Let's try again... The Ledger

As you can tell it's been a while since my last blog.  Lots of reasons, and lots of excuses!
I believe it's something that God wants me to do, but I am a lazy procrastinator so I have expanded what I'll write about, in the hope that I will get back to the point if I just show up a little more often.

The Ledger
I thought to get me back on the blogging road again I'd tell you about a picture God gave me a few weeks ago,  I felt God show me a massive old ledger book, He was at a page near the front, and at the top it had my name.  He was writing in it : Prayed for someone ... credit, Didn't join in gossip .... credit.  and so on and so on, tiny things that I had done, seemingly worthless things I had done, were being added up in a credit column.
I asked Him "what about the rest?" and I saw His hand flip a massive chunk of pages toward the back of the book. And he began writing again; Anger, Pride, Swearing, Unkind words,etc. etc. and a mark against each in a very crowded debit column. Then I looked at the top of the page and the name written there was "Jesus".

I have been continually blown away by this picture, although I am regularly aware and comfortable with grace, I so often forget that everything I do is either credited to me as righteousness, because of my faith in Jesus, or is debited to Him, so that he can pay for my sin in full.

I am completely unworthy of His love, and yet he lavishes it on me so freely.  My friend Matt Blick wrote a song called "More than I could say" which conveys this so well, you can find it here.

The Bride price & The Dowry

Wikipedia's definition of Bride price is:
Bride price, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom ... The agreed bride price is generally intended to reflect the perceived value of the girl or young woman.

Both Exodus 22 & Deuteronomy 22 speak about this price.

The Dowry however, (which it is often confused with) is an amount of money or property which is given to the groom whom a girl marries.

Today is the day when we remember the greatest bride price of all.  For such a bride Jesus was prepared to pay what ever it took.
 Philippians 2:           ⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
                                did not consider equality with God something to be used to his 
                                own advantage;
                                       ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
                               by taking the very nature of a servant,
                               being made in human likeness.
                                      ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
                               he humbled himself
                               by becoming obedient to death—
                               even death on a cross!


To give up all of heaven, all of it's riches to purchase a bride seems enough (who could be worth that?), but then He goes on to pay the ultimate price: 
    Matt 27:         ²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and 
                          gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped 
                          him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a 
                          crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right 
                          hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of 
                          the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck 
                          him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they 
                          took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him 
                          away to crucify him. 

And then to take on the Father's wrath for all sin!

    Rom 3:       ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding
                      of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his 
                      righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed 
                      beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness 
                      at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who 
                      have faith in Jesus. 

    Isa 53         ¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
                       and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
                       he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
                       and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
                              ¹¹ After he has suffered,
                       he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
                       by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
                       and he will bear their iniquities.
                              ¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
                       and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
                       because he poured out his life unto death,
                       and was numbered with the transgressors.
                       For he bore the sin of many,
                       and made intercession for the transgressors.


What a bride price! What a cost! What amazing bride could be worth this? The Church! His Church! You and I! 
I struggle regularly with why Jesus would do this for me, how can I possibly do anything but make this amazing bride less worthy? less valuable? but the reason for His Passion is His Church, and I am part of it, He chose me to be so in full knowledge of all my sin.
And so the most expensive bride has been offered the highest price by her groom and amazingly there is no dowry to pay. No price can be paid - for everything has already been given. 

Today truly is Good Friday

What's your theology on hell?

I have been following with some interest the ongoing saga regarding Rob Bell's new book 'Love wins'.  Although I'm not going to comment on the book, having not read it, and having read enough out there for me not to want to pay for it, it does raise a very important question.

What do I/you believe about hell?
Our understanding of Hell, and the Holy God, who created it for the devil, will help determine our response to those who are not yet saved.

Mark Driscoll within his blog post To Hell with Hell? writes this:


This is why the Bible speaks of hell as conscious, eternal punishment. One summary of the Bible’s teaching on the pain of hell says:


* Those in hell suffer intense and excruciating pain. This pain is likely both emotional/spiritual and physical (John 5:28–29).
* Hell is a fate worse than being drowned in the sea (Mark 9:42).
* It is worse than any earthly suffering—even being maimed (Matthew 5:29–30; Mark 9:43).
* The suffering never ends (Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:48).
* The wicked will be “burned with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12).
* Those in hell will be thrown into the fiery furnace and will experience unimaginable sorrow, regret, remorse, and pain. The fire produces the pain described as “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
* The intensity of the suffering seems to be according to the wickedness of the person’s behavior (Romans 2:5–8).
* Hell is utterly fearful and dreadful (Hebrews 10:27–31).
* This punishment is depicted as “coming misery,” “eating flesh with fire,” and the “day of slaughter” (James 5:1–5).
* Those in hell will feel the full force of God’s fury and wrath (Revelations 14:10).
* They will be “tormented” with fire (14:10–11).
* This suffering is best understood as endless since the “smoke of their torment rises forever and ever” (14:11).
* This suffering is constant because it is said that those in hell “will have no rest day or night” (14:11) and
* “will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (20:10). 


As I have been reminding myself over these last weeks of the horror and eternity of hell, it drives me to pray even more for those who do not yet know the love of God.
Believing that a loving God would never allow people to be seperated from Himself eternally, removes our need to evangelise, "they'll be saved eventually anyway, let's just have some fun!"

"Go and make disciples" becomes unnecessary/pointless as however long someone may suffer after death, it would be like the blink of an eye against eternity.

However, my God is just and holy and loving! He will punish ALL sin, either through seperation from himself in hell for eternity OR through placing the punishment onto His son Jesus, the atonement for our sins.

No-one comes to the Father except through Him, and they will only get the chance whilst they are alive.

One good thing that has come out of the debate over the last few weeks; has been the strength in which those of evangelical faith have come out to state that we will stand up for our beliefs; and will refuse to change them to make them more palatable to a secular audience.

Let us use what is going on to spur our prayer and evangelism for those who may well end up in hell, if we don't tell them!

Loving your wife

My wife is great! Any one who knows her will know that I did well to get her.  She's phenomenal. Thankfully because she is so fantastic I have never heard anyone saying anything bad about her.  And if they did, I would probably want to kill them, or at least injure them quite badly!
I do know quite a few people though of whom people say "I like them, but I'm not so sure about their wife", "if only she wasn't married to him!" etc..
When we marry, we become one with our spouse, to have anyone speak against them is as bad if not worse, than having such things said against us.

I do know however, someone who's desire is to marry way beneath him.  But, it's his passion, his reason to be, he would do absolutely anything for her.  As you have probably guessed due to the nature of this blog, I am of course talking about Jesus.  He came for his church, his bride.  There is a day coming when we, the people of God, dressed in white, will attend a wedding, the completion of his Kingdom, we will become one with he who has clothed us in the garments of his righteousness, joined eternally with Him.

It must hurt Jesus so much then, when he hears sniping against his beloved bride. The "I Love God, I just don't like the church" attitude is so far from what Jesus longs for.  The church is everything to him, it's who he died for.  In our individualistic society it's easy to get stuck on "Jesus died just for me" without the equal truth "Jesus died for his people the church".  There is no individualism in the Bible, most of the verses we apply to ourselves were written to churches.

Jesus loves the church, if we are to love him, we too must give ourselves to loving what he loves.

Choosing a Church 2

It's been a busy few days, still is, but I am trying not to lose the momentum on writing.  So even though my head is busy with other things it's time to write another post.

I thought I'd follow up choosing a church for it's theology with my second reason for choosing a church which is:

LEADERS

Before joining a church, decide do you have any affinity for the leaders?  These are the people who God will give authority over you.  You are under their authority supposed to submit to whatever they ask (unless they demand something which goes against scripture, in which case leave that cult asap!)

I realise that in the modern western culture in which I live what I have just said is profoundly unpopular and politically incorrect, but so is vast amouts of the rest of the Bible.  

Growing up, I used to be a member of a large denomination, but I continually felt that I could not trust those in authority.  I could not trust them to evangelise, I could not trust them to discipline those in serious sin, I could not trust them to adhere to the Bible. My position in that church, though I had grown into a position of leadership was untenable, and I found myself regularly praying that God would open up a way for me to move to a church where I had complete trust in the leaders, which He graciously did.

  2 Cor 8:4-5 commends the Macedonian churches for giving themselves first to God, and then to their leaders (the apostles), "by the will of God". Our desire should be that we should be able to give ourselves first to God, and then give ourselves to our leaders.

In his superb book 'Under Cover' John Bevere shows throughout the Bible how we are called to be under the authority of those God places over us, and to follow that authority even, sometimes, if they make a wrong decision.  He explains things far better than I ever could, so if you are interested in this, do get a copy.
But, paraphrasing an entire book in a sentence it could be boiled down to - leaders will have to give an account to God for the decisions they make, but also those under authority will have to give account to God about how they came under the authority He had given them.

The thought of standing before the Awesome King of Heaven, and having to give account for my rebellious nature scares me a bit -  as it should.  So I believe that I should make sure that I place myself and my family in a church where following leaders is easy.  I know my church leaders, I like them, I trust them and I will follow them.  Do I agree with every single decision? Not necessarily no. Would I make the same decisions always? Probably not (due to the fact I'm far more foolish).  But do I trust the motives and reasons for those decisions? Am I sure they believe that God believes those decisions are best? Do I trust that I don't know everything about a decision and they know far more? Do I believe that they just want to see God's kingdom grow? Yes, Yes, Yes!!  and therefore, I can have confidence in following and submitting to their direction always.

Ephesians 4 tells us that God gave gifts to men, and those gifts are people - Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists and Pastor teachers.
The leaders God puts you under are a gift from God, whose job is to equip you to serve. Find yourself a good church, make sure you agree with what they believe and make sure you like and trust your leaders. With these 2 things in place, you will find that your leaders are a gift from God! Trusting good leaders frees you to not worry about your church, but to serve it.

Should you be looking for a church at the moment, I hope that God blesses you with amazing Godly leaders!

The Ordinariate - What are they playing at?

I have been interested and dismayed by the stories this week of hundreds of Anglican clergy leaving the Church of England for the Roman Catholic church.
I am fully in agreement with them in not wanting to endorse women bishops or homosexual clergy, but joining the Roman Catholic church is surely not the way forward.
Obviously for those who are joining the Ordinariate, all that occurred in the reformation is meaningless. The huge numbersof those martyred for refusing to accept the Catholic mass have been forgotten.

I realise this sounds like I am anti-Catholic, but I'm not.  I truly believe that there are many born-again Catholics who I will be able to laugh with in heaven about all of our misguided theologies.
That said, there are some major beliefs in the Catholic church which are simply not Christian.  - How does an Anglican vicar having handed out bread and wine as a symbol of Jesus body and blood, change to administering the actual body and blood of Christ.
Transubstantiaton is NOT a Christian doctrine, and it was because of this very belief that so many reformers were martyred.  Jesus died once for all Hebrews 9:24-28. The doctrine of transubstantiation believes that every time the elements of bread and wine are given Christ is sacrificed again! If that were the case, then the cross wasn't enough! If Jesus needs to be re-sacrificed for our forgiveness, then I am not saved. Thank God that this is not the case. He died once for all, that I and you might live.
I understand that the liberal theology that is pervasive among many in the Church of England is to be deplored. I agree that you should not belong to a church where you cannot trust and follow those in authority, but please Anglican brothers and sisters, don't trade what you've got for something worse.
Christ's death and resurrection is fundamental to all Christianity, if I need to re-sacrifice Christ through the mass, or need to say penance to absolve my sin then Christ died for nothing! I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Choosing a Church 1

Where to start is continually my issue, everything I do leaves me struggling for a starting point, and therefore I procrastinate.  But I was in the shower this morning and it came to me - if I am to write about the church, it might be a good place to start with how do you pick one?
For Whatever reason: You've just become a believer, you've moved to a new area etc. etc. you are looking for a church.  What's important and what's not?
I have a feeling that this post may end up running on and on with different things to look at and why they're important, but I think I'll start with this:

THEOLOGY

Our theology is essential.  To know what we believe about God, the Bible and the Church, and why we believe it is fundamental to growing as a Christian.

So when we pick a church before how great it's worship is, before size, before social action, before anything else we must know it's theology.  Because it is out of what a church and it's leaders believe that worship, ministries, and growth flow out. 

Your desire might be to see a work among the homeless, or an amazing kids work, but even should a church not have these things yet - if that church has a strong theology, the application of their belief will be to serve these and other needs in their community as God gives them the grace to do so.

I used to be a Methodist Local Preacher, and I was regularly amazed that those in the churches I preached in had no idea what the church believed (I'm sure not every Methodist Church is like it, I can only speak for the 2 or 3 circuits in England I have preached in).  The truth was those in leadership didn't know what the Methodist Church believed.  I was told it was a very broad church, by a tutor who believed that Joseph was Jesus natural father! I was also told, should I want to, I would be rejected for candidating for ministry as I believed in Male eldership.  (Not as broad as they thought?)

To speak on doctrines such as Atonement, or Propitiation, Election would have meant little or nothing to people who struggled with concepts any larger than "God loves You".  The problem with this, is that when an issue arises, serious sin, a famous preacher saying something heretical, a collapse in faith, there is no theological training to reinforce the truth.

What do you believe about the doctrines that make churches what they are :
Church leadership
Baptism
Holy Spirit gifts
Worship
Church Discipline

Tithing & giving

Election & Predestination

If you join a church which upholds your belief about what the bible teaches, you can have a confidence that you will not find yourself in a difficult place of not being able to agree with a decision made by church leaders which you cannot follow.   This gives a great deal of security.

Of course there is always the possibilty that what I or you or your church believe could be wrong. So we also need the humility to allow God to change our theologies!