As you look at this picture, you might be forgiven for thinking, ‘this looks like an unfair contest’.
You could be right, so why is it the starting point for this blog?
At the age of ’16 going on 17′ (I think there’s a song there from a famous musical) I was part of a team that was asked to take a mission in a Baptist Church in Essex.
We were all novices at this idea of taking a mission so it seemed as if we were going into a battle with Goliath.
Let me go back … I was brought up in a group known as the Exclusive Brethren (before you turn off, let me explain).
I thank God for my upbringing in a Bible-believing group but, sadly, they moved away from the Bible as their sole authority and many people left them to make a new start in other churches.
A group of young people and young adults, who had also left the Brethren group, wanted to do something in terms of taking the good news of the gospel to others. The opportunity arose when the Minister of the Baptist Church in Great Sampford asked the group to take a mission in his church which had a congregation of 5 people! This would be a mission to children during the day and evening meetings in the church to preach the gospel to adults.
Here is the inside of the church now …
It had a balcony which obviously hadn’t been used for a long time because it had several inches (centimetres now!) of dust. That would be rubbed off when we had a baptism on the Thursday evening of a young man who was converted on the Monday evening and he invited his biker-mates to his baptism – 40 of them turned up. What a testimony and, for the team, a wonderful confirmation of this mission.
Fast-forward to where Goliath fits in!
This story means a lot to me because it was the first Bible story I ever told and here I was, in my first mission, telling this story to a group of children in a Baptist Church in Essex.
There was a barn opposite the church with lots of hay bales in it. I climbed up on the bales so I could prepare this story in a way that would be lively and appealing to children aged 5+.
I got involved in telling the story, including standing on a stool to try and make my height about 9 feet.
We got through with God’s help and that was the first of many missions and camps that I had the privilege of being involved with in Essex, in Surrey, in Norfolk, in Bournemouth and in Sussex.
What has stayed with me from this story of David and Goliath are these verses in
1 Samuel 17:
‘The LORD…will rescue me…’
‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin BUT I COME AGAINST YOU IN THE NAME OF THE LORD ALMIGHTY, THE GOD OF THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL , WHOM YOU HAVE DEFIED. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands …… AND THE WHOLE WORLD WILL KNOW THAT THERE IS A GOD IN ISRAEL.’
This is the purpose of our mission – that the world will know there is a God in heaven. And this is how we ‘do’ mission – in the name of the Lord Almighty. And this is the message of mission – He has come down to earth in the person of Jesus and, through His death, resurrection and ascension has promised to be with us always, even to the end of the world.
After that, we will be in glory with Him.
That’s why my Bible is very important to me.
So it’s ‘Good night Goliath!’
The Bible and Me 