Praise God

Dan became a Christian the year before he came to Reading Uni. When he came here the CU didn't find him, and he didn't make any Christian mates or go to Church, and he struggled. Over Easter he got in touch with Laura who just happens to be engaged to Joe, one of my best mates. Joe let me know, i let Tim (who leads cell in his hall) know, Tim brings him to CU on thursday (Marcus Honeysett on Romans 4) and is taking him to church on sunday. The system works!

Praise God! How concerned with His own Glory, how concerned with those who love Him and seek Him.

Calvary to the nations

I've been listening John Piper 'Doing Mission when Death is Gain' again. And something struck me, and you might have to bare with me here, because i'll sound like i'm stating the obvious for a while. Maybe i am stating the obvious, but it struck me as wonderful, and humbling.

Jesus suffered on the cross. There can be no doubt about that. I believe that his greatest suffering, His greatest concern in Gethsemene was not physical, but spiritual, but despite this, there can be no doubt, no doubt at all that he suffered physically as well. Crucifiction wwas brutal and horrific more or less beyond our imagination. I've disgressed. Jesus suffered on the cross to glorfy His Father by winning a people for Him, thus, i believe setting the precedent for missions. Is there was a way to win a people for the Father, and to gloryfy Him without suffering, why did Jesus, the one through whom the universe was created have to suffer to do it. The owner of the universe, between two nobodies, all dying the same. Maybe i've missed something, but if there was another way, surely Jesus would have taken it.

So what? So to bring people to Jesus, to show people the glory of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ, we must suffer. That is the means, the price of our evangelism. Suffering. But thats alright, because all men can do is kill you, and when you die to go to Jesus, your exceeding joy. So the enemies greatest weapon becomes our greatest victory, which is good. But i digrees again. So please, and i talk to myself as much as anyone here, don't be happy, content with a quiet surburban life, with a decent job good kids. Of course, of course there is work to be done amongst the office workers of the world, they need the gospel as much as anyone, and we need Christians there. But the Christians working in offices will suffer when they proclaim Jesus.

But think, just think. Jesus suffered. And He calls us to suffer. We can partake in the great commission in the same way that Jesus did. By suffering! By taking up our cross and following Him...by dying. Is that not an honour, is that not the greatest thing in the world? That we, in some small way might go through a similar experience to Jesus as we evangelism and proclaim. Isn't that amazing? We are counted worthy to suffer, and i think that's great. And i hope i still will when the question is more immediate.

I've blogged on this sermon before, here and here.

Well?

'The Critical question for our generation, and every generation is this: if you could have heaven with no sickness, and with all the friends you had on earth, and all the food you ver liked and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disaster...would you be happy in heaven, if Christ were not there?'

'God is the Gospel', John Piper: P15

Christopher's river

Sometimes, quite often today in fact, i've been bored with my revision and thought to myself...'man, why can't i just work for the CU full time'...and then i remember. Relay: the best graduate job in the world.

Also today i learnt, in a small way, how concened the Lord is with His name. A while ago, during Mission Week i had a chat with a Muslim guy called Issa, about Christ and His religion and my faith. I felt fairly unprepared in the face of his beliefs and Danutia, being Danutia, bought me a small booklet entitled 'A Muslim's guide to Christ.' Thats been sitting on my shelf pretty much ever since, but today, just by chance* i put it into my bag on the way into campus. Outise the library were guys handing out flyers to an exhibition and talk on campus about 'The man who changed the world'...ooh, i thought, that'd be Jesus. It was Mohammed. So the next time i walked past him i said something like 'i've got one of your things...would you like on of one my things?' and handed it over. I know its only a small thing, but it was a good lesson in obediance, and as i said, about the Lord's passion for His name. What are the chances of my putting it into my bag randomly today eh? Our God, our awesome, wonderful, immutable God. King of the universe, and yet well acquainted with my daily movements. Pretty mind blowing really.

*yeh, i know it wasn't 'by chance'

In other news: if anyone fancies looking at the code of my blog and working out why my links are so unevenly spaced, let me know. I can't work it out, and more signifcantly, neither can Bish...

PS: need a laugh?

I will play my game beneath the spin light

When i was younger i read a book called 'The Phantom Toll Booth', i did think it may have been by Tolkien, but on reflection, i don't think it was. Anyway, the story was about a boy who was given a toll booth for his birthday (yeh i know, just stick with me) and when he drove through the toll booth he ws transported into another universe. It may have been at war, or in some kind of trouble, i'm not sure. Something was going on anyway, and our hero had to drive through this strange land, populated by people who grew down instead of up, and all sorts of other randomness. I don't really remember all that well to be honest.

Luckily, this post isn't about the phantom toll booth, its about the nature of sin. You see, in the book there was a cave that the protagonist stopped in for the night. They served him a certain type of stew, subtraction stew, which was delicious. The problem being, of course that the more you ate, the more you wanted, and the more you wanted, the more you ate. Is this not the nature of the sin which threatens to devour us?

We are designed for a relationship with God. This is a relationship which gives us joy, and pleasure and fulfillment. Are these not the things we look for when we indulge our lust, our greed, our self centredness? And thats the thing, because we were made for something that we don't automatically have (a relationship with God) then we desire all the time. We desire things that our flesh, that the world around us tells us that we need, and it's with these things that we try to fill the hole. The hole only God can fill. And the more we sin, the more we try and fill our longing, our hole up with worldy things, the hungrier we get, because the further we get from God, and the more we train our minds to these things. So the more we sin, the more we desire, the more we sin.

But, we weren't made to lust, or to be greedy, or selfish or whatever. We were made for something much much better, much much higher. We were made for a relationship wth God. And we don't sin because our desire's are too strong and God can't hold them in, but because we're far too happy to fill the hole with what feels good, with what our fallen sinful pleasure sensors tell us we need. We can not trust our fallen, sinful minds, they will lead us astray in a flash. We are, as Piper and Lewis and countless others have written and said, like children happy to make mud pies in the slums because we can not imagine what is meant by a trip to the beach.

Jesus Christ is the end of our longing. He is the fulfillment of our desire. He is the answer. Not sin. Not what are sinful minds tell us is. We need to desire God above all things, for Him to be the King of our longings. Filling the hole we feel with anything else will only make it worse, will only take us further from the solution. Further and further, until it's too late.

We were made for something far better than we think we are satisfied by. Sin will never, never satisfy us. Only Jesus Christ will do that. Let's embrace that truth.

The Highlands: Just as He left them.

Tremendous times, the air up there is so clean...i love it. God's creation is beautiful!

Resurrection...not remembrance

Back at Bourne End Community Church today, for possibly the last time in a while, where Simon was preaching on the end of Luke 23 and the beginning of Luke 24, with reference to the women making their way to the tomb, and right and wrong ways to react to Jesus, His life, death and resurrection.

These women loved Jesus. They had 'followed Him from Galilee' and served Him as best they could while He was alive. Now, on the day between the first Good Friday and the first Easter Sunday, they were preparing to try to continue to serve Him after His death. What a sombre day that must have been for Jesus followers. We can only imagine the despair, the humiliation and the anger they went through. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, who they thought was the Messiah, this man, who had promised to rebuild the temple in three days had been executed with criminals, and now lay cold in a tomb. What must it have been like for the women as they prepared to anoint Jesus' body?

Many people see Jesus as a good man, who taught us good things. Who taught a good moral code, who had some nice ideas and live a good life. But that's all. Jesus as a man who should be honoured and respected and remembered, but not much else. So they go to church at Christmas and Easter...and sometimes they take communion. But Easter is not some sort of remembrance Sunday for the church. Communion is not a Christians way of saying 'we will remember Him'. For Jesus is not just a good man who died, not just a great man, teacher and moral guide who died, as the women may have thought of Him, as millions do today. Jesus is the living God, the King of mankind, the Firstborn from all creation. The women wanted to remember Jesus, to respect and celebrate His memory...but He is risen! He is risen! And as this impacted the women's plans and reaction to Jesus so it must impact ours.

Others would say 'things have moved on'. That Jesus taught some good things, but that was two thousand years ago. He doesn't say anything relevant to my life. He never said anything about the internet, or texting, or 4X4 ownership, or student loans, or anything about any of the other thousands of things that take up our time today. Sure, He meant a lot to the people that knew Him...but thats about it isn't it? And maybe the women were thinking this as well, it was Sunday, they'd last seen Jesus on Friday. His life, their time together was already just a memory, a time that had passed. It's time to start thinking about how they'll live the rest of their lives...in remembrance sure, but that's all it'll be, a memory. But when they got to the tomb, and realized He was risen, all that changed. We can't 'remember' someone who is alive, they still have an impact on our day to day lives. We can interact with Him, He can teach us, comfort us, rebuke us. He is living. No longer, as the women discovered, in the tomb. So sure, things have moved on since First Century Palestine. But Jesus, the risen one, is just as alive now, as He was then. And He owns the universe. He knows everything about the internet, and texting, and anything else you care to mention, because He is GOD! We can have a relationship with Him today because He is ALIVE. How will we live the rest of our lives? As resurrection people!

On that morning the women were going to anoint a dead Jesus. It would have been awkward, what would they do? What would they say to eachother? How will they leave the tomb? Will they come back tomorrow? Predictable though. Jesus was dead, they knew exactly were to find Him, exactly what box to put Him in. But, they didn't find Him there. Why would they? Why look for the living amongst the dead? They were reacting in totally the wrong way. They didn't know what to do. A dead Jesus is predictable...a living Jesus is a different matter all together. The same spirit that raised Him from the dead now lives in us. Now He is risen, we can share life with Him, life in all its fullness. There is no need to fear death, or life. Jesus has conquered death, and rules life. The resurrection confirms to us that Jesus was who He claimed to be...That same spirit that raised Him, also raised us. And lives in us.

Easter Sunday is not a time for remembrance but celebration. We celebrate our Risen King. We celebrate the new life we can have in Him, that He has given us. We celebrate that He has conquered death. We celebrate that His death and resurrection accomplished everything. We are humbled as He calls us brother, and encouraged. If Jesus can conquer death, He can do anything. What an awesome God. The resurrection demands a reaction. Not one of awkward remembrance, or of halfheartedness. But of worship. Of awe. Of celebration. There is a name of one man in heaven and earth, throughout all eternity worthy of praise. That is Jesus Christ. The awesome, beautiful living God.

He's got the whole world in His Hands'

Jesus finest hour- His last.

'The body lay there till early sunday morning', and then...everything changed, for ever.

Literally Speaking

Challies reviews Eugene Peterson's new book here. I'm not sure he's too impressed, and, given the quotes he's pulled out of the book, i'd pretty much have to agree, at least regarding his thoughts on Bible translations. I 'd have to add a caveat here, in that i'm currently (slowly) reading Peterson's first book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, and really enjoying it.

I can't really think of a succint way of ending this, without going into a 'literal Vs paraphrase' debate. So i'm just going to stop! Read what Challies has to say!

Where the circle ends

Are Thursday the best band you've never heard of? I think so. Check 'em out, start with 'Standing on the edge of summer'...role on their new album.