New Years Day - Blaenycwm Chapel

New Year 2017
Joshua 1:1-18
As you get older the time flies by and it does not seem like a
year since I did a New Year talk.
When Valley of Hope was up and running I used to sit in my
office once everyone had gone and reflect and thank the
Lord we had got through another year.
Carol and I had a lovely time with her family over Christmas
but one time there I found myself reflecting on the past year.
Like most of you it was a mixed year some good things,
some bad things and some sad things, but that is what
makes up life.
The one thing though that is fairly obvious is that the world
is a more dangerous and volatile place than it was a year
ago.
Democracy here and in America has been shown to only
work up to a point because if the losers don't accept the
result then nastiness and division continues.
Terrorist attacks in Europe have been a big factor and the
security services warn us it will continue and here it's not if
but when.
Add to this the rise of the Russian bear and China also
flexing its muscles it's not a great picture, but we should not
be surprised as we are told these things will happen as we
approach the end times.
In our own community people still use Foodbank, drugs,
alcohol and crime continue to ruin people lives.
There were 18 people at our Christmas meal some of them
lonely people who had nobody else to go to.
At our Carol Service we had about 60 people and on
Christmas Eve there were over a hundred in Hope Chapel in
Gelli. People are trying to make sense of what is going on
in the world and if we as the church don't respond to this
then somebody else will.
As individual Christians in our own lives sometimes we don't
understand what is happening to us and we can only turn it
over to God and ask Him to sort it out for us. Often we try
everything else first and when all else fails, turn to Him,
rather than going to Him in the first place.
All of us have concerns and challenges in our lives and our
families and at times it gets us down but Jesus lived in a
very ordinary, quite poor family and He knows what it's like.
No other religion can claim this because their gods are
distant and based on laws instead of a person.
As we follow Jesus and draw closer to Him that is the
comfort and confidence we draw.
In Verse 5 it says "As I was with Moses so I am with you"
that is a promise, we can also claim that God is with us.
As a chapel it is a similar picture with good and bad things
together with sad and happy events.
It's been good to see new people arrive but sad to see
others go for whatever reason.
The youth group and the flat have not worked as we would
have liked and we need to think again.
Some have not been attending as regular as they had done
due to ill health and as a church family that is very sad.
But we have done 3 baptisms, the first for 52 years or so
putting down a spiritual marker.
People have been helped through Foodbank and other acts
of kindness by people here, demonstrating the love of Christ
by practical means.
The Art Surgery has been effectively given to us to manage
for the community and groups are already making use of it.
It's an opportunity to engage with a different group of
people.
I am back in Pen Pych school and hopefully I can do a
better job of that this time.
Weddings and funerals are another opportunity not that I do
that many of them.
The Cafe Drop In had 12 people in at one time just before
Christmas and we need to build on that.
In our reading Joshua is told I will give you every place
where you set your foot, we have to believe this as well, that
whatever we do whatever we say God will give us success.
Verse 6 he is told to be strong and courageous and this has
to be the verse we adopt in this coming year as individuals
and as a chapel. I think it will be a challenging year but one
of opportunities and we have to have the courage to grasp
them.
God tells Joshua don't turn to the left or to the right but to
obey the law and you will succeed.
We must have confidence in our God and His teachings
there is no other under whom people can be saved as
Martin Lloyd Jones quoted on many occasions.
If we really believe the end times are drawing near then
there is an urgency to make sure that all people hear the
good news of Jesus Christ.
King George spoke the following words to the Nation at the
start of World War 2 and I want to share them with you now
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year.
Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.
And He replied
Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of
God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known
way.
So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into
the night.
I caught a bit of Prince Caspian one of the Narnia stories
and when Aslan turned up I had again a very strong feeling
that Aslan, that is Jesus, has entered the battlefield He is
coming back.
Happy new Year to you all.