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.

My Covid Walk: 7. Rhodes

Where could I have walked to if I had walked through a year of Covid in one direction instead of round in suburban circles?  Last time to scary Benghazi - but angling more East I could (with some water-walking of course) reached the island of Rhodes.

When Paul had finished speaking (in Ephesus), he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo.  [Acts 20:36 - 21:3]

Paul suffered greatly for the Gospel, but at least had the compensation of the Mediterranean climate (though in his day Rhodes had a lot of snakes).  But now?

It would be difficult to find something missing from Rhodes. The first visitors saw the unique combination of nature, urban landscape, inhabitants, culture and history and made Rhodes famous in all the lengths and breadths of the Earth.  The Old Town is a World Heritage Site, as it is the best preserved medieval settlement in the world. The Street of the Knights and the Palace of the Grand Master will take you atmospherically to other places and other times. 

 

Like all Greek islands, Rhodes is characterized by countless beaches with golden sand, crystal clear blue waters and rare beauty.

Is it Covid-safe?

On or near the UK's current Green List.

On the Plus Side:

Weather, history and natural beauty.

On the Minus Side:

Are there still any snakes?

Has it got a Football Team?

Its oldest Club is Diagoras FC, founded under Ottoman occupation in 1905 as a kind of Greek underground movement.  Hence the unlikely badge which is of a famous wrestler - but definitely at least a free kick.

Has it got a Baptist Church?

No.  Two or three small evangelical or pentecostal churches, at least one of which translates into English if a visitor turns up (according to one reviewer) or not (according to another . . .).

Prospects out of Ten:

Nine.  Thin spiritually and sportingly, but - those beaches and buildings . . .

World Cup Blogs 7: Croatia

Every football fan knows one thing about Croatia - the national football team have the most amazing shirt design - a red and white chessboard!

As I work through this year's World Cup nations alphabetically I choose instead to reflect on Croatia being the first country I've come to which is directly mentioned in the Bible.  (By directly I don't mean by name but by the province it was at the time of the New Testament letters).  Here it is, in Romans chapter 15, verse 19 . . .

17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done – 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. 

Illyricum, which today's coastal Croatia then was, had an early opportunity to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  How did that happen?

It happened because it was Paul's ambition (20) to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known.  The good news of Jesus did not spread around the world by default or by means of a virus.  The change that Jesus brings is enough to drive people to the places and to the people that would otherwise be left to live and die in lives that flourish only in the manner of most nations' transient World Cup dreams.

My Dad's Last Sermon: Part 4: I will strengthen thee

But we thank God that his presence is not a passive presence.  It’s an active presence.  And in addition to promising his presence he now promises his power.  He says, “Fear thou not for I am with thee.  Be not dismayed for I am thy God.  I will strengthen thee”.  He promises them power, power to strengthen them.

Now remember that the people to whom this prophecy was aimed were people that had been in captivity.  Obviously 70 years of captivity had considerably weakened them.  They didn’t feel like a fighting force at all.  But that didn’t matter because the Lord was able to strengthen them in their weakness.  You remember the words we read at the end of Chapter 40, in verse 29, concerning our God; ‘He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.’

You see, there is no shortage of strength on God’s part.  He is the everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth.  He fainteth not, neither is weary.  Therefore he is able to give power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Now it goes without saying that for many of us here we do not have the strength that we had just a few years ago.  We recognise that our physical strength has been declining.  Well, if we’re honest, we wonder what we shall be like in December 2013, in a year’s time.  We feel weaker now than a year ago, what will we feel like after another year?  Perhaps that fills us with just a little bit of dread and wonder.  Well, it need not do because although we may decline in our physical strength and feel our increasing physical weakness, we can hear our God saying he gives power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

The apostle Paul experienced this personally, didn’t he?  Remember the verses we read in the beginning of our worship.  Paul had been suffering with a thorn in the flesh.  We don’t quite know what that was but it was evidently some kind of spiritual weakness and Paul was so distressed by this that he besought the Lord to remove it.  Three times he prayed that the Lord would take it away, but the Lord didn’t.  Instead he answered Paul with those words, “My grace is sufficient for thee; my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore Paul was able to rejoice and go on to say, “When I am weak, then am I strong”.  He knew that though he was weak outwardly, he could be strong inwardly, filled with might by God’s Spirit in the inner man.

That can be our experience, dear friends, in 2013.  We may, and will probably, feel our increasing physical weaknesses but we need not become spiritually weak.  As we keep close to the Lord, as we trust in him and believe his Word, he will empower us by the indwelling Holy Spirit so that we shall be empowered inwardly though we are weakened physically and outwardly.

Preparation

The season starts here.

This is the week when the players return for preseason training, something that largely determines where they get to in the football season to come.

It is 30 plus degrees today.  It is a long way from a winter's night in Hartlepool.

There is grass, but goalposts and lines will be replaced with cones and slalom posts.

No crowd roars, cheers or jeers.  Maybe an odd(!) chaplain stands and watches sympathetically (not empathetically).

In itself it is pointless.  Grass, running, a field, sweat.  It is all about the prize of victories (and bonuses) in the autumn, winter and spring.

The work of God's people on earth is not the end but a means to an end.  Making disciples really means calling people to pre-season training!

Paul wrote: I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.  Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Book Review: Entrusted with the Gospel

 

The six chapters of this book are successive expositions of 2 Timothy transcribed from addresses at the national conference of The Gospel Coalition in Chicago in 2009.

Naturally the bi-annual conference is mainly attended by key leaders and the expositions are orientated to those listeners. The preachers are six leading American expositors - John Piper, Philip Ryken, Mark Driscoll, K. Edward Copeland, Bryan Chapell (whose advocacy of Scripture will warm many hearts) and J. Ligon Duncan. Each chapter is therefore distinctive in style and depth, making the book more of a sampler than a coherent whole. That said, almost every page contains rich expositional material such as is all too rarely heard from major evangelical voices and the whole is a readable, insightful treatment of Paul’s parting letter.

As a demonstration of the enduring richness and power of expository Biblical preaching, even in our 21st century, this is a fine book. Every preacher, and everyone who believes in Biblical preaching, should read it and a blessing will surely result.

Entrusted with the Gospel.  D.A.Carson (Editor).  IVP 158pp £8.99