You're Beautiful

"We we arrive at eternity's shore
Where death is a memory and tears are no more..."
You're Beautiful by Jamie Rodwell, Not Ashamed

I absolutely love this song, I think because it captures eternity and the presence of God so well. In particular this line paints a picture of that first moment we enter in – our first experience on the other side of death. That moment is going to be mind-blowing. We finally finish the race, our life's work complete, and we stand before the Great Designer, the greatest and most holy being in existence.

"What we will be has not yet appeared"
1 John 3:2

Death is a certainty and our day is coming. In a little while we'll be there.

Hudson Taylor on sickness and suffering

"It was not until many years later, when Taylor could look back over all the way in which the Lord had led him, that he was impressed with the fact that every important advance in the development of the Mission had sprung from or been directly connected with times of sickness or suffering which had cast him in a special way upon God."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p337

Suffering with the Saints

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."
Psalm 46:1-2

At Life Group last week I downloaded and played the biography clips from The Rebel's Guide to Joy series taught by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church, Seattle. We then discussed all the most interesting points that struck out at us from the subject's life, and discussed particular bible verses that related to pain and suffering. It was a surprisingly inspired evening.

This verse, above, really resonated with me for a number of reasons. Firstly it states that God is our help and is 'very present'. Two magnificent statements: that you could have the creator of the universe, the greatest and most holy being that ever existed, present and helping in your time of trouble. But what it doesn't state is that God is our solution to the problem at hand. We assume he could be, as he's sovereign, but he chooses not to. Interesting...

The second thing you notice is that even though he's present and helping, the earth is still removed and the mountains are still thrown into the sea. He may not stop massive devastation from happening in our lives, but he does help us through it.

One of the real interesting points that came up in this Life Group evening was that many of the people studied experienced suffering that didn't seem to be linked with the gospel in any way. They couldn't say they had the honour of suffering for Christ. It was just generalised pain, sickness and death that anyone might experience. That must have felt so purposeless at the time.

But yet it wasn't. They fought, didn't give in, and their lives comfort us and testify to God's grace.

"In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33

Adversity, a less severe trial

An awesome Spurgeon quote:

"The Christian far oftener disgraces his profession in prosperity than in adversity. It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the refining pot of prosperity."

Is God outside of time? (Part 3)

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

This is a very interesting verse when you really think about it. 'Before the beginning of time' – before God had created anything, he knew us personally. He also knew the exact unfolding of Genesis 3, that man would sin and fall. He knew that we would need grace and that Jesus Christ would have to die on the cross. Yet he decided to created everything and everyone anyway. Incredible.

Thinking back to my previous posts on time, and the notion that God is not bound by it in any way, it leads to some very personal applications to Jesus' atonement of sin.

Could it be that he didn't die for our sin in a vague and general sense, but he was punished in a precise and exact amount? Did God see, in advance, every day of your life and the sum total of all your sin?

When we say "Jesus died for you" perhaps he really, really did.

Finite Time

"You never get it back... waisted time"

This is a line from the film Benjamin Button which really jumped out at me. It echoes Psalm 144:4

"Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow."

We have a very small and finite amount of time in which we can live on this earth and serve God's purposes. We only get so many opportunities to walk in his plans, trusting and living by faith. Soon our days will be over and all those opportunities will be taken from us. The adventure that might have been slips by. Our life's work ended and recorded as we stand before the judgement seat of God.

We should dread the thought of waisted time – years spent asleep, drifting and spinning our wheels. How many of us have spent 5, 10, 20 years in this condition?

"For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God."

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God."

Romans 14:10-12

Faith, Difficulties, and Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor seemed to treat every difficulty as an opportunity to test his faith and see what God would do. Like going for a two mile walk when only just recovering from a fever that nearly killed him. Most people would use their common sense and stay at home. Instead, like in this example and many others, "his weakness only provided another occasion to prove the efficacy of prayer" (p72). Insane. But awesome faith! Here are a few other quotes relating to faith and difficulties from the Biography of James Hudson Taylor. There's quite a lot here, but well worth reading:

"He knew that faith was the one power that could remove mountains, conquer every difficulty and accomplish the impossible ... He realised that the faith he longed for was a 'gift of God', and that it might 'grow exceedingly'. But for growth, exercise was needed, and exercise of faith was obviously impossible apart from trial. Then welcome trial, welcome anything that would increase and strengthen this precious gift, proving to his own heart at any rate that he had faith of the sort that would really stand and grow."
p48-9

"If we are faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trails of life."
p53

"Last autumn I was fretting and stewing, reckoning and puzzling about how to manage this and that –  like a person in water who cannot swim, or a fish out of it. But it all came to nothing. Now, when the Lord opens the way, though everything seems adverse, He first removes one difficulty and then another, plainly saying 'Be still and know that I am God"
p62

"So difficulties were permitted to gather about him, especially at first when every impression was vivid and lasting, difficulties attended by many a deliverance to encourage him".
p114

"But the way of faith was clearer, and he had learned to leave the future in the hands of God. One who knew the end from the beginning was guiding and would guide"
p166

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. The Lord will provide."
p206

"Than the greatness of the need, one thing is only greater –  the fact of God: His resources, purposes, faithfulness, His commands and promises ... That is enough; that alone could be enough."
p247

"God owns all the gold and silver in the world, and the cattle on a thousand hills. We need not be vegetarians."
p248

"We can afford to have as little as the Lord chooses to give, but we cannot afford to have unconsecrated money, or to have money placed in the wrong position. Far better have no money at all, even to buy food with; for there are plenty of ravens in China, and the Lord could send them again with bread and flesh."
p248

"Let us see that we keep God before our eyes; that we walk in His ways and seek to please and glorify Him in everything, great and small. Depend upon it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies."
p249

The Pursuit of Holiness (Part 3)

A brilliant quote from the Biography of James Hudson Taylor that further expands this concept:

"Where God is working the devil is sure to be busy; and the nearer one seeks to live to the Lord Himself, the more painful are the consequences of grieving Him"
p265

This perfectly echoes Ephesians 4:27

"do not give the devil a foothold"

The Pursuit of Holiness (Part 2)

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God"
1 John 3:21

Aside from the fact that we sin to some degree every hour of every day, in thought, word and deed, there are prominent and deliberate sins that even our own hearts condemn us for. I guess we call that our conscience.

A heavy conscience can so easily block you off from God. You know you could pray but instead you hang your head in shame until the feeling subsides. Your confidence is gone. It's always hard to talk to someone when you've got your back to them.

How free we can be when holiness is pursued and victory over sin attained. Nothing hangs on our heart or mind.

"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"
Matthew 11:30

I can't help but think this is what Jesus has in mind for us.

The Holy Spirit and John Wesley

"James Harvey, the friend of Wesley at Oxford, described the change in Welsey through his anointing by the Spirit: 'His preaching was once like the firing of an arrow, all the speed and force depending on the strength of his arm in bending the bow. Thereafter it was like the firing of a rifle ball, the whole force depending on the powder and needing only a finger touch to let it off".

Great Revivals, Colin Whittaker, p47

The Pursuit of Holiness

Looking back at John Wesley in the English Revival of the 18th century, his pursuit of holiness was absolutely remarkable. And yet the foundation of his faith was the free and undeserved gift of salvation.

God's grace propels us into the pursuit of holiness. It doesn't score us extra points with God, yet you can't underestimate its importance. The pursuit of holiness is really the pursuit of unbroken communion with God.

Salvation is the greatest miracle of all

If we accept that a soul is eternal and therefore of infinite value, to be involved in God's work of salvation must be the greatest honour we could ever have. It's everlasting in significance and nature, and completely selfless. Is there any greater work that you could do or participate in? Perhaps our prayers for the salvation of souls is the sweetest God ever hears.

The Burden of Souls

I've been reading up on the Whitefield and Wesley revival in the 18th Century for a short talk that I'm doing at our church prayer meeting next week. The most immediate observation you can make is this –  it's largely known as the 'Whitefield and Wesley' revival. It's God and man working together to bring salvation.

Salvation belongs to God, and you can't overestimate God's sovereignty. But you can totally underestimate man's role. We're his instruments, we're the men on the ground. Does God allow his plans (even for salvation) to be frustrated and delayed by us? I think the answer has to be 'yes'. 2 Peter 3 talks about us having the ability to actually speed Christ's return. It must also follow that we can choose to not speed Christ's return. We have a significant effect, and burden, for the salvation of souls.

"You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming."
2 Peter 3: 11-12

"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
Revelation 7:10

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Romans 10: 14-15

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.