Oliver Lawford

The Son of God Goes Forth to War

2010-05-01T22:13:00.000+01:00

Underappreciating Grey

2010-05-01T02:46:00.003+01:00

Grey is the problem child at school,
because he doesn’t get along with the other kids.
The one told to wait in the corner, face the wall,
pull his socks up and think about his actions.

Grey is the forgotten old man in the nursing home,
who when feeling feisty refuses to put his morning teeth in,
and longs to tells you stories about how he single-handedly
captured a German town in World War Two.

Grey is the fat kid always left on the bench,
yet when alone in his back yard can do a thousand
kick ups, and is waiting to set the soccer ball alight
with his fiery boot, and a hole straight through the net.

Grey is the girl who had braces all four years of high-school,
yet when she sings with her voice like rushing wind,
every single hair on my neck stands on its feet,
ready to scream and shout and clap.

Forgive me if skip quickly by the exhibition
with the dolphins and the elephants,
and choose to linger a little while in the room with
the street signs and the office staplers and the concrete.

I pretend to muse to myself something
about the ordinary than the extraordinary. Yet,
in reality all I know is this: if you really must go
to Florida and swim with the dolphins,
you will always need grey concretes roads to get you there,
and grey metal road signs to stop you from getting lost.

Blank White Sheet

2010-04-24T02:55:00.002+01:00

I long for the weight of this blank white sheet,
A field as yet unsown, to be lifted from my shoulders.
I pry back every rib of my confined heart
To seek what hides in its depths.

I mount the wind as it blows across the field,
Before it leaves, a train without its passengers,
The stops ahead each slowly descending slopes
To find a rodeo bull caged in his stall.
I clamber up his side and we wrestle
Until our words are written in the dust.

I will scream at the top of my lungs,
As my small fingers brush the crop of new summer wheat,
Leaving as I run muddy footprints
All over this blank white sheet.

(Thank You to my beautiful soon-to-be-wife for helping me craft this one).

The English Hillside (A Resurrection Poem)

2010-04-09T15:21:00.001+01:00

The contours of His grace in hills reside,
In rock and pool and sky earth’s beasts abide.
Down watered crag creased streams tumble and roll,
By rounding hills and boot clad feet they stroll.
The thumping feet downward the dirt firm tread,
As strong winds buffet, turning white cheeks red.

What once deemed good by Word now dragged below,
At peak or depth eyes catch no glimpse of woe.
A mountain’s slumber hidden from our stare,
Its mottled face in time suspended there.
A bruise upon the face of cool cracked earth,
From high cast down by tree brings life of curse.

In valley low humbled eyes will yet see,
This Word wrought scene show forth His majesty.
His hands no path or lake or crag erase,
While men the lines of stony hills they trace.
These mighty mounds of splendour will awake,
When earth and sky meet in more glorious fate.

Our high school transgression - 2

2010-02-23T02:38:00.000Z

When worn upon a man, there is something about the beard, which can be both your best friend and your worst enemy. On the one hand they conjure up the happy countenances of grey grandfathers and fireside fables and hard candy. Yet, on the other, they enable even the sternest of men to sore even higher- with seeming ease I might add - in the upper stratospheres of effective childhood punishment.

Why do I speak of these matters, you ask?

It was upon the face of our head teacher, a most fierce and frothy beard resided. It was the most oppressive of beards a school boy could lay his not so innocent eyes upon, and it was from behind this lion’s mane, our judge recounted detail for detail the pitiable story of our transgression Timings he knew; details he knew; exact whereabouts, all of these with teacher-like precision he knew. I would not be surprised if he had known the color of the clothes on our backs, or the number of freckles on our faces, or, the exact planetary positioning of the moon in the sky that night. The judge , the sole decider of our young adolescent fate sentenced us to the most cruel and fitting of punishments.

A letter.

A simple letter of apology was all that was required of our guilty hands. For a crime so personal however, a crime so mischievous, a crime which tells the story of every young boy, nothing could be more appropriate.

Our high school transgression

2010-02-23T02:37:00.000Z

His voice snatched my conscience in mid air. Out of a group of two hundred, six remained. We lined up like suspects against the prison wall. Except we weren’t suspects. Not one who was amongst was innocent. We were guilty. All of us…very guilty.

We took our seats upon the school bench. It was hard. At least it felt hard, like we’d been sat there for hour already. It had been thirty seconds…maybe a minute. Time meant nothing anymore. Until our sentence was over, here we would remain. Our adolescent knees thrust high up in our faces. The ends of our pants far beyond our ankles. We were tall, and the bench was low to the ground.

My fingers were firmly fastened against the underside of the bench. My knuckles white, unlike my conscience. That was far from white now, it was more black. Or maybe a dark. Grey, like the storm that was about to ensue.

The judge approached the bench, letting us marinade in our own guilt and shame. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to speak, but we knew he would. He just watched, not uttering a sound.

His words etched themselves into my very bones. Through my skin and through my flesh. “You boy’s know why you are here, don’t you?” We didn’t reply. We didn’t say even a word. He spoke again, and no reply we gave him. The tension had stolen our tongues, like the moment of our transgression had stolen our consciences.

Out of the darkness...

2009-12-09T16:59:00.002Z

This particular section I enjoyed in Peter Leithart's book House for My Name. He is discussing the contrast of light v dark in the Johannine gospel.

He draws a parallel between living in the dark as the living under the old covenant administration, and living in the light as embracing the new. Usually the assumption is made that walking in the darkness means that you are some way not saved, and you are far away from God. For those in the old covenant that may well be the case, but it is certainly not true for all people. There were those that walked in the dark who still knew God, but that needed now to step out into the light. This is the problem John is addressing here.

"But how are the Jews 'darkness'. The reminders of creation help us see what John means. Light and darkness are used in John 1 in the same way as they are used in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1 darkness is not evil. God separates light and darkness and still says both are good. Darkness is a part of creation; it is what comes before dawn. Since darkness comes before light, it is like the Old Testament period. It is good in itself, but the old covenant darkness is always intended to be temporary. It is supposed to last only until the light comes, until day begins. The sin of the Jews is not living in the darkness. Before the light comes, that is only thing they can do. Their sin is to cling to the darkness when the light has come. The sin is for darkness to seek to overpower the Light, instead of giving way to the Light. The sin is to love shadows rather than the reality."

Shakespeare is Alive

2009-12-08T06:21:00.003Z

One of the foremost things I have learn to value at New Saint Andrews is that we need to be those who learn from the past. When I read Luther, Calvin or Augustine often I am so immersed in the text or their ideas more generally, it is like there are right there, alive and well. It is if they are speaking and teaching me this very day. G.K. Chesterton comments on the same phenomena:

"Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you with any more. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living, to know that Plato might break out with an original lecture tomorrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with an original song. That who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth he has never seen before."

"Nine"...by Tim Burton

2009-12-04T15:16:00.002Z

An unsleeping light drapes the darkened sky. An eerie desolation fills the landscape. The ground is hard and course. A stage set ready for adventure and story telling. Yet despite the obvious aesthetic quality and charm of the characters, Tim Burton’s movie Nine fails to satisfy both with its story and the worldview it conveys.

A band of nine strangely doll like, yet somehow robotic characters, join together to fight a machine ridden world. Only the small flecks and speckles of human civilisation endure. The film is dark, and suspended sense of horror is sustained through the film. The tone is melancholic at best, and provides not one moment of comic relief. This sombre film is in my opinion too scary and unnerving for children, its intended audience. Yet the thin plot, a ninety minute endeavour to destroy a single machine, fails to satisfy the adult viewer also.

As the story progresses, the nine heroes suffer numerous casualties. Confusingly however, once the remaining couple destroy our villain, the souls of fallen characters, which bear a peculiar shade of translucent green, are released back into the world. These souls represent their maker, the last human on earth. The message of this film is ultimately humanistic. Although mankind is extinguished for their folly and arrogance, the souls of those freed, ultimately depicts a world in which folly counts for nothing. Humans are victorious, despite the circumstances. Although it may provoke discussion, this film will leave children puzzled and confused and will prove in no way edifying.

Marginalia

2009-10-28T13:59:00.000Z

The word marginalia was one employed by Samuel Coleridge, to describe the etchings one would place within the margin of a book whilst reading. From the outset many disregard this practise as simply bad etiquette, saying “didn’t your mommy ever tell you, never to write in books?” Others may articulate that writing in a margin is just bad practice, defacing and devaluing the book.

Mortimer Adler however argues that “reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author,” what better way to do this than to converse within the margins of each page. Thus, marginalia does neither deface nor devalue, but on the contrary, ascribes value to both the book and its author. Writing within the margin shows that you are engaging with the text, attempting to ascent its ideas, forming conclusions and critiques as you read. Billy Collins exhorts us in his poem, not to be those who merely laze in the armchair turning pages, but instead those who press a thought into the wayside, planting an impression along the verge.

Marginalia is also an historic and stylistic tradition, which has attracted in particular the scholarly work of Dr. H. Jackson (University of Toronto). Jackson traces the consistent practice of well known authors such as Alexander Poe, William Blake and Samuel Coleridge himself. Thus it is clear, to write within margins is to write upon the very pages of history itself, continuing in the tradition of these many great authors, leaving behind a fleeting thought, a cutting critique or perhaps just a hearty ‘Amen.’

A Solomonic discursive on the Ants...

2009-10-26T18:46:00.001Z

It was the work of zoologist William Beebe - whilst exploring the Guyanan jungle - who first noticed the both unfortunate and deadly phenomena known as the ‘circular mill.’ The circular mill is a situation which occurs among a certain species of Marabunta ant, more commonly known as the ‘army ant.’ Whenever a single ant breaks away from the main foraging group, the unfortunate fellow automatically follows the one in front. As this pattern continues, many other ants inevitably follow in pursuit, going no where and ultimately embarking on a windy (and probably dizzy) path of self destruction. Beebe recorded the size of the circular mill as some 1,200 feet in circumference, with each ant taking two and a half hours to complete a single rotation. Within two days Beebe recorded those ants within the circular mill all to have died.

We must learn from nature’s analogy, steering clear of the army ant’s folly. We should be Christians who avoid following mindlessly the doctrines and traditions of our past, believing something simply because we always have. That is not to say we should disregard everything from our past experience, becoming sceptics of the old and slaves to new, holding with little regard the teaching of our parents. However when a foundation is unsteady, repair work must be done in order for profitable work to continue. At the beginning of this college experience, may we be Christians and students alike ready to change even in the simplest of things, that we may grow into maturity of the fullness of Christ.

Laziness 05 - Early Retirement

2009-07-10T21:42:00.008+01:00

Thus far we have discussed some of the frustrations, causes and symptoms of laziness and have discussed only the typical stereotypes of laziness; those dorito munching television addicts. However I would like to suggest the idea that it is not always the outwardly lazy who suffer from the temptation and sin of laziness. I would like to propose the idea that even the most diligent and successful people can be motivated by laziness.

Why do I say this? It seems to be a trend in society that the ultimate badge of success, the ultimate goal to be attained is that of early retirement. Reaching this goal means to be able to escape the grip of work; to be released to a life of lazy mornings, round upon round of golf, and endless scrap booking. A man does not easily attain this badge of 'honour' (inverted commas intended), it can only be attained through hard work, long hours and the great investment of time.

However this working man appears to have committed one major sin, and most likely a plethora of other sins as a result. Most seriously he has turned leisure into an idol, he has made the idol of 'doing nothing' his God, and he has it worshipped not through laziness itself, but strangely through relentless hard work and long hours. Put simply... his motivation for work is fuelled by his want not to work. Not only has he disobeyed God's first commandment, which forbids man to worship any other God but the true God, Yahweh.... he has abandoned his creation mandate which is to work, produce, cultivate and multiply. He has taken to work furiously and foolishly in order to abdicate responsibility and productivity in the future.

Furthermore, because of this great sin other sins have likely flowed as a result. Instead of working steadily and finding balance in his life, he has most likely sacrificed the relationships with his wife and children, and most probably his involvement in the church and fellowshipping with other Christians.

I will leave the rest for a later post.

I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt

2009-07-04T23:05:00.002+01:00

This is a wonderful version of a great song by Bonnie Raitt. I am not sure about the overly sentimental ending...it would have been better without it if I am honest. I also would have enjoyed to hear a few more 'Hornsby-esque' references through out the piece, it would have been a nice touch, pointing the listener back to the original.

The hints of gospel however subtlety shine throughout this piece; they creep up on you wonderfully expected. The tension and release/rise and fall, is simply masterful. A superb performance.

Boys and War...

2009-07-03T11:28:00.002+01:00

A great quote from Doug Wilson in regard to boys playing War. To be found again in his book, Future Men.

His conclusion: Go ahead little warriors, just make sure your shooting in the right direction please; not at Mummy, or Mummy's friend.

'What about playing at war? More than a few adults have been concerned about boys playing at war with stick guns and swords. But boys who play at war are training to something men should do. It is as honourable as a young girl mothering a baby doll. But just as we do not want the young girl abusing a doll, neither do we want young boys pretending to do evil in war. Among the essential things, boys must learn honour and restraint...

This means that a boy who is playing with a toy gun should be trained never to use it more freely simply because it is not real. A small boy who is playing with his brothers should be pointing and blasting away with the best of them. But if a lady from church comes over to visit the young boy's mother, and is standing in the foyer, and the boy comes up and tries to blow her away, the young boy's mother should haul him off the bedroom to be tried for war crimes. The visitor was a civilian and a non-combatant, and Mother should be schooled in the principles of just war theory, and she should enforce the rules.'

Laziness 04 - Reputation

2009-07-01T09:55:00.006+01:00

I must first start off my acknowledging my appreciation for Douglas Wilson's book Future Men, whose ideas I am drawing upon and expanding on in these posts. It is a fine book for parents and young men alike, in regard to the challenge of raising sons to become Christian men. It is a straight down the line, no messing about type of book...not everything you will agree with, but when is that ever the case.

Wilson, when discussing laziness usefully distinguishes between self esteem and self respect; both are necessary, yet both quite different. Self esteem is useful and valuable in that it helps a young man to be confident, and interact with other people well. However, as we discussed in an earlier post, laziness is deceitful and a boy with too great a self esteem, in the words of Wilson himself 'may fancy himself quite the working man.' We must be careful not indulge young men with a false sense of self esteem, which actually encourages laziness in the face of true reality. Galatians 6:3 says 'For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.'

The Galatians passage goes on to say in verse 4 and 5...'But let each one test his own work, then his reason to boast will be in himself and not in his neighbour . For each one will bear his own load.'. There is a deep sense of satisfaction that comes from working hard; it is a good feeling when you are exhausted at the end of a shift knowing you having done a good, solid, profitable days work.

Furthermore, work is almost always a public affair, therefore it is good and right that our work should be tested by those around us. In this way, those who work hard will be upheld and earn a good reputation. On the other hand, those who are lazy should be identified as such, and subsequently exhorted toward taking responsibility and working hard. For this reason it important we do not let those around us - our friends, our children, those we disciple - fall into laziness, for there very reputation is at stake.

Like Big Band??

2009-06-28T21:38:00.001+01:00

I do believe Brian McKnight is singing vocals on this track...

Laziness 03 - Arghhhhhhh!!!

2009-06-26T08:19:00.010+01:00

Lazy people are more often than not, frustrated people.

Nobody really wants to be lazy person, for this reason they will either deny their sin, claiming they know nothing of it, or they will make excuses about why nothing seems to go their way. However, amongst all the excuse making and denial, there will be an underlying current of frustration moving. Why is this the case?

Proverbs 13:4 says 'The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.' Again if we go back to Genesis 1, it is engrained within the very fabric of human nature this 'craving' to be productive, to fulfil our creation mandate. When we fall short of this mandate, there is an unsettling in our souls, and frustration sets it. Even the laziest of people, those who revel and take pride in their sluggishness, wish in some way for things to be different.

Every person will at one time find themselves in a place between jobs, or between schools, yet it is how we respond in these situations that really counts. The lazy person will compound excuse upon excuse, justifying themselves with their mind and tongue as to why nothing goes there way; they even manage to convince people and win the sympathy of others. The more they do this the more they compound their frustration, when in their hearts they know they could make that one extra phone call or enroll in that one extra class they need to take.

The diligent person when placed within these situations of change (and yes, 'change' seems to often be the catalyst for laziness) seems to make things work, seems to get the lucky break, seems to get the opportune phone call. Why is this? Doug Wilson writes 'The answer is everything comes to the one who hustles while he waits.' When we find ourselves lacking direction and we start to feel frustration, we should cultivate this dissatisfaction and use it to motivate ourselves toward work and the diligent pursuit of direction. We need to sense and feel the inadequacy of our excuse making, and convert our daydreaming into energy.

Laziness 02 - The Creation Mandate

2009-06-24T22:37:00.008+01:00

When examining the root of our sin it is always useful to back to Genesis 1 - 3. The creation ordinance for mankind is as follows:

1. To be fruitful [to produce stuff, things and children].
2. To fill the earth [move away and occupy land].
3. To subdue and have dominion [to take charge over things, to lead].

As a result of the fall, man's ability to fulfil these mandates has been marred...I believe all of these things can be directly linked to the sin of laziness. Firstly lazy people don't so much produce stuff, but 'tinker' with stuff. They feel good because they appear to be doing something useful i.e. tinkering, yet really they are producing nothing. Often at this stage a person may make excuses such as they are preparing for work, however these are usually hypothetical plans and usually bear little fruit.

Secondly, lazy people tend to procrastinate and postpone things that need to be done, this can be seen in the rising number of young people who will stay at home and live either close to their parents, or with their parents. Now obviously there can be legitimate reasons for this; if a disabled or dependant parent is involved for example. However it may often be the case that a young person may try and legitimise reasons which aren't really that valid.

Thirdly, lazy people tend to abdicate responsibility and leadership, as in order to take a lead means doing stuff, proper stuff and often being very busy. There is growing culture which extends more and more the period of adolescence. Here people would rather live care free lives, travelling and partying and ironically calls such activities as 'life experience.' Kevin Deyoung usefully labels this postponement phenomena, 'adultescence.'

Laziness 01 - The Deceitful Sin

2009-06-24T18:19:00.008+01:00

Laziness is somewhat of a plague amongst young people, in particular young men. It is typically characterised by those who stumble bleary-eyed out of bed sometime after lunch, those who spend all day perfecting the ultimate Facebook page or those wasting their hours away conversing with hob goblins and drinking magic potions in the weird and not so wonderful...'World of Warcraft.'

One of the most difficult things about laziness though is that it does not admit itself; it is deceitful thing...after all when was the last time you heard someone admit they were lazy? Before anyone starts dealing with the sin of laziness we must learn to be honest with ourselves; similarly if you are in the process of discipling someone with this problem, you must first get to this stage of personal honesty. Douglas Wilson writes 'A young man must be taught that the truth about himself is not seen by looking into his own heart; the truth is found by looking into the mirror of the Word.' We must go to the Bible and objectively look at ourselves (usually with the help of another person) and first admit our short falling.

As I said earlier laziness has somewhat grown to chraracterise young people and teenagers in specific, and thus parents and friends alike, often shrug their shoulders and say 'there'll grow out of it.' However as I will attempt to show in the next post, human beings were created to be active and productive; to indulge in the sin of laziness is not only to miss the best life has to offer us, but to fall short of God's creation ordinance also.

Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

2009-06-22T13:05:00.001+01:00

The harmonies are just awesome in this song...beautiful.

The Problem of Free Will

2009-06-17T10:25:00.003+01:00

In his book Chosen by God, I found RC Sproul's analysis of free will very helpful, arguing that indeed no one is indeed as free we think. He uses the analogy of Alice in Wonderland to demonstrate his point:

Consider Alice's dilemma. Actually she had four options from which to choose. She could have taken the left fork or the right fork. She also could have chosen to retutn the way she had come. Or she could have stood fixed at the spot of indecision until she died there. For her to take a step in any direction, she would need some motivation or inclination to do so. Without any motivation, any prior inclination, her only real option would be to stand there and perish.

Indeed if we were to argue Alice had equal inclination, namely she had equal will to walk in whichever direction she chose, again she would have stayed on the same spot and perished. We must therefore reject the equal-will theory as not only illogical, but as wholly unbiblical.

Big Babies 3 - Sorry, whats with all the cameras?

2009-06-16T20:09:00.001+01:00

''America spied on all its citizens' telephone calls, Britain is building the most invasive database ever (one the Soviets of the Maoists would have killed for, and indeed did kill for, but all the same didn't actually get), there are cameras everywhere, we are tracked and corralled and monitored as surely as any baby in a nursery playpen, and we make the mistake of believing that this is about security.

We are mistaken. Security is all about this. There was a time (was there?) when the law eisted to enshrine various rights: for example, the right not to be killed as you went about your business, and the right for rich people to tell eveyerone else to f%*k off. The rest of it - constabularies, watchmen, narks, baliffs, dossiers, interrogation rooms and so on - was there to support the implementation of the law.

Now things have subtly changed. More and more, the law exists to ratify surveillance. Governments do not enact laws and then consider how to enforce them; governments begin with the idea of enforcement, and work back to the laws that would legitimise them.''

Big Babies 2 - Why iPods suck

2009-06-15T13:39:00.004+01:00

Here is another quote from Michael Bywater's book, Big Babies. In chapter 5 he addresses the problem of entertainment, arguing that distraction has become one of the hallmarks of our age, lamenting in particular about the proliferation of the use of personal stereo equipment. Those little, 'cultish' white ear buds (and you yes, you have to have the right ones, not those fake 'wannabe' ear buds), which let the world know you belong to the cult of the iPod, screaming 'Are you One of Us?' yet at the same time saying, 'Leave Me the Hell Alone!.' He writes...

"Wandering from room to room is someone with an iPod; music no longer requires going out, being with other people, or even sitting in a room on your own, listening. Now its a permanent distraction, a matter of right, a way of affirming your identity without having to be identified by other members of your chosen tribe; even when we interact with the outside world, reluctantly our ears are plugged with the iPod buds, trickling music into our minds. Our grandparents would have thought is appalling rudeness; after all what does it say but, 'I do not acknowledge your existence. You are superfluous to me. I may be moving in the same physical space as you, but don't expect me to acknowledge it.' "

Enjoy New Words?

2009-06-14T13:39:00.004+01:00

Here is a list of nine words which I wrote down, after reading a book which trod down my 'lexical ego,' wedged my vocabulary wide open and forced me to get my dictionary out in humble submission.

I have listed them in order in which the words are most fun to say aloud. Enjoy...

1. Solipsism - the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2. Simulacrum - a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance.
3. Liminal - situated at a sensory threshold.
4. Vapidity - without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious: a vapid party; vapid conversation.
5. Apotropaic - intended to ward off evil.
6. Neotony - the state resulting when juvenile characteristics are retained by the adults of a species
7. Preternatural - out of the ordinary course of nature; exceptional or abnormal: preternatural powers.
8. Fatuous - foolish or inane, esp. in an unconscious, complacent manner; silly.
9. Apposite - suitable; well-adapted; pertinent; relevant; apt: an apposite answer.

Please feel free to share any interesting words you have discovered recently, especially those which are particularly enjoyable to speak aloud.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

2009-06-13T20:12:00.000+01:00

This guy is a genius...

Home Education in the UK

2009-06-12T19:29:00.002+01:00

A great post by Daniel Newman over on his blog. A classic quote in the second to last paragraph...both insightful and sobering at the same time.

I agree with Daniel's closing exhortation to repentance and intercession. It is about time the Church felt the weight of responsibility in praying for the Lordship of Christ to be restored in our nation, and for a fresh move of the Holy Spirit to awaken people's hearts to God, bringing them to repentance and faith.

"It is rather like those scenes you sometimes watch in films when one of the characters has a heart attack in a restaurant, collapses, and as he falls to the floor, clutches at a tablecloth and pulls it and everything on it, on to the floor with him in the process, making a horrible mess and smashing all the crockery. Still, we have only received the government we deserve. As a country we have refused to take responsibility ourselves and have continued to give power over more and more areas of life to the state; as a church we have colluded with this, transferring our duties to the state so that it can fulfil them for us, rather than standing up prophetically against its tyranny and saying, “This far, and no further.” We are reaping what we have sown."

Big Babies - 1

2009-06-12T13:06:00.004+01:00

I have just finished reading the book, Big Babies by Michael Bywater...A Cambridge lecturer, writer and literary critic. A interesting book, which unlike the majority of books I read, actually had me laughing...and more than once. This is not so much a grumpy old rant, as one reviewer commented, but a cultural lament at the slow degredation of our culture and society. Bywater is a modern day prophet pleading with a generation to wake up and grow up.

I will leave you with a short quote in which Bywater draws our attention to how signs-which-point-out-the-obvious, infantilise us and make us essentially 'Big Babies.' It had me laughing for quite a while, yet at the same time strangely awake to every plastic and metal sign (and there are alot...an awful lot) as I continued my day.

''It strikes you as out of kilter that there's a notice at London Paddington station which says 'please be ready to may with your luggage when you reach the top of escalator' becuase it implies that otherwise you wouldn't be ready to move away with your luggage but, instead would stand there like a moron with other morons piling up against you so that eventually something has to give and you all tumble back down the escalator in melee of morons and get sucked into the mechanism and ground to hamburger and they'd hose the down and scrub the gobbets of stupid flesh out of the machinery and start it up again and the same thing would happen again...or, if not, why the need for the notice.''

'As Kingfishers Catch Fire'...

2009-05-08T18:28:00.004+01:00

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.

Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889).

Valley of Vision - 4

2009-03-19T08:51:00.003Z

Another extract...if you haven't got this book...but it!

"May I confide in his power and love,
commit my soul to him without reserve,
bear his image, observe his laws, pursue his service,
and be through time and eternity
a monument to the efficacy of his grace,
a trophy of his victory...

Help me not only to receive him but,
to walk in him,
depend upon him,
be conformed to him
follow him,
imperfect, but still pressing forward,
not complaining of labour, but valuing rest,
not murmuring under trial, but thankful for my state...

Perceiving nothing of myself, may I find in Christ
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

I spent a little while thinking about a few of these phrases this morning in my devotion...what does it mean to be 'a monument to the efficacy of his grace'? Or how can I increasingly grow in 'perceiving nothing of myself'?

Pride...

2009-03-13T08:15:00.003Z

''Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man'' CS Lewis

For those interested I discovered these great little humorous pictures over at Hugh McLeod blog...www.gapingvoid.com.

Not all are appropriate, but all are funny.

Joy...

2009-03-11T15:17:00.003Z

Is this the way joy works? Often being joyful is something we make a decision towards and often it can be a natural overflow of the heart. I don't think there is either a wrong or right answer. I would however tentatively suggest as Christians joy should be an increasingly natural reflex of the heart, as we mature in our faith. However I have do doubt there will be time upon time in which we choose to be joyful, despite our circumstances.

Taylor Mesple

2009-03-10T21:03:00.003Z

For those interested in the actual song/music, it is a cover of a Bruce Hornsby song. For those interested in the performer, Taylor Mesple is a song writer, producer and session artist. He is fantastic!

How Do You Think?

2009-03-10T20:33:00.005Z

Some of us can't help but think in terms of pictures and all things visual. I have a friend/mentor who always paints his ideas in picture form...things often just make more sense this way, they have greater potency to broaden the minds horizon and cement ideas. Often they are unavoidable; it is so natural it is for us to use pictures to convey ideas within of speech. Indeed already in the short space of two sentences I have used two pictures...the idea of painting and of cementing (for those who missed it).

Others, instead of thinking predominantly in picture form, think in terms of story. Like a picture, a story adds weight to an idea helping us to think about it more deeply...it has a strange efficacy and power to influence or thoughts; it connects us to idea, it places us within the idea. The best stories are often are not those most far fetched or exciting or dynamic, but those which portray real life most effectively, those with which we can connect most easily, most naturally.

What thing do these two things have in common...I think it has something to do with the fact that both picture and story engage the imagination. Instead of thinking about a concept from a far, the imagination places us within the very centre of the idea itself. Instead of enveloping the idea, the idea envelops us; instead of perceiving the idea, the idea perceives us. When we can engage the imagination in the learning process I think it becomes firstly a more enjoyable process, but also a more effective process.

I am no psychologist, this is just me thinking allowed. Feel free to engage with these comments. Do you agree or disagree? In what ways do you tend to think? Do you think some people have a greater degree of imagination?

More mind mapping...

2009-03-09T11:07:00.008Z

So I've been checking out some more mind maps...
They can look amazing, if done well. I think.
Here are some examples.
The last one is my favourite.

Mind Mapping...

2009-03-08T22:47:00.009Z

Have you ever used mind mapping? Are you a complete novice in the field of mind mapping? Are you an experienced mind mapper, with many highlighters, colour pens, and rulers? Have you even heard of mind mapping? Whatever category you fit into, MindMeister might be worth checking out anyway.

Here is an example of my work...click to make big.

So, why is Mind Meister is a good idea?

1. It's quick and simple.
2. It's a good step towards forming a plan, presentation, essay etc.
3. It's a good visual aid.
4. It's free (you can upgrade to a premium package however).
5. It's group friendly.
6. You can share it, embed it, print it, email it, download it.
7. It's clean and tidy...even if your not.
8. It's a web-based program (access and edit anywhere)
9. Create a group user name and password for you friends to edit the mind map

The Freedom of Forgiveness - 2

2009-03-08T19:00:00.004Z

''Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.'' (Galatians 1:1 - 5)

Everything about the starts of this letter is typical, but there are a few things we can draw out from the outset.

First of all Paul emphasises the nature of apostleship. He is an apostle, and this is something you can just choose to be…God makes you an apostle; you are chosen by God. You see, Paul was as far from God as anyone could be. He thought he was doing God’s will in persecuting the early Christian Church, but he completely missed the plot.
But in verse 1 he says look at me… I'm an apostle now; I serve Jesus now. I know you can’t quite believe it when you look at my old life, the way I used to live, but now look at me…can’t you see the change. It’s obvious this was nothing I could have done for myself, but something only God could have achieved.

Isn’t this like the Christian life? If it wasn’t for God wouldn’t we all be still walking in the ways we used to live? Wouldn’t we still be entangled by the same old sins, doing the same old things, time and time again…and we wouldn’t even know it.But God in his grace was as verse 16 says ‘pleased to reveal His Son to us’…pleased to reveal his grace in order that we might walk with Him, in newness of life achieving all the plans he has set before us. For Paul that was being a great preacher, for you it may be something completely different.

It’s important to remember that forgiveness of sins is a free gift of God…it is something God does in, we can’t strive towards it, we cannot rationalise and we cannot earn it. It’s his free gift. Paul is contrasting it with circumcision, which although is probably free, if you are a grown man it certainly isn’t gift. More importantly circumcision is something we do to ourselves, it boasts in ones own personal righteousness, it doesn’t give thanks to God. Obeying rules…keeping the law…circumcision... they never give thanks to God.

New birth, new life in Christ is something God does, something he initiatives. The Spirit is the sign of a believer, not circumcision and only God can give the Spirit. Why is this? This way only he gets the glory...Paul goes onto say in verse 5…’to whom by the glory forever and ever.’ The freedom of forgiveness, the freedom of new life should always lead to praise and thankfulness.

The Freedom of Forgiveness - 1

2009-03-06T11:09:00.004Z

I preached a Sermon (it feels weird to say...yes I preached my FIRST sermon)at Bournemouth Christian Union the other day. It was obvious that the Holy Spirit was at work even before I had begun to speak...it was just so right. I therefore thought I would do a short five part blog series on the Freedom of Forgiveness.

Now freedom is something that has been fought and campaigned for probably more than other thing. It is something of immense value to all people.

Great wars revolve around issues of freedom…The American Civil War a battle for freedom, the Second World War, the Iraq war…despite the many hidden agendas, most great wars revolve around the issue of freedom. Now these things are obviously very noble and upright and we would whole heartedly agree with them; however freedom is never that straight forward; it’s always a subjective thing. I am sure you have all heard the phrase ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’…it’s a real problem. Also we have things such as the great push towards sexual freedom in the 1960’s which continues to do this day. Freedom is a virtue however many things masquerade freedom.

The Bible is essentially one big story revolving around this issue of freedom. Adam and Eve walked in freedom with God. They enjoyed communion with Him daily, enjoying relationship without restriction or inhibition. However when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit, the freedom that they once enjoyed is lost forever. From this point onwards God’s great mission is the restoration of that free relationship.

We have the story of the Exodus, a great story in which God wins the freedom of His people from the oppression of their Egyptian slave masters. He then gives them specific festivals and meals which are to remind them of their freedom.

This great exodus story foreshadows an even greater exodus this time led by God himself, Jesus Christ. Right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he gives us mission statement…he says this ‘’The Spirit of Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

On the Cross, Jesus Christ achieves the ultimate freedom for his people, leading all people who trust in Him through the great waters of sin and death and into freedom.

Finally we catch a glimpse of the story’s end in Revelation 21 we in which we see every tear being wiped away, every curse is being broken and death finally defeated and all creation being set free once again. God is the God of freedom.

The Big Picture

2009-03-03T12:53:00.002Z

For those of you who enjoy photo blogs, this is possibly the bestone I have come across in along time.

The photos covers many areas, most commonly current affairs and authentic national culture. Seriously...this is definitely worth 10 minutes of your time.

www.boston.com/thebigpicture

Bookshelves are Beautiful - 2

2009-03-02T10:22:00.000Z

I been compiling some more photos of awesome looking bookshelves. If you have a book collection you are particularly proud of, why not email me a photo and you can have your own personal post!? Or perhaps there is a way you store or organise your books that you think is pretty unique, which again you could share with blogdom...

Bookshelves are Beautiful

2009-03-01T21:23:00.001Z

7 amazing bookshelves...

This is excellent incentive for me to continue buying books...despite my inability to keep with reading them all.

Valley of Vision - 3

2009-03-01T20:29:00.000Z

Another excerpt from Valley of Vision.

One thing I wish this book is missing is a reference for each prayer, at the moment each one is anonymous with a long list of sources at the end. Anyway here goes...

"Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
born was like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love:
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,
to raise me to himself

Herein is power:
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
he united them in dissoluble unity, the uncreated and the created

Herein is wisdom:
when I was undone, with no will to return to him,
and no intellect to devise recovery
he came, God incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
as man to die my death
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf
to work out perfect righteousness for me."

Indeed our salvation won on the cross was not something done before God in His presence, but actually something done in His very being. It was not just something done by His divine approval but in His divine will. It was not something merely done for Him by another person or servant, but made complete in Him very self.

Praise God for our salvation not just by Christ, but in Christ.

Steffen Schackinger

2009-02-23T19:09:00.000Z

I don't normally listen to this sort of stuff, but it has a cool vibe to it. Plus, you have to recognise talent when you see...this guy can sure play.

Enjoy.

Valley of Vision - 2

2009-02-22T20:03:00.000Z

I feel compelled to share more quotes with you from this great book. I shall continue to commend it to all people that happen to read this blog, however it needs no more preamble from the me...

''Infinite wisdom cast the design of salvation
into the mould of purchase and freedom;
Let wrath deserved bye written on the door of hell
But the the free gift of grace on the gate of heaven
I know that my sufferings are the result of my sinning,
but in heaven both shall cease;
Grant me to attain this haven and be done with sailing,
and may the gales of thy mercy blow me safely into harbour.
Let thy love draw me nearer to thyself,
wean me fron sin, mortify me to this world,
and make me ready for my departure hence.
Secure by thy grace as I sail across this stormy sea.''

Oh my...

2009-02-21T20:12:00.000Z

People who play like this, shouldn't be playing on the street...

Valley of Vision

2009-02-19T20:45:00.000Z

After finishing work today I was overwhelming frustrated with just everything...and I have finally come to admit I am one of these persons who become very easily frustrated. However, thanks to this great little book I just purchased, 'Valley of Vision', I was able to gain a bit of perspective on my very small troubles and trivialities.

I would certainly reccommend this collection of Puritan Prayers; its a wonderfully unique and simple book. This quote speaks with such clarity and forth rightness...

''O Lord God, who inhabitest eternity
The heavens declare thy glory,
The earth thy riches,
The universe is thy temple,
Yet thou hast of thy pleasure created life, and communicated
happiness;
Thoust hast made me what I am, and given me what I have,
In thee I live and love and have thy being,
Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation,
and wisely administers all my affairs.
I thank thee for all thy riches to me in Jesus.''

The Supper of the Lamb - 4

2009-01-15T18:54:00.000Z

I would definitely reccommend reading this book alongside Tom Wright's 'Surprised by Hope' . Wright certainly gives some more flesh and meat to what is already a very solid theology, setting this orthodox view in the context of other prevailing world and Christians views. Here is another great quote...

''Why do we marry, why take friends or lovers, why give ourselves to music, painting chemistry or cooking? Out of simple delight in the resident goodness of creation, of course; but out of more than that, too. Half of the earth's gorgeousness lies hidden in the glimpsed city it longs to become, for all it rooted loveliness, the world has no continuing city here; it is an outlandish place, a foreign home, a session in via to a better version of itself - and it our glory to see it so and thirst until Jerusalem comes home at last. We were given appetites, not consume the world and forget it, but to taste it goodness and hunger to make it great.''

And a Tom Wright quotes which expresses the same idea, in a different sort of way...

''We might even suggest, as part of the Christ aesthetic, that the world is beautiful, not because is hauntingly reminds us of its Creator, but because it is pointing forwards: it is designed to filled, flooded, drenched in God; as a chalice is beautiful not least because we know what it is designed to contain, or as a violin is beautiful not least because we know what music it is capable.'''

The Water is Wide

2009-01-14T22:37:00.000Z

Can't get enough of James Taylor.
His music.Timeless.
I like it.
Alot.

The Supper of the Lamb - 3

2009-01-13T18:38:00.001Z

The only way for me to exhaust this book of quotable material would be to type the whole thing out. That is not happening. Here goes...

'Man invented cooking before he thought of nutrition. To be sure, food keeps us alive, but that is only its smallest and most temporary work. Its eternal purpose os to furnish our sensibilitiesagainst the ay when we shall sit down at the heavenly banquet and see how gracious the Lord is. Nourishment is necessary only for a while; what we shall need forever is taste.'

Have you ever wondered why when we give thanks for our food we call it 'Grace'? Perhaps this passage gives you an insight as to the answer. I find it amazing that God in his infinite goodness gives us signs and symbols in life, to lead us in remembrance and praise of Him; food is one of these signs, these gifts of grace.

Next time you sit down at the dinner table and a glorious feast is laid out in front of you, don't forget to remember in your 'grace' a word of thanksgiving. Remember to praise God for the glorious heavenly banquet we have waiting in store for us, when we go to be with the bridegroom...our Lord Jesus Christ. Here our mouths will be filled with a taste so sweet, our lips when never cease to give Him praise.'O, taste and see that the Lord is good!' (Psalm 34:8)

The Supper of the Lamb - 2

2009-01-12T11:26:00.000Z

The last post dealt with the essential fact that everything is spiritual...that we should refrain from trying toward distinctions between a more noble 'spiritual world' against a more base 'material world.' I feel compelled to say a few more words on this matter.

In teaching us to pray in Matthew 6, Jesus shows us the importance of praying for seemingly spiritual things. He asks us to pray that his kingdom be established, his will accomplished, that sins be forgiven and temptation be overcome, yet sitting somewhat uncomfortably in the middle of all of this, he teaches us to pray for our 'daily bread.' Such a request seems so out of place, so unspirutual, so earthly...so base.

We could easily try and jump to a spiritual interpretation of such a phrase, the description of Jesus as the 'bread of life' made clear in the gospel of John, or perhaps a reference to the Lord's Supper would be two such 'spritual readings.' However there is an unavoidable earthiness about the nature of bread; Eugene Peterson says 'bread stubbornly resists spiritualisation.' Scholarly opinion also has settled on the fact that this passages undoubtedly refers to normal, every day, shopping list, burnt toast, bread.

We can take delight in the fact that Jesus teaches us to pray for material provision, and that he does not expect of us a moral standard which intends us to shun material needs. Firstly there is the simple fact of the matter our bodies need sustenance, food to give us strength, strength to glorify the name of Jesus. Secondly there is a wonderful beauty to be found in food, indeed we are all familiar with the sumptuous aromas of freshly prepared bread, the way it is still warm to touch. A prayer for daily provision not only reminds us that it is indeed the Lord who is our great provider of strength, but the provider of beatuy, pleasure and enjoyment also. Robert Farrar Capon in the The Supper of the Lamb describes 'food as 'the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for the continual remembrance that world will always be more delicious than it is useful.'

The Supper of the Lamb - 1

2009-01-11T08:37:00.000Z

I was graced with many excellent books this Christmas, none more so than The Supper of the Lamb, kindly received from the wonderful Katelyn Vorpahl herself. I have decided to share a few quotes with you from the book, here goes...

'There is a habit which plagues many so called spiritual minds: they imagine that somehow matter and spirit are at odds with each other and that the right course for human life is to escape from the world of matter into some finer and purer (and undoubtedly duller) realm. To this is a crashing mistake - and it is, above all, a theological mistake. Because, in fact, it is God who invented dirt, onions and turnip greens, God who invented human being with their strange compulsion to cook their food; God who, at the end of each day of creation, pronounced a resound ''Good!'' over his own concoctions. And it is God's unrelenting love of all the stuff in this world that keeps it in being at every moment. So, if we are fascinated, even intoxicated by matter, it is no surprise: we are made in the image of the Ultimate Materialist.'

I winced and shook my head in utter disbelief as the person conducting the meeting, whilst away at training, exhorted us as a group to remain focussed as he told us we were entering the 'spiritual part of the day.' I said in reply, quietly in under my breath.... 'as if the day thus far had not been spiritual.' This is really the crux of this passage here...everything is spiritual, whether you choose to recognise it or not. Let us not become a bunch of neo - platonic dualists who frown upon the material world in favour of the more noble 'spiritual world.'

Too much stuff!

2009-01-10T11:12:00.001Z

Some news stories are just truly shocking:

''A spinster who obsessively hoarded clothes died in her home after a mountain of suitcases fell on her, burying her alive. Joan Cunnane (77) owned 300 scarves as well as thousands of trinkets and valuables. They took up so much space in her bungalow that she only had a 2ft wide path to get around them, and her car and garage were packed with other goods. After she was reported missing earlier this week it took police searching her home 2 days to sift through her stuff. Miss Cunnane was eventually found buried under a 3ft foot pile of cases in a back bedroom where apparently she had gone in search of her favourite item. The eccentric pensioner, who had no known family, is thought to died of dehydration several days earlier on Boxing Day.''

The last few days have taught me the appreciation of things which really matter. This year I will certainly be stream lining my life, and not just the things I own, to make room for those things which really do matter. The prayer for myself this year is that I be kept from collapsing, not physically, but spiritually under a mountain of things which don't really matter...that I be kept from suffocating under the pressure of a temporary world, trying to sell me temporary things.

Resisting temptation

2008-12-07T21:41:00.000Z

In Matthew 26:41 Jesus commands his disciples to 'watch and pray that they enter not into temptation.' Thus it is obvious there are two tactics to beating sin and the grip of temptation...watchfulness and prayerfulness. Prayer exaplains itseslf, but what exactly does 'watchfulness' or 'keeping watch' mean?

Firstly I believe we need to keep a watch of temptation. Temptation is not a sin, thus if you feel tempted or have undergone a period of temptation in your life you may not necessarily have been in sin. Thus sin is neither good or bad. John Owen describes it as lying in the realm of 'things indifferent.' Thus if sin is indifferent it means any possession, thought, action or attitude can potentially be used in temptation and lead to sin.What can we say about temptation...be watchful in all situations, be alert, be on gaurd; something that you once used for good may indeed turn a corner and be used for great evil. Temptation test us, it will either cut the meat or the throat of man...where are you going to let the knife fall?

Secondly, temptation leads to sin...thus to fight temptation we need to know our sin. John Piper says this 'There is a great self destruction that comes from not experiencing the self devastating knowledge our sin.' How do we know our sin? Well I would like to suggest we can only realise where we fall short by knowing what we fall short of. To know our sin we need to know the Saviour. By reading the Bible and experiencing the character of God, through coming to a knowledge of his holiness, the holy spirit in operation in our lives highlights areas of sin and the need for sanctification.Ever since the beginning of time God has been looking forward a people for himself who look like himself. In beating the sin we don't just need to flee the sin, we need to flee to God. To look less like our old sinful self we need to Jesus and be tranformed into his image. 1 Peter 1:16 says 'Be holy as I am holy.'

The final aspect to be watchful I would suggest is knowing the tempter. Now it is obvious from Ephesians 6 that all people are engaged in a spiritual war, some are awake to such a war others have been lulled asleep by Satan, however it is not necessarily Satan leads us into temptation and testing. Indeed temptation is neither good nor evil. From Matthew 4:1 we read that the Spirit of God leads Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan, thus it is obvious that God also draws us into times of testing for the producing of steadfastness and faith. Furthermore I believe there is something in our nature, something in our flesh as Paul would describe which tends toward sin. Indeed Romans 13:14 says 'Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its sinful desire.' Our flesh is sinful, the sin belongs to ourselves. Be on gaurd therefore, be watchful, examine yourself to see which areas of the flesh tend towards disoebedience, where temptation may take its grip.

Zechariah 8: 21 - 23

2008-10-27T15:48:00.000Z

''The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying 'Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the Lord and to seeks the Lord of Hosts; I myself am going' Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the Lord. The says the Lord of Hosts: in those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying let us go with, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.' '' Zechariah 8: 21 - 23

I found this passage particularly poingnant and relevant as have continued my reading of Jonathan Edwards on Revival. Often it is said in criticism of religious experience, that peoples religious affections are defunct and not genuine because they appear to be under the influence of the emotion, actions and words of other religious believers around them. Indeed I have tended towards criticism in this area myself being in various religious meetings where wailing, crying, laughing and shouting at first begun by one person, then becomes unusually common place and contagious.

This stance towards religious affection seems to prevail often in more conservative streams of Christianity. Edwards, much the patriach of modern conservative and reformed theology, does well to assert that we should not be to quick to jump to criticism in this area of religious experience. He does this by primarily by reminding us that the purpose of words is not the words themselves, but in fact the meaning and ideas that they convey. Indeed often our ideas can be consumed and become blurred by the words we use to describe them; it would much easier if we could convey them experientially. Edwards writes, 'There is a language in actions; and in some cases, much more clear and convincing than words. It is therefore no argument against the goodness of the effect, that persons are greatly affected by seeing others.'

Indeed this texts exhorts us to be believers who are wonderfully contagious in the example that we set to others around us. That as we live out our lives we are to exude something of the aroma of Christ in the actions that we perform, that points unbelieving people towards God. How amazing would be if the text in Zechariah here became reality for us in our own lives, that the people around us who do not know the light of Christ, cling to our very clothing saying 'Let us go with you because we have heard that God is with you.'

Edwards on Revival

2008-10-23T22:14:00.001+01:00

I was struck by this passage as I read Jonathan Edwards on Revival...

''Many, while their minds have been filled with spiritual delights, have as it were forgot there food; their bodily appetite has failed, while their minds have been entertained with meat to eat that others knew not of. The light and comfort which some of them enjoy, give a new relish to their common blessings, and cause all things about them to appear as it were beautiful, sweet and pleasant. All things abroad, the sun, moon and stars and clouds and sky, the heavens and earth, appear as It were with a divine glory and sweetness upon them. Though this joy include in it a delightful sense of the safety of their own states, yet frequently, in times of their highest spiritual entertainment, this seems not to be the chief object of their fixed thoughts and meditation. The supreme attention of their minds is the glorious excellencies of God and Christ; and there is very often a ravishing sense of God’s love accompanying a sense of excellency. They rejoice in a sense of the faithfulness of God’s promises, as they respect the future eternal enjoyment of him.''

How I pray that I would be so astonished by the things of God that I would forget the times that I normally do things, that I would no longer be plagued by routine as I seek not to leave the presence of God himself. How I pray that I would see the trivial and ordinary no longer as ordinary, but as sweet and beautiful and blessed and touched by the very hand of God. How I pray that I would have the mind to comprehend, and the eyes to see all of creation bearing witness to the glory of God and speaking of his manifold wisdom and splendor.

I pray all these things be so, until that day when I stand face to face with God. Until that day when I can do nothing to escape nor lose sight of the excellency and beauty of God in all his radiance, and live to worship him.

Why bother learning stuff?

2008-10-18T21:29:00.000+01:00

Whilst reading the Bible and working my way through my reading plan I was struck by a poignant verse which Paul writes of in Philippians 1:9 - 10, it reads...''And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ''.

This year I have begun my study of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology and I have successfully navigated my way into Chapter 13, which as far as I can remember is around 220 pages into the main body of the text. This has proved an rewarding task but arduous at the same time. Frequently I have asked myself, amongst all the other books and sermons and commentaries, why bother at all? Paul here puts the pursuit of knowledge in a wonderful frame of understanding. You learn that your joy made abound and be made complete, that you may experience joy and delight and gladness in the knowledge of your salvation and the things of God.

What further can be said of this short passage? Well firstly I would say that this passgae demands of us close scrutiny of ourselves...we must ask the question, why am I learning this, why I am pursuig this? It seems to me so often people learn for the sake of learning, especially in the field of theology and philosophy. Do we learn to to feel clever and appear more intelligent than the person next to us? Do we learn that we can prove prove people wrong and win arguments? Do we learn that we can manipulate people with our knowledge and influence them towards our way of thinking? We must keep our perspective firmly fixed on what Paul writes here, wto be filled with joy.

Secondly I believe it calls us to take a seriously the study of theology and to let that study fuel us in our worship and praise. We should be able to share in with the words of the Psalmist when he says...'The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul...the rules of the Lord are true...more to be desired than gold even much fine gold; sweeter also the honey and drippings of the honeycomb.' Do you truly value the words of Christ like that of sweet honey, do you long to devour and savour the words of God like a hungry man longs to devour a good meal at the end of a hard days work ?

All things new...

2008-10-13T12:29:00.001+01:00

Revelation 21:5

2008-10-09T12:30:00.000+01:00

Revelation 21:5 describes God as the one who sits on the throne making 'all things new.' In what ways does He do this?

1. We become a new creation in Christ Jesus, through regeneration. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.'

2. By the renewing life of the Spirit within us, each and every day. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, ' Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.'

3. Jesus Christ our atoning sacrifice and advocate to the Father. Hebrews 10:19 - 20 says this 'Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us throughby the curtain, that is, through his flesh.'

4. The eversurpassing glory of the new covenant. 2 Corinthians 3:7 - 9 reminds us 'Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

5. The final day of restoration where all the curses of the earth are lifted. Revelation 21:1 -2 'Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.'

Praise God, the one who makes all things new!

Grace like rain

2008-10-01T11:23:00.001+01:00

These last few days I have been locked in battle with the words and teaching of Martin Lloyd-Jones on the topic of Baptism in the Spirit. His writing style has taken me a little while to grow accustomed to, but I have grown to appreciate his use of illustration, anecdote and testimony. These serve well in breaking his usual theological onsluaght and relentless barrage of scripture upon scripture.

Before I share one of his illustrations, which I am infact using to demonstrate a completlely different point to it's original meaning, I would also take this point you towards Adrian Warnock's site, who I do believe is running a tribute to Martin Lloyd-Jones, rather aptly named 'MLJ Mondays.' Here is one of these illustrations...

''Imagine yourself walking along a country road and there may be a slight drizzle, but because you haven't got an overcoat you go on walking through this drizzle and eventually you get thoroughly wet; but it has taken some time because it is only a slight drizzle. But then you could be walking along that same road at another time and suddenly there is a cloud burst and you are soaking wet in a manner of seconds. It is a raining in both cases, but there is a great difference between a gentle drizzle, which you scarcely observe, and a sudden cloud burst which comes down on you.''

Next time that you are out in the rain and you find yourself in a similar situation, as each drops proceeds to roll down your brow, and your hair is heavy under the tiny weight of each droplet, why not let it prompt you in worship. As you savour each small drop offer praise to the great God who like floods of rain, freely lavishes upon you unmerited grace afresh each morning. Ponder the merciful saviour who does not let the flames of your own sin consume you, but extinguishes the fire of your own rebellion with a deluge of unrestrained and immeasurable mercy.

If this is not your experience, then why not let it stir something in your soul. Cry out, 'Father astound me with your love, captivate my heart with your grace, flood my heart and mind with light that I might catch a glimpse of your mercy.'

Habakkuk 3:17 - 19

2008-09-30T18:42:00.000+01:00

Since working at the church I have had to deal with many struggles and trials. Meditating on these verses in Habakkuk have proved to be good food for my soul...

''Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.''

There is something wonderfully glorious and God honouring when a person chooses to set their affections on God despite the overwhelming circumstances. John Piper usefully comments 'God is most glorified in you, in the midst of suffering.' Despite the writer's seemingly bleak outlook on the situation it is with steely and hearty resolve he declares 'yet I will rejoice in the Lord.' It is admirable when a believer makes a conscious decision to to lift their eyes above the circumstance, to come back to the Father and remember and rejoice in their beautiful Saviour

In age of personal therapy, where everyone rests on their emotions and long to 'feel better about themselves' we are also in danger of portraying Christianity as something not to dissimilar.Modern Christianity can often be reduced to a mere sensual and emotional affair. We only worship God and commune with him when we 'fee l' like it. Do not get me wrong I am not disregarding emotion altogether, it is when the emotions become the end in themselves, we are in danger. As Bob Kauflin argues, he must be quick to discern emotion from 'emotionalism'.

As Christians we should try and capture the determined resolve of David as he writes of in Psalm 16:8, 'I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.' We should be ones who, whilst resting on the promises and certainty of God's character, choose with a sense of adamancy and purpose, to sing the Saviour's praise.

I cannot say I have ever read much liturgy or ever been part of a church which uses liturgy, and it is not my aim to get into a discussion about the usefulness of it within the Church today, but the purpose of liturgy is in essence what I am trying to speak of here. It serves the believer well, when he does not have the strength to pray but can only cry out to God from the depths of his soul... 'G od of grace and goodness, you know that by reason of our frailty we cannot but fail; keep us always under your protection and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation.'

Feeling Insignificant

2008-09-30T13:20:00.000+01:00

What I find even more brilliant and inspiring than the actual content of this video is one small observation I noted about Piper himself. This is the fact that he is hilarious and he doesn't even realise it...he is funny and he doesn't even try, he just is. Truly he is a person who has completely forgotten about himself and his own ego.

Tomorrow's worry feifeits today's joy

2008-09-22T15:19:00.000+01:00

Despite how content or joy filled you may feel today, to worry and fret about tomorrow is to always forfeit the completion of your joy.

It says in Titus 2:13 that we should wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and saviour Jesus Christ.The blessed hope of Jesus Christ’s return should be the motivator of all our Godly pursuits, and the provider of our deepest joy.

The Beauty of Repentance

2008-09-22T15:17:00.000+01:00

I love the way Spurgeon paints a picture with his words, speaking so vividly of the character of Christ and the nature of living as a Christian. I thought I would share two more quotes of his…

‘In the same way, when the soul has been saturated with the rain of penitence, the clear shining of forgiving love makes the flowers blossom all around.’

‘Even as certain fabrics need to be dampened before they will absorb the bright colours which they are to be dyed, so our spirits need the rain of repentance before they can receive the radiant colouring of delight’

Indeed, doesn’t a garden always look more beautiful after the rain has fallen on it?

Toughen up for Christ

2008-09-21T21:19:00.000+01:00

I've been on a bit of a Spurgeon binge recently and am quite happy to continue binging away. Here is a quote from his book 'How to have real joy'...

'To grow is not only to be noble; it is to be happy. The man who stops growing refuses to be blessed. With businessmen, if they do not win, they lose. With the warrior, if he does not gain in the battle, his enemy is getting an advantage. The wise man who grows no wiser grows foolish. The Christian who does not learn more about his Lord and become more like Him, knows less aout his Lord and becomes less like him. If our armour is unused it will tarnish. If our arms are not strengthened by effort, they will be weakened by laziness. Our happiness declines as our spirituality fades.'

Indeed, it is a great spiritual truth that there is no standing still in the Kingdom of God. If you fail to advance forward you not remain stood still, you are pushed backwards, defeated and cast down. We must strive to grow and learn in the knowledge of God, to win and overcome the temptation of our fleshy desires, to strengthen and harden our faith by the testing and endurance of our will. Let's toughen up for Christ.

03 - Taming the tongue

2008-09-16T17:10:00.000+01:00

I am glad when people say important things in a straight forward matter. It saves a whole host of confusion.

The same is true for the Bible. I praise God for the simplicity of the gospel and the route to a holy life revealed in his scriptures. This is why I find books like 'The Secret Message of Jesus' by Brian McClaren a worrying and disturbing thought, as if I have been missing something all these years.

When it comes to the presenting the gospel as Christians who speak and communicate, I believe we should do it in a simple and straight forward way...Christian jargon truly is a curse which alienates non - believers by a wall of Christian subculture. When it comes to people's souls we shouldn't waste ourwords nor confuse people with them.

Make War!

2008-09-14T12:46:00.000+01:00

This needs no explanation or comment.

02 - Taming the tongue

2008-09-13T12:35:00.000+01:00

The second point that I made at the Impact training day was the fact that speech is contagious. I read this predominantly in James 3: 5 - 6:

"Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."

The very fact that speech is contagious is an important reason we need to be careful what we say. If we criticise, we will breed more criticism. If we are cynical, we will breed more cynicism. If we are sarcastic, we will breed more sarcasm. If we are jealous, we will breed more jealousy...and so we can continue. Indeed Proverbs 16:27 says 'a scoundrel plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.'

In Chapter 3:9 it says that from the same tongue come cursing and blessing, and here I believe the real application takes root. In taming the tongue we should not just omit cursing, but bring forth blessing. Do we want to become contagious 'blessers' or contagious 'cursers'? Do we want to be people who contagiously spread ecnouragement and the building of one another up, or insted bring forth discouragement and the crushing of people's spirit?

01 - Taming the tongue

2008-09-11T21:20:00.000+01:00

Whilst away on my first Impact training block we had to present a short study based on the book of James. Our group spoke on taming the tongue which features in particular in chapter three...I was priviledged to present the talk on behalf of our group in front of the other 50 Impacters. I will share what I said over the next three posts.

Firstly, speech and what we say is significant, and therefore we must be careful with the words we use incase we get miscontrued or misinterpretted, we read about this in James 3:3 -4 ...

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.'

For this reason I believe we should reserve only the best words for Jesus. We often describe God as 'amazing' or 'awesome' or 'fantastic' but how often do we use these same words to describe ordinary things which in reality, and in comparison to God, are not amazing, awesome or fantastic at all? Similarly we should identify exactly what we mean when we use specific words and phrases. For example we can describe a husband cheating on his wife (or vice versa)as an affair, what we really mean to say is that he is committing adultery...simply saying 'an affair' does not capture the full sense of the meaning. Every day I go about conducting my 'affairs' but not everyday do I commit adultery. Another example is that of 'sleeping together,' the full sense of the meaning we are trying to convey would best be described by saying 'fornication' or perhaps 'promiscuity.'

This year I am going to be consumed by 'doing things' and carrying out many tasks. I pray that this year won't only be a year where I impact people with my actions but with my words also.

Social Anasthesia

2008-09-04T21:32:00.000+01:00

'There are today, few of the convulsions that happened in the depth of the human spirit.' David Wells

In reading this statement I have come to realise that my soul has really become accustomed and almost blind to the depth of sin and injustice, which pervades our world and culture. Christians no longer allow sin and social absurdity to affect the depth of out souls, but instead treat many things as merely surface value issues. Put simply, Christians just feel enough anymore...they don't get angry anymore.

Here are some of the things which make me angry: cohabitation instead of marriage, sexually pervasive advertising, corporate greed and disproportionate wealth distribution, prosperity teaching, contraceptives being freely distributed in schools, abortion, waste and environmental destruction, cosmetic surgery, the tobacco industry, self improvement books, motivational speakers.

When will we as Christians and as a culture learn to shake of this sense of 'social anasthesia'? Chris Jordan, a secular social observer and artist, spoke on this issue at the TED conference held in 2008...if a non Christian feels these issues, how much more should we as Christians feel and respond to them also?

Thoughts on abortion...

2008-09-01T12:07:00.000+01:00

This is a subject I am growing increasingly more passionate about, and have begun to research more into it. I hope you find these videos useful and informative. There are some interesting thoughts and some truly shocking statistics, I hope you can spare 20 minutes to make yourself more aware of the issue by watching these videos...

Cassie

2008-08-30T10:46:00.000+01:00

I have been just finished a really interesting and challenging book which looks at the issue of diversity and multi - culturalism within the context of the local church and the extended body of Christ. The book uses the term ‘gracism’ as a means of defining unmerited favour upon those who operate culturally, ethnically, economically or socially on the fringes of society. David Anderson says…’the one who hears, sees and pays attention to those on the margins - those in the desert - is a ‘gracist’. This book proved wonderfully challenging as it can only take root in your heart once you begin to practise gracism in real life….thus I would like to introduce to you, Cassie.

Cassie is a young girl I met and had the privilege of getting to know whilst I’ve been in Portsmouth, working with a Music Mentoring project called Hope Academy. Cassie was born with down syndrome which means in the context of what we were doing as group on performing artists, it was hard for her to join in and fit in amongst the others kids…she was certainly on the fringes. As I read the book I was challenged as to how I could ‘build a bridge’ of positive inclusion and friendship with Cassie…this was certainly a great learning experience for me. As we grew in friendship I began to include her in her the musical things I was doing… she found seeming enjoyment and pleasure in watching me play the drums and sing songs on the guitar. I too was able to share in the things she was as she demonstrated a few moves that she had learnt on the dance team, and as she wore her black and gold costume with pride.

It’s not easy to extend favour and make a conscious effort to build a friendship with someone like Cassie, when it would be much easier too simply ignore, but I believe to reach out to those who are isolated and ignored is to follow the example of Christ. Even though she persisted in calling me ‘Holly’ all week instead of Oli, and did many things which I found to be quite strange and a little annoying, I know she was just trying to extend friendship, kindness and affection in the best way she could…and because of this I tried my best to do the same.

In 1 Corinthians 12 it says that as Christians we are all members of the body of Christ and we are all placed in a certain position for a certain reason. It says that those parts that ‘seem to be weaker are in fact ‘indispensable’ and the parts that we think are less honourable we should treat with ‘special honour’. It was amazing to stand alongside Cassie and say to myself... ‘I will share myself with you, I will honour you, I will stand by you, I will consider you, I will celebrate with you, and I will suffer with you.’ I pray for more of these privileged encounters.

03 - Some wise words

2008-08-25T20:49:00.000+01:00

Continuing my excavation of Augustine's Confessions I would like to quote a passage about the nature of wisdom and folly...

'I had learnt that wisdom and folly are like different kinds of food. Some are wholesome and others are not, but both can be served equally well on the finest china or the meanest earthenware. In just the same way wisdom and folly can be clothed alike in plain words or the finest flowers of speech.'

Augustine is trying to communicate to us in this extract that wisdom and folly can both be dressed in similar ways, they can both be simply wise or simply foolish. Alternatively he says, things can be wise but said so in a way which is much harder to understand and also foolish but said so in a way which would cause doubt and deception as to whether it was foolish or not.

Christians are to seek the gift of discernment and of wisdom, that they may act correctly and avoid foolishness which could cause them to stumble away from God...indeed proberbs 8:11 says wisdom is 'more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare to her.' As Christians we must seek a heavenly wisdom and not an earthly wisdom which is not wisdom at all, but the folly which deceives and confuses, the folly covered in the 'finest flowers of speech' (1 Corinthians 2:14 - 15)

Recently I have been reading the blog maintained by writer Abraham Piper; it's concept is simple in that he uses just twenty words to complete every post...no more, no less. It has been wonderfully refreshing as he manages to capture abstract concepts, make pithy observations and provoke deep discussion in a very concise way. Can we say this type of 'simple wisdom' is greater than wisdom which is not perhaps simple, but is nevertheless 'wisdom' in itself?

02 - Some wise words

2008-08-19T19:24:00.000+01:00

I have just finished reading Augstine's Confessions, and I thought I would do a series of posts expounding some extracts from the book which proved beneficial to myself in particuar. Reading this book was admittedly a challenge as at times it was quite lofty and philosophical, but it proved great sustenance for my soul and ultimately very worthwhile. Here goes...

'Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.'

The french philosopher Pascal said within everyman there is God shaped hole which causes each man to search in the deep for something to fill it. Some people don't even realise what shape the hole is and fill it with all the wrong types of things...people will choose the pursuit of fame or fortune, others choose sexual or religious experience and some people choose all of them! These people are searching for contentment and satisfaction which is ultimately outside of God, but as Augustine comments 'he cannot be content unless he praises you.'

Augstine reasons that as God created all things, and that all things come from him, man can find no rest for soul unless he comes back 'under' the one who created him. Thus for man to be truly content he must pursue the good things which come from God, as ultimately there are no good things which exist outside of him. This is the call of every Christian to find delight and contentment in God despite whether he is living life on a mountain top or walking through the deepest valley.

This call begins with the realisation that you actually need God...Augustine says that man bears the mark of death, the sign of his own sin so tha he will eventually turn to God. Indeed the soul is truly lost if he admits that he has no need for God. Ask yourseld do you truly need God? Do you realise this need?

The power of the Cross

2008-08-17T12:28:00.000+01:00

This week I have been thinking quite alot about the Cross and the nature of what exactly was acheived there. The theological term which I came across so often was that of penal substitutionary atonement, belief in this doctrine can be a very controversial term and can create obvious divisions between many Christians. Many people reject the idea of 'bloody cross' theology, believing that God does not need to kill to forgive. Similarly there are those who do not believe that Christ could suffer the indignity of the Cross, and undergo 'cosmic child abuse' at the hands of God the Father. Some people choose to over intellectualise the meaning of the Cross, saying that Christ died to identify with the sins of humanity, and in turn mankind would be stirred to change their position towards God, that man would become more 'accepting' of God.

Yet those who reject the bloody cross theology also reject the justice and wrath of God, similarly they neglect the seriousness of sin, and the fact that God cannot stand sin and must take payment for it. Those who go along with idea of cosmic child abuse fail to see the willingness of the Son in submitting to the Father. Those who believe that Christ died to identify with humanity neglect to realise that the Cross was acheived not to change the position of man towards God, but the position of God towards man.

The reality of the gospel is none of these weak, alternative and unbiblical positions. The Son of God became man for the principal reason that his blood may be shed and that he may die on a cross; this was something the Son willingly undertook. Christ came to earth to live a sinless life, that when placed upon Cross he would prove a suitable payment, a suitable sacrifice to appease the wrath of God against mankind. The death that should have been ours was paid in full, by Jesus...he was the substition for our punishment.

Safe gaurd your soul

2008-08-13T22:20:00.000+01:00

A Christian must always safe gaurd his soul, it is his only possession and most important concern. It is an on going process of self examination, confession and repentance. It is a sad day when someone steeped in the squalor of their own sin looses care for their own soul, and like a boat drawn out to sea by the strength of the ocean current, surrenders to the force and pull of their own sinfulness. Giving up the fight and quitting the race, they have lost sight of their calling in Christ Jesus. Three things we can say about sin therefore...

Firstly, if you think your too sinful for God to do anything with you, realise all people all steeped in sin, and all of fallen short of the glory of God...'we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...' (Isaiah 53:6). Some aspects of sin you can be more accutely aware of, and other aspects are more hidden and can easily go unnoticed; it is these latter sins which are often more pervasive and persistent. Don't be downcast if your sin stares you straight back the face, rejoice...it gives you opportunity to rid yourself of it their and then. This is far better than the sin which lurks like monsters in the closet which you throught never existed, and furthermore only come out at night when you sleeping and blind to it.

Secondly, if you feel the weight of sin in your life this is undoubtedly a good thing, it is a matter of how you deal with it. Do not let sin press you down and condemn you...their is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), instead let it stir you to confession and repentance. Understanding the seriousness of sin is not evidence for the absence of God in your life but actually strong evidence for him working in your life. The non believers eyes are blind to their own sin, but the Christian's eyes are firmly focussed on their own sinfulness and their overwhelming need for the grace, forgiveness and on going santification.

Finally, when you are so preoccupied in the struggle with one particular sin, you can completely lose sight of any other short comings...it is like holding a large picture close up to your face, innevitably you focus in on one small part of the picture and lose sight of the whole thing. Sometimes we need to step back and with eyes wide open and look deeply and objectively into our own lives. What aspects of life is their evidence of the grace of God at work, and what areas does Satan seem to have built strongholds in. Sometimes more obvious surface sin's have a deeper root which stems from a hidden and more pervasive sin which lies unfound and out of focus. Like the leaves on the trees which wither and turn brown, the problem is not with the leaves but with the root. We must learn to search out sin in our lives often, and invite the light of Jesus Christ to shine in the deepest corners of our being.

Misunderstanding God

2008-08-10T14:23:00.000+01:00

Do you really understand the greatness of God? As soon as you think you have grasped just one aspect of the Lord’s greatness that which predestined a people for himself through adoption, even before he spoke the universe into existence…you have not understood it at all.

Do you honestly think you have begun to understand the mercy of God? If you think have you, truly I say to you, you have not experienced but one ounce of the mercy of God. You have not understood the mercy which removes all our transgresssions as far as the east is from the west, the mercy unsparingly offered to all who call on his name.

Do you really understand the faithfulness of God? If you think can begin to fathom the faithfulness of God that promises uncountable children to the elderly man and baron woman, or the faithfulness of God that promises a nation of slave’s freedom and unmeasured favour…surely you will never fathom the Lord’s faithfulness.

Have you begun to understand and comprehend the Lord’s provision? If you think you can understand the immensity of what it means to be blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, or the common grace which is bestowed upon every man, every day, month and year…you do not understand the great provider.

Do you really understand the justice of God? If you think you can begin to measure the justice of God, the justice of God which breaks the arm of the wicked and upholds the righteous, the justice of God which did not stop at the New Testament but was instead poured upon his own Son Jesus Christ, the justice of God who does all things right…indeed, you do not understand his justice.

Can you ever begin to comprehend the Love of Christ? If you think the love of God is to be known by the intellect, that love which leaves the other ninety nine in search of the one lost soul, the love which with arms wide open welcomes the prodigal home, those same arms spread wide upon the Cross...you have not begun to comprehend his love at all.

''Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.''

The Glory of God

2008-08-08T21:52:00.000+01:00

The principle reason for God's existence is the display of his own glory. He exists to glorify himself; he does this in many ways. It says in the Romans 1:20 that all creation speaks his praise, however, mankind reflects the glory of God like no other living thing; we are exalted above all other created things.

Bearing his own image and reflection, human beings are the most glorious creatures of all creation....God has chosen to populate the earth with billions of creatures which look like him and reflect his glory. It says in 2 Corinthians 3:18...' And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.' Even those who scorn or hate God, or those run from him cannot run from the fact that every breath they take, points to glory and grace of God.

What a priviledge it is to be called a child of God, he has revealed himself to us that we might praise him, and give back to him everything he first gave us. I pray that my heavenly Father would place a desire in my heart, that in every word, thought and deed, I would live to glorify God; that I would be a vessel of God's glory.

Lost in King Jesus

2008-07-30T09:26:00.000+01:00

A song from Bob Kauflin (Sovereign Grace Ministries). That is my prayer for today, that I be lost to myself and found in Jesus. This song left me speechless, literally...

Some wise words...

2008-07-29T18:42:00.000+01:00

Whilst reading Saint Augustine's confessions I stumbled upon this very interesting passage which really stirred me to think. He is talking about the years of learning he underwent which proved empty and useless in coming closer to the truth he so longed for....

''None of this is contained within the Platonists' books. Their pages have not the mien of the true love of God. They make no mention of the tears of confession or the sacrifice you will never disdain, or a broken spirit, a heart that is humbled and contrite, nor do they speak of the Salvation of your people, a city adorned like a bride, the foretaste of your spirit, or the chalice of our redemption. In them no one sings No rest has my soul but in God's hands. To him I look for deliverance; I have no other stronghold; no other delievring that him, safe in his protection, I fear no deadly fall. In them no one listens to the voice which says come to me all you that labour. They disdain his teaching because he is gentle and humble of heart. For you have hidden all this from the wise and revealed it to the children.''

I found this such a refreshing and marvellous truth. Augustine was an incredibly learned and scholarly man who dedicated his life to love of knowledge, but here he proclaims whole heartedly that the wisdom of men is but foolishness to God. Indeed to understand spiritual things we must put on the Spirit of Christ, for who can know the mind of God without the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12 says 'We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.' Let us clothe ourselves with the Spirit of Christ Jesus and become like little children, we may be ridiculed by men but we are living from something gerater than the praise of men, we are living for the words 'well done my good and faithful servant' (Matthew 25:21).

Calvin's porch

2008-07-28T09:12:00.000+01:00

The other day I was talking with a close friend of mine, and some how or another we ended up talking about 5 point Calvinism. I argued (as a joke) that you could apply the same principal to many everyday tasks...for example, sanding a cedar wood porch. Here goes...

1/ This cedar wood porch porch is Total Depraved. There is nothing this porch can do to improve itself...

2/ Out of my mercy (and love for power tools) I have unconditionally elected to transform the cedar wood porch into something new and beautiful once again. By my own judgement and choice I have predestined the porch for transformation...

3/ The sanding process it limited (atonement) by my prior choice and sovereign judgement; the redemptive nature of my power sander is extended to no other part of the house unless I so choose to do so....

4/ If I so choose to redeem my porch by sanding it, and transforming it, there is nothing the porch can do to resist my effort. It cannot overcome in anyway the irresistible grace of my black and decker power sander...

5/ No matter how dirty or weathered the porch becomes after I transformed, there is nothing the porch can do to reverse the transformation process. The porch will perservere in it's transformation.

All joking aside...praise God for his unconditional election and his sovereign grace in allowing me to be adopted into his family. As Spurgeon says...'I thank God everyday for choosing me, for if he hadn't I am certain I would not have chosen him.'

To the Sojourner

2008-07-21T21:13:00.001+01:00

Sojourner don't you realise you died along time ago, you have a new life now do not forget, it is crucial that you take hold of this fact! Now, Sojourner take comfort in the fact that you are merely caught up in the transiency of your current experience. Sojourner when the troubles and uncertainties of life mount up against you, hold steadfast to the certainty that there is more to life than what you are going through at the present.

Sojourner it is important you set your gaze on heaven, this is where your true spiritual home is, you are seated here already with your Father. Sojourner do not waste your time acquiring earthly treasure, it is far too fickle and fleeting for you. Sojourner do you not realise that when your Father chose you, when he set you apart and plucked you out, he set aside a glorious inheritance far greater than any earthly prize. Sojourner set your eyes and your heart on heaven because this is where your God is. Sojourner, one day will serve him, praise him, enjoy him and commune with him, live every waking moment in confidence of this wonderful truth and certainty.

Never forget the 'Memories of the future' (Anotine Dufour).

05 - Staying Spiritually Refreshed

2008-07-18T09:16:00.001+01:00

The next pothole is that of the 999 Theologian. This person's spiritual life focusses around a personal crisis; they call out to God in only the deepest sense of trouble. This person has an underlying understanding of God, but has chosen to exclude Him from the everyday routine of their life. This person is far from leading a consistent Christian walk, their life is riddled with spiritual high points and many spiritual low points.

The call of Jesus on our lives is radically different to the person described above. We are called to be radically counter cultural, to swim against the common agenda, to be a disciple in the fullest sense of the word. In Luke 9:23 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.' A disciple is therefore characterised by 'self denial' and 'following'.

Some people may think that denying yourself and following Jesus are two separate activities, as if they could follow Jesus without denying themself; however this is not the case. If we carry out the former 'denial process' will we find success in the latter 'following process.' If you lose sight yourself, you will gain sight of Jesus. If you disown yourself, you will gain an inheritance in the heavenely places. If you give up yourself, you will gain Jesus Christ in your heart. If you forget yourself, Jesus will never forget you on the final day.

I hope you enjoy this song by Matthew West...is Jesus Christ everything you live for?

04 - Staying Spiritually Refreshed

2008-07-17T09:31:00.000+01:00

The pot hole of spiritual friendlessness is an all to common one in the modern church. The friendless person has realised the importance of a personal relationship with God, but turned their faith into a wholly private endeavour. The friendless person is the bitter person who perhaps has had wrong done by them, but not learnt to forgive. Similarly the friendless person may be afraid of sharing themselves with others because they are ashamed of the past or their own sin.

The Bible teaches something very different from this, we are called as regenerated Christians to be 'living stones' part of the living Temple of God. 1 Peter 2 gives us a good insight into this idea...Peter exhorts us in the first three verses to grow spiritually, that we might 'crave spiritual milk.' Similarly that we may 'rid ourselves malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander or every kind.'

How do we do this? Peter immediately goes onto say in verse 5...'you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.' To grow spiritually and to rid ourselves of slander, malice and hypocrisy, is to realise you are part of a royal priesthood, a Holy Temple...and that Holy Temple is our lives as the body of Christ.

1 John proves says...'but if we are living in the light, as God's in the light, the we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all Sin.' (1 John 1:7). Furthermore John reminds us of Jesus' commandment to love one another (1 John 2:7 - 8) and goes onto say, 'Anyone who loves another brother or sister is living in the light and does not causes other to stumble. But anyone who hates another brother or sister is still living in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness' (1 John 2:10 - 11). As a body of Christ let us live in the light of Jesus Christ, not causing one another to stumble but building one another up and encouraging one another in the faith. Let us learn to love the church and the body of believers, that we may grow spiritually, and that we may grow in love for one another also. To love one another is to love God, not to do so is to live unrighteously and to deny God ( 1 John 3:10).

We must learn to love the body, build up the body, encourage the body, protect the body and serve the body.

03 - Staying Spiritually Refreshed

2008-07-16T09:15:00.000+01:00

The pothole of spiritual pride is a dangerous one to find yourself in, indeed Lewis comments that 'pride leads to every other vice, it is the complete anti God state of mind.' Pride is the person who is always critical of others, refusing to learn and take advice from those around him. The Psalmist comments 'in his pride the wicked does not seek him, in all his thoughts there is no room for God' (Psalm 10:4). Pride is the person who is obsessed with comparing himself with others. The proud person gets no pleasure from having something, except that he has more of it than the next man. The pharisees Jesus confronted in the Bible were the epitome of pride.

Humility is the antithesis to pride, Jesus teaches that 'everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, but he who humbles themself will be exalted' (Luke 18:14). Humilty comes upon us whilst we are unaware, it is only visible for others to see; humility does not seek itself, furthermore it remains invisible to itself. Richard Foster says 'the more you seek humility, the more distant it will seem.'

Humility can be attained through service...service smashest pride in two. Peter instructs us to 'offer hospitality to one another, without grumbling' (1 Peter 4:9). Jesus Christ, the epicentre of all redemptive history, gives us the greatest example of humility...he came not to be served but to serve himself (Mark 10:45). Through service we die to ourselves and our own desires a little more each time, we experience 'many little deaths.' Those in the service industry are those in society who are despised and treated with the most contempt, the cashiers on the check out, the people who collect your trash each week or the people who serve you dinner. To serve others without reward or personal gain is to be therefore, radically counter cultural.

Humility is something to be practised each and every day. Peter Reid comments 'the surest road to spiritual greatness is that of humility, but it the road least taken.' Which road are you going to take?

02 - Staying Spiritually Refreshed

2008-07-15T10:10:00.000+01:00

The Second pothole which causes one to become spiritually dull, and out of tune with God, is that of spiritual laziness. This person seldom sets apart time to spend with God when alone and free from any distraction. This person may in fact be incredibly busy, but nevertheless their laziness is of a spiritual nature because they does not seek the presence of the living God. Learning to survive without coming to the Father each day, they have lost the value and priviledge of time spent alone with God. They have done exactly what the proverb warns us against, they have fallen into a deep sleep, 'laziness brings on deep sleep...an idle man will suffer hunger.' (Proverbs 19:15)

Time spent alone with God is not often easy to obtain, but it is an essential practise. We must learn to organise our time and not let ourselves become overwhelmed and over ruled by our busy schedules. Something of great value is not acheived without great effort and diligence, thus we must work diligently to forge this time spent with God. Jesus clearly instructs us as to the importance of this activity...'when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen' (Matthew 6:6). Jesus assumes that you ARE going to pray, and you ARE going to spend time with your Father.

There are many different ways as to go about conducting your own private time with God, however I would recommend that it be a combination of reading the word, time spent in prayer and a time of praise and thankfulness. Don't let your distractions beat you, let them fuel your time with God. The things you are most preoccupied about should become stepping stones into prayer, which can then lead you onto broader horizons of prayer.

You may be a very busy person or a person who leads a relatively steady, easy going life. It really doesn't matter...when was the last time you spent some time with Jesus.

01 - Staying Spiritually Refreshed

2008-07-14T09:54:00.000+01:00

In this series I am going to look at 11 different problems and potential pot holes which can hinder us from being spiritually fresh. I am grateful to Pastor Mike Love who gave the talk on which the structure of this series is based. Being 'fresh' in this sense is essentially maintaining a relationship with God which is meaningful and relevant each and everyday. We must learn not rely on the past experiences to fuel our spiritual life but instead earnestly should seek the Lord every waking moment in life...Indeed let us learn to be like the Psalmist who proclaims, 'I have set the Lord always before me' (Psalm 16:5). This is the essence of what it means to remain spiritually fresh, making a concious decision to set the Lord before you at ALL times.

The first pot hole therefore, is that of giftedness. This is where we rely on our own strength more than we rely on God. The person who has fallen into this pot hole is the one who has increased the position of man, and decreased the position of God, in their lives. They have lost the sense of 'bigness' which God commands at all times. We must remember that God gives us all things, everything we have comes from God. Oswald Chambers boldly states 'Not enough people are aware of the knowledge of the own destitution and need of God.'Indeed Psalm 105:4 usefully comments 'Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek him.' We should seek his strength and not rely on our own. The writer of Psalm 121:1 has captured this idea, he says 'I look up to mountains - does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.'

Psalm 130:5 - 6 goes on to say...'I am counting on the Lord, yes I am counting on Him. I have put my hope in his Word. I long for the Lord more than the sentries long for the dawn.' What an amazing statement we have here; the Psalmist declares his utter dependance and reliance on God; he is counting on Him. He recognises that if God does not show up and follow through on what he has promised, surely he will fail. Without God he is nothing. For this reason he relies on the promises in his Word and seeks him with all his heart.

Take a moment to identify that areas in your life where God has gifted you... Are you truly counting on God? Do you thank God for the gifts he has given you, recognising that without his continued blessing and life giving sustenance, surely everything we have will fall away and crumble?

Memorial Stones

2008-07-07T22:00:00.000+01:00

A song by Matt Kearney...

A young one, in just tears
Lying in my own fears
Lying, choking in a puddle
Drowning down in my own tears
Left you for the simple spread
Taking the steps it ends in
Lie down in a self-dug grave,
Cloud formed over my head as I laid myself down to rest
The enemy camped upon my chest
With blinded eyes and lies
Till cries he did profess
With rain and thundering storms
And clouds that fogged my intellect
With guilt and shame he built his house
And doubts in the form of self respect
With lightning that was frightening
Taking my eyes up off the Lord
Trying to discredit and edit
The words of truth he found in sword
He harmed me and disarmed me
And he charmed me with his army
But I stand before you right now
Cause the Lord came upon me
With the morning sun that pierced the cloud
And made the moisture dissipate
With a northern wind, the fog will clear
And the rays touched my face
Holy Spirit, warmed me, swarmed me
Touching me with a sweet taste
He picked me up, and kicked my butt
And placed me back in the right race
Lord, you brought me out of shackles
Divided seas all along
It’s in you that I still stand
It’s in you that I have song

Memorial stones in the middle of the Jordan
Lord you brought me along
I had a change through the desert
In you Lord that I’m strong
Raining bread from the heavens
Giving me a new song
Memorial stones in the middle of the Jordan
I’m pressing on

From the day to day, the miry clay
Through the wilderness astray
You brought me to the river Jordan
Bow my head down low and pray
And thank a faithful God
Who’s brought his water to my lip
Grabbed my hand and led me to the promised land where the honey drips
And the vines filled with fruit of all kinds
For the spirit, soul, and mind
Around the sound of chimes
The water stopped and came in line
And clattered feet sound
Israel crossed the dry ground
Memorial stones were laid down
In awe of your love that’s so profound
You brought the old into a new face
With a new place and a new grace
Your love, provision shown as you gave your child a new taste
The manna stocks of milk and honey
of a camel found at my feet
Then I dropped to my knees
For the God, he’s so complete
About face, he sees me
From the grips, the enemy
In the midst, my blunder through the thunder
You’re under me in victory
By no means is this journey finished, over, or complete
There are many Jericho’s walls
That’ll fall at Allah’s feet

Food

2008-07-05T22:23:00.000+01:00

My mum thinks I eat too much...this is concrete proof that I do not

I hope you enjoy this...it is very amusing :-)

02 - Rest

2008-07-04T05:46:00.000+01:00

The dictionary goes on to give a few more meanings to the word rest...

5...to be based or founded (usually fol. by on or upon
6...to be fixed or directed on something, as the eyes, a gaze, etc.

I really liked definitions 5 and 6 which the dictionary gave...it says rest is to founded in something or to direct or fix your gaze on something. This is the essence of rest in Psalm 23. To founded completely in King Jesus, that indeed you can sleep at night and find rest from the world's troubles because you are to be found in something infinitely greater than yourself. Indeed, if you fix your gaze on the God above and relentless pursue him with everything you have, you will gradually lose focus of all the anxieties and worries which cloud your vision; only as you learn to completely focus your complete gaze upon King Jesus alone; nothing else.

I find the whole Psalm 23 thing a bit sweet and 'nice' for my liking...it's the kind of thing you would find written on a card with a picture of loads of sheep and give to someone in your church who is perhaps feeling a bit under the weather. I prefer to think of my God as a mighty warrior, a fortress, a high tower, a rock (generally the cooler attributes of God) rather than him as my shepherd. But, nevertheless, despite what I think about God he indeed is my shepherd. He does 'lead me beside still waters,' he does 'lead me on paths of righteouesness' his rod and staff will 'comfort me,' my cup will 'overflow'...'surely the goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.'

There's lots of stsuff to say about rest, maybe I shouldn't have said it all in one go as I have done here...Who knows perhaps all this blogging will afford me a good night rest after all, or perhaps not :-)

I'll leave you with a cool (but kinda strange at the same time) video of some guy walking through the streets praising Jesus....I'm not sure if this is a good example of what it means to 'keep your gaze on Jesus,' he sure seems to being having a good time though.

01 - Rest

2008-07-04T04:48:00.000+01:00

What does it mean to rest? The dictionary says many things (as it tends to do often), here are but a selection of what it says...

1...the refreshing quiet or repose of sleep: a good night's rest.
2...the refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor: to allow an hour for rest
3...relief or freedom, esp. from anything that wearies, troubles, or disturbs
4...to refresh oneself, as by sleeping, lying down, or relaxing

These first four things are rather straight forward in how we understand the word 'rest' and how we give meaning to it...in fact I probably didn't need to a dictionary search altogether to find that out. But nevertheless these first four things all appear in the Bible in different places and in different ways. God in fact rested in this way after he created... 'By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.' (Genesis 2:2). Why exactly God rested I am not sure, I like to think after creating such a magnificance piece of art, that is the universe in all it's beauty and perfection, perhaps he rested for a moment just to take in the sheer awesomeness of what he had made.

In Matthew 11:28 is says, 'come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.' Indeed rest is so much more than just sleeping at around 11pm after a hard days work (or whatever takes your fancy during the day), it is place free from worry, anxiety...free from burden. Rest is a place where you can throw all your fears on King Jesus, so you can freely run with him without inhabitions and without being weighed down.

Abraham & Isaac

2008-07-03T18:44:00.000+01:00

'When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood' (Genesis 22:9).

I have been struck by the story of Abraham this least few days as I have gradually been making my way through the middle few chapters of Genesis. The story of Abraham is truly an amazing one...his life is the perfect example of a man who has heard God's call on his life, responded in faith and acted out every moment in obedience to his God.

The story of Abraham offering up his son Isaac I consider to be the greatest display of these three attributes. After waiting many years, and traversing many trials and struggles, the Lord blesses Abraham with his promised Son, despite the fact that both Abraham and Sarah are too old to have children. The Lord calls upon his servant to offer up his son as a sacrifice on the altar to God...he faithfully obeys and does exactly as the Lord instructs. The Lord graciously provides a ram, which they find stuck in a bush as a substitution for his Son. What a display of faith that Abraham would offer up his son on an altar of wood to his God with out reservation or protest.

Even though I myself am not a father (although one day certainly hope to be!), I recognise the amazing struggle it is for a parent to give up 'owndership' of their child, and faithfully place them into the hands of God. That indeed although having a child is possibly the most precious thing you could possibly call 'your own,' in fact that child above anything else, infact belongs to God. And this God is one who is infintely more capable to protect and provide than any earthly faher is capable of. This same God - the God of Abraham and Isaac - is infintely more capable to nurture and love than any human mother could do so.

Parents...have you fully abandoned your children to God, recognising that in fact God is so much more important than even your own children? If called upon could you do as Abraham did and place them on a altar of wood and stone in obedience to God? Those are certainly tough questions to deal with. Those who aren't parents...recognise firstly, that is more than likely you one day will be and indeed will have to enocunter this same decision in the near future. But now...are you provoked by the faith and obedience of Abraham? Is there an area in your life which you need to lay at the alter to God? Perhaps for women it is the overwhelming desire to be a mother, in spite of all that God might call you to prior to that occasion. Or men, the desire to pursue a career and profession that you end up completely missing God leading you into a different direction in life. These are just two examples, there are many many more...

I leave with a song which puts all this in perspective.... Andrew Petersen singing 'Holy is the Lord'.

Smile

2008-07-01T20:15:00.000+01:00

I found this clip a while back and discovered it amongst my ever growing folder of bookmarks. This is beautiful combination of jazz piano and rich vocals. Thankyou youtube and thank you Lois Mahalia for a wonderful song.

Don't forget to smile :-)

06 - Praying with Paul

2008-06-30T12:53:00.000+01:00

In the last post we looked at what it meant for Christ to be honoured and glorified by the way we live...the verse continues onto to say that we will be 'honoured along with him.' However what does this mean...surely it is all about Jesus receiving the honour and the glory and not us? Well it certainly doesn't mean that we should go around seeking praise for ourselves, but on the other hand we would be foolish to ignore the theologically truth contained in this statement. Romans 8:30 gives us insight into this idea saying 'those he justified he also glorified.'

As human beings we are cracked and flawed, we are not as we were originally intended to be, nor supposed to be. Being a Christian is being part of on going process of transformation in which we become fully human, as Christ was fully human. We are not left guessing as to what exactly this means...Jesus gave us the example of what it means to live a perfect human life. On the final day, all those who put their faith in Christ Jesus, will be transformed and made like Jesus himself; pure, spotless and without blemish. We will be glorified like Christ is glorified. For some the change on that final day will be more significant than others, but nevertheless it will be as complete for all those that belong to God.

Being glorified is not something we undergo for our own gain, but something which points back to God himself; without Christ we would not glorified at all. We are being strengthened and empowered because Christ is 'in us', thus our glory is a testament to the infinite power and grace of the indwelling spirit of the living God. Furthermore we are not giving Christ something he did not have in the first place, as if we giving God 'more glory.' No, we giving back to Christ everything that was already in his possession...we can be said to be the illumination of Christ's glory, a lampstand on a hill. It is as if Christ reveals his glory to us, so we praise him and worship him by changing the way we live, and in turn we reveal more of the glory of God.

Paul writes here with his eyes firmly focussed on heaven. Indeed this is such an important thing to remember for us living the Christian life, it gives us a greater perspective, a persective which is beyond ourselves and our immediate situation. We are living are living for the glory of God, and we are living in view of God one day transforming us once and for all in to who we are destined to be. Colossians 3:1 - 4 puts this whole idea in context very nicely for us... 'Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.'

Take a moment to examine yourself...does your life truly reflect the glory of God? Is your undergoing a transformation or do you feel left stagnant and stationery, in the same place you were many years ago? Do you feel you are overcoming spiritual strongholds and areas you are weak in, making ground for Christ Jesus in your life?

05 - Praying with Paul

2008-06-27T16:43:00.001+01:00

'So we keep on praying for you, asking God to enable you to live a life worthy of your calling. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good works your faith promotes you to do. Then he will be honoured by the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all possible by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

What does it mean for 'Christ to be honoured by the way you live?' Well another way of understanding this verse would be to say 'may Christ be glorified by the way you live.' It is essentially saying therefore everything you do, every thought you have, every word you speak, and every action you make, God should be glorified as a result. C.S Lewis argued that as human beings every decision we make brings us closer to God or further away from Him...I would continue this line further, every decision we makes either brings glory and honour to God or it does not.

Do not take this verse lightly, glorifying God is of utmost importance...in fact glorifying God is man's chief end, everything we do should bring glory to God, it is the principal reason why we were brought into existence and why we continue to exist. God's only purpose in his own existence is to bring glory to himself, it is his nature. Indeed John Piper writes 'God's overwhelming passion is to exalt the value of his own glory?'

In life it to common that we have our own agendas and so it is no different in Christian life . We have our own ideas, opinions and strategies of how things should be done best; all to often we can become preoccupied with these agendas and we lose sight of principal aim...to bring glory to God. In my church we are under going building work and various plans are floating around as how to best carry out this work. Innevitably people will be looking at all sorts of problemsproblems of planning, finance, logistics, building and a whole host of other stuff. My prayer for those in leadership and those concerned with this building project is that they don't lose sight of their principal aim, to bring glory to God.

Why are we doing this structural work? To have more seating space. Why do want more seating space? So we can accomodate more people into our sunday morning service? Why do we want more people? So we can teach them, encourage them, bring them into the presence of God. Why do we want this? So people will learn how to glorify God more and more through, and in their lives!

Let him (man) give God all the glory, who alone makes him to differ from the worst of people in this world and the most miserable of the damned in hell...Let him ascribe all glory to Him whose workmanship we are, created in Christ jesus for good works.' Jonathan Edwards (1703 - 1758)

Spiritual Groove

2008-06-26T20:30:00.000+01:00

Time to share some more music with you guys...

Antoine Dufour (guitar) and Tommy Gauthier (violin), feature in this video...both from Canada (the french speaking part) . This combination of instruments is truly stunning...Watch out from 1:56 -2:10, this is my favourite part of the whole composition, a wonderful rising sequence.

This is beautiful blend of both melody and rhythm. Antoine's guitar playing is sensational, his grasp of every aspect of the guitar; finger picking, strumming, harmonics, and his whole very rhythmic approach. The sound of Tommy's violin is incredible; he has beautiful tone. I particuarly enjoy the the way he slides onto the notes giving a very 'folky' sound. He uses a great variety of fast, very rhythmic playing almost bouncing off the strings, in juxtaposition to long sweeping notes. His use of double stopping just shows the great command of the instrument he has.

Fantastic!

04 - Praying with Paul

2008-06-25T10:02:00.000+01:00

How often do you hear people say, when talking about what happens to them when they die...'well I have done loads of good things, in fact I dont think I have ever done anything bad at all'. They give lots of money of charity, serve the local community in some various way and do loads of other stuff which they believe should surely secure them a place in heaven. Not to say all these good things our hypothetical person does, are in fact bad, not at all, but in the context of eternity they mean very little...it is an issue of the soul we are dealing with here. In thinking this way our hypothetical person neglects the very core and essential component of what it means to live and in fact reach heaven...the HEART.

Paul prays from the Christians in Thessalonica that they may accomplish all the good works their faith promotes them to do. That the good works they do flow from a HEART which loves Jesus Christ, and longs to please him. If they are not done out of the heart, in eternitys eyes they mean nothing. Paul makes it clear the honus of the good works is very much placed on them, in the fact that they are something THEY do as a result of THEIR faith. However they are not something they do alone; they are empowered by the spirit of the Living God only in this way will they be truly fruitful and sucessful. Indeed Psalm 127 makes it very clear, 'unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.'

Paul is assuming therefore, as we spoke about in the third post in this series...an inner transformation in taking place in the hearts of the Thessalonian believers. They are not interested in doing the things they once did before they knew Christ Jesus, but now they have a new set of goals and aims...these a result of their faith. Paul doesn't describe how this should actually work out in practise, but we can infer it means any good work done, not out of the sake of doing good works, but out of faith, empowered by the indwelling Spirit of Christ

Take a moment to reflect on your own life; are you indeed doing any good work for the sake of Jesus Christ or are you concerned with principally your own aims and ambitions? If you are doing good things, are they done out of love for Jesus Christ and love for other people, or they done to seek some other sort of reward? Finally, are you relying on your own strength and will power to accomplish your good works or do you pray this prayer of Paul...that God would give you the power?

The Mandolin Rain

2008-06-24T21:14:00.000+01:00

Well...I thought I would have a little break from the spiritual stuff and instead share some of my favourite songs. Bruce Hornsby is surely one of the most creative musicians and lyricists in the music at the moment...listen and enjoy.

"The song came and went
Like the times that we spent
Hiding out from the rain under the carnival tent
I laughed and shed smile
It would last for awhile
You dont know what you got till you lose it all again

Listen to the mandolin rain
Listen to the music on the lake
Listen to my heart break every time she runs away
Listen to the banjo wind
A sad song drifting low
Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go"

I love it when you find a song which resonates deeply within you....This song surely does for me.

03 - Praying with Paul

2008-06-23T09:54:00.000+01:00

In the previous post we beagn to dismantle the first sentence and what it means for God to 'enable us'... let us further dismantle this first sentence by looking at what is means to live a life 'worthy of your calling.'

We can best understand this statement initially by asserting what it doesn't mean. We could easily interpret this verse incorrectly, arguing that in some way perhaps Paul was suggesting that the Christians in Thessalonica need to attain a certain level of godliness to become worthy Christians; that they would somehow EARN their right to be called by God. In turn they would be 'worthy of their calling.' This view is certainly not what Paul is trying to communicate...Paul makes it obvious everyone is a sinner and nobody is ever 'worthy to be called' in the sense that they are good enough by their own merit.

In Romans 8:30 it reads 'those he predestined, he also called...' and thus in some way the saving process (salvation) has already begun for those who have been called. If you have been called by God you have been saved (justified)and been made 'acceptable' by him. Thus the Thessalonian Christians could not be counted 'worthy of their salvation' by their own effort because, indeed we can say with confidence they already were saved.

Thus Paulis saying something very different, he is emploring his fellow Christians to live a life 'worthy of the one' who called them. Because they have been called, because they have been made right with God, there should be a profound affect on the way they live their lives. Carson himself writes 'Paul wants us to become what we are not, and prays to that end.' Thus becoming worthy of your calling is essentially an issue of stepping into Christian maturity. Are you going to step into the eternal values God has called you to? Remember citizens of heaven and sons of the most high God live very different lives to those who are not.

Carson indeed makes it very obvious in his text of what it means to step into Christian maturity...'we should become increasingly holy, self denying, loving, full of integrity, steeped in the knowledge and Word of God, delighted to trust and obey our heavenly Father.' This cetainly looks like a daunting list of things to live up to and acheive in our owns lives, however GOD IS THE ENABLER. Paul prays that God would enable us, not that we do it by our own strength but instead we acheive this things by the grace of God working in and through our lives. To step into Christian maturity and become worthy of your calling, is surely to step into a new life in Christ Jesus, which consumes more and more of the freely flowing grace of God each day.

I shall leave you with a final quote to reflect on, take a moment to understand what this fully means in light of what we have already discussed...'The greatest spiritual saints are not those who need less grace, but those who consume the most' (Dallas Willard).

02 - Praying with Paul

2008-06-20T10:34:00.001+01:00

In the previous post we looked at how Paul seems to challenge a narrow view of praying, giving us good example of how to pray in a more broad and expansive way; a type of prayer that reflects the infinitely broad and expansive nature of God, who is able to accomplish all things!

There are two things worthy noticing in the very first sentence, we shall look at one here... Paul prays 'GOD would enable them to live a life worthy of their calling.' What is significant to note is that God is the one who 'enables us', he is the initiator of all things. Just as he is the initiator of our faith, giving us the faith to believe in the saving work of the Cross, so he gives us the power to continue in the course of Christian discipleship also.

Satan would easily tell us the lie that pursuing God is a completely personal endeavour, which is a test of your own will and single mindedness. Paul reminds us that we should pray for God to help us in our journey into his likeness. In fact our success in transformation is utterly dependant on the grace of God in every aspect of our life, enabling us to be transformed into a better reflection of Jesus Christ. To 'go it alone' in our Christian faith is surely to lead to failure. I shall leave with a few useful quotes from the Jonathan Edwards (1703 - 1758) who gives good insight into describing our utter dependence on God.

'You stand in need of daily supplies of God. Without Him, you can receive no spiritual light, or comfort, can exercise no grace, and can bring forth no fruit. Without God your souls will wither and pine away, and sink into a most wretched state. You continually need God's intructions and directions. What can a little child do in a vast, howling wilderness without someone to guide and lead the child in the right way? Without God, you will soon fall into snares, pits and many calamities.'

or...

'After a true conversion, the soul is increasingly aware of its own impotence and emptiness. It is aware of its universal dependence on God for everything.'

Examine yourself for a moment; are you truly aware of own incapability of living the Christian life and in turn aware of your utter dependence on the grace of God? How differently do you think your life would look like without God being the most SINGLE IMPORTANT thing in your life? Would your world fall to pieces around you, or would it continue to look much the same?

01 - Praying with Paul

2008-06-19T16:58:00.000+01:00

I have chosen a passage that was made familiar to me by reading 'A Call to Spiritual Reformation' by Don Carson. I will base the next few posts on this passage. Here goes....2 Thessalonians 1:11 - 12...'So we keep on praying for you asking God to enable you to live a life worthy of your calling. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good works your faith promotes you to do. Then he will be honoured by the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all possible by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

I was motivated to write about this prayer of Paul for the Thessalonians because I was so significantly struck by the content of the prayer itself. In comparsion to my own experience the content of Paul prayer here is so different to those I comomonly hear in church services, prayer meetings and indeed the types of prayers I offer in my own devotional life.

So often I feel my prayer life is narrow, and the things I pray for are seemingly insignificant and meaningless in the broader picture of life. Paul's prayer here blows this narrow view wide open....he prays some large and bold statements about what he wishes God to acheive in the lives of the Thessalonian believers. Firstly that they may live WORTHY of the one who called them, that they would accomplish ALL the good works their faith promotes them to do, that God would HONOURED by the way we live, and that they would HONOURED also.

I believe that so often our prayer life can be so self centred and so limited, we thus in turn limit God's ability to move in and through our lives in a drastic and powerful way...we pray each morning that God would give as opportunity to share our faith with somone, that God would bless our children in the sunday school meeting or that God would give us a new and clear sense of direction in our lives.

Instead of praying these seemingly limited prayers, let us think how differernt would our lives look if Paul prayer in 1 Thessalonians was accomplished in our life? Instead of asking God to bless our children in the sunday school meeting what is we prayed that our children would live a life WORTHY of their calling in Christ Jesus. Or instead of praying for one chance encounter with a person on a train and sharing a little bit about what it means to be a Christian, we prayed that God would give us power to accomplish EVERY good work our faith promotes us to do! Lastly instead of asking God to make purpose clear in our lives, perhaps we petitioned to God asking that, in EVERY word and deed and thought, God would be magnified, that he would receive all glory and honour. Surely God would accomplish all of the those small prayers I described earlier, and immeasurably more than we could begin to imagine!

Back Home!

2008-06-15T12:51:00.000+01:00

Well I have now returned from Capernwray Bible School after an amazing two month experience away from home; it was truly unforgettable. I have made some great friends during my time and I look forward greatly to keeping in touch with people and maybe even visiting some over the next few years!

Being back home brings mixed feelings...it has been great to see my family and friends again; that has been a real joy but leaving my old capernwray life has proven difficult. Indeed it is very hard when you change so much in 2 months to return back home to people who have not had the priviledge of experiencing what I have. I thank God and praise him for blessing me with that time away, and indeed I am thankful for the trials and tests I will have to face over the next few months and indeed have faced already in just a few days. Indeed James writes 'consider it pure joy , my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds.' Why? 'Because the testing of our faith will produce endurance. This next few months will certainly the test of all Capernwray taught me.

Thus, I look forward to the future with great anticipation as I hopefully begin to absorb all my newly acquired knowledge and experience, incorporating it into my own life. I look forward to this coming year as I will undertake a Frontier Project at Church. I am expectant for God to work greatly in my life and in the life of my local church. This is truly going to be an exciting year.