The Sunshine of the Gospel

It seems that Richard Sibbes has come back from the dead and he is living in the South West. And what a joy that is!

This is no ordinary book and you may think that it being self published means that the content is not as good. You couldn't be more wrong. This is a collection of Sibbes sermons which are made accessible for todays reader by Dave Bish and this is one book you wouldn't want to miss...!

Sibbes has a way of speaking to your heart because he is trying to draw you to Jesus and warm your heart. He is not ashamed to speak of the struggles of man and how hard hearted we can be and he is not ashamed to point us back to Jesus and invite us to sit by the fire of his love. He is also not ashamed to draw us to the picture of the bride and groom and he does this through the song of songs and its wonderful - when you read this you will see how much Christ loves the church, how much he is wooing his bride to himself. The pictures and the language are rich and I really believe they will give you a different outlook to how you see church and how you think Christ views you.

So if you are a Christian that feels like everyday is a struggle and your heart is cold or you have forgotten that Christ loves you so much and that you need reminding of how to fall in love with Jesus again - then you need to read this book....seriously. I actually think that even if you feel like your relationship is great, you should still read this book and allow your love for Christ to grow stronger. You can never have enough of Jesus. 

Bish has done a good job here and I am not saying that because he is my friend and boss, but I am saying it because every time I read this book it made me look back at Christ and His word and Jesus made my heart softer and warmer each time. I so needed to read this and be reminded of Christs great love for me and for His bride.

So why not buy it here and see what I mean.

I would recommend that you take it in bit by bit, like fine wine or strong coffee - it allows you to enjoy it all the more!

To hear what I need

I don't know about you, but when I wake up in the morning I find that I want nothing to do with the Gospel or Jesus. In fact I prefer to wake up and think about the day ahead and all the things I want to do - my agenda, my life, my identity. As I awake I find my heart so hard and dull. I think that if I was to do everything I wanted then I would be satisfied.

What a lie.

The one thing I need to hear is the Gospel.
I need to hear it because I don't want to hear it.
I need to hear it because my heart needs to be melted
I need to hear it because it brings me life. Christ brings me life and has made me alive.

Team days were all about the Gospel and I didn't want to hear it but I needed to hear it and I am thankful that I did hear it. The Gospel makes fellowship sweet and food tasty and hearts melting... lets keep hearing it and keeping speaking it.

Gracism, the Gracist way...

Gracism. A book about inclusion of those that are on the boundaries, whether that's racially, culturally or those that are just different. This book provides a very interesting concept about including those that are in the minority to be a part of the fellowship or a part of our lives. This is certainly something we can learn from in our churches and also in our Christian Unions. I am doing a seminar on International Mission in a couple of weeks and a point I will be making is if we want to share the Gospel with the nations and international people within England, then we need to reach out our lives and friendship to those that are different to us.

The book provides many challenges for us. Anderson says in the book about the heart of a gracist is "The one who hears, sees and pays attention to those on the margins" This is a challenge in itself about whether we would willingly go out of our way to include those that look differently to us or are sitting alone and are perhaps socially awkward. There is a lot of talk about racial divide in the book and how as a "gracists" you need to intentionally look out for those that are different in any way. Although I agree with some of the ideas of intentionally looking out for those that are different and on the margins, I don't think however we need to use another label like "gracist". I just think we should be doing these things anyway because we are Christians, followers of Christ.

But not just because we are Christians but because we have a global Gospel. A Gospel that includes everyone to share in fellowship with Jesus. So to not do that and deny those that are different in hearing or sharing in the fellowship means you are going against the Gospel. The very heartbeat is that there is unity in Christ because there is unity in the trinity. I would of loved the book to continue on from stories of acts of inclusion to how this inclusion is demonstrated within the trinity and what the Gospel provides which then should warm our hearts to this global gospel and sharing it with all nations.

Colossians - Jesus has done everything (pt2)

Colossians 1:13-23 - an epic and most used passage about who Jesus is. But we can take it just as a nice list of things about Jesus, place them on our mental mantelpiece and then move on.
OR
We could start asking the question - Why has Paul written this here? I am learning to ask the best question ever - why?.

In the book (and its now a film) Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert expresses her view of what she means by God. -

“In the end, what I have come to believe about God
is simple. It’s like this – I used to have this really
great dog ... She was a mixture of about ten
different breeds, but seemed to have inherited the
finest features of them all. She was brown. When
people asked me, ‘What kind of dog is that?’ I would
always give the same answer: ‘She’s a brown dog.’
Similarly, when the question is raised, ‘What kind of
God do you believe in?’ my answer is easy: ‘I
believe in a magnificent God.’ (Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth

Gilbert p. 15)"

Yet this leaves me feeling slightly disappointed. Surely God is more then just "magnificent"? Its very impersonal and doesn't cover the scope of who God is. Of course He is magnificent. But Paul is saying He is more then that in Colossians... in fact the answer to the resounding "why", is that Paul is showing that Jesus has done everything, He has completed everything and without Him what hope could there be?

Why would you ever go after a different Gospel if everything has been completed in Christ?
Why would you add on to the Gospel if Jesus has done everything?

Therefore if we are to be confident in Christ, it should change the way we share Him with our friends.

I hope it means I am not ashamed of Him and can be bold in sharing Him and know fully in my heart that I don't have to add on my works to what Jesus has done! It is good news.

Being Gospel Centered

Tim Chester writes in "Total Church" -

"Being gospel-centred actually involves two things. First, it means being word-centred because the gospel is a word - the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centred because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed - the gospel is good news, a missionary message" (pg16)

He goes on to write how this impacts our everyday lives...

"The challenge for us is to make the gospel the center of our lives not just Sunday mornings, but on Monday mornings. This means ending distinctions between "full timers", "part timers" and people with secular employment...We need non full-time leaders who can model whole-life, gospel centred missional living. It means thinking our workplaces, homes and neighbourhoods as the location of mission. We need to plan and pray for gospel relationships. This means creating church cultures in which these are normal, celebrating day to day gospel living in the secular world and discussing how we can use our daily routine for the gospel"  (pg36)

Permission to fail - Bish

While reading Bish's blog I came across his honest conclusion of failure. I hate to fail and beat myself up when I do. I want to be right and perfect and get frustrated when I am not. I hate it when people say things about me that are negative, even if they are true. But Im not perfect, I am a sinner and in a way I need to own up to this not just before God but before people and conclude that I am not perfect, I mess up and will do and say things wrong. But there is hope in the Gospel... read what Bish says:

"The gospel takes the pressure off, means I can admit I got things wrong, means I can grow and learn and do things differently. Sins instinct is to hide and be ashamed, the gospel means I can hold my hands up, show weakness and not be destroyed for it. It gives me the freedom to make a call, and then reflect afterwards that it might not have been the right call. It gives me the freedom to be.

The gospel stops me taking myself too seriously - I'm freed to take Jesus seriously and think less often about myself. I'm free to bear with other, to be kind to others. And the gospel helps others to bear with me, to spur me on. To be generous to me beyond reason. To pick me up when I drop the ball - to look me in the face and speak gospel truth to me in the moment of my humiliation. so I can carry on."

Beautiful Feet

 








How beautiful my feet are
When dancing through life
With each step a new birth
And breath of eternal life.
Etching its way through darkness
To give way to light.
How my feet walk through fire
Carrying the drops of hope
And a message of dripping joy.


Yet at times when they drag
Unexpectantly clinging to earths gold
Overflowing with gripping fear -
It is easy to see the lights grow dim
And the eyes that held hope begin to wither
Into a blaze of uncertainty.
Here my feet stand still, unmoving.
Shivering in self satisfaction.


Then a cry is heard:
Where has the beauty gone?
At what depths has it plundered
For the sake of fleeting pleasure?
O how fear and pride shackle beauty!
Until there is a changing wind
And whispers of forgiveness and blood shed
That sweeps away the crusty leaves
That were buried in this heart,
Letting rays of truth flood in;
Warming the feet until moving
Waking the veins until shouting.
Only to find that soon
The scent of good news
Is being carried again -
By beautiful feet. 


By Catherine Hare

Fascinate people to the Gospel

There is something about Christians that should be different. We should stand out. 

Shine. 

Go against the crowed. 

We have a message of hope, we carry an eternal promise of truth. We have Jesus. 

Our lifestyles should reflect this truth. We should be courageous in Love, reaching to the dirty, the outcasts, the low in society, the unclean, the hopeless. 

We shouldnt be concerned with social status or jobs, because we wear a different dress code. Our actions and words should scream a different story thats so radical from society:

that promotes Jesus over man, 

that shares the good news, 

that performs acts of extreme love and Joy and hope and not be tainted with worries of success and career and what people think. 

We should fascinate the people to the Gospel, showing them Jesus, showing them how beautiful He is, showing the cross and carrying our cross. 

We should fascinate the world by not being concerned of self image, or trying to buy the latest gadgets, or trying to be popular.

We should fascinate the world by forgiving when it hurts so much, to love when all there can be is loss, to give everything of our things, possesions and ourselves when the world is trying to claim the 'mine' label. Lets not hold on or strive for things of this world.

Lets fascinate the world to the Gospel, not to ourselves, but to Jesus. 

May the world find itself in a moment of fascination over how we live our lives because we are not living for ourselves but for Jesus, because we would rather be amoung the lowly, the poor, the meek, the hurting, the lost then to be with the rich, powerful, proud. We would rather be without and full of Joy in Christ then have everything and still be unsatisfied.

Lets fascinate the world with Jesus.

Confidence in the Gospel

What happens when we lose our confidence in the Gospel?
When we find that we haven´t been rooting our identity in Christ?

Its really easy to depend on feelings and I find it easy to depend heavily on my feelings while in Peru especially when your not being fed spiritually at church. But regardless where you are or what situation you are in, its important to keep our confidence in the Gospel and to remind ourselves of what the Gospel says. In the book by Tim Chester - "The Ordinary Hero" he writes about what it means to live in the light of the Cross and Resurrection and there is one bit that he wrote about thats really challenged me and helped me here. He says that if we have confidence in Gospel truths then it will affect our actions and our heart:

• If you´re confident that God loves you, then you´ll love 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.
  

Ministering Cross Culturally

Recently I have been reading a book about Cross Culture mission while being in Peru. It has struck me that mission is much more then just giving an explanation of the Gospel, but there is a a huge part of sharing the Gospel which requires us sharing our time and lives. This can be hard if we are from a culture that demands the use of our time to be for certain use and pressures, such as work, or meetings or other things. But I have been challenged by the Peruvian culture that time to be with each other is a good use of time and a great oppertunity to share the Gospel, not just only with words but with our use of time and relationships.

What I think tends to happen is that we and myself included is share a British culture Gospel to the mission field, be that Peru, France or Asia... the problem is, is that British culture is by no means the standard at which the world should live and the cultural things that we have and do can restrict us and imprison us. So when we share the Gospel there can be an emphasis on British time keeping or way of doing church or CU or anything like that which fits well in our culture but not in a different culture. There isn´t much we can do about some of them, but in some ways we need to be ready to integrate and change in order to be flexable. Because the Gospel can reach all cultures and its the Gospel we have as our standard and how to live as a body of Christ and how to love one another.

There is a brilliant quote in this book that I want to share:
"We must understand that transforming a society does not mean moving people from their prison (culture) into ours but rather helping them to know Christ and be transformed personally and communally into people and communities of the Spirit. If we are to minister successfully to the members of a different society, therefore, we must learn about and participate in their culture" - Ministering Cross Cultrally, pg 120

I wonder how that would not only translate in different countries but in Britian when trying to reach internationals. How can we reach the Gospel to them when sometimes it may fall on deaf ears because we have not shown respect and interest in their culture first and we have not learnt ways to communicate to them that will build relationships with them?
Or we have tried to impose our culture on them rather then sharing Jesus with them?

It makes me think a lot about how barriers can be put up straight away just because we dont understand the culture and where they are coming from as they enter our churches or CUs.

So the question is, how can we as Christians reach international people as they enter our churches with an understanding of their culture that will enable us to reach them with our lives and the Gospel rather then a British way of doing things?

Hola from Peru

So here I am. Home for the next year or so. The dust of the streets clinging to your clothes, the smell of street food vendors, feeling like a giant among a crowed of people (impressive for someone 5"3), being introduced to many people and not understanding a lot. In some ways I am relying more on God then ever. You know when Paul says in Philippians 3 that he counts everything as loss for the sake of Christ? That he cannot boast in anything but the cross? In many ways I connect with that, because right now I cannot boast in anything. I cannot communicate with people and my pride has been dashed from me (which is good), to be honest, the only thing I can boast in is Christ. He is the one that is with me, He is my Shepard, and understands me when noone else can - that is a comfort. I dont really have anything I can cling on to here except Him...and its good. Its good to know that the Gospel is true and that there is nothing else worth boasting in except Christ and the Cross.

What does it mean to be a Relay worker here? Its not like Exeter. In some ways I was more tempted to stand on my knowledge and understanding - but that is somewhat unhinged when your in a different culture, when you cant speak the language. I believe sharing the Gospel is so important, but what if you cant speak? I wonder how Paul managed in places where he couldnt speak the language?

But from what I have seen, I think the next step is to show the Gospel, by how we love, live and how we are in church and towards the people in church and to the poor and in everything. My mouth is stappled shut, but I know Jesus and He can still use me, even with my poor spanish. At this stage I cannot do anything else and I hope when I get the words, then they will accompany the actions.

Its a slow process, its not a quick Two Ways to live sketch (even though its a good thing to use), but its about sharing your life with everyone and sharing Jesus. Its amazing how Jesus can use us in ways we never thought possible or even how we think we should do it.

It is different here, but I love it and I know its hard at times, but I have to cling on to Jesus everyday... :O)

Today I...

Today I am astounded by the truth of the Cross.

Today I am in awe that Jesus would die for me.

Can I tell someone this news when I am on the train or bus? Will my pride and self consciousness get in the way? If this is good news, why am I so reluctant to share it? Whats worse - the loss of pride now, or their eternity cut off from God.

Stay Free :: Stay with the Gospel

This was the last study I did on staying Free as a Christian. This one looked at how to stay with the Gospel and how to carry on as a Christian.

Mark 8:31-38 says some stark statements by Jesus. This is in fact one of my favorite passages in Marks Gospel. Jesus says:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
This whole passage is a challenge. Jesus talks about how we should deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. How do we carry on as a Christian? By not holding on to our lives but giving them up in order to follow Jesus.

This is hard for us because in our culture we have so much, giving all of that up seems like an impossible task! Is it all worth giving up for Jesus?

It is good to examine and look into what things we are tempted to hold on to rather then give them up. What are the specific areas of our lives where we have to take up our cross or lose our life? These are hard questions to chew over but its worth doing.

So how do we stay Free? We stay free by letting go of everything that binds us or everything that takes our focus off Jesus and then we take up our cross and follow Jesus. We stay with the Gospel, because the Gospel is about Jesus and reminds us of who He is, what He has done and how amazing He is. We will therefore see the immeasurable treasure that is Christ which will prompt our heart to let go of everything we have got and go after that which is most beautiful and most wonderful in Christ.

Following Jesus is all about staying Free.

BE-Engaging :: Paper Planes

~ Paper Planes by M.I.A ~
This is a catchy tune! In fact if you get in your head you can't get it out... this is a tune from Slum dog Millionaire (worth seeing!)...

I am really interested in the lyrics of this song, it says a lot about our desires, the western mindset and "third world democracy". The heartbeat of this song is about money and any possible way of getting it from hustling, making visas and taking your money!

The Chorus is very catchy:
"All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!)
And (KKKAAAA CHING!) And take your money"

Does the world revolve around money? It appears so. But was this what we were made for? Were we made to take as much money as possible - To get rich and die. Is that satisfying? I think it might burn a hole in our insides.

Jesus makes remarkable statements about money and our possessions. To one man he says -
"Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”" (Mark 10:21)

What would we do if Jesus directly said that to us today? I find it interesting how we dismiss this verse and say that Jesus isn't saying that to us now. But I wonder if thats because the crutch of this statement is so brutal to our pride in our material possessions that giving up everything is impossible. But look at what Jesus offers in return for giving up his money - treasure in heaven. Treasure in Heaven!! If all we want to do is "take your money" then we are missing the joy of treasure in heaven. Jesus is saying that there is something greater then money, something far more satisfying that is worth giving up everything for.

My favourite parable is the parable of the hidden treasure, where the man sells everything to buy a field to have the treasure in it. That is what the Kingdom of heaven is like!! Can we offer this to the secular world? When the obsession of money is hitting a peek, yet recession is upon us, can we offering something that will not fade or rot? Imagine having an eternal treasure that is worth more then anything in this world put together...

I was thinking of questions that I could ask, for instance - why is the world obsessed with money? Is it so they can get more stuff... and then what? What do you do after you get stuff - more stuff? Until stuff collects dust and we get bored...
Does having money truly satisfy? How do we see examples of it not in our culture - particulary looking at those in the media spotlight?

When do you have enough to be satisfied?

What do you think it would be like to have a treasure that will be truly satisfying and never fade nor corrupt?

Jesus says some amazing things about money, that you cannot serve Money and God. What do you think would be better to serve?

What I love about the Gospel is that it says that money will fade and wither and that there is no certainty in money and that when we become christians we no longer have to be enslaved with money, because our Father provides for all our needs and therefore we do not need to worry. It is essential to realise that money is important in our society, but it should not be an idol nor something we should strive to get more and more of to make ourselves happy. No, we have an amazing God that will provide abundantly when we need things and He is our source of delight!

What a fantastic message to bring to the world... will they listen? Imagine if they did? No longer would there be need to search for happiness in money.

I tell you something, when I was in Peru I saw some of the poorest christians I have ever known - yet they were in fact the most rejoicing Christians because there depedancy for everything was on the Lord... what an amazing witness to us and what an Amazing God we serve...!

Living the Gospel out at Work

Ian Coffey says...

How, then, does the gospel of Christ touch my world of work? It has a lot to do with being called to follow Christ. …

William Tyndale, the man who translated the New Testament into the English language, wrote these words: “There is no better work than to please God. To pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler or an apostle is all one. To wash dishes or to preach is all as one as touching the deed to please God.”

Rightly, Tyndale is saying that our aim should be to serve God wherever he has put us and to give of our very best.

(Working it Out - Ian Coffey)