Word Alive 2015: Day 4

This week my family and I are at Word Alive 2015.

Day 4 featured being sandblasted on the beach, hugging stewards and treating techies as they went about fixing things and sorting things out after the windy weather.

Here are my notes from Day 4…

Morning Bible Reading

Romans 8:1-39

If we are freely justified, does it matter how we live? The answer to ths question depends on whose person are you: are you in Adam, or are you in Christ? Do you belong to Adam, or do you belong to Christ?

When you face temptation and sin, we must ask ourselves: in this situation are you going to live as Adam, or as Christ?

Paul is a wise pastor, he repeats and revisits justification as we go along, hence in 8 v1 he reminds us that we are not condemned (because we are justified). The reason for this is that…

  • we have been set free from the law (v2).
  • through Jesus who offered himself as sin offering for us (v3a).
  • and so sinful man has been condemned in Jesus (v3b).
  • and the requirements of the law have been met and credited to us who have the Spirit (v4)

If we know Jesus, we have the Spirit. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us and will raise us from the dead on the Last Day (8 v5-11). We do not have a soul, we are a soul who has a body (C S Lewis). When we die we go to be with Jesus and will be raised with him.

The Spirit in us leads us to godliness and so we have an obligation to follow the Spirit and put to death the misdeeds of the body. But more than that, the Spirit in us testifies that we are God’s children and we can cry out to him as Father, ‘Daddy’ (8 v12-17).

For now, we eagerly wait (groaning, but with anticipation) and know that everything is being worked out by God for our good and his glory. Our ‘good’ is not just things that feel good or bring us pleasure, but also things that are uncomfortable for us and difficult for us – but are still good for us. This gives us confidence, that even the bad things in our lives are being used (often in ways that we cannot see, yet) to grow us more like Jesus. How amazing that even the work of our enemies is used by God to make us more like Jesus (8 v18ff)! Are we going to live as strong, mature, grown-up Christians who are firmly rooted to God and his goodness to us in Christ?

Paul finishes by answering three questions…

  • Is there an effective enemy who can be against us (v31-32)?
  • Is there an effective accuser who can bring any charge against you on the Last day (v33-34)?
  • Is there anything that can frustrate God’s purposes for us and the world (v35-37)?

God is in the business of bringing us to Christ and making us more like Christ.

After all, we are Christ’s person now, not Adam’s.

8.30pm Evening Celebration

Give us our daily bread
Matthew 6:11

If you were to take the Holy Spirit and prayer out of your Christian life, would it make any difference to what you did?

At this point in the Lord’s prayer, the focus of the petitions we are urged to make changes from ‘your’ to ‘our’; from the vertical focus on God to the horizontal focus on ourselves.

Give us this day our daily bread

The danger is to think that, especially in light of what has come so far in the Lord’s prayer, the request for daily bread is too mundane. Of we do this, we make an allegory out of what is fundamental to us: the provision by God of what we need to live each day.

Give
Not selfish demand, but humble acknowledgement that we need God to provide for us. This brings us back to the generous, gracious nature of God the only true giver.

The wealthier we are, the more we should pay this to the Father, for we are more prone to assume that what is given by grace will always be given to us.

Us our
We are not to seek our (singular) daily bread but our (plural) daily bread. We are to ask God to give what is needed for life to all people: our family, neighbours, brothers and sisters in Christ… even enemies?

In terms of food, it is not the lack of food in the world that is the issue. Instead, it is the unequal distribution of food around the world. As we are praying this prayer, we must be aware of our need to play our part in sharing out of the abundance we have.

Daily
The sense is our daily portion or ration. We are to seek enough for this day, this moment or season. This is not speaking against sound planning, saving and storage. It is speaking against hording and acquiring to serve our own pride and self-centredness.

Bread
Every culture has a staple food. This is the food that provides the foundation for all we need to live and be sustained. This is food of necessity, not desire. There is a different for what we need and what we want. Jesus wants us to ask the Father for what we need, and what others need.

Our Father

The request for daily bread comes in the context of a set of petitions brought before Our Father. We have unparalleled access to God the Father. And so we should be bold and confident in bruin bring prayers and requests to God. That said, we mustn’t demand God. Our prayers must honour God as hallowed, holy.

When we are brought to humbling ourselves before God and asking him to give us our daily bread, we are demonstrating that we trust God: his provision, generosity, wisdom, grace, goodness.

The bread God gives from Heaven

In describing himself as the bread from Heaven (John 6:26ff), he is identifying himself as the one we need, the true provider of everything we need for life and godliness. This is not to overlook the everyday provision of what we need for everyday life, but to acknowledge the extra-ordinary provision of what we need for eternal life.

Word Alive 2015: Day 3

This week my family and I are at Word Alive 2015.

On Day 3 we scooted, bought books (a good and funny one on Church history!), drank coffee and got blown away… literally and spiritually.

Here are my notes from Day 3…

Morning Bible Reading

Romans 3:21-4:25

There is an authentic Christian Gospel… and a lite, pitiful counterfiet gospel that is no Gospel at all: the gospel of works. The gospel of works we are most at risk from is one where I enter the Kingdom by Jesus but I stay in the Kingdom by my own efforts. Therefore we have no assurance of eternal salvation because we might mess up. We also look down on others because we deem them to be improper Christians for one reason or another.

The Good News

Paul has spelt out the bad news, that we cannot earn righteousness by our own (3v20). Now, Paul spells out the good news…

  • that we are justified (v24), declared free of sin by God’s mercy and declared righteous in his sight by God’s grace.
  • that we are redeemed (v24), paid for at a great price by the blood of Jesus so that we are not just God’s possession, but his treasured possesion. Without redemption, God’s justification would be unjust.
  • that we are atoned for (v25), God’s wrath at our sin is satisfied fully on himself in Jesus on the cross.

This is the true Gospel of God. We are either in perfect relationship with the Father in Christ with the Spirit, or we are not. In Christ, the conditional element of our relationship with the Father has been met in Jesus. Therefore, God is never disatisfied nor frustrated nor upset with us, he never sulks at us. God loves us fully on our worst days as he does on our best days.

A gospel of works (wrong religion) is oppressive and one not of provision by God but one of obligation to God, it is a bully that beats on us if we get it wrong. The Gospel of Jesus is one of provision, entirely merited for us by Jesus. Therefore, we do not boast (3v28), for our righteousness comes by faith (3v29), and so we uphold the law because of what Jesus has done (3v30).

Paul’s Gospel is not new. It was the faith of Abraham (4v1ff) and David (4v8ff). It does not depend on law or right (4v9-25) because the righteousness of Abraham, credited to him by faith (4v22), came 400 years before the law to an uncircumcised gentile.

Abraham’s faith credited by righteousness is not just for Abraham but also for us (4v24). Is our hope, our assurance, our righteousness enitrely resting on Jesus? Is he the sum total of our faith?

When we find ourselves asking ‘am I good enough for God?’ or ‘have I done enough?’ we have two possible answers…

  • the answer of a fake gospel: ‘no, and so you need to try harder’.
  • the answer of the true Gospel: ‘no, but Jesus has done it for you’.

Upon which answer will we stake our life and eternity?

Word Alive 2015: Day 2

This week my family and I are at Word Alive 2015.

On Day 2 we enjoyed coffee in the hub (a Christian pub, according to Joshua), bouncing on inflatables, and basking in the sunshine (!).

Here are my notes from Day 2…

Morning Bible Reading

Romans 1:1-3:20

Romans starts by making it clear that it is a letter by Paul, a servant, about Jesus.

  • Jesus, God’s Son born as a man.
  • who has been shown to be divine by his resurrection.

Paul says three ‘I am’ statements…

  • I am under obligation to share the Gospel.
  • I am eager to share the Gospel.
  • I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

‘Gospel’ means big, momentous news. God’s Gospel is momentous news about a righteous God who sets unrighteous people to be right with him in a righteous way. Romans answers the question: how can I be right with God?

The bad news: the unrighteous cannot make themselves right with God

Every worldview or faith position needs to address the problem of evil. Likewise, a right worldview needs to have a full knowledge of the human condition as well as a full knowledge of God, and a full knowledge of his Grace in Christ.

We musn’t limit the problem of the human condition to being just the condition of sin itself – the problem is that God is against us because of our sin (v18ff). God’s passive judgment is that he ‘gave us over’…

  • to impurity (v24)
  • to scrambled sexuality (v26)
  • to a depraved mind (v28-29)

The sum of this judgment is that mankind, made in God’s image (of cleanliness, order, relationship, love), is reduced to being nothing more than animals (unclean, disordered, broken, depraved).

God’s passive wrath is being shown now. God’s active wrath is being stored up bready to be poured out on the Last Day in judgment of what we have done, and God does not show favouritism (2v11). Humanity will be judged by what we do:

  • the ignorant: those without the law still have their conscience (2v12-16).
    • May sometimes excuse them because they honoured God by following their conscience
    • But will also condemnn them when they did not follow their God-given conscience.
  • the knowledgable: those with the law do not fully obey the law (2v17-24)
  • the self-righteous: those with outward righteousness of deeds do not have inward righteousness of heart (2v25-29)

Every counter-argument or objection is answered by either a real assessment of humanity or a full awareness of God’s holiness and perfect judgment (3v1-18). And so we are left with a sober reality of our condition before God: that no one will be declared righteous in his sight by any self-referential means. Instead we become fully aware of our sin (3v19-20).

Every worldview or faith-position places human action as the solution to the human condition. Only Christianity starts with human inability and places divine action and ability as the only solution to the human condition.

8.30pm Evening Celebration

Your Kingdom Come
Matthew 6:10a

The mundane matters of everyday life can often overshadow and replace the spiritual matters of the kingdom.

There is nothing more important or more significant than for God’s people to be praying to the Father ‘your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.

Humanity was designed to be connected to something bigger and more significant than or own existence. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus makes this clear and pulls the curtains back on living in the Kingdom of God: the thing that mankind deeply desires on our very being, yet also the thing that Satan and our sin desperately wants to keep us from.

The Lord has appointed prayer to be the means by which God will bring in his Kingdom and change the work as people bow the knee to Jesus and are saved from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son he loves (Colossians 1:13-14).

Jesus coming to us is the King returning to claim back his Kingdom that rightly belongs to him (Matthew 4:17), first in salvation and then in judgement.

God’s Kingdom in us

Even if we are a follower of Jesus, we are still not living fully and physically in God’s kingdom and are stuck with sin. We bring or sin is into every situation: church, marriage, family, friends, work. Until we are saved from the presence of sin, we need to actively allow God to save us from the power of sin by daily coming to the King and declaring him to King of us, and this all the more as we wait for Jesus to return.

God’s Kingdom in others

Humanity is born into sin and into the kingdom of darkness. Each one of us is personally riddled with sin in our very being. Each one of us needs a new King, and needs to belong to a new kingdom.

God’s Kingdom in the universe

Each one of us looks at the world around us and our hearts ache, saying, ‘It’s not supposed to be this way!’

The King’s will be done

Satan and our sin in us deceives us into thinking that our will, our desires are right but actually will lead us to death. God reveals himself to us in Jesus and reveals his will for us in his Word. Living in God’s Kingdom means laying aside our own will and gladly submitting to Jesus’ good, perfect and (often) confusing will. It is how we demonstrate our trust in Jesus as King.

How can we be sure that if we submit to God’s will then things will turn out okay? Simply remember that Jesus prayed this prayer first in the garden before his death and resurrection: ‘your will be done’.

 

Word Alive 2015: Day 1

This week my family and I are at Word Alive 2015, a week break with Bible teaching and worship accessible across all ages. Where time (and Wi-Fi) allows, I’ll be posting my notes from whatever sessions I get to go to.

Here are my notes from Day 1…

 

8.30pm Celebration

Matthew 6:5-13
Our Heavenly Father

In terms of our daily struggles and conflicts: does anyone care, can anyone help?

The start of the Lord’s Prayer offers us a resounding ‘yes’. But we mustn’t burden ourselves with the mechanics of how we pray. We need to start with who we pray to.

Because of Jesus, the God we pray to is our Father.

Come and pray to the Father who cares

To call God ‘our’ Father, is a most precious privilege. The God who is behind all the wonder, power and majesty of the universe and who is in his essence love… He can be our Father.

In one sense God is the Father of all people. But we can only be fully and truly (as He is to Jesus) by adoption. This adoption is secured and made possible only by Jesus. ‘Adoption is the highest privilege of the Gospel’ (J I Packer).

As adopted children, we share in Jesus’ unparalleled intimacy and access to the Father. This should give us great confidence and assurance. God can no more reject us and our prayers as he can Jesus’ himself.

Come and pray to the King who can help

God cares for us, he is also powerful to help. God is no more Father than he is King, and vice versa. This means that as we pray to him, we are praying to the one – the only one – who is both willing and able to act for our good and his glory; and even this he does without lessening or overruling his loving character as Father.

Nothing can hold pack his power.

Nothing can hold up his plan.

Bible Centred Youthwork conference 2015: Day 4

Today was the last day of the Bible Centred Youthwork conference, a conference dedicated to focusing the work among children and young people in our churches on the principles and content of the Bible.

I have been sharing my notes for each day and a simple thought/reflection on the what particular struck me that day. Here are my notes and thoughts from the last session on Day 4.

 

Ministry is a long-haul work

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Ministry is hard work. It can be hard work physically, requiring lots of energy visiting people, going to meetings, setting up, and packing down. It is certainly hard work emotionally, as you invest in people, care for them, and pray for them. It is hard work in terms of purity, especially as we are often on our own when we study and prepare for preaching/teaching. But one of the ways that it is undoubtedly hard work is relationally.

Faithful ministers of the Gospel widen our hearts for the people we serve (v11). We open ourselves up to people and our hearts become exposed and vulnerable. The danger is that this widening of heart is often only ever one-way, that the pastor, minister, youth/children’s worker is expected to love and care for their people (which is what we want to do) but the reciprocal action of the church widening their hearts to us is often rare, if ever experienced (v12). The people we serve must widen their hearts also, to love and encircle pastors and Gospel workers with protection and care (v13).

How the long-haul of ministry might need to have an impact on us

  • Relax. God is sovereign and works through our humble faithful service.
  • Expect criticism, but don’t think every criticism is valid or helpful.
  • Look after ourselves. Get sleep, eat sensibly, maintain physical and emotional health.
  • Trust God and what he had promised in his Word, God is faithful and he will do what he has promised.

 

My thoughts from the conference as a whole

Talking with people over lunch before heading home, I know I am not alone in thinking that this was one of the best BCY conferences in terms of being both biblically sound and practically useful. Martin Salter’s talks from 2 Corinthians 2-6 have been really useful for the heart and soul of people who labour in ministry. Ted Turnau’s sessions on engaging popular culture have been really useful for the head and the hands of people who disciple and pastor people in and around popular culture.

As Ted would say, ‘it was awesome!’

Bible Centred Youthwork conference 2015: Day 3

This week I am at the Bible Centred Youthwork conference, a conference dedicated to focusing the work among children and young people in our churches on the principles and content of the Bible.

I have been sharing my notes for the day and a simple thought/reflection on the what particular struck me that day. Here are my notes and thoughts from the two main sessions on Day 3.

 

Where missiology meets anthropology

1 Thessalonians 2:7-12

We often encourage one another that people are being saved all around the world every day. But what about all the people that aren’t being saved? 2 Corinthians 4 tells us that if the Gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing. Mankind is blind, enslaved, ignorant, dead. That is why only God can give sight, set free, make wise, and give life.

That is why we preach Christ plainly. That is why we need to pray earnestly. But is proclamation the only thing we should engage in, in terms of mission?

Which should be the focus of our missional outreach: preaching alone, good works alone?

The answer is: both. Paul shared Christ by preaching the Gospel clearly, simply and plainly. But in 1 Thessalonians 2 we are reminded that he also shared his life with those he preached the Gospel to.

Preach, live and show the Gospel

5 things we need to remember about humanity…

  1. Humans are made in the image of God, albeit fractured by sin.
  2. Humans still have access to natural revelation, and can understand something of God from it.
  3. Humans have a conscience, a law written on our hearts.
  4. Humans receive common grace from God, regardless of our standing before him.
  5. Humans are all descended from people who have received special revelation

People need to hear the Gospel proclaimed and see it lived out among them.

Bill Hybels in Becoming a contagious Christian has this summary, which is a helpful reminder of the component parts that should make up the sum of our missional outreach…

HP + CP + CC = MI

HP – High Potency: living in a clearly loving and attractive way.
CP – Close Proximity: living in amongst unbelievers.
CC – Clear Communication: proclaiming the Gospel clearly and plainly.
MI – Maximum Impact: reaching people with the Gospel as best as we can.

 

An unfinished task

2 Corinthians 5

Consider this framework for engaging people apologetically/philosophically:

5 peripheral questions…

  • Where do we come from?
  • What are we here for?
  • Where are we going?
  • What’s wrong?
  • What’s the solution?

1 key question that follows on from the ones above:

  • How do you know?

Everybody has answers to these questions (even if these answers are not well thought through) and, because of the key question, everything is a faith position. Yet only Christianity has answers that come from outside of humanity, as God comes down to us in human history and speaks to us, first by the prophets and then by his Son (Hebrews 1).

The future shapes the present

How we think about these big questions – particularly the ones concerning our future – will impact how we live in the here and now.

We are camping now but will have a home (v1-5)

We are currently ‘camping’ in this life and this creation. Tents are vulnerable and temporary. Homes are secure and permanent. When this ‘tent’ (life/creation) is dismantled, we get to move into (or will be clothed with) our true life/home.

We can have courage and confidence (v6-10)

Our future hope gives us courage and confidence now because we have purpose in serving Jesus while we wait for his return and have hope in our eternal life with Jesus. Now we live by faith, but then we will see Jesus and live by sight and will stand before him and give an account of our stewardship of our lives.

We know why it is important to fear Jesus and strive for faithfulness (v11-13)

In light of our future standing before Jesus, we get on with the task he has given us and try to convince others to turn to Jesus so that they will not have to give an account of their sin in judgment but of their life in grace.

How this applies to our ministries…

  • Our ministry can spur people on to something that Jesus will commend them for.
  • The responsibility we have means that we will most likely have tough conversations that confront sin.
  • We mustn’t let wrong fear of man drive us, but instead be driven by right fear of God standing in the grace of Christ.
  • We must endeavour to open people’s eyes to the grandness and supremacy of God.

The past shapes the present

The cross compels us and convinces us (v14-17)

The cross of Christ compels us to set forth the truth of Christ plainly, as his ambassadors. He died for us in our place and he stands for us before the father. Therefore we now live to serve him as his representative to the lost.

We are his ambassadors (v18-21)

We serve Jesus by living as his ambassadors, making the appeal of Jesus through us, that people be reconciled to God. Jesus has died for us in our place, so come to him and turn back to God.

 

My thoughts from the day

I found Bill Hybels little summary equation really helpful, and confirms what we are/have been working on in our church with regard to Community Groups. I would slightly reword/rework it though…

Loving like Christians (HP) + Living as Christians (CP) + Speaking as Christians (CC) = Being effective Christians (MI)

Or, using the terminology of our Community Groups…

Care + Discipleship + Mission = Effective and intentional Gospel people

Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

Bible Centred Youthwork conference 2015: Day 2

This week I am at the Bible Centred Youthwork conference, a conference dedicated to focusing the work among children and young people in our churches on the principles and content of the Bible.

Yesterday, I shared my notes for the day and a simple thought/reflection on the what particular struck me that day. Here are my notes and thoughts from the two main sessions on Day 2.

 

Communication: Speaking, sent from God

2 Corinthians 2:15-27, 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

The Corinthians loved good speakers, rich rhetoric, eloquence, and so on. Looking at Paul’s letter, we can see three dangers.

Danger of the seduction of form over content

We get sucked in by humour, style, delivery, etc (3 point sermons with acrostic headings?) and end up trying to mimic our favourite preacher.

But this isn’t usually a big danger for people who want to take the Bible as the very Word of God.

Danger of tampering with the word of God

We might be tempted to tamper, soften, and lessen the Word of God to make it more palatable. But again, if we have a high view of Scripture then this is unlikely.

Danger of mis-applying Paul and Corinthians

If we hold the Bible and apostolic teaching in high regard, the danger we need to be aware of and act against is the danger of mis-applying Paul’s situation directly to ours. Paul says to set forth the truth plainly because that is what the Corinthians needed. Therefore, we don’t think about communication or style or rhetoric, etc.

But this overlooks the overwhelming weight of communication in the Bible (Jesus’ teaching, Paul’s preaching to the gentiles, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, Hebrews). Plus, directly applying Paul’s approach with the Corinthians to us overlooks the fact that our culture doesn’t just value good communication… it needs it. Unless something feels like it is going to be worth listening to, people just switch off and brush it aside as being ‘irrelevant’.

Is God pleased with us when we justify boring teaching as being ‘faithful’?

Be deliberately intentional about your communication of the Gospel in your context

We need to work hard at communication in our cultural context.

Two key questions we need to consider and address:

  1. So what?
  2. Who cares?

Two things to remember about our culture:

  1. People know next to nothing about the Bible.
  2. They think they know everything.
Helpful acronyms on good communication

What makes messages stick? SUCCES…

Simple
Unexpected
Credible
Concrete
Emotions
Stories

Maybe add ‘Humour’ to this (but that makes ‘SUCCESH’, which makes you sound Dutch).

Types of helpful illustrations… FOAM

Facts and stats
Opinion and quotes
Anecdotes
Metaphors

Remember: it is not an either/or between communication and content. Both are needed for faithful preaching and communication of the Bible and Gospel truth.

 

An empowered task

2 Corinthians 4

We are facing/will face trials of many kinds, but we do not lose heart (v1, 16). Here’s why…

We do not lose heart because our task comes from God (v1-3)

We are on royal business, we serve the King. Faithfulness to our King is our measure of success, not what others think or how prosperous or ministry is.

We do not lose heart because the fruit comes from God (v4-6)

We preach Christ (we carry out our task, often within the context of partnership with others). It’s Jesus who makes his light shine in our hearts. When that happens, of course it is a great motivator and spurs us on. There is nothing better than being a ‘midwife’ at the birth of a new believer. But that new birth (the fruit) comes from God, not us.

We do not lose heart because the power of the Gospel life is from God (v7-12)

We are fragile creatures in need of much care and attention. We break easily. Yet the treasure of the Gospel is found in us, and the power needed to turn from sin and live the Gospel life is given to is by God. It is from him.

In a culture where people are often made to feel worthless, people need to hear this all the more.

We do not lose heart because kingdom growth comes from God (v13-15)

Jesus is bringing more and more people into his kingdom daily. This growth comes from him, not us. Even if we rarely see growth in our local church, Jesus will continue to save more and people. We must remember that the church is local and national, but it is also global and throughout time.

We do not lose heart because the rewards rest with God (v16-18)

The grace of God already received is motivation for persevering in Christ, but it is not the only motivation. We have grace waiting for us: the hope of new eternal life that is hidden with Christ in God. This too motivates us to continue in Christ despite whatever light and momentary difficulties (compared to new life in eternity) that we face. There is also the harvest of our labour when we get to see the work that God is doing and will do through us.

 

My thoughts from the day

In the first session of the day, it was refreshing (so refreshing) to hear someone who clearly has done their Bible work and holds it in high regard also hold up good communication as an essential component of being faithful in our Bible teaching. It saddens me to hear great communicators who have clearly not spent time anchoring what they are saying in the Bible. But I think it saddens me more to hear spot-on Bible teaching present in such a way that drains the life from my very soul!

Good communication bereft of Biblical foundations is like junk food – it tastes great but is just not good for you. Good biblical exegesis without proportionate time spent on how you are going to communicate this truth is like space food – everything you need to live but it tastes crap. We need to strive to be preachers who preach roast dinners – sermons and talks that are rich in goodness (Biblical truth and sound doctrine) but also taste amazing (easy to listen to and engage with).

Bible Centred Youthwork conference 2015: Day 1

This week I have the joy and privilege of being at the Bible Centred Youthwork conference, a conference dedicated to focusing the work among children and young people in our churches on the principles and content of the Bible.

Each morning I’m hoping to share my notes and whatever thoughts/wisdom I have that might be helpful to people who aren’t able to be at the conference this year, or to those who want to sharpen their thinking with regard to biblical youth and children’s ministry in the UK today.

Here are my notes and thoughts from the two sessions on Day 1.

 

The Bible Centred Worker

1 Kings 8

Do we want to know the presence of God? Most will say ‘yes’, but how does that actually happen?

God’s presence is found where he dwells

We often use the language ‘God showed up’ but that is unhelpful. As if it is a lottery as to whether God is going to ‘turn up’ at church today.

We must remember that God’s presence is found where he lives, where he dwells. But where does God dwell? The universe was created as God’s dwelling place, spread out like a tent to live in (Isaiah 40:22, and videos like this put this into perspective!). Although sin divides heaven (God’s dwelling place) and earth, throughout the Old Testament we get glimpses of heaven teaching down to earth. 1 Kings 8 is such a glimpse.

The centre of God’s dwelling is his Word

In 1 Kings 8, we see that at the centre of the temple is the Most Holy Place, which fills with God’s presence, his Glory. Yet at the very centre of the Most Holy Place is the Ark of the Covenant, the very Word of God. It is only when God’s Word is brought in to the Most Holy Place that God’s presence and glory enters in.

We cannot experience the presence of God without the Word of God.

We experience God’s presence in Jesus and his Word by the Spirit

In Jesus, the Word became flesh and the Most Holy Place became a man. God’s presence is found in Jesus and now, after Jesus’ ascension, God’s presence is in is by the Spirit. The Spirit brings God’s Word to us and writes it on our hearts.

The church therefore is now the dwelling place of God by his Spirit, and the church is founded on God’s Word preached and accepted by faith (Ephesians 2:19-22).

If we want to experience the presence of God, then we need to accept Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit and then simply go to his Word, which is in the Bible.

 

The glorious task

2 Corinthians 2:12-3:18

Glory is that which invokes praise. What is glorious to us?

God is ultimately glorious, but we musn’t lose sight of the glory that is in the ministry of the Gospel and the Word of God (because of whose Gospel and Word it is).

The accusation

2 Corinthians is a response to Paul’s critics. The accusation is that Paul is nothing compared to the latest ‘super-apostles’; his messages hasn’t changed and his preaching is weak.

We face such similar accusations today in youth and children’s ministry, either explicitly (‘why do we need to teach the Bible, isn’t it irrelevant?’, etc) or implicitly (‘young people really need fun, games, blah blah…’ but this is saying they don’t need the Gospel or the Bible).

The defence

The Corinthian church was the victory fragrance of Paul’s ministry (2:12-27). They showed the power and worth of the Gospel, and validated the ministry of those that taught and preached it.

The Corinthians were also Paul’s letter of recommendation, his CV (3:1-6). They demonstrated the transforming work of the Gospel in their very lives.

Paul’s ministry was the ministry of the New Covenant (3:7) which is far more glorious than the Old Covenant…

  • it is a Covenant that brings life, not death (3:6-8).
  • it is a Covenant that brings righteousness, not condemnation (3:9).
  • it is a Covenant that is permanent, not temporary (3:11).
  • it is a Covenant of liberty, not slavery (3:17).
  • it is a Covenant of increasing glory, not contempt (3:18).

As ministers of the same Gospel as Paul…

  • dwell on God’s glory.
  • beware of ‘super-apostles’ and personal pride (in ourselves and others).
  • serve in weakness (2:16).
  • serve with integrity (2:17).

 

My thoughts from the day

2 Corinthians 2:12-3:18 is a great reminder for pastors, ministers and church leaders/teachers that while our ministry might not seem glorious to the world (in fact, what the world often glories in isn’t actually glorious at all), it is truly glorious because of whose ministry and message it is. So keep on going.

Getting back on the wagon of family worship

Yesterday I posted some thoughts about why we might find it hard to lead our families in times of family worship. In this post, I thought it might be helpful to share some pointers on how to get going with family worship once again.

Just do it

One of the biggest barriers to getting going again with family worship is inertia. The longer we have gone without reading the Bible and praising/praying with our children (if we have ever done it at all), the harder it is to get going again. This is true of personal devotional or quiet times, too.

The best thing you can do about this is to simply get on and do something! Read and discuss a few verses of the Bible with your family over breakfast and then pray about what you have discussed. Get everyone in your bed when you are doing your own quiet time and simply do it with them. Get everyone together and share the verse of the day from your Bible app and then ask one of the family to pray for the day ahead.

If we do nothing with our families in terms of family worship, then God will accomplish nothing in our families through us. God is able to work in spite of us, but his command is that we lead our families in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4) so that he might show his grace in us and accomplish his work through us.

So instead of worrying about how you haven’t been leading your family so far, repent (see the conclusion of the yesterday’s post) and just get on with it.

Start leading your family closer to Jesus.

Seriously, just do it

Some of you reading the above point will have already thought of many reasons why it is just not that straightforward for you. Let me remind you of what family worship is. Here is a pithy little definition for you…

Family worship is spending time with your family on a regular basis reading the Bible and then praising and/or praying to God in response.

Anyone can do that, right? Right. As I said yesterday, if you have a love for Jesus and want to rightly place yourself under his authority, then you are more than equipped by the Spirit to be able to teach and instruct someone from the Word.

I have been reading a great book about the lives of various people throughout Church History, and one of the striking similarities between them all is that if they had families, they got together each day to read the Bible and pray with them. Nothing more, but definitely nothing less.

But…?

In case there are still questions or hang-ups…

Q: Is it really that simple?
A: Yes.

Q: How do I do it?
A: Pick up a Bible, get your family together, read it, pray about it, repeat again tomorrow.

Q: Some bits of the Bible are pretty hard to understand. How can I lead my family when even I don’t understand it?
A: Yes, some bits of the Bible seem hard to understand at first. But many bits of the Bible (I would say most) are quite easy to understand, especially when you remember a) that the whole Bible is all about Jesus and faith in his death and resurrection and b) that the Holy Spirit uses the Word to lead us into all truth (John 16:13, Ephesians 6:17). I’d say be honest with your family about the fact you don’t understand it – it will show them that it is okay not to get it first time (so long as you do seek to discover what it is saying!). Maybe try and work it out together. Make use of your church family and your church pastors. Ask them questions and go back to your family with what you discover.

Q: But so-and-so has spent half an hour each day reading bits of the New Testament in Greek since 1989…
A: So what? What do you need to do with your family right now? Some families will be doing more than you in terms of family worship, others will do less (unless you are doing nothing!). Family worship isn’t a competition, it is a relationship with Jesus to be enjoyed as a family wherever your family is at in your walk with Jesus.

Q: I leave for work before the family gets up and I get home after they have gone to bed. How can I find time?
A: Maybe you really need to think about changing jobs, or at least taking steps to reclaim some family time at the beginning or the end of the day. Failing that, you could delegate family worship to your spouse or another Christian family member during the week. However, if you do that (especially if you are a father) you must make sure that you block out portions of your non-work time to do family worship together (finding out and reviewing what your spouse/family member did during the week, for instance). But even if you can’t do any of these things then you could always wake your family up the same time as you, read the Bible and pray with them in bed, and send them back to sleep.

The more you do it, the better you will be at it

The long and short of it is that family worship is a discipline that you need to work at and practice. This takes time and effort. Remember, as you engage in times of family worship more and more, you will become more practiced in leading family worship and your family will become more used to family worship. You will find it easier to simply open a Bible and read it with your children. You will develop patterns to your time together. You will build up lists of things you are praying about and praying for. It will become easier and you will get better at it.

Jesus says to do it

But above all times of family worship will result in you leading your family the way that Jesus has told you to. Whether or not they walk with Jesus as their Lord and Saviour is ultimately between them and him. But don’t neglect the calling and responsibility (and sheer priviledge, by his grace!) you have been given.

If you are a parent then you are to lead your family in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Now get on and do it.

Fallen off the wagon of family worship?

This morning, I had a great time reading through Psalm 1 and talking about it over breakfast with my family. It was a simple 10 minutes spent munching cereal and chewing over God’s word together. But it was the first time in a few weeks that I had lead my family in a time of looking at the Bible and praying for the day ahead (ironically, it was the annual pastor’s busy season of Christmas that diverted my attention away from leading my family!). Yup, I had fallen off the wagon of family worship. And I suspect I am not the only one to do so.

Family worship (devotionals, quiet times… call them what you will) such as this is what we as parents and guardians are called to do. Ephesians 6:4, ‘Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.’ All parents, but father’s in particular, have the joy and the responsibility of leading our families in moments spent investing in our family’s relationship with Jesus.

But we are simply not doing it. Nearly every youth and children’s worker I speak to has the same frustration: parents are not discipling their children. While their frustration might be valid, I suspect that many youth workers and ministers wrongly think that parents are unwilling to lead and disciple our families. From my own experience, this is not the case. Similarly, when I speak to other parents, none of them give the impression that they do not want to lead their families to Jesus. Instead, it is more a question of not knowing how or not knowing when to spend time in family worship.

Don’t know how

While teaching the Bible is something that you can receiving training for, it doesn’t mean that to teach the Bible you must have training to do it. If you have a love for Jesus and want to rightly place yourself under his authority, then you are more than equipped by the Spirit to be able to teach and instruct someone from the Word.

We mustn’t think that leading our families in times of looking at the Bible and praying/praising together require some hidden knowledge or special skills. In one sense, you simply need to get a Bible, open it, read it, talk about it and pray. Sure, you can add things to these foundations (crafts, dressing up, acting out, looking up stuff online) but at the root of family worship is time spent listening to God in the Word and speaking to him in prayer. Anyone can do that.

Not enough time

Allow me to be honest. For most parents, the idea of not having enough time to lead our families in family worship is, well, pretty pathetic. Sure, there are parents (single parents, those who have to work two jobs to make ends meet, and the like) who whether through situation or circumstance are working flat out with their backs against the wall and are simply running on empty most of the time. But that isn’t me and I’m sure it isn’t 99% of you reading this, too.The problem is that family worship is not being given enough priority in our daily life.

Think about all the things that you do in an average day: work, shop, browse Facebook and/or the internet, meet with friends, cook, clean, relax, and so on. Most of the things we do each day are good things that do us or our family some good in one way or another (even things like watching TV have their place in terms of resting and relaxing). But which of these things will do you or your family eternal good. Not many, if any at all.

Family worship is no less than investing in your children’s eternal future. It is given spiritual health to their souls. And it is doing these things in a way that only parents and guardians can. Why wouldn’t we want to make time for that?

The real issue

No, the real issue standing in the way of us leading our families in family worship is our sin and sinfulness. Thankfully, Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sin and by his Spirit he is able to overcome our sinfulness through our continued repentance and faith in Jesus.

So if, like me, you find yourself failing and falling short in how you are leading your family in this way, then simply confess it to God, repent and give it to Jesus, and get going again because forgiveness is ours at the cross.

In my next post, I’ll share some thoughts and ideas that might help you get back on the wagon of leading family worship once again.