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A series of articles in which Church members write about their favourite Bible verse or passage. Taken from the Church Magazine.
Matthew 16:13-20: Who Do You Say I Am? -Bill Galloway (June 2003)
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Certainly a favourite story for us in the
bible is this simple but profound one
where, after Jesus has been with his
disciples for a considerable period, he
asks them this question, “Who do you
say I am?”
In the not too distant past our response
would have been along the lines that we
don’t think you are relevant in our
lives. Many respond like that
today and yet life continues
to raise this question in the
mind of every human being,
including those who don’t yet
know the name of Jesus.
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So it was with
us but thankfully we eventually were
able to answer by saying, and feeling in
our hearts, “You are our Lord and our
God.”
Words like ‘conversion’ or ‘being
born again’ may put many people
off but, for us; they simply
mean that from that
moment on we put God
at the centre of our
lives. He became the
plumb line by which all that we do
and all that we are is measured.
Many centuries ago the Psalmist wrote a universal truth with
the words “My soul finds rest in God alone.” May it be so for
you.
Ephesians 3:17-18: The Love of God -Pat Clayton (August 2003)
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how
wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…”
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Love is a much mis-used word in our society today. We
say that we ‘love’ ice-cream, or that we ‘love’ playing
football, when actually we mean that we simply like or
enjoy these things very much. Even in our relationships,
when we say we love someone, there may be strings
attached to this love, conditions or limits beyond which
we might not be able to love them in quite the same way. |
God’s definition of love is different. He loves us
unconditionally, without any strings or limits, whether we
love him or not, whatever we have done in our lives, or
indeed whether we believe in him or not. In fact, God
loves us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to
die for us.
When someone is prepared to give up their life for another
person, this is a very powerful demonstration of their love.
Jesus died, not just for his friends, but for every single
one of us. Paul’s words in Ephesians tell us how vast
God’s love is, as if he is trying to describe its dimensions.
He reminds us also that, not only is God’s love infinite, it
is also eternal.
Like Paul, it is my prayer also that we may
all grasp how wide and long and high and deep is Christ’s
love for each one of us.
1 Timothy 3:16: Great is the Mystery of Godliness -John Goodacre (October 2003)
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‘We aim to become more like Jesus
every day’. Who could doubt that as
the stated aim for a parish – or for
each and every Christian person?
But how to put it into practice?
Becoming like Jesus, Christ-likeness,
godliness, the target seems to
be quite unreachable. “It is not
difficult to live a Christian life,”
somebody once said, “it is a sheer
impossibility – without Christ.” And
every day I seem to prove it true.
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Our Bible encourages us to ‘be imitators of Christ’ and to remember
our leaders and ‘imitate their faith’. As I ponder the
problem, I often go back to words I read years ago. They were
written by a man who was preaching in the days when my father
became a Christian - the late 1930s - and whom I heard
and saw preaching too.
“God did not create you to have just an ape-like capacity to
imitate God,” wrote Major Ian Thomas. “There would be no
mystery in that, nor would this lift you morally much above the
status of a monkey or a parrot!” He goes on to explain that
“Godliness – or God-likeness – is the direct and exclusive
consequence of God’s activity in a person. Not the consequence
of your capacity to imitate God, but the consequence of God’s
capacity to reproduce Himself in you. That is the nature of the
mystery!”
May each of us experience more of the Spirit’s ability to make
God-likeness a reality rather than a mystery.
2 Corinthian 4:7: Jars of Clay -Eileen Balch (December 2003)
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‘That’s an impossible task’, I thought, when I
was asked to write a short piece for
Ploughshare. ‘How do you select one
passage over another from such a rich
source material as the Scriptures? In truth I
have so many favourite passages that I use
in different situations.
The poetry of the
Psalms is wonderful, some of the stories of
the Old Testament are really gripping, and
the gospel accounts recording our Lord’s teaching and life are
truly priceless. But for the purpose of this exercise I have gone to
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian Church Chapter 4.
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I love
these words of St Paul and especially verse 7 ‘But we have this
treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is
from God and not from us.’ Paul writes about the difficulties he
encountered in his life and there is no doubt that he faced more
than we could ever imagine (read 2 Corinthians 11 16-32).
Nevertheless he gives testimony to the power of God even in these
extreme situations. The phrase ‘jar of clay’ resonates with me.
That is what I am… a jar of clay! Something quite ordinary used
every day in common usage and in that usage I am chipped and
cracked; flawed and far from perfect. But within me is a ‘treasure’,
and that treasure is Christ. That means that whatever happens in
my life, whatever difficulties there may be, there is a power at work
within and that power is Christ. All His love, all His compassion,
all His grace and riches and light and life are resident in my
earthen vessel.
As I look around me at the other jars of clay that make up the
church (any church you care to mention) I see the same thing in
my fellow believers. The church is full of human beings, all with
frailties and foibles and idiosyncrasies, and yet there is a
loveliness in Christians that is plain to see. All because of the
treasure within, which is Christ.
I really like this passage so much; I think I will request it to be
read at my funeral!
John 1:1-14: The Begining -Robin Dawson (February 2004)
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My Best Bible Bit is the prologue to John’s Gospel, John
Chapter 1 Verses 1 to 14. It is awesome because it starts
off looking out to the bounds of space and time and ends up
with you and me.
This prologue is the frame for the whole story of John’s
Gospel. It starts with the Word. This is not just a word on a
bit of paper, this is Word. He was there at the beginning
and all things were made through him. He was with God and
he was God. In this Word is light and life.
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But as we read on we see that the light, a light that gives
light to every one of us, becomes dovetailed into history. We
read about that hairy prophet, John the Baptist saying that
it was coming into the world.
How? As the Word made flesh. The Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. John, the writer, says we saw his glory, full
of grace and truth. The Word made flesh was, and is, Jesus.
Now think about it. Is it not astounding that anybody could
even think that the being, the intelligence, that created
universe could throw everything off to become a baby, with
all the helplessness and
vulnerability that this implies?
But John was no fool, and what
he saw, which is the rest of his
gospel convinced him of exactly
that. That’s where we see the
grace and truth in action, and
where we realise that the glory
he talks of is quite unlike any
other glory we can imagine. So
that is why this 14 verse
framework is my Best Bible Bit.
Don’t worry, Lisa, the everlasting arms will always be beneath you.’ -Lisa Mouncer (August 2007)
Lisa Mouncer writes about her favourite Bible verse, Deuteronomy 33:27.
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What on earth was my mother going on about now, I thought, as she kissed me and hugged me tight. I felt so relieved to be here at last, in Aberystwyth University actually doing a degree in English. My parents and I had not always got on very well and I was happy to be starting a new phase of my life far away from them. But when they had finally gone, I felt very much alone in my new room at the halls of residence. Granted, I had my duvet, mug tree and Led Zeppelin poster but I felt quite nervous and out of my depth all of a sudden.
Then I heard a little tap at my door and there stood my next door neighbour, Netty Palliser. ‘Hi! You’re new! Would you like a cup of tea? Come to my room in five mins!’ Next door I found a little gaggle of girls from the same floor. We laughed and chatted, and, suddenly I didn’t feel quite so alone anymore.
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I had come to university as a complete atheist, happy to escape the cloying chapel background of a small South Wales valleys community. But in university I began to make friends, and strangely those friends were, like Netty, Christians. They seemed calm and happy, they had strong moral principles yet seemed to have a lot of fun too. And they went to church. They invited me but for a long time I resisted. My only experience of church had been of long dreary sermons, welsh hymns and old ladies in hats. Finally I went along one evening to a lively baptism service and was amazed. These people had something special and, whatever it was, I wanted it.
I got Netty to buy me a Bible and avidly read it. It was in a modern readable version and didn’t have the old ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ that I remembered. Soon after, I knelt down in my room and asked Jesus into my life -it seemed like a real leap of faith, but I hoped He’d catch me. Wow! The feeling was incredible, and I knew that from now on my life was in His hands.
My mother’s words to me had become true. And have gone on being true as I have faced good times and bad times. My mother died eight years ago. We wrote these words in welsh upon her headstone:
Duw’r oesoedd yw dy noddfa, ac oddi tanodd y mae’r breichiau tragwyddol.
-Deuteronomium 33 v27
(The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.)
because that was her favourite verse too!
Lisa Mouncer
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