Dear Friends

In ancient China the one thing people desired more than anything else was peace and security. Time and again, however, barbaric hordes swept down from the north invading the area and causing much heartache and death. Finally in desperation the idea was proposed to build a wall to keep the invaders out. It was to be one of the greatest and most ambitious building projects of all time – The Great Wall of China. It was to be an absolutely impenetrable defence – too high to climb over, too thick to break down and too long to go around! In theory it should have worked – however in the first one hundred years of the wall’s existence China was successfully invaded three times (in each case due to the gatekeepers being bribed). Armies simply marched right through the open gate!

There is an interesting parallel between the attempt to provide security and the way some people live and behave today. Many individuals in our society try all sorts of ways to protect themselves - every way but God’s way. They plan for redundancy, prepare for retirement, look after their health and soon they ‘firewall’ their lives with a circle of invisible protection, similar to ‘The Great Wall’ – but like the Great Wall – problems and troubles find a way through, ultimately there is no escape.

I have known many individuals over twenty years of ministry who had the attitude ‘I’m alright without God, I’ve got money, I’ve got influence, I’ve got social status, I’ve got everything covered’! They almost looked down on others who made time for God – “What are you going to church for”? “Why do you bother to pray”? “Why do you obey the Commandments and follow God”? This kind of attitude is referred to in Psalm 10:

‘Such people are proud in their countenance and do not seek after God. God is in none of their thoughts. They sneer and say in their heart, we shall not be moved, I shall never be in adversity.’

Reality is quite different, trouble comes and I have often seen the proud laid low by circumstances they never thought of!

On a national level September 11th 2001 awoke the Western World from its slumber. Up until that date, few people believed Western Nations could ever be harmed by extremists from the Middle East. Now we know the sober truth that no country in the world is safe and the ‘Great Wall’ of our prosperity and distance from the Middle East is no defence. What lesson can we learn from all this experience? – One lesson surely is that nobody can escape from the simple fact that ignoring God’s laws of protection only brings trouble and distress. We ignore God at our peril, both in a personal sense and as a nation. When the history of this age is written down and examined by future generations it will carry as its title ‘Proof that the human race cannot survive without God and His laws’.

Janet Davis a professional parachutist was involved in the dangerous sport of Base-jumping, leaping off fixed objects like cliffs and towers. In protest at Yosemite National Park in California banning Base-jumping she decided to do a publicity stunt to show how safe the sport really was, so as part of the protest she got several reporters to film her jump. These reporters were stunned when her chute failed to open and she fell to her death. The law forbidding Base-jumping was adopted by the park because park officials wanted to keep people safe from harm. The law was created to save life, it was there for our benefit, not to hold us back or stop us from having fun.

So likewise the laws of God, setting standards of morality and conduct. Many people think that they can violate God’s laws and get away with it. They believe they can protect their lives some other way by creating their own personal ‘Great Wall’. People eventually learn, sometimes the hard way, that God’s laws are the only real protection and everything else is futile - no matter what other kind of wall they build - trouble gets through. The reality is there is no other way that works but God’s way!

Your pastor and friend