Thought for Friday 30 September 2022

 Philippians 1:9-10 (new living translation)

I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding.  For I want you to understand what really matters, so you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.

 

It’s an interesting time just now in the history of the Church of Scotland.  Not only interesting but concerning as to its long-term future.  I’m hazarding a guess that most who will read this thought will have memories of what Church life was like thirty or more years ago.  There would be two services of worship every Sunday, one in the morning and another in the early evening.  The morning service would probably have around 70 or more attending and in the evening, there would be around 25.  Sunday Schools and Youth organisations were flourishing, and in this Church, we had a Bible Class and a Youth Fellowship as well.  We had so many boys in the Boys Brigade, we even had our own band.

Society was also different at that time.  Most shops were closed on a Sunday, we only had 3 or 4 tv channels, there were no cell phones and no social media.  We identified as male and female, and holidays abroad were the exception rather than the norm.

We are now involved in a process that, under the banner of mission, sets out to close Church buildings and to reduce the number of charges because of decreasing Church attendance, ageing congregations and a lack of ministers.

Certain characteristics and behaviours have emerged from this exercise.  There has been real resistance to change and even an unawareness of why change is required.  It has created stressful situations for the team responsible for coming up with proposals as well as the congregations most affected by the proposals.  There has been a general acceptance that there are many inconsistencies in property assessments.  All this has resulted in anger and animosity in the meetings set aside for consultation, not just for our own area but every area within the new presbytery from Grangemouth to Lanark and Airdrie to Strathaven.

We seldom hear about Satan in sermons these days (something else that has changed over the last thirty or more years).  I can imagine him and his helpers sitting back having a great laugh about all this upset and division within our national Church.

Later in today’s chapter, Paul writes at verse 15; ‘Some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry.  But others preach about Christ with pure motives.’ In today’s verses, Paul is appealing to us that we should love one another just as Jesus taught and concentrate on what really matters.  All this we have to do until Jesus returns and when that happens, and it will happen Satan will not be quite so relaxed.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray that we may consider the interests of others as well as our own and live in true fellowship of the gospel with our brothers and sisters in Christ. May our love for fellow believers in Christ, overspill into earnest prayer for them all. Lord, and we pray that all believers learn to approve that which is good and excellent so that in sincerity and truth, we all would grow in grace and live blamelessly before you until the return of Christ when we shall see Him and we shall be like Him in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.