The First 11 Chapters

I recently listened to three sermons by Ken Ham from Answers In Genesis. Probably the most convincing talks I've heard that argue for a literal six day creation.

Some people laugh when you go on about dinosaurs, millions of years, evolution and all that jazz. Like it's just daft stuff, not real theology, and you just need to get past it. But Ham made a very interesting point in one of his talks... people read the first 11 chapters of the Bible and think it's ridiculous. And if the first 11 chapters of a book seem completely nuts, why would you keep reading?

On that basis, knowing a thing or two about dinosaurs, creation vs evolution and millions of years is actually fairly central to the gospel in our scientific age. If you can't get past the opening chapters of the opening book, you'll never get to Jesus.

Liberated by Death

"Death, though a curse in itself, was the only way out from under the Curse"

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 106

Joyful Unconcern

"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
Matthew 6:25-33

It's so easy to read this verse thinking "aha, if I seek first the kingdom, I'll have material provision and security." I must have read that verse so many times with that subtle thought process ticking away unnoticed. But then you realise there's a problem: your focus and heart is still set on material provision, not the kingdom of God.

Your 'seeking first the kingdom' is nothing more than a means to your true end, provision. So the kingdom of God is not first at all but second at best.

In an ironic sort of a way, if you're totally anxious about making ends meet, you actually need to just forget it. Forget it and worship God. Forget it and trust God. Be consumed with his gospel and count yourself expendable for his purposes. Pursue him first and perhaps things will fall into perspective.

But by all means, get a budget and be debt free. You're more useful to God that way.

A Matter of Life, Sin & Death

Two particular lines that jumped out at me from the Movement men's retreat:

"The more you give yourself to sin, the less dividends it pays."

"Until you have something to die for there's nothing to live for."

Without Signposts

"The safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
C. S. Lewis

The Importance of an Endless Hell

"Unholy as we are, we are disqualified from saying that infinite holiness doesn't demand everlasting punishment. By denying the endlessness of Hell, we minimise Christ's work on the cross. Why? Because we lower the stakes of redemption. If Christ's crucifixion and resurrection didn't deliver us from an eternal Hell, his work on the cross is less heroic, less potent, less consequential, and thus less deserving of our worship and praise. As theologian William G. T. Sheds put it, "The doctrine of Christ's vicarious atonement logically stands or falls with that of eternal punishment."
Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 25

"Many books deny Hell. Some embrace universalism, the belief that all people will ultimately be saved. Some consider Hell to be the invention of wild-eyed prophets obsessed with wrath. They argue that Christians should take the higher road of Christ's love. But this perspective overlooks a conspicuous reality: In the Bible, Jesus says more than anyone else about Hell (Matthew 10:28; 13:40-43; Mark 9:43-44)."
Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 25

Eternal And Conscious

It's mind-blowing to think that everyone who ever existed is still conscious. Their bodies may have died decades, centuries or millennia ago, but they're all still conscious. My friend who died when we were 14, is still thinking, seeing, hearing, moving, speaking, feeling. Maybe even smelling, touching and breathing. As are both my Grandad and Great Grandad, who I knew well but died when I was young. For all those killed in the Haiti earthquake a year ago and the Japanese tsunami a week ago; they're all still conscious. We just don't know where. Heaven or Hell - they're somewhere.

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

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.

Pain, Suffering and Sanctification

Nothing exposes your heart like pain and suffering. When you hit it, your heart is totally exposed. All the things you never realised were there are suddenly revealed. It's a very scary and sobering thing. I would guess that one of the reasons God allows pain and suffering is sanctification. It also forces you in one of two directions: anger against God, or throwing yourself into His arms. I would also guess this is one of the ways he sorts the sheep from the goats, how he brings people to salvation or forces them away.

Pain and suffering are necessary. Nobody looks for a saviour if they don't believe they need saving. Nothing reminds you of your need for salvation like pain, suffering and the presence of evil.

In all of this it's good to remind ourselves that God is totally good, and it's Satan that is evil. Like in the book of Job, God permits suffering, but it's Satan that causes it. And he can only go as far as God allows.

Expendable (Part 2)

Following on from a previous note on being expendable for Christ (link) often, it's not our physical life that is required (i.e. martyrdom), but various little portions of our daily life. Finances, work, comfort, hobbies, fitness, luxuries, time... all of these need to be labeled 'expendable'. We give them up as and when required for the cause of Christ.

The Hiddenness of God (Part 3)

I watched 'The Finger of God' DVD by Darren Wilson yesterday and showed it at Life Group. Absolutely amazing. It's a film documenting the physical works of God around the world. From people mysteriously receiving gold teeth in church services, to street evangelism and healings, to the dead being raised (some dead as long as four days).

It seems God is prepared to revealed himself in quite remarkable ways. In many of these places – Mozambique, California, China – healing miracles are performed to show people God is real, and then the gospel is preached. Often it seems the whole purpose of the healings is to open people up to the gospel message and pave the way for salvation.

What really strikes you when you watch this is that God doesn't seem hidden at all. He provides real, tangible proof of his existence when asked, and is more than happy to demonstrate his power to a people that have no knowledge of him.

It makes you think – perhaps healings and miracles are inextricably linked to evangelism and the gospel message. Maybe they're not just meant for church on a Sunday, but out on the streets, in everyday life.

Another interesting point was that these healings, miracles, signs and wonders seem just as available to the church in the West as to the poorer, persecuted Christians around the world.

As an old 'No Fear' poster once read, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Maybe we just need to actually pray for some people.

C.T. Studd on Evangelism

"Remember than mere soul-saving is comparatively easy work and is not nearly so important as manufacturing the saved ones into Saints, Soldiers and Saviors."
C.T. Studd, Cricketer and Pioneer, p70

The disadvantage of wealth

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Matthew 19:23-24

"Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and high income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90% of total world wealth."
The World Distribution of Household Wealth

It seems that simply living in one of these rich countries automatically puts you at a massive disadvantage as far as the gospel is concerned. We are the rich people Jesus is talking about. We have insurance for everything and spend most of our lives accumulating various possessions, all of which comfort us in one way or another. It totally suffocates our need for God.

The New Testament is really big on considering the poor. I wonder if this is because on one hand, these people are in need, more open to the gospel, and a real opportunity is afforded to demonstrate the love of Jesus in action. And on the other, generosity strips us of all the things we trust in place of God, who wants to train us in His faithfulness.

I read a very interesting article from The New York Times website titled 'The Sandra Bullock Trade' (click here to read). One of the observations made from research is that once our basic material needs are met, very little additional happiness is gained by an increase in income. Food, water, shelter and a hospital when you get sick. That's what you need. Everything else pursued above this level is noise, and will never satisfy.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that."
1 Timothy 6:6-8

Here's a selection of verses from the New Testament relating to the poor:

"Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Luke 12:33-34

"The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
Luke 3:11

"Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
Matthew 5:42

"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort."
Luke 6:24

"But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?"
1 John 3:17

––––––

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Matthew 25:31-46

Hudson Taylor Converted By Prayer

Do we completely underestimate the power of prayer in converting a soul? Reading the account of Hudson Taylor he seemed to have been converted almost entirely by the earnestness and consistency of prayer by his sister and his mother. In the hours preceding his conversion the prayer was prompted and directed by the Holy Spirit himself. Here's an edited extract, picking out the best bits from the book on pages 16-18:

I turned over a basket of pamphlets and selected from amongst them a Gospel tract that looked interesting, saying to myself, 'There will be a story at the commencement and a sermon or moral at the close. I will take the former and leave the latter for those who like it.'

[...]

Little did I know at the time what was going on in the heart of my mother, seventy or eighty miles away. She rose from the dinner table that afternoon with an intense yearning for the conversion of her boy; and feeling that, absent from home and having more leisure that she could otherwise secure, a special opportunity was afforded her of pleading with God on my behalf. She went to her room and turned the key in the door resolved not to leave the spot until her prayers were answered. Hour after hour that dear mother pleaded, until at length she could pray no longer, but was constrained to praise God for that which His Spirit taught her had already been accomplished, the conversion of her only son.

[...]

I in the meantime had been lead in the way I have mentioned to take up this little tract, and while reading it was struck with the phrase: 'The finished work of Christ'.

[...]

'What was finished?'

And I at once replied, 'A full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin. The debt was paid for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'

Then came the further thought, 'If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?'

And with this dawned the joyful conviction, as light flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there was nothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one's knees and, accepting this Saviour and His salvation, praise Him for evermore.

[...]

When mother returned a fortnight later I was the first to meet her at the door and to tell her I had such glad news to give. I can almost feel that dear mother's arms around my neck as she said, 'I know, my boy.'

[...]

My mother assured me that it was not from any human source she had learned the tidings, and went on to tell the incident mentioned above. You will agree with me that it would be strange indeed if I were not a believer in the power of prayer.

Nor this was all. Some time after, I picked up a pocket-book exactly like my own and, thinking it was mine, opened it. The lines that caught my eye were an entry in the little diary belonging to my sister, to the effect that she would give herself daily to prayer until God should answer in the conversion of her brother. One month later the Lord was pleased to turn me from darkness to light.

Brought up in such a circle and saved in such circumstances, it was perhaps natural that from the commencement of my Christian life I was lead to feel that the promises were very real, and that prayer was in sober matter of fact transacting business with God, whether on one's own behalf or on the behalf of those for whom one sought His blessing.

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, pages 16-18.

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.

––––––

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

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

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

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

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.