Father Skills

It's interesting to read how totally influential the role of James Taylor was in shaping the life of his children, and in particular his son, James Hudson Taylor, who was one of the first missionaries to China. I guess it's an obvious point: the apple never falls far from the tree. Whether you like it or not, your character will be replicated in your children, for better or worse. I really feel God is saying "work on your character now, for shortly you'll be a father".

The thing about James Taylor is that he lead a very attainable life, one which you can actually see yourself leading. From the biography he appeared to be a great man leading a regular life. Nothing about it was overly remarkable. He was diligent, disciplined, loved God and loved his family. And in it he produced Hudson Taylor who was off the scale in the purposes God used him for. Hudson Taylor is one of the sole reasons why there's now 40 million Christians in China, when previously there were none. His dad, James Taylor, set a great standard for fatherhood.

Below are excerpts describing James Taylor from the 'Biography of James Hudson Taylor' by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor; pages 10 to 14.

A gifted speaker, he gave much care to the preparation of his discourses. He was an excellent chemist, too, and as a business man he was highly respected. So scrupulous was he in financial matters that he made it a rule to pay every debt the day it fell due.

'If I let it stand over a week,' he would say, 'I defraud my creditor of interest, if only a fractional sum.'

Possessed by a profound conviction of God's infinite faithfulness, he took the Bible very simply, believing it was of all books the most practical if put to the test of experience.

The children lived in touch with their father almost as much as with their mother, and he felt himself no less responsible for their training. Though he was stern and even quick-tempered at times, the influence James Taylor exerted in the life of his son can hardly be over-estimated. He was decidedly a disciplinarian. But without some such element in his early training who can tell whether Hudson would ever have become the man that he was? With James Taylor, to keep the children moderately happy and good-tempered was not the point. He was a man with a supreme sense of duty. The thing that ought to be done was the thing he put first, always. Ease, pleasure, self-improvement, had to take whatever place they could. He was a man of faith that went hand in hand with works of the most practical kind.

Family worship he conducted regularly, after both breakfast and tea. Every member of the household had to be present, and the passage read was explained in such practical fashion that even the children could not fail to see it's application. He was very particular about giving them the whole of the Word of God, omitting nothing. The Old Testament as well as the New was taken in regular course, and at the close of every day's reading the date was carefully entered in the family Bible.

He explained to them the necessity for maintaining the life of the soul by prayer and Bible study, as the life of the body is maintained by exercise and food. To omit this was to neglect the one thing needful. He spoke of it frequently as a matter of vital importance, and arranged for everyone in the house to have at least half an hour daily, alone with God. The result was that even the little ones began to discover the secret of a happy day.

China held the first place in their father's sympathies, and he often used to lament the indifference of the Church to its appalling need. It especially troubled him that the denomination to which he belonged should be doing nothing for its evangelisation.

Working Backwards

I watched the film "Knowing" last week (the film with Nicolas Cage, with the picture of the world in meltdown). It was a rubbish film so don't watch it! But one part really stuck out. It was a scene where we encountered a woman who had known the exact date of her death all her life. She was a young woman and the date was close at hand. And it was accurate to the exact day.

If we knew our exact death date, like "Thursday 10th October 2019", that would change everything. After you got over the initial freaking out period, you would probably plan everything around that date. You might think of everything you wanted to do and work backwards from the day you die.

When you're young you don't think like that. We're naive enough to think that time is on our side and we'll actually do something with our lives later on. But maybe working back from our death is the exact approach we need to take. How do we want to serve God for the next 50 or 60 years? What do we want to achieve in the next three years? Maybe we need to put actual dates in the diary and work backwards. Otherwise we'll wake up when we're 60 and say an almighty "D'oh!".

Trajectory

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:10

This is nothing to do with salvation (which is a free gift by grace alone); it's about the purposes of God for your life, the path you walk and the works you actually complete. It's like you can start out walking the path and completing the works God prepared for you to do. But maybe something in your trajectory is slightly off.

Maybe it's something in your mindset, habitual sin, or a lack of zeal. Slowly but surely, if you don't course-correct, you end up miles off course. You might not even notice until you're 40 or 50, and you realise that you've missed much of the purposes God had for your life. The gap from what might have been is larger than ever. And perhaps unobtainable.

James Hudson Taylor seemed to course-correct very early on. And he walked this way throughout his life. His trajectory was probably very very similar to God's plan A for his life.

At church last Sunday (15.11.09) Andrew Wilson was speaking and read a verse from Genesis 5. It was 5:23-24 and reads "all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him".

That key phrase for me was "Enoch walked with God". It fires off a real ache in your gut. A real desire to have that. If there was one line written about you after you're gone surely it would be "[your name] walked with God".

James Hudson Taylor and the threat of a mediocre Christian life

I've just started re-reading the Biography of James Hudson Taylor by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, which I first read when I was about 19. It's without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Unfortunately it's out of print, but I got an old copy off Amazon.co.uk for £2.75. Not bad!

I'm on chapter 1, which details his teenage conversion to Christ in the summer of 1849. What follows is almost an immediate cooling off period from the emotion, passion and joy of his conversion; and the onset of lethargy.

What I find incredibly impressive is how utterly devastated he was by the threat of a mediocre Christian life. He was horrified with his lack of desire to pray and read his bible. He was also desperately aware of the sin in his life, and his failure to overcome it.

But how he totally blew past it. He ended up pleading with God. And God answered –  by giving him his life's mission and sending him to China. And yet at this point he's a 17 year old lad who's only been a Christian for a few months. Quite remarkable.

Below are extracts I pulled from pages 19 to 23 which detail this account:

The joy in the Lord and in His service was not the only experience as summer passed away. Coldness of heart crept in, forgetfulness, indifference. Somehow there seemed to be a gap between the power of the Lord Jesus to save 'to the uttermost' and the needs of everyday life in shop and home. The good he longed to do he did not, and the evil he hated too often had the mastery.

At such times two courses are open to the perplexed and troubled soul. One is to abandon the ideal, and gradually sink down to a low level Christian life is which there is neither joy nor power. The other is just to go on with the Lord, and because of His 'exceeding great and precious promises' to claim complete deliverance not from the guilt only, but also from the mastery of sin.

Nothing less than this could satisfy Hudson Taylor. Conversion with him had been no easy-going assent of the mind to abstract creed. The Cross of Christ had cut him off for ever from the old life, and from rest in anything the world could give. Nothing could satisfy him now but unbroken fellowship with God. Hence times of spiritual lethargy were and indifference were alarming. He could not take backsliding easily. It was nothing less than full deliverance upon which he had set his heart – real holiness, and daily victory over sin.

Outwardly things were much as usual, but inwardly he was almost driven to despair. A deadness of soul had begun to steal over him. Prayer was an effort and the bible devoid of interest. Christmas was close at hand and business correspondingly pressing. There seemed no time for quiet waiting upon God, even had the desire been present. But it was not. At times a terrible fear assailed him, that he was drifting he knew not whither and might miss the purpose of God for his life now, if not hereafter.

What was it that kept him from the life for which he longed? What was the secret of his frequent failure and backsliding in heart? Was there something not fully surrendered, some disobedience or unfaithfulness to light? Fervently he prayed that God would show him the hindrance whatever it might be, and enable him to put it away. He had come to an end of self, to a place where only God could deliver, where he must have His succour, His enlightenment, His aid. It was a life-and-death matter. Everything seemed at stake. Like one of old he was constrained to cry, 'I will not let thee go except thou bless me.'

And then, alone upon his knees, a great purpose arose within him. If only God would work on his behalf, would break the power of sin and save him, spirit soul and body, for time and eternity, he would renounce all earthly prospects and be utterly at His disposal. He would go anywhere, do anything, suffer whatever His cause might demand, and be wholly given to His will and service. This was the cry of his heart; nothing held back –  if only God would deliver him and keep him from falling.

'Never shall I forget', he wrote, 'the feeling that came over me then. Words can never describe it. I felt I was in the presence of God, entering into covenant with the Almightly. I felt as though I wished to withdraw my promise, but could not. Something seemed to say "Your prayer is answered, your conditions are accepted". And from that time the conviction never left me that I was called to China.'

Same old stuff

"If you're not satisfied with the permanent output of your life it could be that you're just spinning your wheels, never engaged in what really counts."
G Campbell White

Most of life just seems to be dealing with the same old stuff: busyness, temptations, struggles, tiredness and such. What sparked off this thought was reading my journal from 5 years ago. I read it, and I realised it's all the same old stuff! Over and over, round and round. It's easy to think "when I get past this issue [insert your issue] life will be better and I can really focus". But maybe those same struggles will be there for the rest of our lives. Maybe we'll never get past them, maybe we can only get on top of them.

Maybe we have to shape-up and realise that all of life is a fight. Rather than be all overcome, living a half-hearted Christian life, we have to get on top and beat all of that stuff into submission. Otherwise, in 20 years time, it's going to be the same old story.

Again, it seems to come down to this whole analogy of a fight, or a war. It's so easy to forget, yet so prominent in the bible:

"the whole world is under the control of the evil one"
1 John 5:19

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 6:12

The route word of "disciple" is "discipline"

Sometimes I think that we, in the love of the teachings on grace, are so afraid of being legalistic that we fail to be disciplined. We're so scared of having a structured, regimented approach to reading the bible and prayer that we only do them when we're in the mood. We inevitably forget about them altogether and lead a sloppy Christian life.

But then, the whole point of the Great Commission is to "go and make disciples", to make followers of Jesus who are disciplined. Being a Christian is like walking a narrow path along the summit of a great ridge. There's slopes either side, and the place you want to be is right in the middle.



Sometimes we back so far off from legalism (or moralism) that we can slip off the other side. Surely diligence in the spiritual disciplines is a very good thing. You don't earn any holy points by doing them. They simply put you in the right place to hear from God.

Your perception of things

It seems to be that your perception of things is never quite right. Through the process of thought, pretty much everything gets distorted to one degree or another. Like how your work college or spouse will react to a particular issue. Certain issues become much bigger in your mind, but when they actually play out in reality, it's different to what you expected, and not a big deal.

Other issues are perceived smaller. Maybe our perception of sin and particular habits become too small in our minds. They're placed to one side, when really they have a far greater influence in our lives than we would like to admit.

This all leads to a question –  do we ever perceive things clearly, as they actually are? Or are we always off?

Perhaps your mind and your patterns of thought is like a lens that distorts. And perhaps the written word of God is like a lens that corrects. We only see things as they are when we come back to the bible.

Loneliness

"The open discussion of loneliness is the most taboo subject in the world. Forget sex, politics or religion or even failure, loneliness is what clears out a room"
Douglas Coupland, Miss Wyoming, 1999

Sounds about right.

If you don't have a budget, you won't have any money

Working on your accounts is like fine tuning an engine. If it's done well you can get an awful lot out of it. Life becomes much more satisfying and you have a real peace of mind about what you spend and what you give to God. When every penny is assigned as 'worship', suddenly, every day has a new sense of purpose behind it. A little bit of discipline can really free you up.

On the other hand, if you pay no attention to it, ignore it, bury your head in the sand; all sorts of problems develop. Your finances become wasteful and inefficient. Money is frittered away and you can easily accumulate debt. Your peace of mind goes out the window, your soul feels uneasy.

"A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man."
Proverbs 24:33-34

I've heard a lot of sermons on why you should give, but very few on how to give. I thinks there's a general assumption, somewhere along the line, that people actually know how to budget. For years and years I didn't have a clue. It's one of those things that seems obvious when you know how. But if no one has taught you, you're lost at sea. You're stumbling around in the dark.

But one thing that is clear – when you work so hard to earn cash, surely wisdom should govern its distribution. Hard earned cash that is frittered away on things that don't matter is a life consumed with toil, debt and fruitlessness. Effectively managing your accounts is one of the most important elements of your life's work.

At my life group, I plan for us to share effective ideas on how we give to God and manage our accounts. In this, I'm making the assumption that we know why we should give and that we want to be a cheerful give. Here are some of my own techniques I've used in the past, and the ones my wife and I are currently using.


1) Account for every penny.

When I first decided to really tackle my accounts head-on, I decided to write down every penny I spent. To my horror I realised that in that very month I had spent over £300 on socialising and convenience foods. Going out to pubs, eating out, trips to the cinema, drinking Coca-Cola. It honestly didn't feel like I had spent that much. It 'felt' like I had spent about £100. It's easy to forget what you did last week. And it's incredible how expenses add up.

Question: If an accountant was to examine your finances, would he find that Jesus was a priority?

In a lack of discipline I would spend too much on clothes and CDs. And then in a lack of finances I would fail to give God anything. If you're budgeting for the first time, going through the last 6 months of bank statements can be a real eye-opener, and quite painful.


2) Develop a list of averages.

Keep all your receipts and tally up average amounts on a monthly basis. Over the course of a year you can work out average expenses for pretty much everything. Here's a list of what my current averages include:

– Church Giving
– Food
– Clothing
– Socialising
– Rent
– Car Insurance
– Car Maintenance
– Car Servicing
– Car Tax
– Home Insurance
– Home Expenses
– Dentist
– Glasses
– Gym
– Car & Bike Repayments
– Life Insurance
– Mobile Phone
– Sky
– TV license
– Card Protection
– Holidays & Special Events
– Weddings
– Stag Do's
– Haircuts / Beauty
– Presents
– General savings

Developing this list helps you learn exactly what you need to budget each month and pay into savings. In particular, you need to work out all the seemingly random and unexpected expenses (such as weddings and stag-do's). Otherwise, you get caught out.

In this, highlight all the items on the list that you would regard as 'worship' to God. Interestingly, most of the items are necessary in life (most, not all!). And a lot have a question mark over them. These are the open-ended ones, such as food, clothing, socialising, holidays, presents, phone tariff and type of vehicle. They can all be governed with wisdom and diligence, or they can be self indulgent and reckless. These will make or brake the bank.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God."
1 Corinthians 10:31


3) Determine the open-ended expenses.

– Food
– Clothing
– Convenience foods
– Socialising
– Presents
– Random purchases

These are the day-to-day expenses that can go off the scale if left unchecked. The most effective way that Lynsey and I have dealt with this is to have a weekly cash allowance. We worked out that we get £25 each per week, and out of that we have to cover all of the above. All birthday, Christmas, wedding presents, clothes etc come out of this. We have to save up in advance for lots of these.

We've found it to be a brilliant method as when the money in your wallet is gone, that's it for the week. You know you won't go over budget. And anything you buy, you know you can afford and you feel good!


4) Keep on top of it.

It only takes 30 minutes every week or so. Regular updates to your charts means you can remember what the expenditures on your bank statements relate to. Constantly updating your averages and budget keeps things in check. Apparently the very act of keeping accounts improves your spending, as you're mindful of your finances.


5) Find peace about your church giving.

It's not about 10%, it's about generosity. There's nothing in the New Testament about giving 10%. In reality, when you study the early church, they all appear to give much more than this. Old Testament tithing was effectively the Jewish taxation system, and was actually about 25% of their total income per year. The 10% figure is just a reference to the largest part.

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
2 Corinthians 9:7

Would you ever want a present off a friend who gave it reluctantly because they felt they had to? You would probably feel awkward, and wish they hadn't felt obliged. In stark contrast, how much would you love to get a gift from a friend who was really excited to give it to you, and couldn't wait to see the look on your face! You would love it.

I think each one of us has to find the right level of giving and the right heart that produces this excited attitude. In one sense, the cost has to be there. The gift has to be worth something to us to contain meaning; but not to the level that it breaks the bank and causes us to freak out.

What feels too low? What feels too high? I think you can home-in on a figure that your heart really feels at peace with, that makes your faith muscles stretch but not tear.

Any thoughts?

If you just stopped moaning you might actually be happy

I felt God really speak to me clearly this week. And he said that I ought to stop moaning about everything. Life is hard work, yes. And you don't get much time to yourself and you're often quite tired. All good points, but you constantly moan!

What sparked it off was watching an older work colleague of mine who's had a tough week, and was sick, but was cheerful all the way through it. I realised that if I can do what I do, but in a cheerful spirit, I would be an awful lot happier. And my works would be a lot more pleasing to God.

"If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:3

It's like, if I short-curcuited that whole meditation process where I get really manked-off with everything, my whole outlook on life would lift dramatically. It's not so much the moaning, which is really just the symptom, it's the meditation process that's the real issue. The process of churning things in your mind over and over.

"As a man thinks in his heart so is he"
Proverbs 23:7

Anyway, a good bit of repentance is the order of the day. Which makes me think. Repentance almost makes sense to be done as a weekly habit. Surely lots of little acts of realignment with God are much better than the big dramatic acts of repentance that only occur when your whole life is devastated. A thought to dwell on.

The Bible: the Perfect Word of God?

"As Jesus Christ was totally human and totally divine, so is the bible. All scripture is witness to God, given by divinely illuminated human writers, and all Scripture witnessing to himself in and through their words."
ESV Study Bible, Crossway, p2569

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:16-17

It seems there are two essential views inside Christianity. The first is that every word is the breath of God, written by men, directed by the Holy Spirit. It is a divine work and completely free from error. The second is that it's a collection of 'trustworthy' books. Like reading someone's diary. Essentially good but ultimately a human work with many flaws, errors and imperfections.

Here's some of my own observations...

Observation #1
Unless the bible is the perfect word of God, completely without error, it's as good as useless. If you don't believe it's perfect, you can pick and choose what to believe, skipping over sections you don't like. You are free to disagree with scripture at any point. It becomes increasingly vague and not very useful. Which is a problem.

Observation #2
The bible reads like the very words of God. I've never read a book like it. It cuts down to your very soul. You're refreshed by reading it. You feel anchored, like you're plugging into the source. There's something within you that seems to confirm that these words are very, very good. I would say this is the Holy Spirit at work in you as you read the bible. Maybe one way of plugging into the Holy Spirit is simply to read your bible.

Observation #3
The actual writings of the bible stretch out over a period of 1500 years. In this period of time over 25% of the written words are prophecy, predicting future events. These events later occur with stunning accuracy. One example is found in Daniel 9:26-26 which foretells the exact date Jesus Christ would come to Jerusalem. The mathematics are staggering when you look into them. There's a real supernatural side of the bible that is grounded in historical fact. That makes it immensely interesting.

Observation #4
According to The Resurrection Factor by Josh McDowell, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can be proved in a modern day court of law. This is a claim based on historical evidence which validates the central character of the bible as the son of God.

Observation #5
Ultimately, we believe the bible is the word of God because it claims to be. The most direct claim is 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Nothing else can be higher than the word of God in order to validate it's claim. Historical evidence, reason, experience and such can all point to it, but can never themselves pass judgment on the bible as they are under it.

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Anyway, it turns out this is rather a massive subject and delving into all the specifics hurts my brain! To check out how the bible was put together, and how God oversaw the whole process, listen to Wayne Grudem on The Authority and Inerrancy of the Bible

The Existence of God

"Think for a minute of a marble table in front of you. Do you think that, given a trillion years or infinite time, this table could suddenly or gradually become conscious, aware of it's surroundings, aware of its identity the way you are? It is simply inconceivable that this would or could happen. And the same goes for any kind of matter."
Antony Flew

Today one of my reoccurring brain-melting thoughts came back to me. I was on my lunch break staring at my empty coke bottle and realised that the fact that anything exists defies all logic. The glass bottle shouldn't exist. Neither should the table it's sitting on. Everything that exists must have been created by something preceeding it.

And therefore nothing should exist.

Not empty space, not time, not a vaccum, not even the colour black. They are all things that came from somewhere. The fact that existence exists is insane. But here we are, in an incredibly complex, finely tuned universe; and it defies all reason.

You cannot believe that the universe has always been there.

Whether you believe in a universe or a multiverse, or that the Big Bang / Big Crunch cycle has occurred millions of times; it all had to come from somewhere. Nothing comes from nothing. An eternally existing universe is inexplicable. An eternally existing God makes sense. It's not a 50-50 take your pick.

You can ask all the same questions about God which you ask about the universe. Where did God come from? What caused him to exist? How can he have no beginning? But God is spirit and he is completely separate from the universe. How can you reason through, study, understand or theorise about a being in which you have no scientific knowledge and can never observe? His existence is entirely different from ours in every way.

As Flew puts it, "God's existence is inexplicable to us, but not to God".

Dissecting Verses: Romans 15:13

"May the God of hope ¹ fill you ² with all joy and peace ³ as ⁴ you trust ⁵ in him, so that you may overflow ⁶ with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit ⁷."

My thoughts...

¹ God is being described here as the God of hope. That immediately raises the question "why?". God is many, many things and this is just one of his attributes. It's because, I think, it is incredibly easy to despair in this life. Hope is very good, and this is a reminder that God is the source.

² "fill you" → the notion of filling implies that you can be full or you can be empty, or somewhere in between. Perhaps you can have a certain measure of hope in your soul at any given time. Perhaps it's something that rises and falls, and changes over time. Maybe it's something that depletes if left unattended.

³ "all joy and peace" → who wouldn't want that? Is there a man or woman alive who wouldn't want to be completely full of joy and peace? Isn't this the void in our lives that the world is incessantly trying fill with all sorts of idols and pleasures? I would guess this is the thing most people spend their lives in search of.

An interesting definition of peace which I've heard is this: "peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of God, even in the most troubled situation". Also, I've often heard joy described as a sort of consistent inner state, like a thermostat setting on your life; distinguishable from happiness which is simply an emotion experienced at a particular moment in time.

⁴ "as" → a crucial point. It's the key link in the chain, a conditional pivot point. It's something that we have to choose to do, and simply won't happen by itself. Suggests that our default position is a distinct lack of hope, joy and peace.

⁵ "trust" → I don't know about you, but I tend not to trust people I don't know. To trust God requires you to know him on a personal level. To have a relationship with someone you need to spend time with them, interacting, listening and speaking. Meditation and prayer are the order of the day. My dictionary describes trust as "firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something". This firm belief has to be rooted in our knowledge and experience of God in our day-to-day lives.

⁶ "overflow" → it's back to this idea of filling. The level at which God wants you to be full of hope is the level at which you are completely overflowing. It spills out on the people around you.

⁶ "by the power of the Holy Spirit" → suggests that a mark of being full of the Holy Spirit is your level of hope. If it's a quality that is severely lacking in our lives then it suggests we need to trust in God again. We need to go back to the word of God and re-align ourselves.

Dissecting Verses

Hannah, a girl in my life group, reminded us of the importance of memorising scripture last week. And it's a really good point. I'm horrendously bad at memorising verses. In the past I've tried for up to three weeks to memorise a single one-line verse, repeating it over and over every day. But it never sticks. I can vaguely remember what the verse is about and roughly where it is in the bible, but that's about it. I don't have the most effective memory.

However, even though I don't have the best memory, it does work through a certain process that I think is very beneficial. The act of churning the verse over and over works it into your soul. And the meaning really starts to mature as you look at it from different angles. You automatically start to dissect it in your head. It's definitely a quality not quantity approach to reading the bible. And definitely something I want to do more of.

Somewhere in the middle

Most of my friends and people I've met over the years haven't been atheists. But you couldn't really describe them as agnostics or theists. They're floating around somewhere in the middle, sort of believing in a God but not really sure.

Antony Flew's book, "There Is A God", which I'm reading through at the moment came up with some very interesting points:

"Anthony Kenny ... suggested that it takes more effort to show that you know something than that you do not (this includes even the claim that the concept of God is not coherent)."
p54

It's so easy not to have a thought-through set of beliefs or at least opinions. It requires effort – a little bit of study and research. Even as a Christian you can be absent from any real convictions. Because convictions require a backbone of knowledge and understanding, and those are formed by gradual growth over time.

But your convictions are surely what makes you useful as a human being.

Interestingly, going back to Flew's book...

"The Thomist philosopher Ralph McInerny reasoned that it is natural for human beings to believe in God because of the order, arrangement, and lawlike character of natural events. So much so, he said, that the idea of God is almost innate, which seems like a prima facie argument against atheism."
p55

No one's born a Christian. And it seems no one's born an atheist or an agnostic. All those things require a system of belief, a formation of opinions, which babies don't have. It seems that floating around somewhere in the middle is the default position. A point from which not everyone progresses.

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Similar blog: It's good to have an opinion, even if you're wrong

Antony Flew on Evolution

Some more from Antony Flew:

In my book Darwinian Evolution, I pointed out that natural selection does not positively produce anything. It only eliminates, or tends to eliminate, whatever is not competitive. A variation does not need to bestow any actual competitive disadvantage. To choose a rather silly illustration, suppose I have useless wings tucked away under my suit coat, wings that are too weak to lift my frame off the ground. Useless as they are, these wings do not enable me to escape predators or gather food. But as long as they don't make me more vulnerable to predators, I will probably survive to reproduce and pass on my wings to my descendants. Darwin's mistake in drawing too positive an inference with his suggestion that natural selection produces something was perhaps due to his employment of the expressions "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest" rather than his own ultimately preferred alternative, "natural preservation".

'There Is A God' by Antony Flew, p78-9

I also read a few years ago, I think in some Christian scientist magazine, that any mutation that did prove beneficial to an animal (something that's never been witnessed), within a few generations that mutation would become so dilute in the gene pool it would be as if it never occurred.

Antony Flew on the "Monkey Theorem"

Here is an outrageously long quote from Antony Flew, which I've included for the simple reason that it's really good, and I love it. Made a few highlights.

I was particularly impressed with Gerry Schroeder's point-by-point refutation of what I call the "monkey theorem." This idea, which has been presented in a number of forms and variations, defends the possibility of life arising by chance using the analogy of a multitude of monkeys banging away on computer keyboards and eventually ending up writing a Shakespearean sonnet.

Schroeder first referred to an experiment conducted by the British National Council of Arts. A computer was placed in a cage with six monkeys. After one month of hammering away at it (as well as using it as a bathroom!), the monkeys produced fifty typed pages – but not a single word in the English language. Schroeder noted that this was the case even though the shortest word in the English language is one letter (a or I). A is a word only if there is a space either side of it. If we take it that the keyboard has thirty characters (the twenty-six letters and other symbols), then the likelihood of getting a one-letter word is 30 times 30 times 30, which is 27,000. The likelihood of getting a one-letter word is one chance out of 27,000.

Schroeder then applied the probabilities to the sonnet analogy. "What's the chance of getting a Shakespearean sonnet?" he asked. He continued:


All the sonnets are the same length. They're by definition fourteen lines long. I picked the one I knew the opening line for, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" I counted the number of letters; there are 488 letters in that sonnet. What's the likelihood of hammering away and getting 488 letters in the exact sequence as in "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"? What you end up with is 26 multiplied by itself 488 times – or 26 to the 488th power. Or, in other words, in base 10, 10 to the 690th.

[Now] the number of particles in the universe –  not grains of sand, I'm talking about protons, electrons and neutrons –  is 10 to the 80th. Ten to the 80th is 1 with 80 zeros after it. Ten to the 690th is 1 with 690 zeros after it. There are not enough particles in the universe to write down the trials; you'd be off by a factor of 10 to the 600th.

If you took the entire universe and converted it to computer chips –  forget the monkeys –  each one weighing a millionth of a gram and had each computer chip able to spin out 488 trials at, say, a million times a second [producing] random letters, the number of trials you would get since the beginning of time would be 10 to the 90th trials. It would be off again by a factor of 10 to the 600th. You will never get a sonnet by chance. The universe would have to be 10 to the 600th times larger. Yet the world just thinks the monkeys can do it every time.

After hearing Schroeder's presentation, I told him that he had very satisfactorily and decisively established that the "monkey theorem" was a load of rubbish, and that it was particularly good to do it with just a sonnet; the theorem is sometimes proposed using the works of Shakespeare or a single play, such as Hamlet. If the theorem won't work for a single sonnet, then of course it's simply absurd to suggest that the more elaborate feat of the origin of life could have been achieved by chance.

'There Is A God' by Antony Flew, p75-8

Antony Flew on DNA

The following is a long quote from Antony Flew's book title "There is a God: how the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind".

The last of my public debates, a symposium at New York University, occurred in May 2004 ... To the surprise of all concerned, I announced at the start that I now accepted the existence of a God ... In the video of the symposium, the announcer suggested that of all the great discoveries of modern science, the greatest was God.

In this symposium, when asked if recent work on the origin of life pointed to the activity of a creative Intelligence, I said:


Yes, I now think it does ... almost entirely because of the DNA investigations. What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinary diverse elements to work together. It's the enormous complexity of the number of elements and the enormous subtlety of the ways they work together. The meeting of these two parts at the right time by chance is simply minute. It is all a matter of the enormous complexity by which the results we achieved, which looked to me like the work of intelligence."

'There Is A God' by Antony Flew, p74-5

The truth they were hiding

These quotes speak for themselves really, about how powerful the way a Christian lives his life is. These are quite negative quotes which remind us how damaging it is to claim the name of Christ, yet continue to live a carnal, seemingly godless existence.

You can know all the right arguments to 'be a good witness' but everything that you get up to just hangs off your spirit. People see through the haze...

"I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be in vain. But it was hopeless. He had know too many blind Christians, bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding"
Katharine Trait, 'My Father, Bertrand Russell'

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Mahatma Gandhi

“The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
Brennan Manning

Video resources for Life Group (Part 1)

Francis Chan: Crazy Love DVD
Excellent. Watch a few chapters and discuss each one with the group. Don't need the group to read through the book as the DVD works well as a standalone resource. I came up with all my own discussion questions for a more personal touch.

Ask Pastor John Podcast
http://www.desiringgod.org
Each video is about 3 to 8 minutes long and John Piper answers all sorts of different questions. Hundreds to choose from. I downloaded 15 of what I thought were the most apt for my life group and got them to vote on the ones they wanted to watch. Viewed 3 or 4 each evening. Very very good. Used 'Roxio Toast' to burn them onto a DVD as video.

Mars Hill Church Seattle YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/mhcseattle
Very good short clips for generating discussions. Watching a DVD longer than 20 minutes doesn't tend to work in a life group setting, so these clips tend to be very good. Use http://keepvid.com to rip videos from YouTube and Roxio Toast to burn the video onto DVD.

Mars Hill Church Seattle Website
http://www.marshillchurch.org
The preaches tend to be much too long for a life group evening. But some of the shorter clips a great, such as 'The Peasant Princess' Q&A sessions. Can generate a lot of discussions.

The Unforgivable Sin

"Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven."
Matthew 12:31

On a very interesting note, my ESV commentary defines this sin: "this sin is committed today only by unbelievers who deliberately and unchangeably reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit in calling them to salvation."

I think what's interesting is that the commentary defines what the sin against the Holy Spirit actually is. That verse always scared the life out of me previously, because I simply didn't know what it meant, and whether or not I was guilty of it.

All very interesting stuff. Obviously the commentary is just one man's perspective on the verse and could well be wrong to some degree. But it does spark a lot of thought. Does the Holy Spirit work in all people everywhere, calling them to Him? Has everyone on earth been ministered to in some way by the Holy Spirit? And everyone who remains unsaved – have they all rejected the work of the Spirit in their lives?

I'm not sure you can definitely back those statements up with scripture (maybe I'm wrong!). But the following verses do hint at it. They state that God desires all people to be saved, and that it can only happen by the Holy Spirit.

"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
2 Peter 3:9

"No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit."
1 Corinthians 12:3b

Frustrations, time, and spiritual muscle

A lot of life is very hard work. Constant toil and struggles –  you pretty much have to fight to get the time to do anything, and put up with being knackered as a result. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe God's allowing it all to happen to basically put you through a training regime.

"You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
Matthew 22:37

This is basically saying 'love God with everything you've got. Inside and out. Engage the whole of yourself in this task'.

When you have to engage your whole body against resistance for sustained periods of time to tend to do two things. You lose a bit of fat and gain a bit of muscle.

Maybe this is what God has got in mind for us on a spiritual level. To actually get time to read your bible and pray each day can take a lot of effort. And it makes us spiritually strong. If it was all too easy we'd become doughnuts.

He was talking about us

One thing that really struck me today was thinking about when Jesus died on the cross, he said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

Previously when I read this I always thought he was simply referring to the immediate people around him who were crucifying him, and it in no way related to me in the present day.

But really, it's a prayer that reaches all the way through time. We all crucified Christ. And none of us knew it until we really got to grips with the gospel. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"... he was talking about all of us.

Hate can be a good thing

"The man who lived in this constant fellowship with God manifested in his daily life all the fruits of the spirit ... and with them was a hatred of their opposites – a loathing of every form of sin"
'Spurgeon: A New Biography' by Arnold Dallimore

Hate is something I definitely don't have enough of. Do I really hate the sin in my life, or do I half enjoy it? Do I accommodate it because it's easy to? And when I sin, do I go all inward-looking and self-defeatist?
Surely we should stir up an intense hatred of Satan.

I think you could argue that all sin is essentially demonic in nature, because to sin is to rebel against God. And that's what the demons did. Giving in to temptation is to go against the very being that sustains the universe and gives you life. Hatred of sin and Satan could well be another weapon in your pursuit of holiness.

Incredibly hard workers

One thing that's really come to mind from reading a number of biographies is that the people worth writing books about are always incredibly hard workers and very passionate people. None of them were slack. None of them were half-hearted. None of them started well, only to lose their way later on. They didn't backslide. They all persevered right the way through their lives to the very end.

A very interesting note I think. Although it's all about grace, to actually produce a life of meaning and substance requires hard work, diligence and real grasp of holiness. And these need to be sustained through all the years we live on earth.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
Romans 12:11

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
1 Corinthians 15:58

Most Excellent Podcasts

These are by far the best podcasts I've come across, and would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to listen to preaches while they commute, go to the gym, do the house work etc.

Mark Driscoll
Mars Hill Church, Seattle
http://rss.marshillchurch.org/mhcsermonaudio
Some of the best preaching I've ever heard covering every topic imaginable.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
http://podcast.oneplace.com/living_grace/3892126.xml
Brilliant teaching from a dead guy. Has an awesome accent.

John Piper
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis.
http://www.desiringgod.org/feeds/SermonAudio/
Super-smart guy. Very well rounded.

Ravi Zacharias
http://www.rzim.org/rss/RSS-LMPT.aspx
Christian apologetics. Clever stuff!

Matt Chandler
The Village Church, Texas
http://www.thevillagechurch.net/podcast/sermons.xml
Sounds like Mark Driscoll's hilarious younger brother. In his 30’s. Also has a terminal brain tumour, which makes his teaching very real.

Tim Keller
Redeemer Presbyterian, New York City
http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sites/sermons2.redeemer.com/files/RSS_Feeds/Timothy_Keller_Podcasts.xml
Another clever guy.

Ian McCormack
http://www.aglimpseofeternity.org/media/media.xml
This New Zealand guy got stung five times by a box jellyfish and died. He then came back to life and these set of talks relate his experiences of heaven, hell and loads of other spiritual stuff. Definitely worth a listen.

Temptation, Meditation & Prayer

Spurgeon:

"He was well versed in the three things which, according to Luther, make a minister: temptation, meditation and prayer."
James Douglas, 'The Prince Of Preachers', 1894

I like this quote as it seems to lay out a string of three key areas: resisting temptation, having you're head in the bible and praying. Tie them all together and you could be a sharp tool in the hand of God.

Humility is Masculine (Part 2)

I've been pondering on the whole idea of humility, and how it is a very masculine trait. Instead of making you 'meek and mild' it frees you up for greater and bolder works. It enables you to roll with the punches, absorb jabs, brushing them off unscathed.

To grasp your own insignificance is a good thing. The vastness of the universe is mind blowing*. And to think that God measures the heavens with the span of his hand nearly makes my head explode (see Isaiah 40:12). God is big, we are small.

To be less conscious and worried about self is the opposite of pride (which is the original sin committed by Satan, and seems to be every persons default position). Humility, I think, is when your focus shifts from looking at yourself to looking at God. The less mindful you are about self, the less worried you'll be about the opinions of others. In turn, this frees you up for attempting greater and bolder works.

So what if you fail miserably? So what if you experience a bit of embarrassment or criticism? When you grasp how small you are, the less worried you'll be about it.

Ironically, this could produce the sort of man that the world celebrates: a risk taker, bold acts, unfazed by pain and hardships and the weight of other people's opinions. The difference being that you're not self-assured, but engulfed in the hugeness of God.

----- -----

*Interestingly, I recently learnt that the universe is the precise size that it needs to be in order to support carbon-based life forms. Any smaller, and human beings would not exist.

Is God outside of time? (Part 2)

I went to a seminar by Michael Ramsden (European director of RZIM Zacharias Trust) at Momentum and asked him if he thought God was outside of time. Interestingly, he was certain that He was, talking about the space-time continuum being part of creation, and that God was external to this.

Apparently Christians have been saying for centuries that time had a finite beginning (rather than something that always existed). And this idea had been ridiculed by secular thinking. Until, of course, the Big Bang theory. This initially scared a lot of scientists because it confirmed Christian thought on time. Many of them rallied against the theory because they didn't want anything that seemed to confirm the biblical account of creation.

Anyway – bible verses – always useful! Michael Ramsden mentioned that there are four verses in the New Testament that talk about God existing before the 'age of time', i.e. before time was actually created. I've done my best to find them:

1 Corinthians 2:7
No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

2 Timothy 1:9
This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

Titus 1:2
a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.

Jude 1:25
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Proverbs 30:8-9

I really liked Oli Stevens' preach from 9th August "Rich Towards God'. One of his points was that storing up money can decensortise you to God, because you no longer need to rely on him. Like putting on a glove – it reduces your sense of touch.

Interesting that in the Lord's prayer it says 'give us our daily bread' i.e. give us just enough for today. As Proverbs 30:8-9 says:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

Your sin and your prayer life are inversely connected

"Spurgeon preached "strongly and plainly upon the necessity of giving up sin, in order to succeed in prayer," and he spoke against the seemingly unimportant little habits many Christians practice that keep them from true fellowship with God."
'Spurgeon: A New Biography' by Arnold Dallimore

This see-saw relationship between sin and prayer has never actually occurred to me before. But thinking about it, it's such an obvious point. When one goes up, the other goes down. The best way to overcome sin: increase your prayer life.

We (my wife and I) were listening to the 'Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus' hymn (which I flippin' love!) in the car yesterday and it totally echos that point:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

The best way to look overcome sin is to look directly at the son. When you look at something incredibly bright you can't make out other objects in your peripheral vision. They're completely overpowered and out of focus. Life isn't about being consumed with your sin, obsessively trying to resist and overcome, it's about being consumed with Jesus: his glory and grace.

Humility is Masculine (Part 1)

Another quick thought (and one which I'll expand on later) is that humility and repentance are both very masculine traits when you think about it. They're the mark of a true Christian. As Luther said, 'all of life is repentance'.

They're also very difficult to achieve. They're the opposite of human nature. To achieve them requires strength, perseverance, endurance, boldness, courage and faith. There's nothing easy about that, but the more you think about it, the more these traits fit in with true masculinity.

People are of infinite value

Just a quick thought: because people are eternal beings, it follows that they are of infinite value. They are the only things you can take with you when you die. If you're whole life was about being a 'link in the chain' of just one person coming to know Christ, you've achieved something of eternal significance and worth.

A reminder: life hangs by a thread

"When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust."
Psalm 104:29

It was about 11pm last Wednesday evening (22nd July) and my wife and I had been driving for just under 4 hours. We were traveling back from Alton Towers and were 20 minutes from home on an unlit stretch of the A22. It was very dark, wet, narrow, and overtaking wasn't really feasible. We were traveling at 50 to 60 mph, as was the oncoming traffic.

As we drove past a lorry traveling in the other direction, a pair of headlights suddenly pierced our vision. They stared us directly in the face, on our side of the road, and just a few meters in front. A car stuck behind the lorry had embarked on an overtaking maneuver purely based on blind faith; threatening a head-on collision at over 100mph.

It was like the driver had made an insane life or death gamble and got it completely wrong. All to save a few minutes.

Lynsey slammed on the brakes and in a panic started swerving left and right (but there was nowhere to go). I have no idea how we made it past, but it was very, very close. If we had been traveling slightly faster, or were slightly closer... if Lynsey had reacted just a fraction later, the cars would have impacted on the driver's side of each bonnet. Lynsey would have been crushed. The two cars probably would have spun, sending the other car under the lorry (involving death, cripplement or general pain and manglement).

Incidents like these remind you that life hangs by a thread and you're totally in the hands of God. Yesterday my mum remembered that just a year or so back my little brother Andy had nearly drowned in a rip tide off the coast of South Africa (and made the local headlines!). When I was 14, one of my best friends simply dropped dead, without warning, in his neighbours back yard.

We assume we'll live to be all old and wrinkled, but the truth is life can end like the flick of a switch – completely unexpectedly and in an instant. No one knows when their time is up.

The infectious nature of sin

"A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough."
Galations 5:9

Musing on the infectious nature of sin, are we ever really aware of how much our actions are reproduced in others? Like shouting in a valley, the noise travels forward, bouncing from wall to wall as it goes. Our sin echos through our friends, family, co-workers, and then onto complete strangers.

Or perhaps it's like a stack of dominoes. As one falls, it makes a contact with the next, causing that one to topple over. The chain continues on and on.

It's like we're so focused on ourselves that we don't notice the outward effect of sin. We think it's our struggle, our own fight, and it starts and ends with us. In reality, it's not just ourselves we're fighting for, but the repercussion of struggles and actions that emanate.

Could the reverse also be true? Could the man who rigorously pursues God, resists evil and sets about the Lord's work, infectiously strike up similar actions and reactions in those around him?

Premature birth?

I've been thinking for a while that it's quite possible to be too eager to see people 'converted'; to pray the sinners payer and chalk them on the list of souls won for Christ. Like a premature birth, a person who converts without experiencing the full conviction of sin, or considering the cost of following Christ, produces a weak and vulnerable baby.

"Possibly, much of the flimsy piety of the present day arises from the ease with which men attain to peace and joy in these evangelistic days... Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Saviour. He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate evil with which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed."
Charles Spurgeon, 1890, Autobiography

Spurgeon's methods for determining salvation were strict, and when true salvation in a person's life was not evident, they were posted in the churches List of Refusals – people to be revisited later on. As his biography states "He truly believed in hell, and he recognised the awful responsibility should he give some person cause to believe he was saved if there was no evidence that it was so."

The following are three marks of true conversion which Spurgeon's church looked for when dealing with a person tesifying that they had come to know Christ:

One, had the person, knowing himself to be a sinner and unable to do anything toward saving himself, gone to God, begging for mercy, and had entirely trusted his soul to Christ, believing in the saving merit of His death upon the cross? [This individual experience of the soul with God was the unalterable and basic necessity, and without it there was no recognition of the person as truly converted.]

Two, had the person entered into newness of life, experiencing a change of affections, victory over sins, a love for the Word of God, and a desire to win others to Christ?

Three, did he or she possess a basic understanding of the doctrines of grace, recognising that salvation did not begin with himself or his own will, but with God's choice and God's action, and that God, who saved him, would keep him through time and through eternity?

From Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore, p81.

Calvinism vs Arminianism... meh!

"If I am asked what is my creed, I reply, "It is Jesus Christ" ... Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the Gospel, who is in Himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth and the life."
Charles H. Spurgeon

I like that. Although it's definitely good to have opinions and give things careful thought, mind-blowing subjects like predestination should never divide us. Are you a Calvinist or an Armenian? Surely the answer is neither. Neither of those two names are in the Bible. The name "Christ" is though. So maybe that's a good name to be associated with.

Interesting, I recently learnt that Jacobus Arminius was John Calvin's son-in-law, and considered Calvin's teachings to be the greatest outside of the New Testament. So where's the big divide?

A definition of success

"Success is knowing God's will for your life and setting out to do what God has called you to do. Success is not the measure of accolades, the measure of other people's opinions; but it's that inner knowing that you have found God's purpose, fulfilling it in your daily life."

Jack Shaw in the "Let My People Think" podcast by Ravi Zacharias.

Little and Often

The pastor of my church, Graham Marsh, preached yesterday on working in '15 minutes of inconvenience' into everyday. Little tiny acts of kindness, such as buying a Big Issue, or helping someone out in a way people wouldn't normally think to do. Just random little things that take a little bit of time, effort and inconvenience.

I honestly think that God dropped that into my mind about 8 years ago, but stupidly I just thought about it and never actually did it. I thought of carrying £2 coins in my bag to give to homeless people when they asked for change. I know that people think they'll just waist it on alcohol, but even if they do, at least you've expressed a tiny fraction of God's heart and grace towards them.

It's a brilliant idea when you think about it. Small acts of kindness on a day-to-day basis over the course of your life adds up to a lot of works.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me... I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
Matthew 25:35-40

Sin after salvation

The gospel is very good news because it tells us that everything's been put on Jesus. Every one of our sins – past, present and future – has been laid on him. The Christian stands before God with the righteousness and purity of Christ. There's not a spot of guilt or shame, but absolute holiness. And that's our position before God at this very minute.

But we still sin though right? Romans 7 confirms this. And we're still totally righteous before God in-spite of this. Romans 8:1 (the very next verse) confirms this.

But lets be honest... sin still has an effect on us.

I've been churning this over in my mind for the last couple of years, about the nature of sin. And I've started to think that maybe the Christian life is like climbing a mountain. When you enter into relationship with God it's like you're at the bottom; you've placed one foot on the beginning of the path.

At this point, you can see the immediate and most obvious sin that surrounds your life. As you mature and travel further up the path, your perspective changes. You're perspective becomes increasing closer to God's perspective. Interestingly, I've heard wisdom described as "thinking God's thoughts after Him".

As you look back over your life, more and more of your sin comes into view. Old things that you never previously considered now look ugly. Here, in this new position, the nature of sin is different. Instead of drowning in sin, it's now takes the form of a stumbling block.



The stumbling block can cause you to slip and lose ground already trodden. It can slow your momentum or completely halt your progress. Could it be that certain repeated sins completely halt the depth of your relationship with God? You're still in the same place (justified and on the path), but the ground beneath your feet ceases to increase.

It's good to have an opinion, even if you're wrong

Whatever the subject matter (but especially within Christianity), it's good to have an opinion. An opinion forms something solid that you can stand on, push against, or launch off.

Even if it's actually wrong, you have created something that can be realigned, repositioned or completely converted further down the line.

People who have no opinion aren't 'open-minded'. Their thoughts are nothingness; non-existent. It's like grasping the air.

Surely there's more hope for the gospel to take root in the man that hates God than the man that expresses no real thought. He simply says "that's nice".

––––––

Similar blog: Somewhere in the middle

Out of Focus

"Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other."
Isaiah 45:22

Here's an excerpt from Spurgeon's biography – the preach that brought about Spurgeon's conversion:

"It says 'look'. Now lookin' don't take a deal of pain. It ain't liftin' your foot or your finger; it's just 'look'. Well a man needn't go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look... look to Christ. The text says 'look unto Me'."

One of the things that occurred to me when reading this is that you can only look at one thing at a time. Everything else has to move out of focus and out of view. To look to God means you have to stop looking at yourself, and all your little idols.

Pretty Pious Words

A line from a biography of Spurgeon:

" I can readily tell when a brother is praying, or when he is only performing, or playing at prayer... Oh for a living groan! One sigh of the soul has more power in it than half an hour's recitation of pretty pious words."

It occurred to me that a good portion of my prayers are just 'head' prayers. I know what I should be praying and the sorts of things I should say. But I was thinking that that isn't very real.

Prayer has to come from the inner man. It has to have the full weight of your heart and soul behind it. Your gut needs to ache within you as you express the burden God's placed on your heart. Tired expressions, 'performance prayers' and formulaic routine surely can't have much weight. God must like a bit of passion from us! Girrrr!

Is God outside of Time? (Part 1)

This is one of my more random thoughts. Definitely not a major theological issue. More "sam-ology" than theology, but one which fascinates me.

"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day."
2 Peter 3:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End."
Revelation 22:13

"I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done"
Isaiah 46:9-12

"the One ... who inhabits eternity"
Isaiah 57:15

Could it be that God is completely separate from time? Is it possible that He isn't on a timeline; that he views future events with the exact same precision and clarity as He would view present and past events? Here's and illustration of what I mean...


view large

We're on the timeline in 2009. We can make vague predictions about what might happen in the future, but really, we haven't got a clue. We can also remember past events in our lifetime. We have records of history which give us some sort of a view of things that occurred further back.

But if God isn't bound by this timeline, like we are, then maybe He can see any future point in time exactly as He sees the present day. Over 25% of the Bible is prophecy, referring to future events. And the prophecies occur with stunning accuracy.

One view would be that God moulds and shapes events to fulfill His previous prophecies. The other would be that He knew from the beginning the exact unfolding of events. He knew before the creation of the Earth every thought in your head, every inclination of your heart, the movement of every atom in the universe.

This would make a lot of sense for a Sovereign God. He's totally in control, and views everything – past, present and future – with a perfect clarity.

A great act of faith is a boring testimony

So many of the Christians in my church and life group have been brought up in Christian homes, and known God from a very young age. Myself included. And it's awesome, plan A for your life. But they always seem to struggle with having a 'boring testimony'.

You hear all the stories of heroine addicts, the sexually promiscuous, and criminals, and you can't help but think that they know God in a way that you don't. They've experienced life without God, tasted all the world has to offer, and then came to Christ. They've got this massive contrast of experience.

We, on the other hand, haven't.

But that leads me to this whole idea of faith. Surely the biggest act of faith for the life-long Christian is to take someone else's word for it. To simply believe God, without experiencing those things for ourselves. It comes back to this verse:

"blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:29

That's what I think faith looks like for us.

Over-confidence in a 3 lb brain

I'm thinking that an awful lot of people exert far more confidence in the three-pound brain that sits between their ears than they really should. Watching videos such as Powers Of 10 or The Awe Factor of God completely blows my mind.

Discovering how incredibly vast the universe is makes me immediately think how incredibly small we are. The earth isn't even a fleck of dust. We are nothing. It really gives a stark reminder of our insignificance and smallness.

If science has lead to these sorts of discoveries, why hasn't it lead to a greater humility? Why do you get Richard Dawkins trying to convince the world God doesn't exist when the vastness and the age of the universe is completely beyond comprehension? Makes me think that on some levels, the smarter you get, the stupider you get.

Re-pent

I heard Rob Rufus a while back say a comment in one of his preaches, and the thought has stuck with me for quite a while. And it's this:

To repent is a very positive thing. The 'pent' part of the word means 'highest'. For example, a pent-house is the highest apartment in a building. So to re-pent means 'to go back to the highest way'. To me that's a very simple and positive concept. So often we think of it as getting on your knees, begging for mercy, hoping that we'll be spared from God's wrath!

This concept is re-inforced by a quote I just read by C.S. Lewis:

"[Repentance] is not something that God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose; it is simply a description of what going back is like."

How do you know you are saved?

This is the classic question the now retired founder of my church Don Smith used to drill us with. And as long as you knew Romans 10:9-10 you were safe! But this has got to be one of the most important questions to ask. I've been at my current church for 18 years, and one thing I can definitely say is that not everyone who believes they are a Christian is one.

Faith is tested over time through the course of life. Many people start well, hit a snag, and then drift off into the abyss. As Matthew 13:21 says "since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away." Being a Christian isn't easy.

"small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life,
and only a few find it."
Matthew 7:14

I never want to sow seeds of doubt about whether or not you are saved. But sometimes it's just not clear. If certain people I know died today, I would be left wondering whether or not they had gone to Hell, even though they professed to be Christians. And I hate that. As Paul said in Acts 26:20 "I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds."

I would totally stress the need to prove your salvation to yourself and everyone around you. To make it abundantly clear that you are what you say you are. A few additional verses which I feel support this viewpoint:

"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
James 2:17

"Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
Philippians 2:12

"Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure."
2 Peter 1:10

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The sinners prayer is nowhere in the bible.

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Francis Chan (a church pastor in California) pointed this out in a preach, and I found it quite provoking. Nowhere in the bible do you see a one paragraph prayer that makes you a Christian. Not that the sinners prayer is essentially bad, definitely not if you truly mean every word you pray. But really, it's a very very condensed summary of a process that can take months or years.

So what would you find if you just read the bible and let it speak for itself? I've done my best to collate all the verses that relate to salvation. In doing this, they seem to suggest a certain process:

believe in Jesus > realise you are a sinner in danger of Hell > repent > be baptised > regeneration & new life.

In this, repentance seems to be the clear point of salvation. But I would argue that what follows (baptism and regeneration) are key evidences of salvation. When these are missing you get either carnal or counterfeit Christians. There's no real proof and a lot of uncertainty.

Below are the verses. This takes the form of a handout which I produced for one of my life group talks... hope it's useful!

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1. Believe in Jesus Christ

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"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
Romans 10:9-10

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16

By believing in Jesus, you are not merely believing that he existed, but you are believing in everything he said and did. This includes believing that:

He is the Son of God (Mark 14:61-64, John 8:58-59, John 10:30-33, John 14:8-9)

He came from Heaven (John 6:38, 41-42, 60, 66; John 16:28)

He was sinless (John 8:46)

He is the only way to heaven (John 14:6, John 11:25)

He was crucified on a cross (Matt 27: 32-66)

On the cross he paid the penalty for all your sins (past present and future), dying in your place and purchasing salvation. (1 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 10:12, Romans 3:25-26, Romans 5:19)

Three days after his death, he resurrected (Matt 28: 1-10)

Today he is seated on a Throne in Heaven, where he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Philippians 2:9-11, Revelation 19:16, Hebrews 12:2)

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2. Realise you are a sinner, in danger of Hell

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"There is no one righteous, not even one"
Romans 3:10

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
Romans 3:23

"But unless you repent, you too will all perish"
Luke 13:3

"For the wages of sin is death"
Romans 6:23

"Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment"
Hebrews 9:27

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins"
Ephesians 2:1

"They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts."
Ephesians 4:18

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3. Repent

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"Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
Mark 1: 14-15

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord"
Acts 3:19

"I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus."
Acts 20:21

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4. Be Baptised

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"Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" ... those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."
Acts 2:38

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Matthew 28:19-20

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3. Regeneration and New Life

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"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
2 Corinthians 5:17

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
John 7:38

"By their fruit you will recognize them... a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Matthew 7: 16-20

Visions Beyond The Veil

H.A. Baker

I've been reading this book Visions Beyond The Veil and it's absolutely incredible. It's all about God's revelation of Heaven and Hell to a group of children, mostly street beggars and orphans, living in the Yunan Province, China.

The visions are unbelievably detailed. They were given to little children who had little or no knowledge of the bible, but yet every detail is consistent with it. Even more amazing is that their experience's are parallel with other books I've read which detail first-hand accounts of Heaven and Hell. These were accounts of people who were brought back to life minutes or hours after their death. (See The Final Frontier, Beyond The Final Frontier (both by Dr Richard Kent); and 90 Minutes In Heaven, by Don Piper).

Reading this I find myself a little jealous of their amazing experiences. But forget me. It almost seems that God specifically chooses to reveal himself to those who are most hungry, or most in need. And I'm blessed just by reading it. And it's blatantly an act of faith. Could it be that you're more blessed by believing, having not received any amazing visions?:

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:29

Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can.

John Wesley

The thing that makes this quote really punch out is that it has the weight of his whole life behind it. He believed it and live it. It wasn't just a throw-away comment.

I really like this quote. It's incredibly challenging, and it's awesome because when you put your money where your mouth is, it's a sign that you truly believe.

I guess my immediate reaction is one of reservation to the first point, 'earn all you can'. As a freelance designer, all the dangers spring to mind: 1. the temptation to over-charge clients. 2. working long hours, neglecting your wife 3. a lot of my design work is service to various churches. And in that you're starving one hand to feed the other.

Brilliant quote though.

You have to fight for everything

A thought which has been lingering with me for a while is that the work vs church vs social life vs wifey-time vs spending-time-with-God balance is one which is in constant conflict. And the reason for this is as follows:

"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it ... by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground."
Genesis 3: 17-19

It's the dreaded Genesis 3 curse! Everything beneath you is cursed. Literally everything you try to do is like pushing a boulder up a hill. It's really hard work; one slip and it rolls back and crushes you.

If you could identify the biggest threats to your walk with God, busyness would definitely be at the top of mine. But life is busy, basically, because it's constant toil. And the reason it's toil is because God made it that way when we sinned.

But it must be fair to say that God knew that, and he decided to do it anyway.

So there must be some sort of purpose to this constant struggle, and the need to fight for quiet times, prayer, reading etc. Perhaps to reveal our true priorities, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and those that really love God.

hmmmm..... just a thought.

Short term pleasure, long term pain

That's the way of the world. It's all about fleeting moments of happiness. But if you really genuinely are convinced that life ends with death, it makes perfect sense.

If you're life could be extinguished at any moment, then you may as well seek out instant pleasure and disregard the long-term consequences. From this perspective, there is no real moral law. Nothing you do, whether good or bad, will be remembered in a few generations. And all your actions can be justified by one statement: 'survival of the fittest'.

So why don't most people live like this? Why aren't more people more evil than they already are? Either we're lazy, far too worried about what other people think, or we have this built-in sense of God looming over our heads. Probably a mix of all three.

Nothing is more surprising than the passing of time.

People are always surprised at how quickly time flys by; and to the extent that 'time' almost seems unnatural. You look back at an old photo, and you can't believe that it was ten years ago.

I read a CS Lewis quote that said it's like a fish constantly being surprised by the wetness of water. The only possible reason for this constant, repetitive surprise is that it was never meant to be part of our existence. It's like a massive clue that we were created for eternity. We weren't meant to age, or have our bodies slowly ravaged by the toils of life.

"He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

I love this verse. In the first instance it states that we have this innate sense of eternity, and in the second it declares that we're simply unable to comprehend how the universe came into existence. Seems to have massive implications on theories like evolution and the big bang. It's simply beyond our intelligence to understand, no matter how factual we present our theories.

The things you used to own, now they own you.

Chuck Palahniuk

The words of 1 Timothy 6 v8 really strike a chord with me: "if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." Interesting that if you go into the original language used, by clothing it literally means 'one set of clothes'. The biblical standard for contentment is very very low. You should have something to eat, and a set of clothes to wear.

This quote in the Fight Club book by Chuck Palahniuk put an extra spin on it for me. And I think it's really true. The more junk you buy, the more baggage you're carrying. And most of these things (eg guitars, motorbikes, cars etc) are liabilities – they consistently taking money out of your account. There's got to be a great amount of freedom in not owning much. For one, if you want to go somewhere, you haven't got a lot to carry.

A Theory on Fat

I've just been struck by a thought I've never had before. And it's this – literally everything you do should be to the glory of God; and literally everything he created was for his glory.

Lately I've been praying for God to make me less vain. It's this dumb little idol I have, and one I really struggle to shift. Basically, I just want to be a bit skinner and a bit more athletic than my current frame. Nothing wrong with that, I just hate the way it dominates my thinking sometimes. I blame TV. So here's a theory. What's my heart attitude? I'm blatantly on some self-glorifying mission to look good.

But if everything should be done for God's glory, then every area of your life is included: films you watch, sports you play, language you use, your finances, how you work your job, whether or not you have a string of ex-girlfriends etc etc. And if everything has been created for God's glory then, when we see athletic ability, an amazing talent or beauty (in whatever form), it should lead us to worship God.

I find that incredibly liberating. Ultimately, you can be doing the exact same thing: going to the gym and watching your diet. But realising that it's God's body (not yours) and seeking to honour him by being a good steward of it totally takes the focus off yourself.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God."
1 Corinthians 10:31

I don't know why that never occurred to me before.