BareFacts (feeling like a Fresher again)

Just back from tremendous times at Surrey. It'd be fair to say i 'stumbled across' the town and uni rather than 'found' it, but after some diversion related fun, and an argument with my radio on the way down, i got there just about in one piece...
I went through three fairly distinct stages while i was there, the first was 'feeling like a fresher, i'm shy, i'm chilled, yeh wassup' then we had 'please please please take me back to Reading and Fam and people to high five and laugh at my loser jokes' (there was at least once tonight when i was going to turn and look at Jess/Drew/Dave and share a joke...they weren't there) but then PRAISE GOD something changed in an instant, and i got talking to Phil and Ruth and Naomi and people and i got so excited about being there next year and serving with them and helping them, i pretty much would've started tomorrow. Woo hoo!
I'm very excited about the whole Relay thing, it all seems very real. Being where God wants you to be is the best, safest, most exciting place there is.

Paris Four Hundred

It seems that this is what my blog would look like if it were a t-shirt...hmm. Click me. (HT: Kath).
Although this is a much more fun way to waste time on the internet.

A study in scarlett

So Surrey it was and Surrey it is. I'm off there tonight to go to their last CU meeting of term and meet them. Its going to be cool.
Its the start of another page, somewhere else that i'd never thought i'd go. In some ways it'll be good to leave Reading, don't get me wrong i love it here, i wouldn't change anything about my time at Uni...i think, but come the end of June it'll be time to move on...
I'm gutted about having to leave Fam. I've only been there a year, and i love it so much, and i feel so part of things there, and now i'll have to settle into a new church, but its all good. Thats exciting in many ways. And i have to look for a house...crumbs! Still, i'm hoping God's going to bring me back to Reading and to Fam before too much time passes (please?!)
So i'll be in Guildford, Ceryn in Portsmouth and Jess in Chichester and Worthing. All new times, all exciting and challenging times. How great it is to know that we worship a God who is God everywhere, who holds us in His hands, who loves and will be guiding us and be with all the time. Its great to worship Him, to belong to Him, to treasure Him...it's the only way to live, i promise.

Surrey? Sho' Nuff!

I'm going to be working with these guys next year...HOW EXCITING!

BlogSpotting

Stuff i've read recently:

Bish begins to ready himself for Word Alive over at the (ever excellent) Bible and Coffee club.
Paul is looking at the Five English reformers.
While Al Mohler reminds us that people are still being executed today for their faith. (HT: Paul)
Kath ponders what it is to be made for an eternity of joy in and worship of our creator.
Lou finds God's grace in something that challenges me every time i'm in town and looks at how great the Gospel is (very).
While Kat is just glad to be home...

Are we ready?

How to make sense of death being gain in the mission field.

The promise is sure: Jesus does not lie. He said that all nations, all tribes, people groups and tongues would hear the Gospel. I recently watched a DVD about the Gospel being taken to some remote tribes in Indonesia, 2000 years after the cross. These tribesmen then left all they had to take the gospel other remote Indonesian villages. The promise is sure, all will hear the Gospel. We can either get on board and take part in the victory, or we can waste our lives. Thats the choice.

The price and means is suffering: Gologtha is not a suburb of Jerusalem. Jesus went outside the city gates on display to everyone to suffer and die. He says that anyone who would follow Him would take up their cross and follow Him. Ask yourself where Jesus was going when He was carrying His cross. Not to a retirement village on the south coast, not to a comfy job and life in the suburbs. In Colossians 1:24 Paul says that he is filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Whatever can this mean? That somehow the shedding of divine blood wasn't enough? NO! Not for a second. What is lacking the sufferings of Jesus as far as the Colossians are concerned? A visual presentation of the sufferings of Jesus. They don't know Him or His life or His sufferings. This is what Paul does...he presents the sufferings of Jesus to the Collosians. This is what we must do.

The prize is satisfying: Until we truly rejoice when our belongings are ransacked for the Gospel (Heb 10:32-35), until we really know what Paul means when He says that death is gain (Phil 1:21) or that the steadfast love of the Lords better than life (Ps 63:3) we won't be willing to give up our lives for the sake of the Gospel. But look! The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life! And Jesus is life, life with Him is life itself! We need to grab onto these biblical promises. The prize of the Christian life is satisfying. Eternal life with Jesus, with no more longings or despair, or sin or death is the prize. That's why laying down our lives for the gospel is worth it. Because death is gain, because nothing we will ever lose is anything compared to that which we will gain.

Are we ready?

Dateline: Reading

So, as good as audio sermons, books and whatever else you might care to mention are, nothing comes close to the Word. I know thats not earth shattering, but sometimes getting things out of my head helps me to believe/understand them a little better.
So this morning, i was reading 2 Peter 3, and i thought i'd share some thoughts from it that struck me. Again, they're probably not particulaly profound, but i do like the Bible, so indulge me!

2 Peter: The Context: Peter is writing to 'those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours', ie, all believers. No actual place is mentioned. In the previous two chapters he has dealt with living in the light of our calling and election, how to be effective as Christians, and with false teachers.

V 1-3: Why and What?
Peter reminds his readers that this is the second letter he has written, and also why he has written it. He is trying to put beleivers on their gaurd against scoffers, whom the prophets warned would come.

V 4: The Scoff.
It seems as though people are dimissing Christianity on the basis that everything is continuing as it it has done for years (since our fathers fell asleep). Peter seems to be writing into an air of cynicism about the second coming, that its not going to happen. Perhaps even that the message that the apostles bought to them was not true in the first place. These are big claims.

V 5-7: The Defence.
'Things are continuing just as always' are they? Well, who created the earth? Who set things in motion? This is the key argument that Peter says the scoffers ignore. That the heavens and earth were formed long ago by the Word of God. Not by any other means. God isn't a gatecrasher, He's the creator. Not only that but also by the same Word that created the heavens, so they are held up, but on their way to being judged and the ungodly destroyed. So not only did God create, He maintains and He waits.

V 8-10: So What's He Waiting For?
God is outside time (v8), He is not bound by its rules as we are, He doesn't have to act within it as we expect Him to. God is much bigger and better than we can ever imagine. We may think He is being slow in fulfilling the promise of His return. This is not sloth, but mercy. God wants no one to be destroyed but is waiting until everyone has had the chance to be saved. In Revelation 6:11 the matyrs who wait for the second coming are told to rest until their number is complete, until everyone who is to hear has heard, and everyone who will be killed for Jesus name has gone to Heaven. So God know's when He is to return, He's just waiting for the time to pass.

V 11-15: So What For Us? What For Them?
Everything will be exposed on the day of the Lord. So live without spot or blemish. Live, as Peter writes in chapter 1, with love, godliness, brotherly affection, virtue, faith, knowledge and self control. Ignore the scoffers. Remember these words, and know that the day of the Lord will come, and that it will be fearful, and wonderful. The heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! Remember Peter's teachings, remember the Bible. Remember that the Lord is not slow, He is patient, He is mercyful, concerned with people's salvation for the glory of His name.

V 16-18 Peter And Paul.
The scriptues are hard in places. There is a lot in there that can be twisted, that can be used to people's advantage. Don't let that happen, don't do that yourself. 'Take care not to get carried away...and lose your stability' (v17). Grow in the knowledge of Christ and Christ alone, and give Him the glory...

There are no closed countries.

Bish pointed me towards this last night 'Doing missions when death is gain'. Please don't think i'm banging some sort of John Piper drum here, i'm just trying to bang a Christ exulting truth drum.

It doesn't take much to fan my mission flame, this may just have poured petrol over it.

What makes Good News good? Part five

Concluding thoughts on John Piper's sermon 'What makes the Good News good?'

Patient teaching is called for.
2 Timothy 2:24-26.

So how does God use His people to do the work that only He can do, and carry the message that only He can explain. These verses in 2 Timothy seem to provide something of an answer. We have to be patient, and we have to teach. There is a great deal to be said for the good work that can be done for the Gospel through relationships, through always being there for a non Christian mate, for being someone they can trust and rely on. But this will only get the Gosple so far. Unless people here the Gospel they will nbot be saved. Unless people are told that the only way to bridge the gap created between them and God by their sin is through Jesus on the cross, they will not be saved. So, as it says in 2 Timothy, we must teach. We must be kind, and we must be patient. We must plug away at teaching the Gospel, being faithful in the oppotunites the Lord gives us to talk about Him. As important as being kind and patient is, there must be room for correction. If someone tells you they believe Jesus to be the reincarnation of a cat, then they must be corrected! And why? Why must we teach with kindness and patience? So that 'God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth'. We must teach, so that people may be saved.

God will grant them repentance...grant them a change of mind about Him and who He is. A repentance that leads to a knowledge of the truth. Now, this knowledge of the truth must be something more than knowing the Gospel, because how can someone be saved if He doesn't know the Gospel. This is more than the knowledge that the Devil has of God and His Gospel. This is, this must be, the ever growing knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6), which is what saved them in the first place. The more we see of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the more we'll love and want to honour and glory God and His name. This knowledge is really knowing it. Really knowing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the knowledge that saves us, that keeps us, that grows us. Lostness is blindness to this glory. This knowledge allows us to escape the snare of the Devil. We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We repent because of it. We are counted as righteous through are repentance and subsequent faith.

This is a challenging message for me. Too often i'm happy to try and be a good guy in my house, on my course, to my family. And while yes, of course that is called for, no one will be saved by me empyting the dishwasher (profound words eh?) Teach teach teach. Always with kindness, always with gentleness, always with the focus on God. Then perhaps He may grant people the repentance that leads to knowledge of His glory, His glory shown to us in the face of Jesus Christ.


If you haven't yet listened to this sermon, and i haven't put you off please do! The message, the way is taught, the beauty of the truth in it is amazing. Paul's linked to two more sermons by John Piper here, i'll be tucking into those soon hopefully.

DON'T BE BLIND TO THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST

Safe in sound

I had my last uni lecture today (just as my sister headed off to an interview at Royal Holloway). Three years at Reading pretty much over then. It's funny, it doesn't seem like a moment ago that my parents dropped me off as a scared little fresher at Whiteknights in September 2003, but in some ways it seems like a lifetime ago. God's taught me so much, and shown me so much, and (i'd like to think) used me so much. So tomorrow i head off to Winchester with Jess for my Relay interview, which i'm pretty scared about. Although i know there's no reason to be really...

So there it is, one chapter of my life pretty much over, and another one possibly about to begin. It's great to be in a situation like this knowing that God is good, and that He's totally soveriegn over everything that might happen tomorrow, every decision that needs to be made about next year, and over the rest of my life. God is good, God is soveriegn, thats all i need to know really. He's far more concerned with His glory in my life than i am, and thats a great assurance to have...