The Reason for God

Its not often you feel like you know a book before you read it, but given the amount of writing this book had inspired i came to it feeling that way, and full of hope for it's content. I'd never read a Tim Keller book before (obviously, since this is his first one!) and so starting a journey with a new author was also pretty exciting.

So does this book live up to its expectation? Yes! it was the cover that first grabbed me, especially the black detail on the inside and the black and silver letters on the front. Understated sophistication. Then, the fact that the book was split up into two halves with an intermission half way though like an old tape album pleased me very much as well. I was already friends with this book before we started!



No one who listened to Dr Keller at the 2006 DG Conference could doubt whether he knew his patch. Planting a faithful, expositional church in the heart of New York City can't be an easy thing to do but he has shown that through knowing your people and trusting the Word, the Lord can do mighty work though you. Keller demonstrates his knowledge of the New York, and wider, scene in the introduction where he sets the scene of both his church, and how this book was born. I don't often bother with introductions, but i'm glad i did with this one.

The first half of the book is entitled 'The Leap of Doubt' and deals with the seven most popular objections the people have to Biblical faith. There were two things that i really enjoyed about this part of the book. Firstly that Keller writes with such and knowledge and love for those who are asking these questions. This is no dry academic apologetic study...this is a pastors heart on pages. The second was how differently to me Keller answers some of the questions that he raises. Straight from chapter one 'there can't be one true religion' he concludes, having deconstructed the major anti exclusive arguments by appealing to all the good done in the name of Christ by Christians, rather than further philosophising about the uniqueness of Christ. This approach really challenged me,

The second part, 'The Reasons for Faith' then deals with explanations of key areas of Biblical faith, such as 'The problem of Sin', The Clues for God' and 'The (true) story of the cross'. I think it's here that Keller really demonstrates his gift as an author, theologian and apologist. I don't know how anyone can write chapters so drenched in Edwards and Lewis and yet make them so popular level, so readable at the same time! 'hats off tim!' My heart was warmed by every chapter, especially fourteen 'the dance of God'. Brilliant.

This book is written for 'skeptics and those that love them'. Well i love them, now i'm going to pass this one with prayers and much confidence. I can not say enough positive things about this book. You really should but it.

Now!

Seven

1. And, brethren, there will be no uncertain sound from us as to the doctrine of atonement. We cannot leave the blood out of our ministry, or the life of it will be gone; for we may say of our ministry, "The blood is the life thereof." The proper substitution of Christ, the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, on the behalf of his people, that they might live through him. This we must publish till we die. (Spurgeon)



2. Dads birthday at an Italian in Marlow. Great to have the family all together.

3. Kids Church this morning. Telling 9-11 year olds about the Gospel and seeing them get excited makes me excited!

4. The Reason for God. Review coming soon.

5. The Sermon on the Mount. Four verses in and i'm already blown away by it. The Lord is in the detail.

6. This text: 'Just finished dwyl - read most of it since tuesday - couldn't put it down, such a good book!! So glad i read it. Everyone should read this book'

7. Facebook Bible talk. 'for the newsfeed'. Seriously though, just spending ages and ages labouring over a few verses is such a treat. Still not overly sure i'm really through it! Then speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah with Rachel. Conflicting over the details...she was right!

Pray for Zimbabwe

This evening at the RFC prayer meeting we were praying for Zimbabwe. Yesterday the country went to the polls seemingly to elect the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change. The problem is that although the MDC wins when the votes are counted in the constituencies they are then taken to a central place to be 'collated', and thats when Mugabe's Zanu-PF party seems to make ground. Pray for the church in Zimbabwe, and for a righteous outcome to the elections.

Read more on the Tearfund website:

Malnutrition, poverty, chronic unemployment, hyper-inflation, political repression, human rights abuses – a sea of suffering is engulfing the people of Zimbabwe.

About a third of the 13 million population is struggling to feed itself, hampered by bad harvests and ineffective government.

Robert Robinson

Vanity Lair

It's not often i have a Saturday morning without anything to do, but yesterday was one such occasion. Sadly i ended up watching a few minutes of a new channel four show called vanity lair. Before i turned it off for the sake of my mind i learnt the premise of the show was something like this:

Vanity Lair is home of ten beautiful Lairmates. Each is competing to be crowned the most beautiful and win a cool £10,000. Every week, three outsiders compete for a single place in the coveted Lair. The Lairmates must decide who stays,(the one they consider to be the most beautiful) but at a cost... The outsider they choose will have to pick a Lairmate who must leave the Lair forever (who they consider to the the least beautiful)



Having turned off the tv for the sake of my brain, i opened my Bible to the start of the beautitudes, and was hit in the face fully by how different the values of the world are from the values of the Kingdom.

'blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted'

Do we want to achieve happiness as Christians? Then the Lord says we must mourn, and it will be happiness that world neither understands nor envies. The verse more or less says 'happy are the sad' Mourning can cover many different things in today's society, or at least, cover many different sorts of occasions but it seems that Jesus has mourning over sin in view here. A righteous, holy grief over our rebellion against the King of Kings. Carrying on from His last sentence 'blessed are the humble' he now turns our attention what should make us humble, our sin, and what our reaction to it should be. Mourning.



And why is mourning the way to joy? Because in honesty and humility we can hold our hands up and say tho those around us 'i messed up, in fact, i don't just do bad things, i am bad' in total security knowing that those around us are in the same boat, that our individual weakness combined gives us great strength. And why else are the mournful happy? Because you can't be mournful over sin, not properly, unless you know Jesus, unless you've looked at Calvary, unless you've been with Him, tasted His goodness, and realise that it was your sin that sent Him to the cross. That should make us mourn, that should bring us to a contrite joy in the Lord, and it will make us secure in our communities of the redeemed with others who have done the same. In the Church here, and then ultimately where true blessing is, in unbroken relationship with Jesus forever in Heaven.

That feeling, that pleasing grief and mournful joy is a million miles away from the Vanity Lair house. There may have been outward beauty there, but it manifested itself outwardly in insecurity, pride, argument and backbiting. The cross deal with this. As we kneel together before the cross we realise that none of us, not one us is there because we deserve to be, we look up at the tree and see Jesus hanging where we should be. And we mourn. But in that same moment we rejoice, we rejoice because of the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father that effects our forgiveness, and initiates our relationship with Him. I want that deeply joyful mourning over the microcosm of 21st century culture which is the Vanity Lair any day.

CS Lewis on the Gospels

I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends and myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know none of them are like this. Of this (gospel) text there are only two possible views. Either it is reportage...or else, some unknown ancient writer...without known predecessors or successors suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic realistic narrative

Quoted in 'The Reason for God' Timothy Keeler, P106

God is light

Light and dark is not like:

Health and illness, which so often struggle with one another
The hollywood battle between good and bad
Black and white merging together to make grey
We can't chase darkness away
When you turn on a light the darkness doesn't fight it
The sun doesn't have to do battle with night at dawn

Light in darkness but darkness hasn't overcome it.
Of course it hasn't.

It can't.

(inspired by Incomparable by Andrew Wilson)

The Lord is in the detail

Before i started Relay i wasn't that systematic in my Bible reading. I'd read it every day more or less, almost always going through a book, sometimes new testament, sometimes old, but there was never any grand plan, any route i was following to help me see Christ through a sixty six book lens. When Relay started i began to follow the Mccheyne reading plan that takes you through the whole Bible in one of two years, or in my case, something like fourteen months! And that was really good, and very helpful in seeing the grand scheme of scripture unfold.

One thing i did miss was the chance to linger over a passage and soak it up though. That's what i'm doing now, in Matthew, with the help of the very excellent John MacArthur commentary series. Normally i read about four or five verses a day, which seems very slow (and is) but its helped me to see some of the detail. And the Lord is in the detail. Jesus oozes through every crack in Matthews gospel, His truth and light shine brightly from every part of the story. So here are some things i've learnt so far.

Chapter 1
Jesus is a royal King and a gracious King. The King of the Jews had to come straight through the line of David, and Jesus did. And look at some of the people in Jesus genealogy. Tamar and Rahab were prostitutes, Ruth was a Moabite, and yet Jesus had them in His line. Jesus was descended from them. In chapter one we see so clearly the work of God in our salvation. What does His name mean? The Lord saves. Who announced His coming? The Holy Spirit. Who's plan was it? The Fathers. God is all over the plan of salvation.

Chapter 2
We begin to see more clearly that Jesus was no ordinary child. The magi were eastern King makers. Who would rule next was up to them in their land. They called Jesus 'the King of the Jews'. Herod's upset reaction to this is more evidence that this baby was special, this baby was to be a King. The Gold signifies His regality, the frankincense His divinity, and the myrrh His humility. What a birth! What a Son, The true Son as his calling from Egypt and the fulfillment of Scripture demonstrates.

Chapter 3
The King has a herald, and opposition. The herald will soon decrease and the opposition be sifted like wheat. Jesus is supreme. And humble. Jesus approaches John to baptise Him that all righteousness might be fulfilled. Jesus will go about things in the right way, there's no doubt about that. I love how Trinitarian this part is. The Spirit descends, the Father speaks, the Son is King. The Father is well pleased. No other sacrifice pleased God. This one will. The King is truly here.

Chapter 4
The King is tested. He overcomes because of who the Father is. He is a trustworthy God. He is a God worth suffering for. All the Devils riches do not come close to relationship with the Father, all the bread in the world will not taste as sweet as doing the Father's will. Jesus succeeds in the desert where Israel failed. He is the perfect Son. Jesus starts His ministry, at the right time, in the right place with the right words. I'm struck by His sheer majesty. Always moving to the tick of the divine clock. And what is His message. Repent. Change your mind, turn your mind around. Turn your actions around. He calls men. Fishermen to be fishers of men. He calls them with absolute authority. Ordinary blue collar men, not leaders or teachers. Fishermen. And they follow Him.

The first four chapters of Matthew reveal so much glorious detail about Jesus, i can't wait for the next twenty four...

a tragedy in the making

what is the unwasted life?