I leave tomorrow for three days in the Smoke, the Big City....Town!
I'm going to be in London for this year’s Evangelical Ministry Assembly, a conference for Pastors. Last year’s key note speaker was John Piper which obviously I couldn’t miss (!) and this year it’s Tim Keller so I’m going again!
The first time I heard Keller, which was at the EMA conference probably some five year’s ago, it changed my life – I’d never heard the gospel explained in the way he unpacked it. It really was a defining moment.
I’m really looking forward to getting some great input and the opportunity to catch up with some old friends. Follow this link to read more about the conference including subject matter and speakers: http://ema2011.proctrust.org.uk/the-details
Monday, 20 June 2011
Friday, 10 June 2011
Hearing with Faith on Sunday
By Jonathan Parnell:
Charles Spurgeon writes...
The real reason why God's people do not feed under a gospel ministry, is, because they have not faith. If you believed, if you did but hear one promise, that would be enough; if you only heard one good thing from the pulpit here would be food for your soul, for it is not the quantity we hear, but the quantity we believe, that does us good—it is that which we receive into our hearts with true and lively faith, that is our profit (excerpted from "The Sin of Unbelief").
The massive consumerism of our age has taught us to be critical. We are constantly confronted with options—from allergy medicines to zero-calorie soft drinks. We examine and test and compare, ultimately landing on the preference of our personal market. This isn't necessarily bad, except that we often fail to check this mindset at the door of the Church's corporate gatherings.
Everything about the worship service can become a target set before the scope of our critical eyes. And we dismiss those things that fail to meet the status of our personal market, complaining as if it were a bad cup of coffee. The real problem—you know, of course—is not the details of corporate worship. It's us. It's what Spurgeon says: we lack faith.
Whether we benefit from the worship service depends on if we "receive into our hearts with a true and lively faith" the things that are spoken, sung, and preached. Take Spurgeon's words to heart and pray for the Spirit's help. May you gather this weekend in faith, eager to hear from God.
Charles Spurgeon writes...
The real reason why God's people do not feed under a gospel ministry, is, because they have not faith. If you believed, if you did but hear one promise, that would be enough; if you only heard one good thing from the pulpit here would be food for your soul, for it is not the quantity we hear, but the quantity we believe, that does us good—it is that which we receive into our hearts with true and lively faith, that is our profit (excerpted from "The Sin of Unbelief").
The massive consumerism of our age has taught us to be critical. We are constantly confronted with options—from allergy medicines to zero-calorie soft drinks. We examine and test and compare, ultimately landing on the preference of our personal market. This isn't necessarily bad, except that we often fail to check this mindset at the door of the Church's corporate gatherings.
Everything about the worship service can become a target set before the scope of our critical eyes. And we dismiss those things that fail to meet the status of our personal market, complaining as if it were a bad cup of coffee. The real problem—you know, of course—is not the details of corporate worship. It's us. It's what Spurgeon says: we lack faith.
Whether we benefit from the worship service depends on if we "receive into our hearts with a true and lively faith" the things that are spoken, sung, and preached. Take Spurgeon's words to heart and pray for the Spirit's help. May you gather this weekend in faith, eager to hear from God.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
A Bit of Motivation
Last night I cajoled two of my children into going to an event at Testwood Baptist Church. There are very few things I lean on the kids to do.....ok.....there's quite a few but it doesn't feel like a lot of things to me....and this event was one of them. It wasn't a church service or religious gathering in any way. It was something quite different and I really wanted them to be there.
It was an evening with professional explorer and adventurer Debra Searle. She's basically a freelance motivational speaker hired by the blue-chips to wow their staff teams and fire them up for taking the next hill. Anyway these two kids needed, in my humble opinion, some motivation and inspiration. We weren't disappointed!
Crumbs! This woman's amazing!!
Debra, a non rower and her 6'5'' professional rower husband wanted to row across the Atlantic. No small task. They planned it for a couple of years and then went for it. on the first night he realises that he's actually got a phobia of open water! Can you believe it.....they'd only ever trained in Poole Harbour!
Anyway after a week he's a wreck and needs to be taken off the boast because he's having panic attacks and the whole thing. Another week later a rescue boat finally comes and picks him up but she decides to stay. She wants to carry on by herself. Long story short, three and a half months later she makes it to Barbados.
Unflipping believable!!
She survives storms, sharks, whales, tankers.... a non-rower rows across the Atlantic in three and a half months!
There were loads of neatly packaged lessons that can be taken out of this achievement (in addition to the old "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" which is so totally ridiculous that it's not even worth bothering to critique) but the thing that I took away was the incredible resilience of the human spirit. The ability to keep going. To not stop. To absorb pain, crushing loneliness, massive disappointment. Just incredible.
That's it really. I was just blown away.
It was an evening with professional explorer and adventurer Debra Searle. She's basically a freelance motivational speaker hired by the blue-chips to wow their staff teams and fire them up for taking the next hill. Anyway these two kids needed, in my humble opinion, some motivation and inspiration. We weren't disappointed!
Crumbs! This woman's amazing!!
Debra, a non rower and her 6'5'' professional rower husband wanted to row across the Atlantic. No small task. They planned it for a couple of years and then went for it. on the first night he realises that he's actually got a phobia of open water! Can you believe it.....they'd only ever trained in Poole Harbour!
Anyway after a week he's a wreck and needs to be taken off the boast because he's having panic attacks and the whole thing. Another week later a rescue boat finally comes and picks him up but she decides to stay. She wants to carry on by herself. Long story short, three and a half months later she makes it to Barbados.
Unflipping believable!!
She survives storms, sharks, whales, tankers.... a non-rower rows across the Atlantic in three and a half months!
There were loads of neatly packaged lessons that can be taken out of this achievement (in addition to the old "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" which is so totally ridiculous that it's not even worth bothering to critique) but the thing that I took away was the incredible resilience of the human spirit. The ability to keep going. To not stop. To absorb pain, crushing loneliness, massive disappointment. Just incredible.
That's it really. I was just blown away.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
The Problem of Forgiveness
I came across this from CS Lewis about forgiveness. I think he says it pretty well.....hard though....
….you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.
As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.
But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory p181-183
….you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.
As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.
But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory p181-183
Monday, 23 May 2011
It's Been a While.....
Well it really has been a while.
I've still been keeping attentive to God and his work or at least....I've been having a pretty good go. It's just that....well.....blogging's not been right up there on my list of stuff to do.
The last eight weeks have been the most exhilarating, crushing, sweet, devastating, rewarding and depressing weeks of my life. It's been extraordinary.
Some of the stuff, like fostering and catastrophic hard drive failures will probably be written about. Other stuff won't be, at least, not for a while.
I can tell you this though. Spurgeon was right to say that the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which we can rest our head to sleep.
I've still been keeping attentive to God and his work or at least....I've been having a pretty good go. It's just that....well.....blogging's not been right up there on my list of stuff to do.
The last eight weeks have been the most exhilarating, crushing, sweet, devastating, rewarding and depressing weeks of my life. It's been extraordinary.
Some of the stuff, like fostering and catastrophic hard drive failures will probably be written about. Other stuff won't be, at least, not for a while.
I can tell you this though. Spurgeon was right to say that the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which we can rest our head to sleep.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
A Reality Check on Using Gifts
The Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness by Tim Chester is one of the most refreshingly helpful books I've read I a very long time. I love the bit where he challenges the consumerist approach that is characteristic of much contemporary church ministry, an approach that says, amongst other things, that we need only serve in accordance with our gifting: Jonathan is a Christian worker who has complained of feeling tired and overworked ever since I have known him. I tried working through his priorities with him, but it made no difference. He recently took a 3-month sabbatical because he was worn out. At the end he was still complaining about feeling tired. Now he wants to ‘operate in his gifting’. And, funnily enough, his gifting doesn’t include administration of paperwork. He only wants to do what enjoys. Anything else makes him weary. But that’s the way life is! Sometimes work is energising and exciting. But everyone has irksome responsibilities that make them feel weary. Indeed, for m ost people in the world, their work is mainly drudgery. It is arrogant and selfish to suppose we have a right to do only what energises you when most people spend their lives on factory production lines or bent over in fields. We can’t design perfect working lives because we don’t yet live in a perfect world. Jonathan doesn’t need another sabbatical or a new job. He needs to learn self-control and self-denial. Paul talks about spiritual gifts so we value the diversity in the church. He doesn’t tell individual Christians to identify their gifting and stick to it. He tells Christians to be servants, looking to the interests of others and modelling ourselves on the self-giving of the Cross.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
How the Gospel Enables Us to Forgive
In his book Married for God Christopher Ash comments on a favourite parable of mine, the Unmerciful Servant.
The point of the story is not to say to us “You really must forgive one another: forgiveness is very important”. That is true, but would not actually help. When, especially in a marriage, the hurt is done it is very hard to forgive and just being told to forgive just doesn’t work.
No, the point of the story is that you and I need to understand the astronomical debt we have been forgiven if we are disciples of Christ. And once we begin to grasp this truth the gates of our hearts are opened so that we can forgive even very serious debts owed to us.
God works in us to enable us to forgive. Once we really know the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers, there is in our hearts a new dynamic. Grace pours into our hearts, and that same grace can pour out from our hearts to our husbands and wives to forgive, to heal, to reconcile, to follow hurts with welcome and conflict with tenderness.
The Gospel is not about moralising. It is about encountering transformative grace and allowing that to change us and, in so doing, change others.
The point of the story is not to say to us “You really must forgive one another: forgiveness is very important”. That is true, but would not actually help. When, especially in a marriage, the hurt is done it is very hard to forgive and just being told to forgive just doesn’t work.
No, the point of the story is that you and I need to understand the astronomical debt we have been forgiven if we are disciples of Christ. And once we begin to grasp this truth the gates of our hearts are opened so that we can forgive even very serious debts owed to us.
God works in us to enable us to forgive. Once we really know the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers, there is in our hearts a new dynamic. Grace pours into our hearts, and that same grace can pour out from our hearts to our husbands and wives to forgive, to heal, to reconcile, to follow hurts with welcome and conflict with tenderness.
The Gospel is not about moralising. It is about encountering transformative grace and allowing that to change us and, in so doing, change others.
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