I’m not sure how far you would go in rendering the kiss of life to someone, but I expect most men would prefer a beautiful film star to a smelly sick old tramp! A woman, who had just attended a medical class on giving the kiss of life to someone, came out of the building and saw a man lying in the gutter. She immediately went in to action, turned him over, bent down and gave him the mouth-to-mouth. He struggled free and said, “Do you mind madam, I was cleaning out the drains!”

The Daily Telegraph surveyed several people, asking them if they would give the kiss of life to someone; their replies were interesting. “Dangerous” Dave Pearce, Breakfast Show DJ, Kiss FM: “Only if they had flossed their teeth, weren’t wearing Brut and didn’t support Millwall. And I’d avoid beards.”

Jacques Cuvellier, artist; “All kisses are the kiss of life, and we French love kissing. I would imagine that we would find it easier to give the kiss of life to a stranger than the British – who seem to hate kissing under any circumstances.”

John Gannon, fireman; “I saved a dog from a fire by giving it mouth-to-mouth. I’m sure he had fleas because I was scratching for a week after. We were called to a fire on a barge on the canal, and we searched the place twice because we had a report that someone was in there. We didn’t find anybody, but we found this dog. We tried to resuscitate it using an air cylinder, but it ran out so I carried on, with my mouth.”

Claire Rider, singer, barber shop choir: “Being a bass with excellent breathing control I might blow the person up. Or I might end up kissing them by mistake, especially if it was someone I knew. Good grief.” Lastly, Ian Bleasdale, aka Josh Griffiths in Casualty: “I’d do it as long the person wasn’t a member of the Tory party!” The replies were numerous; some were serious but most were humorous. The essential feature of this act is to restore vitality and vigour, to bring a person back from the brink of death, thus making them live again, where death was imminent.

I expect kissing is a rarity to a single person, unless they are courting or promiscuous, but to the married person, perhaps every day? This most often quoted act in religious terms was when the father was looking for his prodigal son: “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him”. (Luke 15:20). The lad would smell of pigs – it takes about two days to get that kind of smell off your hands, yet the father ignored the stench and embraced his son, smell and all. When you realise his son (“fain would fill his stomach with the beans the pigs would eat,”) had eaten slop and his breath would be foul, yet love broke through and conquered all. It was, in effect, a kiss of life.

Judas gave Jesus the kiss of death, and the woman, whom Jesus delivered and pardoned, worshipped, wiped and wetted his feet – kissing them through her tears of gratitude. The bride in the Song of Solomon pleads for the beloved’s kisses – they are life to her and the advice of the psalmist is “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way . . . Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” (Ps 2:11-12).

I did not kiss my wife properly for years because she took two immune suppressant drugs and I may have unwittingly imparted an infection that could be critical, but we held hands and a squeeze equals a little kiss. However, we can kiss God in worship and be kissed back with no fear of infection, just the reverse – the impartation of life.

Recently a man I Tehran was jailed as a consequence of visiting a sorcerer who demanded $500 to grant him invisibility spells. Thinking he couldn’t be seen he entered a bank and confidently grabbed money from the customers. Their response was such that he was clearly visible! Obviously the sorcerer or wizard was an imposter, as they all are; but we know that in science fiction both Romulans and Klingons can disappear, and Harry Potter has an invisibility cloak which allows him to vanish. The only time I am invisible to others is when I jump the queue, which is happening with monotonous regularity!

Children can put their head in a box and think they cannot be see, and playing peep-o is a fun time of apparent invisibility, but that kind of joy has long gone and reality sets in. There are times in normal life when we wish we could disappear and resurface in another clime, or wish the earth would open and swallow us from embarrassment. The answer is teleportation which swiftly whisks us away to another country without an extradition policy! However, there are a group pf lawyers called ‘Gikii’ who now meet annually to discuss laws relating to future technology, and its possible legal implications. If we were transported and something went wrong who is liable?

In 19th Century England a law was passed that demanded that a motorcar driver must employ somebody to amble ahead of their vehicle, waving a warning flag. If that were still applicable it would take me 5 hours minimum to get to HICC from my bungalow, and of course the same back again. Ten hours travel for a 38 minute message [average length of my sermons] and a new pair of shoes each month for the flag man. In the US it was legislated that the property rights for an individual encompassed the sky directly above their homes, which meant that as aircraft were invented and developed, planes were routinely trespassing. They had to rush into operation new laws which said the airspace above their property was a ‘public highway.’

Thus there is often a knee-jerk reaction when a new gizmo challenges past common sense, for most legal professionals are occupied with the past not the future. However, as we face a robot age, it is possible to programme all robots to be encoded with case law, so they are never caught out but can argue their case fluently. But, what if they commit manslaughter or possibly a rogue one murders someone? It is possible. To be pre-emptive is not really necessary, but being prepared for disruptive technologies is wise.

For instance what would happen if an autonomous car hit and killed a pedestrian, who would be to blame? Did the owner of the car update the software or was he lax? Did the pedestrian have any knowledge that meant they were too casual in consideration of the car’s function and abilities? e.g., it would suddenly lurch into action, like a horse could kick if you stood behind it. Also, what if a robotic hedge cutter went rogue and sliced up a neighbour, where does liability lie? And, robots can talk, parrots mimic but are not original. Therefore a robot can say something about somebody in public and be sued for defamation of character. “Your credit card, sir, has maximised by you buying too many pornographic videos.”

This leads me to ask whether God has had to change His laws because of modern lifestyle and anticipated future trends. Satisfyingly the answer is no, He hasn’t, and no He won’t. The only question He really asks is “Do you accept my son Jesus Christ for your salvation?” Nothing else really matters; through the centuries nothing will change that eternal question and it will be answered in one way only: “Yes, I did” or “No, I didn’t.” Forget modern technology, they cannot affect or change the penalty of forgiveness for sin.

However, God did change one law, and it was immense. He allowed divorce; it was not so from the beginning, but due to the hardness of man’s heart. He must have been grieved in His spirit at the magnitude of man’s rebellion and waywardness. The modern generation have now changed that divine law, and wreaked havoc on marriage interpretation so that 30,000 legal documents have to be altered – mindless confusion indeed, and even then, it will not define marriage accurately. Meddling with God’s laws brings confusion and disaster; we sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

If we were to describe our life here and our life in the state to come, we would say without doubt that here, it is a life of service, and there a life of recompense. It is doubtful that due to the providential disposal of our lot anyone has missed the life of toil and service, except a privileged few. Paul when looking to his earthly life says he was occupied “. . . in labours, in watchings, in fastings;” (2 Cor. 6:5). He was not exempt from the drudgery of the way by privileged position. John speaks of future days: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from now on.  ’ Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labour; for their deeds will follow them.’ ”(Rev 14:13)

No matter how holy, righteous and necessary our works here, there is a tendency to wish for the ultimate rest. Paul’s task was to plant churches, raise dead souls to new life, release the captives of darkness and set free the oppressed. But he looked and stretched for that future day when he would lay down his crown at Jesus’ feet and enter the final rest of God. “There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.”

The context is this; God has set forth and instituted a day of rest in commemoration of his rest from creation. Years later he declared to his chosen people a rest through Joshua who would lead them into victory and settlement in the Promised Land. Both these rests were typical and pointing forward to a Sabbath rest in heaven. There is yet, therefore, an eternal Sabbath to dawn upon us.

This rest was for, and only for the “the people of God.” God’s mercy is for everyone, “for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,”(Matt 5:45). but his rest is only for blood-washed kingdom people. As we read Christ’s admonition in his mountain-side teaching we see he localised his offer of life to the “poor in spirit”(Mat 5:3) those who mourn for sin and those who were amazingly meek. It is their inheritance; it is the valid title deed for the “pure in heart.”(Matt 5:8).

Who then are the ‘people of God?’ They are those with whom Moses desired fellowship: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” (Heb 11:25-26). Moses was marked out by his love for the brethren, and his sacrificial life revealed that. His deportment was consistent with someone who eschewed the environment of privilege in Pharaoh’s court. We do not read of any particular ‘pleasures of sin’ he adopted, but sufficient that his lifestyle lay itself open to possible misdirection and compromise. He rejected those of ungodly association and chose poor slaves; the lowest of that society. It is evident he was part of that august company called ‘the people of God.’

Those people are marked out as significantly exclusive, Peter describes them like this; we are now “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.”(1 Peter 2:9) Designated and honoured as such so that we can “show forth his praise of him who has called [us] out of darkness into his own marvelous light.”(same source as last time).  A ruined race, outcasts of paradise, redeemed unto eternity. Christ stooped to lift us up, he bled to heal our wounds, he died that we might never die, and he suffered that we might reign.  Our appreciation is endless.

Lastly, “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”(Phil 3:3)  That’s it, we worship in the Spirit; there is no other way to worship.  The people of God glory in Jesus Christ, and praise him above all things. His living word instructs, his promises support, his priesthood intercedes, his kingship overrules and his governance provides wisdom. Thus we have no confidence in the flesh, for flesh fails and betrays us, it spots our white garments, it restrains prayer, it clogs the river of God and it clips the wings of aspiration.

There are many forms of rest; rest from the daily toils, rest from the anxiety of duty, rest from the sorrows of painful suffering and rest from a seared conscience unable to forgive. Whichever and whatever, their number is legion. But one day we will shake them all off like autumn leaves blown by a gentle breeze, and finally we will be free from temptation and conflict. Erstwhile we await our final transformation; we walk diligently according to the signposts of God.

Over the last few weeks I have been writing articles and preaching sermons with a slant towards suffering and I have been asked by several people to produce a book of these writings and sermons. This will take about four months but in the meantime I have included here the article I wrote for the Elim national magazine now called Decision. This was when I was in my late thirties, about forty years ago, at a crisis point in my life. As I wrote it Patricia came into my study, read it and said, “Finish it positively for it is full of negative moaning.” It was written about her physical condition so she had the right to state her mind. Here it is:

“Oh Lord, I’m in distress, in fact the word to describe my exact feeling is despair. I have never sunk so low and been so disillusioned over circumstances. Everything, yes literally everything seems to have gone wrong. The Working together” of Romans mocks my situation and God seems to be somewhere beyond an angry sky. I just wait for the next thunderbolt to fall, knowing that the present pain is so great that a little more will not matter.  I’m crumbling inside and all the vain platitudes from fellow saints are the mouthing of cold comfort.               

This adversity stretches into the distance in its vastness and my unbelief pushes it past the horizon. As I open my mouth to sigh my tongue is parched and dry. “If only” is my constant theme. I languish in pity so thick that it sticks to my feet in a morass of misery. Words hardly explain my state; they are inadequate to reveal the silent hurt that burns inside.    

If I am honest, and honest I must be, I resent this thing called the will of God. I prayed for His hand to lead me into a walk that shines with love’s sweet smile, expecting in my zestful hope that he would take me to Transfigurations Mount. Instead He took me to a valley so dark and drear that even music seemed out of place. Stark trees like dead fingers are my companions and ragged rocks my cold pillow. Here I am hunched in stumbling weariness, slithering on slopes of shale, failing and fussing, moaning and groaning, bleeding and bothered and thoroughly shot through of every personal pride. I lay me down and weep until my soul is dry. Why God, oh why is this the way and not another? Must it be the dark and drear and not the bright and crystal clear? Will this poverty of joy lie like a shadow on my life much longer?

Lord, I cannot stand it. Enough is enough; turn on the lights and speak in the darkness. Change the chaos into peaceful order even if it takes six days, Lord. Begin now and do not leave it. Can I nudge your arm with my tears? Do these broken sighs mean anything to you? Won’t you stop as you did to blind Bartimeaus and speak with the voice of victory?

I understand, Lord, that you chasten those whom you love, but the pressure has been on for a long time now. There must be a difference between chastening and this. I’m bruised all over. You’ve left your mark on my heart and head and I hate to think where else you will lay the stick. Is all this necessary? For I love you, you know that, and I do try to follow you, you know that also. Then why this way which is so alien to all my inclinations and desires?

At this point my wife intervened and I added this last paragraph:                

The Psalmist got the victory, so please teach me, Lord. He said “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens” [NEB 34:1], yet I don’t think that I can. Anyhow, it would take a superhuman effort, and I feel so terribly human at the moment. I’ve been down twice and the third time is coming up and the straws are fast disappearing: but perhaps that may be the answer. I’ve clutched at too many straws in the past and not at you. Hanging on to the hay can be pretty precarious. I think that I may be getting it at last, Lord. My grip has been on the transient things that have no substance outside time. It has been all vision and not faith. Because I could not a see way out I thought there wasn’t one. You’re getting all the straws sorted out and burning them one by one. It’s the heat from the fire that’s causing the all the pain. I’m too near the stubble and I’ve been reaching into the fire. The sunlight will succeed the shadow, the mountain the valley. While grumbling this matter over with you I failed to notice the terrain growing smoother and there is a suggestion of light on the horizon. It’s changing, lord, and I hardly recognized it.” 

Locusts were the plague of American farms for decades and the eruption in the mid-1870s entered into legend. On 6^th April 1877 John Pillsbury, the Governor of Minnesota called for a day of prayer to plead for divine deliverance from them. A few days later the insects rose up and left as inexplicably as they had come, never to return again.

When the Rocky Mountain locusts swarmed, they darkened the skies over vast swathes of the western and central US, from Idaho to Arkansas. One eyewitness said that such a swarm passed over Plattsmouth, Nebraska, in 1875 and was estimated to be 3000 kilometres (1,800 miles) long and 180 kilometres (111 miles) wide. When they finished feeding “You couldn’t see that there had ever been a cornfield there,” said one farmer. These big beefy locusts were considered the greatest threat to agriculture in the west, but the vast swarms vanished a few days after that day of prayer in 1877 and were totally extinct within 30 years. The last recorded one that was found alive was in 1902 by a river on the Canadian prairie.

Entomologists tried to learn everything they could about this species of locust – what triggered them to swarm, what they ate and how they reproduced? During that disastrous outbreak in the mid-1880s farmers fought back with every tool they could muster. When their pioneer wives draped blankets over the produce, the locusts simply ate them and went on with the vegetables. However, when they just disappeared they began to ask why.

An ecologist from the University of Wyoming discovered the answer. He and his students recovered 130 intact bodies of the Rocky Mountain Locust, the legacy of the swarm that had risen out of the river valleys of western Wyoming in the early 1600s; long before European settlers changed the face of the west. The analysis of the scattered parts in the ice on Knife Point Glacier confirmed that locust swarms passed regularly over the mountains during the centuries before their extinction.  As he sought for further facts he came upon the works of Charles Rilley, an entomologist who spent much of the 1870s and 1880s searching for ways to kill the locusts. His conclusion was that ploughing and irrigation would destroy the eggs in their ‘permanent breeding zone.’ These were in the river valleys of Montana and Wyoming, where the incoming settlers chose to farm, but as less than 10% of the arable land was being cultivated he doubted if it would have a significant impact.

However, when he superimposed the map of the breeding grounds with the farming map, he found they were identical, and that when the farmers had unwittingly chosen to cultivate the area for wheat and hay in the 1800s they had inadvertently charted the locusts’ extinction.

It took 30 years for the prayer of John Pillsbury to be fully answered, but eventually it was, through natural causes. God can use anything from anyone to answer prayer, and will take His own time to accomplish it.  Joseph had a vision, and no doubt prayed for its fulfilment, but his answer lay in rejection and a dungeon. His brothers sold him into slavery and his master’s wife made false accusations against him. Yet, after about 17 years, God answered the prayer and restored him and in one day fulfilled the prophetic dreams he had been given.  It was through an apparent simple happening. Dreams were part of the mystic belief of that age and the Pharaoh had such an unsettling dream that he demanded interpreters to answer his unease. Joseph could interpret dreams but little did he realise that in answering that mystery it would lead to the salvation of his wider family. Just like the Montana farmers who, when they cultivated the river valleys, would, in years to come, save their own livelihood and hence their families. God’s ways are mysterious and marvellous.

As we go about our lives in the mundane execution of daily routine, earning an income and living through seasons of life, we can unsuspectingly answer our own prayers. The faithful servants of Matthew 25 were given various talents to trade. Without knowing or realising it, their lives would change due to the responsibility of the imparted talents, and their reward would be the consequential transformation of their lives. Their faithfulness to the task would unknowingly kill the locusts of dilatoriness, doubt, laziness, fear and self-preservation that could destroy the fruitfulness of life. The locusts of suffering, adversity, trial and temptation which can strip us bare of fruitfulness and a life-harvest can become just a memory as we extend our trust in the divine pleasure over our lives.

After a four-week break from church nursing my wife I returned and preached. As I finished the sermon a woman member came to me and said “you have not changed you still look the same.” I said “thank you” and passed on and out of the sanctuary. I knew what she meant, and knew there was a sermon or an article in that phrase at some future time. That time is now.

Usually, during the month of November, Patricia, my late wife, and I go to USA and in particular Long Beach. We work for eleven months and have one month off, preceded and including a conference for pastors at Church on the Way, Sherman Way, Van Nuys, Los Angeles. It is a Foursquare Church that was once pastored by Jack Hayford. We start there and then travel the 45 minutes down the 405 to the seaside, drop our travel bags and just wander with no real purpose, except to rest and get away from normal routine. We call into a local café and have a mocha and muffin, and just spoil ourselves. We’ve done Highway 1 from San Francisco down to San Diego, and all the sites between; we don’t need to see them again.

Last year I bought our tickets as usual to travel early November but in July Patricia was taken seriously ill, and was painfully desperate for six months and died 11 January 2014. There is no need to go to USA anymore, our relationship was the backcloth of that impending holiday; it made it what it was. Looking at an empty chair at a table for two in a restaurant has no attraction for me. There is a limit to how many times you can look at a marina and an aquarium!

A few days ago I saw Piers Morgan on TV interview Ian Botham, the famous England cricketer. He asked what he would put on his gravestone, and Botham said “Here lays a man who rode the torpedo to the end of the tube.” Mediating in my bath afterwards, I asked of myself what I would put on my gravestone if I had one, and that woman’s words came to mind “You have not changed.” Hopefully what it really means is that we are who we are and we do what we can.  The whole of lifestyle Christianity can be summed up in that statement of two parts.

Jesus defending the woman with an alabaster box of perfume said she has done what she could, not what she couldn’t, and life to me seems to be a struggle in an attempt to do things we are not called to do. This woman had limited opportunity to witness and present her love to Jesus. Although the odds were against her, she still persevered in her task of adoration. She was a woman who normally showered her emotions on other men, now on Jesus. She originally did it for gain, now to give. Not a sordid and false affection but a sincere and devoted worship. This man had changed her

life, she did what she could – nothing would deter her. The epithet of our lives should be “we did what we could.” There are many things we cannot do, but what we can we ought to do; not only doing what we can, but being who we really are.

When this congregational member made that statement I was only being who I really was, why should I be different? I had nursed Patricia since she was 31 until she died at 78. That last six months being the heaviest intensity, but age brings a deeper affection and love mingled with compassion. How could I look different, mine was a ministry of care for the one I loved, either God sustains or he doesn’t, that’s Christianity. That is what I have preached for 60 years. I have walked with God as long as I walked with Patricia; what can I say then other than that he is able to do far more exceeding abundantly than we can ask or think.

We all bear the marks of suffering through the vicissitudes of life which makes us who we are — being changed from glory to glory; either we are or we aren’t! It is not time to make excuses for kingdom living, if God be for us and in us, we must bear those marks well. The unsaved world bear similar trials and tribulations, without the inner strength of the Holy Spirit, will we let them challenge us in their daily life of overcoming? They have no invisible support, we do – and more!

On the 3^rd October 1959 I married my bride in the Full Gospel Tabernacle, Billesley, Birmingham; she came down the aisle, veiled, white-clad with a large bunch of red roses. The church was packed with standing room only at the back. They had come to wish us well and smother us in prayer for our future.

I met Patricia when I was 15, she 13 and fell in love immediately and never fell out. I had to attend a Bible class at the church on a Sunday afternoon because I wanted to play cricket and their leading bowler had gone to a county side, and there was a vacancy which I filled,  but the mandate was no Bible Class no bowling! Thank God for it was there I met Patricia and got saved.

We courted for six years and were engaged for four years and married when she was 23 and I was 25 so we knew each other for 64 years. “For better for worse, for richer for poorer, and in sickness and in health;” that was the vow we kept. For 54 years I gave her a red rose on our anniversary and at the crematorium I gave her the 55^th which was due 3^rd October this year. It would be my last chance to anticipate the future and say ‘goodbye my valentine:’ the roses in heaven never fade.

One year we drew up in our car on the driveway and I said to her “my apologies my sweet but I have not had the time to buy you a red rose for tomorrow which is our anniversary” she smiled and said “no matter I haven’t got you a card either.” We chatted and I said “this is not a case for divorce is it?” “No” she said “I think we’ll weather it for yet another year.” we laughed and exited the car.

On the morning, whilst she ate I went into the garden to clear the autumn dying and cut out the finished debris in the borders, and as I reached the Dahlia bed and began cutting I suddenly came upon a rose bush which was still in flower hidden by the flower stems and frost-blighted leaves, the rose was deep red and the bud nicely formed, a miracle indeed. I cut it and walked back to the garden room where she sat, and as I walked towards her I pointed at the rose which I held high; went in and gave it to her. I could tell she was delighted; it’s the little things that bless us. And so the 51^st rose was truly delivered and the record had been kept. Perhaps God had a hand in it, perhaps not, but in the end it really doesn’t matter, we had not forgotten our vows and pledge to each other.

There were many hymns we used to sing in bygone years but now hardly ever heard in churches over the land. Here is just one:

I come to the garden alone
while the dew is still on the roses
and the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

I He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet
the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my hear is ringing.

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.

This hymn typifies her life; it could be in reality her testimony. From the first day of her salvation at 12, she walked with God in purity, for he was her real father. In the early days of Myasthenia she was literally alone as I earned my income as a Senior Lecturer, and in those private housebound sessions over many years she developed a unique relationship with God. It held her in good stead, and I am sure she knew, like the last verse, the meaning of those words “but he bids me go; through the voice of woe. His voice to me is calling,” and it was, and she went. I hope we can say the same with certainty, peace and authority when our time arrives.

The state of the heart must outweigh the conduct of the life; therefore John said “you have left your first love” [Rev 2:4] a gross sin indeed. Thus the sin of omission was recognised and revealed; often tribulation reveals the heart’s condition. There are common laws that suggest if we do one thing another will automatically happen, so we thus teach our children, but normal retribution follows waywardness. Hear God’s parental heart as He speaks: “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.” [Hos 6:4], knowing He must do something He struggles to manifest love in their error. It is the same for all earthly fathers who love their children. Love demands correction to ensure future compliance to improvement. God loves us too much to leave us alone. Job says it right — Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man: [Job 8:20]. His attempt is to bring us to perfection in the daily swirl of life, for we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” [2 Cor 3:18].

The subtlety of backsliding is often ignored as we talk of the sins of commission, Proverbs comes to our aid [Prov 14:14] “The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways,” and as long as we walk in OUR way we are backsliding. Do not be surprised if correction comes. Although there is no apparent decrease in fervour what formality can arise in our hearts, what decay of devotion, and what coldness of love? We need to pray with the Old Testament saints: “I will not offend any more: That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more” [Job 34:31-32]. Let this be our prayer:

Burn fire of God! By Thine own love transcending,
Let all I hold be Thine, and Thine alone!
Heart, mind and will, a sacrifice ascending,
Consumed by fire from out Thy fiery throne.

They say that prevention is better than cure, and that is especially so with regards to moral failure and obesity! Better not to have done it rather than done it and repented. David the king is never free from Bathsheba. Our repentance may never recover us, for David was reclaimed but his illegitimate child died and the sword never left his house. However, Joseph faced with similar trial survived it and he kept his peace of mind, but lost his freedom. When facing great temptation often we can only have concord at great personal cost. God gave him approbation for his conduct, his strength marked the value of his reputation, and others could be influenced by the development of his character. We read that Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up, and wrath came upon him, better to have preserving trial.

Paul had a similar experience and because of God’s favour he was in danger of being exalted, so along came the thorn in the flesh, “a messenger of Satan to buffet [him]me” [2 Cor. 12:7] which is always a great leveller. Although we have seriously examined ourselves and there is not one sin that we can identify in our lifestyle, or one duty we have willingly neglected and no idol we have knowingly embraced, yet there could be the possibility of that which might be, there could be the embryo of pride forming, and God knows how to deal with it, to preserve our testimony. We do not know the treachery of our own heart.

Then there is the aspect of examination; we all need tests in life. Israel refusing to enter the Promised Land were given 40 years probation by God; this sought to test their principles, commitment and belief in divine guidance and provision and whether they could keep his commandments. Take Job as an example God put a hedge about him and then allowed him to be stripped of his safety, health, housing, children and goods. His response was prevailing; “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” Even his wife railed against him: “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’ But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” [Job 2:9-10]. Compliance to the divine will brought him to the point where he cursed the day of his birth; there was a slight malfunction in his soul. Such trial discerns the motive, tries the soul, and makes us all appear human! Even Jesus before His Father said “let this cup pass from me, nevertheless . . .” Thy will be done irrespective.

Patricia was a thankful person, in all ways and to all people. The day before she was admitted for a brain tumour operation I took her out for a meal at one of our favourite eating places. The following day after I had taken her to Charing Cross Hospital and settled her in ready for the procedure I returned home and in my study I found an envelope with a card in it, that she had carefully put there so I could find it; this is what it said.

“For my beautiful lunch – Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! To my darling M – for your loving kindness, patience, your love and care. You will never know how much I have appreciated all this. My prayers will be for you; that you will just hand it all back to God – He’s always cared and kept me since I was 12. He will keep me now too, so we can enjoy life again.  Love you my darling.”

What more can I say, I’m in tears, unashamedly. I did just that, handed it back to God, and he took it and her, His need was the greatest. My life rang with her thanks. I will treasure that card until I die; it was the last real act of generosity in her life. My memories are of her being so grateful for everything that was done for her. She was selfless and charitable, and was constantly giving away things and my money! If I have to define her main characteristics I must turn to other writers, here are two comments from Clyde Kilby, Professor of English, which describe her very well indeed.

First, “I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, ‘fulfill the moment as the moment.’ I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now. She seemed not to be concerned about the future too much but how to live and enjoy the present moment. The morning was never rushed; she dawdled over her newspapers and breakfast — it was the current moment that captivated her. Time was in God’s hand, He knew her well. She was never in haste; everything was planned and perfected in her daily programme – time for everything important. It didn’t matter about other issues, they could wait.

Second, “I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the ‘child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.’ ” There was a childlike simplicity about her; God was sovereign of her life, what possibly could go wrong! She was His child He her father, He loved her she adored Him, what better. She was safe; therefore if things did apparently go wrong, there was a divine answer. God knew best, she was born into His love, He knew the future, she trusted Him. If only we could enter into that priceless confidence and say with Edward Mote: [1834]

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid rock I stand

And so we do.

Third, we live in a violent rage-filled era, and there is too much sadistic exposure on our TV, in newspapers and comics. We see things now that many of us never dreamt we would witness for news now travels at lightning speed around the world.  Patricia veered off the spectacular and the brutal, gobbled up by so many as a normal diet. Her kindness made her radically different eschewing anything that injured or scarred. She lived in Prov 22:24 “Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go,” She guarded her life and character meticulously. The last foster father she had was a war torn soldier who had a vicious temper, and she vowed when she married she would marry a man who did not smoke, did not drink, and was kind and gentle and a Christian – she got me! It seemed to fulfil her specification.

The last women’s prayer meeting she led was against pornography; her thesis was that their husbands, sons and grandsons may be so afflicted: violence against women needed combat in the spiritual realm. She had been collecting information for months that was spread around walls and on bulletin boards to illustrate the growing danger of its filtration into current society; for even the church, which is supposed to be the citadel of holiness, was not immune.

Thus she held a standard high for personal lives in the everyday.  I have chosen but three things, amongst many attributes – she did not rush, she was childlike, she had a high moral tone – she was not weak, but forthright, incisive, clear-thinking, militant for God, never overawed by anyone except God; a challenge to my daily life. I hope to yours also?

“In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,” [Eccl 7:14]. This cry is applicable to most Christians, for “man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward” [Job 5:7]; cares can corrode us, fears dismay us and disappointments confound us. In our relationships there are the seeds of bereavement, in our possessions the elements of danger and in our affections are traces of anxiety and torment. We are tempted, at times, to cry with Lamentations: “I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath” [Lam 3:1] and “Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,” [Lam 1:12] which is singularly self-important ignorance and arrogance, for there is “No temptation [which] has overtaken you except such as is common to man;” [1 Cor 10:13]. But one does wonder if God is our friend why does he not exempt us from such trial and if he is our father why does he not protect his child. The eternal question is — If I am His why am I thus?

Peter addressing the early church said we are: “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” [1 Pet 1:2] but he also said “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;” [1 Pet 4:12-13]. The first compensates and consoles for the second. Religion does not exempt us from the evil day but it does prepare us for it, and within the host of biblical instructions and examples not the least is our text – “in the day of adversity consider.” Talking to His disciples Jesus said: “In the world you will have tribulation;” [John 16:33] and King David inferred: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” [Ps 34:19]. So Old and New Testament confirm the rightness and certainly of trial and tribulation.

However, our calling is “reasonable service” [Rom 12:1], not unjust and callous but destined for glory, for God is the author of every good thing, and our pilgrimage to Him is by our own effort for  we are not carried but we are guided. He works within us to form His majesty enabling us to walk worthy. It is therefore realistic for us to consider that our religion is sensible, and like saints of old we can say “I thought on my ways and turned my feet to His testimonies”  [Ps 119:59]. This word extends to all parts of religion, thus in the midst of adversity we can say confidently, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” [Rom 18:31]. His testimonies are sure and shot through with divine love and affection. Thus we should consider Him in all aspects and especially His ways in our life. The Bible says “Consider Him” [Heb 12:3] and so we will. His design for us must be perfect.

O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee:
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be

Let us consider our duty – our text says “God has appointed the one as well as the other.”  It is God’s sovereign will, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” [1 Peter 5:6-7]. Samuel knew about this, “And Samuel told him [Eli] every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good” [1 Sam 3:18].

The lessons of adversity are fourfold, correction, prevention, examination and usefulness. The last one was prominent amongst Puritan writers; life must always be useful or effective! The purpose of our life here must be productivity and in that fruitfulness we must consider men of old and how they fared with God. We may be under grace but Jesus came to fulfil the law! His basic dealing with men does not change from generation to generation. Abraham committed sin in taking Hagar and now we have the Middle East crisis because of Ishmael. God forgave the transgression but did not remove the problem.