Get out of jail free

There's an interesting conversation in 2 Kings 5 between Naaman and Elisha. Having just acknowledged that there is no other God in all the world except for Israel's God, Naaman then asks Elisha if it is ok if he carries on bowing down to Aram's god, Rimmon.

We didn't have time to explore this on Sunday, so here's the next in our Taking it Further videos.

Whatever you do, don't touch the ...

Tomorrow I get to do my first real-life, in-person, assembly since the 11th of March. Of course, this means that there won't be an assembly video with a spot-the-difference to post here.

This term we're looking at charcters from the Old Testament with a selection of stories taken from the Lion Storyteller Bible written by Bob Hartman and illustrated by Krisztina Kàllai Nagy. I'm starting with 'A Sad Day' - the story of Adam and Eve eating from the tree in the centre of the garden which you can read about in Genesis 3.

Why is it that when we are told not to do something, or not to touch something, or not to go somewhere - suddenly that is the only thing that we want to do? 

If you've got small children (or even not so small children) at home you will not need to be told that this is the case. Take a hot dish out of the oven, put it in the middle of the dinner table, utter the words 'don't touch - it's really hot, I've just taken it out of the oven'. Return to the kitchen to get something else. Count, '1...2...3...' and see how far you get before you hear a cry 'Ouch - that's hot - Dad, I've burnt my finger'. (I'm not suggesting you try this out at home - never leave small children and hot dishes unsupervised.)*

What is it about us? 

Are we afraid that we might miss out on something? 

Don't we trust the person who has just told us 'not to ...'? 

Is there a feeling of 'it's not fair'? 

Do we assume that we know best and therefore we'll be the judge of what we can or can't do? 

Or are we simply rebellious and just don't want to do what we are told?

I expect that it's a mix of all these things - and this is what is going on in this story from Genesis 3. Do I trust God enough to allow him to be the one who says what is good and bad? Do I trust God to know what is best? Do I trust God enough not to think that I'm missing out?

When Peter, in 1 Peter 2:24, talks about dying to sin and living for righteousness - part of that means a daily decision to trust God, to choose to do things God's way rather than my way. And to trust that when God says 'don't...' He really does know best.

*Hopefully this additional line is acceptable to the H&S department.

Not the Old Testament again

 This week we've started a new Sunday morning teaching series called 'An unchanging God in an ever-changing world'.

The Old Testament is not always the easiest part of the Bible to read and teach from. Not that is is necessarily difficult to understand - although at times it is - but we often come across parts that are: 

• hard to read - maybe it's a story about God's people killing a whole people group including women and children,
• hard to apply - what have ancient laws about mildew or wearing clothes made from cotton and polyester got to do with my life in 2020,
• hard to reconcile with the nature of God that we see in the New Testament in the life of Jesus.

But when Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 about all Scripture being God-breathed and useful - the only Scripture Paul had was the Old Testament.

Jesus' understanding of a compassionate and gracious God came from his reading of the Old Testament.

If you just look at your Bible you will see that about 3/4 of it are the Old Testament and therefore it is really important that we engage with this part as well as the bit we might be more familiar and comfortable with.

This is one of the reasons why, here at CBC, we return to the Old Testament for a term every year. Since 2014 we have spent each Autumn working through the story of Israel's history from their escape from Egypt in Exodus through to the division of the kingdom in 1 Kings and the encounters between Elijah and Ahab. And this term we're picking up where we left off at the start of 2 Kings.

Over the last few years, there have certainly been passages that I would not choose to preach from. They have not been easy. But if we believe that 'all Scripture' is inspired by God then we need to engage with all of it - and the discipline of working our way through the books of the Old Testament in this way is a good one.

(We won't be doing 1 Chronicles next year though - for reasons that will become clear in this series.)

Whilst the story of 2 Kings happened a long time ago, in a culture very different to ours, to people who had a very different view of the world to us, if we believe that all Scripture is inspired and we believe that the Bible is a living word then these stories will speak to us as the Holy Spirit takes them and applies them to our lives.

And, what is more, these stories will speak to us in our current context - living through a global pandemic with all the medical, financial, social etc implications and impact that that brings.

You'll find the first talk in this series, from 2 Kings 2 below.