Christian confidence

In Tim Chester's new book, 'The Ordinary Hero', he suggests the following tests to see how much confidence we have before God (you'll notice the echoes of Romans 8):

• If you're angry for ill-defined reasons or often angry, it mat well be because you feel angry towards God (even if you don't think of it like that) because you view life as a contract in which God hasn't kept his side of the bargain.
• If you feel condemned by other people or judged by them, it may be because you feel condemned by God because you haven't embraced the wonderful truth that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• If you're indifferent towards people, it may be because you're indifferent towards God because you haven't had God's love poured out in your heart.
• If you're insecure, often worried about what people think, always keen to prove yourself, unwilling to let an argument go, then that's a good sign that you're desperate to prove yourself because you've not grasped God's grace to you: the no-condemnation of the gospel.

On the other hand [Chester continues]:

• If you're confident that God loves you, then you'll love other people.
• If you're confident that God's accepted you, then you'll accept other people.
• If you're confident that God died for you, then you'll lay down your life for other people.
• If you're confident that God loved you while you were still his enemy, then you'll not complain when other people let you down.
• If you're confident that God's gracious to you, then you'll be gracious to other people.

So, how confident are you?

If not very, then the remedy is to read Romans 8:31ff where you discover that since Christ is for us, no-one can ultimately be against us; that because we're justified by Jesus, justification can never be taken away from us (even by our own stupid behaviour!); because Christ died for us, no-one can condemn us; and so nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

He then has a wonderful quote from John Owen. But I'll save that for tomorrow (or Wednesday - I'm at a governance seminar in Brentwood all day tomorrow...).

The Ordinary Hero, Tim Chester, (IVP 2009).

Be Faithful!

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) is being officially launched in the UK and Ireland in London on Monday, July 6th 2009 at Westminster Central Hall, 9.30 - 5.30.

Be Faithful! aims to encourage and envision Anglicans committed to the orthodox teachings of the Anglican Church and passionate about global and local mission.

This could be the start of something very significant for the Church of England, and I want to encourage as many as possible to come. Could you take a day off work? Could you arrange for someone to collect your children so you can be there? See here for details, or pick up a brochure from church.

Why pray?

Why do we pray to the God who has sovereign power over all things and who acts to bring about everything he has planned to achieve? Why ask him for anything when he will achieve everything anyway?
It's right that we have a high view of God's sovereignty. But that can lead to prayerlessness - I believe that God will do the right thing at the right time in the right way. So I just need to trust him.
This was the issue Don Carson was addressing at the Evangelical Ministry Assembly today (many hundreds of church ministers gathered at St Helen's, Bishopsgate to be taught & encouraged).
And the answer to this very real problem (for me, anyway) is to hold together, all at once, all of God's attributes. In other words, we must not allow God's sovereignty to overshadow the fact that he is relational. For all eternity, God has been the Trinity in which Father, Son and Holy Spirit love and communicate and enjoy each other. And now, having made us in his image, he loves us and communicates with us and enjoys us - and we are to love him and communicate back to him and enjoy him. And we do that in prayer. Prayer has been described as 'answering speech' - God speaks to us in Scripture and we talk back (I was going to write, 'we answer back', but that might be misunderstood!).
So when I'm tempted not to pray because I know God is sovereign, I will also remember that he is personal - relational - and this is every bit as much a part of him as his sovereign power.

More good stuff tomorrow, no doubt.

How long does it take...?

A few years ago, I contacted Kent County Council about a loose manhole cover outside our house which makes a dreadful noise every time a car goes over it. I contacted them again this week. Perhaps this time they'll get on with it.

Meanwhile, as I wait for KCC, I went to Tyndale House Library where I stumbled across an article in the 1928 edition of the Journal of Theological Studies which said that there was a need for studies of punctutation in individual manuscripts. So 81 years later, here I am doing just that!

I have to say that I've lost a little enthusiasm for the project because there just doesn't seem to be anything of real significance, but Dirk Jongkind, who's supervising the project, is really excited and wants to publish my findings in some obscure journal. So I'm now starting to write it all up before submitting a first draft to Dirk.

Yesterday I went over to St John's, where Giles was preaching on Acts 4 & 5; the frightening account of Ananias & Sapphira who tried to deceive God and his church by lying about what they were giving. I was particularly struck by Giles' comment that in communism, people wanted others to give them what they had. In the church, people want to give to others what they have. So, for example (and in contrast to Ananias & Sapphira), Barnabas sold a field and brought the proceeds to the apostles to use as they felt best.

But it occurred to me that it's not only communists who want what others have - who prefer to take than to give. We're all like that: we see what others have, and we want it. Jesus, however, though he was rich became poor for our sake. That's our model for generosity, for giving what we have to those who don't have. And it is, as Jesus said, 'more blessed to give than to receive.'

May God give us grace to give willingly, generously and joyfully.

I'm off to Cambridge tomorrow for a few days to do some work at Tyndale House Library on punctuation in P66, so I probably won't be blogging for a few days.

When bad things happen...

I've been reading John Calvin's great theological work, 'The Institutes of the Christian Religion', (1536 - 1560). In Book I, chapter xvii, he considers the difference between fatalism (the non-Christian attitude to the events of life) and the biblical teaching about God's almighty, sovereign, fatherly care, and how this affects us. I had to smile as I read his list of the dangers of life - what would the health and safety people say... (it's a long quote, but worth it:

Innumerable are the ills which beset human life, and present death in as many different forms. Not to go beyond ourselves, since the body is a receptacle, nay the nurse, of a thousand diseases, a man cannot move without carrying along with him many forms of destruction. His life is in a manner interwoven with death. For what else can be said where heat and cold bring equal danger? Then, in what direction soever you turn, all surrounding objects not only may do harm, but almost openly threaten and seem to present immediate death. Go on board a ship, you are but a plank's breadth from death. Mount a horse, the stumbling of a foot endangers your life. [I took Ruth riding yesterday!] Walk along the streets, every tile upon the roofs is a source of danger [our church roof...!]. If a sharp instrument is in your own hand, or that of a friend, the possible harm is manifest. All the savage beasts you see are so many beings armed for your destruction [dogs in Dunorlan?]. Even within a high walled garden, where everything ministers to delight, a serpent will sometimes lurk [Oh dear, we have snakes in our garden]. Your house, constantly exposed to fire, threatens you with poverty by day, with destruction by night. Your fields, subject to hail, mildew, drought, and other injuries, denounce barrenness, and thereby famine. I say nothing of poison, treachery, robbery, some of which beset us at home, others follow us abroad. Amid these perils, must not man be very miserable, as one who, more dead than alive, with difficulty draws an anxious and feeble breath, just as if a drawn sword were constantly suspended over his neck?

It may be said that these things happen seldom, at least not always, or to all, certainly never all at once. I admit it; but since we are reminded by the example of others, that they may also happen to us, and that our life is not an exception any more than theirs, it is impossible not to fear and dread as if they were to befall us. What can you imagine more grievous than such trepidation? Add that there is something like an insult to God when it is said, that man, the noblest of the creatures, stands exposed to every blind and random stroke of fortune. Here, however, we were only referring to the misery which man should feel, were he placed under the dominion of chance.

So no wonder the health and safety industry is flourishing! Everyone is scared of living in such a dangerous world. So what difference is there as a Christian? Calvin goes on:

Certainty about God's providence puts joyous trust toward God in our hearts

But when once the light of Divine Providence has illumined the believer's soul, he is relieved and set free, not only from the extreme fear and anxiety which formerly oppressed him, but from all care. For as he justly shudders at the idea of chance, so he can confidently commit himself to God. This, I say, is his comfort, that his heavenly Father so embraces all things under his power - so governs them at will by his nod - so regulates them by his wisdom, that nothing takes place save according to his appointment; that received into his favour, and entrusted to the care of his angels neither fire, nor water, nor sword, can do him harm, except in so far as God their master is pleased to permit. For thus sings the Psalm, "Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday" &c. (Ps. 91: 2-6.) Hence the exulting confidence of the saints, "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? The Lord taketh my part with them that help me." "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." (Ps. 118: 6; 27: 3; 23: 4.)

How comes it, I ask, that their confidence never fails, but just that while the world apparently revolves at random, they know that God is every where at work, and feel assured that his work will be their safety? When assailed by the devil and wicked men, were they not confirmed by remembering and meditating on Providence, they should, of necessity, forthwith despond. But when they call to mind that the devil, and the whole train of the ungodly, are, in all directions, held in by the hand of God as with a bridle, so that they can neither conceive any mischief, nor plan what they have conceived, nor how much soever they may have planned, move a single finger to perpetrate, unless in so far as he permits, nay, unless in so far as he commands; that they are not only bound by his fetters, but are even forced to do him service, - when the godly think of all these things they have ample sources of consolation.

Does that mean we Christians are passive in the face of danger, illness or wickedness? Absolutely not. Calvin shows that when God equips us with the means to avoid, treat or fight such things, we're to be ministers of that grace and use the gifts god gives us. But when we're unable to avoid danger, treat illness or fight evil, we rejoice that God is still in control and will not allow us to be snatched from his eternal care.

Great stuff! Let me know if you got to the end!!

Welcoming people to church

I went to St John's by myself on Sunday morning, and had a small insight into how it must feel for people who, for a variety of reasons, come to church by themselves.

Now remember that I know a lot of people at St John's, and I was welcomed at the door by an old friend. But when I went in to find a seat, it was difficult to see where to sit. The natural reaction was to look for someone I knew. But I didn't see anyone immediately, and sitting by myself didn't really appeal, though there were a number of empty rows. Yes, I could have sat next to a stranger, but I'm used to being the welcomer, not the welcomed, so that just didn't feel right.

So there I stood, feeling like a lemon, searching for a face I knew. And I realised that many people who come by themselves on a Sunday, must get that 'lemon-feeling'.

So we must pay special attention to those who have to come to church by themselves. If it's possible (and only those affected can answer this) we need to create a genuine sense of belonging, of family, of home.

New Word Alive

"Be changed; be equipped; be encouraged; be still. New Word Alive 2010 promises to be a life-changing event as we encounter God in his word, rejoice in the living Christ, and we are renewed by his Holy Spirit."

Information about New Word Alive arrived in the post today, and it would be great if we could go as a group from St Peter's. The dates are 13 - 18 April (which is during Kent school holidays).

Perhaps a blog-reader would like to be our group organiser...?

More on prayer

Some of this is courtesy of Matthew Mason's sermon on Sunday evening. When the disciples ask to be taught to pray, Jesus says, 'When you pray, say, Our Father...' . So prayer is speaking to Father. Not listening, or emptying yourself, not eastern meditation, not a super-spiritual connection with God, but talking to our heavenly Father.

And Jesus tells us a lot about our Father. Just from Matthew 6 & 7, we learn that our Father knows what we need, he's good, he gives and he forgives in the same way we forgive. That last one is, of course, a real challenge.

Matthew (Mason, not Disciple) suggested that if we're not used to talking to our Father, we could start with just 5 minutes a day each day in June. If there are 120 adult members at St Peter's, that's 10 hours of prayer every day! But surely some of us ought to manage more than 5 minutes...

(None of this removes the need to listen to God by opening our Bibles... but for now we're talking about talking to Father.)

Where and when do you find time to pray?

Prayer

In almost 5 years at St Peter's there have been very, very few discouragements, though my attempts to increase our corporate prayer life really do seem to have fallen on stony ground. But I'm not going to give up: when we pray, God hears and acts - and I'm sure that we'd all love to see God's hand at work amongst us, our community and through our Mission Partners.

At two of the churches I've visited in recent weeks, prayer was on the agenda. All Saints, Crowborough has a 5 year plan to increase prayer and to pray for revival. St John's has a sermon series on prayer, and had a very encouraging response to a call to prayer at its last monthly prayer meeting.

I'm praying that the Praying for Mission course in June will begin to stimulate a desire to pray, and from September we will have a monthly church family prayer meeting. I don't know when the best time for this will be - perhaps we need to have various slots (Tuesday evening, Saturday Morning). Perhaps WWW and the Thursday Bible study could devote one session a month to a greater focus on prayer.

One of the things I need to spend more time thinking about is how we teach new Christians to pray. Talking to Father is such a vital part of the Christian life, but it's not easy - especially when it comes to corporate prayer - many of us were privileged to be taught as teenagers when we were bold and enthusiastic to try new things. It's much harder for adults, but no less important.

Ideas on any of this can be posted here...