Saturday 29 January 2011

Only One Question

There's so many questions surrounding Christianity like pain and suffering, the Big Bang, evolution and the hiddenness of God. There's so many things that clutter your mind. But what you realise after a while is that everything stacks behind this one big question.

Was Jesus Christ the Son of God?

If he was, and is, nothing is impossible.

The belief that a man can be subject to the most brutal and complete death, entombed, and then raised back to life three days later is one that is totally miraculous. That sort of thing just doesn't happen. But it did. According to Josh McDowell it is the most well documented fact in history. (See his book, The Resurrection Factor).

If Jesus Christ was God himself, all these other questions become secondary.

Does God exist? Absolutely.
Is the universe six thousand or thirteen billion years old? Either. He could create it in an instant.
Is the Bible the perfect word of God? Jesus seems to think so.
Is there a reason and an answer for every question you could possibly think of? There absolutely must be.

So all in all, Jesus really is the cornerstone. Every line of thought, every reason, every question and answer stems from him. When it comes to his divinity, we have an inexplicable sum of evidence, and no explanation to the contrary.

Totally Human, Totally Divine

"As Jesus Christ was totally human and totally divine, so is the bible."
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

I was debating the nature of the bible with a friend as to whether it was the perfect word of God, completely infallible and without error, or just a normal book like any other. Trustworthy to some extent, but ultimately flawed. I obviously subscribe to the former and not the latter. But here's a thought:

It's either totally perfect and infallible, or it's unbelievably dangerous. Like a bowl of chocolate ice cream with shards of glass ground in. You wouldn't touch it. No matter how hungry you were.

If the bible distorts our picture of Jesus, if the gospel wasn't quite recorded right, if some of the truths and commandments aren't wholly accurate then we really are bleeding from the inside.

Jesus only gave us two options: either he's the Son of God, or a delusional madman. And the bible presents the same scenario. It repeatedly claims to be the unadulterated word of God. It's either accept or reject, there's no middle ground.

"The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times."
Psalm 12:6

Try, Try, Try Again

I once read a No Fear poster that said "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Trouble is, most of us don't set ourselves a goal. We don't know where we're running and we've got nothing to shoot at. It can feel a little unproductive.

A goal has to be clearly defined. You've got to mark it out exactly and play towards it. It pretty much applies to everything in your life that your life that you want to be fruitful in: generous giving, bible reading, daily prayer, dating your wife, health and fitness, leading a life group, earning a living... on and on. You've got to mark out your goal and track your progress.

If you take the picture further, most of the excitement games like football isn't found in the goals themselves. There might only be two or three in 90 minutes. It's in all the action leading up to them: the passing, the tackling, the shots from 40 yards that ricochet off the post. It can all be really exciting. And I guess it's the same in life. You don't always succeed on your first attempt. But it's exciting seeing how close you came. You try, try, try again until that ball is in the back of the net.

Sunday 23 January 2011

Correct Approach

With regard to preparing life group bible studies (or any sort of preaching or teaching), there is nothing worse than a indolent, slothful approach. The word of God is "sharper than any double-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). It's not the sort of thing you just pick up and chuck at your friends.

It's the thing you work at and sweat over. You rehearse your swing over and over until you get it perfect. You constantly push yourself to become more skillful and accurate.

I've come to the conclusion that if you can't do your absolute best on a given topic, on a given week, for whatever reason, it's good to just leave it. As my dad always use to say, "if you're going to do the job, do it properly".

Life Group Talk: Giving

Here's a link to a PDF of a talk on giving that I recently did for my life group. It combines various re-written blog posts from this site and some new, original thoughts on the subject.

http://www.sa-design.co.uk/blog/Giving_Jan_2011.pdf

It also refers to this article titled "The Sandra Bullock Trade":

http://www.sa-design.co.uk/blog/Giving_Jan_2011_The_Sandra_Bullock_Trade.pdf

Enjoy!

Saturday 15 January 2011

Spurgeon on Salvation, Sin, Satan and the Saved

Quotes from 'Christ's Glorious Achievements'

"For myself, I love to live near a sinner's Saviour. If my standing before the Lord depended upon what I am in myself and what good works and righteousness I could bring, surely I should have to condemn myself a thousand times a day."
p18

"To believe is, to trust, to confide, to depend upon, to rely upon, to rest in."
p18-19

"There is no difference between one believer and another as to justification. So long as there is a connection between you and Christ the righteousness of God is yours. The link may be very like a film, a mere spider's line of trembling faith, but, if it runs all the way from the heart to Christ divine grace can and will flow along the most slender thread"
p20

"Come, look up, ye believers who are burdened with a sense of sin. While you chasten yourselves and mourn your sins, do not doubt your Saviour, nor question His righteousness."
p21.

"... for only by regeneration can we know ourselves to be the true seed."
p34.

"You must not think the devil cares much about you : the battle is against Christ in you."
p41.

""If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." Read, and the reading will be accurate, "He is a new creation." This is a very sweeping statement. A man in Christ is not the old man purified, nor the old man improved, nor the old man in a better humour, nor the old man with additions and subtractions, nor the old man dressed in gorgeous robes. No, he is a new creature altogether."
p70.

Spurgeon on Salvation and the Unsaved

Quotes from 'Christ's Glorious Achievements'

"The reason why many do not come to Christ is not because they are not earnest, after a fashion, and thoughtful, and desirous to be saved, but because they cannot brook God's way of salvation ... Proud man wants to save himself, he believes he can do it, and he will not give over the task till he finds out his own helplessness by unhappy failures."
p7.

"The law is that which, as sinners, we have above all things cause to dread; for the sting of death is sin, and all the strength of sin is the law ... Yet strange infatuation ! like the fascination which attracts the gnat to the candle, though it burns its wings, men by nature fly to the law for salvation, and cannot be kept from seeking life by it."
p8.

"It were easy work to save men, if they could but be made willing to receive the gospel, but they will not even hear it ... You bring them right up to the light, and flash it upon their eyes, but they wilfully and deliberately close their eyelids to it. You set upon them life and death, and plead with them even unto tears that they would lay hold on eternal life; but they choose their own delusions. So long and patiently must they be sought that this seeking work as much reveals the gracious heart of Jesus as did the saving work which He fulfilled upon the bloody tree."
p125-6.