Saltford Community Church

In June NASA the American space agency announced that it was planning two missions to the planet Venus. It is going to cost millions of pounds to do so.

But why do it? The answer from the NASA spokesman was that they wanted to find out why the planet has become what it is today?

Venus has been described as Earth’s evil twin. It is about the same size as our planet, it has a sulphurous atmosphere, the pressure on the surface of Venus is about 50 times that on Earth and it is hot, very hot there on Venus the metal lead would be liquid.

The obvious answer to NASA’s question [and you do not need millions of pounds to know it] is that it is to near the Sun. Venus is in the wrong place; whereas our planet is in the right place.

Scientist say that planet Earth is in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ that is it is the correct distance away from the Sun to sustain life. More than that of course it has the best atmosphere for life to thrive and it is also just the right size to hold on to its atmosphere [unlike Mars]. Everything about our planet is just right.

Have you ever asked the question Why?

The Bible gives us the answer because life on Earth has been planned and created.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” Genesis Chapter 1 verse 1.

“Then God said, “Let there be . . . and there was.” Genesis chapter 1 verse 3.

“Talking to men for God is a great thing but talking to God for men is still greater.”

E.M. Bounds

The Bible is a big book, in fact it is a library of 66 books in all.

Where should you start to read the Bible?

You can do what I did when I first started to read the Bible. I started at the beginning with the first book Genesis and the first chapter. It was great to start off with, so many wonderful and amazing stories, but after struggling through the next book Exodus I came to Leviticus and I gave up. A better way to read the Bible is to start near the end at the New testament with one of the Gospels such as Mark, it is the shortest, but any of the Gospels is a good start.

 I want to give some advice about reading the Bible, because it is God’s Word, and it can seem complicated and difficult, but it really isn’t; as long as we do one of 2 things.

 1] Ask God in prayer to help you read it. After all it is God’s Word and He wrote it down for us so that we can understand what He wants us to know.

2] Read it simply. What I mean by this is we must not over complicate what the Bible says. Rather whatever it says take at face value and believe it.

For example: in the very first verse of the Bible [Genesis 1 verse 1] it says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So, what do those words tell us?

God created everything; heavens and the earth and He created us. It tells us that we have a Creator and because of that, we belong to God. We didn’t just happen by a series of happy coincidences starting from some organic chemical pool, billions of years ago. We were simply born into existence by God. If we try and over complicate things by asking “How did God create us?” then we move away from what God wants us to know. From the Bible and its simple statement of fact we can say we are created by God.

Believing that gives us a foundation of a  ‘Biblical’ worldview which is very different to the views of many in the world. But seeing this statement from the Bible as truth it then enables us to believe all of scripture as being true, which it is!

Because all scripture is true and Jesus said that it is. [John 17:17; “Your Word is Truth.”] Then we know that all the promises of God are true. Such as John chapter 3 verse 16 [ God so loved the world that He gave His only Son [Jesus] that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life]. That verse is totally true.

It is important to us that the Bible is true, our whole eternity with God depends on it. Therefore, because the Bible is God’s Word to us, we must not ignore it, disbelieve it or accept only parts of it, rather we must read it, study it, know it, and meditate upon it.

As a pastor I like to see worn out Bibles.

So, keep on reading and believing.

 Should Christians vote in elections?

A couple of weeks ago we had the local council elections. I was left in something of a dilemma, who should I vote for. There were 2 lists of candidates one for the regional mayor and one for the Police and Crimes Commissioner. I didn’t know any of their names or their views. I don’t think it was my fault, it was just because of the pandemic there was nobody going around the doors and no literature, coming through the post. For me I confess it was very confusing; who do you vote for?

However, this got me thinking “Should Christians vote?” Now you might think what a silly question. Of course, we should vote. For some ‘Christian’ groups the answer would be no!

What does the Bible say?

To answer that question; we need to go to Romans chapter 13. Verses 1-7, but verse 1 is the important one to note.

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” [NKJV]

What this means is that there are 2 institutions appointed by God in this world. One is the Church and the other is the secular authority. One is concerned about the eternal salvation of the individual and the community’s spiritual well-being. The other is to be concerned about the maintenance of law and order, the health, wealth and physical well-being of its people and the protection of the Church as it seeks to go out with the Gospel and build up the Kingdom of God on earth.

Of course, both are failures in what they are seeking to achieve, that is because we live in a fallen world and people are sinful too. That doesn’t mean that both organisations shouldn’t try to do better with God’s help.

Further the role of the local church or a national grouping of churches is to be that of guardians of God’s Word and to speak out when local governments or the national government are promoting laws contrary to God’s Word.

Where then does that leave us when it comes to voting? I suggest not in party politics.

We need to challenge candidates about their views on issues directly related with “What the Bible says.” There is a whole range of subjects that the church [local] should engage in with local politicians and a larger grouping of churches should engage with national politicians.

The politicians may not accept our views but we have a right and I think a mandate from God, as the Church, to express those teachings which we find from the Bible. The trouble is that of the two great institutions that God has appointed for our world; the one [Government] has moved away from God’s Word and the other [the Church] has remained silent.

For the sake of the Gospel the Church and indeed the local church cannot and must not be silent on issues that are ungodly, the promotion of which will send many away from God to hell itself.

There is to be a great Day of Judgement when everyone will be brought before our Lord Jesus who is Judge and Lord of all. Will we be ashamed before the Lord because we kept silent and rebuked by the lost because we did not tell them?