Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
Numbers 6 v 24,26
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you,and be gracious to you,
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you And give you peace.
It was the great reformer Martin Luther who coined the phrase ‘Coram Deo’ to describe the purpose for which all of his life on earth had meaning.
What does it mean?
It means "In the presence of God or before the Face of God".
For Luther and the other reformers all of life was meant to be lived in the consciousness that we are living each moment of every day before the eyes of the One to whom we are going to give an account. When king David committed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and then tried to cover up the offence by ordering her husband to be slain on the battlefield, he committed a grave sin before the Lord.
In psalm 51 he is confronted by the prophet Nathan with his guilt and we see and hear David's prayer of repentance.
David is a broken man in his heart before the Lord. But one of the phrases that David uses to express his repentance is to pray: "Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight."
For David although his sin had powerfully impacted on the life of others, what mattered to him the most at that moment was how his sin appeared in the sight of God.
The reality that all of our lives are being lived before the eyes of God should be to a Christian both a comforting thought and a thought that causes us to have a healthy fear of God as well.
The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, who was an outspoken atheist, thought that to say that our lives are like an open book before the eyes of an all knowing God was "dehumanising"
To his mind that made God a kind of cosmic "Peeping Tom" and reduced us to objects of mere curiosity.
But as Psalm 139 so beautifully expresses it: "Where can I go from your Spirit, where can I flee from your presence?"
The answer of course is nowhere.
For God to be God it would be madness to imagine that we can play hide and seek with Him.
Of course what was tragic for Sartre and many others like him, was that he could not imagine God looking at him with a benevolent gaze. He could not imagine that in Jesus Christ he could find a place of safety and refuge in the presence of God.
And that is where the gospel comes in.
We do live before the presence of a holy God and every single person will stand before the judgement of God to give an account of our lives to him, including not just what we have done or not done, but what we have thought and what we have said.
Some people say, "If there is a God as you Christians claim, why are there so many injustices in this world?"
And we can answer that God is just and there is coming a day when everyone is going to give account.
But in the gospel any punishment due to us, any condemnation which we have incurred for our sin (and which one of us would claim to have never sinned?) and the judgement we deserve, the rejection we deserve from the presence of this Holy God was fully taken by Jesus.
Why? So that all who look to him might live.Yes. But as Christians now we should live our lives in the joyful awareness that God's gaze is upon us for our good, for our comfort and for our protection and blessing. God is not now for us a God we try to flee from or to hide our deeds from, rather he is our Father in heaven before whom we willingly lay our lives out and invite His loving searching gaze. "Search me O God and try me see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way that is everlasting".Psalm 139
To pray this prayer and to live ‘Coram Deo’ before the face of God in the presence of God means that I live my life now primarily before an audience of One.
And I know that this God whose eye is constantly upon me, whose saving gaze is trained upon my life, is the One whose face I do not yet see, but one day I will look upon His face and my joy will be complete
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
2 Samuel 23:5
1 September 2019
“Is not my house right with God? Has He not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part?” (NIV)
They say that a person’s dying words are often more candid than those they spoke in life for the simple reason that the looming reality of death produces a candour that makes people often see and assess their life in a different light. The Scripture which I have just quoted is part of David’s dying words to his family and friends and what is interesting in it is his emphasis upon what he describes as an everlasting covenant which is ordered and secured in every part What is this everlasting covenant?
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
Bi-Monthly Newsletter
7 July 2019
If you are reading this bulletin then the chances are that you are in a small minority at this time. You are a part of a segment of our society that values going to either chapel or to church and sees the benefit of setting aside time each week to worship God and to listen to His Word being preached.
Sadly such practice has declined, and for those who are the Lord's people and desire to see His name honoured and glorified we may look at the fortunes of the church at large and long to see God intervening once again as He has in time past and the spiritual tide turning in our nation.
One such occasion
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
Bi-Monthly Newsletter
5 May 2019
As we have slipped almost imperceptibly into the month of May, summer is now not far away. I love this time of year, the longer evenings, the sudden explosion of growth and greenery all around us.
In Pembroke we are blessed with some beautiful surroundings, walking the other evening around Carew millpond and seeing the light cast upon the waters, it is hard not to feel the tranquillity such a scene conveys.
This last winter was not too harsh however in some years the arrival of the spring heralds a welcome break from the harshness of the winter.
In our spiritual walk as Christians we can also experience these contrasts.
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
Bi-Monthly Newsletter
1 March 2019
I am sure that most of us are pretty fed up with hearing the word Brexit.
Almost daily another round of delays and alternative draught plans or no plans are paraded before us and discussed and debated as to what the potential implications of a no deal might be.
Just this last weekend I stepped into a shop in Tenby to buy one item, to emerge over half an hour later, the reason?
A long discussion with the proprietor over Brexit.
It seems that this topic is dominating so much of the news and so many peoples thoughts at this time.
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
Bi-Monthly Newsletter
1 January 2019
The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined.
Isaiah 9 vs 2
As we come to the end of one year and approach the new year we have much to give thanks for.
As the psalmist says in psalm 23 "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." And that promise holds fast for God's people whatever the future might hold. We can trust in His Mercy and Trust in His faithfulness to uphold us through thick and thin.
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans:
Bi-Monthly Newsletter
1 November 2018
"Those who love deeply never grow old, they may die of old age, but they die young".
Benjamin Franklin.
I have often reflected how much we should value the elderly. In today's society we can often exalt youth, sometimes at the expense of valuing and appreciating those who are older. Of course the youth have some wonderful advantages and qualities, like their hunger for life, energy, zeal and sense of adventure and risk taking which can be infectious and a great blessing to any church.
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans
Bi-Monthly Newsletter 1 Sep 2018
In the Bible I love the story of the persistent widow.
The widow comes before a judge who is clearly corrupt and asks for her case to be settled fairly, but the judge refuses. The widow continues to come back to him again and again and eventually because of her persistence, she wears him down to where he is forced to give her the justice that she sought.
Message from the Pastor
Rev Edward Evans
Bi-Monthly Newsletter 1 July 2018
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, And we are not saved.” Jeremiah 8vs20
This scripture comes at the end of a passage in the prophet Jeremiah, where the prophet is lamenting the fact that in his day the people had cast off God's word and had given themselves to covetousness and materialism and still the false prophets were saying peace peace, when there was no peace.
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