Are we open to the Possibilities?

As we planned for our recent house move, one of the things that my wife said she was going to miss was her kitchen island. The kitchen in our new house is considerably smaller and so Tracey began to consider an island, rather than a table for our new dining room. After some research we found that the sort of thing that we wanted would be unreasonably expensive and so Tracey decided to make one. Using two pine units that we weren’t going to be able to fit into our new house and some new worktop and some help from her dad, they created the beautiful island that you can see in this picture.

This project was only possible because Tracey was able to see the possibilities and because she was also willing to ask for help from someone who had more experience and the tools that were needed. They were able to work together to get the job done!

As I was praying just now, Tracey’s Island (no not Tracy Island silly!!) came to mind and I was reminded that we need to:

See the possibilities: Don’t be limited just to what you have known or done before. Don’t be put off because you can’t afford it. Spend time seeking God’s heart and vision and then get in line with it. May God give us eyes to see the possibilities and to experience the fulness of life that He has promised.

Get behind the vision that God has for us: Honestly, I’m not too fussed about having an island in our house but I am caught up in Tracey’s creativity, vision and enthusiasm. You may be someone who doesn’t easily see the possibilities beyond the obvious and normal. Perhaps, you are a planner an encourager, an enabler or someone who will provides for projects. Just because you didn’t receive the vision doesn’t mean that you can’t get behind it if you discern that it is of God.

We need to work together: As we seek to fulfil our ultimate calling to make disciples, we need to learn what it is to cooperate better and to look beyond or own local congregations. Together we can achieve so much more as we pool our gifts, strengths and resources. Is it time to reprioritize, putting ‘our desire to build our church’ behind working towards seeing the Kingdom of God advanced?

My heart is to see Jesus build His Church and that He would continue to transform us into the people who He has created us to be.

For those of you who are interested, here is another photo to show a little more of the Island’s construction.

I’m Moving

I wanted to let you know my latest new which is best explained in this letter that was emailed to EBA churches today.

Dear Friends,

I am writing to share the news that I will be moving on from my role as a Regional Minister in the EBA. I am not going to use the word resignation in this letter, because I want to be clear that God is calling me onward to what he has next and that this isn’t about me choosing to leave.

A few months ago, several things happened that left me feeling unsettled and this left me wondering if God was calling me to move on. This came as a complete surprise to me as I had previously believed that I would be serving here for the long term.

As a way of discerning the way forward, I decided to explore settlement by speaking to a single church. I compiled a list of criteria, which included moving closer to family who could provide support with our children and got in touch with that church. The meetings I have had with the leaders and members at Bethesda Baptist Church in Trowbridge have left me in no doubt that I am called to be their next minister. I believe that many of our churches need to change radically if we are to make disciples effectively, this is the conclusion that BBC have reached and that I will help lead them into.

The past few months have been a difficult time as I have wrestled with the call to step out in faith but also the temptation to cling onto the good that I could continue to do if I stayed here. I feel sad to be moving on but also excited about what God is leading me into next.

Inevitably, some may speculate as to whether my move is linked to the incoming EBA team leader in any way. If you understand the Baptist settlement system and the time it takes to move through it, you will know that this isn’t the case. I accepted the invitation to preach with a view at the beginning of June before the interviews even took place on 21^st.

I will be around until mid-autumn and hope to catch up with many of you in that time. I will continue to pray for you, that you would know God’s leading and that you would have the faith to continually step into all that God has for you.

Your brother in Christ,

Graeme

Reflections from along the Great Glen Way

I recently walked along the Great Glen Way, which is a long distance path which follows the Great Glen, alongside the Caledonian canal and three lochs (including Loch Ness), from Fort William to Inverness. The walk is though some beautiful countryside with spectacular scenery and breathtaking views and I would highly recomend it.

My daughters, wife and I had set out along the Great Glen Way, nine months earlier, but only my wife was able to finish the whole 78 miles on that occiasion and so I returned to complete this amazing walk in May 2022.

I decided to use the hike as some space for a spiritual retreat, but rather than asking God about specific things, I decided to try to listen as I walked and these eight short videos contain some of the thoughts that came to me as I walked and talked with God along the way.

The videos are deliberately bite sized in nature at 1-2 minutes each and I hope that they help you to ponder what living an everyday faith means as we travel through life. You can watch the videos individually below or all at once via this YouTube playlist.

The direction you are headed in is more important than where you are right now

Often we focus on where we are and what things are like now, but I wonder what life might be like if we thought more about where we are headed and who we are becoming?

Jesus called all sorts of people to follow him. He called people who Jewish society had labelled ‘sinners’ and he called people who were poor but he also called the rich and those who society had labelled ‘righteous’. Whether we are in a place of desperation or we are feeling secure, Jesus offers us a hope and a future.

When Jesus says ‘follow me’, he reminds us that the direction we are headed in is more important than where we are right now.

Graeme Ross

Look to the Light: God is Constant in the Chaos

I have been thinking about how God is constant in the chaos, that He is always present and that His light is always shining, even in the darkest of places.

As a part of my reflecting on this, I have been dwelling on Isaiah 40 v28:

The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

God is everlasting and he doesn’t grow tired of weary. My prayer is that as His light continues to shine, that we would talk with him more and more and become better reflectors of his glory.

You are welcome to use either of these images that I have created online or in church life. You do not need specific permission to do this, although a link to my blog is required. The square version is optimized for social media and the 16:9 version below is ideal for projecting and use in church services and sermons.

The background image I used to create these images is by Zetong Li on Unsplash

Joseph’s Story: Learning to Look at Life through the Lens of God

Scene 1: A fictional encounter: Joseph has just found out that his fiancé Mary was pregnant, and he goes to speak to his friend Eliphaz.

Joseph in an angry and agitated state enters the room and SLAMS the door.

Joseph: You’re not going to believe what has happened!

Eliphaz: I just heard Joseph and I’m so sorry. That Mary is a right …

Joseph (interrupting): Doesn’t Mary know how lucky she was to have me? I offered her a home and financial security! Who is going to take her in now? I can’t believe that this has happened, and I really can’t believe that God has let this happen to me! I’ve been his faithful servant all my life and I can’t even begin to put into words how much I feel let down by him!

Eliphaz: Mary is such a disgrace! A real embarrassment to her family! I mean, what was she thinking! She is going to get a shock when she stops and realizes how God sees her, I hope that he gives her exactly what she deserves for the choices she has made!  

Joseph: I can’t believe how stupid I was to believe that she was willing to be mine, my precious. I was so looking forward to life together with Mary, I wonder if …

Eliphaz (interrupting): You’ve got to break up with her Joseph. She is making you look a fool, and you need to make clear to everyone that your engagement has ended.

Joseph: God’s law makes clear that I can’t marry Mary, but it also calls us to be merciful and so I will try to end the engagement in a way that doesn’t involve her being publicly disgraced.

Eliphaz: Good look with that Joseph! Mary already is a disgrace; she’s clearly not fit to be one of God’s chosen people and I think you’ve had a really lucky escape here. I’ll get in touch with Bildad and Zophar and we’ll come around later. We really want to sympathize with and comfort you at this time.

Scene 2: Matthew 1.20-25

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Joseph’s perspective was changed by the angel of the Lord.

Rather than looking at God through the lens of his life circumstances, Joseph began to see his life through the lens of God.

As Joseph began to see and accept what God was doing, his perspective changed, and he began to make different choices accordingly.

When life feels stressful and we are angry with people, will we pause, listen and try to seek God’s perspective?  Will we try to clarify the facts of a situation before we react to it?

The Christmas story is a traumatic one and understanding God’s perspective, meant that Mary and Joseph were able to endure the pain and rejection that they would have faced from their family and community. This would have helped to keep them going on the long road to Bethlehem, in the rejection of there being no room for them in a town where so many of their relatives lived and also in their terror filled escape to Egypt. God’s perspective made it easier for Mary and Joseph to persist in all that they went through.

Are you open to looking at your life through the lens of God?

God, help us to pause and to listen to you.
When we are angry and overwhelmed, we pray that you would give us your peace and remind us that we need space to seek your perspective.
May our lives continually be changed by encounters with you.

Amen.

Bonus Content: A special prize for anyone who can work out why Joseph’s friends are called Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar (Note that due to budgetary restrictions, the special prize is knowing that you worked it out and then, if you are able, you can pat yourself on the back!)

Following Jesus can feel like a White Water Raft Ride

In this past year, things have changed massively in our lives and the lives of the churches we are a part of. Now that we have the opportunity, do we want to go back to how things were or are we willing to continue in any of the areas that we have learnt about? Will we follow and obey God even when things seem overwhelming and we want to turn back?

This video is a part of a series of short videos we produced for the Eastern Baptist Association week of prayer. At 3 minutes of less, they are designed to provoke thought and to inspire us to seek God for his leading.

Where is your Focus?

These two photo’s were taken by the same camera, from the same angle of the same view but they are very different because of their focus.

Where is your focus?

In the picture on the left, everything is blurred in the background because the focus is on the mug and I wonder if this illustrates what fixing our eyes on Jesus means? That we are so focused on Him that the things of this world grow strangely dim? Perhaps, a better analogy would be that Jesus should be the filter through which we see the world, that as we focus on him then we can learn to more consistently see the world through his eye and then we can respond accordingly.

The image on the right illustrates what often happens, that we can be so focused on and overwhelmed by what is happening around us that we lose sight of Jesus. In these moments, we need to spend time refocusing on Jesus, calling him out of the corner and back into the centre of our vision.

Are we being Led by our Lord?

Over the past few years I have heard a number of people in different contexts use the phrase ‘it’s time to give Jesus his church back’. If you think that this phrase seems overly harsh because you have a deep desire that Jesus should be Lord of his Church in every way then I would encourage you to consider what your church report would look like if the Angel Gabriel turned up for an Ofsted Godsted inspection? I don’t think there would be many churches that wouldn’t have the recommendation that they need to fix their eyes on Jesus more consistently and I think that this is something that we should aspire to do more.

We are here to make disciples

At the start of the first lockdown we held a series of meetings in the Eastern Baptist Association on Zoom which asked what might God be saying to us. What we discerned together was that discipleship is about relationships more than it is about programmes and that God is continuing to call us to make disciples as part of our everyday living and by connecting with people beyond the church in new ways.

All of this will require us to focus on God as we listen to and rely on Him! As we emerge from lockdown into the new normal, my hope is that we will prioritise fulfilling and applying these principles that we have discerned together.

If you want to hear me talk about our focus and these pictures then you can watch this short clip:

The Emotional Turmoil of Holy Week

Have you ever stopped to think of the emotional turmoil that Jesus went through in the week leading up to his death and resurrection? His anguish in Gethsemane gives us a glimpse into the level of emotions that were churning inside him and whilst people often explain this as being about the cross, we need to also realize that there were many things that happened that week that caused the son of God deep pain.

We all know about the fickleness of the crowd who shouted HOSANNA (save us) one day and CRUCIFY HIM a few days later but have you ever considered that both of these shouts were linked to the salvation of the world? Whilst Jesus knew that the cries of crucify were essential to God’s plan, this wouldn’t have made the words less painful as some of the people who he had come to save at such a high cost called for his execution!

At Easter, we often focus on the beginning and end of the events of Holy Week, we know about Palm Sunday and then Maundy Thursday onwards but what about the days in between? The gospel writers record several examples of the Pharisees and the Sadducees asking questions that were designed to trip Jesus up. Can you imagine Jesus’ frustration? That some of the people who he had come to save were behaving like spoilt children who didn’t want to share their toys. They were trying to hold on to their power by discrediting Jesus at the time when the son of God was continuing his incarnational trajectory of making  himself vulnerable and completing his mission through sacrifice rather than by power.

As Jesus was responding to these trick questions, he must have been aware of Judas drifting away. Judas who had longed for Jesus to start a revolution to remove the Romans spent those days drifting deeper into despair and disappointment with Jesus to the point where he began his shocking act of betrayal. Jesus had invested so much in him and his other disciples and we can’t imagine the depths of his disappointment that he felt during the betrayal and also during Peter’s denial.

During those days, Jesus tied to offer hope, he spoke of the end of time and of the offer of salvation. He tried to prepare the disciples for his death by sharing bread and wine with them but as he poured out his heart to them at that passover meal, the disciples responded by arguing amongst themselves about which of them was the greatest.

As Jesus prayed in anguish in Gethsemane, in his hour of need, his disciples fell asleep. At the very time that he needed them, Jesus was left feeling abandoned, isolated and alone! As he hung on the cross, this sense of aloneness culminated in his cry of ‘My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?’ If we take scripture seriously we know that nothing can separate us from God’s love and that God will never leave or forsake us. I personally don’t believe that Jesus was separated from God as he died (even though I have heard it preached, it doesn’t fit with my understanding of scripture) and I certainly don’t believe that God had forsaken his son. For me, Jesus’ cry reveals the depths of emotion and pain he felt like he was drowning in as he hung on he cross.

When you think about all of this emotional turmoil, it is astonishing that Jesus still chose the cross! All of these situations that he faced could of dragged him back and diverted him from his sacrifice but instead he went to the cross because of ‘the joy set before him’.

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12.1b-3)

The joy of saving humanity helped Jesus to overcome and to see beyond the irritation and pain that people were causing him in those days leading up to his death.

This past year has been full of emotional turmoil for many of us and in the midst this, I hope we have found and will go on finding moments of pause to consider what the joy that is set before us is. What is the hope in our future? How are the sacrifices we are making going to bring hope and help to others?

Jesus chose to die so that we could live forever, he chose to give his life so that enemies of God could become his friends.

In our emotional turmoil and in the difficulties we face, may we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus so that we will not grow weary and lose heart.

If you would like to reflect more on the events of Holy week then I would suggest reading through the end of each of the gospels from Palm Sunday onward. You might also find these daily reflections I have written about the events of Holy Week helpful.

Is Lent primarily about giving things up or giving more time to God? (Lent short reflection 1)

Lent is most commonly associated with giving things up but if that is all that it means to us then we may be missing the point.

This is the first in a series of short videos which can be used by churches and individuals during Lent. Each video will ask a question which relates to the Biblical accounts of Jesus in the wilderness.

Churches are welcome to download and use the video in their own services, each one will be less than three minutes long so they can easily be used in services alongside any theme they are exploring for Lent. You do not need to ask permission to do use or share the video but it is always encouraging to hear how the content we are producing is being used. You can also use share the video link with individuals or for small groups to use as a discussion starter.