Friends

I have some very good friends.
Of course, the best Friend sticks closer than any brother could (Prov 18:24).
I don't mean dogs - although they're wonderful hahaha! :)
Or the amazing brother lost to us last year (flickr album, youtube elegy, justgiving memorial).
Or Padi's best friend, WV Higham, also gone to be with our Lord.
Nor, this time, do I mean the many so kind friends who I have known through work, study or church over many years.
I am called back to this blog to note the goodness of God in sending migrants into our lives over the last months. If you had told me a few months ago that today I would count Eritreans and Iranians amongst my most esteemed friends... I would not have been able to hide a curious smile of disbelief. These dear people have fled in agonising separation from almost all they held dear, to preserve a future for them and their families, and invest their considerable talents and uncommon nobility of character into my country. But in many instances they leave the frying pan, for the fire. The unimpeachable judiciary have rejected claims for some of my friends' asylum on the most absurd grounds. One had so much evidence of their Christian conversion, only a criminal mastermind could concoct it... and so that is exactly the line his judge took! Other questions included, 'What is the Eucharist?', as if someone who has only ever known other Christians in the micro-house church they narrowly escaped arrest with would be conversant with CofE ritual! Honorably abstaining from applying for membership or baptism was interpreted as suspicious. Can someone please explain to the judges what a Christian is?

Anyway, in the last week or two, we have taken great joy in baptising one Iranian and welcoming another into membership (sound is better quality on this youtube and the simple membership ceremony is followed by an awesome sermon about what a Christian is). I found the prospect of local mass baptism 'less than ideal', and am happy that we have waited, in keeping with what used to be the normal Welsh practice of old, to see the depth of the profession of brothers like Kaveh and Arman. In days when a pall of wicked unbelief has settled upon the hearts of the Welsh, these 'foreigners' are taking heaven by storm. Many British would not have this Jesus to rule over them (Luke 19:14). But these Iranians, despised on many levels no doubt these days, reveal the joy and love of God. What a force for good in our country would a host of these real Christians be - humble, gentle, honest, brave, diligent, full of love towards even their enemies, 'of whom the world was not worthy' (Heb11:38) and the UK is proving we are not worthy of them. They put us to shame. And shame on us if we send them back to their own nations to face certain death, however glorious, as martyrs (that is what Islam requires done to apostates). Hopefully, some of our own digital resources will help in upcoming court appeals. Let's make Britain Great again by giving these guys asylum.
Unjust judges are condemned in the Bible (Ps 82). There is no way of knowing what kind of evidence such people will accept when they are prejudiced. Thankfully, we are all in the hands of God and can commit our dear friends into His almighty care and keeping. Psalm 130 is the one I think of with regard to them:

1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities

I also commend Winslow's 'Soul Depths and Soul Heights' on this Psalm (Grace Gems full text link).

Baptism service

I spent a while this morning updating my Christmas Readings for Advent in time to distribute a few to friends today and tomorrow. If you'd like a copy, you can download it in MS Word format.

So we hired a baptistry and it worked out really well, fitting nicely in the corner to the left of the pulpit.
Pads looked up at me from bed with a weary and pained expression when I asked, at 1:30pm, if he was coming out to the baptism. In the event, once he'd come around, he was in good form and really enjoyed being out. It was another fantastic gospel opportunity well taken by the Pastor in a sermon from 'It is finished', Jesus' words from cross recorded in John 19. It is finished - He had put an end to the enmity between God and man through atoning for our sin. This alone was the basis for our confidence in looking forward to eternal life.
In the evening the kids all got to watch 'Cry Freedom', one of Ally's favourite films, and they were all expostulating about apartheid afterwards, so that it was difficult to get them quickly off to bed! All-in, we've had a pretty good day.

Baptism

We held a very simple 'family only' baptism service for Pads after the evening service on Sunday night.
The first hymn was by Adoniram Judson:

Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine,
On these baptismal waters shine,
And teach our hearts, in highest strain,
To praise the Lamb for sinners slain.

We love Thy name, we love Thy laws,
And joyfully embrace Thy cause;
We love Thy cross, the shame, the pain,
O Lamb of God for sinners slain.

We sink beneath the water’s face,
And thank Thee for Thy saving grace;
We die to sin and seek a grave
With Thee, beneath the yielding wave.

And as we rise with Thee to live,
O let the Holy Spirit give
The sealing unction from above,
The joy of life, the fire of love. 

The pastor read from Psalm 40:1-4

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 

Pads answered the same three short questions he'd recently been asked when he became a member of the church a few weeks ago:

Do you believe that Jesus Christ came into this world to be the saviour of the world?

Do you believe that he is the only saviour?

Do you believe that he is your saviour?

Then Pads was baptised (by sprinkling), 'in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.'

Pastor Dewi related how he recalled Pads moving from a state of really wanting to be saved, coming to a position of being sure. Indeed, for as long as he could pray intelligently, he'd pray 'Dear Lord and heavenly father, please save me'.
This was similar to Pastor Dewi's experience when he was 12. He could remember singing all manner of hymns to himself as he walked to and from school - a 'new song' had been given to him: a song of praise for lifting him out of the fearful pit of sin and death through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor Dewi recalled the blessed ten years or so that had seen my whole family saved, and here was proof that God is still blessing this family with his salvation.
For the hymns, Pads chose 'Amazing Grace', and, 'When peace like a river attendeth my way, or sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul"'.
Is it well with your soul? Are your feet upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ? 'All other ground is sinking sand'.