Growing in Thankfulness

Well it is my Thanksgiving week... and the verses for the day are in Psalm 136 “Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:” then several verses describing how God shows this in our world and lives then ends with verse 26 that says “Oh give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever.”

So here it is Thanksgiving on my diary. So I am reminded to be thankful. But what is thankfulness really about? Well long answers are just that so will leave it as a short one for now.

I think most of us understand the basic idea of this—it is gratitude—it is one of those almost natural responses to being blessed. When someone gives us something we wanted we tend to be thankful. Sometimes sadly in our selfishness we have to be reminded. Sometimes it is in the rush of life we just forget, sometimes it is a matter of our hearts and minds are just in different places and thankfulness is not mentioned even when we are. 

This week is my reminder to not only be grateful and filled with gratitude and thanksgiving but to express it as well. I give an almost annual speech on Thanksgiving night about how I need this reminder... Thing is I need this reminder and maybe should do thanksgiving 5 or six times a year—just the diet can’t quite endure it...

The examples in the OT are quite clear—when people were thankful they worshiped God, they brought sacrifices... some were mandatory—again because though in many ways Thankfulness is a natural the expression of the blessings of life it is not always so. And sometimes it is our sense of entitlement that makes us think it is owed to us so therefore we don’t need to express our grateful hearts to anyone... but God ‘demands’ it... but when we glorify God and worship God the thankfulness does come naturally... the expression of that comes naturally.

So I will enjoy a few friends over for the whole American Thanksgiving Dinner thing, too much food and fun, my annual speech but still a reminder in the bounty that it is every day the same—God is good and His mercy and provision in my life are forever. Thank you God!

Trying to grow in thankfulness,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Remembrance Sunday and Beyond

From 17 November:

Well, good news I think. This past Sunday was Remembrance Sunday, we had a good service at our church and I hope others did as well. Once the services were over many of us met at the Brechin War Memorial to show our thankfulness for the sacrifices that were made so we can enjoy the freedoms we too often take for granted. I am encouraged that this year seemed a bit better attended. Something to be thankful for in my opinion.

Speaking of being thankful, you will know by now that my favourite holiday of the year is Thanksgiving which I have celebrated all my life and was not going to give up just because I moved to Brechin, the other American holidays were ok to give up but no chance with my Thanksgiving. I just love my turkey and stuffing but most of all my pumpkin pie with squirty cream. It is also my annual reminder that I have family and friends and that we are blessed. OH boy are we blessed. We just seem to forget it. I love the ‘occupy’ this, that or the other place all around the world. Sure we all want more, sure most of us are in the 99% they keep shouting about, but the reality is that we really are in the 1% in the world despite our whinging and grousing about.

So here I my time to reflect on my idea of poverty—being me not having as much as I want—and realizing that in the end I am really blessed more than I deserve compared to so many. I am reminded as well that I am to be thankful for what God has done in my life, not to make God do more for me, but just because I am blessed. The Psalms express over and over the glory of God in the creation we live in. 1 Chronicles 16:8-12 says: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore! Remember His marvellous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgements of His mouth…” 

In the New Testament we are reminded that we are to be thankful for the people God puts in our lives. So many times Paul expresses in his letters his thankfulness that he lifts to God for folk that have been in his life. We also have little to fear and so are told in Phillipians 4:6 ‘to be fearful in nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to let our requests be made known to God’

So aye time for thankfulness and so far this week I am thankful for more folk showing up to be thankful for freedom bought on the battlefields of the past and present. 

More thanksgiving to come,

Rev. Jon Bergen

From Shadows to Still Waters and Green Pastures

Well the sense of the winter months ahead are here with the time change it is getting dark way early and yet it is nice to have it brighter in the morning. Not completely sure what that has to do with anything really just looking ahead... But really it is a reminder that darkness is just a shadow.

I am working through some things in my life at the moment and was awakened about 4 AM the other morning; way too early for me... as I prayed and wrestled with going back to sleep the words of Psalm 23 came to my thoughts but not the usual way. In my almost back to sleep place the words just wouldn’t come out right, I knew there was more but I just couldn’t get it out. 

The way it came out in the end was: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd—yeah though I walk through a valley called Death it is a shadow, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’ In that early morning hour I came to a place of peace and rest that I pray will go with me through the rest of my life, for I realised that God really is my Lord, and my Shepherd, I am his and he is MINE even when the day comes that I may walk through a valley called death the good news is with God in the person of Jesus it is merely a shadow, it is not real in the way it looks from here because as I go out the other side I will awaken to find myself in the presence of the Lord to dwell with him forever. 

As we know from a life time of saying the 23^rd Psalm, there is in this life the promise of the green pastures, the still waters, the rod and staff of the shepherd, the tables prepared for us in the very presence of our enemies. These are good and welcome as they come but really having God as my Lord, my Shepherd and getting to go into forever being with him in the House of the Lord is enough.

Looking ahead,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Personal Ministry Moments

From 27 October:

Well this week not sure how you want to categorize it: it might fall under a personal story or under personal beliefs. You can choose which you like. But I must confess I had a really nice time on Sunday night. I got to baptize my eight year old daughter and another lady named Claire. As you may or may not know in the Baptist Church we do baptism a bit differently than a lot of other churches. Where-as many churches do a christening, we practice what is referred to as ‘believers baptism’ and we do full immersion, not just a wee bit of water to dampen the head. The Greek word that is found now in our Bible as ‘baptize’ could well have been translated as immerse, bury, or plunge under. Baptists tend to be a bit literal when it comes to Bible stuff so all the way under is how we do it. 

Well as you can imagine it is a fun thing for a daddy to get to baptise his own children. But since we do believers baptism it has a different meaning than a christening. For us it is a part of our testimony that we profess Jesus Christ as Saviour. The immersion baptism pictures a person dying to self and sin as they are placed under the water and then as they come up out of the water it is a picture of Jesus’ resurrection, that we are to model a new way of living. The words I usually say: “Buried in the likeness of our Saviour’s death, raised in the likeness of his resurrection, to walk in the newness of life.” 

Well this year was my wee Jessi’s turn, she has been pestering me since I baptized my Anna last year to get baptized so she kept asking: ‘Daddy when can I get baptized?’  I kept putting her off since I was thinking it was just to be like her sisters.  So I finally got to the point I just asked her why she wanted to do it. And as only a child can, she gave me back the gospel as simple as you please. Her comment was: “I want to be baptized to tell people that I love Jesus because he died for me.”

I tried over the next few weeks to talk her out of it by asking her more questions but it was always the same basic answer... and how do you answer different than the simple gospel of ‘Jesus died for our sins and we love and trust him for our salvation because of that.’ I wonder often if we don’t make the gospel harder than it really is. Jesus once said to bring the little children to him and later added that we have to come to faith like a little child. 

So basically that is what my Sunday night service was, baptizing my wee lassie and I have been blessed to have had a part in helping her and my other lassies share their faith by being their daddy and pastor who got to baptize them. I am one lucky guy, I get to talk about Jesus, minister to my family and community, and I call it work... Baptisms are fun for sure... maybe another time I’ll share about the other lady that I baptized, lovely story that as well... 

Thanks for listening to a personal moment,

Rev. Jon (the Baptist...)

Looking Ahead

From October 20:

Hope you had a good ‘Tattie Holiday’. We were able to take a wee break as a family to the major metropolis of  Cumbernauld. Just took a bit of time to relax and catch our breath. But we did do a bit of playing tourist. We ended up at Stirling Castle and took a look at the breath taking view from the walls of this amazing fortress. We also had a nosey through the palace and great halls absorbing history along the way. Lovely those wee radio things as you tour. 

As we went through the Palace of James V and saw the various halls and the splendour that was the flamboyance of the mid-1500’s the lessons of the messages of power and prosperity were obvious. The chambers one had to pass through to get to the inner chambers lead one to understand that the farther in you got the more important you were.. To meet the King James or his wife Mary of Guise in their private bedrooms was the indicator of height of importance you had achieved. To stay in the palace for the night meant you were part of the ‘In-crowd’ of that day. You may be important back home but you might just have to rent a room in the town instead of being hosted in the palace. And so it was in those days and the tradition continues on. Not many of us have even seen the ‘Royals’ let alone spent the night in the Palace.

And as I thought of these things and the £14 Million spent on refurbishing an un-lived in palace that is of historic importance and that leaves me very impressed, I realise in the scheme of life and eternity that it really isn’t much. 

As a Christian that has my trust in Jesus I realize that there is a heavenly home waiting that is beyond even the greatest dream of the builders and remodelers of the Stirling Castle Palace. I also from the book of Hebrews in the Bible have the assurance that if I know the God of the Bible that even in this life I can come boldly before the throne of grace of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Why? Because after all he is my heavenly Father and so the way was prepared by the Cross of Jesus so many years ago. 

In these troubled days I am reminded that Jesus said: let not your hearts be troubled... in my father’s house there are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you can be also...’ Looking at the spectacular sight of Stirling Castle is awesome, looking forward to my home in Heaven seems even better...

Looking ahead,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Leaning On Jesus

From 6 October:

Tattie Holidays are here already. Seems summer never really arrived and it was over. The swiftness of life seems more and more a common theme in my life. The hardships of life also seem more and more to make themselves known and I wrestle with the state of the world and the directions it is going. The value of God in our society is getting less and less and the churches as a whole are struggling to make God meaningful in the world we live in. In discussions with many, the idea of a real God seems at a certain level to be more and more difficult to believe. Yet I am encouraged that while many reject God as a part of their lives there are others that value their relationship greatly. There are also many that I encounter, that while rejecting a deity, are also seeking for a spiritual context for the lives they live. 

By now you are asking what that has to do with the swiftness of the passing of time. Well it is this, that as the days pass and I find the dilemmas of life hard to understand in a purely secular context. I take comfort in a faith that continues to grow. I find understanding in a scripture that said things many centuries ago that are still more than relevant in the 21^st century. I find answers to life’s problems that help me get from day to day and week to week.

I was told not to long ago though that this was a crutch. And at the time really hadn't thought through what the problem was with that comment. I sort of dismissed it as an off handed remark and threw the idea away. Yet as I think about it I ask; is it so terrible that we use a crutch? We don’t usually see a person using a crutch in the day to day world and say that the crutch they lean on is bad or that they are bad for using it. But yet why is it a bad thing when the ‘crutch’ happens to be the Christian faith? Thankfully Jesus himself said he was the great physician and he came to heal those who were sick. He came not to call the perfect to repentance but the sinners to a place of grace.

My prayer this week is that the days don’t fly past any faster than I have time to find that one that wants to make me spiritually well and that I have the sense to lean on him to support me in this crazy paced world we live in today. Read Matthew 5 in the gospels for a view of who Christ said was blessed. It isn’t those who think they have all the answers rather it is the meek and the poor in spirit... those that are learning to lean on the one who came to seek and to save those who are lost.

Leaning on Jesus,

Rev. Jon Bergen