My Hope

I have re-editted this text of a tract I wrote a while ago now. Though it might be a blessing to someone, so here it is (un-proof read!).

Hope can be a very elusive thing. Just when we think our hopes will be met, so often they are dashed. Without hope we end up in despair. But even in despair we can have a hope that there will be something to hope for again one day and even that can keep us going. Hope is in many ways the foundation of our lives. Most hopes, however, are uncertain; like the hope it will be sunny tomorrow. It may be, but the weather men are sometimes wrong! More seriously, you may hope your latest romantic entanglement may be the one that lasts, but sadly, even after many years relationships can fall apart. Now I have a hope. My conviction is that the hope I have will never be dashed. I share this hope with many people. I have seen this hope in them through serious illness, through joys and sorrows, even in the face of death. I share this hope with people of history, with people of today and with people across the whole world, from every nation and culture. My hope is in Jesus. But before you put this down, thinking, “Here we go. I’m not interested in religion – not your one anyway!” I would like to ask you a question…

You are hoping for a better life, yes? But, if you are honest with yourself, what you have placed your hope in is uncertain. Even though it is uncertain, you are still willing to take a little trouble and difficulty in the hope that it will come through. Here’s the question I want to ask; “What would you give to have a hope that was certain, a hope that lasts?” Could what you hope for in life be replaced by a better, fuller, more certain hope? Is there a hope that cannot be dashed, that will carry us through all the circumstances of life? I have found that Jesus gives us that kind of hope.

I find Jesus both beautifully attractive and incredibly challenging at the same time: his purity, his boldness, his straight talking, his miracles, and, most of all, his love and compassion. And it is in Jesus that I have put my hope. In the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15 the apostle Paul talks about the resurrection of Jesus. He says that Jesus is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”, which means that Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee that all people will be raised from the dead. For that reason we can have a hope that doesn’t just last for this life, but lasts into eternity. Paul (the writer of 1 Corinthians) writes of over 500 people who saw Jesus after he rose from the grave. His basic implication is: If you don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, go and ask some of them. Of course we can’t now, but the point is that you could have then. Paul himself is perhaps the best witness of the resurrection. He was absolutely opposed to all things Christian, but then Jesus appeared to him and his life was completely turned around. Jesus gave him a new hope.

The hope I have in Jesus is one where pain will come to an end, where tears will be wiped away, where grief and sorrow will be unheard of and unremembered. It is hope of a time when my body won’t get aches and pains; where we won’t break our bones, and viruses will not harm us. It is hope of being with God, of enjoying only good things; where the glory of the summer sun will be like a shadow compared to the glory of God himself. The Bible tell us that this is not an uncertain hope, like hoping for sunshine on your wedding day, but a hope that is 100% sure. The reason it is 100% sure is because it does not depend on me, or on anyone who could make a mistake or get something wrong; it depends on Jesus and is proved by what he has already done.

When Jesus is talking about eternal life he says this about resurrection (John 5:26-29), “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement.”

Jesus tells us very plainly about the two possibilities for us in the resurrection.

I have tried to think about what would be going on in my mind if I knew I was going to die soon. I think my mind would be racing. I would remember so many good times and joys I have had. I would remember too so many things I wish I hadn’t done, and think about things I wish I had done. I know that a sense of guilt or shame would mingle with a sense of achievement and thankfulness. But without my hope in Jesus I would wonder this: “Have I been good enough for the resurrection of life?” What amazes me most about Jesus is that my hope of life is not dependent on my effort or ability but on what Jesus has done for me. Jesus was asked once by a crowd, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28). Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” This is why my hope in Jesus is certain – because it isn’t based on my success but in my Saviour. The apostle Peter says that, “[Jesus] suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Because he was successful I can be sure of eternal life. Jesus himself tells us he came not for those who think themselves righteous – who think they have a hope because of what they have done – but for sinners – those who know they don’t have a hope by themselves, and therefore they put their hope in him (Mark 2:17).

Jesus also tells a short story that explains how to have real hope of joy in the presence of God: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).

The obvious implication of what Jesus says is this: if we consider ourselves good and point the finger at others, then we will be humbled not saved. But if we own up to our faults before God, and seek his mercy and grace, then God will exalt us, rescue us from our sin and lift us joyfully to heaven.

The end of Psalm 16 sums up my hope: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures for evermore.” The path of life is faith in Jesus Christ. He is my hope. He came to bring hope to the world in the face of brokenness, pain and death. My prayer is that you will know him as your hope too – whatever your situation. Only he can bring you a hope that is certain, that takes the fear from death and that lasts through death – because he came through death for us.

Norway’s Pain At The Hands Of A ?Christian Fundamentalist?

So many people dead - it is very difficult to write anything as I try and take in the scale of the pain and the violence and seeming hatred of what has happen in Oslo and on Utoeya island. I can’t take in the distress of the families and friends of those killed. I have listen to the report of a young man who played dead to stay alive as his friends were killed around him. It is harrowing and heart rending in the extreme. Of course our prayers go to everyone directly affected and to the Norwegian people as a whole. We ask the God of all comfort to bring his comfort to each one and that he would swiftly snuff out this vial extremism.

At the same time I do feel the need to write now and to write quickly. Why? Here is the reason. Among the first reports about the man thought be responsible for both the bomb and the shooting are these words from deputy police chief Roger Andresen, "We have no more information than... what has been found on [his] own websites, which is that it goes towards the right and that it is, so to speak, Christian fundamentalist." The BBC has set up a page that gives a sketchy profile of Anders Behring Breivik stating that, “On the Facebook page attributed to him, he describes himself as a Christian and a conservative. The Facebook page is no longer available but it also listed interests such as body-building and freemasonry.”

There is a wider issue of bias in BBC reporting which I am not going to begin talking about now. However the immediate concern is that this man identified himself as a Christian, and is being identified by others as a “Christian fundamentalist.” As a Christian I would want to define a Christian fundamentalist as a someone who strongly believes and holds on to the fundamentals of the Christian faith; fundamentals such as the Bible being the infallible word of God; God existing in trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the Lord Jesus dying as a substitutionary atonement for our sin; and so on. The reality however is that the world increasing defines a Christian fundamentalist as someone who holds on to their views in a bigoted fashion; that we hold to beliefs unreasonably in a way that leads to judgemental and hateful words and actions towards those who disagree with us. So in their minds a Christian fundamentalist is likely to commit the type of evil act that Breivik has committed. Increasingly when they come across a Christian who holds firmly to their faith and argues for certain unpopular moral positions because of their faith, they think that person is on a slippery slope towards some kind of violent act.

First of all then we must deliberately and clearly condemn the kind of atrocity that Breivik and any associates have committed as evil, utterly evil, and the complete opposite of a life that is fundamentally devoted to Christ. The Lord Jesus did not come to use his life to take the lives of those who stood in his way, or disagreed with him, or led his country in a way he didn’t like. He came specifically “to give his life as a ransom for many”; that is to pay the price of death in our place to give us life full and complete. A life that is devoted to a Saviour like this will not take the lives of those they dislike. Rather they will do as their Saviour did and commanded, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” On the cross Jesus prayed for those who had put him there, “Father forgive them for the do not know what they are doing.” A month later Peter preached to a huge crowd of them who had ignorantly cried “Crucify him,” and about 3000 of them realised both their mistake and the full reality of God’s mercy and gave themselves to this now resurrected Saviour.

Nothing of Breivik’s actions or words that I’ve seen chimes with this kind of Christianity at it’s most basic (or fundamental); the giving of your life for the rescue of others, the Lord Jesus being our ultimate example, and in that example being our actual salvation. No, Breivik’s actions are entirely evil and nothing to do with true, historic, Biblical, fundamental Christian faith.

The second issue that this raises and is more painful for us to address is how could Breivik think that his views were at all Christian and how can the world even begin to link this kind of atrocity with the word Christian in a way that makes sense to them? How can people begin to think that a Christian fundamentalist is on a slippery slope to extreme judgementalism and even this kind of violence? This is a bigger question than I really feel equipped to answer. But there are a few things that seem clear to me. Jesus’ words to his disciples were these, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” That is go to the world with the good news of salvation and be ready to die as you serve them. The famous words of John 3v16 tell us, “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The less famous words of John 3v15 tell us that this sending meant he would have to be “lifted up,” crucified, for that gift of eternal life to be given freely.

The problem, from where I sit, is that the church for too long has been a place that has spent so much time pointing out other people’s sin and condemning and being judgemental and getting angry about other people’s sin that we have not spent enough time showing people this wonderful offer of eternal life. Our lives have not been characterised by self sacrifice to the glory of God and salvation of our neighbours. Our words have not been “full of grace, seasoned with salt,” but full of judgement and seasoned with a condemning tone of voice. Therefore when someone like Beivik sees some vague similarity between what he thinks is right and what he hears the church saying; when he hears condemnation from the church of things he hates he begins to think that he holds Christian views. When he sees anger from the church it chimes with his anger. And in the twists and turns of his heart he begins perhaps to think that he can be an instrument of God’s justice, when all he is is a doer of evil, and no doubt a self righteous, determined he is right to do it, doer of evil. Too easily the church has done him and the people he has so savagely attacked a huge disservice.

The only way for this perception of the church, and the confusion of people like Breivik and the deputy police chief to be undone is (and I am mainly talking about Christians in the West) for Christians  themselves to stop playing at trusting Christ and do it really. It is vital that Christian people live the eternal life they have been given and value the things God values. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” There is no easy believism with Christ, no emotional response without life transformation. “Let us not love with words, but with actions and in truth,” says the apostle John. Life is found here; full, vibrant, spiritual life. Life that hurts, life that is let down by other people, life that sticks out its neck and often has that neck hacked at. But it is true spiritual eternal life. Life that is full of the Spirit, that produces the fruit of the Spirit, that is lived in praise of God because of his mercy to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, and life that is the aroma of life to those who are being saved. We should be so radically self giving as followers of Christ that there is no way that anyone could confuse a solid, Bible believing, historic evangelical, dare I even say fundamentalist Christian with anything other than a servant.

How Do You Organise Your Time?

I reorganised my diary last night. I do this fairly regularly as things I need to do often change slightly, and if I don't keep up with my diary then I easily lose my way. I tweeted/facebooked that this was what I was doing and my sister asked me how, as a pastor I went about organising my diary and building flexibility into it. (She had reasons for asking!) As I was trying to note down brielfy what I did I thought it might make a good blog post - and she encouraged me to go for it. So here is a slightly expanded version of what I wrote to her. I would be very interested in how you organise your diary (especially if you are entirely responsible for how you organise your time). It's always good to share ideas and learn from each other, and being organised is definitely an area I could do with some help in. Anyway - enough of the intro; here it is:


I use Google Calander for my diary, which I find very helpful - especially as it syncs with my phone (which plays a reminder for each thing I need to do!!!). We also have the church calendar online, and Helen has her calendar online too. Therefore at a glance I can see what is on Helen's schedule, my schedule and the church schedule. As I plan and change my plans having all three together is really very helpful.

In terms of how I sort out my weekly time table it works something like this.

1) I print out (or write out) a blank sheet of paper seperated into 1/2 hour blocks from 8am-10pm for the whole week. I do not plan to work outside these hours (and usually not before 9am or after 9pm). It gives me time to get up to pray and help Helen with the kids. It helps me to make sure that I get to bed on time so that I can get up on time! As Rico Tice likes to remind us, "If I go to bed after 10pm I have decided not to pray in the morning."

2) I write into that all the immovables - which for me are mainly meetings (and meal times!) my day off and time to spend with the family. It is very important as a husband to corner off part of my week specifically to spend with Helen. It is very important as a father to corner off part of my week specifically to spend time with the children and for us to spend time together as a family. Most of my other immovables are on the church calendar; homegroups, Sunday ministry, etc.

3) I make a seperate list of all the things I need to spend time on in the week, preparation for meetings, admin, visitng/phone calls, etc. and write down next to each one how much time I want to spend on them.

4) I then add up all the hours I have placed on that list and if it is more than I can handle working week in week out I begin to edit the numbers until it is manageble. You need to know yourself to do this well - and it may take some trial and error. You need to know if you can work a 60 hour week no trouble, or if you will burn out if you work more than 45 hours. Know yourself - don't expect more of yourself than you know that you can give - but plan with faith in the goodness of God! If you are anything like me you will end up with a total above what you know you can do - therefore you will need to slim how much time you want to spend on tasks, to how much time you need to spend - starting with the most important things. For instance I would love to spend 10 hours on sermon prep, but I limit myself to 8.

5) Once I have my list of what I need to do, and how much time I can afford/need to spend on each item I begin to work these into the week planner that I have drawn up. I put the most important things earliest in the week so that if the unexpected happens I have some time to reorganise for later in the week. I put more flexible(read "unpredictable") things in later in the week so that as the week fills up with unplanned things (you notice how weeks do that) I can swap the important things that I have missed into the place where the flexible things were planned. (Hopefully this makes sense. I will try and post a couple of examples soon so that you can see all this worked out.)

HERE'S THE FLEXIBLE BIT

6) I add at the end of every day time to thank God for what he has helped me get done that day and to prayerfully plan the following day. (I also spend some time on a Tuesday morning planning the whole week). I know what I have and haven't accomplished that day; I can see where I have meetings and other events that are unplanned (an urgent hospital visit for instance) and can reorganise my time around them. I have time on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday that is flexible that is either labelled "Pastoring" or "Study". These are the major blocks of time that are movable in the week describing a broad range of activities that crop up in the week at all sorts of times. Then if I get a call to make a visit on Tuesday when I should be starting on my sermon, it simply swaps with part of the "Pastoring" time. Or if I have a meeting about organising a youth event earlier in the week when I plan to be doing admin, then I can swap it round with the "Study" time. Study time moves to Admin time and Admin time moves to Study time.

The most important times in the week are these 10minutes at the end of the day to give thanks and to plan the next day. If I don't do these then everything falls apart because I get stressed that I haven't done what I have planned - stress causes me to procrastinate - and everything goes down hill from there!
If you got through all of that - congratulations! I will try and post some examples of what I do and how it works out so that you can see it in action - I think that will help more. I do this process three or four times a year, depending on how my diary might change. School holidays are obviously different to term time. Different terms are often different because of after school clubs, etc. It takes about an hour of prayerful work - but without it I would be thoroughly lost!!!
I hope this is helpful to someone.

An Interesting If Misleading Question From A JW

This morning we spent some time at the local market offering people gospel leaflets and trying to get into conversation with them, invite them to church and share a little about how fantastic Jesus is. Towards the end of our time there a Jehovah's Witness stopped me and began asking a few interesting questions - most of the normal things they like to talk about. Right at the the end she asked me this, "If Jesus is God, how can God have died? If Jesus didn't entriely die how can that be a full and complete payment for sin?" She didn't give me a chance to answer, however if she did here's roughly how I would have responded.

1 - A question - When the body dies, does the soul die? My answer and her answer ought to be the same; no the soul does not die. What then is death? Death, as we know it, is the end of the life in the body. It is when the body has no more life in it.
Now I cannot claim to understand how Jesus can be God and man at the same time, only that the Scripture clearly declares it to be true. However with the eternal Son of God taking on the nature of man, God came among us in human form. Therefore when Jesus died, when life left his body, it is perfectly correct to say to those who killed him, "You killed the Author of Life," which is precisely what the disciples do say (the "Author of Life" being a title that is applicable to God alone.) It is therefore no lie and misunderstanding to say that God died. Life left his body and he was dead.

2 - A misunderstanding - In some ways the most important part in Jesus death was the three hours in the darkness as he hung on the cross. During that time he experienced what Revelation calls the second death. Beyond what we can grasp, he experienced the eternity of hell on behalf of everyone he will save in those three hours. He paid the the total price of our sin so that we could be set free from the total price of our sin. Physical death (the first death if you like) is in comparrison only a symptom of sin that points to the reality of the second death (pictured in Revelation as a lake of fire). The death Jesus died was far more than simply his life leaving his body.

3 - A problem - The real problem comes if Jesus is not God. If he is merely a super angel then he is an innocent third party to sin (neither the sinner, nor the sinned against), and the cross is therefore, as a certain Mr Steve Chalk has scandalously said, "cosmic child abuse." It would be unjust in the extreme and could not be performed by a God who is love.
But because Jesus is God, we see on the cross God (the one sinned against) dealing with the penalty of sin within himself on our behalf. In Jesus the injured party consumes the injury so that the sinner may be healed and forgiven and restored to his side.

Acceptance of the doctrine of the trinity is the only way of grasping the full import and enormity of what happened when Jesus died. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not persih, but have eternal life." He paid for the most expesive free gift that could ever be bought with his own precious blood.

Taste and see that the Lord is good

Here's a clip of John Piper, Tim Keller and Don Carson in conversation.


This is something we really need to get hold of – You can know honey is sweet without having tasted it, but if you have tasted it then you know it is sweet in a life transforming, “I want more of that,” kind of way.

It is quite likely that many of us would get 10/10 in a test on Justification by Faith alone and the Doctrine of Adoption. However my gut feeling is that we have forgotten what these things taste like. What needs to happen for all of us is that we “taste and see that the Lord is good,” not just see. We need not only to see grace, but to encourage each other to risk all on grace and begin to taste that it is really good. Only when we taste that it is really good (and that takes faith which moves in action based on God’s promises) do we begin to move forward in our faith again.

Praying that we would know this faith and taste grace.

Church meetings designed for our good!

It is sobering when you read in 1Cor11 that the Corinthians meeting together for the Lord's Supper did more harm than good. But in that statement we see implied that the Lord designed the meeting together of the church for our good. Central to that is remembering the Lord Jesus Christ, and his giving his life for our eternal good. I would guess that for many Christians meeting together with the church has become difficult. It is easy to get in a place where you feel, "ugh, church today," rather than, "great, church today!" It is worth examining ourselves and  our churches. Is church about Christ? Is it about worshipping God for his mercy? To easily church becomes about our own personal agenda - our own wants and felt needs and preferences. When that is the case it quickly becomes a place where joy is not felt and Christ is not truly sought. And too easily, in those circumstances, we too can become those who do more harm than good in the church. Wonderfully I have better things to report at St. John's Wood Road!

It is a great joy today to see so many different people involved in ministry. Today one led as we met for the Lord's Supper, another led the main morning service, I was preaching, yet another speaking at Grace Talks. Others were welcoming at the door, doing the projector, playing music, leading and helping in Children's Church, providing refreshments, cooking lunch. As I preached this morning I could see the gospel at work in people. Not I hasten to say because of any holiness or brilliance on my part - that sadly is manifestly not the case. Simply the message of Christ held forward from the word of God, blessed by his Spirit.

Some of us are learning hard lessons in our hearts, others are finding comfort where before there was very little. There are still hard hearts and hurting hearts. My prayer, and I ask of you to pray with me, that as we lift up the Lord Jesus more people would find him to be the God of all comfort, the rock of salvation and our own glorious Lord. May many more people say with Paul that he is, "the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Beware the Prime Minister's new monoculturism

"State multiculturalism has failed, says David Cameron." So reads the BBC online headline.

"The prime minister has criticised "state multiculturalism" in his first speech on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism since being elected. Addressing a security conference in Germany, David Cameron argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to extremism."

In many ways he does seem to be right. In allowing people groups to live together in cultural pockets we have enabled people to come to this country and live in this and country and even grow up in this country, but remain Indian, Jamaican, Pakistani, etc. Is this a bad thing - no and yes. No, because it provides us with wonderful diversity, especially in the cities. In London (where I live) you can be walking down a typical English Victorian terrace, take a couple of turns and find yourself in an Arabic market, or an African shopping street, or a line of Mediterranean cafes. It is a remarkable place to live and work. But it is also bad, because without doubt it provides a place for discrimination, misinformation and misunderstanding to flourish. Cultures clash and arguments flare up through simple misunderstanding - without the need for actual racism or bad feeling. My wife was on a bus the other day where an argument arose about who should give a seat to whom, and what was and wasn't expected. It was between ladies of three different cultures, who each had different expectations. Two were having a go at the third, then one of them said something that the other misunderstood, so they started arguing. It was a mess. My guess is all three of them had spent most of their lives in this country - but in such different cultures that they didn't understand each other.

These kinds of misunderstandings easily produce entrenched views and biased opinions that merge into racism all too easily. Because the communities don't mix there is no forum for these views to be dispelled, and animosity grows in local communities and between local communities. That is the reality of our attempts to be multicultural and to blandly tolerate each other without actually properly engaging and mixing with each other. This lack of mixing has been fuelled by immigration policy that dumps immigrants together in the same place. It may help them in the short term to come to terms with living in a new country. But it helps neither them nor the country in the long term.

Something that I have begun to notice more in our local area is the animosity between local Islamic cultures. In other areas local Muslims come together around their faith and see themselves as one community. But there are so many Muslim people here, from different flavours of Islam, some Sunni, some Shia, some Sufi, etc. that the tensions you see between these groups in the Middle East you see on our streets and in our schools. The school our boys go to draws about 95% of its pupils from Muslim homes. (Yes that’s right, 95% Muslim in the middle of London, England!) What you see in the playground is children saying "I won't be your friend because you don't believe the same as me." And that is from one Muslim child to another. This is a result of our past immigration policy, and is not good.

Something has to change. Here is the PM's solution - "Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism." What he means by that is, a genuinely liberal country which "believes in certain values and actively promotes them. Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights, regardless of race, sex or sexuality. It says to its citizens: 'This is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe these things.'"

It all sounds great but all these things must have limits, and Mr Cameron is admitting that within his statement. If your liberalism is muscular rather than tolerant would it not shout down and muscle out anyone who spoke against it. Would a muscular liberalism really defend in a muscular way the right of people to argue against it? You would hope it would, but you fear it would not. Would a muscular liberalism defend freedom to worship an ideology that was racist or sexist or violent? Should it be that liberal? Should not a society that was good seek to stamp out those kinds of things? Therefore will a muscular liberalism affirm equal rights for all or will it limit the rights of those who disagree with it and say, "You do not have the right to say and do that." Surely it will and it must.

For the Christian this will therefore pose a serious threat. Liberalism hasn't perhaps been as un-muscular as the PM thinks or suggests. Already there are areas of orthodox (by which I mean historic, evangelical, Biblical) Christian belief that are frowned on, if not outlawed. A clear example that has recently been in the news is that we stand on the Bible in its affirmation that homosexuality is immoral. How Christians respond to that issue and to people who identify themselves as gay is an area where I think we need to be clearer as a whole. The law currently states that we may not discriminate against people because of sexual orientation. Which in most cases I would completely agree with. We shouldn't be derogatory towards them, stereotype them, etc. On the contrary we should love them with the same sacrificial love that the Lord Jesus has loved us with. But love isn't bland. Love may give a wholesale acceptance of a person without discrimination, but it must also reject the actions and beliefs of a person that damage the body and lead the soul away from God our Father. To use David Cameron's phrase, love must be "muscular", to the cost of self for the benefit of the one being loved.

I fear that if Mr Cameron's muscular liberalism gains and holds sway, then it will muscle out freedom of speech and freedom to worship and equal rights, even as it tries to muscle them in; and it will do that in biased and aggressive way. Really what this country needs is a muscular love or perhaps aggressive grace! The kind of love that is muscular with self, controlling the desire for our own rights in order to uphold the rights of others. The kind of grace that aggressively represses the urge to pay back and pay out, but instead gives out and gives back without expectation of reward. The kind of tough love that may make you unpopular when you tell someone their behaviour is unacceptable (because it damages people, others or self), but that is ready to forgive and where genuine repentance is seen, encourages and welcomes back into society. That’s the kind of love that comes from a holy God who will not brush what is wrong under the carpet with a bland tolerance, but will come amongst us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to give his life for us and for our good.

Can we have hope of desperate prayers being answered?

I don't know if you've seen the film "O Brother Where Art Thou?" I think I'm right in saying it's a slightly odd take on Homer's "The Odyssey". Anyway, in the film the main character, played by George Clooney, is consistently derisive of God and faith in God. However at the end of the film he finds himself about to be killed, and falls to his knees and prays a desperate prayer both for forgiveness and salvation. As he is about to be hanged a damn breaks and the flood of water washes him and his companions to safety. They are convinced it was an act of God, but he again writes God off.

Many people, and you may be among them, when they find themselves in a desperate situation will pray a desperate prayer. "God or whoever you are, if you are up there, please help me." My question is; can we have any hope of God answering that kind of prayer?

If we think of this kind of prayer in terms of me asking my dad for help perhaps it will help us. My dad is called John Hawthorne. He is good dad and I love him very much. He has cared for me, spent a large amount of time and money on me. He consistently has me in his thoughts and care even though I am now a dad myself. He is a generous and loving man. I can go on to describe to you what he looks like, snap shots of his life history, (such as memories of growing up in Coventry during the WWII,) his current projects, who he is married to, his other children (my sisters). In short my dad is a specific person, who has a specific character and personality and history. Throwing a prayer in the air in the hope that God, whoever he may be, will answer it, would be a little bit like me randomly opening the phone book and dialling a number, or several numbers and saying, "Dad, I don't know if you're there, or what you're like, but I need help."

For a dad who has not only been the means of my birth, but also the main influence on my life and main contributor to my survival and development, who has poured out his love on me and continues to, would that not be a massive insult? It would be a disgraceful thing to do to him. He would have every right to take offence if he heard what I was doing. Surely the same is more true with God. He gives us life and breath and our very being. Every good gift comes from him. He makes himself known to us by becoming a man, Jesus Christ, and gives proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from the dead. And yet we have the audacity to think that God will respond when throughout our whole lives we have ignored and pushed him to one side. It is quite remarkable when you think it through, and yet we still pray that prayer. When we have come to an end of ourselves and we have nowhere left to turn, just in case we cry out to "whoever may be up there."

So you might expect me to now say, "No. God will not listen." But actually I'm going to say, "Yes. He may well listen!" How do we know? What happened when Jesus died is how we know. From the time of the fall of man, people had been barred from the presence of God. A flashing sword and mighty cherubim (not sweat little babies with wings, but mighty and dangerous angels) guarded the way back into God's presence. When the tabernacle and then the temple were built, the curtain that separated the most holy place, (the place of God's presence with his people,) had woven into it cherubim. The imagery was clear - you are not allowed into God's presence. And that was even for the priests who served in the temple. However when Jesus died something very curious happened. As he cried his last cry, breathed his last breath and gave up his spirit "the curtain in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." Jesus by his death opened the way for us to come to God, to know God, to find his unstoppable mercy. Thieves and murderers (like the guy on the cross next to Jesus) could find forgiveness. Everyone from the highest to the lowest, from the most devout Jew who knew God intimately, to the least religious Gentile (a word for non-Jew) has the chance to come into God's presence because of what Jesus accomplished through giving up his life.

When we pray the desperate prayer, we have right to expect an answer. We are not doing God a favour by finally praying. But if you will rely on him being exceedingly merciful perhaps he will. Only if he answers, (and he answers in many different and unexpected ways,) and you find yourself brought out of the situation don't do what George Clooney's character did, and write God off again. Run to Jesus in thankfulness and begin discovering there is plenty more mercy waiting for you!

Rehoboth

Gen 26v22 "Then he (Isaac) moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac named it Rehoboth, saying, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land."
A friend of mine cherishes this name dearly. It has been and continues to be his prayer as he seeks to plant churches and re-establish old churches on the brink of closure; that the Lord would make room for gospel churches, and that he would prosper them in the land. Perhaps we could all be praying this for our own churches, and other churches that we know. And may the Lord answer our prayers.

Testing a sermon upload site.

Here should be an embedded mp3 player of an old sermom from Colossians. Let's hope it works!


Col 1v9-14 Wisdom And Power For Life

Where is your heart?

Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What are your plans for today? What do you hope to get done? How will you relax? Perhaps we can dig a little bit deeper and ask the why questions. Why are you planning to do those things? Why do you relax in that way?

Perhaps today you aim to get the grocery shopping done. It's something most of us have to do every week. In answer to why we can state the obvious, "Because we need to eat!" However there is another motivation behind our shopping that will determine what we buy, and in fact where we buy it. Jesus, in this section of the sermon on the mount, is talking about the lure of money and the way it can take over our lives. If we are seeking treasure on earth we tend to go one of two ways (and often a mixture of the two). We may seek to shop very carefully so as to spend as little as possible, therefore keeping as much money for other things as possible. Or we may enjoy spending on "treats" and fancy food, both to spoil ourselves and to show everyone that we can afford to buy the Waitrose Premium carrots, rather than the Tesco value ones!

Alternatively, if we are seeking treasure in heaven, our overriding desire will be the glory of God. We will buy to take care of our bodies which belong to God ("you are not your own, you were bought at a price"), so we may well buy better quality food. We will spend wisely and within our budget so as to honour God in how we use our money, so the Tesco value range will not be beneath us. We may try to buy fair trade products so that we are loving our neighbours in poorer countries. All to the glory of God.

Where your treasure is, there your heart is. What you treasure in your heart is revealed by your weekly shopping list, how you do your work, the way you respond to your family, how you relax, how you deal with frustration, etc. Do not store up for yourself treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, but store up for yourself treasure in heaven where your treasure is eternal.

If you set your heart on the glory of God, showing the world how fantastic Jesus is, in all you do, making that your treasure, then you will find a treasure that nothing can destroy and no-one can steal.

Three tests of faith

I've begun reading Matthew's gospel in the morning.  Today the first part of my reading was where Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. Have also been looking at Hebrews recently where it says that Jesus our great high priest has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin.  At the beginning of Matthew chapter four we see three of those temptations.  I think you could put these temptations into three categories.  The first temptation Satan says, "if you are the Son of God, tell the stones to become bread." The basic temptation is for Jesus to be his own boss.  Not to live in faithful obedience, but to put his own desires before loving trust of his Father.  Satan's second temptation is for Jesus to throw himself from the temple.  Satan quotes the Scriptures saying God will not let him be hurt.  He is of course twisting the Scriptures to his own ends. He is tempting Jesus to disbelieve God's word.  His third temptation is to receive power over all the world the easy way.  It is Jesus inheritance by his resurrection from the dead, but Satan offers it to him without the need of the cross. 

This year no doubt we will each be tempted to be our own boss, to disbelieve what God says, and to take the easy way out.  It is a great comfort to know that Jesus stood up under these temptations.  That he lived a sinless life so that he might deal with our sin for us on the cross.  When we fall we have a saviour.  It is also good to know the truth of the later scripture that says, "resist the devil and he will flee from you." Here Jesus resists the devil by keeping his eyes on his Father in heaven.  As we look to our Father in heaven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we will discover that there is a way out from under every temptation.  Let us pray for grace to stand in the face of the devil schemes and after we have done everything still to stand.

Happy New Year!!!

Genesis1v1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1v31 God saw everything that he had made, and it was very good.

Rev 4v11 You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

John 1v1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1v3-4 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
John 1v14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Matthew 1v21 ...and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Hebrews 1v3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Hebrews 4v14-16 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 12v1-3 ...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.