"What would George do?"

Former US President GW Bush, along with his wife Laura, was back at the White House recently to unveil the officially commissioned portraits of the former President and First Lady that will hang alongside paintings of previous occupants of the White House, including, said Bush, that of "the first George W"!
The former President has clearly lost none of his humour (and charm!) while out of Office.  He suggested that, while contemplating great affairs of State, President Obama, in seeking inspiration for the right decision, might profitably gaze upon the Bush portrait and ask himself, "What would George do?"  You can watch the ceremony highlights here.
Anyway - and here's the relevance of this - it is now commonplace among Christian believers, in seeking to act righteously in ethically complex, grey situations, to find clarity by surmising the answer to the question "What would Jesus do?"  In fact, a whole WWJD? cottage industry has grown up around this notion that we can determine what our own behaviour should be in any given situation by 'simply' imitating what we might reasonably expect to be the practical outworking of Jesus' own inner thoughts and feelings.
This, however, was not the Apostle Paul's way. Paul's behaviour in every situation was governed by principles and convictions honed from a deep theological reflection of the significance of Jesus (and the Cross) within God's plan of redemptive history.  In other words, Paul's reasoning was not What would Jesus do?, but rather 'As a redeemed child of God, what should we do in light of what Jesus has done?'  So, rather than trying to imagine what Jesus might do in any given situation, it is the practical outworking of the Gospel in our lives that itself should determine our life and lifestyle.  Tim Keller has helpfully highlighted that Paul's rebuke of Peter (Gal. 2) when the latter was beginning to withdraw from table fellowship with converted Gentiles under pressure from the Judaizers, was because Peter was "not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel" (v14).  
Let's learn to live not by second guessing the mind of Jesus, but live as those who, by God's amazing grace, stand before him in covenant relationship - justified, adopted, and indwelt by the sanctifying Spirit of God - and who are learning to live in line with Gospel truth.

Tim Keller on personal evangelism

Martin Salter's very helpful blog entry on Tim Keller's strategy for encouraging personal evangelism has been picked up by many within the blogosphere.  He writes:

A while ago on our elder retreat we listened to a talk Tim Keller gave at Lausanne. As part of that talk he gave 10 tips to help our lay folk in their evangelism. They were so helpful I wanted to put them down somewhere, so here they are:

1. Let people around you know you are a Christian (in a natural, unforced way)
2. Ask friends about their faith – and just listen!
3. Listen to your friends problems – maybe offer to pray for them
4. Share your problems with others – testify to how your faith helps you
5. Give them a book to read
6. Share your story
7. Answer objections and questions
8. Invite them to a church event
9. Offer to read the Bible with them
10. Take them to an explore course

What Keller also advises is that we (generally) start with 1-4. If people are interested and want to talk more you can move them to stages 5-7. If they’re still interested go on to stages 8-10. Sometimes people will want to go straight to 10, but often people start from way back and need some time to think and discuss things in a non-pressured way. We often think that only stages 8-10 count and invest all our energy there. TK suggests that to get people at stages 8,9,10 you have to put the work in at 1-4. Sometimes you’ll have to keep going round the loop multiple times.
TK suggests to leaders that we should aim to get 20% of our folk doing this (of course it should be 100% but let’s be realistic). If we do, we’ll see a steady stream of conversions over the long term, and sustainable church growth.

Diamond Jubilee: celebrating a 'tragic splendour' (CS Lewis)

Tony Reinke has been reading CS Lewis's appraisal of the Queen's coronation back in June 1953. Lewis, it seems, chose not to attend the festivities because the weather was not great (like Sunday past on the Thames, long to rain over us!), because he did not like crowds, and because he was not in the mood to dress up. Instead he stayed at home and watched the event on TV (it was the first fully televised coronation).

A month later Lewis reflected on the coronation in a letter to a friend (Letters, 3:343):  

You know, over here people did not get that fairy-tale feeling about the coronation. What impressed most who saw it was the fact that the Queen herself appeared to be quite overwhelmed by the sacramental side of it. Hence, in the spectators, a feeling of (one hardly knows how to describe it) — awe — pity — pathos — mystery.

Queen' Elizabeth II's coronation: 2 June 1953

The pressing of that huge, heavy crown on that small, young head becomes a sort of symbol of the situation of humanity itself: humanity called by God to be His vice-regent and high priest on earth, yet feeling so inadequate. As if He said, ‘In my inexorable love I shall lay upon the dust that you are glories and dangers and responsibilities beyond your understanding.’

Do you see what I mean? One has missed the whole point unless one feels that we have all been crowned and that coronation is somehow, if splendid, a tragic splendour.

Only Lewis would see the echoes of Eden and eternity. Profound! 

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Trinitarian faith: truly knowing God, truly experiencing peace

Here's CH Spurgeon's entry for the evening of 8 May from his classic devotional Morning and Evening.

“Endeavour to know the Father. Approach Him in deep repentance, and confess that you are not worthy to be called His son; receive the kiss of His love; let the ring that is the token of His eternal faithfulness be on your finger; sit at His table and let your heart rejoice in His grace.

"Then press forward and seek to know much of the Son of God who although He is the brightness of His Father’s glory humbled Himself and became man for our sakes. Know Him in the singular complexity of His nature: eternal God, and yet suffering, finite man; follow Him as He walks the waters with the tread of deity, and as He sits down at the well tired in the weariness of humanity. Do not be satisfied unless you know much of Jesus Christ as your Friend, your Brother, your Husband, your all.

"Do not forget the Holy Spirit. Endeavor to obtain a clear view of His nature and character, His attributes, and His works. Behold the Spirit of the Lord, who first of all moved upon chaos and brought forth order, who now visits the chaos of your soul and creates the order of holiness. Behold Him as the Lord and giver of spiritual life, the Illuminator, the Instructor, the Comforter, and the Sanctifier. Behold Him as He descends upon the head of Jesus, and then as He rests upon you.

"Such an intelligent, scriptural, and experiential belief in the Trinity is yours if you truly know God; and such knowledge brings peace indeed.”

HT: Nick Roark

Risking one's sanity for the good of God's people and the glory of His name...

This coming Sunday is 'Trinity Sunday'.  The picture below is the classic trinitarian Nicene Creed - wordlised! 

Martin Luther said: “To deny the Trinity is to risk our salvation; but to try and explain the Trinity is to risk our sanity.”
Let's risk our sanity for the Lord and His people this Sunday...