The Freedom of Forgiveness - 2

''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

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.

Valley of Vision - 3

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.

Valley of Vision - 2

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.''

Valley of Vision

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

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 Supper of the Lamb - 3

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

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

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!

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.

All things new...

Grace like rain

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.'

Tomorrow's worry feifeits today's joy

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

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?

03 - Some wise words

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

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

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

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.

Some wise words...

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).

05 - Staying Spiritually Refreshed

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?