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Phil Commons

After last week’s sermon Phil Commons asks if you and I are letting our cup overflow?

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“He makes me lie down in Green Pastures” Psalm 23

This week’s sermon was on Psalm 23 and we thought about the way in which walking close to God and being responsive to the Holy Spirit’s guidance blesses us beyond measure so that “our cup overflows”.

As I listened to the reading of the psalm and especially to verse 2 “He makes me lie down in green pastures”, in my thoughts I journeyed back to the patients I had seen when I first entered Green Pastures Hospital in Pokhara, Gandaki Province, Nepal. I was working at the time with the BMS and one of their all-Asia regional conferences was being held in Pokhara. We visited Green Pastures Hospital – a missionary hospital run by international Missionary fellowship (INF) with whom many of our BMS missionaries serve.

Green Pastures Hospital.

Green Pastures hospital was established in 1957 by two ladies – Eileen Lodge and Betty Bailey (pictured in the gallery above) who both individually answered God’s call to serve the people of Nepal. Initially it functioned as a leprosarium offering refuge and treatment to some of the poorest and most marginalised people in Nepal. Today, it is the biggest rehabilitation centre in western Nepal, serving around 20,000 patients each year.

I remembered walking into the hospital and seeing the patients, and sitting in MBC this morning I began wondering why it was called Green Pastures. The thought came to me that the founders were Christians who were familiar with Psalm 23 and knew the overflowing grace of God in their own lives. It also occurred to me that their experience moved them to let God’s grace overflow to others.

The result is what we see today – something in their lifetime they perhaps could never have foreseen!

Following the sermon we shared communion together and contemplated afresh what Jesus did: We heard the words read from Matthew chapter 26 v 27- 28 “Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you … this is my blood of the covenant”. It was here that once again I was reminded that Jesus had mankind in his thoughts when he chose to lay down his life for us.

Psalm 24 v 1 follows on from Psalm 23 and verse 1 tells us “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it”. He was at that point overflowing with love for His world and all who live in it.

As I pictured this scene the thought came to me… who knows what could happen if, led by His Spirit we follow the example in listening to God and responding to his voice as Krys encouraged us to do, and as Eileen and Betty did all those years ago. What would happen if we who are so very blessed let the grace we have received overflow to others? I sat quietly as communion was shared asking myself if I was letting my cup overflow into other lives?

Let us encourage one another to listen quietly to God and see where the Good Shepherd may be guiding us today… there may be a few surprises ahead.

Down but not out – how to climb out of the hole

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Just recently I was treating a client at the Crypt who is recovering well from addiction. As I was working on their injury they began to tell me that they had become a Christian a number of months previously – at a time when life seemed to be at its very worst.  Listening to the circumstances around this journey, I  could easily understand why they had reached this point of despair. But, they continued, they cried out for God to help them, and He did, and they attributed their recovery thus far totally to Him. They told me that now, every morning, they ask Him at the start of the day for His help to get through the day. They could see now – months later – so many ways in which He had helped them and turned their life around – it was impressive to hear all this and as I heard this story occurred to me  that maybe I should tell them how closely their experience matched Jeremiah’s experience in the book of Lamentations.

I explained he was known as the weeping prophet because he was clearly in a bad place as he relates just how bad things were before they then got better as he reminded himself who God was.

 Here it is paraphrased in The Messenger 

I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,  the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed- I remember it all – oh, how well I remember – the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.

Engulfed by a sense of overwhelming, the turning point for Jeremiah came when he realised – he was down but not out because the one thing he still had the mercy and the faithful love of an unchanging God, and he could change his thinking and start to look for God’s help to change things for him – he chose to change his focus from the problems to wait quietly for God’s rescue from the circumstances.

The client was genuinely stunned that the bible should relate such a parallel journey to their own and exclaimed “Does it really say that!” 

I copied the verses out for them and they left with less pain more movement and these verses in their pocket.

This interaction really blessed me, and also challenged me to choose to make this journey out of the gridlock of negative thoughts that it’s easy to feel engulfed by. 
Just who blessed whom that day I’m not sure …

Lord please give us your comfort when times are tough, strength when the path is steep and faith to trust in your amazing love.

Where to go when you are at rock bottom

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This week working at St George’s Crypt, in conversation a client told me he felt life was pretty much ended for him . As an addict he said his family didn’t believe he could change and didn’t want to see him again.

From previous conversations I knew this man was open to spiritual truth and so I assured him that everyone can change, and God wasn’t giving up on him and nor was I.  I pointed out that he was already changing and there was no reason to think that what he hoped for his life couldn’t happen. I could sense this was an important conversation for him and he was listening intently.

Later on I found myself asking the question “Where should we go when life seems hope-less?” As I was searching for an answer, the words of a prayer I had learnt by rote at school and repeated many times in school assemblies dropped into my mind just as I has learnt them:
Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If Thou, O Lord, shalt mark our iniquities: O Lord, who shall stand?
But with Thee there is mercy and by reason of Thy law I have waited on Thee, O Lord.
My soul hath relied on His word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch even unto night: let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.  [Psalm 130]
I realised God was pointing me to the answer. David penned this Psalm when he was at one of the lowest points in his life. It tells us where to find hope – in the character of God revealed in His word. It tells us we can know that God is a God of forgiveness, mercy (undeserved favour) and “plenteous redemption”. “Plenteous” communicates to us the truth that there is a great abundance of something, but in saying that there is “plenteous redemption” points to an overflowing, inexhaustible supply of divine forgiveness through the sacrificial blood of Jesus the Son of God.

For the man in question I knew he had a bible and I wrote out for him Jeremiah 29 v 11 “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for good and not for evil – to bring about the future you hope for.” (GNT)

I am reminded of a story where a group of people  trekking through a jungle realised that they were hopelessly lost.  After many hours of wandering they came across a man who knew the terrain and asked him  if he could show them the way. To their surprise he said to them to them – “I am the Way – follow me” and he led them safely to their destination. In the same way when we feel lost, Jesus says to us “I am the Way. ( John 14 v 6) and he will lead us safely home to the Father.

Lord help us be sensitive to the needs of others who are in despair. Help us by Your spirit to instill hope and trust in you. Thank You for Your Word and for the fact that You are the way, the truth and the life. Amen.

Psalm 145 v 8: The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion

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In the Old testament, David knew that God was compassionate and gracious, and he reflected this in acts of kindness towards others when he became King.

One example of this was that he went out of his way to be kind to Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul and the son of Jonathan. Mephibosheth was a young child when both his father and grandfather died at the Battle of Mount Gilboa. Hearing of their deaths, Mephibosheth’s nurse took him and fled in panic. (2 Samuel 4:4) In her haste, the child fell, or was dropped while fleeing.

After that, he was unable to walk. When he became King, David sought him out and we are told that Mephibosheth “ate at David’s table like one of the King’s sons” (2 Samuel 9 v 11).

Working with clients at St George’s Crypt I have grown to realise the truth that small acts of kindness and compassion can mean a lot to people, but just how much it means sometimes takes me by surprise. This week myself and my student treated a man in physiotherapy who has been homeless on and off for several years. Before leaving I supplied him with a back support which he really needed and which immediately alleviated his pain. To our surprise he burst into tears, overcome by relief and gratitude. The student and I just looked at one another in surprise.

I thought about the incident a lot on my way home, reminding myself again that acts of kindness however small are never wasted. Sir Richard Branson is quoted as saying “Giving people help to get back on their feet won’t change their past, but it could change their future.”

We will continue to work with this man whom God has placed in our path.

Lord, help us not to miss opportunities to be kind to others, and reflect Your compassion and care. Help us Lord to be sensitive to unspoken needs in others, and not to underestimate the depth of emotional pain.

Make us channels of your love for Jesus’ sake. Amen

God’s Provision in Time of Need

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During the  physio session today at St George’s Crypt – a project for homeless people – myself and my physio student treated  a young man who was sleeping rough in a lot of pain – we knew we could help his pain but he was also in desperate need of a sleeping bag.

The Crypt does not give these out, so I headed out with a prayer of faith to a local secondhand shop. I just sensed God would find me a sleeping bag there somehow and I needed it now.

As I went, I reminded myself of George Mueller’s confidence in God as he prayed. I can’t say that my prayers have always been answered in the ways I asked, but I had a real sense of urgency that God would provide in that shop.

We of course put the young man in touch with Housing and arranged for him to get a shower, but it was very  likely that tonight would be another night in a cold doorstep.

In the secondhand shop there were no sleeping bags for sale, but I still sensed somehow there was one for me, so I asked the manager if she had any – she replied that she didn’t. But then she paused and said she would send someone to check upstairs. I told her why I needed one.

Sure enough minutes later down came a good quality sleeping bag in the hands of the assistant.

I offered to pay or give a donation, but the manager refused this insisting I take it as she said it would have been on the throw-out pile. The young man who received it was absolutely thrilled, and so was I that God had heard my prayer and directed me aright. The young man told me he could sleep in the Himalayas with that one – he was so delighted. I told him about my prayer and what happened.

Who knows what God will do in his life?

The story of George Mueller

A ship’s captain told the following story about George Mueller. They were on their way to Newfoundland, where George had an appointment. The ship was sailing full steam ahead. Suddenly the motors stopped and the ship came to a standstill in the middle of the ocean. Thick fog had settled in. The captain was on the bridge with his binoculars. George Mueller came up to him and asked, “Captain, is there a problem?”

“Yes. We can’t see where we’re going. We’re not moving because we could hit an iceberg.” “Captain, I have never been late for an appointment in my life. Have you prayed to the Lord about this matter?”

They went to the cabin and George started praying, “Father, I have never been late for one of your appointments. I ask you now, Lord, to clear that fog outside, and I thank you by faith that it’s done already. Amen.”

Before the Captain could even begin to pray, there was a tap on his shoulder. “Captain, don’t bother to pray. First of all, you don’t believe it’s going to happen and secondly, the fog’s already gone. Let’s go.”

They walked to the door and opened it. It was a clear night. The stars were shining.

Lord, give me the faith of a child and people like George Mueller. Thank You that when I pray to You about my needs, I can already thank You in faith that You will do what is best for me. Amen.

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