Have a blessed Christ Mass

May you feast at this time on the rich nourishment that comes from the body of Christ. May His life-blood fill you, His presence keep you, His love delight you, His truth enthrall you. And may something of the wonderful beauty of the vulnerable baby be expressed through and be found in you. Merry Christmas.

‘What do you want?’

The question that confronts us in advent! But can it ever be a Christian question? Seems to me it is one of the pitfalls of a Christmas Season defined by commerce rather than by Christ.

But for all of us who seek to be lights reflecting the beauty of God in Christ, the question has to be translated into, ‘What does He want?’

And the answer is simple. He looks for receptivity to His love, radiated into our lives by the Holy Spirit. Obedience to His will, patterned in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Service to others in His name, as a child delights in doing the will of a Father they adore.

Let is be to me, according to Your Word.

Approaching Advent

As we approach Advent, it's good to remember who our Jesus Christ is:

• He is the key to the Cosmos, the Word of God come among us, the centre of all whether or not all acknowledge Him. Jesus is the One whose inherent integrity gives shape and significance to everything that is noble, good and true.
• He is the bringer of hope, the fulfillment and fulfiller of all that God our Creator has purposed and promised. He is the vine that overflows with fruitfulness and fullness, replete in the generosity of God's glory and goodness towards us.
• He is the manifestation of our heavenly Father's full, loving care for our humanity. He is our Father's true Son and our true, elder brother. He is the pure and righteous One who has fully and unconditionally entered our sinful predicament to embrace us in our degradation, taking all our sin and sickness to Himself; and to lift us up in His resurrection, clothing us even now in the presence and power of His transforming love.
• He is the declaration of God's judgment over the world. He is the demonstration of a consecrated life that worships God by offering His body, mind and emotions into an investment in showing mercy, pursuing justice, caring for the poor, marginalised and oppressed; and standing over against unrighteousness, selfishness, greed and exploitation.

From childhood to adulthood

When I read Paul, I see him through the eyes of an Irenaean and not an Augustinian anthropology. That is, where we see sin as arresting the development and maturing of people. And salvation menas entering in again to this process. What does this mean? We see it in the passage in Galatians 4.8-20.

Role models (Gal 4.12-16)

Paul appeals to the Galatian believers to model themselves on an imitation of his life (4.12), on the basis of his incarnational replication of the ministry of Christ among them (for I became like you).

The call to imitation is based on the effectiveness and appreciation (4.14-15) shown towards Paul’s ministry. This can only arise out of involvement with people and their observation of his life. This is basic to Paul’s perception of apostolic ministry. It is about involvement and incarnation, following the pattern of Jesus Christ Himself.

You only have the right to teach and disciple people you care about and minister to. Relationship and investment of self in others comes first.

A developmental approach to people (19-20)

See people in the reality of their continuing struggle to put to death the sinful self. Sharing in the birthing pain of God for them. Being there for them in the time of transition.

This requires a. constancy of love in the face of disobedience
b. identification, not judgment, supporting through the struggles

Life’s not about black and white issues. Paul recognised this. So should we.

Core Convictions and the Baptist Way

After a day at the Baptist Assembly, I see more clearly the value in affirming three core convictions at the heart of being baptistic Christians. These are summed up as:

• Christ centering
• Community Discerning
• Disciple developing

But I also see how important it is to stand away from two forms of absolutism.

Firstly, we must guard against the absolutism of personal power. Where authority and decision is centred in an individual. This is not the apostolic way. Christ teaches us to listen and to love. To hear His voice through serving the other in humility. Through discovering the authority of the relational community.

Secondly, we must renounce the absolutism of abstract idea or opinion. Theological truth is always incarnated in the story of human life. Truths predicate practices. To contrast our ideas to those of another without comparing journeys through life, and seeking to learn from the other, is sheer arrogance.

These are insights I treasure and want to inform our very essence in affirming what is good in being baptists Christians. I look forward to another day at Assembly!

Vision in Community

It was gratifying, in a good way, to see that the majority of people who went to the introductory Time Bank meeting at the local High School were from Bristo. Listening to the Community workers and people present, it was interesting that three types of people were identified as resident in the Inverleith area. The materially wealthy, professionals and the elderly. These indicators point to a specific category of poverty - loneliness and isolation.

Here is the question for us, as we are located in this area of the town. How do we meaningfully minister to people in this area, with this type of poverty? Some of our Fellowship are burdened by ministering to others groups of poor. One vision I have for Bristo’s future is the establishing of Community Houses, where a catalyst group can live together, inviting others to ‘come to church’ among them. This is very much the pattern of New Testament churches. Out of a group of such small House Church meetings, the larger congregational unit is sustained. We see a baptist congregation like this recently planted in rural Aberdeenshire. This may well be the way forward for Bristo. An alternative and a compliment to other forms of church in the city.

'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life'

Those who seek to reduce Christianity to a set of ‘truth claims’ are unwittingly committing an act of blasphemy. To claim the possession of truth is to claim power over others. The disciple of Christ is not called to a position of power, but to a place of weakness and humility. We make no claims about our ability to possess truth. Rather, we seek to be possessed by truth. We bow in acknowledgement before Jesus Christ and submit to Him, as He declares Himself to be Truth. We look to and for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to enable us enter His path and pursue His life.

When Jesus calls us to embrace Truth, He does not invite us to own propositions which make us feel superior to others. Instead, He invites us to embark on a journey along His way. He calls us and draws us into living His life. Faith, as Jesus Christ invites us to embrace it, is to embark on a journey of purposeful participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ Himself. It is about being drawn into Him. To be fundamentally changed in what we seek to get out of life and, consequently, put into life.

As Christians, we do should not seek to stand in a position of power over others, through claims to secret knowledge or special revelation. We do not want to claim that our understanding is complete or final. But we do acknowledge that, in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we see the One we want to invest our lives in. And it is this investment into participation in the life and ministry of the One who declares Himself to be the Truth that we stand for and invite others to enter into.

The Bible is a book of rich diversity. It is there to help us see more and more of the richness of who Christ Jesus is. To change us and shape us. The Bible is like a doorman issuing us into the doorway. And then to enter into it. So do not imagine that you, my friend, are ever able to possess truth. You can only bow down in wonder and then rise up to follow the one who has declared Himself to be the Truth, the Light of the World.

What's the point?

Ryan Gladwin, our assistant pastor and a research student in theology, said something that stuck with me when preaching on Sunday morning. He spoke of a church that undergone renewal and a visitation of the Holy Spirit in South America. There was much phenomena. Then someone asked, 'What's the point?' And from then on, people were not prayed for unless they were seeking to be intentional about the Christian life.

We must remember that Christ alone is the gateway to knowing the Trinity. We canot speak of the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit unless we first speak of Christ. In Him the Father's full likeness is met with. He is the Word Incarnate, the Son of God. He pours out the Holy Spirit, and to Him the Spirit testifies. There is no true knowing of Father, Son or Holy Spirit without facing up to Jesus Christ.

And here's the point. Jesus Christ, the harbinger of the Kingdom, is the pursuer of an ethical focus. It is about justice. Care for the poor. Reaching out to real people. Unless we grasp that the meaning of our life is found in and through such loving relationship and motivated intentionality, there is no meeting with the real God. There is only false ecstasy and delusional fabrication.

But when we pursue the path of Christ? Then let the power of the Holy Spirit come!

What Good News?

Galatians 1.11-12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation of Jesus Christ

The Gospel is the ‘good news’ of what God has planned and promised. At least 7 essential features can be traced in the Old Testament, in the coming upon earth of:

the presence of God
peace
joy
healing
deliverance
righteousness & justice
return to Jerusalem

v 14 zealous for the traditions of my fathers

It is quite likely that Judaism, in the time of Jesus, did not consciously try to be legalistic. The people had known enormous persecution. The result was that, to protect them, their religion had consolidated into a set of practices that were quite brittle. Rigid Sabbath observance. Extreme precaution against acts of personal, ceremonial pollution. And formality. People were wanting to prepare themselves for God’s Kingdom.

The reason that it clashed with Jesus was simple. Jesus offered an understanding of the Kingdom that seemed to disregard all of this. His teaching and ministry pointed to the core ‘drivers’ of God’s Kingdom. He was indifferent, even hostile, to the practices that had built up. And the religious conservatives felt threatened.

We too need to ask, ‘which side of the road to Damascus experience are we on?’. What actually changed there, for Paul? He already believed in the ‘Good News of the Kingdom’, as a devout Jew. How did Jesus make a difference?

As Christians, we have to watch that we do not separate the ‘Good News of the Kingdom’ from the ‘Good News of Jesus Christ’. Because they need to go together as one. We can have a message, ‘Jesus died to take the punishment for your sins’! Do you accept it?’. But that by itself, as Deitrich Bonhoffer famously put it, is a message of costless discipleship, of ‘cheap grace’.

Paul’s understanding of Jesus and the Kingdom of God goes much deeper. He talks of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4.4). For Paul, as a Jew, sees that Jesus brings the full presence of the Kingdom of God to earth. This is the good news. Jesus’ life lives out what Israel is called to live for. His life ushers in the presence of God, as God has promised to Israel. Jesus brings the presence of God, as God’s icon (Colossians 1.15). He brings the realisation of the full blessing of God to Israel; and He also lives out the obedience that Israel is called to. In short, Jesus is a microcosm, a life encapsulating and effecting all of God’s blessing in and through Israel to the world. Indeed, His death and resurrection even demonstrates that He’s God chosen One, as well as that God has fully borne and satisfied God’s wrath at Israel’s disobedience and waywardness (Hosea 6.1-3). Now there is, through Christ, participation in this blessing of being part of God’s Kingdom presence. Through being joined to Jesus Christ, we are brought into enjoying God’s full blessing.

This is where baptism provides such an instructive depiction, for Paul. Baptism represents repentance from wilful wandering and disobedience; and a commitment to live in Kingdom power for Kingdom purposes. It is an acknowledgement that God has swept us into His loving presence, purpose and power through Jesus Christ. For Paul, true conversion happens not as a moment but is better understood as an ongoing movement represented by engrafting into the death and also resurrection of Jesus Christ. Going down and rising up in baptism symbolises this. Repentance and faith go together: they usher entry into positive participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

Baptism’s self-emptying death identifying movement downward and the empowering, Spirit enabled movement upward point the way forward in our Christian life. Life for Christ can only be enabled by the Holy Spirit. Therefore our decision and commitment has not simply towards the cry, ‘I’m saved!’, but into the ongoing movement into being saved, of ongoing discipleship. This is how we can express that the good news of Jesus’s death and resurrection is the fulfilment of Israel’s longing for God’s Kingdom. We have entered a fellowship where there is a demonstration of the Good News of God’s Kingdom being outworked upon the earth, in and through our own lives.

Proclaiming Christ's death

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11.26)

At the 1st weekly communion of the new session at IBTS this morning, the rector Keith Jones preached on the reminder of Paul, the apostle, that is our physical communion with Christ, we proclaim Christ’s death until He comes. It got me thinking. What could Paul really mean?

Well, of course he meant to remind folk again of the sheer grace of God. Of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Of the message of Isaiah 53. We are called to be recipients of what Christ did, when he died to demonstrate and manifest the fullness of God’s forgiving love.

But there’s something more, too. Something that Western Theology has tended to forget. That is, that the Cross must be followed by the Resurrection, as surely as Isaiah 53 is followed by Isaiah 58. For as the Cross is what Christ passed through for us, so we too, in our baptism, must pass through the Cross with Christ. What does this mean?

Jesus didn’t get crucified only to bring God’s forgiveness to us. The Bible is clear that He was crucified because He gave Himself for the purposes of the Kingdom of God. His life was given over to the expression and execution of the Nazareth Manifesto. And just as his crucifixion was the fruit of His faithfulness to God’s Kingdom purposes, so His Resurrection is the vindication of such a life given over in the purposes of God.

And so it is for us. To declare Christ’s death is to declare our commitment to His cause. To recognise that faith demands fulfilment through our participation in God’s purposes revealed in Christ’s life and ours.

The declaration of Christ’s death is, yes, a declaration of thankfulness. But it is also a declaration of purpose. As Christ lived to bring good news to the poor, so must we.

James 3.13 - 18

It may be the key world language, but there's one disadvantage to English. When you read it, you can't tell whether a 'you' is addressed to one person or to a group. Most languages you can. And New Testament Greek is one of them. That's why I have translated and expanded this text as follows:

13 - Who is wise and knowledgeable among you folk? You should demonstrate it by the way you get back on the right track: doing the right things in humble wisdom.
14 - And if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your corporate heart, do not boast and lie – thereby setting yourselves over against the truth.
15 – be sure of this: that sort of ‘wisdom’ is not coming down from heaven but is rising up from the pit! It’s unspiritual and devilish.
16 – for where there is jealousy and selfishness, there you’ll find disorder and all sorts of conflict.
17 – but the wisdom that’s from heaven is, first and foremost transparently holy, then peace promoting, considerate, accommodating and full of mercy and good fruits; not insincere but rather genuinely sincere.
18 – Remember: the ‘fruit of righteousness’ is sown in peace among those who are the pursuers of peace.

The Christian life is about getting back on track over and over again. Truth is, we’re all like cars that have a ‘pull’ in their steering to one side. If its not one thing it’s another!

14 It’s funny how being part of a group can change us. It can bring out good qualities – and also bad ones! We all want to be better as disciples – so be can get jealous and competitive and argumentative too – just like the first disciples!

But the truth is something we’re called into. And that truth lies in the justifying and transforming life of Jesus Christ. He’s taken a hold of us – and we have to grow into that. This involves, on our part, resolution and intention. It is easier to set ourselves over against this type of ‘Jesus centred truth’ by being ‘worldy wise’. This is something to resist.

15 There’s a form of ‘streetwise’ wisdom in the world. It involves manipulating and ‘handling’ people so that you get the result you want. But that is its goal. Getting the result that you want.

The result that the Lord wants is modeled in Jesus. What is radical about it is this: ‘the means is as important as the end’. Living the Gospel is itself the medium and the message. We are called into the embodiment of wisdom. We are called to be humble ‘shalom bearers’.

This Scripture I find startling. Here, the call is to live the converted life, that others may see it and be drawn to it. This is what Jesus did. This is what we are to do.

16 It’s really pretty useless having a congregation of people, if they think that all Christianity is involves believing that ‘Jesus saves’. People really need to address the issues of jealousy and selfishness: one involves looking at others the wrong way, and the other involves ignoring the others! The church is called to be the expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Together.

17 Truth is, the things that make us jealous or selfish are usually issues of culture and appetite that really are unimportant. Here are the things that really matter. We are not called to be ‘gospel salesmen’. We are called, rather, to really care for others in Jesus’ name.

18 The Kingdom of God brings peace. The means and the end are one and the same.

Summer

Great thing to turn off in order to turn on! A wonderful 3 weeks in Bulgaria. Seeing friends, sharing in church life, making new connections. And just to be quietened and settle into an appreciation of God's Creation and the reflected beauty in all that is around us.

More than ever, I see around me the purposeful nature of God's creativity. The business of the Kingdom of God: bringing order out of chaos. The power of God's Word. The pervasive presence of His Spirit. And the incredible power released into the lives of those who choose the path of faith.

Developing Community

Where church is a living organism, it follows that structures serve but do not define the body of Christ. Cell groups serve community, but do not define it. The same with Sunday services. Community is wherever people come together in a way that recognises Jesus Christ, and what He stands for.

Yesterday, there was an improptu Cell Group in my office base, when four of us gathered and then shared in Bible Study, spoke of our struggles to walk in righteousness and continued in prayer. Today, there was the Sunday School picnic by the beach, where there was fellowship, food, fun and real conversations. And in each of these, we are developing community as the body of Christ on earth.

Riches Discovered

A moment to breathe
Born into adventure
Released beyond comfort
To touch and taste the eternal

Measure of security
Torn and ripped
From the recesses of safety
Retirement sought yet stolen

Life expanding
Beyond the monotonal
Into the technicolour
Plethora of harmonies

And His voice calling in the crowd
Inviting and beckoning with His hand
Leading and guiding through the maze
A strange and different path from those others stumble upon

Meaning unveiled
Purpose understood
Engagement consummated
Riches discovered

Bristo Pentecost

What Jesus told the disciples to wait for was more than what we understand as ‘energy’, or ‘power’. The Greek word used in the text of Luke has the sense also of ‘ability’, ‘strength’, ‘confidence’.

The biggest issues that face us are not those of raw power. What often cripples us as witnesses and servants of God is a lack of confidence, a sense of insecurity. A lack of conviction that God really loves us.

It is interesting that when Pentecostal power came to the believers, it was to bring them into a closer and deeper intimacy with God. A sense of closeness and confidence in His love, that released them into ecstatic praise of God.

Let us look and yearn for this. For a Pentecostal visitation that we will ‘tarry’, look and wait for, in coming days and weeks and months if need be. Let us look for it singly, in families, in groups and as congregation together. Let testimonies be shared of what God is doing in our lives, as confidence grows and abilities are discovered and uncovered, new and renewed.

People taught, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name.

Genuine Prophecy

Prophecy is a vital part of church life, as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 14. How do we recognise it?

Genuine prophecy makes Biblical sense

Genuine prophecy will resonate with the Scriptural testimony to Christ Jesus. It will have the flavour of God’s Covenant Promises as the appear in the Old Testament; the savour of the Law of Moses as it was outworked in the lives of God’s people; the sense of the Old Testament prophets, in calling people back to God and His ways.

Genuine prophecy is Christ centering

Genuine prophecy will focus on God’s call to have our lives founded on the Who, What and How of Jesus Christ. It will have the effect of calling, exhorting and encouraging us to follow our Master and Commander, Jesus Christ.

Genuine prophecy brings a hint of heaven for our lives

Genuine prophecy will affirm us in our life in Christ now. It offers hope and encouragement as to where God might take us in the future. This may be in the form of a picture or an insight offered humbly and respectfully.

Developing the 'Rule of Paul'

1 Corinthians 14

In this passage, we see how the means of expressing together the intentionality of Christ, worked out in our context and culture, is the primary concern of Christians gathered together under the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

1-5 Why is prophecy so important? Contemporary Christian prophecy is built on the basis of prior Biblical revelation: in the Old Testament this is usually revelation through the Mosaic Law, with the prophetic books affording a commentary on this revelation and pointing in anticipation to where it leads to. That is, Old Testament prophecy is a commentary on that which God has already made know.

In the NT, prophetic utterance is based on and tested in the light of Jesus Christ and the apostolic witness to Him. Prophecy is exhortation, encouragement, and sharing of a taste of what is to come; but it is not fortune telling. It is pointing in anticipation to where our Christian discipleship leads to, in the light of the truth of God that has already shared and imparted through Jesus Christ.

This is why any claim to ‘revelation’ from God by an individual must be tested by the congregation in the light of Scriptural testimony. Using the canon, or ‘measuring rod’, of the Bible. Revelation to us from God will always be Christ-centering. Moreover, because the Spirit resides in the body of Christ and not solely in the individual, the prophetic act is incomplete until it has been shared, tested and found to be upbuilding for the congregation as a whole. It is when revelation is delivered, in terms of this complete process of ‘sharing, testing and upbuilding’, that it truly constitutes prophecy. Prophecy is a process rooted in the life of a Christ centring congregation, not simply an individual’s opinion uttered with conviction.

6-19 Intent first, ecstasy second

Ecstasy is lifeblood to Christ adoring spirituality, just as intimate touch and taste is needed in a marriage. There is a vital place for intimacy that lifts us through the sensual into a sense of sublime, spiriitual union with God. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a door to this. Speaking in tongues is a valuable issue of this (v 18). But ecstasy is neither the focus nor the goal of the Christian life. Our focus is Christ centring, intentional Christian living.

This sense of intentionality had become obscured in the thinking of the Corinthian church. The Corinthian disciples were in danger of elevating the ecstatic above the intentional. This reflected their immaturity as Christians. For the serious disciple, it is the call of Christ to followership – and all the personal and ethical challenge of that - that punctuates the path of discipleship. Now certainly, embarking on the path of discipleship will probably be preceded by some meeting with Christ – a meeting where He has touched us with healing, love and salvation from God. But it does not end there. We should not try to go directly from intimacy to ecstasy, bypassing the cost of discipleship. The path of discipleship takes us from the touch of intimacy by way of the Cross; and only then into the taste of resurrection power and the Age to come, when we will live forever with Christ in God’s presence.

v 20–25 Hold on to the ecstatic but keep it in its place! When people come among us, they should not sense that they simply have entered a lecture theatre, music concert or social gathering. There is a way that the ecstatic should be sought after; for this allows people who come among us to experience something of the touch of God’s glory. Our focus, however, must be to encourage each other to walk along the path of reflecting God’s goodness in our life together.

v 26-39 The rule of Paul Our responsibility, as disciples, is to help each other walk the path. When we gather, we should seek to edify and upbuild one another in this way. We should understand that there is a path to follow and priorities to pursue in our lives. We need to gain perspective on what we are about, in terms of Who we are, What we are doing and How we plan to get there. Prophecy has a place in pursuing this. But it is for the congregation as a whole to discern the way of Christ together and affirm it.

Only when we take to ourselves, collectively, the responsibility of following Christ and paying the price of what that costs, can we truly be described as a Christian church.

Purpose

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1.4)

Do you ever ask yourself what the purpose of your life is? It seems to me that if faith is about focus and not just ideas, this is a pretty basic issue. And the answer, as Christians know, is that we should become more like Jesus Christ.

The trouble is, it is so easy to lose sight of this. Society is so consumer orientated, that we can begin to think that the point of it all is to get all the blessing, all the healing, all the 'feel good' that we can. But this is not what the Spirit of God is about, as He works in us and through us. He is concerned to forge and form us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

The Rule of Christ

If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven (John 20.23)

Why this emphasis on the power of forgiveness – both its presence or absence? For Jesus, forgiveness is the key to developing healthy relationship. John understands that relationships are the DNA in the fabric of life. There is no sustaining of relationships without forgiveness, just as there is no motivating force for genuine forgiveness other than love.

But more fundamentally, in the light of our relationship with God and the intensity of love that God shows to us, John sees the need to be obligated to showing forgiveness and to freeing people by demonstrating forgiveness. This challenge is at the heart of life. Why?

Because of the inevitability of conflict and the need for its resolution, if relationship in community is to be sustained. Love needs to be expressed through forgiveness and reconciliation, leading to restoration of fellowship. This is what the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus declares to the Cosmos, to all who would hear.

'To be human is to have differences; to be human wholesomely is to process those differences, not by building up conflicting power claims but by reconciling dialogue. Conflict is socially useful; it forces us to attend to new data from new perspectives. It is useful in interpersonal process; by processing conflict, one learns skills, awareness, trust, and hope. Conflict is useful in intrapersonal dynamics, protecting our concern about guilt and acceptance from being directed inwardly only to our own feelings. The therapy for guilt is forgiveness; the source of self-esteem is another person who takes seriously my restoration to community' (J H Yoder, Body Politics, Herald Press, 2001, p. 8).

This is what is required of Christ’s disciples, of those who are now participators in the divine nature. Conflict with parents, children, siblings, former lovers: we so often wrongly seek to blind ourselves towards or anathematise them. But in Christ’s name, we need to face them with humility, reappraise our Lord’s call to us for investment in ‘the other’, and own a preparedness to change for the better through the resolution of conflict. This is an essential part of our journey.

Good Friday

A journey involves a path. And that path, for the Christian, takes us to and through God’s Friday – Good Friday. The Cross is an inescapable point of passage for the Christian. Some may rather see the Cross simply in terms of punishment exchanged. Jesus dies: we live. But there is much more to it than this. God's forgiveness, love and involvement in our humanity is expressed in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Something more than these is the reason for the Cross. The Cross is a point in the path of Jesus Christ that we too must pass through with Christ. It presents us with a path of Promise which brings us to a point of Pain, Perfecting and Purging.

Path of Promise

Here is where God’s promises lead Jesus. Betrayal. Misrepresentation. Injustice. Persecution. The way of Jesus is not simply about Health, Wealth and Prosperity fulfilled in this world. Yes, there is healing that breaks through, provision and a sense of fruitfulness that is tasted; prosperity that can touch our lives here and now. But the path of promise reminds us of stark realities in a world where powers and principalities are set against Christ and His followers. There will be times when we face the profound realities of betrayal, misrepresentation, injustice and persecution. When escape will not be an option.

Point of Pain

Indeed, there are in our path points of deep pain and even the experience of forsakenness. This will come to us when we are immersed or engaged with the tragedies and pressures that descend upon people. To share the experience of others, in their struggles as well as their joys, will bring us to share in their experience of pain in a way that it becomes our own.

Involvement with people and challenges can prove very costly. This is the way of the disciple of Jesus Christ.

Point of Perfecting

Let us never forget that Jesus Christ’s struggle against the temptation to turn away from this path was huge. But the New Testament Book of Hebrews speaks of how it was through His obedience and suffering that Jesus Christ became perfect. We need to pass through the point of the Cross to bring us through the fires of refining and maturation.

Point of Purging

The Cross is where God cures, in and through Christ’s humanity, all that defiles, degrades and destroys our humanity. He deals with death, the devil and disease. The Cross of Christ is the poultice that cures humanity's poison. Where the poison of sin is drawn from us into Christ Himself.

Let us never forget that it is at this point, which we find it so hard to pass through, that the power of sin and sickness is drawn from us. This is the redeeming and healing work of Christ on the Cross. It is the maturity of Jesus Christ’s humanity that truly demonstrates Him to be God’s eternal Word enfleshed, the Son of God. Such maturity that expresses utter empathy and compassion, bearing all the pain and punishment in Himself.

And still, this is not the end of the story of God's love ......

Conflict of the will

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22.42)

We should not imagine, were we always to know God’s outcome for our personal life plan and meaningful ministry, that we would necessarily be excited by or want to pursue it.

We need to distinguish between the purpose of God and the specifics of how these purposes might be outworked in our life. The Biblical prophetic voice majors on the purposes and fine-tunes with the specifics for our personal lives – hence ‘fortune telling’ about the future is neither a healthy concern nor focus for us.

Christian life goals should not simply be about outcomes. What should be of more concern to us are the ‘drivers’ of our life – the ‘who’, the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of life. The outcome is up to God. Sometimes He will reveal it. But often He will not. So let’s get on with it now.

Signs of Spring

Christ centred
Jesus journeying
Disciples discerning

Being baptistic is bigger than being baptist. It's about a fruitfulness that flows from Christ. Is there a better way of pursuing the scent of summer?

A journey many are called to ....

What we are pursuing, in the teaching and ethos at Bristo, is not new or original. Look at these characteristics of the anabaptist network's vision:

1. Jesus is our example, teacher, friend, redeemer and Lord. He is the source of our life, the central reference point for our faith and lifestyle, for our understanding of church and our engagement with society. We are committed to following Jesus as well as worshipping him.

2. Jesus is the focal point of God’s revelation. We are committed to a Jesus-centred approach to the Bible, and to the community of faith as the primary context in which we read the Bible and discern and apply its implications for discipleship.

3. Western culture is slowly emerging from the Christendom era when church and state jointly presided over a society in which almost all were assumed to be Christian. Whatever its positive contributions on values and institutions, Christendom seriously distorted the gospel, marginalised Jesus, and has left the churches ill-equipped for mission in a post-Christendom culture. As we reflect on this, we are committed to learning from the experience and perspectives of movements such as Anabaptism that rejected standard Christendom assumptions and pursued alternative ways of thinking and behaving.

4. The frequent association of the church with status, wealth and force is inappropriate for followers of Jesus and damages our witness. We are committed to exploring ways of being good news to the poor, powerless and persecuted, aware that such discipleship may attract opposition, resulting in suffering and sometimes ultimately martyrdom.

5. Churches are called to be committed communities of discipleship and mission, places of friendship, mutual accountability and multi-voiced worship. As we eat together, sharing bread and wine, we sustain hope as we seek God’s kingdom together. We are committed to nurturing and developing such churches, in which young and old are valued, leadership is consultative, roles are related to gifts rather than gender and baptism is for believers.

6. Spirituality and economics are inter-connected. In an individualist and consumerist culture and in a world where economic injustice is rife, we are committed to finding ways of living simply, sharing generously, caring for creation, and working for justice.

7. Peace is at the heart of the gospel. As followers of Jesus in a divided and violent world, we are committed to finding non-violent alternatives and to learning how to make peace between individuals, within and among churches, in society, and between nations.

From http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/coreconvictions

Fear and focus

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9.10)

When we really look at the Bible's description of God, we see that God reveals Himself to us as a God of action. Love. Compassion, grace, slowness to anger, mercy, faithfulness. Bring peace, healing, deliverance. Caring for widows and orphans. Binding up broken hearted people. Looking with concern on the poor. This is who God is. And it's what He does. Positively.

If we really fear God, we find His focus. We share it. Focus is a key for understanding the Biblical reality of faith. Each of us can have different foci in our lives. We can have a focus that is the satisfaction of our appetites and personal desires. This is ultimately negative, because it is self-serving. It is focus turned in on ourself.

Or we can have a focus on what is positive. Now, the Old Testament Torah (Instruction / Law) was designed to be positive. Yet much of it was written to reinforce positive instructions for living by giving preventative rules and ceremonial regulations. But at its heart, it was instruction designed to be positive. The trouble was that, as time went on and in Jesus’ day, the preventative rules and ceremonial regulations had come to dominate the mindset of the religious leaders. And in that sense, the Law had become self-serving and negative.

For Jesus and the Christian community, the focus is on the positive. Jesus is the fulfilment of the Torah. All He does in positive. The ceremonial is seen to be fulfilled completely, in and through what Jesus Christ has done. And the preventative is no longer patrolled by legalism. The ceremonial is now found in the custom of the community and the preventative rules in the conventions of the community. The church’s heart lies in being a convictional community, seeking to live out the practices of Christ. Together focussing on the positive that marks the mind and the will of God. The question is now, ‘what is beneficial in extending the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ’?

So let me ask you - 'what's your focus'?

Focus forward

I really like simple definitions. They help me keep focused. But they are not easily come by, if they are accurate. After the time in Prague, listening, tutoring and discussing, I have come up with these simple definitions. Let's see what use they are to us as we seek to shine with the light of Jesus Christ in our culture and context:

Christian Faith a journey of purposeful participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ

Church people gathering together, with Jesus Christ at the centre,
for encouragement along the journey

Witness the effect, on those outside the church, of us making the journey together as church

Evangelism explaining to those outside the church why we journey together as church

Mission motivating and helping each other invite others to join our journey

Looking into God's future

As I get ready to leave this 'home from home' at IBTS and return home to Edinburgh, I recall a comment made yesterday by the Mennonite historian and missiologist, Walter Sawatsky. He remarked (something like!), 'western evangelicals tend to look backward at what they have experienced - conviction, conversion, experience etc.. Orthodox Christians tend to look forward into God's future'.

It is good to learn from this. To look forward into God's future. Thankful for the good things that have been. And remembering that the best is yet to come.

Walking the walk together

I really appreciated the opening remarks of Emil Trajchev, the dean of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in the University of Sofia, at our conference this week on the place of Mission in an Orthodox Context.

Emil remarked that Christian Mission is to live and be a stranger in a real cultural context. The Christian is to be a witness in society. But witness is not mission. Mission is the motivational effort to bring that which is outside of the church into the church. Witness is the life of the church.

This is something that the baptistic believer agrees with. To see mission as defined by evangelism is to depart from the good news of the Kingdom that Jesus brings. Evangelism has to integral to our life and witness. It is our life that must tell of the Good News and our words simply as a commentary and explanation.

But what a challenge this is! To life in the life of Jesus Christ. This is what we are engaged in. To live out in community a life that reflects and demonstrates the very nature of God Himself.

Living with brokenness

This morning, during the seminary community’s daily devotional time, I was deeply impressed by the emphasis of brother who led. He married the themes of brokenness and shalom.

Setting out on the Christian journey exposes our vulnerability, removing us from the citadel of self-preservation and protection. We expose ourselves to being hurt and broken. And it happens. We all get hurt by the sin of others as well as our own. To cope with this, we need to face the reality of our incompleteness, our brokenness. Only when we face our own brokenness can we receive healing in ourselves and go on to bring hope to others.

And yet why is there not always immediate healing? There is something else in the picture:

For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me-- the breath of man that I have created. I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near," says the LORD. "And I will heal them." (Isaiah 57.15-19).

Sometimes I wonder why my brokenness continues. Why I continue, like Jacob at the brook where He wrestled with God’s angel, to struggle with my propensity to sin. My incompleteness. Until I realise that this brokenness is what roots my thirst and desire to draw deeper into Jesus Christ and to walk His way. And because of Him I can know peace – shalom. Then I am content. May you find this place of contentment too.

Crusaders or missionaries?

We are having a worthwhile time here at the research intensives in Prague. As well as looking at the work of students from across the world. We have a couple of extra events going on. One of these was a talk, last night, by the missiologist, Andrew Walls.

One of the points he makes is the difference between the crusader and the missionary. He makes the point that the crusader simply seeks to imprint his own customs and laws on others. But the missionary seeks to identify with the life and culture of the people he seeks to touch with the reality of the Kingdom of God. Like Jesus.

Our task, at Bristo or wherever we are, is to bring a point of meaningful contact between the Kingdom of God and the people who are around us. There has to be a point of bridging between the convictions of people and the practices that are undertaken. We need to demonstrate, through the practices of our Christian lives, what our convictions are.

Fires of passion

There are profound parallels between love, given and received between men and women, and the communion of love that exists between Christians and God. In both ecstasy and passion are present; and to experience wonderful moments when we are touched by flames of divine or human love is beautiful and life enhancing.

Yet for those who know Christ, knowledge of love is focussed and found in the death and resurrection of our Lord. In the deep place there can be great pain. But it is out of the deep place that we find birth of new life and hope for the future. This poem invites reflection on that connection.

Fires of Passion

Fires of passion rise like flames
Touching embracing consuming
Life and feeling drawing
Into the heat of felt desire

Moments of ecstasy meeting
Reaching high never mundane
Glimpsing and tasting energies
Mysteries and wonders feeling

Seasons precious yet bursting
Sporadically infusing and exciting
Returning to smoulder in the heart
Lingering fond memories treasured

Deep within the fire truth born
Intense heat and power melding
Joining and fusing oneness
Transforming changing hidden parts

Sustaining power not destroying
Radiating and emanating essence
Warming holding caring reaching
From hidden depths of passion

Smiling and easily missed
Such fires live on
Sustained not by fleeting flames
Yet bursting out in moments of light

Such love is born of God

Heart Cry

1 Samuel 1

On my first readings of this passage, I found focus upon the prayer of pain. The place of being humbled and crying out to God in need. And this is important. God sees and hears the cry of our heart.

BUT there is more to it than that. Many people pray sincere prayers. Cry out in pain. But prayers do not seem to be answered.

It was on further readings that I started to see something else. Hannah perceives what it is the God of Israel desires. Lives of people given over to Him. What makes Hannah different is not that she seriously wants something. What makes her different is how she shapes the focus of her wants. A Son that is to be given over to God.

And it anticipates Solomon’s prayer: 2 Chronicles 1.7-12; and Jesus’ prayer in the garden: Luke 22.41-44. Bering in the place of brokenness does not mean we are useless. It can be the doorway to effectiveness. Humility married to desire for the purposes of God.

We need to understand that as our lives as are a journey, many of us might not be there when the great events of history – as seen by man - happen. But where, in the midst of suffering and trauma that comes to us as people, we turn ourselves to seek the presence and the purpose of God; then it is that we discover ourselves to be signposts and enablers of others in finding and walking the way of Jesus Christ.

a clear path

In this coming year, there are areas to clearly develop in our congregation. As we look to enlist and draw people into our journey in following Christ, we have to make sure that we are not simply inviting them into a ghetto of religiosity, new or old. What matters is the presence of the DNA of Christ's life and ministry. Lives that are intent on purposefully participating in Him.

There are three practical areas which I believe need to be intentionally developed in our lives as witnesses to Christ. We will be focusing on these and implementing ministries to express them:

• good news for the poor
• healing and deliverance
• peace making

This is a clear path for us to follow. Let us pray for wisdom in discerning how to walk it.

a new chapter in the journey

Christing living is a journey. There is a life to be developed. To be changed more into the likeness of God in Christ. This goes on throughout our lives. Something to grow into.

There are old things to be liberated from. To let go. Leave behind. Things that chained us and demeaned us. We need to pass on.

There is a future to anticipate. In this life and into all that lies ahead.

May your life be an exciting and meaningful journey-time in the coming year!