Dear Friends, This year the Government decided that in commemorating V.E (Victory in Europe) Day they would emphasize the importance of the occasion by switching the Bank Holiday to the Friday. So today has been focused on VE Day for many people and doubtless many have gone through many emotions in response. How do we respond to a day like today in a distinctively Christian way? What I put below is really an exploration rather than a formula but do think and pray over it. 1. We are to be patriotic without being proud. We have much to thank God for in the history of our nation and the way it has been preserved and protected. It is a far from perfect history but clearly the Christian gospel has made a significant impact on our nation’s history and we are thankful for that. 2. We can be profoundly grateful for the defeat of Fascism. Fascism is a profoundly evil ideology which sought to single out and exterminate Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other groups – such as the handicapped who it perceived as being weak and inferior. It came about by making a scientific theory, evolution, into a foul ideology. The Bible History, expressed in Paul’s words at the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17: 26): ‘And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the all the face of the earth’ makes it clear that all beliefs about racial superiority and entitlement are false to Scripture. 3. We are to be deeply saddened about the loss of life and terrible sadness that takes place because of war. Every person that dies, however mistaken in their ideology and however debased and even evil in their lifestyle is a destruction of God’s image and that makes those lost lives precious. Genesis 9: 5 and 6 are deeply moving: ‘From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever shed the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.’ 4. We are to pray for those bereaved – many years have passed since the end of the 2nd World War but there will still be those who mourn the loss of relatives – lamenting the loss of brother or sister or father or mother. That will obviously be a sadness to those who have lost family members – son or daughter or husband or wife – in more recent conflicts. That will also extend to those who have family members, even recently, through terrorist activity in the UK. True comfort is not just to have the memory dulled by time but to know that there is a God who ordains all things in his wisdom and has shown his love and care for this fallen world in Christ. 5. We are to be thankful for peace in our time – and despite tragic terrorist incidents in the UK that has generally been true for us. Many asylum seekers in the UK have had to flee from war zones and are still deeply affected by news that they have coming out of their home countries. 6. We are to have our longing for a (2 Peter 3: 13): ‘new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells’ deepened and are to be aware in a fresh way that in this world we are ‘exiles’ with ‘our citizenship is in heaven’. This world can never be the settled home of any believer. Until Christ comes we expect wars, rumours of wars and all the unhappiness that goes with that. The Way ahead Rumours of course abound about the ‘easing’ of lockdown. Some things are obvious. We will need to balance our desire for social contact with others and the need to be cautious and avoid a ‘second wave’ of Corona infection. Clearly church life, even when it is agreed that we resume services, will not be the same as we are used to for some time to come. Apart from anything else there will be those who are advised to continue in social isolation for some period into the future. We will need to provide for them so that at least they have a sense of being included and wanted even if it is not currently practical for them to be regularly engaged in meeting with other Christians. We will need to adjust what we do - probably in relation to Sunday services and certainly in terms of how we engage in evangelism and our reaching out with the gospel. Do pray for those in leadership in our church and in other gospel churches known to you. We need great wisdom and a passionate concern for the spread of the gospel. Not giving in to complacency In some ways a real danger is that we become quite accepting of the new regime and feel little need to change things. Some years ago I remember talking to a church member at my previous church. She had been a member for, I guess, well over forty years at this point. She experienced a period of weakness and for some time was unable to attend church. I remember that she was very open that, contrary to what she expected, she actually found re-establishing the pattern of regular church attendance to be very difficult. We need to examine our hearts to ensure that our desire to meet together, and to encourage one another, doesn’t diminish and fade because we currently cannot meet with one another. What should we be doing at present? Last Sunday I looked for a sermon to listen to and actually got a recorded video service from St Briavels Congregational Church where Matt Rees, who spoke at last year’s church anniversary and civic service, is pastor. A point he made, which certainly hit home to me, was when he asked people if they were learning the lessons and so profiting from the lockdown as God wished them to do. He instanced a number of areas – regular bible reading and prayer – praying within the family – dealing with the tensions in a family that can so easily be ignored because we are all so busy – and challenged his hearers as to what they were doing. You may want to make a fresh start regarding some of these areas. Please contact me if I can help. Yours in the Lord (and until God willing we meet again) Mike Plant 8th May 2020

Dear Friends, HAVING A FRAMEWORK FOR OUR PRAYERS How do I pray when I don’t know what to pray for? One of the pressures we experience in living through a time of difficulty, like the present one, is knowing that we should be praying but feeling inadequate to pray. Very graciously God speaks to us in situations like this because we are promised the help of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8: 26 + 27): ‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’ It is also true that in giving the Lord’s Prayer to his disciples the Lord Jesus gave us a framework for prayer which we may know is divinely approved. The Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for our prayers The Lord Jesus was like other teachers of his time in giving a form of prayer to his disciples (see Matthew 6: 9 – 13 and Luke 11: 1 – 4) which had two uses, the one which is familiar to everyone, which is using it as a form of words in prayer, and the second which is using it as a framework for our prayers. When I first learned that this was a proper use of the Lord’s Prayer it was a wonderful liberation and help to me in my Christian life. We will look at how it might be prayed in our current situation. The Lord’s Prayer prayed in the locked down United Kingdom This comes from Dundonald Church in London – prayed at their last normal Sunday Service: OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN – thank you for Jesus in whom you have adopted us as your beloved children; help us to remember that sickness and death will never separate us from your love, help us to believe you will be with us through whatever lies ahead, and help us to trust you are fully in control and perfectly good. HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME – we pray this crisis will result in much praise for you. Please would believers be strengthened in their faith, and unbelievers recognise our human frailty and mortality and turn from sin to worship you. YOUR KINGDOM COME – until Jesus returns to rescue us from this world of pain, as far as this virus spreads, we pray your kingdom will grow further. May the hearts of people of all nations find in Jesus the sure hope of resurrection into your new creation, free from sickness, suffering and death to enjoy you forever. YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN –Father, we rejoice in your sovereign power; in your mercy, please end this crisis soon, deliver us and all your people, and may your gracious plan to save the lost be advanced by this season of humbling. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD – thank you for dedicated doctors, nurses and other NHS staff, for our government and its advisors. Please grant them the wisdom and endurance they need. Sustain us with the daily bread of Christ crucified for our sins, in the living bread of your Word. Reassure us when we are anxious, heal us when we are sick, strengthen us when we must die, comfort us in our bereavement, and embolden us to share the gospel of Jesus, the living bread we all need. FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST US – have mercy where we have presumed upon our health, forgotten our frailty, or neglected to thank you for daily care and protection. Forgive us because Christ died for our sins, count us acceptable in his perfect righteousness, and in the light of your mercy, show mercy to all. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL – deliver us through this time of testing. Help us to resist every temptation to doubt your love. Help us to stand firm in our faith against Satan’s lies, knowing that all over the world your people are enduring the same kinds of trials. FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN. No doubt as the situation has progressed there would be additional elements in the prayer – in praying for the Government and its advisors I am sure we would now be praying for wisdom in the timing and details of an exit strategy – but it does provide a helpful example of how we could all profitably and fruitfully develop our use of the Lord’s Prayer. I hope you will find this helpful to put into practice. This coming Sunday I’ve now finished preaching on John 3: 16 but that doesn’t finish the series of sermons. The series of sermons is dealing with our assurance of God’s love through the gospel and also how that love is to be worked out to God’s glory in the life of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So far we have looked at how we come to realize God’s love to us through the gospel. This is the logical point to begin because (John Calvin), ‘before we can have any feeling of his fatherly kindness, the blood of Christ must intercede to reconcile God to us.’ However behind the love of God experienced in the gospel lies, ‘the secret love in which our heavenly Father embraced us to himself (which) is, since it flows from his eternal good pleasure, (before) all other causes.’ To know God’s love through the gospel introduces us to a love which originated before time and will continue forever. This coming Sunday’s sermon examines the greatness of God’s love as explained in Ephesians 3: 14 – 21. I have been asked if I could put in this letter the hymns for Sunday – the difficulty is that sometimes I change hymns at the last minute. I think they will be 452MP ‘Loved with everlasting love’, 671MP ‘There is a fountain filled with blood’ and 1329MP ‘Loved before the dawn of time’. However last minute inspiration may strike as I prepare the sermon and plan the details of the service. Yours in the Lord, Mike Plant 1st May 2020

Dear Friends, One of the realities of being a Minister is that there are burdens involved. Some of those burdens alter from time to time because the troubles which affect individuals or which affect the church as a whole may change. Obviously the current lockdown has brought it’s own set of burdens and I am very grateful for those bearing them with me. Special thanks to those who have taken on the responsibility of keeping in touch with members of the congregation. The burdens I want to talk about in this letter are the routine burdens – the burdens which simply belong to the ministry of the gospel and which are inseparable from it. Burden One – Faithfulness in Preaching One thing that has always impressed me is the Apostle Paul’s honesty in his prayer requests. In Ephesians 6: 18 - 20 he asks the Ephesians to be ‘making supplication ............... that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.’ As he asks twice for prayer that he may preach, ‘boldly’ he highlights the danger he faces – he could lack boldness and hence fail to proclaim the gospel as bluntly and openly and honestly as he should. In any congregation a Minister will be aware of those who will not appreciate some aspects of him declaring the full counsel of God. That may mean they resent being challenged about the fullness of their guilt and their need of repentance. It may mean that they resent hearing that they are dead in trespasses and sins and in need of life-giving grace. It may be an aversion to the full and free and open offer of the gospel. It will come in different forms in different places but the responsibility is always there to be bold and forthright and to rely on the truth of God’s word. Then in Colossians 4: 3 + 4 he requests: ‘pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison-that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.’ In some respects this requests mirrors the one in Ephesians but there is an extra issue, ‘that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.’ We can fail to be clear because of cowardice, which is the danger highlighted in Ephesians, but this danger appears to relate to the need to work hard to get God’s message over to others. Whenever we speak for Christ, and this relates to personal witness as well as preaching, we need to speak not just so that we can be understood but, as far as possible, so we can’t be misunderstood. If Paul isn’t ashamed to ask prayer for boldness and clarity I can’t be ashamed to make the same requests. Burden Two - Being the bearer of news which is unpleasant and unwelcome On this last Sunday I chose to preach on the words in John 3: 16: ‘that whoever believes in him (Jesus the Son of God) should not perish but have eternal life.’ To do this boldly and clearly demanded that I put before you the truth that perishing involves (2 Thessalonians 9): ‘eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.’ To preach of hell is difficult and distressing for me because I am aware that people I love may well end up in that terrible place. The reality is that I am preaching to people who may resent that fact that I am saying that the sins of everyone merit hell and that the sins of this who do not believe in Christ will inevitably lead them to hell. The news is unpleasant, because it tells everyone they have hearts that are, ‘desperately wicked’ and unwelcome, because, if doing my best, if being religious, if avoiding ‘serious’ sin is not enough what can I do? Burden Three - Knowing that the gospel message is a message of condemnation when the grace it offers is rejected (2 Corinthians 3: 15 + 16): ‘For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.’ The intent of God in sending his Son is not death but life and not condemnation but justification. Without hearing the gospel salvation is not a possibility so it must be preached and by God’s grace there will be a harvest of life. However it will also be true that there is, ‘a fragrance from death to death’ because this is also a horrible reality (John 3: 19): ‘And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.’ Burden Four – Knowing that there is no alternative to preaching the gospel It is only through the gospel that men and women may believe and live. In the gospel the glories of a faithful, loving, forgiving God are revealed and without that gospel we are lost. To have a gospel to preach and to be called to preach the gospel is an overwhelming privilege but privilege in this case involves cost and burden. Looking ahead As we come to Sunday I will (God willing) be preaching on the words from John 3: 16: ‘that whoever believes in him should not perish BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.’ Please pray that I may be able to preach the riches of God’s gift of salvation in Christ boldly and clearly as I should. Looking again at John 3: 15 + 16 it is evident in the repeated words: ‘that whoever believes in him should have eternal life’ (the two phrases in Greek are identical barring that verse 15 has ‘believes in’ and verse 16 ‘believes into’) that the burden and aim of the gospel is the free gift of eternal life by faith in Christ who died and is exalted to make intercession for us. Please pray that all may realize afresh the wonder of God’s love and the glory of his salvation. Yours in the Lord, Mike Plant 24th April 2020