The battle to trust that God is good?

That's not just a question an unbeliever asks is it?  It is a question that as believers we revisit and wrestle with again and again and again.  Do I believe and trust in the goodness of God when suffering hits?  When I lose my job?  When church is a struggle?  When I face ridicule for my faith?  When I can't have children? When I fail my exams?  When I am still single?  When my spouse dies?  Is God good?

Is God good when I am declared to be in remission, is he still good when I am told the cancer has come back?  Is God only good when his will aligns with my will?  When my kingdom meshes with his kingdom?  Does God's goodness look different now than it did for believers in the 16th Century or 19th Century or in Africa or South America today?  Or is God at root just good in an unchanging eternally reliable way?

If you are really honest how would you answer those questions.  Just take a minute or two to read back over them and ask yourself that question in each and every one of those situations.  Take a few minutes to pray through your answers with God, be honest, he knows anyway.

I've come to realise over the last couple of months, yet again, that my grasp of the goodness of good is situationally and circumstantially slippery at best.  God's goodness is not slippery, but my grasp on it is.  It's not that God's goodness is like a bar of wet soap, but that my hands (and heart) are covered in fairy liquid as I try to hold on to God's goodness in the face of changing circumstances.

I've been reading through Jeremiah Burroughs 'The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment', let me be honest it's be a slog, but a profitable one.  Because it has challenged me again to face up to my lack of contentment because of my lack of a firm enough grasp on the goodness of God.  At one point in the book Burroughs encourages his congregation to sit and write two lists, one beside the other with your struggles and blessings in columns alongside each other.  He strips life down to our utter dependence on God for everything and thus encourages us to see everything as blessing, but also confronts us with our predisposition for feeling enviously entitled to what we see others having.

I've been feeling this especially in the area of ministry over the last few weeks.  As we've faced up to 5 of our congregation moving away with work it has felt hard.  Losing more than a tenth of your church family is painful.  Especially hard on the heals of other loses over the last year.  It is hard to be content, until Burroughs has reminded me what God has given me that is eternal and everlasting and of so much more value.

God is good even as people move away.  God is good as our leadership gets smaller.  God is good as personally we say goodbye to good friends and feel the pain of that.  God is good as God's answer to our prayers to send us more workers seems to be to take some of the current ones away.  God is good because it is his church not mine, his mission not mine, his gospel that we proclaim for his glory not mine.  And God cares more about all those things than I do at my very best.  God is good because ehe has proven he is historically and eternally.  Sometimes we need to wrestle with that until we come to the point where we can say it and believe it is both true and real again.

A modern proverb?

"Image is nothing.  Thirst is everything.  Obey your thirst."  So went the advertising slogan for Sprite that I still remember decades later.  How far from the truth that is in our modern culture.  In our society image is everything and nothing else really matters.  Oh we may trumpet soundbites like 'Be true to yourself', 'Be the you you really want to be' and so on.  But they come with subtle small print, and the small print says only be true to yourself if that fits with societies values and norms, with the you society will accept.  Don't be true to yourself if you don't, hide, suppress, repress.

Image has become everything.  I've been watching the Olympics and amidst all the great sport and phenomenal athleticism and dedication I've been heartbroken to see athlete's vilified and victimised for not portraying the right image.  Not having your hand on your heart when you sing your anthem, letting disappointment show, not having the right hair, or look and so on.  If people don't fit in with our media massaged and manipulated view of norms or right then we jump all over them.  We seem to forget that these are real people dealing with real emotions and four years (or a life time) of dedication and expectation, hopes and dreams.  Let alone the more fundamental truth that these are people made in God's image.

It has struck me again whilst I have watched with a sense of sadness athletes being attacked on social media for not fitting the image, not doing the done thing, not meeting others expectations of how they should react, that it shouldn't surprise me at all.  It is what disciples of Jesus should expect everyday.  I think of Daniel and his friends taking a stand for their faith in Babylon and the pressure they faced for not fitting in, not conforming.  And then tragically I think of Esther who hides her faith and does conform, for whom image is everything, at least initially.  But then I am reminded of the grace of God that transformed a wretch like Esther to save his people.

And that challenge hits me again.  The call to stand out, the call to live having experienced and drunk deeply of the water of life that Christ brings and to hold that out to others.  Knowing that it is what they really long for no matter what society says.  That image doesn't matter as much as the reality for which God has made them.  And that as people made in the image of God I am called to loved each and everyone of them and call them back to that image redeemed in Christ.

1 Samuel 20

Here are the notes and questions from Sunday's LightHouse:

Over the last few chapters we have seen that David is God’s anointed king and God is at work to ensure that he comes to the throne despite the opposition of Saul. But David isn’t immune from hardship and struggles but he is protected in the midst of them. That protection by God has come in various forms, dodging Saul’s unusually off target spears, military victories against the odds, Jonathan’s passionate defence plea, Michal’s lies and cover up using an idol, and God’s direct intervention as Saul’s posse all prophesy before Saul himself prophesies. But David is not safe yet, as ch20 opens David is still on the run from Saul.

So where he runs to is a bit of a surprise in one sense. As he flees Naioth you’d expect him to get away, get far away from Saul and his family. But David runs to Jonathan. But in another sense if we know the story it is not a surprise because we know the friendship and covenant between the two. This passage shows us the marks of covenant friendship and the hearts of two men on fire for God.

The faithfulness of a covenant friend seeks out sin (1-10).
Back in 18:1-5 Jonathan recognises David as God’s anointed king and enters into a covenant with him. They are kindred spirits, both love and are devoted to God and his kingdom, both have fought for it, both have risked for it, both live by faith and that unites them, that shared passion for God’s name, glory and kingdom. It is no surprise that David goes back to Jonathan.

What is a surprise is what David ask Jonathan, he wants to know what he has done to deserve Saul’s animosity, has he sinned that he is under pain of death(1-2, 8). Jonathan says that he has done nothing and that his father doesn’t want to kill David, the last Jonathan knew was 19v6-7 where Saul and David were reconciled after Jonathan’s mediation. So he undertakes to find out what has happened.

What binds David and Jonathan is a covenant, a solemn binding agreement built on love and lives lived for God and his kingdom. David can come confidently to Jonathan because his friend will treat him with “kindness”, that word is ‘hesed’ it means a loyal love, a devotion to the good of a friend. Their friendship is not flaky, its not changeable, it is committed, it is reliable, and it is focused on the heart. It is not about appearance but about reality. So David exhorts Jonathan to find out if he has sinned(8), and Jonathan agrees to do so(9).

What strikes you here is firstly David’s concern that he has sinned. How do we react when someone treats us wrongly? Do we assume it may be because of sin on our part or because of sin on theirs? When a relationship breaks down do we examine ourselves or quickly shift the blame onto others? Do we act indignant or are we concerned to find out if we have sinned without knowing it?

David could have reacted proudly and simply left, but he is concerned to see the relationship repaired is he has caused the breach. He will not let pride stop him and so he goes to Jonathan and asks him to examine the situation and determine the wrong. He lays his heart open to Jonathan’s scrutiny.

The faithfulness of a covenant friend exposes sin. It means we will be willing to invite another to examine our lives, our hearts and our motives. At the very least this should apply to our marriages, but it also ought to apply to our friendships in Christ, not every relationship will be able to take this weight, but we need some that go this deep. Where we can entrust ourselves and ask others to examine us because we know they are for us, they are loyal and faithful and love God’s kingdom.

Faithful friendship strengthens others in God (11-17)
Jonathan now takes the initiative, he acts and plans and trusts God. He undertakes to discover what is wrong, if David has sinned and if he is in danger. But he does so much more than that he strengthens David’s trust in God.

(13-16)Jonathan trusts God’s word to David; he trusts that God is with David, that David will become king, that David’s enemies will be cut off by God – even if one of them is his father, and asks David as king elect to treat him and his family with ‘hesed’ when he is king – not if!

That is faithful friendship; that is friendship like Gods. (17)Ends by telling us why Jonathan showed such friendship to David, because he loved him as he loved himself. Again remember 1 Samuel is a former prophet book – each event looks back to the law. Here Jonathan is fulfilling the law, showing us what a faithful Israelite looks like. Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.” Jonathan is a faithful Israelite treating David as he should, as God would. Showing him kindness just as God is kind, and love just as God loves.

This sort of friendship is founded in faith, it is counter cultural. Culture would have Jonathan wipe out a threat to his kingship, cultural wisdom would have David wipe out Jonathans family when he comes to the throne so there is no one for any opposition to rally round with a legitimate claim to the throne. But faith in God, a concern for God’s kingdom, covenantal faithfulness conquers culture.

Covenant commitment ought to mark our friendships with other believers and our commitment to church. A love for one another than is committed, that is determined to resolve, to reconcile, to forgive, to repent readily rather than sulk in pride. That is determined to help one another expose sin but also to deliberately strengthen one another’s faith in God. That is counter cultural – our cultures idea of love is liquid, it comes and goes, it is no more permanent that a sandcastle on a beach. But our friendship with one another in faith is to be of a different nature all together. People from outside the church should look at the church and marvel at our love for and commitment to one another. Our service and practical care for one another, our willingness to forgive, our grace filled words, our love for one another even when we disagree should be amazing the watching world. David and Jonathan don’t jack it in when it gets hard. Their love and friendship is just like God’s. And it is aimed at strengthening one another’s trust in and living for God and his kingdom.

A Faithfulness the world can’t understand(24-34)
What did Jonathan dream of as he grew up? What had he been trained for his whole life? What did people ask him if he was looking forward to? Being king of Israel. Yet what is amazing is that he is prepared to give it all up for God’s kingdom. Jonathan is not all words, he acts too. He goes to the feast and observes his dad, and faces the fury of his father when he says he has given permission to David not to be there. Then he confronts his Dad’s sin because David has done nothing wrong and yet Saul wants him dead. And Jonathan’s anger (34)is not because his dad threw a spear at him but because of the injustice done to David and Saul’s sin.

Jonathan’s righteous anger is in contrast with Saul’s angry explosion; how can Jonathan choose David over his family, choose David over dynasty. But the issue is that he is not just choosing David, he is choosing God and God’s king and kingdom over his own kingdom. And Saul cannot understand how Jonathan can give up.

Jonathan seeks God’s kingdom and that liberates him to give up his rights and his rule. You can’t help but see the parallel with Jesus, who gives up his rights to pursue God’s kingdom, to win us for God’s kingdom. It becomes the pattern of discipleship, seen in Jesus to seek first God’s kingdom, to carry our cross, to deny ourselves. It may be the call to give up a promotion in order to keep on serving in church, in may be a call to not have the things culture says we need in order to be a stay at home mum, it may be a call to give generously rather than live in luxury, it may be a call to be excluded and set apart for our concern for God’s kingdom and his word on marriage or family or faith or salvation, or the call to forgive someone who has hurt us and love those who are opposed to us.

And we are to expect people outside the church not to understand just as Saul didn’t get why Jonathan would give up his kingdom and rights in pursuit of God’s kingdom. We are to expect opposition when we do even from our family as we see here. But we are to be faithful.

A Faithfulness that trusts God for the future(35-42)
David’s words to Jonathan seem a bit incongruous don’t they? He reports everything and David is now on the run, a hunted man. There is great sadness as they part, the tears flow, but there is also a steely faith and confidence in God(42). “Go in peace” is not what you expect Jonathan to say given what he has just told David, but there is peace between David and Jonathan, there is friendship between them because of the covenant and their mutual love for God. They part entrusting one another to God. This peace is not a vague, hopeless, wish for peace and quiet, but a steely eyed sense of right relationship with God and one another even amidst the turmoil. Enjoying God’s favour, seeking God’s kingdom places you at the eye of the storm even as it rages around you.

The future may be bleak but they act now in the light of who they know God to be. The future is in God’s hands Saul will not stop it, David will be king and Jonathan will live in the present in the light of God’s future. As David goes and Jonathan heads back to town to the worlds eyes the future looks uncertain but in David and Jonathan’s hearts God’s kingdom will come and there is no doubt because of God’s character.

They leave having strengthened one another’s faith in God, with their hearts lifted by the reminder of God’s faithfulness, that the kingdom is in God’s hands along with their futures, and there is no safer place for them to be.

Notice that this is not a commiserating friendship, it is not a vague “there, there it will all be ok” friendship. This is a committed covenant friendship based on the character of God, it is a robust friendship, a Godward focused friendship, a kingdom fixated friendship. Trust in God is the glue that binds, the passion that fires this friendship.

There is security in the covenant, the promises made, not to each other but based upon the character of God and one another’s love for God. For us our security is in the new covenant, made in Christ. But it is a security that then is to flow out into our other relationships our friendships of faith. As we show others the committed, sin exposing, faith building, love of God which the world cannot understand, because that is how God in Christ loved us.

1. How is Christian friendship different to the cultures view of friendship? What stops us building those relationships?

2. How many of those things we listed as things which stop us building them are excuses for laziness? How can you practically facilitate the building of such relationships?

3. What other things are you tempted to trust in for security? Why will they fail? How can we better point one another to Jesus and the new covenant as our security?

Loving a Challenge

Shackleton's advert is often used in various talks about motivation or challenge, its fascinating to consider how many men signed up to take on such a task.  I've just finished reading Steve Backshall's autobiography and he is one of the type to sign up to just such an undertaking - he loves challenge, the unknown, the risk, pushing himself.

Its interesting to look at the narrative of the Bible and identify just those sorts of characters, characters who were prepared to take a stand, to risk, to push themselves beyond their limits trusting God; Abram, Ruth, Elijah, Jacob, Joseph, Caleb, Joshua, David, Jonathan, Esther, Mary, Peter, Paul and so on...

I wonder if that advert above were reworded and posted in christian magazines how many would respond?

"People wanted for hazardous life, no monetary recompense, life lived as exiles among spiritual darkness, few resources, resentment from the locals, opposition and persecution highly likely, apathy a given.  Honour and recognition in the form of hearing God's well done on that day."

I have to say that there are often times when it seems in talking to people about Doncaster that that is what I am asking people to sign up to.  Yorkshire as a whole is spiritually bleak, there are few sizeable churches, it is so I am told the only county in England never to have experienced revival.  And Doncaster is a typical Yorkshire town with all its great character, friendliness and blunt talking honesty, but also with its suspicion and hardness to the gospel.  It is no different to a Rotherham, a Pontefract, or other Yorkshire towns.  But alongside that God is no different, he is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask, he is a God who patiently waits for the gospel to be proclaimed and people to be won.

I do wonder what has happened to our trust in God, to our taking risks by faith.  It especially makes me wonder when I hear of often young professionals who decide to stay living in their former student city but work in Doncaster because the churches in Doncaster are not like City churches in say Sheffield or Leeds.  No these churches are not like city churches which have a good population of young twenties because those young twenties also commute in.  They are also not like city churches in other ways, they often have small staff teams, often of 1, they do not have lavish resources, and they are often less polished and professional.

Yes, there are struggles with leaving a church you love where many of your friends have stayed after graduation, yes it may mean there is not the same twenties group around you.  But having made that same leap myself  at 25, leaving a church my wife and I loved as students and as a newly married couple, where we were serving in growing ministries to go to a church that was small and where we were the only couple our age, with a gap of about 10 years either way to serve, it is worth it.

How do we decide on where we live?  Is it ease is it comfort it?  What about loving a challenge?  What about looking at the area around where you live with gospel goggles on?  Asking not where am I comfortable but where can I serve?  Not where are there people like me but where can I go which will be accessible to my work colleagues and friends?

Hebrews 3v7-19 - So...don’t harden your hearts but encourage each other

Here are my notes from yesterday.

In Hebrews the pastor has exhorted his readers to fix their thoughts on Jesus because he is the ultimate revelation of God and their faithful high priest who has made them God’s holy people and calls them heavenwards. Now he turns to what they should do in the light of that, he does so by giving them a negative example of how not to respond, before looking at the promise of rest in chapter 4.

1. God speaks to us
How does v7 begin? “So, as the Holy Spirit says...” What tense does he use? The present tense, God the Holy Spirit is speaking to the Hebrew believers. How? The pastor takes them through a worked example of how God speaks, as he quotes Psalm 95 then explains, interprets and applies it to his readers.

Psalm 95 may be over a thousand years old but God speaks to them through it just as he spoke to its original hearers. Psalm 95 is divided into two parts the first half calls Israel to worship God, the second warns them not to have hard hearts but to respond to God because that is true worship. It makes that call as it looks back to Israel in the wilderness.

In Hebrews the emphasis is on Numbers 13-14. Where after God has rescued Israel from Egypt, having eaten the Passover, experienced God’s protection, walked through the Red Sea and the desert to the edge of the Promised Land, Israel refuse to enter because the spies see big walls and strong men. Even when Caleb and Joshua encourage them “do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us.” They refuse to take the land, in fact they begin to pick up stones to stone them. And God says “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?”

God spoke to Israel on the verge of the Promised Land, God spoke through Psalm 95 and called them to learn and not repeat the unbelief of their ancestors. God speaks through the Psalm echoing that warning and applying it to the Hebrew believers, and today God by his Spirit speaks to us using those same words.

God speaks through his word, that’s in part what the Pastor wants to teach here. God the Holy Spirit speaks to his people ‘today’ as they read his word, as we read the Old Testament, and read about his ultimate revelation Jesus. As we read the Bible we hear God speaking.

As you came along this morning was that your expectation? That God would speak to you as his word was read and then we looked at it together? Is that what you were expectantly praying? Is that how we approach the bible during the week?

You may say but when I read it I don’t feel like I hear God speak. Can I lovingly say; what you feel is irrelevant, God is speaking the question is; are we listening? We’ve been conditioned to expect instant results, we’ve listened to the lie that good things are easy to discern and quick to understand. And we carry that into our listening to God – God gets 5 minutes squeezed in between the shower and breakfast.

But what does it to look like to really listen to someone? It involves putting aside distractions, concentrating on what they are saying, discerning what they mean and a right response to it.
God is our loving heavenly father and we are his children, made holy, given Jesus perfect record and he wants to speak to us. Don’t feel guilty about what you haven’t done but recognise the wonder that God speaks to us and listen to him.

The big question for the Hebrews and us is how will we respond to God’s word? There are two responses.

2. How are we responding?
There are two possible responses to God’s words: Unbelief, and Belief

a. Unbelief
Israel are a negative example, how not to respond. Look at (12)what is the warning? Make sure you don’t have a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from God.

Do you see the problem; unbelief, refusing to trust God’s word, and it comes from their hard hearts(8). It was Israel’s problem and it is a danger for the Hebrews and us.

As Israel stood on the verge of the Promised Land God said “Send some men to explore the land, Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” But as the 10 spies reported back their conclusion is that God can’t do what he has said. The problem is unbelief, it’s not the fortified cities, the giants, or the strong people but that they do not believe God will give them what he has promised, and hard hearts lead them to turn away from God.

What are the consequences of their turning away? (17-18)God is angry and they are judged for 40years, only 2 of that generation experience God’s rest.

Don’t refuse God’s word. It’s tempting to think that isn’t a problem for us, but that would be the impossible application of this passage. It’s the conclusion that is impossible to draw from this passage – unbelief was a danger for Israel on the verge of the Promised Land, for Israel centuries later, for the Hebrew believers, it is a danger for us.

And actually we do respond to God with unbelief don’t we. Often it’s when we say or think the word ‘But’. We know we are forgiven for something in our past, yet find ourselves thinking ‘I know Jesus paid for all my sin but I just don’t feel forgiven.’ Do you see what we are doing – refusing to believe.

Or when we know it is important to build on the relationship with God he has given us and to listen to his word yet we find ourselves responding with a ‘But, I don’t feel God speaking to me’ or ‘But it’s OK for him or her they find it easy’ or ‘But I haven’t got time.’ Or when we read of God’s call to us not to worry because we are his children and he knows what we need and we think ‘Yeah but I really need a husband, or a child, or whatever it is that we long for...’ Do you see how every but is the stirring of unbelief.

Some illness come with warning symptoms, a sore throat means ... When we find ourselves responding to God’s word with a ‘But’ be alarmed, it is the first sign, a warning symptom of developing ‘Israelitus’ - a hardening heart, the beginnings of unbelief.

b. Belief?
If Israel are what not to be like, so how should we respond? Specifically the pastor is making a particular link between the Israelites and the Hebrews in terms of when they live.

In Numbers 14 Israel are where? On the doorstep of the Promised Land, they have experienced God’s redemption, they are God’s people, now they are about to enter God’s promised rest.

In Psalm 95 where are Israel? They are established in the Promised Land, and yet the warning is that refusal to believe will forfeit experiencing God’s rest, so the rest it talks about must be something more than Canaan. Canaan was just a picture that looked back and echoed the garden of Eden but also looked forward to the future eternal rest God’s people would enjoy.
The Hebrew Christians and we along with them have experienced God’s redemption through Jesus, we are his people and are on a journey to his rest. We and they live in the time of tension we have been redeemed and made God’s children, called to heaven but living awaiting its coming with all the tension that brings.

The call to believe is specifically to remember our heavenly calling, to trust in God’s word of promise that (4:1)”Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short.” Believe God’s promise in the pressure that comes as you wait for his rest, don’t doubt, believe, don’t respond with a ‘but’.

(14)You are God’s children made holy through Jesus atoning blood, called with Jesus to share in an unshakeable kingdom trust in God to get you there as you follow him, hold onto to your original conviction.

We have a temptation to be individualistic, it is our default setting, maybe you are thinking I must hold firmly, but that is not enough. Look at (13)the antidote to a sinful unbelieving heart is to “encourage one another daily”, because that stops us being hardened by sins deceitfulness.
What does encouraging one another look like? It’s what Joshua and Caleb do in Numbers 14, they call the people to trust in God’s word and his promise. It’s what the pastor is doing as he writes this letter applying the bible to his listener’s lives.

How committed are you to encouraging others? We come together on a Sunday and encourage one another as we listen to God’s word, we do it at LightHouse, in Home Groups, but we need to be doing this organically too.

At our day away we spoke about one of our values: Real relationships are encouraged and developed as we work the gospel into one another’s lives and the community. That has to be more than just a line on a piece of paper. It is about more than just the formal settings, but about encouraging each other at every opportunity.
If we don’t encourage each other we place one another in danger.
Perhaps this morning you are saying I don’t know how. Here’s some things you can do over coffee to encourage others:
1. Ask someone how their week has been
2. Ask ‘what can I pray for you this week?’ Then pray!
3. Pray with someone
4. Share an encouragement or something God has been teaching you?
5. Commit to being with people and getting to know them.
6. Be honest in your responses to people’s questions, and ask them to pray for you.
7. Follow up when you next see that person.
8. Ring someone who hasn’t been around for a couple of weeks to see if they are OK, pray for them, and encourage them.
9. Always be ready to respond with grace and forgiveness.
10. Swallow gossip and speak in love

Look at (19)it’s a tragic reminder of the consequences of unbelief, not all Israel entered God’s promised rest, in fact they rejected God and then tried to enter in their own strength and were unable to. They didn’t encourage one another and they rejected the encouragement of others.

Do you see the warning – don’t reject God’s word, don’t respond to it with a ‘But’ believe his promise, live now looking for his rest, entrusting yourself to him who is faithful. And be encouraging others, taking as many others with you as you go.

Angels and Demons

We finally got round to watching this film of the Dan Brown novel last night. It was ok, a bit slow in some places and I'm not sure his books transfer to the big screen very well. Anyway this isn't a film review merely some thoughts on the film. Again we see Brown's hostility to the Catholic church as he examines the battle between science and faith.

It was fascinating watching it on the day that the Times trumpted Stephen Hawkins statement drawn from his latest book: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," he writes. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

It isn't just the media who portray science and faith as protagonists locked in a battle until the death or surrender of one or the other, it is how many in society think. We as Christians need to be engaging with this issues in a way that is seasoned with grace rather than full of hot air and hostility.

Doubt

We were looking at Luke 7 yesterday where John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus is he the one. It is a fascinating passage where Jesus doesn't recoil in horror or rebuke John he simply points to the fulfilment of the Old Testament as evidence that he is the one sent from God and there is no other to come.

It is in stark contrast to how we deal with doubt, mostly we sweep it under the carpet and ignore it rather than confront it and go to someone who can help us answer our doubts. Sometimes when someone expresses doubts about faith we react fearfully. I think in contrast the church should mirror Jesus reaction and use the Bible to engage with and answer the issue that has presented itself. Hopefully as a result of yesterday some people will be brave enough to voice the issues that cause them to question and we can deal with them.

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.

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.

What about other religions?

I guess we all worry a little about offending the sensibilities of those we are speaking to and when this question gets asked its hard not to offend people. Our cultures big no no is exclusivity, don't make a truth claim, definitely don't question someone elses beliefs and never ever say one religion is the only way.

But that's where we have a problem, Jesus himself said "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." The early years of the church were a battle to the death over just that issue, Christians would not bow the knee and worship the emperor and it led to hundreds being put to death.

However, it is worth pointing out that actually Christianity is not alone in this, every religion makes truth claims, every religion can't therefore be right. Take the issue of God, Islam, Christianity and Judaism say there is one God, Hinduism there are hundreds of gods and Buddhism there are no gods. Now they can't all be right can they because they are contradictory. Like wise in the way they deal with death and with life beyond death, and again they cannot all be right because they are mutually exclusive.

The issue becomes what is true. And we live our lives every minute of every day as if there are absolutes. The challenge is to be prepared to examine the ultimate absolute, what is the truth when it comes to faith. Not religion because religion doesn't save, Christianity is not a call to become religious it is a call to relationship with God through the risen Lord Jesus who died in our place. It is the only religion where sin is dealt with, where God is so holy that he has to solve the problem and me pulling my socks up is not enough because I am so rebellious.

Isn't faith just psychological?

The argument goes something like this. All religious beliefs fulfil a deep psychological need, allaying our fears about nature being out of control, or about death, or other issues. Some people just need the comfort that faith provides to enable them to live life with a sense of purpose. But in reality others find different ways of living so faith is unnecessary.

But this same argument can be used against any belief system, not just faith. The Bible teaches that actually there is a psychological need of God, that we were designed to believe in him and failure to do so leaves a gap. Acts 17 as Paul proclaims Christ to the Athenians he does so by talking of God designing man to "seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him..."

When confronted with death we are confronted with the meaningless of our existence, that is the point made by Solomon in Ecclesiastes and in its sobering, hopeless, repeated refrain "meaningless, meaningless...everything is meaningless." We are made to search for meaning and faith in God provides that meaning, not because it is a psychological placebo but because it is the answer. Genesis 1-3 tells us we were not made for death but for life, that we were made for relationship with God which we have lost because of our rebellion. That loss creates within us a fear of death which is perfectly rational.

These are real needs, you can fill them with many things but not all will satisfy, because our need is God and relationship with him, not just psychologically but in reality. Faith does not just make a difference psychologically but to real life, to real living, to real dying.

Its all just talk.

Do you talk about Jesus as naturally as you do about the team you support or your kids or your hobby? If people are to see that Jesus is the thing I treasure most, if they are meant to ask me about the hope that I have then it must be reflected in my conversation. If I only talk about him in 'God conversations' then people will think we compartmentalise our lives and that we are hypocrites.

I'm not saying we continually spout theological words and phrases but that our faith and our saviour should be a part of our everyday lives. So often the temptation when asked is to say oh yeah I think this. When actually I think this because the Bible says so. If that's the case why not say it. Yes you may get the odd funny look but it is saying morality is a matter of God's revelation, he sets the standards that I live by, it isn't that I've just decided this is right or wrong based on how I feel.

When someone talks about their problems with you I guess with a Christian we'd naturally offer to pray for them. So why don't we do that with all of our friends? If a friend is struggling at work why don't we offer to pray with them. It shows them that we believe prayer works, that we are dependent upon God.

When they ask how our week has been why is my reply so often not in terms of what God has done, even when people from church ask, let alone when my mates from the pub ask? Is it that I am afraid? Is it that I am embarrassed? Do I fear their rejection?

How can I expect them to ask me about the hope I have if I never articulate that hope in my every day conversation. How will they take Christianity and Christ seriously if they do not see that his sacrifice and love dominates the whole of my life not just one little compartment.

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord" I Peter 3:15

Faith or risk?

In the summer I was at the EMA in London and heard John Piper give a couple of talks on the idea that risk is right for the Christian and the church. It was one of those talks that leaves you fired up and ready to seize the next risk.

But the problem is in working out sometimes what is a risk taken in faith and what simply unwise. For example is it a risk taken in faith to plant a church in April with a smaller team and less build up or to wait until October for a larger team to perhaps be involved and for there to be more build up?

In the west we all live very comfortable existences and most of our churches are comfortable too, but comfort doesn't seem to feature too much in Acts or in the Epistles (Acts 2, 4, 8). Are we too wedded to our comfortable risk free church environments?

And when it comes to planting new churches Paul lived by faith, go to a new town preach the gospel see some people believe and start a new church eventually with its own leadership (Acts 14, 16, 17, 18). Paul Barnabas, Timothy and others certainly seemed to have the pioneer risk taking spirit.

Risk is right? The key for Paul is in being where God wants him at the time God wants him there (Acts 16:6-10), risk is right in God's timing. Such examples should drive us to pray to ask God what he would have us risk and when he would have us risk it.