reflections on the next chapter

Yesterday morning (June 15) Liz and I became members of Mearns Free Church of Scotland. We have been attending the church since last August and have given a great deal of thought and prayer to this next step in our journey of faith. However, it would also be true to say that from the moment we first stepped through the doors of the church we had a deep sense of “coming home”! 

What brought us to this moment?

Well, shortly after we got married in July 1990, Liz and I embarked on what would be a 35 year tenure in Christian ministry. 

We began ministry in Springbank Evangelical Church, Campbeltown. The fellowship had been in decline for a number of years but still maintained one or two spirited efforts of outreach to the local community. However, as the 1980s came to an end the church was at a very low ebb. For some time it had only been meeting on a monthly basis for a Communion Service and so the decision was made to close the doors. The following week one the elders asked the others to reconsider and call a pastor to see if it was possible to reverse the decline.

To cut a long story short we joined in August 1990. At my first meeting with the senior elder I have given a piece of paper with the names of 13 people who made up the congregation! We immediately started a weekly Communion Service followed by a Family Service. In the months that followed we launched a children’s club and a youth club. I served as a chaplain in the two local primary schools and worked closely with the ministers from the town’s churches. Gradually we began to see the fellowship grow.

After six years I believed I had taken the church as far as I was able with the capacity and gifting that God has given me.

And so in 1996 I took up the position of Pastoral Worker at Aspley Evangelical Church on the outskirts of Nottingham. My role was more clearly defined than in Campbeltown. I was responsible for the general pastoral work of the church and 30% of the preaching. I also dipped my toe in the water of school’s work and this was to prove invaluable in what followed. 

I had a three year contract with the church which I honoured but at the end of that time we made the decision to move back to Scotland. 

Over a period of three months I was interviewed by Cartsbridge Evangelical Church in Clarkston and was appointed as the Youth and Community Worker in November 1999. 

That led to 25 incredible years of ministry with this enterprising fellowship. 

The early years involved ministry to the large number of youth people who attended the church. One of my aims during that season was to strengthen to fellowship among the young people. And from 2001 I organised summer teams made up of Youth Fellowship members. Starting in Kelso in 2001, we then worked for a number of summers with “Open Door Trust” in Drumchapel and the city centre. Eventually in 2010 we began working with GLO in Eastern Europe which led to a wonderful partnership with the Albanian Church. 

In 2004 my role shifted focus as I began to work with local schools. That led to twelve remarkable years as we built up considerable connections with many of our local primary schools for annual Easter initiatives. This would involve 500-600 children visiting the church over a two week period. We expanded this to include an event at Christmas called “Christmas Cracker” and a music project called “Pop Connection”. Included in all of this was the regular assembly programme at Carolside Primary School and Williamwood High School. 

I have deep and lasting memories of many other initiatives at Cartsbridge and have a profound sense of gratitude to have been able to serve God’s people who worship there. 

Liz and I made a decision three years ago that the time was right to step away from full-time church ministry and pursue another path. I therefore finished my role at Cartsbridge last July and in the goodness of God I was given the role of Support Worker with a Govan-based charity called the Preshal Trust. 

The decision to leave Cartsbridge was a difficult one but having giving much prayer to what might follow, we have a settled sense that Mearns Free Church is indeed the next chapter. The teaching, fellowship and vision for outreach to the local community are to a very high standard.

The Free Church of Scotland as a denomination has a vision for a “healthy Gospel Church for every community in Scotland”. It is committed to church planting and the revitalisation of churches across the nation. It is wonderful to be part of this movement of God.

In Sandy Finlayson’s book on Thomas Chalmers, one of the key figures in the founding of the Free Church of Scotland, he comments that Chalmers believed that “if Christianity was going to transform lives, this had to happen through the presence of faithful, worshipping and caring churches in every community”. We believe we have found this at Mearns Free Church of Scotland and we trust we will contribute to its present and future ministry. 

One last thing. The man who prayed for those of us who joined Mearns Free Church yesterday is an elder in Lochgilphead and Tarbert Free Church. When Liz graduated from University she was given a teaching post in Clachan Primary School on the Kintyre peninsula. The church she chose to attend was Tarbert Free Church. Perhaps that connection is further evidence of God’s providential leading in our lives.

“Thus far has the Lord helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12).

my "ecclesiastes moment"!

 During the beautiful weather of the recent past we spent a week on the Isle of Skye. The island was breathtaking in its beauty. And of all that we enjoyed, the boat trip from Elgol over to Loch Crouisk was the highlight. The majestic Cuillin range stretched out before us we sat by that isolated stretch of water.

I scrambled up the side of Sgurr na Stri to gain a more elevated perspective on this vista and sat on the huge stone slabs on the hillside. The aim was to drink in this moment, with these expansive views, until my heart was full. I wanted to freeze frame the picture in my mind and heart to take it with me. However, no amount of sitting before that grand vista brought the fullness that I longed for. Please do not misunderstand me. We had the best holiday in the most remarkable location. However, there was a little pang of disquiet in my heart as I sat on that gabbro rock. 

I thought the other day that it was a kind of ‘Ecclesiastes moment’!

What do I mean? 

Well, tucked away in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament is a small book written by King Solomon called Ecclesiastes. With disarming honesty he describes his quest to find meaning and fulfilment in this world. With wealth beyond most people’s imagining, he denies himself nothing that comes across his path. He sets off on sensual, intellectual and aesthetic adventures to satisfy the cravings within his heart. His favourite phrase centres on exploring all of life “under the sun”. The book is a tract for our times. In my opinion, every 21st century man or woman should read it with serious intent. I’ll leave you to discover what Solomon’s conclusion was to the true purpose of life!

However, I turn to the sentence that has occupied my mind and heart for a couple of weeks now.

In chapter 1:8, Solomon says, “The eye never has enough of seeing…”

Indeed, Solomon will go on to comment, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired…” (Ecclesiastes 2:10). And yet no matter how much he surveyed life in this world he was never fully satisfied.

In essence Solomon will go on to say that if we cannot find ultimate fulfilment in life under the sun, we need to look above it. 

That basic truth caused C.S. Lewis to write, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world” (Mere Christianity).

If Lewis is correct, then the question that follows is how do we bridge the gap? By turning in faith to Jesus. He came with one central message - “Repent, because the Kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). His teaching focused on bringing the rule and reign of God to humanity. Life in that kingdom begins now as we pray, “your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). But it does have a “not yet” aspect to it as we wait for the eternal dimension to come to fruition when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever" (Revelation 11:15).

This is the life that God intended for us at the beginning and this is the world he created us to live in where our greatest desires would find their fulfilment in him. It is captured beautifully in my favourite hymn:

The sands of time are sinking

The dawn of heaven breaks

The summer morn I've sighed for

The fair, sweet morn awakes

Dark, dark hath been the midnight

But dayspring is at hand

And glory, glory dwelleth

In Immanuel's land

Oh, Christ, he is the fountain,

The deep, sweet well of love!

The streams on earth I've tasted,

More deep I'll drink above:

There to an ocean fullness

His mercy doth expand,

And glory glory dwelleth

In Immanuel's land.

praying with a joyful soul

I have always valued and cherished the early morning. I have climbed many of Scotland’s hills at the dawning of a new day. More importantly, I have been greatly blessed in spending time reading God’s Word and praying to him before I step out into the responsibilities of the day.

The last three posts have sought to encourage us to listen to the voice of Scripture as it encourages prayer especially at this time of day. The guiding principles it uses are:

Watch - pray with an alert mind (Psalm 5:1-3)

Wait - pray with a patient heart (Psalm 130)

Worship - pray with a grateful spirit (Lamentations 3:21-23)

Our final watchword in this set of brief meditations will be:

Wonder - pray with a joyful soul

This comes out strongly in the final chapter of Matthew 28 with its account of the resurrection of Jesus. There are no words to describe the momentous events that we encounter in this chapter. 

Humanity’s worst and last was done to Jesus. Jesus, king and Messiah, was dead, buried in a stranger’s tomb.

Jesus’ followers, discouraged and scattered by the horror of the cross, were now at least gathered together again.

Night is passing; dawn is breaking. 

Matthew brings us, in the final sentences of his Gospel, to the greatest day in history.

The transformation of Jesus’ followers is one of the wonders in the truth of his resurrection. Those who put their trust in the risen Jesus experience great change in their lives. 

The two Marys approach the tomb with deep mourning for their dead friend and teacher. They return filled with awe and an indestructible joy to tell others about Jesus, who had both risen from the grave and greeted them. Death could never again claim him. His resurrection was irreversible. It changed everything for them. 

James and John, those ‘sons of thunder’ became apostles of love. 

Simon Peter, that indecisive leader, became the rock-like man on whose fearless witness the early church was built. 

This group of disciples were no longer a frightened gathering, they became, through the Spirit’s empowering, an apostolic task force! 

The same is true of all followers of the risen Jesus down the centuries. Wonder fills their hearts and joy fills their souls as they encounter the risen Christ. 

See what a morning, gloriously bright
With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem;
Folded the grave-clothes
Tomb filled with light,
As the angels announce Christ is risen!
See God’s salvation plan, wrought in love,
Borne in pain, paid in sacrifice,
Fulfilled in Christ, the Man, for He lives,
Christ is risen from the dead!

May you experience the wonder of the risen Christ and may his Spirit cause prayer to rise to the Father from a joyful soul.

(Picture - taken from the Pap of Glencoe, 26/05/25, on a morning walk!)

praying with a grateful spirit

The last two posts have been an invitation to listen to the call of Scripture as it invites us to draw near to God in prayer.

Scripture invites us to watch in prayer. That means we should pray with an alert mind.

It also urges us to wait in prayer. In other words, we ought to pray with a patient heart.

Those two ideas are brought together by the prophet Micah who said,

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, 

I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.”

(Micah 7:7)

This week we come to the invitation to worship through prayer. This is a call to pray with a grateful spirit.  And we find this call in the book of Lamentations.

“…I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s faithful love 

we do not perish,
for his mercies never end. 

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!”

(Lamentations 3:21-23)

Try and imagine the chapter in which these verses are set as being a bit like a sandwich! The outer layers are wrapped in extreme suffering and judgment, while the centre holds words of affirmation and hope. 

The experience that takes Jeremiah to that central place is the little phrase, “this I call to mind”.

Jeremiah doesn’t just happen to remember something. He makes it come back into his conscious thinking. Perhaps a better way to appreciate this sentiment would be to say, “This I cause to return to my heart.”

Why? 

In order that it would change Jeremiah’s whole perspective. Sometimes it takes an emphatic act of the will to remember what we already know, when everything in our present experience threatens to deny it and overwhelm us. 

The contrast between the beginning and the end of the little passage above is astonishing. What can Jeremiah have possibly remembered that lifts him out of a pit of despair to stand on the solid rock of hope?

It is the Lord’s acts of faithful, covenant love, 

his endless mercies and 

his great faithfulness.

These verses are deservedly famous. They have been quoted and sung by countless generations of Christians in the midst of personal suffering, danger, illness, bereavement, poverty and persecution. We have a little chalk board in our kitchen with words that were inspired by this passage:

…strength for today

and bright hope for tomorrow…

(From the hymn, “Great is Thy faithfulness”)

Those truths have become ever more precious in recent years.

The sustaining truth at the heart of Jeremiah’s memory brought transforming perspective and renewed hope.   

As you utter the Lord’s name in prayer today call to mind who he really is and pray with a grateful spirit…“This I cause to return to my heart.”

Someone put it so wonderfully well when they wrote, 

“Every blessing of God has the freshness and fragrance of the morning about it - unfailing as the morning dawn, bright and joyful as the morning sunrise, brilliant as the morning dew, invigorating as the morning air.”

praying with a patient heart

 I would encourage you to start this week by reflecting on the precious words of Psalm 130:

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;

    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand? 

But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.

I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

For centuries the church has used the opening expression of this Psalm as a fitting title to it. In our English translation, the title would be the opening four words, ‘Out of the depths.’ In the Latin language, the simple expression, “de profundis’, has been the centuries old way by which this psalm was known. 

The psalm is one of the most powerful expressions of our reliance on God in Scripture. When our lives have bottomed out, when we are lost and at the end of our strength, we turn to God. The cry of the disciples in the boat in Mark 4, as the waves crash over the side and threaten to drown them, is the New Testament example of this prayer. 

• Do you need it today? 
• Do you have friends or loved ones who need it?

So yes, the opening words of this Psalm make a fitting title to it. But they do more. They suit the progress of the psalm as well. There is a steady climb towards assurance, and at the end there is encouragement for the many from the experience of the one.

What might our cry be before God and what might our need be?

Out of the depths of despair…

                        …distress…

                    …depression…?

The Psalmist cried out of the depths of guilt.

What is clear is that self-help is not the answer to the depths of distress that that this individual is experiencing. 

So while verses 1 and 2 are a cry out of great need, verses 3 and 4 are a discovery that we have a great God. 

We have a great God who meets our great need. 

The big word in last week’s blog was “watch” with its call to pray with an alert mind.

This week the word is ‘wait.’ It is the call to pray with a patient heart.

Three or four years ago I set my alarm for 4am one Saturday morning and set off up through Aberfoyle, over the Trossachs to Loch Akray, to climb Ben A’an in time for sunrise. There was barely a glimmer of dawn when I set off so a head torch was required equipment. When I got to the top there were visible signs that the sun was rising. However, in reality I had to sit for 45 minutes before the sun crept over the eastern hills to welcome a new morning. I needed to patiently wait for that wonderful moment when the sun broke over those surrounding hills. 

Waiting on God is a familiar expression in Scripture. Waiting requires patience, and none of us has too much of that!

The Psalmist puts it like this:

"I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.

I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning."

What he tries to convey in this vivid word picture is that the night may seem endless, but morning is certain and its time is determined. 

Waiting before God does imply praying with a patient heart.

The waiting in prayer itself is beneficial to us: 

it refines our faith, 

    exercises our patience, 

        trains our submission, 

            and instils gratitude for the blessing when it comes.

It is no wonder that someone described Psalm 130 as “a very precious psalm”. 

May its truths bless you today.