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".

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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."