Bell Ringing 

Sunday, November 17^th 2024 (week 88)

 
Joel 2:28-32
 
As we move rapidly into winter there are few signs of life in our garden. What hasn’t gone into hibernation is in decay or has already died. We are now getting used to a less attractive outlook and thoughts of springtime seem far away. But as the depths of winter draw closer our thoughts turn towards Christmas.
 
It’s easy for us to become nostalgic about Christmas as we look back at childhood days which almost always look favourable through the rose-coloured spectacles of hindsight. One of my “rosy” remembrances is of church bells ringing out for all to hear. It was also an alarm clock reminding me that it was pre-service choir practice time and I needed to hotfoot it to the end of our drive where our local parish church sat just yards away.
 
We rarely hear the sound of church bells reminding people to come and worship today. But a bell simply isn`t enough to encourage people to join us in praising God. To paraphrase songwriter Matt Redman, we need to bring more than a bell! We need life!
 
The apostle Paul, writing his first letter to the church in Thessalonica said, “And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it”. The early church was speaking out the word of God for all to hear. This only does what God wants it to do when we invite and accept the Holy Spirit into our lives and worship. Without His infectious life in us, we will fail. As Psalm 127 reminds us, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is wasted.” All too often we see the work of well-meaning individuals wasted because of self-reliance. I know because I`ve been guilty of it.
 
In the reading from Joel, the prophet speaks about repentance, restoration and the Day of the Lord when God will pour out his spirit on all people. As bystanders, we are observing some of God’s church be ripped apart by scandal, divisions and attempts to redefine God’s accepted word in the Bible. You can be forgiven for thinking that the Holy Spirit isn’t always evident in all of those goings-on. We all need to remember Jesus’s warning that His Father breaks off every branch that does not bear fruit and we simply can’t bear fruit without the work of the Holy Spirit.
 
Being part of a church family where the intervention and work of the Holy Spirit is clearly evident is both a privilege and an absolute need. At Gatehouse, we see the work of the Lord every day of the week as He is proclaimed at various activities, bringing blessing for those giving and receiving. But the whole of God’s church needs to remember that we are not only called to be social workers, helping the hungry, sick, and needy. We are called to be a spirit-filled army of worshipers where the word of the Lord is ringing out to everyone from our churches.
 
Prayer: Lord, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to help us in the work you want us to do.