Quips, quotes and queries

Saints

2011-12-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

"The devotion of the saints was a response to the graciousness of God."

"A saint is a man (or woman) in whom Christ lives again."
William Barclay: 1 John page 97

"A mother asked her little boy during a Church service what a saint was. The boy looked up at the stained glass windows and replied: 'A saint is someone who the light shines through."

Salvation

2011-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

"I can contribute nothing to my own salvation except the sin from which I need to be redeemed."
Archbishop William Temple

Sacrifice

2011-12-07T04:21:00.000-08:00

"A small boy really loved Jesus and longed to show it when teh collection plate began coming around, he realised he had no money, so he got a piece of paper, wrote one word on it and put it on the plate when it was passed to him. In the vestry afterwards, the people who were counting the collection came upon a crumpled piece of paper, which simply said 'myself'.

The sacrifice of our bodies symbolises the giving of ourselves (Romans 12:1-2). God wants the total surrender of ourselves in response to the total sacrifice of his Son's life. This will mean using all we have and are, for God and for the Body of Christ; it will mean loving, giving, forgiving, sharing, praying, helping and other practical expressions of dedication."
David Watson: "Through the Year." (page 305)

The Sacrament of the Present Moment

2011-12-07T04:16:00.000-08:00

Some Christians speak of the 'sacrament of the present moment': we need to live, not just a day at a time, but moment by moment, seeking to do God's will for each moment of our life. That alone is the way in which we can know the fulness of God's joy and peace.
David Watson: "Fear no Evil" page 157

Sacraments

2011-12-07T04:12:00.000-08:00

"Sacramental actions of all kindness frequently increase or strengthen the reality that they signify. The Eucharist, for example, is one place where we can feed upon Christ in our hearts by faith; it is not simply a bare remembrance of his death. (Baptism and Eucharist) are outward signs through which God acts."
David Watson: I believe in the Church page 233

The Sabbath

2011-12-07T03:49:00.000-08:00

"Make the Sabbath an eternal monument of the knowledge and sanctification of God, both in the centre of your busy public life and in the peaceful retreat of your domestic hearth. For 6 days cultivate the earth and rule it....But the 7th is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God....Let [a man] therefore realize that the creator of old is the living God of today, [that He] watches every man and every human effort, to see how man uses and abuses the world the world loaned to him and the forces bestowed upon him, and that He is the sole architect to whom every man has to render an account of his week's labours."
(From an Israeli Tourist Brochure written by a rabbi).

"There is a unique pace to Sabbath. Routines are to stop; labour is to cease. Even the homemaker in the pious Jewish family is to refrainfrom cooking or menial tasks. Food is prepared before sabbath begins so that she also can enjoy the fruit of the special day fo rest. This is a far cry from the incredible, filled up, presurrized day many (evangelical) Christians tend to make of their days."
Gordon MacDonald: "Ordering Your Private World." page 184

"When the New Testament writers referred to the Sabbath they meant both the day when God rested from the work of Creation as well as Israel's deliverance from Egypt. This is what the Jewish people still mean by the Sabbath. In New Testament times Sundays replaced sabbaths. Even the Apostles Sundays had coem to mean a weekly commemoration of the resurrection. (This explains why fasting is never required on Sundays, not even during Lent, as every Sunday of the year is a commemoration of the Resurrection."
C.S. Lewis ed Hooper: The Business of Heaven pages 11-12

Suffering and God

2011-10-10T07:25:00.001-07:00

"Men asked, 'How is it that a God of love permits the triumph of evil?'... The Christian faith has an answer to such questions. For instance, Jesus told us about Lazarus, a poor beggar, oppressed as we were oppressed—dying, hungry, his wounds being licked by dogs—but in the end, angels took him to Abraham’s bosom."
Richard Wurmbrand: Tortured for Christ

True Christianity

2011-10-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

"As there are many who believe they are Christians and in reality are not, we found that among the Russians there are many who believe they are atheists, but in reality they are not."
Richard Wurmbrand: Tortured for Christ

Death destroyed

2011-09-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Saviour has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople; sermon, ca. 400

God the Father

2011-08-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

“Every action of Jesus originates, and is directed by and towards the person, purpose and glory of the Father. It is from first to last obedient action, not initiating or innovating, but rather discerning and following. This is not a limitation on its spontaneity and freedom, but rather the source of it, because it is always personal response within a relationship and never external conformity to impersonal rule and regulation.”
Tom Smail: “The forgotten Father.”

Transformation

2011-08-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

“God became man to turn creatures into sons; not simply to produce better men of the old kind, but to produce a new kind of man. (This) is not mere improvement but transformation.”
C.S.Lewis: “Mere Christianity.”

Sharing faith

2011-08-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

“Experience suggests that it is by explaining Christianity to others that we deepen our understanding of the gospel.”
Alistair McGrath: “Explaining your faith.”

Don't judge

2011-08-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

“…then the angel spoke to me. I was aware of his message as an emerging consciousness. He told me not to be judgemental of people, even when I was sure they were wrong; that only God may judge. Not to hate people for what they do, but to understand. That life on earth is only a tiny droplet in the ocean of eternity and my concern should be to try to become as close to God as I could, since God is composed of love and light.”
Vicky Stafford on meeting an angel: “Angels” by Hope Price page 51

Disobedience

2011-08-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

“Our enemies find their greatest weapons against us on the stockpile of our own disobedience. They could not defeat us were we not first to defeat ourselves. The foremost cause of our many defeats is failure to heed the Word of the Lord. How much grief do we experience in our lives simply because we do not listen to what He says.”
C.H.Spurgeon: “On the Psalms.”

Church growth

2011-08-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

“God intends the church to grow, not because He has any special delight in big churches, but because His desire is that all should come to faith (1 Timothy 2:4). If that is to happen the church must find ways in which to keep the doors open. There needs not only to be a seat to sit on, but also room in the fellowship, room for service and room simply to belong.”
Robert Warren: “On the Anvil”.

Prayer meeting

2011-08-23T04:53:00.000-07:00

"You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting."
Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

Prayer and work

2011-08-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

"The time I give to active work must be in proportion to what I give to the work of God, that is to prayer. I need more fervent and continual prayer to give character to my life. So I must . . . stay longer in the Lord's company."
Pope John XXIII, as quoted in Morris Maddocks, The Christian Healing Ministry

Longing for God

2011-08-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

There's a story of a young disciple in India who left home and traveled in search of a spiritual master whom he at last found sitting in prayer beside a river. The young man begged the master to teach him. The master rose slowly and suddenly grabbed the younger man and dragged him into the river and under the water. Seconds passed, then a minute, then another minute. The young man struggled and kicked, but still the teacher held him down until at last he drew him coughing and gasping out of the water. "While you were under the water, what was it you wanted?" the teacher asked, when he saw that the other was at last able to speak again. "Air," the young man said, still panting. "And how badly did you want it?" "All . . . it was all I wanted in the world. With my whole soul I longed only for air." "Good," said the teacher. "When you long for God in the same way that you have just now longed for air, come back to me and you will become a disciple."
Told by John A. Huffman, Jr., "Essential Qualities for a 21st Century Faith: Worship," 22 November 2001, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, California

Resurrection

2011-08-19T04:10:00.001-07:00

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople; sermon, ca. 400

Preaching

2011-08-18T12:27:00.001-07:00

John Wesley used to ask his young men whom he had sent out to preach on probation two questions: "Has any one been converted?" and "Did any one get mad?" If the answer was "No," he told them he did not think the Lord had called them to preach the Gospel, and sent them about their business. When the Holy Ghost convicts of sin, people are either converted or they don't like it, and get mad.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, known as "the prince of preachers," felt he delivered his sermon so poorly one Sunday that he was ashamed of himself. As he walked away from his church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, he wondered how any good could come from that message. When he arrived home, he dropped to his knees and prayed, "Lord God, You can do something with nothing. Bless that poor sermon."

In the months that followed, 41 people said that they had decided to trust Christ as Saviour because of that "weak" message. The following Sunday, to make up for his previous "failure," Spurgeon had prepared a "great" sermon -- but no one responded.

Spurgeon's experience underscores two important lessons for all who serve the Lord. First, we need the blessing of God on our efforts. Solomon said in Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." And second, our weakness is an occasion for the working of God's power. The apostle Paul said, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

Humility

2011-08-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

"You cannot at the same time give the impression that you are a great preacher" -- or theologian or debater or whatever -- "and that Jesus Christ is a great Savior" (James Denney). If you call attention to yourself and your own competence, you cannot effectively call attention to Jesus and his glorious sufficiency.

Yet more quotes on death

2011-08-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Around 125 A.D., a Greek by the name of Aristeides wrote to one of his friends, trying to explain the extraordinary success of the new religion, Christianity. In his letter he said, "If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they accompany his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby."

When you have had a loved one go to be with the Lord, do not feel like you're the only person who has had this experience. There is an Eastern legend about a Hindu woman whose only child had died. She went to a prophet to ask for her child back. The prophet told her to go and obtain a handful of rice from a house into which death had not come. If she could obtain the rice in this way, he promised to give her the child back. From door to door she asked the question, "Are you all here around the table -- father, mother, children -- none missing?" But always the answer came back that there were empty chairs in each house. As she continued on, her grief and sorrow softened as she found that death had visited all families. Yes, death is universal; our painful experience is not the only one of its kind. Because God is faithful, because Jesus Christ is alive, so is your loved one and mine.

John Bacon, once a famous sculptor, left this inscription on his tomb in Westminster Abbey: "What I was as an artist seemed of some importance to me while I lived; but what I was as a believer in Jesus Christ is the only thing of importance to me now."

John Bacon.

Howard Hughes: Worth 2.5 billion dollars at his death, he was the richest man in the United States. He owned a private fleet of jets, hotels and casinos. When asked to claim his body, his nearest relative, a distant cousin, exclaimed, "Is this Mr. Hughes?" He had spent the last 15 years of his life a drug addict, too weak in the end to even administer the shots to himself. His 6'4" frame had shrunk to 6'1" and he weighed only 90 lbs. Not a single acquaintance or relative mourned his death. The only honor he received was a moment of silence in his Las Vegas casinos. Time magazine put it this way: "Howard Hughes' death was commemorated in Las Vegas by a minute of silence. Casinos fell silent. Housewives stood uncomfortable clutching their paper cups full of coins at the slot machines, the blackjack games paused, and at the crap tables the stickmen cradled the dice in the crook of their wooden wands. Then a pit boss looked at his watch, leaned forward and whispered, "O.K., roll the dice. He's had his minute."

When Corrie Ten Boom of The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland, her first realization of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed her that some day her parents would also die. Corrie's father comforted her with words of wisdom. "Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?" "Why, just before we get on the train," she replied. "Exactly," her father said, "and our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need--just in time."

The courage of Civil War leader Stonewall Jackson in the midst of conflict can be a lesson for the believer. Historian Mark Brinsley wrote: A battlefield is a deadly place, even for generals; and it would be naive to suppose Jackson never felt the animal fear of all beings exposed to wounds and death. But invariably he displayed extraordinary calm under fire, a calm too deep and masterful to be mere pretense. His apparent obliviousness to danger attracted notice, and after the first Manassas battle someone asked him how he managed it. "My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed." Jackson explained, "God (knows the) time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter where it may overtake me." He added pointedly, 'That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave."

The hymn writer Fanny Crosby gave us more than 6,000 gospel songs. Although blinded by an illness at the age of 6 weeks, she never became bitter. One time a preacher sympathetically remarked, "I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you." She replied quickly, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?" "Why?" asked the surprised clergyman. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!" One of Miss Crosby's hymns was so personal that for years she kept it to herself.

Kenneth Osbeck, author of several books on hymnology, says its revelation to the public came about this way: "One day at the Bible conference in Northfield, Massachusetts, Miss Crosby was asked by D.L. Moody to give a personal testimony. At first she hesitated, then quietly rose and said, 'There is one hymn I have written which has never been published. I call it my soul's poem. Sometimes when I am troubled, I repeat it to myself, for it brings comfort to my heart.' She then recited while many wept, 'Someday the silver cord will break, and I no more as now shall sing; but oh, the joy when I shall wake within the palace of the King! And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story--saved by grace!'" At the age of 95 Fanny Crosby passed into glory and saw the face of Jesus.

In his excellent little book When Loved Ones Are Taken in Death, Lehman Strauss made some interesting comments about the Greek word translated "departure." He wrote, "It is used metaphorically in a nautical way as when a vessel pulls up anchor to loose from its moorings and set sail, or in a military way as when an army breaks encampment to move on. In the ancient Greek world this term was used also for freeing someone from chains and for the severing of a piece of goods from the loom. This is what death is as described in the Bible. Here, we are anchored to the hardships and heartaches of this life. In death, the gangway is raised, the anchor is weighed, and we set sail for the golden shore. In death, we break camp here to start for heaven."

Quotes about death

2011-08-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

In Valladolid, Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the great discoverer. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memorial is a statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain's motto for centuries. Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards thought they had reached the outer limits of earth. Thus their motto was "Ne Plus Ultra," which means "No More Beyond." The word being torn away by the lion is "Ne" or "no," making it read "Plus Ultra." Columbus had proven that there was indeed "more beyond."

When you're old as I am, there are all sorts of extremely pleasant things that happen to you...the pleasantest of all is that you wake up in the night and you find that you are half in and half out of your battered old carcass. It seems quite a tossup whether you go back and resume full occupancy of your mortal body, or make off toward the bright glow you see in the sky, the lights of the city of God.

Malcolm Muggeridge, Christian Times, September 3, 1982.

I was driving with my children to my wife's funeral where I was to preach the sermon. As we came into one small town there strode down in front of us a truck that came to stop before a red light. It was the biggest truck I ever saw in my life, and the sun was shining on it at just the right angle that took its shadow and spread it across the snow on the field beside it. As the shadow covered that field, I said, "Look children at that truck, and look at its shadow. If you had to be run over, which would you rather be run over by? Would you rather be run over by the truck or by the shadow?" My youngest child said, "The shadow couldn't hurt anybody." "That's right," I continued, "and death is a truck, but the shadow is all that ever touches the Christian. The truck ran over the Lord Jesus. Only the shadow is gone over mother."

Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Peter Kreeft tells us that in the Latin rite for the burial of an Austrian emperor, the people carry the corpse to the door of the great monastic church. They strike the door and say: "Open." The abbot inside says: "Who is there." "Emperor Karl, the king of..." The response from inside: "We know of no such person here." So the people strike the door again. "Who is there?" asks the abbot. "Emperor Karl." "We know of no such person here." So they strike a third time. "Who is there?" asks the abbot again. "Karl," say the people. And the door is opened.

In one of his books, A.M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar, relates the story of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he had his answer. "Do you hear that?" he asked his patient. "It's my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn't it the same with you? You don't know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there."

Future

2011-08-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

First dentistry was painless;
Then bicycles were chainless
And carriages were horseless
And many laws, enforceless.
Next, cookery was fireless,
Telegraphy was wireless,
Cigars were nicotineless
And coffee, caffeinless.
Soon oranges were seedless,
The putting green was weedless,
The college boy hatless,
The proper diet, fatless,
Now motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religions, godless.

Arthur Guiterman

Death bed confession

2011-08-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Near the end of his life, Jean-Paul Sartre told Pierre Victor: "I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God. Protested fellow philosopher and long-time companion Simone de Beauvoir: "How should one explain the senile act of a turncoat?"

Atheism

2011-08-18T11:43:00.001-07:00

George Bernard Shaw is perhaps most renowned as a free thinker and liberal philosopher. In his last writings we read,
"The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith." Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.

Where Jesus touched the earth

2011-08-18T11:18:00.001-07:00

I went to see where Jesus
once touched the earth
but the Catholics
had got there before me
and obscured His footprints
with arches, buttresses,
gold and incense.

I went to see where Jesus once touched the earth.
I couldn't see for
concrete and collection boxes,
for postcards and guide books.

So I looked further down.
I looked to the ground.
But the ground was thirty feet
higher than back in A.D.3.
This is not where Jesus walked.

I looked down, down to my feet,
my legs,arms,chest.
I looked down to where Jesus
touches the earth.
Steve Turner

The Nail Man

2011-08-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Which one was it

that held the nails

and then hammered them

into place?

Did he hit them

out of anger,

or a simple

sense of duty?

Was it a job

that had to be done,

or a good day's work

in the open air?

And when they

clawed past bone

and bit into wood,

was it like all the others,

or did history

shudder a little

beneath the head

of that hammer?

Was he still there,

packing away his tools,

when 'It is finished'

was uttered to the throng,

or was he at home

washing his hands

and getting ready

for the night?

Will he be

among the forgiven

on that Day of Days,

his sin having been slain

by his own savage spike?
Steve Turner

Still more about truth

2011-08-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.
Blaise Pascal

A man may be an heretic in the truth, and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.
F.W. Farrar

There are two ways to be fooled: One is to believe what isn't so; the other is to refuse to believe what is so.
Soren Kierkegaard

Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings. An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games, and verbal superficiality. As honesty and real integrity characterize our lives, there will be no need to manipulate others.
Chuck Swindoll

More on truth

2011-08-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other.

Charles Spurgeon

One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.

C.S. Lewis

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

G.K. Chesterton

If Jesus was born today

2011-08-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

If Jesus was born today
it would be in a downtown motel
marked by a helicopter's flashing bulb.
A traffic warden, working late,
would be the first upon the scene.
Later, at the expense of a TV network,
an eminent sociologist,
the host of a chat show
and a controversial author
would arrive with their good wishes
-the whole occasion to be filmed as part of the
'Is This The Son Of God?' one hour special.
Childhood would be a blur of photographs and speculation
dwindling by his late teens into
'Where Is He Now?' features in Sunday magazines.

If Jesus was thirty today
they wouldn't really care about the public ministry,
they'd be too busy investigating His finances
and trying to prove He had Church or Mafia connections.
The miracles would be explained by
an eminent and controversial magician,
His claims to be God's Son recognised as
excellent examples of Spoken English
and immediately incorporated into
the O-Level syllabus,
His sinless perfection considered by moral philosophers
as, OK, but a bit repressive.

If Jesus was thirty-one today
He'd be the fly in everyone's ointment-
the sort of controversial person who
stands no chance of eminence.
Communists would expel Him, capitalists
would exploit Him or have Him
smeared by people who know a thing or two about God.
Doctors would accuse Him of quackery,
soldiers would accuse Him of cowardice,
theologians would take Him aside and try
to persuade Him of His non-existence.

If Jesus was thirty-two today we'd have to
end it all. Heretic, fundamentalist, literalist,
puritan, pacifist, non-conformist, we'd take Him
away and quietly end the argument.
But the argument would rumble in the ground
at the end of three days and would break out
and walk around as though death was some bug,
saying 'I am the resurrection and the life...
No man cometh to the Father but by me'.
While the magicians researched new explanations
and the semanticists wondered exactly what
He meant by 'I' and 'No man' there would be those
who stand around amused, asking for something
called proof.
Steve Turner

History

2011-08-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

History repeats itself.
Has to.
No-one listens.
Steve Turner

Heaven

2011-08-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

What happens in heaven?
Will I sit on a cloud?
Is walking or talking
Or jumping allowed?

Will I be on my own
Or with some of my friends?
Does it go on for ever
Or eventually end?

What happens in heaven?
Will I play a harp's strings?
I can't play piano
I can't even sing.

Who chooses the music
That angels inspire?
Who does the auditions
For the heavenly choir?

What happens in heaven?
Are the streets paved with gold?
Is it crowded with people
Who're incredibly old?

Will I know who I am?
Will I know what I'm called?
If I pinch myself hard
Will I feel it at all?

What happens in heaven?
Do I go through a gate?
What if I get myself lost
Or turn up too late?

Is my name on a list?
Is the gatekeeper nice?
Can you sneak in for nothing
Or is there a price?
Steve Turner

Disciples

2011-08-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

They threw down their nets
and they followed Him.
There was no time to
calculate profit or loss.
There was no time to
call home for a second opinion.
It seemed like absolute madness.
It seemed like death.
But it was a wise madness,
a necessary death.
The old faith dropped
and sank beneath waves.
The new faith walked on water,
beckoning on to Jerusalem
and the dry hills around.

Steve Turner

Christmas is really for the children

2011-08-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Christmas is really
for the children.
Especially for children
who like animals, stables,
stars and babies wrapped
in swaddling clothes.
Then there are wise men,
kings in fine robes,
humble shepherds and a
hint of rich perfume.

Easter is not really
for the children
unless accompanied by
a cream filled egg.
It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition.
They would do better to
think on rabbits, chickens
and the first snowdrop
of spring.

Or they'd do better to
wait for a re-run of
Christmas without asking
too many questions about
what Jesus did when he grew up
or whether there's any connection.

Steve Turner

Creed

2011-08-18T09:11:00.001-07:00

CREED

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin.
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before during
and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy's OK
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated.
You can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes,
UFO's and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha
Mohammed and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher although we think
his good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same,
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
creation sin heaven hell God and salvation.

We believe that after death comes The Nothing
because when you ask the dead what happens
they say Nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,
then it's compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between
warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behaviour that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth
that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust. History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds.

Steve Turner

Absolute truth

2011-08-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

A recent Barna Research Group survey on what Americans believe asked the question, "Is there absolute Truth?" Sixty-six percent of adults responded that they believe that "there is no such thing as absolute truth; different people can define truth in conflicting ways and still be correct." Seventy-two percent of those aged 18 to 25 expressed this belief. In a recent series of more than twenty interviews conducted at random at a large university, people were asked if there was such a thing as absolute truth - truth that is true across all times and cultures for all people. All but one respondent answered along these lines:

"Truth is whatever you believe."

"There is no absolute truth."

"If there were such a thing as absolute truth, how could we know what it is?"

"People who believe in absolute truth are dangerous."

Telling the truth

2011-08-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

The preacher Will Willimon tells about a funeral he went to once in a little rural Baptist church in Georgia after a member of his congregation asked him to go to a relative's funeral:

"I have never been to a funeral like that! They wheeled the coffin in with the casket open,and the preacher began to preach. He shouted, fumed, flailed his arms. "It's too late for Joe," he screamed. "He might have wanted to do this or that in life, but it's too late for him now. He's dead. It's all over for him. He might have wanted to straighten his life out, but he can't now. It's over. But it ain't too late for you! People drop dead every day. So why wait? Now is the day for decision. Now is the time to make your life count for something. Give your life to Jesus!"

On the way home Willimon said to his wife, "I've never heard anything so manipulative, cheap and inappropriate. I would never preach a sermon like that." She agreed that it was tacky, manipulative, callous. "Of course," she added, "the worst part of all is that it was true."

It really was too late for him. And it's not too late for us.

Truth and lies

2011-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

It is better to be:
divided by truth, than united in error;
to speak the truth that hurts and then heals,
than to speak a lie that will comfort and then kill;
to be hated for telling the truth
than to be loved for telling a lie;
to stand alone with the truth
than to be wrong with a miltitude;
to die ultimately with the truth,
than to live with a lie.

The Truth

2011-08-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Once, when a stubborn disputer seemed unconvinced, Lincoln said,
"Well, let's see how many legs has a cow?"
"Four, of course," came the reply disgustedly.
"That's right," agreed Lincoln. "Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?"
"Why, five, of course," was the confident reply.
"Now, that's where you're wrong," said Lincoln. "Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

Quotes about Jesus

2011-08-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Jews tried to keep Christ contained within their law, while the Greeks sought to turn Him into a philosophy; the Romans made of Him an empire; the Europeans reduced Him to a culture, and we Americans have made a business of Him.

I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.
Napoleon

No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved. --John Knox
Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.
Mahatma Gandhi

Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander the Great, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of school, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.
Philip Schaff

I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.
H.G. Wells

As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet.
Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life—He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life. --James C. Hefley
Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ's 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity. Unknown

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and very beautiful; but I never read in either of them: "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden."
Augustine

Buddha never claimed to be God. Moses never claimed to be Jehovah. Mohammed never claimed to be Allah. Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God. Buddha simply said, "I am a teacher in search of the truth." Jesus said, "I am the Truth." Confucius said, "I never claimed to be holy." Jesus said, "Who convicts me of sin?" Mohammed said, "Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope." Jesus said, "Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins."
Unknown

Fundamentally, our Lord's message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I am the bread." He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am the light." He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am the door." He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, "I am the shepherd." He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
J. Sidlow Baxter

Repentance

2011-08-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

How do we repent? We see a great example of repentance in one of the films of recent years called Bruce Almighty. Here Jim Carey in the film finally comes to the end of himself and surrenders to God in prayer. His prayer is a good model to follow. As Bruce kneels he says to God:
"You win. I'm done. Please, I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna be God. I want you to decide what's right for me. I surrender to your will."

You could not pray a better prayer. Stop trying to be God. Tell God he wins and that you want him todecide what's right for you, and surrender to his will. When that happens, you will receive the forgiveness of your sins and be filled with the Holy Spirit. You will have a relationship with God that is free of conflict and marked by mutual love.

The Early Church

2011-08-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

Contrast the life of the Church today with the Book of Acts:
we preach ... to the same old faithful week in and week out.
Peter's sermon converted 3,000 in one day.
We visit the sick, the Apostles healed them.
We have problems paying the Church bills.
The early Christians sold land and houses and laid the money at the Apostles' feet.
We bury the dead. They raised them.
Martin Downs: Speak to these bones.

Fishing

2011-08-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

A man went out to fish on a frozen lake. He cut a hole in the ice, dropped his line in and sat for hours without so much as a nibble.

After a while a young boy came along and cut a hole nearby. He baited his line, dropped it in the hole, and within a few minutes caught a fish. He baited his line again, and within a few minutes he had another fish.

The man was insensed, so he went over to the boy and asked his secret.

"Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm," replied the boy.

"What was that?" the man asked.

"Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm," replied the boy.

"Look", said the man, "I can't understand a word you are saying."

The boy spat into his hand and said, "You have to keep the worms warm!"

Money

2011-08-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Money can buy medicine but it cannot buy health;
it can buy a house, but not a home;
it can buy companionship, but not friendship;
it can buy entertainment, but not happiness;
it can buy food, but not an appetite;
it can buy a bed, but it cannot buy sleep;
it can buy a crucifix, but not a saviour;
it can but a good life, but not eternal life.
A Box of Delights

Giving

2011-08-16T10:18:00.001-07:00

There is a story of a minister who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building programme. The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."
A Bucket of Surprises

"You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving."
Amy Carmichael

Eternal life

2011-08-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

W.B.Hinson, an influential Minister, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said:

"I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, "You have an illness from which you won't recover." I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and looked across at the mountain that I love. I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked into the great sky when God was lighting His lamps, and I said:

"I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alove when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the Sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down-pulling of the material universe."

Misconceptions

2011-08-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

A sea captain met a pirate in an old harbour oub. The captain noticed that the pirate had a wooden leg, a hook on the end of one arm, and a patch over one eye. "My you've had some experiences. Tell me, how did you get the wooden leg?"

"Well", said the pirate, "we were sailing in shark-invested waters and I took a boat out to our island and a freak wave tipped me over and a shark came across and bit my leg off. That's how I got the wooden leg."

"And what about the hook"

"Well we were attacking a Spanish galleon when I got into a sword fight with the captain and I let my guard down for a second and he cut my hand off. That's why I have a hook instead."

"What about the eye? Was it s musket shot or cutlass?"

"No", replied the pirate, "my first day with a hook."

Resurrection and joy

2011-08-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

"As we consider the arguments for the resurrection of Jesus, one of the chief arguments for its truthfulness is often overlooked - the joyfulness of the disciples after the death of their master. It was a sustained joyfulness in the face of apparent defeat and disaster, and it continued in the face of hardship and persecution so that in Acts 2:27 we find the believers meeting together "praising God and enjoying the favour of the people".

Death

2011-08-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions, and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was: "Did you bring joy?" and the second: "Did you find joy?"
A Barrel of laughs".

2011-08-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

"Nothing in the contemporary scene is more striking than the general regard which is felt for Jesus Christ and the general dislike of the organised Church which bears His name."
Stephen Neil: Christian Faith Today 1955

Jesus - mad or God?

2011-08-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing people say about Him (Jesus), that 'I'm ready to accept him as a great moral teacher but I can't accept His claim to be God."

A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God - or else a madman or something worse."
C.S.Lewis: Mere Christianity page 52

Choice

2011-08-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Victor Frankl spent three years in four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz. His suffering was appalling. But his spirit was never broken. After the war he wrote his reflection on the experience of camp life:
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

The Cross

2011-08-15T08:42:00.001-07:00

Imagine that you are driving along a country road, perhaps at night. As you drive along, your headlights pick up a sign at the side of the road. It has a cross on it. What does it mean? It means that there is a crossroads ahead, and that means oncoming traffic. Unless you are careful, you may find yourself in collision with another vehicle. A cross here means 'a point of meeting'. And so it is with the cross of Christ. We meet God at the Cross. It is through this cross that God discloses himself to us, calls to us, and meets us. Christianity is about coming to the foot of the Cross, recognizing that in some strange and mysterious way, the same god who made heaven and earth makes Himself available to us ay this very place. In the Cross and resurrection of Jesus, we recognize that He is none other than God Himself, humbling Himself, even to death on a cross, in order to bring us home from that far country."
Alistair McGrath: Jesus pp243-244

The personal appropriation of the gospel

2011-08-15T08:37:00.001-07:00

The following is a famous poem by German writer Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) much quoted ...to draw attention to what is referred to as the 'personal appropriation of the gospel'.

Were Christ a thousand times to Bethlehem come
And yet not born in you, it would spell your doom
Golgotha's Cross, it cannot save from sin,
Unless for you that Cross is raised within
I say, it helps you not that Christ is risen
If you yourself are still in death's dark prison.
From Alistair McGrath's book: Jesus

Grace and response

2011-08-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

"Suppose you are in a dark room and want it lit up. The shutter is closed, and the sunlight is beaming down upon that shutter. The light will not enter that room and illuminate it until you open the shutter. So it is with the forgiving grace of God. Like the sunlight, it is always there, at our disposal. But a decision, an action, is required if it is to influence us or affect us. Opening that shutter is to let the light in is just like saying 'yes' to God's offer of grace."
Alistair McGrath: Jesus page 249
Note: Favourite Middle Ages illustration

Incarnation

2011-08-15T03:51:00.000-07:00

There was once a man who didn't believe in the incarnation of Christ or the spiritual meaning of Christmas, and was sceptical about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in her faith. He sometimes gave her a hard time about her faith and mocked her religious observance of Christmas. "It's all nonsense - why would God lower himself and become a human like us?! It's such a ridiculous story!" he said.

One snowy day, she and the children left for church while he stayed home. After they had left, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window. And another thump. He looked outside but couldn't see. So he ventured outside to see.
In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of geese! They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area, but had been caught in the snow storm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles. He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, "The barn would be a great place for them to stay! It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm." So he opened the barn doors for them. He waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But they didn't notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear.

He went into the house and came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still didn't catch on. Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They panicked and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety and shelter.

Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they follow me? Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. He said to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them! Then I could save them! They would follow me and I would lead them to safety." At that moment, he stopped and considered what he had said. The words reverberated in his mind: "If only I could become like one of them-then I could save them." And then, at last, he understood God's heart towards mankind, and he fell on his knees in the snow and worshipped Him.

Believing in Jesus

2011-08-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

"It is a great thing to be a believer, but easy to misunderstand what the New Testament means by it. It is not that we believe Jesus Christ can do things, or that we believe in a plan of salvation. It is that we believe him, whatever happens we will hang on to the fact that he is true."
Oswald Chambers

Serving others - serving God

2011-08-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

One night, at 11:30 P.M., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached.. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole.

Christians doing good

2011-07-31T00:16:00.000-07:00

In an article published some time after Hurricane Katrina, Hattersley, an atheist, makes some observations about the kind of people doing disaster work long after the disaster has been forgotten. "Notable by their absence are teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers' clubs and atheists' associations--the sort of people who not only scoff at religion's intellectual absurdity but also regard it as a positive force for evil."

Life worth living

2011-07-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

‘In the future, scientists may be able to prolong life, but will it be worth living?’ wrote Nigel Hawkes in The Times. Apparently, one Oxford professor claims, it may be possible to prolong many people’s lives until the age of 115. But Nigel Hawkes is right to ask, ‘Will it be worth living?’ An increased lifespan is of little value unless it is for a life worth living.

Encouragement

2011-07-26T14:32:00.001-07:00

I remember with great fondness one eighty-four-year-old member of our congregation, at the time I first began to preach at HTB back in 1986. She was a great encourager. I would preach some pathetically bad sermon and she would come up and say, ‘Oh Mr Gumbel! That was wonderful!’ (She was the only person who called me Mr Gumbel). Even if I had just been leading the service she would say, ‘Mr Gumbel you led that service wonderfully’. I was always thrilled to see her. On one occasion I had done absolutely nothing in the service. John Collins (the Vicar at the time) had been preaching. She came up to me and said, ‘Mr Collins – he gets more and more like our Lord’.

God's love and God's Spirit

2011-07-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

Evan Roberts, the man at the centre of the Welsh revival of 1904-1905, told how the Spirit of God gave him an overwhelming experience of God’s love. He was filled with compassion and wrote, ‘I felt ablaze with a desire to go through the length and breadth of Wales to tell of the Saviour: and had it been possible, I was willing to pay God for doing so.’

Invitation

2011-07-26T14:25:00.001-07:00

Billy Graham has often said, ‘The Bible is one long invitation to come to God.’ In the opening chapters of Genesis, after Adam’s rejection of God’s perfect plan, God calls to Adam with an anguished cry, full of love and anger, ‘Where are you?’ The book of Revelation ends with the invitation from the Spirit and the Bride who say, ‘Come!’ Jesus often invited people: ‘Come to me’ (Matthew 11:28), ‘Come to the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:4), ‘Come to me and drink’ (John 7:37).

Never give in

2011-07-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Sir Winston Churchill has been described as Britain’s greatest ever leader. He lived a long, heroic life, and he rallied a nation with his inspiring rhetoric. When he returned to his old school, Harrow, to address the boys, the whole school assembled to listen to his words of wisdom. The great man arose to speak: ‘Young men; never give up, never give up, never give up.’ The entire speech lasted only a few seconds. Then he sat down. No one present ever forgot his words.

Or, at least, that is the popular version of the story. Churchill did indeed say words to that effect, but in fact as part of a longer speech. Towards the end of the speech he said, ‘Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.’

Loving our enemies

2011-07-26T14:14:00.001-07:00

G.K. Chesterton wrote, ‘The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people!’

Freedom

2011-07-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

A Marxist orator was once delivering a speech about the freedom all people would enjoy after the political revolution: ‘When we get freedom, we will all drive in cars like that’, he said, pointing to a brand new Porsche that was passing by. A heckler in the crowd shouted out, ‘I prefer my bike.’ The Marxist ignored him and continued his speech. ‘When we get freedom, we will all smoke cigars like that’, he said as he pointed to a smart-looking gentleman smoking a fat cigar. ‘I prefer my cigarettes’, shouted the heckler. And so it continued. After a while the orator could bear his tormentor no longer. He turned to him and hissed, ‘Look mate, when we get freedom you’ll do what you’re told!’

God likes me

2011-07-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

‘This seemingly insubstantial fact revolutionised my life’, wrote Adrian Plass, author of The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 ¾. ‘I became a Christian when I was sixteen years old, but it wasn’t until I was thirty-seven that I absorbed an essential truth. God is nice and he likes me.’

Opportunities not problems

2011-07-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

When Sandy Millar was Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, he taught us all not to use the word ‘problem’, but rather, ‘opportunity’!

In a similar vein, President J.F. Kennedy once remarked in a speech that ‘when written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity’.

On another occasion, when faced with a crisis, Kennedy said, ‘This is not a time to keep the facts from the people – to keep them complacent. To sound the alarm is not to panic, but to seek action from an aroused public.’ He warned of the grave danger of being ‘those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality’.

Christ in us

2011-07-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

I brought in a boxing glove as a visual aid. I dangled the glove and showed how ineffective it was without a hand in it. Then I put my hand in the glove, made a fist and punched the air so that everyone could see the difference that made to the power of the glove.

I was speaking at a detention centre (a prison for young adults) in Oxford. I was a theological student at the time and was given the opportunity to speak to some of the young men in a chapel service.

The chaplain at the detention centre who was helping with my training pointed out that it was rather an inappropriate illustration for a detention centre, since it suggested that Jesus and violence were closely associated! He was quite right. And, of course, all illustrations and analogies break down.

What I was trying to illustrate was the difference it makes when Jesus Christ comes to live in us by his Spirit. Without him we are weak (2 Corinthians 13:4), like the glove without the hand in it. When Jesus Christ comes to live within us we have God’s power in our lives (2 Corinthians 13:4-5).

It is interesting that Paul talks far more often of us being in Christ than Christ in us. Nevertheless the passages in which he puts it the other way round are remarkable. In Colossians 1:27 Paul writes, ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’, and here too he writes about Christ being in us and the difference it makes: ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?’ (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Jesus Christ lives in every Christian. This is what it means to be a Christian. Jesus Christ comes to live within us by his Spirit. As Paul writes, ‘If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ’ (Romans 8:9).

This is life transforming. Jesus Christ is alive today. He lives in you. He lives in me. If we ‘realise’ this it will transform the way we live our lives.

Choosing the right path

2011-07-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

I remember reading years ago about an incident that occurred on the Italian Riviera. A young man was driving his sports car along a road near the sea. It was a beautiful and scenic route. But the road was not what it seemed. All along the way were warning signs, yet to the young man the road seemed perfectly good. Disaster awaited him. A landslide had recently created a precipice, and no one should have been on that road. He continued at great speed. He ignored all the warning signs. He went straight over the cliff and was killed.

Sometimes we are not sure where a path will lead. At other times, we are well aware of where it leads but choose to follow nevertheless.

Jesus said that there is a path that leads to life. There is also a path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Warning signs are not put there as a threat, but out of love. The signs were up on the Italian Riviera to keep people safe. The words of Jesus, the New Testament and the Bible as a whole are designed to keep us on the path that leads to life.
Nicky Gumbel: One Year Bible 2010

Letter to Diognetus

2011-07-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

‘They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land … It is true that they are “in the flesh”, but they do not live “according to the flesh”. They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. They love all [people], and by all [people] are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonoured, and in their very dishonour are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect ... Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world.’
Second-century Letter to Diognetus

Thanksgiving and grace

2011-07-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

I heard about a family where the father was very proud of the fact that they always said grace before meals. Once they had some very smart guests coming to lunch. The father wanted to show off the fact that even their young son had learnt to say grace before meals.

As they were about to eat lunch he said to his son, ‘Tommy, would you say grace?’ Tommy whispered to his mother, ‘I don’t know what to say’. The mother replied, ‘just say what Daddy said at breakfast’. Tommy closed his eyes and said, ‘Oh God, we’ve got those dreadful people coming to lunch.’ That, of course, was an unusual form of grace!

Normally, ‘grace’ is a form of thanksgiving to God for what he has provided. Some people call it ‘giving thanks’. Others call it ‘saying grace’. It doesn’t really matter what we call it but it shows how in our language grace and thanksgiving are closely connected.

The Lord

2011-07-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

What was wrong with these people? Were they weird? Was it a cult? What was this strange expression they seemed to use?

Of course I knew that God or even Jesus could be called ‘Lord’, but never before had I heard God referred to so often by a group of people as ‘The Lord’. In the years since then, as I have studied the Bible, I have begun to understand why these Christians, who I first met at University, used this expression so often.

‘The LORD’ is the most common way of referring to God in the Old Testament. When written in capitals, this word translates the Jewish covenant name for God, YHWH. Out of respect for God, the word was never actually spoken. Historically we have often pronounced the word as ‘Jehovah’, when in fact it sounds more like ‘Yahweh’.

The New Testament gives us a more Trinitarian understanding of ‘The LORD’. It makes the remarkable claim that Jesus is Lord. In fact, as we have seen, whether someone can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ becomes the test of Christian authenticity (1 Corinthians 12:3). It also makes the claim that the Holy Spirit is Lord: ‘Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’ (2 Corinthians 3:17).

God the Father is Lord. God the Son is Lord. God the Holy Spirit is Lord. But there is only one Lord: ‘One Lord … one God’ (Ephesians 4:5-6). The one Trinitarian God is Lord. The New Testament understanding of the Lord helps us interpret the Old Testament use of ‘The LORD’. The Old Testament enriches our understanding of what the New Testament means when it speaks of ‘The LORD’.

The Church in dark times

2011-07-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Christopher and Peter always had a difficult relationship. They did not get on. When Peter was nine and Christopher nearly twelve, their father persuaded them to sign a peace treaty in the hope of halting the feud. But soon the agreement was ripped from its frame and hostilities recommenced. The treaty has remained broken ever since.

Years later, in April 2008, an extraordinary event took place. These two brothers held a debate in public. It was broadcast all over the world.

In the intervening years, Christopher Hitchens had become one of the leading new atheists and author of the book God is Not Great. Peter Hitchens on the other hand had become a Christian, and was an author, broadcaster and writer for the Mail on Sunday. After the debate Peter Hitchens wrote the book The Rage Against God. He concludes the book with these words:

‘A new and intolerant utopianism seeks to drive the remaining traces of Christianity from the laws and constitutions of Europe and North America ... Inevitably it is the Christian churches who are the last strongholds of resistance to this change. Yet they are historically weak, themselves infiltrated by secular liberalism, full of uncertainty and diffidence. The overthrow of Christian education is a real possibility in our generation. The removal of Christianity from broadcasting and from public ceremonies is almost complete. Expressions of Christian opinion or prayer in public premises can be punished in Britain under new codes which enjoin a post-Christian code of “equality and diversity” on all public servants. Secularists are equating teaching of religion with child abuse and laying the foundations for it to be restricted by law ... The rage against God is loose, and is preparing to strip the remaining altars when it is strong enough to do so.’

The people of God have been through some terrible times. Israel went through very dark periods. The church has experienced dark ages. In many parts of the world today, the church is struggling. But, however bleak things may appear, God always seems to raise up people to be used by him.

Meditation

2011-07-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

‘Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny’.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Family

2011-07-26T13:06:00.001-07:00

The word ‘family’ can conjure very different impressions in our minds; both good and bad. Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmatians and I Capture the Castle, once called family, ‘that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.’

Resurrection Victory

2011-07-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

‘The resurrection was not the reversal of a defeat but the manifestation of a victory.’ The cross was not a defeat. Rather, taken together, the cross and resurrection are the greatest victory to have taken place in the history of the world. It is a victory that has huge implications for our own lives, our society and the future of this world."
Leslie Newbiggin

Peace

2011-07-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Thomas à Kempis wrote, ‘First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.’

The love of God

2011-07-25T12:34:00.001-07:00

A man is walking along a road hand in hand with his child. The boy knows that this man is his father and that his father loves him. But suddenly the father stops, picks up the child, lifts him into his arms, embraces him, kisses him, and hugs him. Then he puts him down again, and they continue walking. It is a wonderful thing to walk along holding your father’s hand; but it is an incomparably greater thing to have his arms enfolded round you.

That was the way Thomas Goodwin, one of the Puritans of 300 years ago, illustrated the experience of God’s love. We know that God loves us through the cross: ‘But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8). We experience God’s love through the Holy Spirit: ‘God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us’ (Romans 5:5).

‘The whole Bible, St. Augustine observes, does nothing but tell of God’s love. This is the message that supports and explains all the other messages. The love of God is the answer to all the “whys” in the Bible: the why of creation, the why of the incarnation, the why of redemption. If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a spoken word and become one single voice, this voice, more powerful than the roaring of the sea would cry out: “the Father loves you!” (John 16:27). Everything that God does and says in the Bible is love, even God’s anger is nothing but love. God “is” love!’ (Raniero Cantalamessa, Life in Christ, p.7)

Listening to God

2011-07-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Suppose I go to the doctor and say, ‘Doctor, I have a number of problems: I have fungus growing under my toenails, my eyes itch, I need a flu jab, I have very bad backaches and I have tennis elbow.’ Then, having got through my list of complaints, I look at my watch and say, ‘Goodness me, time is getting on. Well, I must be off. Thanks very much for listening.’ The doctor might want to say, ‘Hang on a second. Do you not want to hear what I have to say?’

If we only speak to God and never take time to listen, we make the same mistake. It is for this reason that I have a notebook next to me when I pray. I find it helpful to jot down thoughts that come into my mind like, ‘perhaps I should phone or write to that person’.

Many of us live in a busy and noisy world. In the midst of all the noise, talk and distractions how do we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was himself a doctor, once penned these words: ‘It is the province of knowledge to speak, and the privilege of wisdom to listen.’

Love

2011-07-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

The great evangelist D.L. Moody was once staying with a party of friends in England. On Sunday evening as they sat around the fire they asked him to read and expound on a portion of Scripture. He was tired after all the services of the day and told them to ask Henry Drummond, who was one of the party. After some urging he drew a small New Testament from his hip pocket, opened it at 1 Corinthians 13 and began to speak on the subject of love. D.L. Moody wrote in response:

‘It seemed to me that I had never heard anything so beautiful, and I determined not to rest until I brought Henry Drummond to deliver that address. Since then I have requested the principles of my schools to have it read before the students every year. The one great need in our Christian life is love, more love to God and to each other. Would that we could all move into that love chapter and live there.’

Henry Drummond begins his book, The Greatest Thing in the World ‘everyone has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world: what is the summum bonum – the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet? In the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul takes us to Christianity at its source; and there we see ‘the greatest of these is love’.

Intimacy with God

2011-07-25T12:23:00.001-07:00

In his book All I Want is You, Sandy Millar recalls how he began to preach a message of the ‘intimacy’ God desires to have with each one of us:

‘When I first visited the Vineyard Church in California I discovered that one of their principle values was “intimacy with God”. So when I came back I started to talk about that as being one of our values too.

One of the very nice members of our congregation at that time took me to one side and said, “Please don’t use the word ‘intimacy’ because we don’t use that word in that context.” So I started talking about “the closest possible relationship with God” which is quite a mouthful. But after a bit I stopped because what I really meant was “intimacy” and I think that’s what the Bible means for our relationship with God too.’

We are created for intimate relationships – with God and with one another. There is a hunger deep in our souls for intimacy. There is a hunger for a relationship with God. There is also a hunger for intimate relationships with other human beings. Each of the passages for today speaks of this intimacy in relationships.

Worship and service

2011-07-25T12:09:00.001-07:00

Worship and service are very closely connected. In fact, the same Greek word latreuo is used for both worship and service. All human beings are worshippers. We either worship the one true God, or someone or something else. All human beings are servants or indeed slaves – to God, to ourselves or to someone or something else.

Three kinds of greatness

2011-07-25T11:54:00.001-07:00

French philosopher Blaise Pascal spoke of three kinds of greatness.

Mohammed Ali, former world heavyweight boxing champion, once declared, ‘I am the greatest’. This is physical greatness, the first of Pascal’s three kinds. Sporting ability, strength, physical beauty and material wealth belong to the first order. Many of the popular magazines and television programmes focus on and exalt this level of greatness.

Above this, said Pascal, is a far higher level of greatness. It is the greatness of genius, science and art. The greatness of the art of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, or the music of Bach or Mozart, or the brilliance of Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton – these stand way above merely physical greatness.

However, there is a third kind of greatness. (And there is an almost infinite qualitative difference between the second and the third categories.) The third category, and the highest level of greatness, says Pascal, is the order of holiness. The fact that a holy person is strong or weak, rich or poor, highly intelligent or illiterate, does not add or subtract anything because that person’s greatness is on a different and infinitely superior plane.

The word ‘holy’ (hallowed, holiest, holiness) appears over 500 times in the Bible. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words for holy have the sense of being set apart or consecrated. God is holy. He is the ‘Holy One of Israel’ (Psalm 71:22). He alone is holy (Revelation 15:4). He gives us his Holy Spirit to sanctify us, and we are called to share in his holiness.

The word ‘saints’ means ‘holy ones’. It is not applied to a special few, but to all Christians. Paul writes, ‘To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy’ (1 Corinthians 1:2). Again, he writes, ‘Greet every saint in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:21 NRSV). There are several pitfalls in talking about holiness in the church today. First, there is the danger of an attitude that is ‘holier-than-thou’. This is a self-righteous superiority to be avoided at all costs. Second, there is the danger of perfectionism. Only God is completely holy. We need to strive for perfection but we will never reach it in this life.

Poverty and riches

2011-07-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Laurence was the principal financial officer in the church. He was a deacon. There was a great revival taking place all around him. It was said that ‘All of Rome were becoming Christians’.

As a result persecution broke out under the Emperor Valerian in around the year 250 AD. Christians who owned property distributed all the church’s money and treasures to the city’s poor.

Valerian ordered all bishops, priests and deacons to be arrested and executed. He offered Laurence a way out if he would show where all the church’s treasures were located.

Laurence asked for three days to gather it into one central place. He brought together the blind, poor, disabled, sick, aged, widows and orphans. When Valerian arrived he flung open the doors and said, ‘These are the treasures of the church’.

Valerian was so angry that he decided beheading was not enough. He ordered that Laurence be roasted on a gridiron. That is how he died on 10 August 258 AD. Apparently, this courageous man even joked with his executioners ‘You may turn me over. I’m done on this side’. His courage made such an impression that the revival in Rome only increased with many people becoming Christians including several senators who witnessed his execution.

St Laurence had a profound understanding of poverty and riches. He understood that the poor were the true treasures of the church.

What should our attitude be to the poor? What about the rich? Is poverty a blessing or a curse? Are riches a blessing or a curse? Does the gospel promise prosperity?

God with us

2011-07-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I wonder whether you have ever had this experience: You are talking to a friend about your faith and they are looking back at you with a blank stare. They have no idea what you are talking about. When you talk about a relationship with God or about knowing Jesus, to them it is like you are speaking about an ‘imaginary friend’. It makes no sense to them at all.

The apostle Paul makes the point that we can only understand spiritual truths with the help of the Holy Spirit. The person ‘without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2:14). When God is with us by his Holy Spirit he gives us understanding, ‘that we may understand what God has freely given us’ (v.12).

‘God with us’ (Immanuel) is one of the titles the New Testament uses for Jesus (Matthew 1:23). He is always with us. In the service of Holy Communion the minister says, ‘The Lord be with you’, to which the congregation replies, ‘And also with you.’ These are momentous words. That the God who created the universe should be with us is not something to be taken lightly. It is an extraordinary and wonderful promise. To experience God with us by his Spirit is life changing.
Nicky Gumbel: One Year Bible 2010

Unity

2011-07-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Years ago I was speaking to a friend of mine who is not a Christian. He said this to me: ‘I don’t understand. You Protestants and you Catholics, you look alike to me. You both have church buildings that look the same. You both say the Lord’s Prayer and do stuff with bread and wine. You look exactly the same to me. Whatever it is you disagree about, and I have no idea what it is, it has absolutely nothing to do with my life. However, whilst you are fighting each other I am not interested.’

It struck me then how damaging disunity is to the church and our witness to the world. No wonder Jesus prayed for ‘complete unity’ (John 17:23). And the apostle Paul was passionate that we should be ‘perfectly united’ (1 Corinthians 1:10).

Unity is at the core of our faith. We believe in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is unity in the Trinity. Disunity, on the other hand, has been the curse of humankind ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin. Jesus died to bring reconciliation and unity.
Nicky Gumbel: One Year Bible 2010

Witness and Evangelism

2011-07-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

David Pawson once said that Paul’s witness and evangelism was threefold:

i. word
ii. deed
iii. miracles

He said ‘one in the eye is worth two in the ear, but Paul gives two in the eye and only one in the ear. People are more affected by what they see than by what they hear.’

The Power of the Presence

2011-07-25T11:19:00.001-07:00

The Duke of Wellington once remarked about Napoleon, ‘I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.’ The presence of a strong leader has a powerful effect. How much greater is the impact of the awesome power of the presence of God.

Hope

2011-07-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Twenty-one-year-old Matthew had been homeless for three years. During those three years he slept rough on the streets of London. Mark Russell, who was appointed head of the Church Army while he was still in his twenties, met him on the streets of Charing Cross in London, bought him some food and led him to Christ.

As he was getting up to leave he said, ‘Matthew, over the next month I am going to be on platforms speaking to thousands of people. One of the sessions I’m going to be speaking at is the whole General Synod about mission ... what piece of advice do you want me to give to the Church of England today?’

Matthew replied, ‘The church’s job is to stop arguing and to bring people hope.’

Mark Russell commented, ‘I have never heard a better definition of what we should be about: “stop arguing about all kinds of stuff and bring hope.” Don’t we have a gospel of hope? A gospel that brings hope? A gospel of life, a gospel of transformation, a gospel of joy and a gospel of grace, and above all a hope of eternal life, the hope of Jesus.’

‘Our world is wondering, will darkness and evil prevail?’ writes Bill Hybels. ‘Will tyrants always rule? Will terrorists keep wrecking havoc? Will AIDS only continue to spread? Does it have to end like this? Will poverty just increase? Will racism win the day? Will violence and war persist? Will hunger and homelessness keep multiplying? Will churches keep closing their doors and posting “For Sale” signs? Will marriages keep breaking up? Will depression continue robbing people of joy? Does it have to end like this? In Christ ... it most certainly doesn’t have to end like this ... we steward the only message on planet Earth that can give people what their hearts need most which is hope. Hope that sins can be forgiven. Hope that prayers can be answered. Hope that doors of opportunity that seemed locked can be opened. Hope that broken relationships can be reconciled. Hope that diseased bodies can be healed. Hope that damaged trust can be restored. Hope that dead churches can be resurrected ... Of all people, we must claim that hope and live in it and radiate it to others. And we must proclaim that message of hope to everyone that God gives us the opportunity to influence.’

Sin

2011-07-25T11:10:00.001-07:00

Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, terrorism, strikes, murders, divorce, splits in the church. Open the newspapers any day and practically every page will include stories of arguments, disputes and fighting.

When sin entered the world arguments, disputes and fighting began. Adam blamed Eve. Cain murdered his brother. The history of the world ever since has been one of conflict of all kinds.

When people turn away from God, they start fighting one another. We see the breakdown of relationships wherever we look: broken marriages, broken homes, broken relationships at work, civil wars and wars between nations.

Sadly, the church is not immune. Right from the start there have been arguments, disputes and in-fighting. But we must never settle for disunity. As the apostle Paul said in the passage we looked at two days ago, ‘If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone’ (Romans 12:18). But how? How do we avoid arguments? How do we deal with disputes? How do we stop fierce fighting?

The Church

2011-07-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Bishop Lesslie Newbigin wrote, ‘the church has outlived great empires, great totalitarian systems, great philosophical systems. The things that seem to occupy the whole horizon of public thinking now will be simply phantoms, half remembered from the past, twenty years from now. The church will still be there. The church – which is that historic reality beginning with God’s call to Abraham and continuing through the ministry of prophets and apostles right down the ages until now. Whether the church is popular or unpopular, whether it is big or small, is relatively unimportant. The fact of this great rock, this anvil on which so many anvils have been worn out, this given reality, needs to be at the centre of our thinking as Christians.’

Israel and the Church

2011-07-25T10:56:00.001-07:00

My grandparents on my father’s side, Lilli and Sigmund Gumbel, were both Jewish. As a young man my father loved to play tennis. He and another Jewish boy applied to join a local club in Stuttgart. As Jews they were refused entry. Apparently my father came back, threw his tennis racket down and never played again.

My father qualified as a barrister and became a Doctor of Law at the University of Tubingen in 1927. Later he read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and knew what was likely to happen to someone like him who was known as ‘Israelitisch’. He came to England and qualified as an English barrister as well. He encouraged his sister and parents to come too. Many of the rest of his family perished in the Holocaust.

The treatment of the Jewish people down the centuries has been complex and at times tragic. Sometimes even passages in the Bible have been misinterpreted and misapplied as a weapon of abuse against the Jewish people.

The people of God in the Old Testament were the nation of Israel. The people of God in the New Testament are all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. We share a common history, we worship the same God and, the apostle Paul tells us, the way of salvation is the same for us all.
Nicky Gumbel

Election and free will

2011-07-25T10:53:00.001-07:00

The Bible goes no further in answering the questions. It teaches both election and free will and human responsibility. As Charles Simeon pointed out, very often the truth in the Bible is not at one pole or the other, nor in between, but at both poles at once. We need to hold onto the truths of election and free will at the same time

The Sovereignty of God

2011-07-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

In February 1974 I had an encounter with Jesus Christ which totally changed my life. I understood he had died for me. I experienced his love. I knew God was real. I knew the extraordinary blessings of a relationship with Jesus. But almost immediately afterwards I experienced what Paul speaks about in this passage: ‘Great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart’ (Romans 9:2).

I longed for everyone to experience and know what I had only so recently experienced. I longed for my family and friends who were not yet Christians to know Christ.

The apostle Paul cared so passionately about his own people that he was willing to go to hell if they would be saved. He writes, ‘I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ [a definition of hell] for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel’ (Romans 9:3-4a).

Yet at the same time Paul trusted that God had the whole situation under control. God is sovereign. He rules and reigns in his universe. In his sovereignty, he did indeed elect his people. But this was never meant to be simply a racial matter. Paul did not think of becoming a Christian as being converted from Judaism. Rather, he thought of it as becoming a true Israelite and a true child of Abraham.

How do we balance this anguish and passion for those we love with a trust in God’s ultimate sovereignty?

Slavery and freedom

2011-07-25T10:41:00.001-07:00

Consider The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll discovers a way to change himself into a different form – Mr Hyde. He thinks he has found the perfect outlet for his vices. Hyde gives him the freedom to do all the things he can’t do as a respectable doctor. Hyde starts as a small man but, as he is indulged, he grows. Initially Hyde only comes into being at the control of Dr Jekyll but, as time goes on, Hyde appears despite the doctor’s best efforts. What Dr Jekyll thought would bring him freedom actually enslaves him. In the end nothing of the good doctor is left; Hyde has taken control.

The book illustrates the principle that sin is addictive and leads to slavery. As Jesus says, ‘everyone who sins is a slave to sin’ (John 8:34). But Jesus continues, ‘if the son sets you free you will be free indeed’ (John 8:36).

‘His service is perfect freedom’ is an expression from the Book of Common Prayer. Its origins go back to St Augustine who wrote of God, ‘Whom to serve is perfect freedom.’ This is a great paradox. Many people think that if they serve God they will lose their freedom. In fact, it is the very opposite (see Jane Williams, Perfect Freedom). Living for ourselves is, in fact, a form of slavery. Serving God ‘in the new way of the Spirit’ (Romans 7:6) is the way to find perfect freedom.

The Three Tenses of Salvation

2011-07-25T10:36:00.002-07:00

Bishop B F Westcott was once asked, ‘Are you saved?’ He replied using three Greek words – the past, present and future tense of the verb ‘to save’. He said, in effect, ‘I have been saved’ (in the past) from the penalty of sin by the crucified Saviour, ‘I am being saved’ (in the present) from the power of sin by the living Saviour, and ‘I shall be saved’ (in the future) from the presence of sin by the coming Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this passage we see all three tenses of salvation.

Crucified with Christ

2011-07-25T10:36:00.001-07:00

Bishop Taylor Smith, Chaplain General to the Forces, once asked a young man, ‘When you think about the cross of Christ, what do you see?’ He replied, ‘I see Christ, two thieves …’ Bishop Taylor Smith asked, ‘What else do you see?’ He replied, ‘Soldiers gambling …’ ‘If that is all you see I think you will have trouble with the Christian life’, replied Bishop Taylor Smith. ‘When I see the cross – with all that – I see old Bishop Taylor Smith. I was crucified with Christ.’ (See Galatians 2:20)

Justice and grace

2011-07-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

A year ago I had the privilege of meeting Gary Haugen. At the age of thirty-one he was appointed as the Officer in Charge of the United Nations genocide investigation in Rwanda. Now he is President and CEO of International Justice Mission, a human rights organisation he founded and based in Washington DC. Gary believes that the biggest problem on earth is not too little democracy, or too much poverty, or too few anti-viral aids medicines, but, that two thirds of the world live outside the protection of the law. It is certainly true that a lack of justice has a terrible effect on many of the world’s poor.

We cannot fully understand grace without understanding justice. One definition of grace is ‘undeserved love’. There is also a mnemonic used to explain grace: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
Nicky Gumbel: One Year Bible 2010