Do I trust the promises of God?

How can I be sure that God will do what he promises? When Luke 12 tells me not to worry about food, clothes, what to wear, opposition, and even death, how can I not worry? Well the chapter exhorts us not to worry because of the character of the God we serve.

Because the disciple lives in relationship with the God who always keeps his promises, his or her Father is a faithful God. Just think for a minute about all the promises God makes in the Bible. If God was going to break one of them I think the one to break would be Genesis 2:17; as God puts Adam and Eve in the Garden he warns them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle and promises “for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Have you ever thought about the cost to God of keeping that promise? The keeping of that promise sees the ruin the perfect creation; it brings death into the world, not just physical death but spiritual death as a result of their rejection of God’s rule. Yet when Adam and Eve eat the fruit God keeps his promise and keeps on keeping his promise. He keeps his promise at such cost to himself that it sees his son take flesh, it sees Jesus pray in garden “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” and yet willingly go to the cross where he takes on himself the curse of corruption and death promised in Genesis 2.

So can I trust God to keep his promises to me? The living God does not lie and so God the Son gave himself at the cross, what more proof do I need that I can trust God? If God keeps that promise at that cost to himself then when God says he knows what I need, that he will give us what we need, he will do so.

The disciple’s decision is to live in the light of the God they have been brought to know in Jesus. It is a decision not to worry but to seek God’s kingdom. I need reminding of that as we plant a new church and face the unknowns. I am, we as a church are to seek a kingdom with different values and priorities; not to consumed with possession or worries about wealth or anything else but to be concerned with delighting God. To be in the kingdom is to be under the rule and reign of God, to seek the kingdom is to look to put that rule and reign into action.

Change

How are you with change? Do you look forward to it? Do you dread it? Or do you take the ostrich approach and bury your head in the sand until the change has happened. This next couple of weeks is a time of lasts. Yesterday was my last morning preach at BEC before we start South Doncaster Community Church. This Tuesday is the last home group before we relaunch as an SDCC home group on a different night with some different people. Then next Sunday is our last Sunday at BEC.

It is exciting to be involved in starting a new church as well as scary, talk about taking risks is fine when everything is a long way away but now we are well into the reality. Leaving a church of 180-200 to go with about 30 adults to start a new church, leaving youth work our youngsters all love for something new, which I'm sure will be good, leaving friends and family you see every Sunday, leaving the comfort and support network that has built up over 4 and a bit years.

But God is good and the uncertainty is to drive us to pray, not Father God make it a success, though that would be nice, but Father may we bring you glory and make the good news about Jesus known. There are loads of encouragements and things to praise God for and well as people we have met and come to know better.

The last passage I am preaching on at BEC next Sunday evening is all about seeking God's kingdom first above comfort, security, and wealth. God is good even in the terms of preparation he knows what we need to be thinking about and putting into practice.

Religion or faith in Christ

Its amazing how often religion gets its hooks into us. Here are some questions that I have found a challenge this week as I have thought about just that issue:
1.I obey God because…
a.then God will give me things.
b.it delights God and mirrors his character.
2.When I am criticised by others I…
a.am furious and, or, devastated because I think of myself as a good person.
b.Struggle, but it is not critical to think of myself as a good person. My identity is built on God’s love for me in Christ.
3.My identity and self worth are based on…
a.how hard I work, how moral I am or how others perceive me to be. I am prone to swing between pride and feeling like a failure.
b.Christ who died to save me because of the grace of God. I am so bad that he had to die for me and I am so loved that he was glad to die for me. I live in the light of that grace.

Reading what our children are given to read

I have spent the last year or two undertaking to read some of the books that our young people are given to read in schools to see what was being recommended and influencing the minds of teenagers in schools. It has been interesting.

There are great books like the Alex Ryder series, of which Stormbreaker, was made into a film last year. In it Alex plays a young spy recruited by MI5, these are just good fun books. Another series I've enjoyed are the Eragon books, of which a third is out later this year - again good stories about dragons and elves, good versus evil. There are of course the Harry Potter books, which have provoked a lot of debate but which again are about good verses evil and contain many potential discussion points about Jesus and God.

But then there are books which are altogether more worrying. Not least among them is Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy which will soon be coming to the big screen. I didn't really enjoy the books, but they twist reality so that the church is an evil agent of a perverse God who wants to keep mankind trapped. Christianity is viewed as an expensive mistake which wastes the lives of its victims. The Third book in particular attacks the church and God, as Lyra the heroine takes on the role of the second Eve destined to free man from God's clutches. In The Times (18 Oct 2000), Sarah Johnson described His Dark Materials as ‘the most savage attack on organised religion I have ever seen.’ And therein lies its danger it is written as a novel for children and teenagers espousing aggressive atheism.

It is a challenge for us to engage with such books, maybe even to read them ourselves and be equipped to discuss what they say and why they say it. Are our own children reading them? Or those in our church or youth group? How can we help them to examine the ideas behind the story?

In contrast to what Pullman maintains the evil in the world around us is not the result of God but of our rejection of him, the answer is not to overthrow him, down that road lie the further consequences of Romans 1:18-32. In fact it is telling that in the century when society did leave God's laws and standards we have definitely not bettered ourselves.

God and suffering

The bridge collapse in Minneapolis is a tragedy, how should we respond? What does it have to tell us about God?

Rather than write something myself I'm simply going to link to John Pipers blog. Piper's church is within sight of the bridge and many of the staff of his church cross it every day to and from work. This is his response hours after it happened

The nearer it gets the bigger the risk feels

I'm sure you know the feeling, you have been planning something for ages and you feel fine about it. But then the nearer it gets the more nervous you begin to feel. You find yourself going over and over the plans and ideas and how it supposed to go. Then suddenly you begin doing things for the last time beforehand and it hits how close it is.

Well it is now less than a month until South Doncaster Community Church meets for the first time, September 2nd, it is four weeks on Sunday. Most things are in place which is great but I guess there are some big unknowns, that is what is meant to drive us to prayer.

This week has seen us holding a Holiday Club in the school in which we will meet. It has reinforced how good God has been to us in providing the school and the caretaker, who have been brilliant whenever we have met them or used the premises. The Holiday Club itself has been great with about 70 children everyday, and about 120 children and parents at last nights family fun night. Some friends of ours have been taking their children and one of the mums said to me last night that she has heard more about three days of Holiday Club than about a whole year of school and that he loves it. He has even been asking lots of questions about God.

It has been a great link event, raising the profile, making contacts, sharing the gospel, building relationships. Praise God for his goodness to us.