue...” 

I see the news and the hearts of people from around the world comes glaring through, thankfully not the majority, but enough to make me realize this ‘brotherly love’ thing is not the world we live in. Oslo Norway comes to mind, the events of last weekend in London jumps out at me as an unavoidable problem. Again the financial crisis of the world economy is heart breaking in many ways, wars and rumours of more war, the political system being questioned in countries around the world including our own... and I think to myself if only...

Then I get to chapter 13 verse five where it says and I paraphrase: ‘let your life be free of coveting because of the love of money and the stuff it buys, instead be content with what you have.’ And I think, wow if we add that to living a life of love that would just about get rid of 90% of the people problems we have. Violence would almost go away, theft disappears, abuse in families and homes—gone, corruption in all areas of life—yes you guessed it: gone. Charities thrive to help the poor and needy in ways we cannot imagine, employers have money to hire folk to work and can even pay decent wages, the burden of taxes goes way down because no one is trying to scam the system and only taking what is fair. And the list goes on and on of how life improves with love and a lack of greed.

Now comes the hard part for me again, this challenge of wanting more than I have, more than God gives into my life. I too desire the nice things in life, stuff that too often I don’t need anyway, I just want it. We all seem to and we don’t know how to get past it. So we have to take on board the promise of God to provide our needs as we trust him and then we work on changing our hearts to meet what godly principles we are to live by. I just know for me it is not always as easy as it sounds.

On a life long journey,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Last thoughts for now on Brotherly Love

I have been sick the past couple of weeks so have not been as prolific at writing as I should be. It has helped me be more empathetic toward those that are chronically ill. But it has also made me a bit forgetful about what has been going on.

So where was I? Right, brotherly love and my friends that lost a brother in law that while he was gifted and talented and in many ways had the perfect life was instead given to abusing his family in unspeakable ways and a massive abuser of drugs and alcohol. In most ways a wasted life.

But out of the abuse my friends had to learn to love in ways I am not so sure I could do. Then out of that ability to love has come an ability to use that hurt to know the hurt of others and to minister to them in ways that one without that pain and suffering could not know as personally as they do.

They have for a number of years been able to be involved in a special ministry to other ministers who themselves are hurting both from current hurts and past hurts. And out of that ministry so very many are able to heal and mend themselves and so able to then use the same type of healing to help even more people that have been through abuse. Back to learning from the scars that we each have in our lives.

So two thoughts that are always true: 1) If you have a belly button you have a problem and 2) Hurting people hurt people.

But it is not what you have to act in these ways, rather it is what you choose to do with those problems and hurts that will either make you a better person or a person that hurts others.

I know it is hard to believe but even those of us in ministry have our own hurts and struggles in life. Just because we have a special calling from God in our lives doesn't mean God takes all the hurt and pain away from us. I wish... but what we, what I choose to do with these is up to me. How I grow and help others is up to me.

I confess that the past couple of weeks being sick has not helped me be the most kind and gentle person in the world. But I know had I not learned some of these lessons and been trying to be who God desires for me to be... Well suffice it to say it would have been worse. (that is where at the least you are to give a wee chuckle).

Let brotherly love continue:  How is it in your life? Are you growing despite the hurts and the problems or are you the cause of hurt and problems in the lives of others? My prayer is that you are growing... 

Still learning,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Still working on love...

Let brotherly love continue: yeah that is easy—when life is good and the relationship is healthy, but what about when abuse takes place. I mean what kind of loving god allows that stuff anyway.

I have friends in Delaware that shared their story with me not too long ago. Her brother had just recently passed away, but he was not one of the good guys so the story was hard to tell yet revealing about how we can grow past even the most awful situation as we find our place with God secure. 

The story is one of a great looking guy that was clever and sociable to the point of “able to sell ice to an Eskimo“. He married at 16, had lovely babies and home but the path went from successful looking to the life of an alcoholic drug addict that abused his family in unspeakable ways both physically and sexually. When it came his time to die it was almost a relief to family that knew the truth of the story. This was one of the scars I mentioned a couple of weeks back. 

The time came to scatter the ashes on the Atlantic shore and the memories that flew by in my friends’ conversation were in the end reminders of love rather than the hate deserved. Memories of a life wasted and ruined leaving ashes in his wake. The reminder that good looks, money, influence and talent are not what really matter in the life is ended. 

The story as I got it went like this: “My wife and I stood on the shore's edge together. The only ones present were her nephew (the son now fully grown and living hand to mouth), her baby brother and his wife, and myself. Well, we also had the ashes of her dead brother in a plastic container enclosed in a clear plastic bag. Missing were his wife, his daughter, his mother, his dad and step mom, and a host of people who claimed to be his friend (as long as he could supply the drugs, booze, and women).”

He continued: “We each said a few memories about him and the son struggled to open the bag. Soon he had the ashes thrown to the wind to be carried into the water's caress. A gray cloud of mucky remains floated on the waves and mingled with water and the sandy bottom. The son cried, "You're free now... you're free!" With that we left and returned to the car and headed back to my father-in-law's home.”

Yet even knowing that her brother was such a rotten person my friends’ thoughts had turned earlier to the question of what about eternity. Despite the pain and hurt of the years it was a ‘brotherly love that overrode it all and her prayer was that somehow maybe, just maybe before it was too late the love that had come to her own life from Jesus would somehow find a place in her brother’s life and death.

Not sure I am able to be that way just yet, but my prayer is that I grow to that kind of love. Jesus the incarnate God came for the sake of love for you and me, yet I struggle some days to model it well. How is it in your life?

Stay tuned,

Rev. Jon Bergen