Grace in the Community

Does society need Marriage?

2009-06-25T11:49:00.002+01:00

A top British Judge has caused something of a stir in the media by claiming that the breakdown of marriage is one of the key factors in the problems facing modern Britain. You can read what he said by clicking on this link.

Some of the comments that have been left on the article also reveal how our society feels about such values.

The prodigal God

2009-06-23T15:54:00.003+01:00

I have just started reading Tim Keller's 'The Prodigal God.' The first couple of chapters have proved though provoking and the rest promises to be equally so.

Keller begins by establishing what Prodigal means, it is not wayward or lost as we tend to think of it, but it means "reckless spendthrift", to spend until you have nothing left. He makes the point that the younger son is prodigal but so is the Father in the way he loves and welcomes back the younger son.

In Chapter 1 Keller points out that Jesus ministry seemed to attract the Prodigals, those like the woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery, the tax collector and so. Whilst the religious elder brother types are offended and reject his teaching.

Keller then raises an issue I found particularly thought provoking. Contemporary outsiders don't seem to be attracted to church, rather we attract the moralistic people. If our preaching and people don't have the same effect on people that Jesus did, then we must not declaring the same message Jesus did. He goes on to say: "If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think."

Christianity, sex and free Speech?

2009-06-22T08:20:00.003+01:00

Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and founder of the CLC says few Christian leaders or individuals realize that buried within the Corners and Justice Bill, to be debated tomorow (23rd June) is a clause which could prevent Christians openly stating what the Bible says, and Christians have believed for 2,000 years, about issues such as homosexual conduct or even marriage.

She said: “No-one would imagine that a Bill to do with Coroners could contain anything about free speech and with all the media attention on MP expenses, this vital issue is going unreported by the media. If it got through as it stands, it would have devastating consequences for Christian witness and integrity in the UK. Church leaders and individuals Christians answering questions about their faith could well find themselves the subject of a police investigation and arrest just for speaking and living according to the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and marriage.”

Why not sign their online petition by following this link: http://www.ccfon.org/view.php?id=760

You've got lies

2009-06-18T09:46:00.003+01:00

I have been directed to this today as an article designed for ladies about the perils and problems inherent in watching chick flicks, its by Beth Spraul from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the States and it is well worth reading and thinking through. http://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/wp-content/uploads/youve_got_lies.pdf

Church and the future

2009-06-17T11:33:00.008+01:00

Last night we got to thinking about the future of the church. At what point does church begin to become uncomfortable? At what point does size impact upon your vision and values? Undeniably developing gospel relationships is only possible in groups of certain sizes, so what is too big and when do you start planning for the next thing?

I was reminded of the S-curve of Church growth, a diagram is below. Churches grow, but as they approach capacity growth levels off, before they eventually stagnate and then begin to decline. Arresting a declining church is much harder than redirecting a growing church. The red dotted line on the graph below indicates a point at about 80% at which growth starts to slow. The church is comfortable and begins to lose its evangelistic edge.

The challenge at about 80% capacity is to launch, change or challenge the church so that it can begin another growth spurt, so that it retains its evangelistic edge and the growth curve looks more like this:

That change, challenge or launch can look very different. It can mean moving to a bigger venue thus increasing capacity and giving space to invite non-believing friends, it could mean increasing the number of services in the same venue, or it may mean starting a new church somewhere else.

The challenge of Acts is to depend on God and be bold not comfortable with the great news of Jesus Christ.

Questions for Father's Day

2009-06-17T11:27:00.002+01:00

I've used these here before but with Father's Day on Sunday they are good things to be thinking about. In our churches we need to ask men great questions, not just give them easy answers, we need to address the questions that men are asking in our preaching, here are some suggested questions:

What does becoming a Christian mean for my masculinity?
What is Biblical manliness?
What does biblical holiness look like for men today?
What is success?
How do I deal with guilt feelings?
What is male sexuality? Is purity possible for the modern man?
How can we nurture family life?
What is Christian leadership? How is it developed?
What are the basic disciplines of the Christian man?
What ministry skills need to be developed? How? Will the church do it?
What is biblical business conduct?
What is integrity? How is it developed?
What does it mean to be married for God?

Men follow men. Its fascinating working through Luke 9 and 10 as Jesus teaches his disciples how many of these issues come up and are addressed again and again.

The challenge of discipleship

2009-06-15T08:27:00.002+01:00

"Materialism is the pursuit of power, independence, comfort and security, and it is the biggest threat to our discipleship, because discipleship is the very opposite of that it is the pursuit of God seen in following Jesus and brings with it rejection, suffering and even death."

Its easy to listen to comments like that above and agree with them intellectually but how do we know if materialism is really our problem? Its helpful to carry out a little diagnostic on ourselves by thinking and praying through the following:

1. What do I value?
2. What am I scared of?
3. What are my dreams for my children?
4. Where do I want to be in 5 years, 10 year?
5. What if I lost it could I not live without?

What is failure?

2009-06-09T12:27:00.003+01:00

I have just been reading an article in this months Evangelicals Now reviewing a book on church planting. It contained within it the scary statistic that 3 in 5 church plants fail.

But there was no definition of what it meant to fail as a church plant. For example would the Ephesian Church be a failed church plant because it ceased to exist? Is it failure to last 5 years? Is a church plant only successful if it becomes self sustaining and financially independent?

It made me think about why we plant churches - we plant churches to see the lost saved, discipled and reach maturity and thus complete the race. So when does a church fail? I think there are a number of ways that a church plant can fail. We fail when we do not preach the gospel or teach the Bible, we fail when we do not seek the lost, we fail when we do not disciple those who come into our church families.

This means that in terms of 'success' or 'failure', for want of better terms, a church plant that lasts only 12 months but sees the lost saved and then at its closure channelled into other churches where they go on and grow can be more 'successful' than an established church which lasts for years but never reaches out with the gospel or sees believers mature in the faith.

Church planting is about a gospel response to a gospel need. In Britain that gospel need is great but so is resistance to the message, so are misunderstandings about the Bible, God, Christianity and the gospel. This means that gospel work, establishing and planting churches is hard work!!! It takes a long time to build relationships, it takes a long time to demolish barriers, it takes a long time to correct faulty thinking and misunderstanding, it takes a long term commitment to establish that you as a body of God's people - the church - love the people and the area.

Church Planting is a long term commitment to hard work but it is worth it to see someone won for the gospel.

The question we need to answer?

2009-06-08T10:03:00.004+01:00

How do I know that I am not coasting in the Christian life? Helpfully someone pointed out yesterday that the way to know that you are not coasting is by answering this question about the word of God: When did it last change me?

When was the last time I changed my thinking as a result of what I read? When was the last time it changed the way I acted? When was the last time having heard the word preached that I acted on it?

It is always encouraging to see people engaging with those sorts of questions. But we also must be asking that question and answering it for ourselves.

Is the Bible wrong?

2009-06-05T11:14:00.002+01:00

Where if anywhere do you think the bible is Wrong?

The Bible is not wrong anywhere, it is infallible (2 Tim 3:16).

There are, however, places where we interpret it wrongly and that’s why it matters that we wrestle with it not just read it assuming we know what it says. Too often we approach a passage assuming we know what it says, or pour it into our predetermined framework of ideas, traditions and theology. What we need to do is allow the Bible to determine the framework, to challenge our thinking, our preconceptions and our living.

Equipping by the Spirit

2009-06-05T11:10:00.002+01:00

The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Saul with great power in 1 Samuel 10v5-7. Is there an equivalent anointing for the modern Christian?

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit comes on characters like Saul to equip them for kingship, though it also leaves them. David in Psalm 51:11 prays after committing murder and adultery that God would not take his Spirit from him. It is a specific anointing given to certain individuals.

There is a difference post Pentecost, however, now the Spirit dwells in God’s people (Acts 2:4), it takes up residence there and is with all God's people. However there are also times when particular anointing is given for a specific task. In Acts we see it in: Acts 4:1-13, (8) “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said…” (31) “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” They are filled with the Holy Spirit, but also specifically equipped on certain occasions.

Luke uses the phrase filled with the Spirit about particular moments when people are empowered for particular tasks. As Jesus promised Luke 12:11-12.

Is there an equivalent anointing today? I think there is equivalent anointing today – when the Holy Spirit enables us to answer questions, to speak boldly. It is given for a particular time and situation.

The Believer and delighting in the Law

2009-06-05T11:05:00.003+01:00

Romans shows us that by the Law we are shown our sins. The law condemns me. How do we then delight (Psalm1) in the law?

The key question is what does it mean for the Psalmist to delight in God’s law before the coming of Christ? To delight expresses all that makes the godly man happy, it is obedience to God's law that brings happiness. For the Psalmist this meant living in teh light of the law looking forward to the promise it contained.

That will be different from what it means to delight in the law for us – we delight in the law fulfilled in Christ. We also delight in it in the sense of living by it written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as promised by Jeremiah. It is as we obey the law not as the cause of our salvation but as a way of living in the light of our salvation that we delight in it.

Why don't I feel the Spirit?

2009-06-05T11:00:00.002+01:00

We have seen the truth of the work of the Spirit and seen his great power. Why don’t we FEEL it when we would expect great power to change us?

Feelings are not great indicators of our reality the book of Malachi warns about that. By contrast the Bible calls us to understand our relational reality and live in the light of it. My hunch is that if you ask my two boys if they feel like I am their dad that they would look at you like you had gone out, they wouldn’t have a clue what you were on about. But if you were to watch them you would see that they relate to me as their dad. They ask me things, they try to please me, they are disciplined by me, they come to me when they are upset, and so on. So it is with us and the Holy Spirit, he is at work in us in everything we do.

What is it that you expect to feel? Is it just a longing for an experience? The Spirit moves every time we pray because he enables us to speak to God. The Spirit moves by making God’s word live for us – when we get something from the Bible and it begins to change us it is not due to our intelligence but the Holy Spirits working. We also underestimate the way the Holy Spirit is changing us, often it is others who see the Holy Spirit at work in us, or we can discern it over a period of time.

Perhaps part of the problem behind the question and a very real danger for us is that we resist the Spirit – Acts 6:8-7:60.

Predestination and Prayer

2009-06-05T10:55:00.002+01:00

If everything is predetermined by God and our paths chosen what is the point in praying for anything?

Predestination is something according to Paul that we should praise God for! (Eph 1), not something to argue about. It is something that should bring security. God has chosen us since before the foundation of the world. Though the Bible is also clear that this does not remove our accountability for our decision about whether to trust Jesus as Saviour or not.

The source of prayer is the sovereign will of God, the motive for prayer is God acting, and the
enabler of prayer is the Holy Spirit. We learn to pray as we read God's word and discern his will, hence the importance of the Lord's prayer as it gives us a glimpse of God's concerns.

Our prayer should express our confidence in the God who works all thing according to his will, who can and will achieve his purposes. Prayer is not ineffective, God loves to hear his people pray and the Bible shows us many incidence of God responding to his people's prayers.

Why bother to pray? Because God tells us to pray. Jesus prays, even in Gethsemane though he has come for the very purpose of dying on the cross. We therefore ought to pray in part as recognition that we are dependent on God, but also as children who want to speak to their loving Father. Prayer is about relationship, and as God's children our prayers are to be centred on God’s desires his will, the family concerns.

Reaching the unreached

2009-06-03T14:18:00.002+01:00

20th May saw the conference Reaching the Unreached take place in London at St Helen's Bishopsgate. I couldn't go but the audio is available over on Tim Chester's blog (http://timchester.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/audio-from-reaching-the-untreached-conference) including the question Time which I have found very interesting.

The sin in all of us - greed?

2009-06-02T16:38:00.004+01:00

The British media is in a continued and sustained feeding frenzy over the MP's expenses scandal. It is undoubtedly a scandal. And the irony has not been lost on many people that these MP's now repaying thousands and standing down at the next election are the very same ones who decried the large pension Sir Fred was and continues to draw at a time of banking crisis. That those who cried immoral and outrageous have now been shown to be outrageous and immoral.

But I can't help if there is another irony, their greed is there for all to see, but is ours just better hidden? If subjected to that level of scrutiny how would we fair? These MP's claim it is within the rules, it is permissible, the rules were wrong. But it is another example of sin and its effects. It highlights the nature of greed, and greed is something we all need to beware of.

In Ephesians 5 Paul writes to the believers in Ephesus: "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people."

How should I vote?

2009-06-01T10:10:00.003+01:00

That was a question I was asked a couple of times yesterday. This Thursday sees the local elections, European elections and in Doncaster Mayoral elections. How should the Christian vote?

I don't feel it is right for pastors to direct their people in how to vote, it is a matter for personal prayer and thought. But it is right to exhort people to vote. Especially as in Britain faith in politicians is at an all time low, and my hunch is that not many will vote this Thursday because why bother as they are all as corrupt as each other. It matters that Christians exercise their right to vote to influence society, we need leaders who make godly choices as MEPs, MPs and Mayor.

Here are a couple of pointers however; are some of the parties/candidates standing on a platform of oppressing the poor and foreigner? The Bible would call us to stand up against that.

What is that candidates voting record like on issues like abortion, the equality bill, embryo research etc...? You can see at www.theyworkforyou.com input your postcode it will tell you who your MP is and you can see how they voted. You can also then link to write to them.

Whatever your decision please vote in the elections.

A Man of God

2009-05-28T11:11:00.002+01:00

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love." 1 Corinthians 16v13-14. Spent some time this morning meditating on this verse. Asking myself questions of each phrase.

What does it mean to be watchful? Where am I not watchful?
Where and when am I in danger of not standing firm?
What does it mean Biblically to act like a man?
What does it mean to be strong? How is it counter cultural?
Where do I fail to act in love?

Worldliness

2009-05-26T16:12:00.002+01:00

I've started reading the second chapter of this book today, the first chapter was brilliant and I'm thinking through what changes I need to make in what I watch and what DVD's sit on my shelf.

But the second chapter deals with music. It begins with the wonder of music and reminding us of the great joy and gift of God that music is. But Bob Kauflin also reminds us that "listening to music without discernment and godly intent reveals a heart willing to flirt with the world."

Am I flirting with the world with the songs I have on my itunes? In the way I listen to the radio?

The Holy Spirit and our Future

2009-05-26T12:01:00.001+01:00

Have you ever heard the phrase “too heavenly minded to be any earthly use”? It expresses the idea that someone can be too wrapped up in thoughts of heaven and Christ’s coming again, that they can be so future focused that they are not plugged into reality now, that actually they have their head in the clouds. It was a popular phrase but the question is was it a helpful phrase, is it a useful phrase, and more importantly is it a Biblical phrase?

Paul in Ephesians gets the church to focus their thinking on both the present blessings that they enjoy but also the certainty of their hope in the future. We live in a world where our future is not certain, 3 years ago people were not predicting a financial crisis on the scale we are experiencing, 3 years ago no-one predicted swine flu, or the naming and shaming of MP’s over their expenses. 10 years ago no one was predicting the rise in global terrorism, 9/11, or 7/7. In the same way we don’t know what will happen in 5 years time, will the church be experiencing persecution, will we still be a democracy?

The Ephesians lived in a world that was similar to our own where the future did not look certain and Paul writes to encourage them to get their focus right. He tells them that God will one day reconcile all of creation to himself in Christ, and that in Christ all people are reconciled vertically – to God – and horizontally – to one another. And he calls them to live their lives in the light of those truths, for those two realities to influence and affect their thinking and living.

We are going to be focusing on 1:13-14, God sends his Spirit to indwell us so that we keep our present status in view and to enable us to live in the light of our heavenly reality now and our certain future when Christ comes again.

1. The Holy Spirit marks God’s people
Ephesians begins with the Apostle bursting out in praise of God for what he has done, for the blessings that he lavishes on his people. Paul praises God that the believer is; chosen(4), adopted(5), given grace(6), redeemed(7), has had the mystery of God’s plan of salvation history revealed to them(9), and has a great and certain future to look forward to when Christ comes again(10).

And in(11-14) he continues his praise of God; firstly for having chosen for salvation Jews who have put their faith in Christ, and secondly for having included the Gentiles in his plan of salvation – destroying the old divisions and creating his glorious church diverse but united in the gospel.

As Paul writes I think he is calling the Ephesians to join with him in praise of the God who saves us despite ourselves, who plans and prepares a salvation to which we do not contribute. In (2:1)Paul remind these believers that whether they were Jews or Gentiles they were dead before God – not just physically but spiritually.

In Genesis 2:17 God promises Adam and Eve that if they take of the fruit they will surely die, have you ever noticed that in Genesis 3 after the fall as they are judged and God keeps his promise that they will die they don’t die physically not straight away anyway. But they do spiritually because they are exiled from God, they can no longer be with God, they can no longer live under his reign and rule and every other catastrophe flows from that exile, that spiritual death. And a dead person cannot bring themselves back to life.

Imagine for a minute that I dropped down now and my heart stopped beating. I can’t bring myself back to life, what I need is someone else to perform CPR, or for the ambulance to be called and the paramedics to get the defibrillator and shock my heart back into action.

So it is spiritually, both Jew and Gentiles in Ephesus and we with them are spiritually dead before God, and a corpse cannot bring itself back to life. We are dead until God by his Holy Spirit works to convict and convert, until he enables us to have faith in Jesus Christ bringing us new life.

But that is not all the Holy Spirit does, he then goes on to indwell, to live in the believer so that having been born again they can live for God in Christ. (13)“When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit in the believer functions as a seal, he is a mark.

It’s the idea of a mark used to brand something, maybe a slave or an animal. It was a sign of belonging, when you bought an animal from the market you would brand it so that everyone knew it was yours, that it belonged to you, it was identified. But it was also a sign that anything with that seal on was under its owners protection.

Turn back to Ezekiel 9:4-6 (READ). In Ezekiel’s vision the mark of a seal is put on the heads of those who are truly God’s people, the remnant who are faithful to God, who share God’s concerns. And that mark showed who they were, it identified them but it also brought protection and security when judgement came (6)”but do not touch anyone who has the mark.” They were safe because they were God’s people.

In Revelation 7 as John is given his glorious vision of salvation history we see God’s people sealed, and that seal shows they are God’s and they are under his protection.

This mark, this seal(13), this indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens “when you believed”. It is not a later feature, it is not connected with baptism or any other event, when you believe in Jesus Christ as your saviour at the moment of your new birth, as you accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord you are sealed in him.

Do you see the wonder of our salvation? Nothing of us and all of God. And God in his love and great mercy gives us his Holy Spirit to assure us of our being his, of our being sealed but also protected.

Maybe you struggle this morning with assurance, there are times when you wonder; am I really a Christian or not? You flit between thinking you are and thinking you are not. So often we think of our relationship and status before God as being performance related. So if we have had my quiet time, have done this and not done that… therefore God must love me. But when we fail to have our quite time, when we let God down we are wracked by guilt and find ourselves questioning whether we ever were saved, how can God love me?

But in Christ you are sealed and the Holy Spirit testifies to it. It is not performance related it is God secured. It is not about what I do but about what God has done.

2. The Holy Spirit is a pledge of a certain future.
But that isn’t all, the Holy Spirit is not just a seal on the believer he also helps us to live looking to the future, because he is the “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…”. The term comes from the commercial markets of the day. It was used of the first payment made by a individual towards the purchase of something and that first payment formed a agreement that the rest would be paid in full.

The Holy Spirit indwelling the believer is the first payment, it is the promise of the full inheritance to come. His coming is God’s promise that we will inherit what he has prepared for us fully when Christ comes again.

I wonder how you think of that inheritance? The cartoons portray it as being dull, it’s sitting on a cloud strumming a harp for eternity. But the Bible calls for us to long for Christ to come again, for the new creation, for the new heavens and new earth. A world, a universe without flaws, without sin, without sadness, without grief, pain and mourning. A world that is marked by the curse reversed – right relationship with one another, with the world and all flowing from a right relationship with God.

And the Holy Spirit given by God, living in us is the guarantee that that future which the Bible sets before us is waiting for us, that it is certain, that God is not finished with us yet but that he will complete what he has started.

The Holy Spirit helps us to live as those who belong to the kingdom on earth as we long for the kingdom to come and for God’s reign and rule be fully established. That means practically that our lives now will be lived with a mixture of joy and groaning.

We are God’s children that is our reality and one day we will fully experience that reality but for now we may struggle with talking to our Father, listening to him and living for him. We are new creations and one day we will be finally and fully recreated but for now we battle with the sinful nature, with doing the things we don’t want to do and failing to do the things we ought to do.

We are awaiting for a world recreated but for now we live in a world that is disjointed and sick with sin and that means we will groan as we see suffering and death and experience pain and mourning. But the Holy Spirit within us will make us long for the new creation for a world where everything bad is undone God’s kingdom and rule are established forever and the Holy Spirit will make us call for Christ to come.

Our future inheritance is certain and the Holy Spirit is the guarantee.

The Holy Spirit helps us to live as God’s people, marking us as his saved and redeemed people who live under his protection, shelter under his salvation, transforming us and making us long and look for our certain future.

Paul does not call on the Ephesians not to be too heavenly minded but to be more heavenly minded. Our problem is not being too heavenly minded but not being heavenly minded enough, being too attached to this world. God gives us his Holy Spirit to makes us certain that as his children redeemed in Christ the inheritance is ours and that we must now live looking for it and longing for it.

In 1915 Earnest Shackleton led an expedition to the South Pole which went horribly wrong, there ship the Endurance was trapped in pack ice and sunk and the crew were left stranded on Elephant Island. Shackleton and some others left to get help. It took over three months, but every morning the skipper on the island would get the men up and call them to be ready for Shackleton to return that day. He reminded them daily of their hope so that they were ready and lived accordingly.

The Holy Spirit is given as a seal and a deposit so that we live looking, live longing, and live ready for Christ to come and our glorious future to be realised and God to be glorified through it.

For we are God's people, his God's possession, who live by God's will and for God's glory.

Renewing the vision

2009-05-19T16:08:00.003+01:00

We are always in danger of becoming stuck in maintenance mode. There is work to do, the family to look after, the house to keep clean and running smoothly and so on. Its the same for churches we spend so much energy in doing the maintenance; preparing to lead the service, or teach the Sunday school class, or preparing the refreshments that we can lose sight of our vision. Church leaders are under the same pressures as church members.

Its interesting how often as you read the Bible God reminds his people of his plans for them. As you move into the New Testament how often Paul reminds churches and young pastors of the need to renew their focus rather than getting stuck in maintenance mode.

The challenge is to faithfully remind ourselves of our mission and vision whilst carrying out the maintenance, in fact it is for the maintenance to be with the purpose of sustaining the vision.

It is helpful to carry out an audit of what you do and whether it is purposeful; is it achieving the vision, is it contributing towards where you want to be? Is it recognised as such by those you lead?

We need to do this for each individual ministry. For example for home groups ask questions like this; what is the goal of this home group? Is it edification or evangelism or both? Is it a growth group or a comfort group? What part does it play in the overall role of the church? Are there things that could be done to improve its effectiveness? How would its members describe its purpose?

Bringing comfort

2009-05-17T13:24:00.004+01:00

What do you say to someone who is facing difficulties? What do you say to someone who faces surgery? There are a couple of dangers, one is to avoid them altogether because we just don’t know what to say, the other is to swamp them and talk about nothing else but whatever is it that they are facing.

So actually how do we bring comfort.

The first is proactive; Spend time with people – build relationships now so you have relationships that can bring comfort then.
Spend time with people in crisis.
Don’t say ‘It’ll be alright’ or I’m sure it will be fine’. They don’t know that and neither do you and it is a vague wish without foundation.
By contrast our comfort is ultimately found in Christ, his forgiveness and resurrection, the future is secured.
Christ will make up for every loss that we have endured here.
God works all things for our good. It may be not be good, but he will work it for our good. Though often people can’t see it then, sometimes it takes 10 years or more. Don’t expect your friend to feel it emotionally as they go through hardships, they will be raw and in pain.
Don’t rebuke them and then preach these truths to them. Instead model hope for them – keep reading the Bible for yourself so that you know those comforts we have spoken of above, and ensure that as you comfort your brother or sister weeping with them, holding their hand, feeling with them that you show them hope.
Sometimes when someone is suffering they will question God, they may express anger with God, they may say they feel cut off from God and the temptation we face is to want to correct them theologically. Let those words go, in Job there are words for the wind, that need to be left.
Pray for God to heal them but also pray for their spiritual health, that they would know God with them comforting them and helping them through you and others.
Don’t idolise the world, but live for eternity. (Phil 3) Learn this for yourself and model it for them.

What if...

2009-05-15T14:02:00.003+01:00

What would we do if persecution came to Britain? What if reading a Bible were illegal? What if church was outlawed?

Would we still make the effort to go? Would we dare to go? Would we treasure it all the more? Could listening to pirate broadcast MP3 bible talks take the place of the church?

I guess we all know the answer to those questions; MP3 talks could never take the place of the living, breathing, serving, loving, spurring, Christ honouring, Spirit gifted church. We would treasure church all the more of it being denied to us. So why do we treasure it so little now? Why are so many Christians apathetic in their involvement and their attendance? Why do many now see listening to a podcast as equivalent to going to church?

We need to reexamine what Church was in the New Testament. Church is not preaching! Preaching and teaching the word of God is not church! Therefore listening to an MP3 is not church. Church is my brothers and sisters exercising their Christ honouring, God glorifying gospel love towards one another by ministering to each other, using their gifts to serve each other and by doing so bringing glory to Christ! And that is only part of the wonder that is church.

So why not treasure church as if we were never going to be allowed to experience it again.

John Piper on Preaching

2009-05-14T14:32:00.001+01:00

How do I see church

2009-05-14T14:06:00.001+01:00

"For most of us, church is merely an event we attend or an organisation we belong to. We do not see it as a calling that shapes our entire life."

Paul David Tripp, Instrument's in the Redeemer's hands.