Brexit: The Gospel Conversation I Am Not Seeing

Let me start by being very honest. I can't make head or tail of the Brexit issue! I have read numerous articles and arguments, spoken to campaigners on the street, talked with people on both sides of the argument, and I simply do not know which way to vote. I do however have a question that I am finding generally unaddressed by Christians and it causes me great discomfort that there is so little conversation about this among Christians. The question is this:

"What difference will remaining or leaving the EU have on the freedom of Christians in the UK to worship Christ and proclaim the gospel in Europe and across the world?"

I see Christians, along with everyone else, talking about sovereignty and immigration and economics, etc. But I don't see Christians talking about the possible effect on the gospel. It isn't that these other issues are unimportant, but the gospel issues must surely (I dare not say trump!) take priority over them.

So, for instance, what is the trajectory of the law likely to be around religious freedom if we stay in the EU compared to if we come out? Many current university students are "no-platformers". That is, rather than allowing people they disagree with room to speak so they can be engaged and debated with, they prefer to prevent them from having a platform to speak in the first place. (It isn't all of them, but vocal minorities have proven they can change policy.) These very students will become MP's over the next few years. Is this also true in EU countries? To a greater or lesser extent? Could we be facing a far more serious clamp down on free speech? Would this be more likely in or out of the EU? This should concern the Christian community more than the future of East London's "silicon roundabout" or even the employment prospects of our children. Again, it isn't that these other topics are unimportant, clearly they are. But for the Christian the gospel must be the priority.

How will staying in or leaving the EU effect the work our theological colleges do? Will leaving make it much hard to train people for ministry from EU countries, or will it make it easier to train people from outside the EU. Will staying in the EU mean we can train pastors from Europe, but not Nigeria, China and Brazil? Will leaving make it easier to train the non-EU nationals, but harder to train the EU nationals?

How will staying or leaving effect the work of mission in this country? Will better regulation of boarders with Europe mean we can receive missionaries into the UK more readily from USA or South Korea or Zambia? Will it slow the help we receive from the continent, Germany, France, Spain? Will leaving mean it is more difficult to send missionaries into Europe while making little difference to our sending to the rest of the world?

I don't have answers to all these questions, but it strikes me that, more than economics and issues of sovereignty, we should be concerned how this vote effects the worship of Christ and the declaration of his gospel in the UK and beyond. As those who owe our lives to Christ, his kingdom's priorities, and not the priorities of the kingdoms of the world, should govern our decision when poling day comes.

"...seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matt 6:33

Misplaced treasure and Unaswered prayer

On Sunday we were looking at an overview of the sermon on the mount. Reading it again and thinking about teaching the message of the whole sermon I noticed how much Jesus returns to the theme of God as our "heavenly Father". It had always struck me as he teaches us to pray in chapter 6, but actually from the end of chapter 5 onwards the sermon is full of this reality of our Father in heaven.

It is perhaps most striking when you come to the section at 7:7, titled in most Bible's something like "Ask, seek, knock." Here is that section:

^"7 ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ ‘Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Jesus's point is very clear. Our Father in heaven is not like us, who have a serious problem with evil. That problem is made clear by all his teaching from 5:21 to this point. We are complicated; we have serious purity of motivation issues, but we still know how to give good gifts (and do other good things). However our Father in heaven is not like that. There is no evil (sin) that infects him at his core. So how much more will he, our Father in heaven, give good gifts to those who ask him!

By the same token I assume this means if we ask for bad gifts he won't give them. If we ask for a stone or a poisonous snake to eat he isn't going to say, "Here you are?" He will withhold from us anything that will do us harm.

Now keep this in mind and look back at the section most translations call something like, "Treasure in heaven." It is at chapter 6:19-21. Here it is:

¹⁹ ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

A simple way of thinking about this would be, don't look for reward now but reward then. Jesus is specifically talking about money here - don't pile up bank balance, property, possessions now. It is uncertain and does you no good in eternity. Instead, by how you live and what you set your heart on, store up the reward of heaven, the joy of your Father in heaven. As he is about to say in 6:33 "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness".

I take it then seeking treasure on earth is a bad thing, but seeking treasure in heaven is a good thing. Asking God for treasure on earth will not see our Father in heaven joyfully throwing out gifts. It would be like giving his children stones and vipers to eat. But when we are seeking treasure in heaven, when we come to him asking for heavenly treasures, then it is his delight to rain down gifts on the children he loves with an undying love.

Now, Jesus, perceptive as ever, notes "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". And if your heart is set on misplaced treasure your prayers will continually be seeking what is bad for you. You will find again and again your Father's response will be akin to "of course not!" Why would I give you something that will only take you further from me. James (4:2-3), in his letter, is as blunt as ever:

"You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

If we are finding that our prayers are going unanswered, and by that I mean effectively our Father is saying no, it may well pay us to think about where our treasure is. Because if we are aiming to store up treasure on earth, whether money or property or reputation or promotion or perfect children or a big score on that computer game or.... , then our treasure is misplaced and so our heart is misplace, and therefore, most likely, (though we may not see it straight away,) we keeping asking our Father for stones and vipers! Misplaced treasure = unanswered prayer.

Some thoughts from Psalm 30

Psalms 30:1-5 NLT

I will exalt you, lord , for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
O  lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health.
You brought me up from the grave, O  lord .
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.
Sing to the lord , all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

How many times has the Lord kept me from falling into a pit, and usually of my own making. I  fall so easily onto a path that can only ever lead to bad things happening, in my own life or others; what the Bible calls evil though we dislike that term. "The broad road that leads to destruction" is just so much easier to walk down. The narrow road calls for courage, discipline, self control, self sacrifice, love and above all faith; real trust that his favour lasts a lifetime and joy comes with the morning. The wonder for me is that every time I send my life careering towards yet another pit, he does enough to get my attention and remind me to cry out for help. Though I may find myself in circumstantial trouble, or spiritual trouble, or both at the same time, he lifts my eyes enough to remind me that my help comes from him. As John says, "If you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," because the Lord himself consumed the destruction of the pit for all who cry out to him for rescue. He refused to let our enemies triumph over us to the length of allowing those enemies to triumph over him,  though their victory was always in reality his victory. Surely God is holy, and his anger is justly aimed at evil, but his holiness just as surely issues in rescue and favour and joy the moment anyone heading for the pit cries out to him for rescue. So I  will him who rescued me and with his holy ones I will sing to the Lord.

Some thoughts from Psalm 29

Psalms 29:1-11 NLT

Honor the lord , you heavenly beings ;
honor the lord for his glory and strength.
Honor the lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the lord in the splendor of his holiness.
The voice of the lord echoes above the sea.
The God of glory thunders.
The lord thunders over the mighty sea.
The voice of the lord is powerful;
the voice of the lord is majestic.
The voice of the lord splits the mighty cedars;
the lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf;
he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.
The voice of the lord strikes with bolts of lightning.
The voice of the lord makes the barren wilderness quake;
the lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.
In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”
The lord rules over the floodwaters.
The lord reigns as king forever.
The lord gives his people strength.
The lord blesses them with peace.

Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness. That is what this Psalm looks to move you to do. To honour him in his glory and strength and for the glory of his name. He is the God who rules by his voice. He rules over the floodwaters as his voice echoes above the sea, as his glory thunders over the mighty sea. His voice rules everywhere,  splitting the mighty cedars of Lebanon and causing its mountains to skip like a calf. The Lord rules by his mighty voice commanding the lightening to strike and the earth to quake. Certainly this makes us ask questions, but if all these things of enormous power and might are under the control of the voice of the Lord there can be no doubt that he reigns as king forever simply by speaking. There is no power that can rival his. In his Temple everyone shouts "glory". What is left to shout? And in the splendour of his holiness and the glory of his name he gives strength to his people and he blesses them with peace. We forget too often that peace with God means enmity with the world. But praise God because he also gives us strength. Strength to see that he reigns by his voice, to trust him to rule well (though we still have questions) and to worship him in the splendour of his holiness.

Every moment of every day can/should be a moment where I worship God in the splendour of his holiness. Rejoicing in his rule by his voice. When I feel his peace and his strength, when I am threatened by his lightening and earthquake (real or metaphorical). I know he rules by his Word, fulfilled in Christ, the Word become flesh, who did not simply rule in power but suffered and died and rose, experiencing our suffering and reigning even over death. He it is who upholds all things by his powerful word, and in him I see the glory of his name, and worship him in the ordinary realities of life in the splendour of his holiness.

Peru Take 2

Well, we have arrived safely in Peru for a second time. 4 years ago we nearly got stuck here because of an Icelandic volcano doing is stuff. I'm wondering what adventures await us this time.

Apart from our first flight from Heathrow leaving 1 hour late, giving us a bit of a run in Madrid, the journey was easy and the kids did really well. I had forgotten just how in-a-continuous-state-of-construction Cusco is, perhaps now more than ever!

I had also forgotten just how thin the air is here. You really have to try hard to breathe! You suck in a lung full of air and you end up only half full. We'll need to spend a while going quite slowly I think.

We did of course arrive in the middle of life at my sister's house. Friday night is kids cell night. They had around 30 kids plus theirs and ours in the front room for craft and Bible story, memory verses and teaching. I loved landing in the middle of it all and that they didn't even think about cancelling because we were coming!

It is also great to see the cousins getting on so well. Our kids always have with Sammy and Ben, but Hilda and Katy are now part of the family and it is fantastic to see how well our kids have added them in. Jenny said yesterday, "You wouldn't have thought Bekah and Katy had just met".

We're looking forward to the rest of our month here. I will try and add pictures and posts regularly.

When life/church feels flat...

Life can be great can't it? We have all had times of overflowing joy or settled contentment or anticipation and excitement. Those are great. But to be honest most of life is "normal". A bit good and a bit disappointing! Some things going well others less so. Some things making us happy and others sad. And then there are times when life is really quite tough. Hopes dashed, feelings hurt, relationships painful.
All of this is also true of church life. There are times when church life can feel exciting, and a church as a whole can be full of joy, or have a settled contentment. But usually church life is "normal", and sometimes it is really quite tough. That can be true of individual's experience of church, and it can be true of our corporate experience of church.

For us as a church last year was really very exciting. Sending a missionary to France, appointing an assistant pastor, starting a new meeting. When new things are happening, and others are anticipated the whole feeling of church is really quite exciting and this usually permeates to most of the members. However when church is "normal" and there aren't a whole raft of exciting developments going on, when people let each other down, or life is individually tougher, the experience of church can be less invigorating, or even (dare I say it) a bit of a drag!

What then can we do when "normal" starts to slip in to tough? How should we respond? 

First I would say keep doing what you know. Has church ever been a blessing? Have you ever found help in reading the Scriptures? Has God ever answered your prayers? You may not know what to do, but don't stop doing what you know. You may feel like God has left you on the shelf for a bit, still don't stop doing what you know. It is not without reason that God has blessed us with his written word, a word that is "living and active". It is not without reason that Jesus taught his disciples to "pray and never give up". And it is not without reason that God has called us not only to himself but into churches where we can strengthen and encourage one another, "growing up in maturity into Him who is the Head."

Second talk to people. If something in your life feels stuck, go chat with a Christian who loves you, whom you can trust (even a pastor). Give them permission to ask you questions you don't want to face. Be honest with them about where your life is at right now. 
It may not be that your life feels stuck, but that church is stuck for you. Something isn't working, church isn't helping the way it was. Again chat to people, especially chat to church leaders so that they know. It is easy to go along as a church leader oblivious that all your hard work is not helping anyone, because it used to and no-one has told you that it doesn't any more! Stop your leaders running themselves into the ground for no good to the church! Be careful not to develop a critical spirit - that can kill a pastor as quick as poison. But don't suffer in silence. Believe it or not you are deeply ingrained in your pastor's heart. He will fall over himself to do all he can to bless you! So talk to your leaders especially about your struggles with church.

Third, and perhaps most critically, be thankful. Be deliberately thankful. Be deliberately thankful for everything good that you have. It is interesting how much in the New Testament letters thankfulness is flagged up. For instance Philippians 4v6-7 says; "⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
So often one or two individual things that are not going how we would like give everything in our lives a grey covering and take our joy out of what we used to love. Because this one thing hurts right now, everything else is undone by it. Conscious consistent thanksgiving reminds us that though somethings are hard right now, God is good. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above, and we do have so many of them. Ultimately we have Christ himself. Through faith we have the righteousness of God gifted to us through his death for us. We have his love, we are given his Spirit. We have a hope that cannot fade. So what ever is happening now, however "normal" or even painful it is, it is not worth comparing to what we have in Him.

However "normal" your life is right now, you have in Christ a constant source for thankfulness and praise!

Creation And Quantum Physics

Before Easter we ran our Sunday evening Connected series as "God On Trial" and had a good number of people come with dissenting views about the world around us. Conversation flowed across many subjects, but inevitably returned to scientific inquiry many times. I say inevitably because most of the dissenting voices had an underlying philosophy that was basically Scientific Determinism.

It got my brain going again on various subjects that I haven't looked at for some time. One of those was quantum physics. I have for a while been meaning to get at it but hadn't yet managed it. So I went out and bought Stephen Hawking's fairly recent title, "The Grand Design". Certainly quantum physics is a very interesting area of study. Stephen Hawking presents it very well, though I am yet to be convinced by all his conclusions, especially about history on a big scale. (I need to read this book a few times before I really get to grips with everything he says in it I think.)

Anyway, for all you big thinkers (and mainly physicists I would think) out there I have some questions which Stephen Hawking doesn't address, or if he does he just fobs them off as not relevant, or with an aside that shoots down a straw man rather than deal with the issue. These questions are beyond me to answer, but I am wondering if any of you might have ideas, or places I could go to read a different (but as well thought through) perspective. Here goes:


Do the observations of quantum physics on a minute scale (e.g. quantum buckyballs) have anything to say about God as creator beyond, "this is how God made the universe"?

Is Feynman's "sum of histories" really the best explanation for the results of the double split experiment, especially where delayed observation changes the resultant distribution? 

Is it really legitimate to say because an unobserved buckyball may have taken one of several paths that we can't be sure of the history of the universe? There seems to be an element of taking what we see on the minute scale and applying it on the large scale when the large scale does not behave in the same way (i.e. we know the path of an unobserved football doesn't behave the same way as an unobserved buckyball).


I am sure there are more questions to be asked, and my head is still only just starting to get to grips with all this, so the questions probably display my ignorance as much as anything. But if there are other useful places to go which will help me get my head around all this, especially from a Christian perspective I would love to know!

It's not always bad when things don't go as you planned!

Have you ever planned something at church for a specific purpose and found that God has used it for something entirely different? This for me has not been a unique experience.

Not long after arriving at St. John's Wood the church took a bold step - to close the evening service and replace it with an afternoon cafe. The idea of the cafe was that it would be place where we could invite friends to relax with us in the hopes of being able to share the gospel with them. After some time, and very few people except church people coming through the doors, we discovered that God was using the cafe (and subsequently lunch, which grew out of the cafe) in a different way; to grow the church into a community again, to get us loving each other, spending time with each other and knowing each other. We talked together, played together, laughed together, cried together.
Because we were at church in the afternoon, it made sense to stay for lunch. Now we have lunch together every Sunday. The number of conversations that the Lord uses to bless over lunch and during cafe can't be numbered and their effect can't be underestimated. None of this was what we planned for cafe, but this is how God used it.

Between September 2011 and September 2012 we spent our Sunday evenings planning a new evangelistic service to be launched in September 2012. I was delighted that the format we came up with was different from what I had in my mind when we started! As we launched we were committed to a meeting (not a church service) that would be an easy invite for our friends to come to and talk very openly about what we/they believe, our/their doubts and questions. So it proved up to Christmas. The bigger invitational events proving especially well attended. However this last term something different happened. We ran a series called "God on trial," tackling some of the more common objections to Christian faith. One of our members decided (without really thinking it through) to invite an internet group called the "London Humanists". Connected had not been intended as a place to invite "hostile" people to talk about faith. However that is exactly what it has been. Between 5 and 35 atheists and humanists descended upon us (about 15 of us) and argued, shouted, interupted and to be honest often insulted us for 2+ hours every Sunday night for 6 weeks in a row! It was great! I certainly, and I don't think any of us actually, would have planned to invite such a crowd of hostile people to Connected. We would have been too concerned about others who were enquiring and might be put off, and members who would be shaken by having their faith attacked so forcefully week after week. The first concerned proved to still be a concern , the second was blown out of the water.

The response of the church to such an unexpected situation was fantastic. Humble, warm, welcoming, loving, firm in their faith and so encouraged in be able to share their faith with the people who came in. On a table with three or four atheists would be sat perhaps a Bible college student, an aspiring film writer and new Christian! Each had different approaches to tackling the issues raised. Strong apologetics and polemics, testimony of God's grace over troubled times and good or a new and sure conviction of the love of God that comes to all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all had better evenings and worse. One evening I spent talking with one woman who stubbornly refused to talk about the topic under discussion and basically spent 2 hours insulting me. But then another week I had the chance to explain in some detail how the OT sacrificial system points to the Lord Jesus, his cross and God's loving desire to draw us into his family., to an atheist who finally really wanted to understand what was being said rather than just pick holes in it.

This atmosphere and environment was definitely not what we had planned. But God used it to his glory and has given us much food for thought. Certainly we will continue with our bigger events (here's Sam Chaplin warming up for our Feb invitational) and we will want to move Sunday nights back towards inviting friends and interested others, but please do pray for us as we think through how we might continue to share the gospel with those that are more hostile in a way that is spiritually fruitful!

The big lesson I take from all this is, "It is always worth seeking to honour God with bold faith, just as long as you are ready for God to do what he wants, rather than what you want!"

Reduced Romans

The Reduced Romans

(Passage divisions and draft summaries)

1v1-7 Paul is all about Jesus his Lord and the gospel and so is the church in Rome

1v8-15 Paul’s desire is to come and have a harvest among the church in Rome (discipleship and evangelistically)

1v16-17 Paul’s confidence for that is in the gospel

1v18-20 God’s wrath is revealed against people who deliberately turn away from him

1v21-32 as they replace God he hands people over to sin that destroys until everyone claps sin that destroys.

2v1-5 Therefore we cannot stand in judgement over them

2v6-16 God’s perfect coming judgement is coming in Christ on all the Gentiles who will perish without the law.

2v17-29 and on all the Jews because to live by the law you must keep the whole law.

3v1-8 Certainly the Jews have an advantage, and God is righteous in judgement

3v9-20 But all are under sin (see the OT)

3v21-25 But now righteousness has come as a gift from God.

3v25-30 Grace shows God’s righteousness and brings humility

3v21 This gospel upholds the law

4v1-12 Abraham proves righteousness is by faith

4v13-17 Abraham is the father of those of faith righteousness

4v18-25 It is faith in God’s promise that is counted as righteousness

5v1-2 Therefore we rejoice in the hope of glory

5v3-5 we rejoice in suffering

5v6-8 For Christ died for sinners, showing God’s love

5v9-11 So because of righteousness by faith we rejoice in God

5v12-14 Death reigned before the law

5v15-17 one trespass led to death, one free gift to righteousness

5v18-21 Therefore grace trumps sin and reigns through righteousness

6v1-5 Walk in newness of life

6v6-10 The old self is dead and we live with Christ for God

6v11-14 So present yourself to God as instruments of righteousness

6v15-18 Now you are slaves of righteousness

6v19-23 therefore willingly be slaves of righteousness that leads to eternal life

7v1-6 Because you are dead to the law, and alive to bear fruit for God

7v7-12 The law is righteous but sin uses it to kill us!

7v13-25 Sin still dwells in me, chaining my body to evil, though my mind desires what is right. Praise God for salvation in Christ!

8v1-4 There is no condemnation, for the law of the Spirit has freed you from the law of sin and death

8v5-8 In the flesh you cannot please God

8v9-13 But if Christ is in you, the body is dead and the Spirit is life

8v14-17 Because those led by the Spirit are sons and heirs!

8v18-24 The sufferings of now pale away compared to the hope of glory – the redemption of our bodies

8v24-27 Therefore we wait with patience and the Spirit intercedes for us

8v28-30 and God, even in our suffering, works for our good – to be made like Christ!

8v31-34 If God is for us, who can be against us?

8v35-39 Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

9v1-13 What about the Jews though?

9v14-18 God is not unjust to exclude some Jews

9v19-29 Who is saved is down to God’s choice and it is his right

9v30-33 Israel did not pursue righteousness by faith

10v1-13 Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, you must call on him to be saved

10v14-17 The Jews need the gospel preached to them

10v18-21 They have heard before but they turned away

11v1-10 But God has not rejected them – he continues to keep a remnant, his elect

11v11-22 The stumbling of the Jews opens the door to the Gentiles (which is designed to make the Jews jealous and bring them back)

11v23-32 As mercy spilled to the Gentiles through the Jews hardening, so that mercy will spill back to the Jews and thus all (elect) Israel will be saved.

11v33-36 GLORY TO GOD!

12v1-2 THEREFORE worship God!

12v3-8 By being humble in service in the church in a gospel stylee

12v9-18 Love well

12v19-21 Put yourself in God’s hands and overcome evil with good

13v1-6 Respect authorities

13v7-10 Love your neighbour

13v11-14 Put on Christ

14v1-6 Welcome the weaker brother

14v7-13 Don’t judge, live and die to the Lord

14v14-23 Pursue peace and upbuilding (do not destroy God’s church)

15v1-7 Please your neighbour to the glory of God

15v8-12 Just as Christ came to serve Jews and Gentiles

15v13-16 Joy, peace and hope to you, through the grace I have written

15v17-24 For the work of Christ please help me on my way to Spain

15v25-33 As other churches have helped Jerusalem, help me on to Spain by material and spiritual means

16v1-16 Welcome Phoebe and greeting my brothers and sisters.

16v17-20 Beware and be well

16v21-27 GLORY TO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST!

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!

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.