Happy Birthday CHS!

I describe London Baptist preacher C H Spurgeon as my ministry hero:

 

Perhaps, with due deference on his birthday, we should note how unheroically he would wish to be regarded.  Even if he is sometimes followed as an evangelical demi-god he certainly did not experience himself that way,

“It is of the utmost importance to us to be kept humble. Consciousness of self-importance is a hateful delusion, but one into which we fall as naturally as weeds grow on a dunghill. We cannot be used of the Lord but that we also dream of personal greatness, we think ourselves almost indispensible to the church, pillars of the cause, and foundations of the temple of God. We are nothings and nobodies, but that we do not think so is very evident, for as soon as we are put on the shelf we begin anxiously to enquire, ‘How will the work go on without me?’ As well might the fly on the coach wheel enquire, ‘How will the mails be carried without me?’ Far better men have been laid in the grave without having brought the Lord’s work to a standstill, and shall we fume and fret because for a little season we must lie upon the bed of languishing? God sometimes weakens our strength in a way at the precise juncture when our presence seems most needed to teach us that we are not necessary to God’s work, and that when we are most useful, He can easily do without us. If this be the practical lesson, the rough schooling may be easily endured for assuredly it is beyond all things desirable that self should be kept low and the Lord alone be magnified.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, “Laid Aside, Why?,” The Sword and Trowel, May, 1876, London

My Covid Walk: 8. Honaz

Where could I have walked to if I had walked through a year of Covid in one direction?  My eighth and final possibility is Honaz.  Honaz is in the middle of Turkey.

Wikipedia:

Honaz is about 12 miles east of Denizli on the slopes of Mount Hinaz, the highest peak in the Aegean Region of Turkey.  It is just to the south of Honaz Cayi, a river known in ancient times as the Lycus.  In antiquity Honaz was known as Colossae.  Like many other cites in the region Colossae was destroyed by earthquakes with few ruins remaining.  Today the economy is centred on growing cherries.  It is also the home area of many oil wrestlers including the three-time national champion.

Is it Covid-safe?

Turkey is currently on the Red List - so no.

On the Plus Side:

Some natural beauty - a bit rugged - and I like cherries.

On the Minus Side:

Too hot for this time of year.  Lots of history but none to see.

Has it got a Football Team?

Denizlispor (from the nearby city) were, until last month, in the Turkish Superleague.  But after finishing 21st out 21 they are there no longer of course.   

Has it got a Baptist Church?

No.  Has it any Christian Church?  Not that I can see.  There are a handful in Denizli - the nearest Baptist Church may be in Izmir, three hours by car.  The incongruity of the lack of Christian witness in this area - as in Benghazi (My Covid Walk 6.) is made more amazing in the light of Paul's words to the Colossians of old: 

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it has taught us that human influence and trends are not within humans' power: Honaz has yet to encounter anyone else who has divine, creation and resurrection power - and it never will.  It's still Jesus or bust in Colossae.

Prospects out of Ten:

Four.  Sitting in the searing sun, eating a bag of cherries and pondering Colossians.