Last Sunday our Associate Minister, Greg Pratt, preached an excellent sermon that reminded us of our position in Christ and he gave ten stances or titles within the Christian Life. Many people are not sure what their standing in life really is, and this reminder was to fortify us in the days that lie ahead in case doubt and disappointment stalks our pilgrim way. During the sermon he quoted the words of a song we sing by Israel Houghton,

Who am I that you are mindful of me
That you hear me, when I call
Is it true that you are thinking of me
How you love me, it’s amazing (Who am I Lord)

Indeed, who are we, as we boast in the things of God; and so the list developed and our hearts were stirred. And, if we had extended that list by one, we could have added “I am a friend of God” and isn’t that a thrilling thought and correspondingly wonderful experience?

However as we closed the meeting and sang our last song, the thought suddenly came to me “A bakers dozen” which is usually 13 loaves and my mind did a flip as I thought of what Greg had just given in those 12 thoughts, not 10, [how I managed that leap of perception I really don’t know!] so how about an extra or 13th one, and lets sing about it, “I am a friend of God,” but the pianist of the day didn’t know it and the person who first introduced it, went blank, so we stumbled through it halfheartedly and closed the meeting laughing. So 10 became 12 and then 13 — Nonsense by any stretch of the imagination!

Abraham was called the “friend of God” (Jas 2:23) “and the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God;” friend because he believed God. Men may call us many things, but one of the highest appellations must be that one — God said: “Abraham my friend.” [Isa. 41:8]. He could have said Abram the sinner, or Abram the Syrian, or Abraham the man of faith, but he used this title for the quality he showed in life. We tend to worry about what we do for God, but who we are strikes a cord with Him.

Job pining for previous days said this: “Just as I was in the days of my prime, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;”

[Job 29:4]. Job’s life had been interrupted by trials so intense he almost died, in fact the disease he had was so great it rotted his teeth from the inside. “My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth” [Job 19:20]. He valued God’s friendship above all other aspects of life, even his wealth and health. The Psalms are replete with advice, so with proverbs: “The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray” [Prov 12:26]. As parents we tend to view the friendships our children make with circumspection or perhaps suspicion, wanting only their best.

The New Testament enforces this aspect of living when Jesus said to His disciples they were not slaves but friends. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends” [John 15:13-15]. The Greek for friend is someone who is close, a dear one or beloved who is no mere acquaintance. They have depths of understanding and care, yet are able to discern reality in the context of life; thus their advice is paramount. Someone you can lean on and accept their unbiased advice which is for your ultimate good. That’s what God does.

The world has derived many quotations to explain friendship and here is but one: “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow” [William Shakespeare]. Isn’t that last one Just like Jesus? He overlooks faults and undergirds our weaknesses. “He sticks closer than a brother” [Prov. 18:24]. Human brothers can let us down, some lie against us, they can enter into combined duplicity and they did that to Joseph of old [Gen. 37:19], but God, and there we have it. When God is our friend and we His, we have the best of life. He can turn improbable and impossible circumstances into victory. He thinks the best of us at all times.

Actor Michael Simkins wrote in the Sunday Telegraph about our own peculiar preferences with iconology.  Apparently the BBC and the British Museum had assembled some 600 items covering the history of the world, and a strange range they were, from Joel Garner’s size 16 cricket boots to the mask of the god Laran. He spoke about his own preferences and mentioned his early passion with Gilbert and Sullivan operas when he purchased a photograph of the great Savoyard, Sir Henry Lytton, which had been personally signed. It depicted Lytton in his pomp as the Duke of Plaza-Toro, complete with rough cheeks, beauty spot and towering curls completed with a tricorn hat.  He took it to be framed, and looking at the order sheet of the proprietor of the shop, he saw written about his almost sacred picture, to identify it later, “Poof with wig.”

We consciously collect things as mementoes as we pass through life, really they are like icons jogging our memory of blessings received and deeds done. If our homes became a museum we would have certain articles in pride of place.  As I write this I glance around my study and see very little I have saved over the years. I do have a ship in a glass bottle presented to me by my first church to commemorate 25 years in ministry 1959 – 84. The next 25 passed swiftly and almost unnoticed and there is nothing to record it, except a lined face and wisdom of the years. I also have a carved timber plate given to me in Sri Lanka when I went to preach there, made by the boys of the orphanage depicting John 15:5 and  carved in 1986. It is quite beautiful and full of appreciation and love.

There is a small water colour in my lounge painted by my eldest son when he was training to be an architect, which was framed in Westbourne Road Gallery when we lived in Portobello. The manager was impressed with it and wanted to know if he had any more, but there was just the one. It reminds us of his industry, his artistic skill and his thoughtfulness to us as parents for this was his gift one Christmas, struggling as a student with high fees and little money. It was the best he could provide for us and it is very precious indeed.

When I retired from lecturing I was presented with a gilt edged volume made by one of the other lecturers [it was his hobby] and signed by all my other colleagues. Their comments are as fresh now as when they wrote them in 1984.  I had started an end-of-term bread and cheese celebration to end the academic year, and it caught on rapidly. I baked the bread, all different kinds, starting at 5:00am, someone bought cheese from the market and others contributed home-made wine. It became known throughout the institution, and gate-crashers were commonplace, from the top brass downwards! Happy memories indeed.

I have a book amongst many in my library which is small and insignificant looking, and it was given to me by a woman I did not know when I preached a sermon that particularly blessed her. I cannot even remember which church it was, it was so long ago, but she went home and posted it to me, with extreme thanks for my ministry. The book is by C. H. Spurgeon, the great Victorian preacher with the largest church in London, he had personally signed it in his own hand. It must have been precious to her, but such was the ministry that day, that she parted with it as an act of reward for my faithfulness.  As a young preacher it was a milestone in my adventure with God. It has history written all over it.  There are many more expensive and fine books in my study, but that takes prime place.

Churches tend to become full of icons celebrating lives spent in service for God, and historic moments for the faith. Unfortunately that can become a way of life, and the past runs the future.  We need to learn from the past for it often sets precedents that are useful in determining actions in response to situations, but in God, His way is perfect and it is always wise to get His determination on an issue.

Israel lived an iconic life but with no life. The divine presence was missing, God’s glory left Israel [Ezk 11:33] and although they had a temple and an ark, the Shekinah was missing. It was all an empty showcase; worship and sacrifice continued but God had left them to their willful ways. We must learn from that act, in case we boast of a presence we do not have. Our programmes for evangelism and for worship can be just that, but is God in it, does He inhabit the praise of His people, does He reign as king in the assembly, or is He pushed out by tradition, and even Pentecostal churches have that? Has the church become iconised?

Tears are the liquid product of a process of crying to clean and lubricate the eyes. Strong emotions, such as sorrow or elation, may lead to crying. Tears flow from tear glands into your eyes through tiny tear ducts. The tear glands are located under your upper lids, and when stimulated, produce tears to form a thin film over your eyeballs. Every time you blink the film spreads over your eyes to keep them moist and free of dust and other irritants. Whether you are awake or asleep, happy or sad, this salty fluid is always flowing from the tear glands.

It is said that “tears are the words the heart can’t express,” and “tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it,” [Albert Smith]. It is also said that the advantage women have over men is that they can cry more easily; but whatever the definition they express an emotion that cannot be contained.  Thus I ended up at the communion table last Sunday simply weeping over God’s presence. I had felt His presence a day to two before in a manner that stirred my heart as I sat at my study table; tears formed as I read the scriptures. He was resplendently evident in His word; a text gripped my soul, my tear ducts began to discharge.

When walking my late dog in pastures green, I would often meditate on God’s glory and goodness, and preach the word to myself, and would find that my eyes would fill with tears over his supreme wonder. I would also muse on how I would react if I met someone I knew, what I would say to explain my tears, or would I bother to do so? They would not understand, it was private, between my Saviour and me, and there it stands. The nearer his presence the greater the tears, he was not just the God of creation amidst my walking, but he was my friend and lover. He spoke the word before creation and darkness turned to glorious light; he spoke the word sixty years ago in my soul and my darkness slipped away. How can I hold back my tears when thinking of such a great God, who loves me with no imposed conditions?

Last Sunday dawned bright with God’s august presence in and around my spirit; I arrived in Harrow, dropped Patricia at the church and went on to collect Marc DuPont from the hotel. As we journeyed the short distance to HICC, I said to him, “I have tears in my soul today,” he as is usual said nothing, he is man of few words. I thought he would understand, I think he did, but wisely left the words for me. We started the service and God was in the worship, there was this overwhelming sense of him being about the place. Some Sundays are just Sundays and we come, worship and go home, and we knew he was there but it was not so manifest. Last Sunday was dramatically different. His divine presence appeared, life changed.

We have people in our congregation who were converted in the worship; I understand why they were; when God appears pretence and superficiality passes away, our sin also. We stand in the ambience of pure love; his eyes burn out rebellion and bring forgiveness. How could we not weep for joy and thankfulness before such a potentate with such love dispensed. We see ourselves as we really are, and know how much he suffered to make us whole, the pain of Calvary breaks our heart and mends it simultaneously.

I tried to hold back my tears, to be respectable in front of a congregation, to do all things decently and in order, but whose order, mine or God’s? As it was, it was impossible, his presence was so great, I could not resist, and just wept uncontrollably. I’m not embarrassed by that action or unduly concerned, I wish more would weep, some did [they told me afterwards]. “They that sow in tears reap in joy,” that’s a divine principle; it’s a sowing and reaping situation.

John 11:35-36 tells us that “Jesus wept.” Wept over the death of Lazarus and over unbelief, and there are some things we have to do. When my dog died suddenly last June, I did not weep but did have tears in my eyes; he was a loyal and true friend who dogged my steps. Jesus is an even greater friend who promises never to leave us or forsake us; our hearts are joined as one, as David and Jonathan were, so it is with Christ and me. How about you.

Monday dawned bright, clear and sun-blue; it was one of those rare early summer days in England. It was also my day off, after the blessing of Sunday. I often awake with ideas or thoughts about the previous day’s sermon, and how it could have been developed better and the PowerPoint slides made simpler. It is hard to resist opening the programme and making corrections, and concurrently there is a jostling for competition by thoughts about the next week’s article for HICC Bits.

However, bearing in mind my comments the day previously about creative fidelity, we go to Kingston, a market town, nestling on the river Thames. The old and new buildings form an appealing hard landscape, enjoyed by many as they sit in the centre dinking their beverages and enjoying the ambience created by time and industry.  We stroll in the sun enjoying the casual almost rude waste of time, absorbing the warmth and anticipating the summer in its glory which we hope will arrive; possibly that Monday was the harbinger of good climate to come?

We head towards the river, and amble along holding hands and chatting. As we linger along the concrete edging peering into the brown waters the Queen’s swans gather to be fed, but we carry no food and they swim away, no doubt disgusted at our lack!  Then we spot a Moorhen snuggled down in her nest, built in a motorbike tyre and floating adjacent to a flat boat fixed to a buoy. No doubt this is a mark of her ingenuity and industry; taking the discarded flotsam of man and nature and incubating new life. A hundred metres away we notice a landing jetty and underneath two more Moorhens are building their nest. A large branch from a river-bank tree had broken off, lodged under the planks and they are fetching and carrying twigs, one fetches and one builds then they reverse and the other builds while the first fetches. We sit on a brick wall and watch.

Then, we reverse our steps towards the town centre and discuss new life in the church; are we doing all that is needed and required for the people we are privileged to serve. How can we, like that Moorhen, make something out of nothing that is an ingenious move of God’s Spirit? What have we done over the years and what will we do in the years to come to see birth in the kingdom. Our undivided aim has always been to see salvation in the house and change in individual lives. We are a multinational crowd, and some who were the flotsam and jetsam of humanity thrown out by man have been rescued and used by God; a floating tyre here and a broken branch there, both moved by the currents of time and society but, out of that, new life has been manifest; out of nothing spectacular so to speak a miracle has been born.

As we sat and others stood watching this act of construction, my mind went back to the early morning.  I had walked in my garden and then sat eating my breakfast out there in the sun enjoying the change of venue. I noticed how still everything was; I looked at the silence and the silence looked back, and it was like that as we were on the tow-path, it was as if nature was observing this building project as the two birds hurriedly made their future nursery. When Halford House, our early church building was demolished, we salvaged five chimney pots, and they now stand in my flower border, silent terracotta sentinels destined for summer glory. We insert a small pot in the top and plant cascading flowers in them, either trailing geraniums or begonias.

They could well have been taken away and thrown carelessly into a land-fill site, buried underneath tons of household rubbish, but 104 years later they still stand, not emitting smoke and soot, but displaying the wonder of English annuals. Other plants grow around them, so peeping out of that display amidst the herbaceous plants and acacia trees is this bright touch of colour at about waist level; striking yet just part of the plan.

The writer of the Song of Solomon depicts the walking habits of the oriental king: “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.” [Song 6:2], and in another part: “I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded” [Song 6:11]. If he came to mine he would see that the rescued pots are integral in the design, and the church is the garden of the Lord, and standing tall and strong often there are old pots destined for demolition but are still standing, bearing the marks of time, but yet also the glory of new foliage and flowers; God’s plan indeed.

Between 1438 and 1795 travellers to the Netherlands commented on the manic Dutch cleaners.  75 out of 250 reports mentioned about the obsession they had with cleaning their houses. The women regularly cleaned windows, feverishly mopped floors and men wore slippers indoors. It was argued by Simon Schama that housewives’ fastidious cleaning reflected a moral, Calvinistic code, but Bravel and Gelderblom cite a different reason.

Holland was a hotbed of dairy farms due to the high groundwater levels and the result was a high production of butter. By 1500 half the population was engaged in dairying, and because butter production is sensitive to poor hygiene, they cleaned extensively to ensure that equipment was spotless and that the butter didn’t smell. It was pointed out that these practices were soon reflected in the urban areas, and consequently influenced the habits of the entire population.

Britain cannot boast such cleanliness; it is evident that in the middle ages smells and dirt were rife in the average home.  Hygiene was not uppermost to the usual person, and in the monarchy it is said of Henry VIII that his leg ulcers could be smelt three rooms away. So much so that he got through 300 pairs of tights per year. They just increased the perfume to hide the stench.

The river Thames was once described as the dirtiest river ever and was biologically dead. In 1855 Michael Faraday wrote in The Times newspaper “The whole river was an opaque pale brown fluid,” and it was “a fermenting sewer.” In 1878 a pleasure steamer, the princess Alice, sank after a collision and most of the 600 passengers perished, not through drowning but because of the state of the polluted water. The river reflected the way of life at that time.[1]

In a recent worldwide study taking into account 36 factors, Iceland is the cleanest country in the world, with UK 17^th. The lowest household waste was Denmark; Luxemburg was 2^nd, Netherlands 3^rd and UK 5^th. It is thought that Australia has the cleanest people, for EnergyAustralia conducted a survey that showed that every Australian takes at least one shower per day; specifically 62% once, 29% twice and 9% three times per day.

Our great grandparents, grandparents, or perhaps even our parents probably showered or bathed less often than we do now. It was not so many decades ago when entire families routinely bathed in a common bathtub once a week. Families were larger then, so if you were fifth or sixth in the tub – you can imagine. Standards in the degree of tolerance of body smells emanating from ourselves and others were different then compared to those of today.

I flew into in Singapore in 1986 with my wife to preach for Canon James Wong, [Church of the Resurrection], and stayed at his home. He was out when we arrived and as we stood at the doorway having travelled for 13 hours, the first thing the housekeeper said was not “welcome, or how are you?” but “Take your shoes off”, not ‘please take off your shoes.’ But “take your shoes off.”  No argument, no discussion as to culture and our preferences, but take them off, or else. It was evident we were not crossing the threshold unless we complied.  Some people argue that Singapore is the cleanest place in the world; they jail people who spit out chewing gum and/or beat them publicly. I suppose if that law was enacted in Harrow half the population would be in jail.

You would think that the hygiene imposed under Old Testament law would ensure that Israel was the cleanest country in the world, but hear the scriptures: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”[2] I went to Lewis’s recently for a cup of tea and found that the cups were stained with tannin; their excuse was that the automatic dishwashers were not working properly. To be metaphorical, the blood of Jesus washes us clean within, which is the best cleanliness, for it then works on the outside; for it is said, that cleanliness is next to godliness. “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”[3]

“Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? [Prov 20:9]. Not many, in fact, no one can, without the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood. Hear the word: “Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”[4] “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”[5] Take a daily shower before you go to bed!

[1] But now, it is reckoned as the cleanest river in the world to flow through a city.

[2] Matt 23:25

[3] Matt 23:26

[4] 1 Cor 6:9-11

[5] Jn 1:9

The goal of life is not the acquisition of wealth but a life of worship. We spend more hours obtaining our income than on anything else, especially in London because of traffic and distance. It is therefore natural to be strongly affected by the procurement of money and its use. There are two things we have dominance over, our time and our cash, we ought not to waste either, for they are too precious.

With regard to money we ought to work as hard as we can, get as much as  we can, never be in debt, give generously to charity, save ten percent, and pay our way wisely. It was Timothy writing early in the church’s life who said: “. . . and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain.”  A warning all those years ago because the prosperity gospel started back then. It is not a new doctrine, but has plagued the church from its inception.

It was Spurgeon who said: “Are we not to strive all we can to get all the money we can?” You may do so. I cannot doubt but what, in so doing, you may do service to the cause of God. But what I said was that to live with the object of accumulating wealth is anti-Christian.”  Reflecting this we can say that the purpose of life is the building of Christian character through truth. It is the one thing we’ll take to heaven with us. We cannot take wealth past the grave; therefore it is a grave indictment that we spend more time on obtaining wealth than anything else.

The current mentality in today’s society is money-focused. In every newspaper of whatever sort there are themes on how to procure, invest and use our money and the workers’ rights and demands fill the pages. Unions threaten strike action because they see the governing classes obtaining wealth [sometime illegally] and this greed factor is transferred. It also creeps in to church life, with the rise of the health and wealth doctrine. The scripture comes to our aid: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan” [Prov 29:2, NKJV]. The country is groaning because of misrule and misappropriation of money.  There is no joy in the city!

If character is the touchstone of life, and a proof of righteous pursuit, then anything other than that is unrighteousness. Unrighteousness wrecks a city and burdens the people and the present unrighteousness is based on money and the acquisition of wealth. Unfortunately what is in progress in the world will soon be contemporaneous in the church, for it often moulds itself on modern values. It is all about money, the country is in the grip of greed, it is demonic, it is devilish; it’s sponsored by materialism in the world and heresy in the church.

It is not wrong to desire money it is wrong to desire only money. Our accumulation should be souls not dollars. In the prosperity gospel, also known as the “Word of Faith,” the believer is told to use God; whereas the truth of biblical Christianity is just the opposite – God uses the believer. They also see the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the believer wills. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person who enables the believer to do whatever God wills. Prosperity teaching prohibits God from working on His own, meaning that God is not Lord of all because He cannot work until we release Him to do so.

The Bible is clear that the early church was poor; many were slaves in Caesars’ household, who had the clothes on their back, a daily allowance of food, a bed and nothing more. John writing from Patmos greets one of the seven churches: “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich),” [Rev 2:9]. Rome had ordered the destruction of their vineyards and their livelihood was gone. I don’t hear the apostles exhorting them to ‘’name it and claim it,” for they were rich in grace, forgiveness and mercy. Spiritual values overtook them.

Paul said covetousness is idolatry [Ephesians 5:5] and instructed the Ephesians to avoid anyone who brought a message of immorality or covetousness [Ephesians 5:6, 7]. He aligns avariciousness with immorality, and as sexual misdemeanours are of little account by current standards, so also is lusting after money. God’s promise to us is certain: “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the LORD is upright.” [Psalm 92: 12-15]

The world has high jacked both Christmas and Easter with encouragement to spend unlimited money on chocolate. It seems indicative of the way that retailers have commandeered the market on Christian festivals. The trend continues and gathers pace as the way we live reflects the philosophy of the world at large.

Easter comes near the time of the spring equinox on March 21^st when the length of the day and night are equal. Throughout history, many ancient cultures have celebrated this as a time of birth and renewal, following the darkness of the long winter. Historians have traced the origin of the word Easter to the Scandinavian word ‘Ostra’ and the Germanic ‘Ostern’ or ‘Eastre’. Both of these derive from the names of mythological goddesses of spring and fertility, for whom festivals were held at the time of the Spring Equinox.

Current symbols of Easter, such as the egg and the bunny, have their origins in paganism. Rabbits were the most potent symbol of fertility and the egg, the start of all life, was often thought to have magical powers. Modern-day pagans continue to celebrate the coming of spring as part of a seasonal cycle known as the ‘wheel of the year’. Some pagans carry out rituals at this time, such as symbolically planting seeds, and holding egg races and egg hunts.

The Christian Easter also falls near to the time of the Jewish festival of Passover or Pesach, one of the most important feasts in the Jewish calendar. Passover is a time of family gatherings and lavish meals called Seders, accompanied by special foods, songs and customs. It begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan — which is usually April. Early Christians, some of whom were of Jewish origin, were influenced by stories of the coming of the Messiah as foretold by the Jewish prophets, and integrated the Christian Easter with the existing festival.

The date of Easter is not fixed, and always falls on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox, making it any time between March 22 and April 25. However, Christian churches in the East, closer to the birth of Christianity and in which old traditions were strong, observe Easter according to the date of the Passover.

Easter is the most important Christian festival, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. It follows Lent, a 40-day period of penitence beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending with Easter Sunday. The last week of Lent is Holy Week, which progresses according to the story of Jesus’ last days, through Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday (the Last Supper), Good Friday (the Crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (the Resurrection). It’s believed that early Christians may have gradually incorporated existing pagan influences into their religion in order to make it more acceptable and to prevent converts from being persecuted. Many Christians today give up chocolate for Lent.

The modern chocolate Easter egg with its smoothness, shape and flavour owes its progression to the two greatest developments in the history of chocolate – the invention of a press for separating cocoa butter from the cocoa bean by the Dutch inventor Van Houten in 1828 and the introduction of a pure cocoa by Cadbury Brothers in 1866. The Cadbury process made large quantities of cocoa butter available and this was the secret of making moulded chocolate or indeed, any fine eating chocolate.

The launch in 1905 of the famous Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate made a tremendous contribution to the Easter egg market. The popularity of this new kind of chocolate vastly increased sales of Easter eggs and did much to establish them as seasonal best sellers. Today the Easter egg market is predominantly milk chocolate.

The interesting point of contention is that when we open our Easter eggs, often there is nothing inside, and when they came to the tomb in the garden it was empty – there was nothing inside, Jesus had risen from the dead. They had great difficulty in first making empty Easter eggs, but our Father had no trouble is raising Jesus from the dead. He did the impossible, so every time you break open your egg, think of the empty tomb. That lesson is more important than the chocolate. The world always reverses truth; it calls the crooked straight, black white and bitter sweet. It tries to deny the resurrection of Christ but all round the world there comes a triumphant cry, he is risen, risen indeed. Oh YES!

In the spring of 1939, an anonymous civil servant was entrusted with finding suitable slogans for propaganda posters intended to comfort, inspire and stiffen public resolve should the massed armies of Nazi Germany ever cross the Channel. Three were designed and two were produced – they read: Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory. The second, identically styled, stated: Freedom is in Peril. This was during the period of heavy bombing and anticipated gas attacks. More than a million were printed from August onwards and both posters began appearing all over the country, on billboards, in shops, on railway platforms.

The third was held back. This one was for the real crisis: invasion. A few may have made their way on to select officials’ walls, but the vast majority of the British public never saw it. This poster enjoined: Keep Calm and Carry On. Now, suddenly, it’s everywhere, from homes to pubs to government offices. The Lord Chamberlain’s Office at Buckingham Palace, the Prime Minister’s strategy unit at No 10, the Serious Fraud Office, the US embassy in Belgium, the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, the Emergency Planning Office at Nottingham council and the officers’ mess in Basra have all ordered posters. It even hangs in my daughter’s new kitchen.

For 60 years, this poster had been forgotten. Then, one day in 2000, Stuart Manley, co-owner with his wife, Mary, of Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, was sifting through a box of hardbacks he had bought at auction when he saw “A big piece of paper folded up at the bottom. “I opened it out, and I thought, wow. That’s quite something. I showed it to Mary, and she agreed. So we framed it and put it up on the bookshop wall. And that’s where it all started.”

Today, you can buy Keep Calm and Carry On mugs, doormats, T-shirts, hoodies, cufflinks, baby clothes and flight bags from any number of retailers. You can use the design as a screensaver for your computer or mobile phone. There are facsimiles of the poster itself, which Barter Books initially reproduced after a rash of customers asked to buy its copy (one offered £1,000). They have sold in their tens of thousands.

Alain Samson, a social psychologist at the London School of Economics, says that in times of difficulty, “people are brought together by looking for common values or purposes, symbolized by the crown and the message of resilience. The words are also particularly positive, reassuring, in a period of uncertainty, anxiety, even perhaps of cynicism.”

Dr Lesley Prince, who lectures in social psychology at Birmingham University, is blunter still. “It is a quiet, calm, authoritative voice of reason,” he says. “It’s not about British stiff upper lip, really. The point is that people have been sold a lie since the 1970s. They were promised the earth and now they’re worried about everything – their jobs, their homes, their bank, their money, their pension. This is saying, look, somebody out there knows what’s going on, and it’ll be all right.”

There is no doubt that we are living in a morally decaying country, I have probably seen the best of Britain in my lifetime. I passed through the war years of privation as a young child and witnessed victory when I was ten. The forties and fifties were struggling years as people came to terms with peace again; the hunt for post-war jobs, the re-establishment of homes and the consequent baby boom.  Many soldiers could not cope with peace, they were traumatized by constant noise and killing; after discharge they had no need to follow orders or face danger and lived in a resultant vacuum of inaction.

Many lives and marriages were wrecked and although the nation eventually recovered economically through the seventies to nineties, I doubt if it will ever recover from the loss of manhood. Some of our finest minds were spread across the unploughed fields of Europe. Succeeding political generations have wilted under global pressure and we are left with a poor imitation of real quality; it has been replaced by greed, lying, spin-doctoring and manipulation. No wonder the populace displays the war-time poster “Keep Calm and Carry On.” What else can they do? There is another war raging that too few notice; it is for truth.

The nation could turn to God as they did in the war years, but even He has now been sidelined as humanism, materialism and atheism has mainly overcome, in public life, basic Christian belief. Those of us who still pray beseech God for His Spirit to send a true revival that reaches into the governing segment of our society. In Israel it was said ““For the leaders of this people cause them to err.”[1] This is true of the last decade where money has replaced the true value of character.

[1] Isa 9:16

Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winner for playwright’s standards, stole a book from Bermondsey library 59 years ago. It was entitled Murphy, written by Samuel Beckett, published in 1938 after 42 rejections, and was his third novel. It contains one of the great chess scenes in which, rather than attacking one another, Murphy and a mental patient simply try to rearrange their pieces symmetrically on the board.

His library of 5,000 volumes was bought by a private collector, and as Mags Bros. prepared an inventory catalogue, they discovered the book. The ink stamp inside the flyleaf showed that it had not been read since the date of borrowing. No matter how sincere Pinter’s action was as an act of homage to his Beckett collection, it was still an act of theft, and presented a quandary for the booksellers.

Pinter had no intention of returning the book. He made it public knowledge, and said he ‘never regretted’ its prolonged absence! In a public speech in 1971 when opening the Reading Beckett exhibition, he openly admitted to stealing it. However, the antiquarian bookseller who sold Pinter’s library returned the book to Southwark Council, successor to Bermondsey, and bought it back for £2,000 to return it to the rest of the collection. The money will go towards funding Sandra Agard, who teaches creative writing at the Council.

Compared to other acts of theft this was no big deal, but it was still theft, and in principle if one soldier defies the no-cross zone or one million, it is still an act of war. We have a convenient tendency to compartmentalize our minds when dealing with delinquent action; excusing and justifying ourselves with impunity. There is no little or large when it comes to theft. A pound or a penny it matters not, it is still a violation.

Theft can cover several issues, for instance someone can steal your identity and others can steal your reputation. Lying can be viewed as theft for it steals trust. It can sever friendships and create a host of antagonistic ripples that uncovers disparate issues. Lying simply treats people as a means to an end, which is inexcusable, for deception warrants censure.

If a man can lie about his infidelity he can steal from his employer. The two defects are Siamese twins holding hands and are almost inseparable. Truth stands as an absolute value; the glue which binds the rulebook. “When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened,” says St. Augustine “all things will remain doubtful.” You can forgive a liar but you can’t have confidence in them for they have stolen reliability.

When Jacob stole the birthright from Esau, he lied to his father impersonating his brother. After Jacob fled for his life his father-in-law deceived him and gave him Leah not Rachel to marry. Thus he stole the heart of Jacob by supplanting Rachel, his first love, with her sister. Eventually he wedded Rachel but it caused him to lose fourteen years of his life; seven for each bride. What you sow you reap! It eventually comes around.

The New Testament church was shocked into holiness by the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira, who sold land and withheld part of the sum they supposedly bequeathed to God, but deceived the congregation with a false  witness, and God struck them both dead.  He hates anything connected with deceit which includes stealing and lying. “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD.” [Prov 12:22].

Modern culture, cultivated by the governing class, seems to excel at both stealing and lying as witnessed by the expenses scandal that has rocked the populace with its reeking self-indulgence. I expect it all started with small things like a library book but escalated into obscene greed. We must be careful lest that spirit spreads into our church life and our own character.  It is easy to criticise others for their faults and failings but so much easier to copy others, which seems to give it justification. Their fame appears to give the aberrant action authenticity.

Circumspection is necessary in all walks of life, and particular in our own, for it is human to veer downwards into sin, for age often proliferates compromise; it takes so little effort to do and we become weary at fighting minute sin with magnificent rectitude.

By 1853 there were so many mines laid around Russia that the Allied Fleet supporting the troops in the Crimea was forced to anchor its medical supply ship at Balaklava where it was destroyed by a hurricane on 13 November. The 7,000-ton medical cargo went down to the bottom leaving the British troops to an unimaginable winter of pneumonia, starvation and dysentery.

Florence Nightingale and 38 other nurses who had arrived in the Crimea one week earlier suddenly found out how bad the medical services really were.  “British military doctors recommended smoking or else growing a moustache (to filer the germs). In one recovery area, 1,000 men suffering from diarrhoea shared twenty chamber pots. In the hospitals the patients underwent operations on the floors covered with blood and their wounds often not dressed for five weeks. The hospital mortality rate was close to 50%. By the end of the war, of the 18,058 British casualties, nine out of ten died from disease.”[1]

This seems to us today as unimaginable and certainly unacceptable. It was part of the glorious mystique of the once famous British Empire – not published!  I expect the doctors suggested smoking to calm the shattered nerves of the shattered wounded, but a moustache to filter germs seems ridiculous. No doubt those with beards would live for ever?

According to recent research we are now a pill-popping nation with prescriptions for antidepressants, drugs for obesity rising nine-fold in ten years. Increasingly people are turning to drugs to combat numerous ills that self-control could cure. The number of prescriptions for antidepressants rose by 78% in 10 years to nearly 36 million in 2008 which is over half the population costing 45 million pounds. Go back 130 years and witness the diabolical conditions of those unfortunate soldiers who would have given anything for some relief, antidepressants or not.

There have been great advances in medical science and the knowledge of disease in the last century and its treatment, but mankind has deteriorated in many other ways. It has become drug-dependant for normal living. However, thinking back I wonder if we could grow a spiritual moustache that would filter out sin, what a benefit that would be, except the women would have a hard time, although not all of them. As we look to the future is there anything that Doctor Carr can recommend to stave off that inevitable infection of succumbing to temptation and developing the runny nose of a guilty conscience?

Perhaps there is, but it can’t be bought at chemists. There is no over-the-counter pill or syrup that can cure this malady but there is a medical textbook that both diagnoses the cause and recommends a cure. It is the Bible, which is the best medical textbook in the world, written by over 40 experts all qualified to speak with authority about sin, which is the worst killer germ known to mankind. Here’s a moustache that will help filter the germs from many in the months ahead.

“Walk in the light as He is in the light  . . .”[2] It is known that light kills disease. Improve the light and increase the health. Light can fall on a refuse tip and not be contaminated but conversely can help purify. Walking in the light is an attitude developed by obeying God’s truth. An athlete who has programmed their muscles can respond instantly to a demand suddenly placed upon their body. Likewise those who walk in the light (obey God’s truth encapsulated in the scripture) can respond in any given situation where danger looms unexpectedly.

We can pick up infections through shaking hands as people pass on their germs because they have handled their face. Touching people in God can, at time, be dangerous, if we are not protected by the Living Word that puts a vaccine in our souls alerting the defence mechanism of sanctification into operation. When visiting hospitals it is recommended that people use the alcohol-based fluid set by every entrance to wash their hands before visiting and after leaving the ward.

Avidly read the Bible and imbibe the truths, hold the principles, live the promises and obey the covenant. Let the Bible give us the clue:  “How can a young man (woman) cleanse (keep healthy) his (her) way? By taking heed according to Your word.”[3]

[1] Scientific American page 86 article by James Burke called Connections.

[2] 1 John 1:7

[3] Psalm 119:9