Letter to the Telegraph

A letter in the DT today read:

SIR The problem with Christians expressing their faith (Comment, December 28) is that they expect the law of the land to inflict their views about abortion, right to die and other matters on those of us who disagree.

Douglass MacDonald
Ilford, Essex

 I have replied:

SIR The problem with atheists expressing their faith (Letters, December 29) is that they expect the law of the land to inflict their views about abortion, right to die and other matters on those of us who disagree.

Michael Warren

I wonder if it will be published? 

Kindle gets me reading

I love my new Kindle e-reader!
Not only is it a great gadget, but it's got me reading more. It's no larger than a very small paperback, but on it I now have the whole of the ESV Bible, John Piper's 'When I don't Desire God: How to fight for Joy', Eric Metaxas' new biography of Bonhoeffer, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a theological journal, two volumes of Jonathan Edwards (thousands of pages!), and samples of 5 other books. It also comes with the Oxford Dictionary of English and an Amercian dictionary.
And all of this for less than £25 - bought from the Kindle or a computer, and delivered directly to the Kindle within a few seconds. (Yes, I know the Kindle itself cost money, but it was a present, and it was a tiny fraction of the price of a tablet PC).
So now I'm carrying all of this with me everywhere and whenever I've got a few minutes to spare, I can read a few pages of whichever of these books takes my fancy. I can take notes and highlight text which is then collated into one place, so I can easily access all my favourite quotes.
But that's not all. I can also check emails, check the footballor cricket scores (via a web browser - it's not fast, but it does the job) and listen to music while I read. I can also transfer documents and .pdf files to read at my leisure. This is great because there are loads of good articles available online in pdf format which are hard to read on a computer screen but which are incredibly easy on the Kindle.
Finally, Sarah also bought me a wonderful protective cover which includes a light so i can read at night without disturbing her!
Wonderful!!

Don Carson's introduction to Christianity

Being a snowy Saturday afternoon, I got out my exercise bike and peddled nowhere while watching part two of  Don Carson's brilliant introduction to Christianity and the Bible.
I posted a link to part one some days ago, and I know some of you watched it. It really is a brilliant series. It's long (each lecture is an hour) and at times demands careful listening and thought. But it really will pay dividends - this is Carson at his intelligent, passionate, engaging best.
If you're not a Christian, then it sets out the overview ofthe Christian message. If you are a Christian, some of it will be familiar to you (though Carson will say it in a way you hadn't thought of before), and some of it will be new to you. It will strengthen your faith, deeped your understanding of the Bible, enable you to speak about your faith with more confidence etc. etc. 
So, having now watched both parts one and two (of 14!) can I encourage you to listen in? What a great way to spend some free time over Christmas. If you're commuting or travelling any distance in this snowy weather, make sure you have several hours' worth with you, then if you get stuck for 5 hours, the time will fly by and you won't waste a moment!

You can watch the videos or listen tot he audio here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/thegodwhoisthere


Of course you can download both audio & video (though the video takes a while).

Stand firm & work

Being a Christian means hard work and perseverance
Of course we're saved by grace alone received by faith. But once saved, Christ calls us to a life of discipline, obedience, loyalty, tough love and hard graft.
In the earliest days of my Christian life, I saw this modelled brilliantly by Ken & Margaret, my Pathfinder leaders. They opened their home & their lives to us; they were there every Friday without fail at club night; they were there every Sunday without fail at church; they led a summer camp and took us away for weekends. Ken was a teacher and they had two small children, but their commitment and love for us was unwavering.
Ken & Margaret made a huge impression on me. I wish I could live up to their example. What could motivate a new generation of Christians to this kind of service?
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says,

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

 Always...give yoursleves...fully...to the work...of the Lord. This is a big demand - a great exhortation. But why and how? Why should I give myself always and fully to this work of the Lord? And how can I do this? What will motivate me?
Well, Paul begins this verse with an often ignored but key word - 'Therefore...' or, 'So then...' It's because of what he's just been saying. That's what will empower us for this total commitment to the Lord's work. And what have the previous 57 verses been about? The power and certainty of the resurrection. Until and unless we grasp that this life is not all there is, we will never be able or willing to give oursleves wholly to Christ's service. But when we realise that by his own total self-giving - by his death & resurrection - Christ has won the most wonderful place in eternity for us, then we can put this life in its proper perspective. Even if we die an early death because of our total commitment to Christ, we have lost nothing and gained everything.
Not only that, but at the beginning of this section, Paul says,

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Grace is not just about initial salvation. It's what empowers people like Ken & Margaret for service. It's grace that persuades us to give ourselves for others.
Now this begins with the commitment to be at church each and every Sunday - morning and evening if appropriate. Just being there encourages everyone. Being there says very loudly to other members, 'I am committed to you because Christ was and is committed to me.'
But of course it doesn't stop there. Everyone has gifts to use. If God has been kind enough to gift you by his Spirit for works of service, who are you to refuse to use the gift? But so many do, and it damages the body of Christ. We must commit ourselves to pray that Christ would be glorified and honoured in our churches. We must give serious money for the work of sharing Christ with others.

Yes, we're saved by grace received by faith. But that grace doesn't stop there. God continues to be at work in us by his Spirit to glorify Christ. Who are we to deny Christ, who died for us, of his rightful glory and honour? And if givign our all to Christ means an early end to this life, so what? The best is yet to come!


Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Micah 5:1-5

When we open the book of Micah, we're transported back c.2710 years to a land far away and to an alien culture. We're transported back to Jerusalem. Israel has been a great nation, but now is divided and threatened by greater empires. Its ruling class are wealthy beyond the imagination of ordinary people – and they're getting richer by exploiting the workers. They bribe the judges and kill those who oppose them.

Meanwhile the religious leaders are no better. They're in the pockets of the rich – they only say what the rich want to hear. We can see all of this if we glance back to 3:9-11

And into this situation comes the prophet Micah. And he comes with an unpopular message, but a message from God – 3:8 & 12

So, although in one sense, the book of Micah takes us to a strange land & culture, yet it is, perhaps not so very different after all – it's not the same, but there are similarities. One of the most significant similarities is that the prophetic voice of the church has been silent for too long. Silent, not as regards politics – the bishops and leaders have always been willing to preach a kind of Christianised socialism. No, the church has been silent about Jesus. And though Micah spoke 700 years before Jesus, Jesus is right at the heart of his message.

Before we plunge into the detail of Micah's prophecy, we need to understand how prophecy worked.

When we look at the world around us, we're familiar with the idea that God uses a basic design in different kinds of plants or animals:

So a tiny speedwell plant has leaves and stems and flowers. So does a massive chestnut tree.

Or take the hip joint of a mouse. It's a ball-and-socket joint just as is the hip joint of an elephant.

The same basic pattern is repeated in a bigger plant or animal. In a similar way, one prophecy can apply to a particular local event that will take place soon, but also a much bigger universal event that will take place many, many years in the future. Sometimes, as here in Micah 5, the prophecy is all about a person. And in this case, it's all about a ruler.

First of all, v1, we hear about the humiliation of the present ruler

Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod.

The city is Jerusalem. It's 701BC. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has attacked the fortified cities of Judah, and has captured them. King Hezekiah is afraid that Jerusalem will be next, so he begs Sennacherib to back off, and even strips the temple of gold & silver to bribe him. Hezekiah was supposed to rule Israel with the rod of justice and wisdom. Instead, he's abandoned his faith in God and has resorted to bribery. So Micah and Isaiah slap Hezekiah in the face with a rebuke from God. But then from v2 – v5 God promises that a new a great ruler is coming.

And these verses show us the humility & glory of the new ruler

First, he will come from the little town of Bethlehem.

v2, you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler of Israel.

One of the wonderful things about God is that he loves to take people from ordinary backgrounds and use them for his glory.  In the NT, Paul wrote about this to the proud Corinthians, 

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

From Bethlehem – born in a cattle shed, laid in a feeding trough – comes for God one who will be ruler of God's people. Such is the humility of Jesus.

But second, he comes from eternity

At the end of v2, we read something really odd about this ruler: his origins are from old, from ancient times. This child didn't begin to exist when his mother conceived – he was already already there. As the footnote to v2 puts it, he was 'from days of eternity'.

The apostle John put it this way, 'He was with God in the beginning'. Jesus himself said, 'I came from the Father and entered the world.'

So this new ruler comes into the world from the unparalleled majesty, glory and opulence of heaven. And he comes into the world via an insignificant, little town in Israel – Bethlehem.

But now, for a moment in v3, we return to Micah's own day, where Micah's contemporaries are told that there's going to be a long, hard wait for their great new ruler. Therefore, Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labour gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

God's nation, Israel, was in a bad way – rebellious, unjust, worshipping false gods – a thoroughly wicked community. And God's had enough. His patience has run out. He's turning his back on Israel and sending them away into exile in Babylon. And although many of the Israelites eventually returned to their land, God did not return to them until the day when 'she who was in labour gave birth' – not until the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, the new ruler of God's people, did God return to his people. And yet, despite the long wait, the Jewish people never gave up hoping and looking for their new ruler – their Messiah, their Christ. For 700 years, they kept looking, kept hoping.

But when the day finally came, God announced it to non-Jews – to wise men from the east. And they arrived in Jerusalem and started asking around, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.'

When paranoid king Herod heard about this, he was rattled. So he called together the Jewish religious teachers and chief priests, and asked them where the Christ was to be born. Well, they all knew the answer to that one – “In Bethlehem, of course, because the prophet Micah said so” And they quote v2.

So the long wait was over. Jesus the Christ is born in Bethlehem. God's people have their new ruler.And now we can learn some more about him from v4:

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

We've already seen where Jesus the Christ comes from – heaven via Bethlehem. Now we see what he's is – Jesus is the strong shepherd of God's flock.

Every England football fan looks back to the days of Sir Alf Ramsey, and longs for another manager like him – another manager who will bring the glory of world cup victory back tot he home of football. Every Jew of Jesus' day looked back to King David and longed for another king like him – another king who would bring back the glory days to Israel. David – the shepherd boy who was born in Bethlehem. Who was the humble youngest brother, and yet became the shepherd of God's flock – caring for his people, leading them and providing for them. “Oh for those days to return – Oh for another David.”

Well, the message of Micah is that a greater king than David has been born. Jesus was the good shepherd – the great shepherd of the sheep.  The one who stood in the strength of the LORD and in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

And because his strength came from the LORD, he was able to establish forever what David only managed for a brief period: this strong shepherd brings security and peace, vv4 & 5

You see the problem for Israel was that God had turned his back on them. He had left them to their own evil devices, and the consequences were that they became slaves and victims of war.

The exile, the slavery, the wars were only symptoms of the real disease – and that was their rejection of God. If they wanted security & peace with each other, they first had to have security & peace with God. And that's what the great shepherd has come to bring.

In John 10, Jesus says, 'I am the good shepherd.'  And we can see the work that Good Shepherd Jesus came to do if we just turn over to Micah 7. This is the climax to the book, where Micah turns to God in praise & wonder:  v14: Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasture lands.

At this point, Micah is talking only about the Israelites, and how God will shepherd them. But then he turns to the nations who see what God is doing in Israel and become ashamed of their behaviour. And they too come trembling out of their dens, v17, they turn to the LORD our God.

This great shepherd of the sheep will bring together a multinational community who will live securely and at peace with each other because, v18, of what God is like:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

The God Who is There: Part 1, The God who made everything

The God Who Is There - Part 1. The God Who Made Everything from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Isaiah 11:1-10

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.And the LORD God had planted a garden in Eden, and the Lord God took the man he had created and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

So at the beginning, God's world was, in every way, very good: all his creatures – both man & beast – lived at peace with one another and with God.

But it didn't last.

Adam & Eve gave in to the Serpent's temptation, rejected God, and ever since, the whole of creation has suffered the consequences of man's rejection of God. And a quick survey of the news this week shows just how bad it is:

• Drunken man bites a huge chunk out of girlfriend's lip.
• A surge in female violence is linked to binge drinking.
• Armed student shoots himself after holding teacher and 23 pupils hostage for five hours
• Man gets life for mother and baby murder

And so it goes on. In Genesis 6, God sums it up, 'The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time'

But God did not give up on us. He had a plan, and gradually he revealed his plan to us through people like Isaiah. In Isaiah 11, God pulls back the curtain and reveals a little more of his glorious plan for his creation.

Here, God gives us a vision of the long-term future and goal of his creation. And he also shows us that none of this can happen without one critical character.

But before we delve into that, we need to see where God's big plan has got to.

Way back, long before Isaiah was written, God had chosen one man through whom he would raise up a special people for himself – he would be their God & they would be his people.This was Israel.

And when Israel had grown and settled in the promised land, God allowed them to have kings to lead them. And under David and then Solomon, Israel became a great nation. But it didn't last. Successive kings rejected God and were thoroughly evil. Israel degenerated into civil war and chaos.

In the midst of that chaos, God spoke to Isaiah. And God gave serious warnings of terrible consequences for sin, and also wonderful promises of a glorious restoration.

Here, we're looking at that glorious restoration and the new king who will oversee that restoration – a restoration that is so amazing it's like a completely new creation.

And we begin, in vv1-5 with the promised perfect king

Verse 1: A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

One of Israel's great enemies was Assyria. And in the closing verses of the last chapter, Isaiah has said the Lord Almighty will cut down the mighty, proud tree of Assyria, 'The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones brought low.' And Assyria was indeed overturned by the Babylonians, never to rise again.

But Israel too has been felled. But this stump is not dead. If Israel was a tree, then it was in a bad way – diseased, fruitless, out of shape, tangled up with other trees. The only solution was to cut it right down to a stump and start again.

And we're told that two shoots will appear: One shoot comes from the stump itself, and one – a fruitful branch – comes from the root.

What does this mean?

The stump is Jesse – father of king David. So the shoot from the stump is another king David. A descendant of David. The old weak and faithless kings will be replaced by a specially Spirit-filled king who will bring unparalleled blessings to his people.

But this new king is also coming from the root of the stump of Jesse – in other words, this king is also the source of King David. It's not just that this new king comes from David, but that David came from the new king!

This is an extraordinary insight into the plans of God. He's going to send an anointed king who comes from the royal household, but also pre-exists David – you might say he is the root cause of the whole royal house of Israel.

This person is quite unlike any normal human. And the only person who fulfils this prophecy is the LJC. And each of the gospel writers draw attention to this: Matt & Luke include genealogies to show how Jesus was descended from David & Jesse. And John reminds us that he was, 'with God in the beginning'.

So we know that Isaiah is talking about none other than Jesus.

Now when a king is enthroned, they're anointed with oil. And in the OT, some of the kings were anointed with the HS – God's Spirit filled them so they had the wisdom & authority to rule for God. But, says Isaiah in vv2 & 3, this new king will be uniquely anointed with the HS.

And we remember that when Jesus was baptised, the HS came upon him like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, 'Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.'  Jesus is uniquely filled with the HS.

So, says Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding – when this king rules, he will be able to see beneath the surface of things, to the very heart of the matter. And he will have the insight & wisdom to deal with the foundational problems.

And he will have the Spirit of counsel and of power. This king will not only understand the problems, he will have the strategy & the power to carry out his plans to their fulfilment.

There'll be no unwinnable wars for this ruler.

And he'll have the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

This king won't be afraid to bring religion into politics – in fact that's precisely what he will do – he will bring his perfect knowledge of God to bear on his world.

This king will know God so well that he will perfectly reflect all God's perfection – his perfect justice and mercy; his complete faithfulness and his ethical integrity.

And because this is what he's like, vv3-5 tell us what he will do.

What's perhaps surprising here is the emphasis on justice and righteousness – and since we know that this is all about Jesus, we must face the fact that one of his main jobs will be to judge the world – each and every one of us. At first, we might not like that idea. We like to think of Jesus as a good teacher, a healer, as non-judgemental. But here it's quite clear, he is the judge of the world.

But then we think about the state of the world. If it's ever to be put right, there has to be judgement. There has to be justice. And Jesus is the only person who can be entrusted with this job – he doesn't judge by what he sees with his eyes – by outward appearances. He doesn't even judge according to what he hears with his ears – from biased or forgetful witnesses. No, Jesus is entrusted with jdgt because he judges justly – he sees to the heart of the matter – righteousness is his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist – he wears righteousness and faithfulness as we wear clothes.

So Jesus says, 'my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.'

Jesus' judgement is essential if evil, sin and all their consequences are to be overturned. And when they are, Jesus ushers in a completely transformed creation – a new creation where there is no space for evil or rebellion against God. Isaiah's description of this is breathtakingly beautiful:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The lamb invites the wolf for lunch! A little child exercises leadership over fearsome animals – wild animals that are wild no more.

The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. Animals that had been enemies – killing and being killed – are now snuggled up together in the straw!

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. A helpless child plays near the cobra's nest, and his parents don't worry; the toddler reaches into the viper's nest, and plays with the once-venomous snakes!

All-in-all, this is a picture of Eden restored.

And surely the peace within the animal world is symbolic of peace in the human world – there is no longer oppressed or oppressor; no murder and no war. The weakest and most vulnerable members of society are safe - They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

In this new creation, everyone truly knows God – which, yes, means being reconciled to God, but also willing and enabled by the Spirit to do as God does.

And at the centre of this new creation stands Jesus, and everyone flocks around him: In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious

Of course all this is still future. We don't know when it will happen. But we do know through whom it will happen.

And as Spirit-filled believers, we can begin to show the world what this new creation will look like – we can begin to create a community here and now in which we treat each other with the mercy and wisdom of God.

Equipped with the wisdom and knowledge of God we can begin to deal with sin in our own lives and ensure that the weakest and most vulnerable are safe.

But this is only possible when we rally round the Lord Jesus, know God, and experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

And as we do that, as God works in us, the future comes into the present, and the new Jerusalem is built in Hawkenbury's green and pleasant land.