A Rocha

On Sunday 27 November, we will be holding our next ReFill event here at CBC. 

Our guest speaker will be Amy Ross from A Rocha UK. I am aware that, unlike some of our previous ReFill events, many of you will have no idea who or what A Rocha is. So the purpose of this post is to let you know and to encourage you to bring your friends along on the 27th.

A Rocha is a Christian charity working for the protection and restoration of the natural world.

A Rocha is responding to the biblical mandate to care for the earth and demonstrating the Christian hope for God’s world through:

– practical involvement in nature conservation projects and ecological research;

– campaigning on biodiversity issues;

– engaging with churches, schools, communities and individuals.

A Rocha UK is part of the worldwide family of A Rocha organisations committed to conservation action as an expression of Christian mission, working collaboratively with others who share our passion for the planet and our desire for its flourishing.

You can find out a lot more via the A Rocha website and we look forward to seeing you on the 27 November.

Making sense of Judges

Tomorrow, at CBC, we will be starting the second half of our autumn series 'Promises Kept and Promises Broken'. Last week we finished Joshua and now we're moving into Judges. If you thought that Joshua raised some tricky questions ('what about all the killing?' for example) then be prepared for more in this next book of the Old Testament.

If you want to get a bit of a head start before Sunday - when we're going to be looking at Judges 1:1-3:6 - then a great place to begin would be over with the guys at The Bible Project. Some of you, I know, have been following their daily read through the Bible programme, but we covered Judges a long time ago now (back in March), so you might want a refresher.

You can either head over to their website by clicking here and look around and see what else you can find. 

Or else you can watch the video below.



Here's the poster that goes with the book of Judges. You can also download this from their website - follow the link above.

Stopping before it's too late

Although we're moving from Joshua to Judges this coming Sunday at CBC I want to go back to the story of Achan in Joshua 7. You'll remember that before the battle for Jericho the people had been instructed by God that they were not to take anything for themselves as loot or bounty, but everything was to be devoted to God. But a guy called Achan had taken some things and as a result they'd lost the next battle - at a place called Ai. You can remind yourself of the story here.

When he was confronted with his sin, Achan confessed in Joshua 7:21-22. In his confession he stated that: I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid.

How often does our sin start with something that we see? Maybe, as in the case of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), we see something that we shouldn't see in the first place  - because we're somewhere where we shouldn't have been. Or maybe it's something that we can't help seeing - as is the case here with Achan.

But after seeing our minds get to work. And rather than just shut the thought process down we let it run for a bit. We don't know what Achan thought but maybe he had already started spending the gold, maybe he imagined the robe would make a great Christmas present for his wife. But what he should have thought is - all this is to be devoted to the Lord.

No doubt a part of this thought process was about how he could conceal what he was doing and whether he was going to be able to get away with it.

Maybe he even tried to justify in his mind what he was doing. How it wasn't that serious, and that it wasn't really hurting anyone. What difference would a handful of things make in amongst such a vast horde?

Then eventually his run-away thoughts led him to action and he took. And then he tried to cover up what he had done.

And the serious consequences that followed occurred because Achan didn't shut his thought process down earlier - instead, he let it run. 

Last week on my Twitter feed an article from Care for the Family was highlighted. Although it specifically focuses on one area of life it does show how important it is to halt the see-think-do-conceal as quickly as possible so that we don't get to the 'do' stage. You can read the article here.

Why are you wearing trainers today?

Before moving to CBC we lived in a part of north west London where there was a large Jewish community and a number of synagogues. Today, in that part of London, and in many other parts of the world, you would have seen smartly dressed men and women walking along the road wearing trainers. I remember thinking that this was a bit strange the first time I saw it. It's not even like they were black trainers. Where were all the smart shoes to match the clothes?

Today (11-12 October 2016) is the most holy and solemn day within the Jewish year - Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. It is a day of fasting and prayer, a day of asking for forgiveness for sin. It is a solemn day - a day of personal sacrifice. (Which is where the shoes come in - amongst other things Jews are not to wear leather on this most holy day.)

Regular visitors to this blog will know that last year we looked at the passages in Leviticus that dealt with God giving Moses the instructions for the Day of Atonement. You'll find these posts here and here.

Two Sundays ago at CBC we were looking at the story of Achan - see here. A story which reminds us of the seriousness of sin. The Day of Atonement speaks of that seriousness and God's provision for dealing with those consequences - a festival that ultimately points to Jesus' death on the cross. Putting things right between us and God once and for all.