Now there’s a word that conjures up the excitement of finding things anew. As a boy, I remember being taken by my father up to the River Thames to see the ship ‘Discovery’ that had featured in Captain Scott’s Antarctic expedition to the South Pole in 1901 (although they never quite made it there on that occasion, and we couldn’t actually go on board!) It was, none the less, fascinating and today I am sure would be even more so as it is now moored and fully restored as a tourist attraction in Dundee where the ship was originally built.
This morning, I visited another ‘discovery’ and that is the newly opened Discovery Hub at the Warnham Nature Reserve. In the Discovery Hub you can read all sorts of facts and figures about the wildlife on the reserve as well as enjoying various interactive displays including some relating to the interesting history of the site. Of course there are great views
across the lake and you can watch the various birds that are in view. (A total of 59 different types have been sighted recently although you can’t see them all in a single visit!) This got me thinking about discovery.
There has been much made of self discovery in recent years and this has led many to seek their own paths in life, sadly ignoring the greatest discovery of all which is the Bible we hold in our hands. In the 1689 Baptist confession of Faith which we have been looking at over the past months we read at the very beginning that the Bible (Holy Scriptures) ‘is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation.
Slightly archaic language perhaps, and clearly we can see the importance of recognising God’s goodness in Nature and His works of Creation but more than that, we can see that it tells us that the Bible is ‘all sufficient’ for all men and for all purposes, our greatest being the need of our own salvation and deliverance from a sinful life.
In Psalm 33:4 we are called to sing joyfully and praise the Lord ‘For the word of the Lord is right and true’ it continues ‘he is faithful in all he does’. Here referring to our Lord, of whom who we also read in John 1;14 is ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ This is the great discovery, Jesus is the Word, Jesus is Lord, Jesus through his sacrificial death on the cross is the only way to the Father, the only way to discover truth and life (see also John 14:6).
Yes, I hope you might enjoy a visit to the Nature Reserve or other historical monuments, but my greatest hope for all of us is that we may continue to live out the truth we ‘discover’ as the Holy Spirit reveals to us an understanding of God’s word every time we hold it in our hands and therefore bring glory to Him the source of our salvation and
eternal hope.
Stuart Beadle
Elder
November 2021
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