Ours is a thinking religion

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Ephesians 3: 20-21 (NIV)

"We should also contemplate God's power. The beginning of the doxology (v20) is in essence an invitation to consider how great God's power is. Again we see how much Christianity is focused on the mind. Ours is a thinking religion. Its goal is not abstract reasoning or academic pursuits separated form practical doing, but an informed mind that shapes life. The message of Ephesians requires heart, mind and hands. Christians need time for reflection, for remembering, for searching into matters too deep for knowledge. The suggestion not to bother with subjects too grand for comprehension is ill-advised. In being stretched by what is beyond us we grow. Inquiry after the unknowable God provides the wisdom and knowledge we need for life.

"Christians need a regular schedule of reading, thinking, discussing and praying that informs them about faith and life and helps them grow a soul. Most of us think we are too busy for such time-consuming exercises, but the inner being is not strengthened by osmosis. Our busy schedules are often filled with secondary - if not needless - concerns. Some activities may need to be laid aside, but the contemplative part of faith is not one of them."

Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians (NIVAC: Zondervan, 1996), p.190. 

Deep conversion - the faith that sings (John 4)

Continuing with the theme 'Gospel-Community-Mission', this morning we looked at the important matter of 'worship'  as an expression of 'deep conversion':  so often, we are content with a 'superficial' trust in Christ; the Spirit takes our faith to a deeper level as we learn what it means to treasure Christ above all.
When available, you'll be able to listen to the sermon directly below or here.

Scotty Smith's Prayer for Gospel-Smitten Grace-Saturated Local Churches

  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Col. 1:3-6

     Gracious Father, we bring our church families before you today, with all their brokenness and beauty. It’s not only a privilege but a central calling to pray without ceasing for one another in the body of Christ. For until the day Jesus returns, the church is your chosen means for revealing your glory, lavishing your grace, and advancing your kingdom. No wonder she is constantly being assailed by the world and assaulted by darkness.

     In keeping with the way Paul prayed for every church he planted, we ask you to inundate, saturate, and liberate our churches by the gospel of your incomparable grace—new church plants and aging communities alike. There’s no other power sufficient for the task. There’s no other story, motivation, or resources adequate for the calling you’ve given your beloved people.

     By the glorious gospel, bear great fruit in our midst, Father. Deepen and strengthen our faith in Jesus. Stun us, over and over and over again with the mercy and magnificence of Jesus. It’s not the size of our faith but the object of our faith that matters most, so keep revealing more and more of the glory and grace of Jesus to us. Let us boast in his work, not ours; our brokenness and his sufficiency. May the name of Jesus be the most heard, loved, and trusted name in our churches.

     And by the powerful gospel, make us great lovers. Give us love for all the saints, and for the broad range of non-believers in our communities. Tear down our divisions; rescue us from our prejudices; eradicate our pettiness. Help us to demonstrate the difference the gospel makes in our worship, in our conflicts, and in our suffering. Don’t let us ever get used to loving poorly. Keep us from biting and devouring one another. Make and keep us humble, for you resist the proud but give grace to the humble.

     By the hope of the gospel, liberate our hands, hearts, and resources for the work of your kingdom in our cities and among the nations. Make us a generous servant people. With us or without us, the gospel will continue to bear fruit and grow throughout the world. We want it to do so with us, Father, not in spite of us. By the gospel, revive us, transform us, and free us for your sovereign and saving purposes. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ glorious and grace-filled name.

HT:  Scotty Smith

40 years on...by faith, moment by moment

Forty years ago, the 20 August 1972 was a Sunday.  Where I was, in Annalong, Co. Down, it was a sunny Sunday.  A young minister, not long into his first charge, was giving a talk to a group of 50 or so young people from Belfast as they sat on his lawn outside his house.  His name was Desmond McCreery and he was the Rector of Annalong Parish.  His talk was based around the first question God asked as we have it in the Bible:  "Adam, where are you?" (Genesis 3:9).  

I don't remember the details of what he said, but I do clearly remember thinking afterwards that because of my sin, I was lost from God and that God had sent Jesus to find me, rescue me from sin and judgement and bring me back home to Himself.  The pieces of the Gospel that had been shared with me by friends all throughout that Summer, were falling into place in my mind and heart.
Whether I became a Christian that day, I can't remember.  In reality, I don't know.  Only eternity will tell.  Certainly by the Autumn, I was going to young people's meetings, attending Bible studies, enjoying church a bit more! etc, etc.  My life had changed:  its direction, its priorities, its activities all different, now focused - with so much learning, understanding, repenting and believing to do - on Jesus.  And it is certainly only the preserving, merciful, sufficient and sustaining grace of Christ that has held onto me these past 40 years.  To Him, be all the thanks, praise, adoration and worship!
Although I didn't begin to understand the richness of the Gospel until much, much later, Francis Schaeffer's own testimony echoes what to me in past years has been the source of much wonder and joy in my life - even throughout these past few, very difficult years: 

“I became a Christian once for all upon the basis of the finished work of Christ through faith;  that is justification.  The Christian life, sanctification, operates on the same basis, but moment by moment.  There is the same base (Christ’s work)  and the same instrument (faith); the only difference is that one is once for all and the other is moment by moment…If we try to love the Christian life in our own strength we will have sorrow, but if we live in this way, we will not only serve the Lord, but in place of sorrow, He will be our song.  That is the difference.  The ‘how’ of the Christian life is the power of the crucified and risen Lord, through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit, by faith moment by moment.” 

HT: Graced Again (20 August 2012)

Discipleship: mapping the faithfulness of God in our lives

1 They have greatly oppressed me from my youth—
    let Israel say—
2 they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
    but they have not gained the victory over me.
3 Plowmen have plowed my back
    and made their furrows long.
4 But the Lord is righteous;
    he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.
Psalm 129: 1-4 (NIV 1984)

Commenting upon this psalm, pastor-theologian Eugene Peterson writes:

"The cornerstone sentence of Psalm 129 is, 'The Lord is righteous', meaning not merely that He is always right (which he is and this, of course, is what the Bible assumes), but that he is always in right relation to us...

"That 'The Lord is righteous' is the reason that Christians can look back over a long life, crisscrossed with cruelties, unannounced tragedies, unexpected setbacks, sufferings, disappointments, depressions - look back across all that and see it as a road of blessing and make a song of what we see. 'Sorely have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me (v 2: RSV).  God sticks to His relationship. He establishes a personal relationship with us and stays with it.  

"The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment that God makes to us.  Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of God's faithfulness.  We survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina but because God is righteous.  Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God's righteousness and less and less attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing our moods and motives and morals but by believing in God's will and purposes; making a map of the faithfulness of God, not charting the rise and fall of our enthusiasms.  It is out of such a reality that we acquire perseverance."

A Long Obedience in the Right Direction (Marshall-Pickering: London, 1989), p 128-9.  Slightly edited for brevity and clarity.
HT: Tullian

Growing in Grace

J.C. Ryle

"When I speak of 'growth in grace', I do not for a moment mean that a believer's interest in Christ can grow.  I do not mean that he can grow in safety, acceptance with God, or security.  I do not mean that he can be ever more justified, more pardoned, more forgiven, more at peace with God, than he is the first moment that he believes...
"When I speak of 'growth in grace', I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigour and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer's heart.  I hold that every one of those graces [is capable] of growth, progress and increase.  I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble, and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life.  When I speak of someone 'growing in grace' I mean simply this:  that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked.  He feels more of the power of godliness in his heart.  He manifests more of it in his life.  He is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace."

JC Ryle, Holiness Evangelical Press, 1976, p84f.  Orig. published 1877.

While one might misinterpret Ryle's latter sentences to mean that one's spiritual maturity is ultimately, a steady, linear, upward and onward progression (which - from our perspective - it is clearly not, cf Romans 7), nevertheless the burden of the importance of Christian growth and giving ourselves wholeheartedly towards the pursuit of increasing Christlikeness, is the message we desperately need to hear and heed. 
See also here.

"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.

Just what is Christian growth?

This is a question that has been occupying my mind alot recently.  This short video, featuring Coral Ridge's Tullian Tchividjian and Knox Seminary's Jono Linebaugh, gives some surprising but, I believe, very helpful answers.  Watch and learn.

HT: Tullian's blog at TGC