MAKES YOU THINK...

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

What price enthusiasm?   

By Christine Regas - June 2010

Several years ago, the husband of a friend of mine became enthusiastic over an American herbal food supplement designed to ensure weight loss, and he even persuaded me to try it.  It worked successfully (for a time!), so much so that he even got me involved in attending a promotional day for the product. Many of the participants there fervently expounded its merits, including a boy of about 12.  We could not help feeling that day how much more satisfying it would be if we Christians were as keen to expound the message of the gospel.

I was reminded of this currently on seeing so many houses, cars and gardens, etc. decorated with innumerable St. George’s flags.   These however, as we well know, have little to do with English patriotism, and certainly nothing to do with the life of St. George or the cross which was his symbol. On the contrary they are merely to proclaim the adulation fans feel for eleven men kicking a leather orb round a field!   While there is of course nothing wrong in supporting your team, such adoration has surely gone over the top.   If only we were as excited about proclaiming Jesus Christ as these football fans are over their team.   I wonder what St. George would – or rather does – make of it all.   Probably not many of those flying his flag know very much about him, or the Lord whose cross he portrayed.   It makes you think.

 

The teaching in a nutshell

By Peter Edgley - April 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pass it down

By Christine Regas - March 2010

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

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

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

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

 

Angel Unawares

Do angels drive cars?

By Christine Regas - October 2009

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

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

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

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

Do angels drive cars? I wonder.

 

What a privilege!

By Christine Regas - July 2009

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

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

 

...then there is no God?

Author unknown, submitted by David Allison - May 2009

A college student was in a philosophy class which had a discussion about God's existence. The professor presented the following logic:

"Has anyone in this class heard God?"
Nobody spoke.
"Has anyone in this class touched God?"
Again, nobody spoke.
"Has anyone in this class seen God?"
When nobody spoke for the third time, he simply stated, "Then there is no God."

One student thought for a second, and then asked for permission to reply. Curious to hear this bold student's response, the professor granted it, and the student stood up and asked the following questions of his classmates:

"Has anyone in this class heard our professor's brain?"
Silence.
"Has anyone in this class touched our professor's brain?"
Absolute silence.
"Has anyone in this class seen our professor's brain?"
When nobody in the class dared to speak, the student concluded, "Then, according to our professor's logic, it must be true that our professor has no brain!"

(...The student received an "A" in the class.)

 

'Hate the sin but love the sinner'

By Peter Edgley - March 2009

The recent sectarian killings in Northern Ireland were greeted by a wave of revulsion. Everyone, it seemed, reacted by warning that violence and retaliation would achieve nothing. If people wanted to live together in peace, as the vast majority do, reconciliation not retaliation would have to be the key. (By coincidence, churches along Bromley Common chose 'reconciliation' as the theme for their joint study groups in Lent, but they're nearly over as I write.)

Reconciliation is an attractive idea, but I suspect some people are confused about how to make it work in practice. Does it mean pretending things never happened? 'Making allowances' to a quite ridiculous degree? Does it mean condoning evil and absolving evil-doers of responsibility?

When I wrestled with this as a new Christian, it seemed wishy-washy and wrong, and I was unhappy with it, until some wise soul told me, “hate the sin, but love the sinner.” Suddenly everything fell into place.

OK, it's much easier to say than to put into practice. But if you think back to the stories of Jesus' encounters with people whose lives were in a mess, it's obvious that 'hate the sin but love the sinner' is the key to Jesus' approach. And it goes with well with his revolutionary sayings like 'turn the other cheek' if someone hits you.

He doesn't condone the sin, but at the same time he doesn't condemn the sinner. He or she is left to confront the sin, search his or her heart and, we hope, make their peace with God in private.

If it was a good enough motto for Jesus, it's good enough for all of us who think of ourselves as Christian – and an excellent starting-point for non-Christians too!

 

Available – but not known.

By Christine Regas - February 2009

During one of his Bible study sessions at the recent Diocesan Conference, Chris Wright remarked that in England we have more Bible versions available than anywhere else in the world:  e.g. from the Authorised Version (KJV) through to 'The Message,' with ‘Children’s,’ ‘Teenagers'’ and even Scouse editions thrown in;  yet Bible knowledge in this country is dismally low.   

This was brought home to me the night I returned from the Diocesan Conference, whilst watching a TV quiz show. A biblical question with multiple answers actually came up: “What did the Ark of the Covenant contain?” The team eventually got it right – but was it from Bible knowledge? No, they remembered seeing it in an Indiana Jones film! In lands where Bibles are so scarce that many are shared between church congregations, and even pastors may only own a portion of one, whole passages are memorised and the Bible is much better known. Would we perhaps do better if we had less? It makes you think.

 

Waiting for us to act?

By Christine Regas - January 2009

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

 

Mobile phone versus the Bible

Author unknown - submitted by David Allison - November 2008

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our mobile phone?   

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?    
What if we flipped through it several time a day?    
What if we turned back to get it if we'd accidentally left home without it?    
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?    
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?    
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?    
What if we used it when we travelled?    
What if we used it in case of emergency?    

This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible?    

Oh, and one more thing.  Unlike our mobile phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

Makes you stop and think "where are my priorities"?  And no dropped calls!

 

Little Ruby got it wrong - or did she?

By Christine Regas - October 2008

I heard this little tale from my mother many years ago; and she heard it from an older cousin even earlier. It must have happened about the turn of the century – the 19th/20th that is. Little Ruby (cousin Ruth’s baby sister) was about 4 or 5 at the time, and she was very happy because she had just learnt a new chorus at Sunday School. She skipped home singing it at the top of her voice – only she did not quite get it right. Perhaps it was because a shiny new commodity had recently appeared by the back gates of all the houses in the street, and this confused the little girl. Anyway the version of the chorus she sang on her way home that day was "A dustbin, a dustbin, Jesus wants me for a dustbin!  ……..  I’ll be a dustbin for him!"

She should of course have been singing about being a sunbeam – but her mistake made me think. Dustbins are not to be despised – how could we do without them today? People have to have somewhere to put their rubbish, and this is also true, not just of physical household waste, but of all the pains and hurts which form the ‘rubbish’ of our lives. It is good, is it not, to find a shoulder to cry on;  someone we can trust to be a ready receptacle for all our troubles? So people too can be dustbins. But remember too that the best dustbins have lids. Human ones need to keep lids on as well so that our friends’ hurts don’t get let out. So perhaps little Ruby was right after all. Will you be a dustbin for him?

(Sadly little Ruby died of meningitis a few years later, but what a lovely memory to leave behind).

Christine R Regas

 

The mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee

Author unknown - submitted by David Allison - October 2008

This thought-provoking item was sent to me by a friend so I can't claim the credit for it, nor am I able to acknowledge its author, but I would like to share it with you.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous, 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions - and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

'The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.'

'The sand is everything else - the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the 'small stuff' you will never have room for the things that are important to you.'

'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.'

'Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'

'The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'

 

 

Prof. Richard Dawkins makes you think
... the way he wants

By Peter Edgley - August 2008

 

Suppose they hadn't bothered?

By Christine Regas - June 2008

As a Church we repeatedly emphasise the need for prayer, yet so often prayer meetings are the least attended of all gatherings.   Recent emphasis on prayer reminded me of a story I heard many years ago which is worth sharing:

On the North West frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan was an isolated mission hospital. One day the doctor there needed to visit the nearest town to get money for the hospital and he set out on the long journey with a companion.  They got the money, but unavoidable delays meant they could not make it back to the hospital before nightfall, and the region was notorious for robber bands in the hills.

Soon it became too dark to risk further travel, so committing themselves and their precious money to God, they lay down and slept.  They awoke next day to find their savings intact, and thankfully made their way back to the hospital.  About a week later, the leader of one of the robber bands was brought to the hospital sick, and recognising the doctor he exclaimed:  “We saw you out on the hills last week;  we were going to rob you, but we couldn’t get anywhere near.  You had an armed guard all round you!” 

“Armed guard?” the doctor replied; “No, there were only two of us; we had no guards.”

“Oh yes you did. I counted them. There were 27 men surrounding you.”

The doctor was mystified, yet realised that they had experienced God’s miraculous protection.

About three months later, he was on leave in England, and at a meeting at a supporter’s house he recounted this amazing story.   Suddenly the hostess asked: “What date did you say this happened?” On hearing the date, she rushed to find her diary: “Yes,” she exclaimed, “I thought so. That night we had a prayer meeting especially for you, and there were just 27 of us there!”

I have often wondered what would have happened if even half of those 27 people that night had found they had other things to do, - or it was too cold, - or there was football on TV!  Perhaps the robber band could have overpowered only a dozen, or less, guards?  

God indeed works the miracles, but he needs our faithful co-operation to do so.