Why last night was great!

Last night was our Carols by Candlelight traditional carol service. It was great for several reasons. Luke and Josh, our resident opera singers, did a duet of "O, Holy Night," which was spectacular to kick us off (click here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLe7ftzdTCo). Rachel P and her team did a great job on decorating the room. It was a really chatty atmosphere beforehand and afterward. The readers all did an ace job. But for me the reason it was great was the people who were there.

 

We had been praying that people we invited would come. And they did. And they did from very nearly every avenue of invitation used. There were friends who had been invited who came, there were people from the flats above us, there was someone from the carol singing in Church Street, there were new and returning visitors from the Meetup group, people who come in the morning came for our evening and brought family with them, even mates from previous churches! We prayed they would come and they did. We would love for more to have come mind, so we aren't going to stop praying. But it was great to see so many there, from so many different areas of invitation.

Our great prayer now, and if you are the praying type please pray with us, that something sung, read, prayed or heard in the preaching would be used by God to plant in the hearts of those who came a seed of the gospel that will grow up into eternal life.

 

A difficult two weeks

The last two weeks have been hard. A dear friend, a sister in Christ from our church, died very suddenly a week ago last Sunday. Below are two short passages I wrote. Partly to help me deal with what I was in the middle of and partly wondering whether I would post them on this blog. Having read them through again I have decided I will post them unedited  I hope they bless you as you read them, just as Hyasmine blessed our church and our family while she was with us.


Sunday 4th November - 9:54pm


1Th 4:13-18
13 Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. 15 For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

It's 21:54. I'm sat in ICU on the 4th floor of the Royal Free hospital. Hyasmine, my very dear friend & sister lies not far away, her brain inactive, her body supported by machines. Final tests are being done. Helen is here with Kate her closest friend & companion for 30 years. Tears flow. We wait for confirmation of the news we don't want to here. Hyasmine is in her early 50's. Through her the Lord has blessed our church & my family in ways too numerable to list here. It is enough to say that today 40 people ate the lunch she prepared with Kate. She collapsed having just finished preparing it. We ate knowing her condition was critical. We prayed seeking a miracle but knew this kind of miracle the Lord does not do often. Our sister has fallen asleep in Christ.

You might ask why I am writing a blog entry now. To pass the time? Perhaps more to avoid mulling on the reality that Hyasmine has fallen asleep. We have been at SJWRBC for 7 years. So have Hyasmine & Kate. They have sung with us, prayed with us. Hyasmine especially has taught our children. She has welcomed & befriended & cooked & cleaned. I wasn't going to do the list. I see her smile in my minds eye. I remember her voice & the hug she gave me last week as we greated each other.

To be honest the grief is yet to hit me. It will. Right now my concern is for Kate.

The church has come a long way in 7 years. Of all those at the church, Hyasmine has been one of the very few people the Lord has used most over that time. Now she knows in experience what Paul knew by faith, "It is better to be with the Lord."

Sunday 11th November 2:30pm

Ambushed by Grief

I knew today was going to be difficult. It has been harder than I expected. I was preaching in Greenwich, Devonshire Drive Baptist, this morning. It was already going to be difficult with the loss of Hyasmine still filling my mind. It was before that going to be harder. The reason - very sadly the pastor's son had died a month earlier. I was blessed to have the  pastor and his wife in the service. The first time they had been back to church since Alex's death. In a sense it made my job harder, but there was encouragement here for me. Even in their circumstances their faith is holding; God gives grace as needed.

What I was entirely unprepared for was the way grief ambushed me at the end of the service. Up to today my grief at Hyasmine's death had been sporadic and unsettlingly shallow. But as I finished the sermon grief ambushed me. I barely managed to announce the final hymn "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross" before the tears began rolling down my face. I was entirely unable to sing. For a moment my shoulders shook and I simply sobbed. No amount of trying to get myself back together would stop the tears.

I had spoken from John 13 v 1 to 17 "The full extent of God's love". I had said that though life is often painful and full of questions we cannot answer we cannot question God's love towards us. With power over the universe Jesus decides to wash his disciples' feet, to serve as an illustration of what he is about to do. Still holding all power and authority he submited himself to death in order to come to each one of us and personally wash the grime of sin off our souls.

I may not have answers to all the questions in my head. I may not be able to stop the tears flowing down my cheeks, but I know the love of my Saviour. I know my sister is with him. I grieve but I have hope because of the love that Jesus poured out in action and in truth. My prayer and my hope is that today of all days my affliction may have been a comfort to others more afflicted than myself.

2Co 1:3-7

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

What the Lord Jesus is to me...

By C H Spurgeon

His promises have been yea and amen.
 I do but speak the testimony of every believer in Christ, though I put it thus
 personally to make it the more forcible. I bear witness that never servant had such
 a Master as I have ; never brother had such a Kinsman as He has been to me;
 never spouse had such a Husband as Christ has been to my soul ; never sinner a better
 Saviour ; never soldier a better Captain ; never mourner a better Comforter than
 Christ hath been to my spirit. I want none beside Him. In life, He is my life ; and
 in death, He shall be the death of death ; in poverty, Christ is my riches ; in
 sickness, He makes my bed ; in darkness, He is my Star; and in brightness, He is
 my Sun. By faith I understand that the blessed Son of God redeemed my soul
 with His own heart's blood ; and by sweet experience I know that He raised me up
 from the pit of dark despair, and set my feet on the rock. He died for me. This
 is the root of every satisfaction I have. He put all my transgressions away. He
 cleansed me with His precious blood ; He covered me with His perfect righteousness
 ; He wrapped me up in His own virtues. He has promised to keep me, while
 I abide in this world, from its temptations and snares ; and when I depart from this
 world, He has already prepared for me a mansion in the Heaven of unfading bliss,
 and a crown of everlasting joy that shall never, never fade away.

Thanks Geoff for sharing this.

Problems With Prayer

Last week we ran our first "Connected" evening. It is a different format for doing church aimed at inviting your friends along. For our first evening we looked at "What does it look like when God answers prayer?" In our YouVersion live event post I asked why people find it hard to pray. (If you have come here from this week's YouVersion event ad welcome!) The answers we got back were very interesting. They included being tired to being caught in sin. I thought it might be worth having a very brief think through about prayer here. I hope it will be some help to you.

There is a sense in which, for the Christian, prayer should be like breathing. In all things our minds and hearts should incline towards God at all times. However our relationship with God is just that - a relationship. We show how much we value our relationships by how much exclusive time we are willing to give them. My wife knows I love her when I stop doing everything else and just give her my time. In the same way the time we take out to "be with" God in prayer and the Scriptures reveals the value we place on that relationship. If you are finding it hard to pray is it because your love for God has dried up or gone cold. If so, please don't feel alone. I don't know a Christian who doesn't sometimes get in this place. Prayer and Bible reading, if done at all, becomes a tick box exercise; read my Bible, check - prayed, check, brushed my teeth, check, - etc.... If we get here we have forgotten the gospel - we've forgotten why we loved him in the first place. Perhaps we should remind ourselves.

Jn 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1Pe 1:18-19
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Isa 53:5
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Rom 5:8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1Jo 4:10
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I don't know if these are familiar verses to you, I hope they are. Don't let them wash over you. Go back read and re-read them. Allow the truth of them to sink into your hearts. Remember that the Christian life is a life of repentance (true sorrow and seeking of forgiveness for all your sin) and faith (believing God loves you better than you ever could, and so following after your Lord). Those two steps need happen again and again every day. The reason we can be sure we are safe when we do is the cross - the demonstration of God's love - and the resurrection - the demonstration of God's power.

The reality of the gospel, and the forgiveness of our sin through the death of Christ in our place means that this is true:

Heb 10:19-22
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Because of what the Lord Jesus has done we may come to God in heaven as our Father (perfect, beautiful, glorious, eternally loving Father) knowing he will accept us every time. We can rejoice in the Lord and:

Phi 4:6
6... not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Our Father in heaven loves you so much he did not even withhold the life of his eternal Son from us. And so we love him, because he has loved us. The Lord Jesus wants to spend time with us so much that he gave his life so we could be with him in an eternal home.

Now of course if you are caught in a sin you can't escape it will keep you from prayer. You will feel dirty and unworthy. (That's why we need Jesus folks.) Do not stop fighting that sin, but remember grace from the throne of heaven is always there for you. If you don't seek God how do you to overcome your sin. The only way to do it is by God's grace. You really want to beat that sin - then pray! Ask for God to be merciful to you. Pray and don't give up. There is grace for you.

If your tired - I know how you feel! (As I do with the sin issue actually). This morning I fell back asleep as I tried to pray - woke up late and was in a rush to get the kids to school! Do you know how I feel when one of my children curls up on my lap and goes to sleep in the middle of the conversation. I'm not annoyed! I'm delighted that my child feels so safe with me. Of course it isn't ideal. Perhaps like me you need to sleep earlier (hence this post is about to finish). But don't beat yourself up over it. Your heavenly Father won't! Set aside 5, 10, 15 minutes to spend time talking with your Father in heaven. Praise him in his glory, thank him for his goodness, seek his will in his Lordship and repent knowing you are safe in his mercy.

Job's finest hour!

Still in Job at the moment. I find this to be the second most remarkable part of Job and in some ways is Job's finest hour! At first his friends were more tentative in their criticism of Job and their logic that he must have done something very wrong for such a great calamity to come upon him was delivered with a little softness. Not so now. As the second round of speeches by his "friends" come their logic is bold and ungloved. Satan has taken nearly all he has, and then inflicted his body. But his friends are so certain of their logic (which is based on a similar idea to karma, making a rule out of the proverb "what goes around comes around,") that they attack his inner life. They are not satisfied that his external blessings are gone and his flesh is being consumed by ulcers.

Job 19:21-27
"Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!"

Job's faith here staggers me. Certainly he is not right in everything he says (though he refuses to curse God). But at this point as his friends begin to mercilessly attack his faith, he holds on so strong. Beyond doubt his hope is set in his Redeemer, knowing that the day will come when this Great One will stand on the earth and all will be seen as it ought to be. His hope is in (full physical) resurrection - even after his skin is destroyed, in his flesh he will see God, his eyes will behold him. This great hope keeps him and sustains his soul under the most awful pressure. It seems he has nothing left but this hope, but still in faith, knowing his God, he clings to it.

Now we have an advantage over Job. We have seen in history our Redeemer come and finish his redeeming work. The Son of Man has come to serve us and give his life as a ransom for many. The ransom he paid on the cross has redeemed our lives for glory. So the author to the Hebrews exhorts us to fix our eyes on Christ the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame. Jesus endured worse than Job; Job's life was spared, but Jesus gave his away, being made to be sin, being made to suffer the wrath of God at sin in our place. A yet even there at his most forsaken his hope remained in his God ("My God, my God" he cried). 

Job's finest hour teaches us where to look, where to cling, when all we have is taken away. The New Testament brings his example into sharper focus. Job's redeemer is Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. His suffering accomplished (authored) our rescue and is the foundation of our faith. His suffering is the example (perfection) for our faith to follow. So we can know that even when we feel forsaken or overlooked by God, our Redeemer lives and he will stand on this earth. Even in despair keep looking at the one who will stand on this earth, and we will see him in our flesh!

Someone to speak to God on our behalf in our suffering.

This was part of my reading from Job today. Job feels his suffering is unfair. From a human perspective you can entirely understand his feelings. He is an upright man. From a deeper heavenly perspective Job knows no-one is righteous before God (Job 9v2) . In his confussion and pain he dispairs. As he says here, there is no-one to stand between God and himself. There is no-one to bring them together who can plead his case. That is he knows of no-one.

Job 9:33-34
33 Nor is there an arbiter between us,
who might lay his hand on us both,
who would take his rod away from me
so that his terror would not make me afraid.

Job sees an arbiter/advocate is required. An arbiter that can not only speak to God on our behlaf, but also take God's anger at our sin away; sin that seems so small on earth, but that would see us consumed if we approached heaven without mercy. Without acquittal arbitration is powerless.

Into the picture strides Jesus.

1Jo 2:1-2
1 ...if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, 2 and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins...
In one man God has become for us the advocate and purifier, that we need. His atoning sacrifice for our sins means he can now, and does, stand before the Father and plead our case by God's own faithfulness & justice. The mercy of God is extended to his people in faithfulness & justice. It does not remove us from the consequences of our sin, or the consequences of evil actions by other earthly or heavenly beings. But it does guarantee the security of the soul forever & raising up at the last day.

As Job suffered for the sake of righteousness and would not curse God, Satan was defeated. As Christ suffered for the sake of righteousness and took God's curse on sin, Satan and sin and death were defeated. In Christ we have the saviour and the advocate we need to rescue us for time and eternity. May we, like Christ like Job be willing to suffer for righteousness sake, and so pile defeat upon defeat on our ancient enemy to the glory of God and his Christ, our advocate.

Blogged from my Samsung Galaxy S2

New Year new motivation!

No idea how the blogging will go this year. Hoping it will do a little better than previous years!

As always I begin the year with a Bible reading plan. For a number of years I have used M'Cheynes reading plan, which I have followed more or less successfully depending on the year and been greatly blessed by. This year I have started with a chronological reading plan courtesy of www.youversion.com and their Android Bible app. I am looking forward to reading large sections all at once rather than a chapter here and a chapter there. My aim is to get through the whole Bible twice in the year,  highlighting the verses that catch my eye as I read.  I want then to write in this blog regularly sharing some of my highlights!

It may happen it may not. I hope it will though. I know it would bless me and I hope it will bless you too. What would be great would be if you could join me in reading the Scriptures and highlighting verses. Then you can share with me what you have been finding!