On the bus to Onslow County

One of the things i really value about serving a church of 300-350 people is the diversity of groups that i get to speak to. By this evening i'll have spoken to the main adult meeting, the college age sunday school class, the fourty to fifty years old sunday school class and our group of special needs adults, all in the space of ten days.

What i love about that is it makes me think, and helps me to realize.

It helps me think about the words i use, particularly in the case of the special needs adults. This afternoon we're taking a group of them to Jacksonville, NC, to see the Christmas lights, enjoy a hayride, and eat hot dogs around a bonfire, where i'll lead a short devotion on Luke 2:11-12.

It's been tremendous to work on that for the last couple of days. To think clearly about every word i use. To lose some words like 'incarnation' and 'propitiation' while keeping their glorious truths in the message. it's helped me to...i don't know how to describe it, come face to face with those truths again. Come face to face with the beauty of simple language again. Now, as far as we can, we should learn to use words like 'incarnation', because they are important and God glorifying. But we shouldn't rely, i shouldn't rely, on theological nomenclature too heavily, because church isn't a club for the middle class, college educated people.

And it helps me realize. You know what (and you do know, i'm just saying) the Gospel is the same and true whoever you are, where ever you. If you're a Bible college student or you work at dairy queen, whether you're a politician or a phosphate miner, whether you've written books or you need 24/7 professional supervision, the Gospel is the name, and you need to saving blood of Jesus shed for you. This isn't a new thing i've learnt, but it is a cool thing i've been reminded of. The Gospel is the solid rock in our lives, and our jobs, our pay packet, where we live and who we spend time with are malleable. They must bend, and be infected and redeemed by the truth of the Gospel.

Yes! Oh yes!

"The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do."

A.W Tozer, The Pursuit of God

'is this what journalism has come to?'

An excellent critique on the 'Get Religion' blog of a recent article in Newsweek magazine.

Very sad scenes that religious reportage has come to this, that the religious correspondent of a major news periodical could write an article so one sided and lazy. Interesting that she makes the 'Genesis supports bigamy' mistake that Tim Keller mentioned in his Preaching to the Heart lectures. And this isn't The Sun...this is Newsweek, someone we're supposed to be able to trust for it's non biased standpoint.

Very sad... probably also very indicative of the direction the media will take towards Evangelical Christianity. But then i guess we knew that already.

Hession on humility.

Sometimes you hear of a book, and either because of the author or the title you can hardly wait to get your hands on it. Sometimes it's different, sometimes you've never heard of a book that someone gives to you highly recommended, and you only read it because Norman Grubb has written the forward to it.

The Calvary Road by Roy Hession is one of those books that somehow you know you'll be reading over and over again. One of those books with a message so important, and yet so simple that you never really want to stop reading it. 

It's message is simply that revival starts in the individual Christian hearts, and that there is no great and deep secret to it. Revival is what happens when men and women humble themselves, admit the horrible, proud states of their hearts, and ask for the Holy Spirit to be shed upon them, that they might no more of Christ.

One of the major theme running through the book is the need for the Christian to be humble before God, to repent of our pride and to curve the sinful I into a C...The author devotes a whole chapter to the parable of the servant in Luke 17:7-10. Hession draws out five applications for humility for Christians today:

1) He must be willing to have one thing upon another put on him, without any consideration being given him.

The servant went from all day in the field, to preparing his master's supper, to waiting on his master, and at no time was offered a rest or food. And at no time did he complain.

2) He must be willing not to be thanked for it.

How often i serve someone just for the credit it accrues. Not this servant.

3) Having done all this, he must not charge the other with selfishness.

It seems as we read the passage that the master is cruel and inconsiderate. But this doesn't seem to be the opinion of the servant. Indeed, Christians exist to worship Jesus, and obey Him. The same is true of the servant in the parable.

4) We must confess that we are unprofitable servants.

At no point does Jesus commend the servant, at no point does the servant stop for self congratulation. He knows that he is unprofitable.

5) We must admit that having done and borne all that we have in meekness and humility, we have not done a stitch more than was our duty.

We are saved to do good works for the glory of God. We are saved BY Him For Him. What can we offer Jesus that is 'above and beyond'? Nothing. This should fire up our humility.

Christmas is 'different' here...Part one in an occasional series.

Hayrides and carols. I could have had a decent guess at what the second part of that was a year ago, but by no means the first. Friday night was my first Christmas hayride. I am so North Carolina right now.

A hayride essentially involved putting on a lot (a lot) of clothes, and climbing up into the back of a dump truck, 12-16 feet up in the air, filled with hay, and riding round town in it, singing carols to invalid members of the church, and then defrosting at Taco Bell thereafter. It was a lot of fun.

We must have had 15-20 kids and teens packed into the back of the truck...the hay bales didn't last long, and soon the back of the truck became more akin to a wrestling arena as...well, teenage boys were teenage boys.

So it was cold, it was high, it was, y'know, sort of dangerous out on the roads in the back of a lorry without anything to hold us in, but a lot of fun. And on saturday we took part in the Washington Christmas parade, which took us around downtown in all of twelve minutes (yeh it's a small town) and that was more normal!

The Compost Pile

One of the reasons i so enjoy reading good books is that i love the pictures authors can paint with words. I love being drawn into an illustration or story. Ever since i read 'Far from the madding crowd' for GCSE English, i've thought words were great.

Rachel and i are reading Piper's 'momentary marriage' together, as a sort of pre wedding prep primer. Each week we try and get some time together where we can be alone and discuss what we've read this week, where we disagree, and why i'm right (i jest). This coming sunday we're headed down to Bonner Point, where our reception we be, to look out over the Pamlico River and talk about chapter four, 'Forgiving and Forebearing.' It will be the highlight of the weekend. 

What links those two paragraphs is how Piper finishes chapter four, and what i'll read to Rachel as we start talking on Sunday:

Picture your marriage as a grassy field. You enter it at the beginning full of hope and joy. You look out into the future and you see beautiful flowers and trees and rolling hills. And that beauty is what you see in each other. Your relationship is the field and flowers and the rolling hills. But before long, you begin to step in cow pies. Some seasons of your marriage they may seem to be everywhere. Late at night they are especially prevalent. These are the sins and flaws and idiosyncrasies and weaknesses and annoying habits in you and your spouse. You try to forgive them and endure them with grace.

But they have a way of dominating the relationship. It may not even be true, but it feels like that’s all there is—cow pies. I think the combination of forbearance and forgiveness leads to the creation of a compost pile. And here you begin to shovel the cow pies. You both look at each other and simply admit that there are a lot of cow pies. But you say to each other: You know, there is more to this relationship than cow pies. And we are losing sight of that because we keep focusing on these cow pies. Let’s throw them all in the compost pile. When we have to, we will go there and smell it and feel bad and deal with it the best we can. And then, we are going to walk away from that pile and set our eyes on the rest of field. We will pick some favorite paths and hills that we know are not strewn with cow pies. And we will be thankful for the part of field that is sweet.

Our hands may be dirty. And our backs make ache from all the shoveling. But one thing we know: We will not pitch our tent by the compost pile. We will only go there when we must. This is the gift of grace that we will give each other again and again and again—because we are chosen and holy and loved.

Titus 2:14-15 (1)

I love reading Paul’s letters. Romans is far away my favourite book of the Bible, and I love our Wednesday nights in Titus. If there’s one problem with them, however, it’s that they are too good. Breaking down Paul’s thought process into smaller chunks for a Wednesday night often means we have to leave Paul halfway though a sentence and this is the case here. Last time, we saw from verses 12 and 13 that some of the keys to the Christian life were living and looking. Living in the present world as we look at the Savior. Tonight, in verses 14 and 15 Paul finishes that thought. If last week was about live and look, this week is about what we look like and who we listen to. And why?

Verse 14 carries on the sentence from verse 13 talking ‘about looking for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us’. Here we learn something else about who Jesus is, not only is He the great God and our Saviour, but also He gave Himself for us. In these four words ‘gave Himself for us’, there is a hugely important, life changing, faith strengthening point. Jesus gave Himself. His death on the cross was no tragic accident, God the Father did not have to adjust His plans or make a painful last minute decision. This was the plan from the start and John 10:18 illustrates it well ‘no one taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up’. Jesus gave Himself for us.

Why? Well look at verse 14 with me again ‘that he might cleanse us from all iniquity, and purify us unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ I love reading the Bible because it moves our attention away from ourselves and towards Jesus. Notice that He did not die to give us an easy life, or a bigger house, or a happy family, or a million other material benefits, although of course, every material benefit is because of the cross, Christ died to redeem us from iniquity. This is much better, this is much more important. This is our needs being met in a stunning way. Our felt needs and our real needs are often very different things. My felt needs often revolve around my ego and my material gain; my actual needs are to have my sins forgiven. They are glorious seasons of the soul when my felt needs are my actual needs, when I am convicted of my sin and come to the throne of God, via the cross of Christ, for mercy. If there is one thing that is clear over and over in Titus, and of course, in the rest of the Bible, it’s that God’s people are to reflect God’s character. God’s people are to love holiness and hate sin. This is a further unpacking of that.

We are released from our captivity to sin. Mark 10:45 ‘to give His life a ransom for many’. Jesus ransomed us from the power of the enemy to be pure, to be peculiar and to be practicers.

We are to be pure for Jesus, as we see in verse 14. Jesus gave Himself to purify us. We are to throw off the sin that so easily entangles. The question when it comes to sin shouldn’t be ‘how far can I go’, but ‘how far can I get away’, how much can I expose myself to the glory and wonders of Jesus Christ, and how much can I serve Him, not how much sin can I get away with.

We are to be peculiar for Jesus. We see this in the middle of the verse where it says ‘unto Himself a peculiar people.’ This word has the sense of being owned or set apart for Jesus. Once we were peculiar for sin, we were set apart for sin, we were committed to sin. Now we are called to be peculiar for Jesus, set apart for Him, by Him. We are to be committed to Him. This is so much better. This is life itself!

We are to be practicers for Jesus. This is what is meant at the end of the verse where it says ‘zealous of good works’ we are to be full of enthusiasm for good works. Good works are no more an optional extra for the Christian than apples are an optional extra for an apple tree. Good works are part of being a Christian. We once were zealous for sin, we once looked for opportunities to sin, and we once served sin with all our hearts. Sin was our master. Now that Christ has redeemed us He is our Master, we must ask Him daily for a new heart so that we desire to serve Him as well as we used to serve sin. Hebrews 9:14 tells us that ‘the blood of Christ…will purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’

Christian Hedonism according to Roy Hession

People imagine that dying to self makes one miserable. But it is just the opposite. It is refusal to die to self that makes one miserable. The more we know of death with Him, the more we shall know of His life within us and so the more of real peace and joy. His life too, will overflow through to lost souls with a real concern for their salvation, and to our fellow Christians with a deep desire for their blessing.

The Calvary Road, Roy Hession, P28

Mars and Venus

Tonight, right next to the moon in the night's sky, you can see Mars and Venus.

Mars is, depending on orbit, between 56,000,000 kilometres and 309,000,000 kilometres from Earth.

Venus is, depending on orbit between 38,200,000 kilometres and 261,000,000 kilometres from earth.

At the moment i can see both of them from the back door.

It's good to feel small sometimes.

On Buildings

Moving to America meant a lot of cultural changes, but one is a lot more obvious than many others...It's the first church i've ever been a member of that has had it's own building, which is interesting given that the south east of England isn't that far removed culturally from the Bible belt. Well, when compared to Africa and south east Asia anyway.

I think buildings are helpful but dangerous for churches, and i think both of these are illustrated by this coming wednesday.

This wednesday night we have the normal adult meeting, a full dress rehearsal for saturday's Christmas play, teen church and our kids programme. It's very cool, and illustrates why buildings are helpful. The dress rehearsal will be in the sanctuary (i don't like calling it that but 'the big room with pews' is less catchy somehow), the kids programme as normal in the fellowship hall on the other side of the parking lot, the teens upstairs in the teen room, and whoever is left over in one of the sunday school rooms. To be able to hold four different, differing meetings on one site is excellent. It's cheap and it's unifying. Good. Thank you buildings.

It's also dangerous as anything. We, I, can be so sucked into the thought that God only operates where there is a pulpit, good lighting and a baptism pool. That the 'sanctuary' is God's place, the holy of holies, and the sunday school rooms are just the outer courts, behind the curtain, away from the Glory. That thought couldn't be much more muddle headed could it? What sort of a God is that? 

Will wednesday evening be less special because there are fewer people than normal and we're not where we normally are? No. Should i preach the end of Titus 2 differently because i'll be behind a lectern not in a pulpit? What a stupid question. And yet, somewhere in my heart these questions flickered as we discussed this all in our staff meeting this morning. And thats not good. This is all without even considering the question of whether buildings make 'going to church' the same as 'going to walmart'.

Of course, the problem is not bricks and mortar. The problem is my heart. My sinful heart that loves prestige and security and nice lighting and a dozen other attendant things that i haven't even though of. Like so much, buildings are neutral. Sometimes we use them for very, very good things. Sometimes our hearts make them ugly, sometimes our hearts make them a functional god.