Faith and Works

Someone (Piper? CS Lewis?) said that you should read three old books for every new book. Now, i clearly don't do that, but my dissertation will be about Biblical Doctrine in the Reformation (thats the plan anyway, my supervisor is concerned that i'm writing a theology essay, whereas i should be writing a history essay), but i've just found this by Luther, as an introduction to Romans. It's good stuff, go read! I'm looking forward to tucking into more as the weeks go by...

Robs Miscellanies

Rob blogs about Galatians two, and how important focussing on the gospel alone really is.
This makes me feel two almost polarised emotions...It was deeply refreshing to read Rob's words on how sufficient the gospel is, it really made my heart leap, and man, how much should we thank God that this is the case. That the gospel is sufficient, that nothing else is needed for our salvation. Dwelling on that makes me feel like i've been drinking a cool, clear glass of water on a hot day.
But it also makes my heart ache. It makes me sad for the people i know, for the people in general who attend churches where some sort of gospel plus nonsense is propagated. It makes me sad that these churches exist in the first place, that what presumably started off as gospel centred churches has drifted away from those strong begginings, and are now implicitly denying the gosple with their laws. It makes me sad that people attend these churches. If this is where you are bought up, if this is all the teaching you know, what chance have you got? If something appeals to someones fallen sense of pride in self justification against the pride robbing, humbling truth about the cross people are always going to go for it. I know i would, but for the grace of God.
This brings me to three conclusion.
1) To endevour to keep the gospel alone central in everything i do and say. To keep my conversations with non believers clear and seasoned with salt.
2) To always seek out a church where i will be confronted and challenged by the truth rather than comforted by wearing the right clothes or praying in the correct manner.
3) To challenge the people i know who attend churches with dress codes. To pray for them more consciously.
On the first evening of Word Alive last easter, Graham Daniels told us that if we haven't been accused of lawlessness then we haven't preached the gospel properly. Lets pray that truth would grab hold of some of these churches.

Don't go to Chieveley Services

Good times last night as i drove down to Bristol for Dave Long's 25th birthday. Great to catch up with just under half of 'Team BG 05', good to hear that Chen was planning to get to Bristol Airport this morning 'at dawn' (not the catch a plane you understand, to spot them). We went bowling and then back to Dave's place in Filton. I'm very aware that being on committee at RUCU has turned me into a bit of a geek... i can now sit in a room with a bunch of strangers and quite happily talk staf workers and relay and pink t-shirts (don't ask). But its a great privaledge to be a part of what the Lord is doing through UCCF, i love it!
Happy Birthday Dave!

Piper

A lot of what i believe is influenced by the work of John Piper. He's just been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Pray for him and read his letter here.

Colossians 3

Read it here.

The end of Colossians 2 saw Paul showing the Colossians the nonsense of man made religion. The waste of time that angel worship, human philosophy and asceticism is, when compared to Christ. The readers of this letter might at this time have been thinking that Paul was going to spend all his time outlining where his opponents were wrong, without reminding them what the alternative was. At the start of chapter 3, Paul does just that. We are to embrace our new life with Christ totally, throwing off any vestiges of our old selfs. Paul tells his readers to set their minds on the things that are above...pretty much the opposite of what the teachers of deceptive philosophy had been trying to get them to do. 'Set your mind on what is above, not on what is on earth. Look at Christ, look at His ways, His teaching and life, not to something made up by another sin filled man. Christ is God with us, surely His ways are better and more worth setting our minds on. Paul tells his readers that they have died to this world, and are now hidden in Christ. Why, if you are dead tjo this world do you still mess around in it? It has no authority or hold over you, so look at the things that do have an authority over you. Look at Christ. Get to know His teachings and words, because nothing else will satisfy and give you life as Christ does. Paul makes this all sound very easy, and we know the experience of it is a lot less easy. But this is what we must do. We must ignore todays fallible, Christ denying teachings, and, as Paul said before hold fast to the head. We must make sure that no one disqualifies us by immersing ourselves in the teaching of the man we know never would...Jesus!
So we must lose ourselves totally in this new life. We are a new creation in Christ, we have been born again, so lets live like we have been. Lets embrace the great calling that Christ has put on us! And what, according to Paul, are we being called to lose, to give up? Good things? Things that make the world a better place? Indeed no! We are called to get rid of: sexual immorality (BAD), impurity (BAD), passion (BAD), evil desire (BAD), and Christ denying idolatry (BAD). So, Christ wants us to live our new life putting away the things that destroy us and harm the people around us! So whats the problem? Our desires are the problem. Not that our desires are too strong but that they are too weak, that we too happily settle for second best. I know, deep in my heart, that the most joyful, deeply satisfying moments i've had have been when i've lost myself in Jesus. When i am deeply immersed in His word, or in real, heartfelt and honest prayer to Him. Those are the great moments. But i am also painfully aware that all too often i forget those things, and run after the things Paul lists above. But look at verse 6. On account of these things the wrath of God is coming. These things are the reason that Christ will return in glory and power to judge us. Because of the fall of man leading to these things. Do we really want to be a part of that? Did Paul want the believers in Colossae to be part of those things, that so many people around them were telling them to be. Or did Paul want his original readers to turn all together from those things, so that they might show the all satisfying glory of God to the people that perpetrated such lies. Verse 7 tells us that we used to walk in these things...and that is irrefutably true. But now our lives are hidden with Christ, we can not, we must not continue in these things. How does that bring glory to God? How will we look like new creations, if we don't look like new creations?
Pauls tells the Colossians to also get rid of the Christ denying things that come out of there mouths. The lies, the slander, the malice, the lies. To put in the new self. The self which is better. The new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Renewed in knowledge. How will we know what our new life is supposed to look like if we don't know about Jesus? If we don't try to know more about His life and teachings, if we don't study letters like this? If we don't, as Paul has already said, hold fast to the head? We can't. We won't have a chance, we may as well make it up. So lets open our hearts and seek knowledge of these things. Knowledge of Christ, and all His glorious teaching. Then the Holy Spirit can show us more and more of the father. Then our hearts will be set alight!
So we are to be new people. To put on compassion, rather than malice, humilty, not pride, patience not wrath and kindness rather than evil desire. Remember that the Lord has forgiven you, so you ust forgive. And, above all, to put on love, which binds everything together. The second of the two greatest commandments. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, open your hearts to Him, and be thankful. Is that not a better way, than asceticism, than new moons, than evil, than sexual immorality, than passion? Christ is better than all that the world has to offer, so lose yourself in Him. Again Paul tells his readers to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly, so they can teach and admonish, so they can be wise, and so that they can be thankful to Christ.
And finally, greatly, importantly. Whatever the Colossians do, they must do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the father through Him. So, if there's anything they do that does not sit well in the name of the father...they must stop it, they must put it away. Paul wants his readers to remember in all they do they they are new creations in Christ, and that it is only through Him that they can do anything. New creations in Christ, as all believers are, must be those new creations! Lets give all the glory to Christ. Lets give thanks to God the Father through Him, because of Him. Lets embrace our new life, our better life, as an act of worship to Him, and to make His name famous.

Gentleman Caller

I've been reading 'God is the Gospel', by John Piper over Christmas. It's an excellent book, and has really challenged what i believe about the point of salvation, who the Holy Spirit is, and how we do evangelism.
Piper's point in this book is that the greatest gift that God has to offer is Himself, not anything else, and that our justification, santification and re-birth are means to an end. The end is relations with the great I AM. This has challenged my very self centred approach to the cross. Thinking that the cross was a way to make much of myself (of course God loves me...His son died for me), or to see the cross as my way of escaping hell. But no. God created us to live in relationship with Him, to bring glory to Him, and that is what He does on the cross. The cross is the place where God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ shines the brightest. Look at what Christ is doing, look, therefore, about how much God is worth. The point of the cross must be the lose our self centredness, not to enhance it! To see that in the death and ressurection of Christ we see the glory of a God who fulfills everything i need. To realise that is a much greater thing than forgiveness or feeling loved? Would you be happy in heaven if Christ wasn't there but all your friends and loved ones were? I hope not!
And the Holy Spirit? I'm not sure how i regarded the Holy Spirit before. Obviously as the third and equal part of the Trinity, obviously as no less God than the Father or the Son, but i think in some way i saw Him as independant of the other two. What a load of nonsense! The only way the Holy Spirit changes us is by showing us more and more of the attraction of the glory of the father! It can not do things independantly of Him. If i remember one thing from this book, i hope that is it. We are only changed by looking at the Father and realising His greatness. To do that we need the Holy Spirit more than anything else.
Which takes us onto evangelism. It takes two things for people to believe in the gospel.
1. The Gospel must be faithfully proclaimed. I don't why its taken me so long to realise this, but man! Who was ever saved by my garbelled version of the gospel, or by the 'nice' bits of the gospel, or by anything other than the gospel? No one! It's just not possible. All the time i've wasted in petty arguments with non Christians...why wasn't i just telling them the gospel?
2. The Holy Spirit must move in their hearts to show them the light of Christ. Romans 1:20 says that we are without excuse, that we can clearly see the things of God, we just ignore them. Only the Holy Spirit will open their hearts, will be the light shone into their hearts. That'll only happen if we pray...so lets pray!

Colossians 2:16-23

Read it here.

I think here, we've reached the beating heart of Paul's letter to the Colossians, the reason he wrote the the churches there. In 2:8, Paul appeals to his readers to not let any one take them in with deceptive philosophy, with Christ insulting, grace denying nonsense. Here's why.
Verse 17 calls such things, judgement with regard to moons and festivals and sabbaths and food and drink, a shadow of the things that are to come, the substance belonging to Christ. A shadow of the things that are to come.When the sun shines on a tree, that tree casts a shadow onto the ground. The shadow, given perfect light and a lack of any interference on the ground is a decent representation of what the tree looks like. Now, i'm wary of pushing the analogy too far, but if you want to learn what the tree looks like, or draw the tree, or even (deep breath) be the tree, then you wouldn't look at the shadow would you? You'd look at the tree. The substance. So lets look beyond the law, beyond legalism. Pauls pleads with the Colossians to dismiss out of hand the people telling the Colossians that they must eat and drink this, observe that, wear the other. NO! They must turn to Christ. And what for us today? No one has recently told me at church that i must eat a certain food to be justified, or pray at certain times. But i think it's clear that this sort of thing still exists today. You still hear people say that 'if you have enough faith you'll be healed', which is about the most offensive thing i've heard recently, or that if one doesn't read the bible enough, one is not saved, or that we must pray in a certain voice, or way or use certain words. This sort of thing is Christ denying, gospel countering nonsense and must be ignored at all costs. I think these things are the angel worship, the new moon observing of the 21st Century west. Paul goes on to talk about people being puffed up without any reason by their sensuous minds. Now this may well have been a particular problem in Colossae, it may well have been that there was an angel worshipping (v18) sect there, that Paul was desperate for his brothers to stay away from. One thing that we can be waryof directly from Paul's letter is from verse 18, when he talks about people puffed up beyond all reason by their sensuous mind. That is exactly where legalism comes from...It comes from our pride, from believing that we can justify ourself, from our self centred desire to be seen as better than the next man. It comes from our sensuous mind. Our sinful, fallen mind. It can be no good. Paul writes to the Galatains that it was for freedom that we were set free, no longer to be burdened by the yoke of slavery. No longer to have to worry about whether or not one is good enough.
So where can we look? What will tell us of our justification, or help us to live the life that Christ wants us to. Well, Paul describes the people trying to disqualify the Colossians as 'not holding fast to the Head' in verse 19. So there you have it. Hold fast to the Head, not to mans teachings. The body grows with a growth that is from God, not anywhere else. How will we grow if we don't look to our nourishment, or provider. The body grows with a growth that is from God. So hold fast to Him and let no one disqualify you, hold fast to Him, and don't get lost.
So rules and laws and regulations are dead. Finished with. The legal demands have been nailed to the cross (v14). Why then, Paul asks the Colossians, since they are dead to those things, do they still observe laws? We are dead to laws! They were nailed to the cross! So why still observe them. Why are the Colossians still not handling, not tasting, not touching? They have no need to do this, they need only walk in the way of Christ, and seek the things that are where He is. Come on, these things are but a shadow. And we're guilty of this as well, we make tules for ourself about where we go, what we do and how we do things. But all that does is have us concentrating on the rule, and consequently on the sin, and not on Christ. Not on grace. And that can be no good at all. Paul says that these things 'indeed have an appearance of promoting self made religion and severity to the body, but have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh'. How true that is. Sin is inside us, in our hearts. It'll be there whether or not we do this or that or not. Of course, protect yourself, be wise, give the devil no oppotunity, but don't think for a minute that self made religion is any substitute for the Holy Spirit showing you more and more of the Father, and you reacting accordingly. That is the only way to conquer sin in our lives. Not by creating rules for ourselves. If we were able to observe the law perfectly, as Christ did, we would be able to justify ourselves. We can't do that. Only the grace of God can train us to renounce ungodliness. We need the cross, where Christ died, bearing the demands of the law on His shoulders, more and more. Hold fast to the Head, because there is life. Nowhere else. Never ever think that anything you 'do' will bring you closer to God, because that is an insult to Christ, and everything He fought for, and won for us. The grace of God brings you salvation.
Hold fast to the Head, and let no one disqualify you.

Nice!

I'm currently going through my annual 'should i get a tatoo i really want one' phase. I'm not sure whether this has encouraged me or put me off for good!

Good stuff on *Cymraesbach*

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All is quiet on New Years Day

This made me smile/remind me why I want to spend my life making Jesus famous on campus...

I'm resisting the temptation to eulogise about 2005. I did start this afternoon but I gave up because I couldn't find the photos I wanted. One of Andy Flintoff and Brett Lee at the end of Edgebaston test and the other of English supporters on day four at the Oval waiving their umbrellas around, trying to convince the umpires it was raining, whilst the Australian supporters took off their shirts, donned sunglasses, and made as if to bask in the non existent sun. I think that'll be my favorite sporting memory of 2005.

Simon spoke in church this morning on Philippians 3:10-19 about continuing to push towards God. My ESV Bible describes it as 'straining towards the goal', and I think that's a great way of putting it. We can all be comfortable, all look back at the highs of 2005 and be pleased with ourselves. We could just settle in our routines and never push ourselves for the Lord. But that's not what He wants. He wants us to 'press on for His upward call'. We were saved to do good works (Eph 2:10), so lets find out what they are, and do them! Lets forget what lies behind, the good and the bad, the joy and the heartache, and push onward in 2006 for the Lord.

It's been a priviledge to be a part of what God is doing, in Reading, in Bulgaria and at home in 2005 and I hope that the Lord will keep me part of what He is doing in Universities, because its so exciting, so important, and it means so much to me. To be part of the battle for my generation...frankly I can't think of anything i'd rather do. To help people see the glory of the Lord, and His infinite worth and might, to make God famous. There is nothing else I want to do in 2006, nothing that fills me with such a feeling of certainty. I will fall, I will fail, but God's grace is infinite, and He's all I need.

Hebrews 13:8.