What "John" Did

I came across this in the LICC magazine recently and I share it here with permission.

It looks like something bad is about to happen. How does the disciple respond? Mark Greene meets a man with bottle and spirit…

‘John’ works for a drinks company – not a soft drinks company, but a hard drinks company. He’s a Christian, and convinced that God called him into the job. One day, ‘John’ finds himself on a business trip in the Far East. One of the ways that business is done in the Far East is to go out drinking together at the end of the day. John has rules about this. He goes with the team and he doesn’t get drunk. Now, in the Far East, the kinds of places executives go drinking almost always feature beautiful hostesses. Some are there to serve drinks, and some offer rather more. John has rules about the kinds of places he goes to. And he sticks to them.

One evening, his team is out with some suppliers and John realises that one of his colleagues has taken a real shine to one of the hostesses who is particularly luminous. As the evening proceeds John grows more and more concerned that his colleague, a married man, will proposition her. But what can he do? The place is buzzing, there are suppliers and colleagues and the hostesses… but his heart ached and he fervently prays: ‘Lord’.

A little later, John finds himself in the facilities. By coincidence, perhaps, his colleague is the only other person there. So, as they are facilitating, John turns to him and says: ‘Are you having a good evening? I can see you have some decisions ahead of you. As your friend, I would encourage you to make sure that the decisions you make tonight are the same as those you’d make tomorrow.’

Now, that is some sentence. And although John is a bright, articulate man, he’s in no doubt that it came from the Spirit (Mark 13:11).

Ten minutes later the colleague left the club with the hostess in tow. John’s heart ached more. A little later, John left the club and went back to his hotel room and got down on his knees by his bed and prayed and prayed. A couple of days later it became clear that his colleague had in fact propositioned the girl…

However, she had told John’s colleague that she wasn’t that kind of hostess, but asked if he’d be interested in a long term relationship. He then stayed up until 3.00am talking to her, much of it about her sorrow because her boyfriend had left her.

Now there’s a thing. The man who wanted to use this woman as a prostitute becomes her pastor. And maybe he learned more about how wrong his impulse to sleep with her was by having propositioned her than if he had simply left the bar at 11.30 pm. He learned that a hostess in a bar can have a life beyond that bar, that a hostess in a bar could be a woman with a heart that’s tender, a heart that can be broken, a woman with hopes and dreams for her own life…

But what about John?

Now there’s someone who loves their colleague/neighbour as a whole human being. And is confident that God’s ways are good for other people, and cares enough to intervene. There’s someone who believes in prayer, who knows how to call out to God in the maelstrom just as Jehoshaphat did in the middle of the battle (I kings 22:31-33) when there is nothing he can do himself. There’s someone who is confident in God to act – even if he can’t think how. There’s someone who also knows how to pray in the quiet place. There’s someone who asked others to pray for that trip before he went, someone who has involved the people of God in a frontline of mission that they themselves will probably never be in.

Bottle, spirit, prayer and the support of God’s people – it’s a mighty potent cocktail.

Ephesisans 1:15-19a
Learning to Pray from Paul

In church we're continuing to learn about prayer from Paul. How did he talk to his Father in heaven? What were his priorities? Here we see him telling the Christians in Ephesus that he was giving thanks for them and praying for them.

You can listen to tpart 7 of the prayer series by clicking here:
http://lymingtonbaptist.org/mp3s/Prayer%20pt%207.mp3


V15 Ever since I heard about your faith. What is he actually giving thanks for when he says their “faith”? What’s he really getting at?
And your love for all the saints. Why is this such a big deal? So what that they love one another? (Jn 13:35)



V17 May the Holy Spirit enable you to have insight, discernment, wisdom and revelation (this after all is part of the Spirit’s “job description”) so that you can know God better. Of all the things that Paul could pray for this 1st Century church (leadership development, “Alpha”, illness, government/cultural oppression, finance…) why is Paul praying that they know God better? Knowing God is fundamental to living well. We fail to live well in God’s world, we end up turning from him and his authority – we sin – because we don’t trust God and we don’t trust him because we don’t know him. If we knew him, really knew him, we would trust him and if we trusted him we would not turn from him. We would therefore live a life worthy of our calling, we would glorify him and enjoy him forever. Take some time to explore the link between knowing God/trusting him and not sinning. What do you learn?



V18 I also pray that at the centre of you’re being you know:
The hope: biblical hope is a promise of God not yet realized. Paul prays that the Ephesians would know their sure and certain future hope in Christ. He prays that they would realize that this life is not all that there is. This life is but a mist (Jas. 4:14), a vapor and we need to see things in the light of eternity. “We reflect too little on the future and almost never on eternity” (DA Carson). What is the nature of this hope? How do we experience it now and how will we experience it in the future?



The inheritance: God’s inheritance; the inheritance he possesses or bestows. “His”, along with v11, 14b indicates the former. Paul prays that they know that they are God’s chosen people, belonging tohim, cherished, dearly loved and precious. What difference would it make to our daily lives if we really knew that we were God’s precious inheritance? How would that change our reaction to events and our hopes and aspirations?



The power: power for the Christian is not power to be a winner, always on the front foot, always achieving with no set backs. Power for the Christian is about being able to endure, to keep looking to the Cross, to continue to trust knowing God’s goodness, joy, peace, sufficiency even when circumstances might be adverse. True gospel power is displayed most significantly in weakness. What does the display of God’s power look like in our lives? How would this power it manifest itself in those times when we face adversity and in those times when things are going especially well?

How would it be if we prayed for ourselves and others that we would know God better, the hope we have in him, the security we have because we are his inheritance and his great power that is available to us. Let us pray these things – for ourselves and for one another!

Jesus is the True and Better

I had a meeting with our "Live Kidz" leaders (7-10 year olds - the children that is) this week and I was talking about how it's important to point children to Jesus in all the teaching that's given. The need is particularly acute with the Older Testament because it's harder to see how this fits into the gospel of Christ. The danger is that we can end up moralising ("David was brave so we should be brave, Samson slept around and gave away secrets vital to national security and...we mustn't do that.....etc").

But how do you do that in a way that displays Christ in all his atoning work, and interprets the text without allegorizing, stretching the meaning, or distorting the context. Not easy but Tim Keller does it well and hence my big plug to the leaders to become well acquainted with the The Jesus Storybook Bible (which contains much of his teaching).

When writing a follow up email to those leaders I included an extract from some classic Keller teaching which gives some good, clear examples of what it is that we need to be doing. I've pasted it in below, I think it's great:

“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27)

Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us (1 Corinthians 15).

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out for our acquittal, not our condemnation (Hebrews 12:24).

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void “not knowing wither he went!” to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. While God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love, from me,” now we can say to God, “Now we know that you love me, because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from me.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant (Hebrews 3).

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends (Job 42).

Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb – innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He is the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the Lamb, the Light, the Bread.

The Bible is not about you — it is about him.

Indeed it is!