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A friend at college emailed me this link. Forgive me if this is the 100th time you have seen this on a blog. These things tend to do the rounds! This is Chris Moyles, Radio 1 DJ talking about church. I think we need to be careful about using people’s words in ways they didn’t intend (i.e. for posting on Christian blogs) but I post it, not to advertise church going through him, but because I think it is an interesting insight into how someone who wouldn’t call themselves a Christian perceives church. I hope that’s a fair use of this clip. Quick question: does this clip say anything about seeker sensitive services? It strikes me that this service was pretty much like business as usual for this church and what he saw he found powerful.
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Highly recommended
Just finished this book for an essay I’m writing on the pastoral implications of Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is Luther as Spiritual Advisor by Dennis Ngien. In it Dennis Ngien gives as excellent summary from Luther of how to respond when tempted and facing any kind of mental anguish. I thought they were very comforting and worth sharing…
1.‘The person who is being tempted should consider only God’s word offered to him in God’s name, and not be affected by their inner feelings.’
2. The person who is being tempted should recognise that they are not alone in their trials, but are surrounded by the entire body of Christ.
3. The believer should not wish for a swift deliverance from temptations, but cheerfully and willingly submit to God’s fatherly will in the same way that Christ did: ‘If I am to drink this cup, dear Father, may your will, not mine, be done’.
4. The believer should look up to God, in the firm belief that there is ‘no stronger medicine’ than praising the God hidden by the suffering of the believer. This is borne out of David’s sweey words, ‘I will call upon the Lord and praise him, and so shall I be saved from all that assails me’ (Ps 18:3) Praising God dispels the evil Spirit of gloom and makes the heart leap for joy.
5. The believer should count these trials a privilege, of which many have been deprived….for God’s blessings are given to those he deems worthy of such assaults. Here Luther returned to the principle of the theology of the cross, in which God hides his blessings under the appearance of what appears as contrary to those blessings.
6. Finally, the believer should lay hold of the constancy and reliability of God’s triune character. Luther cited Mt 21:22, Mark 11:24. It is divine to give us gifts extravagantly, as a good Father does to his beloved children.
My experience is that these pieces of advice hit the nail on the head, though no trial is pleasant at the time. What do people think? Any other useful tips to share? It may not be appropriate to share the points directly, but could we help people in many pastoral situations, just by keeping these simple points in mind?
Point 1 resonates particularly strongly for me and Luther has a great deal to say on resisting looking inwards on ourselves and instead looking to Christ. Maybe a post for another day!
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Hudson Taylor in Chinese dress as was his custom, unusually for the day
It has been wonderful to flick through a couple of books recently. First up is a biography of James Hudson Taylor who took Christianity to China. Taylor saw several of his family die as he strove to reach people with the good news about Jesus. Yet he never feared death and understood implicitly, as his son reports in his biography, that to be close to death was to stand in the ‘borderlands’- waiting to cross over into the promised land and be with Jesus.
Richard Baxter’s ‘Dying thoughts’ is another book I’ve been enjoying. A minister from Kidderminster in the seventeenth century, he is famous for his house to house calls, which utterly reformed the community where he ministered for Christ. When he arrived he reported people lying in the street drunk and widespread disinterest in Christ. When he left, it was reported the sound of swearing was replaced with families singing hymns and the converted were so many, he had long since ceased in keeping count. Baxter did not neglect the truth of the gospel in his own life and was known to refer to death as his ‘neighbour’.
This has really challenged me. How do I talk about death? Particularly as someone who will lead funerals and give pastoral care. Do I give into using the world’s language and fearing the things unbelievers fear, or am I regularly in the habit- not of talking about it arrogantly- but speaking of the Christian hope boldly? Do I speak naturally about death with Christians as a friend and neighbour. Or do I spend all my time treating death little differently from the way the world does- using euphemisms and the like that have their root in secular insecurity more than anything else? How often do I sit down with a Christian friend and say ‘let’s talk about how awesome it will be when we die to walk and talk with the Saviour. I can’t wait!’
Have I absorbed into my being the truth that because I trust Christ, one day Jesus will say ‘faithful servant come out’ as he beckoned Lazarus in the gospel from his tomb? Death is nothing more than our servant, taking us to the one we love. Welcoming us into his house to be with him and enjoy him forever. Let’s speak often and boldly of these great things.
Jesus said to her: ‘I am the resurection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.’ John 11:25
Anyone read Hudson Taylor’s ‘Spiritual Secrets’? If its as good as the biography I think I will get into it.
Just a brief observation on Ruth that came out of a study day shared with some good guys the other day…
- V1- Naomi’s husband’s name is Elimelech meaning ‘God is king’. He has 2 children who are called Mahlon and Kilion, which mean famine and destruction.
- Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’, but verse 1 tells us there is ironically no bread. There is famine in the land. So the family leave.
- Eventually v6 Naomi hears that the Lord has provided food for his people back in Bethlehem, Judah.
- Her daughter in law Ruth is shown favour though she is a foreigner by the kinsman redeemer 2:10. He offers her bread and wine 2:14. As we know in the story he becomes her kinsman redeemer.
- So in the time of famine the one who proclaims God is King leads away destuction and famine and hearing of the Lord’s loving kindness, Ruth is sustained by the redeemer despite her poverty.
John 6:35 ‘Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’
John 14:22-24: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many”
There is so much in Ruth. Anyone got any ideas about the significance of events taking place during Barley Harvest? Suggestions have been made about Passover associations. How awesome it is that these are the scriptures that testify about Christ…
It’s interesting that many of us ministers see ourselves often as being on the front line. It’s not surprising then that many of our congregation aren’t as excited as they could be about sharing the gospel at work, school, in leisure activities and the rest of their daily lives.
In one sense those in the pastoral ministry have the most awesome privilege. We get to preach God’s word and to minister to the flock and spear-head the churches mission depending on our varying gifts. But there are many senses in which our work is behind the scenes work. In terms of mission, we are joining with the church members in their mission to their colleagues. Providing the pit stop. The place where they can refuel and feed on Christ on a Sunday.
It’s our job not to make the congregation think that they are coming on a Sunday to make our ministry effective, but that we are ministering to them in part at least to make their ministry effective. A ministry of every member, where people are fired up for Jesus and ready on a Monday to tell their friends. We have after all been sent into the world by Jesus (‘As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.’ John 17:18 )
I remember how in sixth form we would arrive into school after our regional youth meeting chomping at the bit to tell people the gospel. One time we even put posters up in the school common room, which as a youth worker I now see as a daring task! Why? Because we knew we had been equipped.
In 2 Timothy chapter 3:16-17 Paul says to Timothy ‘All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’
So we are in the business of equipping! The other day I was reminded of this. We’ve just got back from a camp for youth called Taunton 1 where we praise God for the fruit we saw in lives- some growing, others meeting Christ for the first time. It was an awesome privilege to serve on a wonderful team united in Christ, among wonderful young people. I was reminded and humbled by the response of some of the young people in a seminar I gave, who demonstrated a genuine love for their school and desire to reach their friends. I think we should remember the awesome nature of the work we have to do as preachers and teachers, but it strikes me also that we need to be looking outwards as well and not seeing preaching as an end in itself. The true sense of being servants of the church is to equip the church and part of that is remembering where the front line is.
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So far this week I have been thinking just a little upon what it means that the church is the bride of Christ. I think it began with preaching on Sunday where one of my points was that we are not to be yoked with unbelievers in marriage, because we are already married to Christ who we are united to by the Holy Spirit. And so it got me thinking of a verse that has been significant to me for as long as I can remember due to its association.
There can’t be many people who have a verse from Song of Songs written on their grave stone but my grandfather is one of them.
He doesn’t have the whole verse, just the banner part, but I love it anyway. The verse it references is chapter 2 verse 4:
‘He has taken me to the banquet hall and his banner over me is love.’
What does it mean to be taken to the banquet hall?
It means to be those with a real and certain hope of being with Christ: ‘tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner…’ Matthew 22:4. Everything is waiting!
It means to be those who are the bride of Christ. Not simply guests or onlookers, but those who are actually betrothed to the Lamb: ’Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen bright and clean was given her to wear.’ Revelation 19:7-8.
It means to be those who despite being wretched and unfaithful sinners are ‘given’ clothes of righteousness to wear, being made clean through being washed in Christ’s blood.
It means to be those whom Christ delights in and over whom he has lifted high a banner of love. It was a love that as we recall was displayed when he experienced the horrors of separation from his heavenly Father, betrayal, torture and death upon a cross.
One of the things that strikes me is just how precious the church is to Christ. He is passionate about us! And for those of us who are husbands, it reminds us of what a high calling it is to love our wives as Christ loved the church: ‘Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…’ Ephesians 5:25
But it also reminds us that we have a great day to look forward to when we will finally say with all the faithful- my Grandmother included since she died last year (running Alpha in her late 90’s)- ‘he has taken me to the banquet hall and his banner over me is love’. What a precious thing to be able to say!
Its been interesting to be involved in a series on Genesis recently. One of the big questions for me has become, what is it that we learn exactly about Christ from the Old Testament and in particular the Father’s of faith? What does it mean that Abram ‘believed the LORD and it was credited to him as righteousness?’ Genesis 15:6. On what basis was he righteous? Was it a smoke and mirrors faith, as I’ve come to term it, where he trusted in some sort of general sign or God and through that was indirectly saved by trusting in Christ- even though he didn’t know it. I’m convinced not. I’m convinced in fact that he trusted directly in Christ, who as John Owen and others have so wonderfully commentated has always mediated between God and the church.
For as the Bible puts it: ’Salvation is found in noone else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’ Acts 4:12.
‘For I do not want you to be ignorant brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.’ 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
Take Genesis 15. Who was it that Abram trusted when the Lord made his covenant with him? Did he have some sort of pre-Christian pseudo faith that we have to learn from by basically discarding for the real deal? No, Genesis 15 presents Abram as trusting in the one who is known as the ‘word of the Lord.’
‘After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward.” Genesis 15:1
John in his gospel prologue is very clear that we should understand Christ as being the Word of the Lord, who is, in the context of the passage, the eternal Word who predated John the Baptist and has always been at the Father’s side. This word is also visible, verse 1 of Genesis 15, as he came in a ‘vision’. So this is not just a spoken word. Additionally the Bible assures us that it cannot be God the Father, because ‘no-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side has made him known.’ John 1:18.
So this word is a person, which is confirmed further, when in verse 5 we read that: ‘He (that’s the word of the Lord) took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars…’
In verse 6 and this is the crux really, we are then told that ‘Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.’
So where is Abram’s faith and what is the basis for his righteousness that is always praised in the Bible? Well, he believed the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord, Christ the second person of the Trinity who has always mediated the affairs of the church. Which means that Abrams faith is not ‘trust here and believe some vague thing and indirectly you will be saved by faith in Christ.’ No his faith is in Christ directly.
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sometimes you just can’t say it like a cartoon can!
