Some advice - beware the patronage of unbelievers

Matthew Paris wrote this article which was published in the Spectator last week http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/all/7667978/beware-i-would-say-to-believers-the-patronage-of-unbelievers.thtml It is well worth a read and thinking through.

We do not believer the church is a social institution but it is the people of God declaring the only hope to a dying world sick with sin that Jesus Christ gave himself to save them and they must turn to him.  The article challenges our softness and fuzziness.

Are we too comfy?

How do we think of the society that we live in? We were looking yesterday at Acts 17 and the planting of the Thessalonian church in the midst of adversity and opposition. There is no doubt in Acts 17 about the hostility of the reaction as the Jews left in the synagogue react to the threat of the gospel by causing a riot and accusing the Christians of social unrest and sedition. There is no doubt that the gospel is the enemy of the world.


Then yesterday evening we were looking at 1 Peter 1 and gaining a feel for its setting. Fascinatingly as you read through the book you realise that the suffering they are undergoing is not physical but it is ostracism, social alienation and malicious accusations. And Peter writes to remind them of who they are, whose they are, and where they live - the are God's people strangers living in exile in a hostile world.


Both passages challenged us about how we thought of ourselves and the world around us. If we view this world as home we will live for its dreams, share its values and norms. But if we recognise this world for the hostile environment it is - not necessarily hostile physically towards us but certainly hostile to the intolerance of the gospel and - hostile to our being and living as God's holy, set apart, redeemed people then we will not share in its values, norms and desires.


Is the church, are we, am I too similar to the world because I have failed to grasp these fundamental truths?

Wordliness

Last night in home group we finished our study of Worldliness - resisting the seduction of a fallen world (ed. C J Mahaney). Over the summer months we have been reading a chapter a week and then discussing what it taught. Did we agree or disagree, how would it affect our lives, how would we put it into practice etc...

In the final chapter the question of how to love the world is the subject, the challenge not to love the world but not to disengage from it either. It is a helpful corrective and one of the best chapters in a very good and challenging book. Jeff Purswell begins by challenging the reader to examine and correct their worldview (John 3:16; 17:18) we are to be those in the world but not of the world. Using the four markers; creation, fall, redemption and consummation he explains the Biblical worldview and some of the consequences and implications of this.

He then moves on to suggest that the Bible sets believers three tasks in terms of interaction with the world:
1. Enjoy the world - God has made the world, it witnesses to him we are to praise God for the world he has given us to enjoy but without loving or worshipping it. I guess I experienced something of this at U2, where so many were worshipping U2 I was struck by the amazing gift God gave us in music and the gifts he had given these 4 guys and praised God for his goodness and creation.

2. Engage the world - We have a tendency to compartmentalize life into spiritual and secular (interestingly an agenda society and the government seems keen to encourage) but this shouldn't be so, work, home leisure are all part of my worship of God.

3. Evangelize the world -We are witnesses - a witness simply takes the stand and tells the truth as he has known and experienced it. That was tremendously liberating for those who fear that they can't adequately explain the gospel - we are to work at our understanding - but we are to witness to what we have experienced, it doesn't have to be polished and slick.

Finally the book ends as most chapters did by looking at the cross which tells us who we are, interprets the world we live in, transforms our view of people and gives me purpose.

It has been a book that has been challenging and one of those that will go on my shelf to be re-read every 12-18months. Personally it is a great read but my hunch is that only when read with others and when we open up to allow others to keep us accountable to change will we do so most effectively.

The Psalmists Perspective (Psalm 2)

The Psalmist looks at the situation (opposition and conspiracy to revolt and rebel) and asks (1)“Why do the nations conspire, and the people plot in vain?” Why do they bother is the Psalmists cry, their plotting to live life without God is futile.

Do you see the Psalmist worldview? Firstly the nations are plotting against God; any plot to overthrow God’s king, his anointed, his people is a plot against God. Is that how we think of the world; are the nations against God? Is the legislation being passed in Parliament against God? This Psalm would lead us to conclude yes it is. Refusing to recognise his rule and wanting freedom to determine how to live for themselves has been man’s story since Adam and Eve. It is swallowing the lie of Satan that we can do so with no consequences. But Psalm 2 teaches us to view the nations and the world differently, but why is their opposition futile?

Because very simply God rules and his promise is sure. Is my perspective right? Too often we have a wrong view of the world; man is big and God is small, the Psalmist calls God's people to get it right; God is big, man is small.

Worldliness

That's the title of a little book which C J Mahaney is the editor of that I picked up a while ago but am now getting round to reading. I've read the foreword (by John Piper) and opening chapter and it is excellent so far. It challenges us about our snippet approach to the Bible - specifically how we seem to have effectively cut out John 2:15 "Do not love the world..."

Later chapters deal with the media, music, stuff, clothes, and finally how to love the world. We need its reminder that when it comes to wordliness we are all at risk and also that we do not drift into holiness, that it is a series of choices we make every moment of every day. The example of Demas as a danger of worldliness and where it leads: "Demas, because he lived this world, has deserted me..." Is a challenge especially when you consider he began well and was so involved with the gospel mission.

I'm looking forward to reading it, though the proof will only be in the practical application of it to my heart, my thinking, my bookshelves, DVD collection, CD collection, iPod, TV viewing habits and so on.

Swine Flu - Responding Biblically

Its all over the news, you can't escape images of people with masks over their faces, you can't turn your TV on without hearing 'The latest', we are being given constant updates on the WHO threat level. People have even been ringing into their doctors surgeries asking for Tamiflu as a precaution.

But how should we react? What is Biblical reaction? I guess some people would shrug their shoulders and say whatever will be will be. But that is not the full story.

It is interesting how the media coverage has sparked fears in young children. One of ours was sat on his bed crying, saying that he didn't want to die. All explanation of how unlikely he was to get it, how we hadn't been to Mexico etc... Did no good at all, he was still worried he was going to die. So what stopped him crying? It was when his mum said that if we live great God gives us time to enjoy the world he has put us in and learn more about him, but if we were to die then we get to be with Jesus for ever. His reaction - to stop crying get his school uniform on and start playing now totally reassured.

Sometimes our children's reactions have much to teach us. One of the issues that this potential pandemic is throwing up is people's fear of death. If this world is all you have to live for then rightly so, but if we know that we will only fall asleep in Jesus we need not panic.

So how should we respond as believers:

1. We ought not to worry instead we need to remind ourselves that our future is secure and it is (1 Peter1v5) kept in heaven for us.
2. We should pray, it is another part of the worlds groaning (Rom 8:22) as it waits eagerly for the new creation, another consequence of the fall.
3. Our hope should be obvious to others so much so that they ask us questions about it, and we must be ready to answer them (1 Pet 3:15-16).

Life is fragile, it has been ever since the fall, but the believer can have confidence because our future is secure. Only when we read again and study the words of the Bible and regain a correct view of heaven as our home and this world as the hotel room will we gain a Biblical perspective. We need to hear our Father's words and be comforted by them, be reassured about our real future and security and then live liberated for him.

The world pulled over your eyes to blind you.

Can you trust the Bible? I guess if you are a Christian you instinctively answer yes. But do we? In looking at John 16 last we saw that Jesus confronts his disciples with the fact that the world will hate them. That it will put them out of the synagogue and even kill them all the time maintaining that in doing so they are serving God. Is that how we think of the world?

My hunch is that it isn't. In fact the world trumpets its tolerance of all religions therefore it would argue it does not hate us. However, when we stand up for the truth of the gospel that there is no other way to God but through faith in Jesus Christ, when we explain to people what the truth is about what the Bible has to say about their standing before God, then we see through the worlds tolerance. Because telling the gospel provokes reaction and all too often hostile reaction.

We must not let ourselves be fooled into thinking the world love the Christian or even that it tolerates us. The world will tolerate the nominal believer, it will tolerate the liberal believer, but it will do everything it can to silence a gospel believer, even saying it does so in honour of its notion of God or gods.

OMF's call for 900 to go and reach East Asia's gospel neglected frontiers

What do you love?

1 John 2:15-17 is a great little passage, it reminds us that actually we are to be counter cultural especially in our relationship to the world.

John calls his readers and us to a mutually exclusive love. Notice what John says (15) you can’t love the world and love God. The world is a big theme in John (23x) and it is seen as everything that is opposition to God. To love the world is to live for the world – it is about setting your heart on it.

We live in a dangerous place, as did John's readers because we live in the world, and it competes for our love. That is what advertising is about - it is designed to make us love and want the world. The danger is that without being aware of it we become ensnared by it like the frog that remains in water which is gradually boiled.

The world – human systems, morality etc… are not to be loved by those who love God. (16) Makes even clearer 3 of the dangers the world brings: literally the desire of the flesh (living for physical pleasure), the lust of the eyes (Advertising, making us want; be it sex, a certain lifestyle or better bananas) and lastly pride in what we have and do (or maybe in waht our family, children, grandchildren have or do).

John reminds us we live in enemy occupied territory and the big question he poses is do I find myself loving the world?

But John also poinst out another mutual exclusive in these verses; Mutually exclusive endings.(17) John calls believers to wake up, to recognise the danger of loving the world but he also reminds them of the mutually exclusive endings of these things. In fcat bearing in mind the temporary nature of the world and its loves will help us. The question is will you live for things that are temporary or will you live for things that last forever?

What do I find myself living for? What do I find myself loving?

The challenge of engaging with our culture

I recently finished reading Mark Driscoll's 'Confessions of a reformission Rev', its a book that is well worth reading for the challenges it poses to us in terms of engaging with the culture around us but also in terms of learning from the experience at Mars Hill.

The big challenge I found was that of being theologically conservative but cultural liberal. The call to equip our people and ourselves to be missionaries in their and our everyday lives, to encourage and exhort them to be that. To be in the culture but still be separate is the call to holiness. Am I in danger of being a Pharisee, they questioned Jesus integrity because he ate with sinners as if sin were somehow contagious, I must make sure I don't fall into the same trap. A helpful reminder and call to reengage with our lost culture and world.

Back and tired

Just back from a youth weekend which was great fun if very cold and tiring. How they managed to stay up until 4 in the morning on two consecutive nights I'll never know! Perhaps it's just a sign that I am getting old after all that I was in bed long before they were.

It was a good weekend which raised all sorts of issues that this group felt under pressure about. But fundamentally it raised one issue, though it was present only under the surface - is God good? That may seem like an odd question but it was in the context of why does God give us guidelines about who to date, whether to use drugs or alcohol etc...

It is a world of pressure for those who are trying to stand up for their faith in school or college. Ultimately it is an issue of whether what God says is for our good. Is it because God has my best interests at heart that the Bible says don't date someone who doesn't share your faith? Is it because God is good and loves me and wants what is best for me that the Bible says don't get drunk? And what about the drugs issue, the Bible doesn't clearly say don't, so what does it say?

It struck me that we assume young people will pick up on these things without maybe teaching them so explicitly, or we teach them as divorced from the character of God and they seem like arbitrary rules without the over arching reasons why God says. So the danger is that the question becomes why shouldn't I?

So why does God say date a Christian? Because you can grow together, because you can spur one another on, because it saves you from heartache, because you will be able to share everything. Because ultimately God loves you and he wants you to know what is best and to know him better.

The drink and drugs issues need to be taught in a similar framework? With the why not just what the Bible says.

It was a great weekend and a real encouragement to see young people wrestling with these issues and wanting to live godly lives among their friends.

In but not of

I've been thinking about John 17 for the weekend and a seminar I'm doing on godliness as opposed to half heartedness. What is really striking is that Jesus prays that his Father would protect his disciples who the world hates, because he has given them God's word, and then sends them out into the very world which he says hates them(v18).

It's not how we do protection is it. We do protection by bubble wrap, bouncer or padlock. If you fear for your children and their contact with drugs and alcohol you keep them safe at home and try to limit their exposure to those pressures and dangers. We spend most of our lives protecting ourselves and those we love from dangers, from the effects of hate. But Jesus says he is sending the disciples off into the world which hates them BUT they go with the Father's protection(11).

There is no safer place to be than protected by God no matter the situation they face, its a lesson I need to remember and keep being reminded of.

But it is also striking that he prays that they would be "in" the world but "not of" it. That they would not absorb the worlds values but live in the world sanctified by God's word of truth (17). It is a prayer echoed in the next section as he prays for all believers.

So what does it mean to be "in" the world but "not of" it? It is a difficult balance to strike and sometimes we go too far one way or the other, either being of the world or not being in the world.

So what does it look like to be "in" the world but "not of" it sanctified by the truth? Where will it see us living our lives? It is certainly a call to be relationally involved in the world around us. It is a call to be engaging with the culture around us not sat in meetings or too busy for people.

Do you ever find yourself having to say no to someone because its this or that church meeting on that particular night? Is that being "in" the world? There is a balance to be struck and it is a hard one to maintain, but maybe being "in" but "not of" means spending as much time in the pub as the prayer meeting?

Fallen Angel

Did you see it last night? Part one was set in present as Rosemary kidnapped a young girl called Lucy. This is a drama with a twist, having seen the whodunnit last night the next two episodes tonight and tomorrow look at why did she do it. What has made this fragile beautiful woman into a child killer?

The shock at the end of last nights episode was when the vicar walked into the cell where Rosemary was being held to greeted as 'Dad'. Religious symbolism abounded in the show and obviously has played its part in Rosemary's mental instability.

It raises the question of nurture or nature. Are we born bad or as the shows trailer asked 'What horror made her heart so dark? Did we create this, this flawless unmistakable evil?'

Approaching God

We live in a world which claims that there are no rights and no wrongs, so for the Christian to say that there is only one way to approach God is regarded as the worst kind of intellectual arrogance.

But in reality we live our lives by the idea that there are right ways and wrong ways of doing things. So if you were to meet royalty how would you dress? Jeans and T-shirt? I don't think so. Would you stand chewing gum with hands defensively folded across your chest or thrust deep into your pockets? Again I don't think so. In fact I imagine you'd be politely told how to behave, how to stand, how to talk etc...

We accept this as normal after all we are meeting royalty. But for some reason people think that doesn't apply when it comes to how we approach God, the idea that God sent his Son to reveal to us how we should approach him is regard as wrong, as being too limited.

But surely the right response is just to be amazed at God's love that he would do that for us, let alone send his Son to pay the price for our rebellion and be the very way he comes to reveal.

Grace

What is it? What does the word grace mean? Is it just a description of the way someone moves, or just a prayer giving thanks for a meal? Or is it something bigger than that? Is it just forgiveness? Is it a human action or is there some other meaning?

On their album all that you can't leave behind U2 have a track that asks just those sort of questions. Is grace just the name of a girl or is it an idea that could change the world? It is a brooding song that poses lots of questions but is it a song about a girl or about a bigger reality.

When they sing of how grace makes beauty out of ugly things, or finds goodness in everything is it just an individual or grace personified that they are singing about.

And what difference would grace at work make to the world in which we live?

A fantastic image

Ephesian 3:10 paints a startling image of the church as God's masterpiece, of the church not as the media portray it or even as we sometimes think of it. But of the church as God's way of displaying his wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

How does it do that? As it lives out the gospel, as it exists as a community united in Christ Jesus our Lord and utilising the access Christ's death grants us to the Father.

The church is the hope of the world, it is God's shop window, it is where the mystery of the gospel is made clear as people from different backgrounds come together united by the death of God to appease God and free us to enter relationship with God and live for God's glory.

How does the church function? It works as it reads and applies the word of God in daily life in each others lives, listening to God's opinion of us not man's opinion or my own, listening to what God says I need and not what the world says we need. It functions as a fractured world sees a restored and refurbished community who live for one another loving one another, forgiving one another just as Christ lived for, loved, and forgave them.

Weekend Away

Just back from the Church Plant Weekend Away in Keswick. It was a great weekend with a good team despite some wet and windy weather.

If the good news that Jesus died in our place for our rebellion against God is true and it is, and if we have a hope of eternity with God in the new creation which we do, and if that great truth is the churches to proclaim which it is, then the local church is the hope of the world.

That is the premise which ran all through the weekend as we studied Acts 2:42-47 and asked what does it mean for us as a church to be devoted to the apostles teaching, prayer, breaking of bread and the fellowship. And what does that look like in 2007, how can we spur one another on to do that and how do we do church in a way that enables us to do so as effectively as possible.

More thoughts to follow this week as I work through the material from our discussions.