wake me up when its over

here are my five favourite photos from Relay 2:

don't all religions lead to God?

Yep, the Relay 2 blog dump continues. This is my six minute evangelistic talk that we did in fellowship groups. Six minutes is basically no time at all, which is why it's so brief. I pretty much just mentioned the title and then set off to Calvary. Which i don't think is a bad thing. I've got a lot to work on if i do it again though, especially talking about Jesus showing us what God was like as well as being the Way, and more interaction with other religions.

I think the question of ‘who is God?’ is key to answering our question of don’t all religions lead to God? Is God the god of popular culture? The well meaning god who has lost control of what he created? Is God like that? Or is God the way He is described in the Bible? Is God holy, just, righteous, loving and wrathful against sin? Because if God is these things then it really matters whether or not all religions lead to God, but if he isn’t, then it doesn’t really, and the CU is of no more significance than the rowing club.

But isn’t it arrogant for Christians to claim to know what God wants? What about devout Muslims? What about people who aren’t religious but do a lot of good work? How can Christians possibly claim that there is only one way to an infinite eternal God?

Well what does God say about Himself? The Bible makes the extraordinary claim that God became a man, Jesus, who at the same time was both God and man. He did this to show that He was the only way to God. This is what Jesus meant when He said ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.’ This is perhaps one of the most well known things that Jesus said, and it seems that He is making an exclusive claim. He is basically saying that He is the only way to God…making the same apparently outrageous claim that Christians make about Him. And this is where the crossroads appear. There is no serious historical doubt surrounding the existence of Jesus. Most people who aren’t Christians believe that He was a good teacher, a decent guy, who taught a lot of good things. But that’s not what Christians believe about Jesus. Christians take the other way and believe that Jesus claimed to be, and was, and is, the eternal Son of God. The Christian faith is unique in that it focuses on a relationship with a person. Not a place, or culture, or language or set of rules…but on Jesus.

But why do Christians believe this? There is one very good reason why Jesus is the only way to God. Everyone will tell you that there are problems in the world. Whether it’s global warming, or wars or rising crime rates, no one denies that these problems exist. The difference comes when we try to agree why they exist. The Bible is very clear on this. Its says that the problem with the world is not ‘out there’ somewhere, but that it’s in us. The problem with the world is in our hearts. We are what’s wrong with the world. It’s the wrong thoughts, words and actions, what the Bible calls sin, that I do that offend God and create a gap between how God made and meant the world, and how the world is. This also means that there is a gap between man and God. We were made to live in perfect relationship with God, and it’s fairly clear that we don’t. And the blame for that lies squarely at our door. But what’s that got to do with Jesus?

Jesus was fully God and fully man, therefore He was not tainted with the same sin that you and I are. He had the perfect relationship with God, His Father that we were all created to have. He was the only man who did not deserve the punishment that sin brings. And what happened to Him? He was arrested, subjected to a show trial and nailed to a wooden cross. He had done nothing wrong…even those who accused Him at His trial couldn’t get their stories about Him to agree. Jesus died under the weight of the punishment for all the wrong thoughts, words and actions that you and I have done. He took the punishment due to us. How could He do this? Because He, in Himself had no sin, He had never done anything to incur the punishment of God. He was perfect. And God laid on Him the punishment that is due to us all so that our relationship with God might be restored.

So you see Jesus has to be the only way to God. He in the only one qualified to bare the punishment that we deserve. On the cross Jesus wasn’t killed by the physical pain, He died too quickly for that. He was killed by the wrath of God poured out on Him for the things that we have done wrong. He was the only one qualified for such a task, the only one who could bridge the gap between man and God that we have created. Jesus is the only way to God.

UCCF:thespecialforces

In my post Relay 2 glow, here are some reasons i really like UCCF:thechristianunions.

Commitment to the Gospel.
The first thing we heard 'from the front' was 'the Gospel is still true, Grace is still real'. It was like coming up from under a swimming pool and having fresh air hit the back of your lungs once more. Funny how you don't realise you've been ill until your better again. I have concluded that most/all my problems come from the fact that sometimes i just don't believe these two truths. And whats more it was the Gospel that we focussed on all week. It would have been easy to spend an hour on the first night reminding ourselves of it, and then spend the rest of the week learning how to be Relay workers. But we didn't. And here's the thing, if we don't love the Gospel, if we don't love Jesus then you can give us all the 1-2-1 tips in the world, and it won't make any difference. But show us Jesus clothed in His Gospel, and you're showing us life.

Commitment to the Bible.
I love the Bible, and i try to love all of it equally, but there are some books that just seem more helpful than others, no matter how untrue that is. And whcih book did we study this week? Zephaniah. You'd have to go a long way to get further off the beaten track than that. Two and half terrifying chapters on God's fierce judgement and half a chapter on His grace to His remnant. It was brilliant. And so easily missed. There's more to the Bible than Romans, there's more to the Old Testament than Genesis and the Psalms, it was great to remember that this week. There was a Bible open in every talk. This just seems like common sense to me but i know that it is getting rarer. But i'd rather have someone sit and expose the Bible to me, and help me to apply it well than pretty much anything else. I was at the Biblical Evangelism Conference two months ago, a whole weekend dedicated to handling the Bible better. Invaluable.

Commitment to Worldwide Mission
Wednesday evening was spent praying for IFES movements around the world, praying for the top 50 countries in the Open Doors persecution list, praying for China and praying for last years Relays who are away on Homestart at the moment. IFES is the third largest worldwide organisation after FIFA and the UN. I think thats pretty cool. This term about 50 missions will take place in the UK and Ireland, and in one week in February (12th-16th) there will be 13 missions on the go at once. It's great to be caught up in something so big, so eternal.

Commitment to students and Relays
Things like the BEC and the whole Relay programme illustrate this. Student led mission teams resourced and supported by Relays, staff and training conferences. Giving students the chance to handle and teach the Bible.

Commitment to Universities
'Change universities and you will change the world' said a wise sounding man. Universities will always be where the next generation of leaders will come from, so lets get amongst them. Lets change people's lives and eternities at university, so they can do it in the work place. Universities are increasingly closed to outside intervention, espeically that of a religious bent, so it's great to able to equip the students who have the right to be on campus where others don't.

Commitment to Church
I can honestly say that if it wasn't for Bish i wouldn't love the church as much as i do. Christ is building His church, the church is the bride of Christ, the church is what will be presented to Christ spotless at the end of time. CUs are there to gather people in the local church. They couldn't do what they do without the support of the local and sending churches. CUs are not churches, neither should they be treated as such. Go to CU sure, but get yourself involved in a good Bible teaching church, thats so important.

Relay 2: Karaoke

Mo (plus wig) kicked us off

The 'mighty' Midlands

Guess which musical number they did!

The North East
they just lacked 'a little bit'

The North West
i like them because they made sure we didn't come last!

Ireland
They sung about a horse.

a sympathetic picture of Team London

The South East.
world class

The. Scotlandteam.
Winners two years in a row.

Wales.
'They're gunna live forever!'

South West/East Central.
Two very small teams combining to make one small team. They nearly won though.

it's better if you do

Much much more to come from Relay 2 when i've processed and looked over my notes and sat and thought and rejoiced a bit more. But for a start i wanted to write something short. In fellowship group this morning we were studying Zepheniah 3:12-20, the book that we spent the week looking at. We broke up into pairs and looked at a part of the passage each. Me and helen looked at 14-17 to see what it said about God.

• He is gracious
• Powerful
• Relational
• the King of Israel
• mighty and saving
• loving
• expressive
• happy
• delighting in His own work
• compassionate.

All that about God hidden in three verses in a minor prophet book that most people won't even read. If i've learnt one thing from Relay 2, and i haven't, i've learnt heaps, it's that the minor prophets are totally worth spending time with. And that God's amazing...i mean, just look at that list!

stop it and tidy up

i'm off to Relay 2 for a week... please pray for me and everyone involved!

*laters*

more on four

I should say before i start that most of what i'm about to say is inspired/stolen from a Dave Gibson article on Beginning with Moses.

So Luke 4, not about us, about Jesus being the obedient Son of God. About Jesus succeding where Adam the Son of God and Israel the Son of God had failed. Looking at this unfolding story in three parts probably helps a little bit.

The first scene Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. God's one command to ensure their happiness and His glory was simple. Just don't eat the apple off the tree. Everything else you can eat, just not this. The audience hold their breath, will Adam be the obedient son of God, will he be a worthy federal head and substitute for us? No. He disobeys God's once command and eats the apple. And it's game over for him, he and eve are kicked out of Eden, forbidden from ever returning and condemned to work the land. God is rich in mercy and steadfast love however, and so gives them hope. One day, from their line one will be born who will crush the serpent under His foot...

Jesus is also not Israel. There are probably many examples of when Israel was God's disobedient son, but lets look at the Exodus. About two million Jews being led up out of Egypt, these must the serpent crushers who will live as God's people in God's land forever, loving and worshiping and enjoying Him. The audience strain their necks to get a glimpse of this new hope. And what happens? Moses has to leave Israel for forty days to speak to God...and they fall into disobediance. They make a Golden Calf and worhsip that instead. They even call it 'the god who bought us up out of Egypt'. Not so obediant there then. Later they even refuse to believe on God for entrance into the Promised Land and wonder in the wilderness for forty years. It doesn't seem as though Israel will be the obedient one after all.

Enter Jesus. Third time lucky think the crowd? Baptised and driven into the wilderness, what's He going to do. He relies on God. He refuses to worship the devil, or use His power to turn stones into bread or attract attention to Himself by throwing Himself down from the Temple and getting God to save Him. He is obedient. So His ministry continues. And as much as Jesus is everything Adam and Israel could never, He is everything we could never be. We will never be obedient like He was...never fight temptation like He did.

Sure there are times when i can ward off temptation for a season by telling myself about Isaiah 6, or other verses, but only for a season. The time will come when i fall again, the time will come soon, because i carry around with me a deadly enemy. The problem isn't that i do bad things, though that is a problem, the problem is that i am bad. So i've got no hope. How am i meant to follow Jesus' example? If satan came to me with the offer of food in this situation, i'd probably already have a bakery going. Luke 4 is not a guide for me.

And thats the best news ever. Why? Because Jesus is the perfect obedience that i need. he has been loyal to God, never sinned, never broken God's perfect law. And yet it was He who was nailed to the cross, not me. He who died under the weight of God's wrath, not me. Jesus who suffered for my sin. Not me. This is grace, that Jesus has done it all in Luke 4 so precisely so that we don't have to. This is amazing, glorious substitution.

see what a morning

'if, in our preaching of the moutains of Christian scripture, we do not come to a hill named Calvary we are wildly off course' -C.J Mahaney

snapshots

Esther 1-3

As Bish has already mentioned, we've started going through Esther in USCU main meetings. It's cool, good to get off the beaten track, and the old testament definately deserves more attention than we give it. Now, Esther's often held up as an example for girls, so i'm told anyway, no ones ever told me how to be a good Christian girl. But look at the Esther 2...she attracts attention by making herself look beautiful, then sleeps with the most powerful man she can find, and under no circumstances tell him about her faith. Now, obviously there are reasons for all these thing in the grand sweep of what God is doing in Esther, but still...this doesn't seem like great advice!

Luke 4

If Esther 2 doesn't offer great advice for girls then Luke 4 isn't a guide on how to avoid temptation. It's too easy to read these verses, to preach these verses as if we were the main charecter and it's about us fighting temptation. But it's not, the main guy in Luke 4 is Jesus, not us. Jesus the son of God being contrasted with Adam the son of God (3:38) and given the number of quotations from Deuteronomy, Israel the son of God. The point is not about how fight temptation, but how we could never fight temptation. Jesus is everything we could never be, He is our obediant substitute. He succeded where Israel failed in the desert and Adam failed in Eden...and where we fail every day. The actual point of Luke 4 is much more exciting than the one that immediately pops into our head.

Isaiah 6

I read this with Pete and Sam this week. Good times. It's great to see God in His sanctuary, to see Him the way he is. God is holy holy holy, way more holy than we know. So holy, as we noticed that even the Seraphim can't look at Him. Even their eyes must be shielded from His glory and awesomness. Isaiah knows exactly what this means for him. 'Woe is me, for i am lost (ruined)' he cries. He is a sinful man, and knows he'll be burned by the holiness of God. But God doesn't consume him, God redeems him. The coal touches his lips, and his sin is atoned for. Amazing grace.

the McCheyne calendar

For my Bible reading at the moment i'm following the McCheyne calendar, which was devised by Robert Murray McCheyne and takes you through the new testament and psalms twice and the rest of the old testament once every year. In theory.

Yesterday, March 10th to be precise, i read among others Luke 24 and Job 39. As well as the obvious point of how good it is to read four different bits of the Bible each day, yesterday was particularly good. Job 39 sees God reply to Job, and point out to him that if He can make animals like Ostriches and hawks and horses which are all, to be honest, a bit of a mystery to us, and not only that they are a mystery but that He is powerful enough to create and sustain them, surely it's not too much to believe that sometimes what He does in our lives will be beyond our understanding. Luke 24 is Luke's account of the ressurection and aftermath, including Jesus on the road to Emmaus, explaining how the Old Testament is all about Him, if i could eavesdrop anywhere in the Bible there it'd be.

So yesterday what a vision of God this gave me. The God who creates and sustains all mysterious things, who's ways and plans and purposes are way above our own. And the God who is powerful enough to defeat death, to walk out of the grave. That was pretty cool.