Four Powerful Words

Please take 11 minutes to watch this piece of film.   It speaks to such an importnat issue that we all need to get more familiar with.   Click here

A Glimpse of Heaven

The other week I had the opportunity of preaching from the book of Revelation, the last in the current morning series at LBC based on the Community Bible Experience readings.   I chose as my text Chapter 5.  I couldn't wait to get into the study to start work; sleeves rolled up, brow furrowed.

I recalled, as I have done on a few occasions, how Revd Glen Marshall's preaching on Revelation at the Baptist Assembly in 2002 had knocked me off my feet.  He had presented Christ to me in such a vivid and compelling way it was etched in my mind.  In particular I had been gripped by his introduction to the book itself and, amazingly, I managed to find his notes on this introduction online. As I read his opening remarks about how we should approach this particular book I was again transfixed by the very nature of the text God had given to us in John's Apocalypse.

I read this introduction at the beginning of my sermon as I could find no better way of being able to capture people's hearts and imaginations for the message that would follow from Rev. 5   I've pasted in Glen's notes below and also the link to the sermon itself.   I have to say I was blown away by it. That's sounds kind of inappropriate doesn't it but I'm not referring to my own preaching but what the experience of announcing this particular section of God's Word to the congregation (including myself!) did to me.   It was a rare thing I can say.   Heralding the truth that despite all manner of horrendous circumstances "the lamb still wins" was an incredible privilege.  

An Introduction to Revelation by Glen Marshall

Revelation is a virtuoso performance.  John is the Salvador Dali of the prophetic image, the Lewis Carol of biblical literature and the Tim Burton of scriptural story telling.

He breaks all the rules - the Greek is a nightmare, he is radically creative with the conventions of apocalyptic and daringly innovative with the prophetic tradition.

Why? Because what he is dealing with, what he has seen, what he has been charged to share is so huge, so profound, so fundamental, so gob-smacking that he has to find a way to assail our senses and our sensibilities in the hope that we might see it too - and be changed as a result.

It’s worth remembering that Revelation was designed to be read out loud in church (“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it …1:3).   It’s a spoken drama - imagine it - in Ephesus, eyes closed, transported to another world - not an imaginary world but a heavenly world, not a dream world but our world viewed from the perspective of the eternal purposes of the creator redeemer God. It is designed to break open our world to transcendence. 

John wants us to see what he’s seen so that the vision will invade our hearts, infect our dreams and so transform our living. 

That’s why the last thing that you must do to Revelation is turn into a doctrinal textbook or still less a futurist timetable like some eschatological equivalent of the national rail enquiry service. 

John did not use his images to conceal what could have been said more straightforwardly, but to communicate that which could not be expressed in any other way.

This is a Pink Floyd Video not a government information film. This is Moulin Rouge, not a documentary on the Parisian entertainment industry.

We evangelicals need to repent of the violence we have done to scripture – Like some insane cook we have spent our time extracting the individual ingredients from the stew in order to analyse their taste; we’ve been so busy dissecting the body of scripture in order to extract precise and consistent doctrinal formulations that we’ve been left with a corpse, not a living word.

So let’s get on and see what he saw - and don’t just bring your reason with you bring your imagination as well.

Revelation 5: A Glimpse of Heaven

Flowers for Gay Weddings

I'm always interested in what James Emery White has to say about church and culture.   This post addresses an issue that we will find more and more in the UK and it's worth giving some thought to.   It reminds me of DA Carson's book "The Intolerance of Tolerance" in which he says that it's no longer enough to permit and accept things you don't agree with, you have to support them and be in favour of them if you're to be tolerant.  

By now, most have heard of the many and varied court cases related to conscientious objection, usually of a religious nature, to serving gay weddings. They are filling the courts as bakers and florists, bed and breakfast operators and caterers, are being sued for not wanting to engage in activity they deem supporting the wedding itself.

But now we are starting to get the decisions.

A judge ruled that a Washington state florist who refused to provide a flower arrangement for a gay wedding "because of [her] relationship with Jesus" violated the state's anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws.

Background: the couple asked the florist to provide flowers for their wedding in March 2013, three months after Washington state legalized same-sex marriage. The florist had served the couple at least twenty-times before, and knew they were gay. But when the request came to provide flower arrangements for their wedding, she said that she could not provide the arrangements because doing so would have constituted a demonstration of approval for the wedding itself.

"I just put my hands on his and told him because of my relationship with Jesus Christ I couldn't do that, couldn't do his wedding."

The charge against the florist was discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The State Attorney, who brought one of two lawsuits against the florist (the other came from the ACLU), said "If a business provides a product or service to opposite-sex couples for their weddings, then it must provide same-sex couples the same product or service."

But the legal team for the florist said she hadn't denied the couple flowers, just the arrangements. An arrangement, it was argued, was a form of free speech. They were welcome to her flowers. Further, they argued the florist's faith should exempt her from anti-discrimination laws.

In a sixty-page opinion, the judge maintained that "religious motivation does not excuse compliance with the law…In trade and commerce, and more particularly when seeking to prevent discrimination in public accommodations, the courts have confirmed the power of the legislative branch to prohibit conduct it deems discriminatory, even where the motivation for that conduct is grounded in religious beliefs."

More specifically, the judge maintained that while religious beliefs are protected, religious actions are not. When the state of Washington approved gay marriage, a Christian refusing to serve gay weddings became illegal.

The florist's attorney, Kristen Waggoner with Alliance Defending Freedom, said of the pending appeal: "The ruling basically said that if you dare to not celebrate same-sex marriage because it violates your religious convictions, that the government has a right to bring about your personal and professional ruin…Her home, her business…her life savings and retirement, these are all in jeopardy…all because of her deeply held religious views."

Many Christians are conflicted about such stories, not to mention verdicts. No one wants to see true discrimination take place.

But there is a significant difference between serving a wedding and, say, serving a meal. Many in opposition to the florist's stand want to link it to the civil rights movement and the abhorrent Jim Crow laws that were in effect until the mid 1960's.

However, the analogy is specious on several fronts, but most importantly because a wedding has always been a deeply religious event. Among many Christians, it is one of the holy sacraments. It is not about a general refusal of service on the basis of race, gender or even sexual orientation. It is about forced compliance in regard to what has historically been, and continues to be for most, a sacred act being treated in a sacrilegious way, and people being forced into participating in that sacrilege.

She would sell them flowers. She just didn't want to create something that would be used for the wedding itself. She didn't try to stop the wedding, or refuse them flowers for their wedding…she just didn't want to be aparticipant. They could use the flowers for whatever they wanted, but that was their concern. She didn't want to have to create something expressly used to, in her heart and mind, dishonor God.

Think of it this way: suppose she had been asked to make a floral arrangement for a Hindu wedding, a floral arrangement that was destined to be given as a sacrifice to a particular Hindu god. To make such an arrangement would be, for a Christian, unthinkable. It would be making something for a purpose that they simply could not bring their hands to craft. And for some reason, I think the court of public opinion would be with her.

To say that belief cannot be linked with action is to say that religion is fine as long as it isn't real. As long as it doesn't result in an actual lifestyle of conviction. It should be treated as a personal, private preference, but not a transcendent reality. As such, it must compromise itself to anything society deems desirable.

Let's not be naïve about the not-so-subtle agenda that seems to be creeping into the cultural discourse on such matters. For many, it is not enough for homosexuality to be allowed; it is not enough for it be accepted; it is not enough for gay marriage to be legal. The end game for some seems to be the penalization, if not criminalization, of any and all convictional opposition.

To my thinking, this is the heart of the "religious freedom" concern.

And this is the heart of the matter for the florist as well, for after being offered a settlement in this case she responded by saying:

"Your offer reveals that you don't really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It's about freedom, not money. I certainly don't relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important."

So when the argument goes, "Yes, of course I believe in religious freedom. But if you're going to be a photographer, you will have to subvert that to your role in society as a photographer. After all, you don't have to be a photographer!"

...or,

"Of course clergy and churches should not be forced to officiate gay weddings. But if they don't, they should lose their tax exempt status,"

...let's call it what it is. This is the active penalization of religious conviction, and the polar opposite of religious freedom.

Of course the photographer has to be a photographer. It is their vocation, their livelihood, the fruit of their training and education. If you want discrimination, here it is: you are saying you can't be a Christianphotographer, at least not a practicing one.

So there you have it.

A judge has ruled that a "relationship with Jesus" doesn't justify acts of conscience. The only problem is that a relationship with Jesus demands just that.

James Emery White

Fifty Shades of Black and White

The fastest selling book of all time has hit the cinema screens this weekend.   It would seem that the whole world is saying that “50 Shades of Grey” is harmless fun.  It’s also being thought of this way by people professing to be followers of Christ.  

What’s the issue?   

Consider listening to this podcast from Mortification of Spin.  It’s not the last word on the subject but for many I hope it will at least be the first word on a culturally significant issue that will quite literally impact the wiring of your brain and the condition of your soul.     

http://www.mortificationofspin.org/mos/podcast/22448  (and hit the ‘play’ button).    

What to do When We're Prayerless

Here's an article from Jon Bloom about prayer that I found really helpful.  He addresses a common issue with fresh encouragement and great insight.   His illustration about prayer being like a train was particularly useful.   I hope it strengthens you as you seek to follow Christ wherever you are.  

Prayerlessness is not fundamentally a discipline problem. At root it’s a faith problem.

What Prayer Is

Prayer is the native language of faith. John Calvin called prayer the “chief exercise of faith.” That’s why when faith is awake and surging in us, prayer doesn’t feel like a burden or an obligation. It feels natural. It’s how faith most instinctively speaks.

Throughout the Bible, faith and prayer are inextricably linked. One of the clearest examples is Jesus’s statement in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, [ask whatever you wish] and it will be done for you.”   “Abiding” in Jesus is faith—fully believing his words. Asking whatever you wish is prayer. The Bible tells us to “trust in [God] at all times” (Psalm 62:8) and to “[pray] at all times in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18), “believe in God” (John 14:1) and ask of God (Luke 11:9). 

Prayer is the chief exercise of faith.

John 15:7 also shows us that God’s Word and faith and therefore prayer are inextricably linked. Faith is a response to God’s word: “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). As Tim Keller rightly says, “If God’s words are his personal, active presence [see John 1:1-3 and Isaiah 55:10-11], then to put your trust in God’s words is to put your trust in God”.  

So if our trust is in God (in God’s promises — 2 Peter 1:4), and God says if you trust me “ask whatever you wish” (John 15:7), then the natural expression of our faith in God is prayer.

The Primary Cause of Prayerlessness

First, when I say “prayerless,” I don’t mean completely prayerless. I mean relatively prayerless. I mean that we aren’t anywhere close to “pray[ing] without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We aren’t communing with God in prayer, so prayer feels like a burdensome, boring, perhaps futile exercise that we rush through in a perfunctory way or avoid. When we do pray, our prayers seem feeble and powerless, which just leads to less praying. We don’t have it in us to “pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).

So what’s wrong?

If prayer is the native language of faith and we’re struggling with prayerlessness, then the first thing we need to do is look for a faith problem. There’s a faith breakdown somewhere and until we get that fixed, our problem will remain.

How do we fix this? We’ll talk about that in a minute, but first let’s talk about what not to fix first.

The Role of Discipline in Prayer

Often our first attempt at fixing our prayerlessness is to try and be “more disciplined” in prayer. We look at heroes, mentors, and peers who seem to have vibrant, powerful prayer lives and figure the solution might be doing what they do/did. If we get up earlier and use a more effective list or app or acronym we’ll fix our problem. Methods are necessary and beneficial as we’ll see, but “more discipline” is a false hope if faith is the problem.

Think of prayer as a train. Faith is the engine of prayer, God’s promises are the fuel, and discipline is the rails. Prayerlessness is almost always due to a stalled engine. For prayer to get going again, we first need to fire up our faith engine again with fuel of God’s promises.

You see, discipline doesn’t power the train of prayer. Faith powers the train as you trust God’s word. But discipline will guide the train. The rails of planning, structure, and methods are necessary. But the best time to address those is when you’ve stoked your engine, because when faith is firing you want to move forward in prayer and you are more likely to be led by the Spirit to choose the rails that are best for your prayer train.

Help for Fighting Prayerlessness

So when we’re prayerless, the first thing we must address is the cause of our faith deficit. Here are a few suggestions for doing that:

1. Recall God’s past grace: I put this first because in my experience, when my faith is ebbing low and I’m not even clear why, remembering how God has been faithful to me in the past primes my faith engine to trust in God’s future grace for whatever is causing my current unbelief. “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope” (Lamentations 3:21).

2. Find the leak: Where is the leak in your fuel tank? If the fuel of faith is God’s promises, then there is a promise(s) that you are not believing. Look for fears, doubts, indulgent sinful habits, unresolved anger, bitterness, disappointment, etc. Often these don’t take long to find. But sometimes they are tricky because something has tapped into a buried past experience that is still muddled in your mind. If this is the case ask trusted believers to help you figure it out. But when you identify it, name it. Get it clear.

3. Repent of Unbelief: A lack of faith is sin. It’s dishonoring to God whose every word is true (Proverbs 30:5). We must repent of unbelief. But God loves to help our unbelief (Mark 9:24) turn into belief. In fact, sanctification is largely a process of growing towards trusting in the Lord with all our hearts (Proverbs 3:5). Like he did with Thomas, Jesus holds out to us his scarred hands to remind us that our unbelief is paid for and says, “Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27).

4. Fuel Your Faith Engine with Promises: God’s promises are the fuel that fires the engine of faith. Get your eyes off of the focus of your unbelief and get them on the promises that God wants you to believe instead. This is often not as hard as it feels like it’s going to be. It’s amazing how powerful God’s promises are. You can feel completely different in a half hour after recalling God’s past faithfulness and remembering some promises without any change in your circumstances. The difference is believing.

5. Fan Your Faith Engine Fire with Resources: Here are just a few of many resources that can help you tune your faith engine and build helpful rails for your prayer train:

“Enjoying Your Prayer Life”: a short booklet by Michael Reeves that you can read in 30-40 minutes. It’s broken into 14 chapters of a couple pages each, which makes it easy to incorporate into your devotions. I have found this very helpful.

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God: an excellent new book by Tim Keller that addresses in-depth both engine and rail issues. I’m reading it currently and greatly benefitting.

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World: this book by Paul Miller has been a strength to me. He compassionately pastors all of us prayer-strugglers and helps us both tune our engines and build helpful rails.

Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit (John Piper, video or audio, 53, min): a great sermon for your engine and your rails.

Prayer As a Way of Walking in Love (Francis Chan, video or audio, 1 hr.): mainly for your engine. I’ve listened to this numerous times.

George Mueller’s Strategy for Showing God (John Piper, audio, 1 hr., 15 min): mainly for your engine, but some rail help too. I’ve listened to this repeatedly.

The Ministry of Hudson Taylor as Life in Christ (John Piper, video or audio, 1 hr., 12 min): mainly for your engine. I’ve listened to this repeatedly.

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One Embarrassing Fact

I've just finished reading Carl Trueman's book Reformation, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow.  He is a specialist on Martin Luther and this short book talks about the ongoing benefit and relevance of the Reformation that he was a principle player in. 

One of the points he makes is about the fact that we must not be swayed by our culture when it comes to the fact that we have to read and study in order to know God.  I hear it often "You can't expect people to read the Bible or to read Christian books because we live in a visual age....blah blah."  But we simply have to get our minds around, as Trueman says, "One embarrassing fact: God gave us a book full of words as the basic means of giving us access to his revelation".  

Some people like reading books, some people don't but the fact is God has communicated himself to us through a book and has given us teachers who teach using....books.  

And just imagine how much God is glorified through the person who finds reading difficult but who perseveres with daily Bible reading or who keeps going reading one page a day of a good Christian book in order that they can understand more of the nature and character of God.  And do you not think that God won't be cheering that individual on strengthening him and helping him?  

Trueman: "Command, promise, Messiah - the basic terms of the bible's message are ineradicably verbal and cannot be communicated in isolation from words. Bin the words and whatever else you are left with is not Christianity. We do need to think about how such a word-based religion can be communicated in this day and generation; we do need to avoid at all costs becoming a middle-class ghetto for frustrated academics. But we also need to be faithful to the Bible's own form and matter, both of which involve words at the very centre."

So let's get on with it - let's READ!  However much we struggle or don't enjoy it.  Let's stop whinging and instead make much of God by seeking to know Him more as we read His Word and the good books that faithful teachers have provided us with.  Even if it's a page a day or even a page week.   Soli deo gloria!

Continue!

Continue in what you learned…

We talked on Sunday about how we need to continue (2 Tim. 3:10) in what we have learned about Christ.  It’s as we keep growing, increasingly enjoying our Father in heaven, that we display more and more the glory of God.  When we settle for the amount we already know we don’t make God look good.   We make God look ordinary.   If I said to you that I had discovered as much as I needed to know about Louise after 22 years of marriage and that I wasn’t looking to know her any better than I do now what would you think?   You’d think that I considered her to be only moderately impressive and it wouldn’t inspire you to consider her much at all.    But when we make much of anything it attracts the attention of others.   How much more with the Lord Jesus?   

I’d like to encourage you not only to read your bible so you can “thoroughly equipped for every good work”(2 Tim. 3:17) but I would like to strongly recommend you commit to reading a good quality Christian book.   Some people like reading others don’t but the fact is that we’re in a book oriented faith for God has revealed himself in holy writings and given us teachers (Eph. 4:11) who, often through writing, explain these Scriptures.  If you read just one Christian book every six months you would be incredibly well served.   Your understanding of God and his ways, his nature and his character would sky rocket and so would your worship.     

As a starter listen to this short podcast from “Ask Pastor John” where John Piper, in response to a question about his own extensive writing he makes some recommendations.  Further you could look here for some excellent books from the aptly named “Good Book Company”.   

One good book every six months and you’ll be blown away by the impact.