A New Year Blessing

As we enter a New Year, may you find joy in the simplicity and profundity of a faith focused on Jesus Christ alone.

May Jesus, as witnessed to faithfully in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, become bigger for you this year. May deficient pictures of God, formed in your mind because of sin in your life, be shattered again; so that you might see afresh God revealed to you in and through Jesus Christ.

May all your understanding and experience of God be remade by the God of Israel, who loves you as a Father loves His Son. May He work in you by His Holy Spirit to draw you to and reshape you in His image and likeness in Jesus Christ. And may the pain of that reshaping be surpassed by the joy of a life freshly emptied, humbled and made compliant to the will of God, that you might find delight in the purpose for which God created you in Christ Jesus.

Have a blessed New Year.

Drawn to Discipleship

In looking back over these studies on the Philippian Hymn, it occurs to me that the biggest contemporary challenge to the Christian Church is the diminution and devaluing of the cost of discipleship.

Truth is, you can have a religion that speaks of the value of the individual, the importance of love and acceptance and tolerance, without having either God or Christ. Karl Marx had a good try. Ron Hubbard arguably managed it even better, in a smart move from writing science fiction into designing Scientology. Religions that appeal to human instinct are always going to be popular.

But there is nothing popular at the heart of the Christian gospel, where faith is never but a ‘decision’ to believe or an experience of existential reality. The faith that marks discipleship must be prefaced by real repentance and the cry of the Jewish shema, affirming allegiance to the God of Israel, who declares His Word of instruction and command, drawing His people into reflecting His character and participating in His actions.

As we look to celebrate and embrace the Christ of Christmas let us remember this cost to God, in terms of self-renunciation and pain, of embracing us through the Incarnation. And let us not imagine that His way can be anything but costly for those who would find and follow it.

Perspective on life

Bad deal, born with a hint of illegitimacy and dumped in straw?

'We don't get to make our lives up. We get to receive our lives as gifts. The story that says we should have no story except the story we chose when we had no story is a lie. To be human is to learn that we don't get to make up our lives because we're creatures. Christians are people who recognise that we have a Father whom we can thank for our existence. Christian discipleship is about learning to live our lives as gifts without regret.'

Stanley Hauerwas & Jean Vanier, Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness, IVP, Downers Grove, 2008, pp. 92-93.

Fragile yet fixed

“We commonly assume that the opposite of trusting God is doubting God. In the Old Testament, the opposite of trusting God is trusting something else, such as another god, or political resources, and thus trusting ourselves (Doubting God doesn’t matter so much as long as you are doubting the right God.).”

John Goldingay, Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone, Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, pp. 49-50.

The Christ Hymn - pt. 10

That Jesus Christ is ‘LORD’, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2.11)

To ascribe to Jesus the title, ‘LORD’, is to assign to Him the accolade given to the God of Israel. Here is the recognition that in Jesus all that God is and proves Himself to be is met with. It is a declaration of worship.

But more than that. Here we have a vital connection with the first part of the hymn. His complete humanity was so emphasised, in v 7 and v 8. For we are called to celebrate Jesus by embracing His humanity become our humanity, His attitude and ministry expressed through our attitude and ministry.

To admit Jesus is LORD is to approach the place of harmony and submission to Him and His call. To become His disciples. It is giving ourselves to be drawn into the reality of the God who loves and invests us as a Father, who treats us and commands us as siblings of His Son, who energises and empowers us for this new identity by His Spirit.

May this bring you joy this Advent Season.

The Christ Hymn - pt. 9

And every tongue might confess (Philippians 2.11)

Singing can be a beautiful thing. And so can celebratory talking: speaking about something or someone because you are excited, joyful.

Here is the heart of Christian worship and witness. To tell out the wonder and the joy of discovering what God has done and is doing because of Jesus Christ.

Evangelism isn’t so hard. Not when we have discovered, or rediscovered, a source of joy and delight beyond measure. To realise who God is and what matters to Him. Because we have been shown Jesus.

To be continued .....

The Christ Hymn - pt. 8

…. So that at the name of Jesus every knee - whether heavenly, human or hidden – might bow (Philippians 2.10)

It is hard for those of us who are Gentile, non-Jewish, worshippers of the God of Israel to appreciate the immensity and intensity of these words. Here is the declaration that Jesus Christ is not only the Word of God, He is also God’s last Word, His ultimate declaration to and over the whole Cosmos. Here and in Him is the full majesty and holiness of the Creator made manifest. Here is the one before whom all will bow in tribute awaiting His judgment. It is Jesus who stands at the end of all time in this Creation, holding the key to the destiny of all in the sight of God.

A tame Jesus, a nice Jesus, a docile Jesus, a teddy bear Jesus, would be so much easier to live with. But not to worship.

To be continued …..

As it is written

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me,`In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.' All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult (Isaiah 45.22-25).

The Christ Hymn - pt. 7

…. and has given Him the name that is over and above every name (Philippians 2.9)

Those who look to Jesus will be exalted because of Jesus. And they will also discover the power of His name.

The vindication and preferment that is here given to Jesus is given to the son of Mary. Jesus is not an uncommon name today, especially in Spanish speaking environments. It is the name given to a child born of flesh and blood. And it the one called Jesus who is found in flesh and blood, now both resurrected and exalted, that is given pre-eminence over all things by the God of Israel.

We may not fully grasp, but let us at least glimpse the dignity and honour that is bestowed on us by God, through Jesus Christ. This dignity is for those whose humanity is caught up in his humanity, into the very presence of the God of Israel. Here is the wonder. That the One who came down to serve, the Son of God pouring Himself out, took to Himself our humanity and now holds it, conjoined to himself, for all eternity. Through Jesus and only Jesus we find ourselves participating in the presence, in the glory and the goodness, of the Creator of the Cosmos.

Here is why we willingly participate in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, moulded by His manifesto, galvanised by His goals. As we find ourselves participating in His ministry we find too that we are arrested and infused with the power and presence of the resurrected and exalted Messiah, whose name is above all names, and whose humbled humanity we share.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 6

…. God highly exalted Him (Philippians 2.9)

The language here is unmistakably that of vindication, of reward. In v 6-8, we are given insight into the attitude of Jesus Christ, how he approached and engaged with life as a human being. Now we see it from the perspective of God in heaven. Here, in v 9-11 is the response of the God of Israel to what Jesus had undertaken.

Jesus is not simply resurrected, or made alive again. The language here is of exaltation, celebration of accomplishment and its reward. The life of obedience and the sacrifice made is now vindicated and honoured.

There is something fundamentally wrong in our perception of the Christian life, if we have not grasped this key attitude: that we are called to a life where we are ‘co-crucified’ with Christ. Being a Christian is not a free pass to get what you like from heaven’s 'supermarket'.

We are to focus on the Kingdom of God; and to get on with promoting its advance here and now. This is what Jesus did, and received His reward from God. If we adopt His attitude, this will involve seeking to be gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, merciful, faithful, loving and forgiving. Emptying ourselves in humility, pursuing servanthood and obedience to God. Pursuing justice and behave righteously. And growing our lives into deeper participation in the life of ministry of Jesus Christ.

Get focused. Remember, those who live for Jesus will be exalted because of Jesus. Everyone will get their reward.

To be continued …..

the resurrected crucified Christ

'Once again, we must stress that it is the resurrected crucified Christ with whom believers are initially and continually crucified….co-crucifixion is not merely a meta­phor but an apt description of an encounter with a living person whose presence transforms and animates believers: "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me by giving himself for me." ….. The kenosis of the preexistent Son of God, known in the fidelity and love of the historical Jesus, continues to define the reality of the resurrected Christ and thus of those whom he enlivens ….. As Kasemann famously said, "The cross is the signature of the one who is risen." ' (Gorman, Cruciformity, p.71)

The Christ Hymn - pt. 5

Therefore …. (Philippians 2.9)

Faith is not about believing certain things. The devil and demons believe all the right things about Jesus Christ, when they fear and flee from Him! Faith is about attitude.

Enter the Holy Spirit. Sure, the Holy Spirit’s action is not explicitly mentioned here. But in the mindset of the Apostle Paul, a first century Jew, the Holy Spirit’s presence, purpose and power is implicitly present and entirely assumed. The Holy Spirit is always the active agent of the Creator God, the God of Israel. God breathes the Holy Spirit out. The Holy Spirit is executor of the will and enabler of the way of God, working with creative and recreative power.

God sent Jesus not to die, but to bring life to the world. That Jesus had to die in bringing this about is not in doubt. But the goal was never death. Death was simply the enemy to be defeated, alongwith the devil, disease and despair. The focus of God is always the generation of light and life that is healthy and good.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 4

Who in His identity, being God as He really is, decided not to make use of His divine prerogative for His own personal advantage but emptied Himself, taking the identity of a bond-slave, becoming like mankind just as we are, coming among us as a real human being: He humbled Himself, committed to obedience to the point of death – even death on a Cross.   (Philippians 2.6-8)

The story so far …..

So, by self-emptying in order to have the mindset of a slave; humbling ourselves, to be framed by obedience. Is this what Christian life is about? Remember, all this is about our being called to have the same attitude as Jesus Christ.

It means we are to be vulnerable people, not religious mannequins. And we are to be dependent and attentive, not just as voluntary workers, but as those under the authority of a master.

It is this attitude, the disposition of our heart and longing, that God looks for and is pleased by more than anything else. This is what He responds to. In the most wonderful, beautiful and powerful way.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 3

He humbled Himself, committed to obedience to the point of death – even death on a Cross. (Philippians 2.8)

The self-emptying of the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ is not simply a divine ‘guest-appearance’ on the human stage. It is a total disinvestment of divine prerogative and power by the eternal Word of God, the Son of God come among us. It involves a genuine pursuit of servant intentionality on His part, whereby He undertakes to abase Himself, deliberately embracing humble circumstances, that He might express obedience to the God of Israel’s will, deliberately and intentionally bending His own will to embrace the plan.

All of us are capable of fantasising, imagining what we might do if we were to inherit wealth or power. The way of thinking exhibited by Jesus Christ is seen to be, once more, so counter-intuitive to our sinful nature. It’s not a natural thing to think this way. Humility today, as in Greek and Roman pagan society, is perceived as rather a pathetic characteristic. Achieve. Succeed. Become who you aspire to be. Realise your ambitions. These are the values of a corrupted society, far from God.

Those who would enter eternal life in Christ are here called to a radically different mindset. To be marked as people under authority, walking in obedience to the publicly recognised (not simply privately discerned) instructions of the God of Israel. And this demands humility. A swallowing of personal pride. Yes, even a ‘putting ourselves down’. Utter submission to the will and the way of the God of Israel.

It is not the way of the world we live in. It is not the way of the powers and principalities that would hold us in bondage. It is, rather, the way for those who would choose to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

A choice to participate in His purposes and pursue His plans. And, as we will see, to know His power.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 2

But He emptied Himself, taking the identity of a bond-slave, becoming like mankind just as we are, coming among us as a real human being (Philippians 2.7)

The self-emptying of God in Himself is manifestly expressed in Emmanuel, God with us. In the very act of coming among us, Jesus Christ expresses and manifests the reality of God. Here is God, not hidden on some distant throne, but coming fully in the presence of the Messiah, the Anointed One, to reveal His divine identity to us.

The descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had always known that God shows Himself through His promises fulfilled and in His actions of intervention in the history of Israel. But those in power and who exercised control could simply not conceive that God would so act: divesting Himself so completely of private contentment, self-containment, or any hint of detachment from the real affairs of His Creation.

Here is a God truly to be feared and wondered at. One who gets involved in the affairs of mankind to bring about the justice and righteousness He demands; and who is prepared to go to such terrible lengths of self-divestment to achieve His determined objectives for the whole Cosmos.

To be continued .....

The Christ Hymn - pt. 1

Who in His identity, being God as He really is, decided not to make use of His divine prerogative for His own personal advantage  (Philippians 2.6)

There’s something totally ‘counter-intuitive’ about the Philippian Hymn (Philippians 2.6-11). Especially the first part, in v’s 6-8. It turns upside down the way people think about God. Even Christians!

Whether we realise it or not, we all tend to start with a crazy picture of God. Because we’re up to our necks in sin, in a sinful world. So our pictures of God are really off balance. Take for instance, the ‘omni’s’: omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent – all ideas with pagan, not Biblical roots. Gosh, so where do we get a valid idea of God from?!! In this Christ Hymn, a celebration of Jesus Christ.

The first thing the Hymn tells us is that the only picture of God that is real is the one we are faced with in and through Jesus Christ. He’s the bearer of the divine identity. Noone else. So it says, ‘he, appearing as (being in the form of) God’. In other words, He comes to us as God - God as He really is.

And then it tells us something very real about God. ‘He didn’t try to use his divine identity to His own advantage’. Wow. We use power to get the results that fit with us. God uses His power in a quite different way. To save. To heal. To bring His creatures into real life.

God isn’t just the ‘big man' up there. We only really meet with God when we see Him as He has chosen to appear to us, down here. In Jesus. Don't look up. Look around.

To be continued …….

A wee caveat!

My friend and colleague in Prague, Rollin Walls, has just been reviewing an essay for me. He makes a very important point, which I quote in full from Walls' own work, Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry. The point is that Brueggemann can be accused of reducing the Gospel to merely social action. I agree with this warning - hence the 'three dimensional Gospel' blog entry below. We cannot afform to simply 'sermonise', 'spiritualise' or 'socialise'! We need a grasp of righteousness that points to God as well as to our fellow man. But there is still validity in Brueggemann's point that there is indeed a social, interpersonal aspect to righteousness. Oh, if only any one of us could get it perfectly right all the time! Yeah. Right. .....

Walls, both as New Testament specialist and missiologist, forcibly and persuasively states,

'Granted that such a postmodern paradigm is upon us, we must, once again, recognise that this shift may bend towards a deconstructive or tradition approach to contextual missions. An example of the former might be given with Walter Brueggemann once again. He affirms a deconstruction of 'old missional assumptions and practices.' These include the scope of God's mission being extended outside the Church--a point made often enough by others. But for Brueggemann, this does not mean that the Spirit goes ahead of the Church, preparing the hearts of those seeking God to hear the salvific message of Christ. This would, apparently, be to conceive or practice the Church's mission in 'absolutist or triumphalist terms.' Instead, it means 'religious pluralism'. 'Mission' under such restrictions no longer has a Christological or ecclesiastical focus. It is rather an action theology to redress the inequities in the world. Disestablishment of the Church (apparently this is as much Christian theology as any institutional Church) means being able to recognise ‘the companionable presence of many others … journeying in the same direction.' ‘Christian faith can never be satisfied with a theology of hope that is purely attitudinal, abstract, or ‘doctrinal’’—it must be hope in action. Mission, then (for Brueggemann), entails addressing the injustices resulting from global technology. It also entails ecumenical (inter-religious) dialogue: ‘We may also find, in such dialogue, points of commonality in both theology and ethics, and so expand our conception of the missio Dei.' This anthropological mission of hope, deemphasising Christ, conversion and Church, becomes a movement open enough to include others 'journeying in the same direction'. Mission in action (is reduced to and) involves enacting hope by participating in the harsh realities of AIDS, subjugation (by Western powers outside the West), and ethno-religious conflicts. (from Rollin Walls, Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry).  Italicised parenthesis mine.

Rollin has understandable reservations regarding such a missiology! Rollin Walls' analysis and reservation expressed regarding his reading of Brueggemann therefore needs to be heeded. Because if we lose the centre in Jesus Christ to our Gospel, what sort of Gospel is left? In the end of the day, we own only the knowing of 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified'.

Keeping it real

Fed up with Christmas adverts already? One of the scariest, for me is the type of game that allows you to interact as if you were there, in a real space with others, but are not. Keep fit playing games: jumping around on a screen with others but there in the room by yourself! Yet the attraction of three dimensional games, that mimic real space and time, is growing. And engaging.

The Gospel is designed to be engaging. So why, for so many, is it not? We can short-sell the Gospel. There are meant to be three dimensions to it that can really take hold of the imagination of friends who don't know Jesus. Sometimes folk just get one or two dimensions offered to them.

So how can we speak of the Gospel in three dimensions?

The 1st dimension is instruction. the message itself, the Word, the declaration of who God is, what He does and how He loves - all revealed expressed in the life of Jesus Christ. It's what people have to hear about in order to know about Jesus and His love. This is the message that is in preaching, teaching and evangelism. It's the message of Jesus and His love. It's what we do when we talk to and tell people about Jesus and the God revealed in the Bible.

The 2nd dimension is impartation. We are given ability by God to impart to others, in the power of Holy Spirit's enabling. The expressions of Christ's ministry that come through us. Helping. Serving. Healing. Imparting peace to others. This is what God does to us and through us, as we give expression through our lives to the love of God for others. It has the smell of heaven about it, as people can sense something of God present as we share with them. It happens through close and caring relationships, as well as in acts of service.

The 3rd dimension is intentional intervention. Stepping out in God's agenda for deliberately strategising His concern for the marginalised and disadvantage in society in order to actively bless and encourage them. Pursuing justice and expressing righteousness. This happens through taking initiatives out into society to actively care for those in need.

We need to work on expressing all of these together. A single or two-dimensional Gospel may be 'right', but it is inadequate. To actively touch people with the real life of God, we need to have all three dimensions present in and through the life of church. Keeping it real.

What book for Christmas?

Want a suggestion for a good book for Christmas? If you're not afraid of being stretched a bit, I can't think of anything better than Michael Gorman's new book, Inhabiting the Cruciform God. It's terrific. Fully up to date in terms of scholarship, yet truly pastoral and missional in application. Don't be put off by the title - you don't need to be a specialist to understand it. There's a lot of 'junk food' books around, this is not one of them. It will bless you and possibly change your life. Is that a commendation that pleases you?

Served & Serving

At Bristo we are presently seeing a change in the constitution of our meetings together, as we move into a more blended support of two complementary forms of meeting:

a. ‘teaching, support and prayer’ meetings, primarily for Christians

b. ‘missional’ meetings, which intentionally invite, involve and serve non-Christians.

For many years, the focus at Bristo was on gathering Christians into fellowship, in addition to the times of Sunday worship, so that there would be some further teaching, support and prayer’ during the week. Indeed, out of these gatherings was born missional activity such as involvement in the Care Van, Night Shelter, the IT club and Alpha. In addition, we now have both the International Club and Home from Home serving immigrants and foreigns students. And there are and will be more opportunities to reach out to the unreached.

As we look towards the future, I see the need to recognise the place of encouraging Christians into a blended involvement in both ‘teaching, support and prayer’ meetings and also ‘missional’ meetings. Changes in culture had forced us to recognise that Sunday alone can no longer be the only occasion for ‘teaching, support and prayer’ meeting. Cell groups can and do function quite appropriately to supplement Sunday support. At the same time, there is a place for intentional, missional gatherings of Christians for varied forms of missional activity and service.

So here is the challenge. For the development of disciples, rather than the sating of consumers, we need to have Christians exposed to gathering and also working together, both for ‘teaching, support and prayer’ meetings, and also ‘missional’ purposes which intentionally invite, involve and serve non-Christians.

But with one qualification: let’s not look for gimmicks as platforms for these missional meetings. Let’s remember the Old Testament theologian Brueggemann’s definition of Biblical righteousness. And pursue it, as those who participate in the life of Christ Jesus:

‘Righteousness concerns active intervention in social affairs, taking an initiative to intervene effectively in order to rehabilitate society, to respond to social grievance, and to correct every humanity-diminishing activity’.

Justice & Righteousness

Brueggemann's definitions are helpful and workable:

Justice (mishpat) in the Old Testament concerns distribution in order to make sure that all members of the community have access to resources and goods for the sake of a viable life of dignity. In covenantal tradition the particular subject of YHWH’s justice is the triad, ‘widow, orphan, immigrant,’ those without leverage or muscle to sustain their own legitimate place in society.

Righteousness (sedaqah) concerns active intervention in social affairs, taking an initiative to intervene effectively in order to rehabilitate society, to respond to social grievance, and to correct every humanity-diminishing activity.

We have to grasp both this purpose and passion of God: Jeremiah 9.23-26

Wrath and mercy

This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh - Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart." (Jeremiah .23-26)

Understanding the nature of God’s sovereignty in terms of process, or journey, is not simply contemporary and fashionable. This is integral to the revelation of the Old Testament. The World depicted there is one of cosmic chaos, where there are many influences and spiritual forces, including evil ones. But the Creator remains supreme, and the Creator deals with His creation in a forming, moulding manner. Out of intense, overcoming love. Even when that which He has created does not choose to conform to Him but rebel and decline from His plan and purpose, God elects to remould and reform that which he has made to conform to His character and will.

And when we open our lives to the Lordship of Christ, God will be relentlessly loving in bringing this about in us. Whether we like it or not.

Walter Brueggemann's new book is great at applying this profound and reassuring truth to present political realities. Old Testament scholarship well applied.

Like leadership?

Back at Bristo, and reflection again on the challenges of leadership. The nature of leadership is something I’ve thought on a lot as I am preparing to write as essay on the Philippian Hymn (Philippians 2.5-11). It's possible to confuse leadership with status or qualifications. It requires neither. Leadership, I believe, involves:

Recognition of revelation

A sense and conviction of what is right and of what is required – for Christians, a sense of revelation as to what conforms with the Word of God revealed in Scripture and fulfilled in Christ. This is where it starts. But it doesn’t stop there. Good or right ideas are not enough. It also is marked by ….

Responsibility & Resolution

Leaders have a resolute determination to pursue the path they see before them. And a commitment that takes personal responsibility for action and delivery in doing so. Leaders don’t just have ideas for others to deliver on. But ….

Recruiting

A person is only a leader if others are choosing to join in with where they're going and what they're doing.

Jesus was a leader when among us. He calls some to be leaders now. Has God called you? Have a look at yourself and then you can answer the question, in the light of the above.

And let me know if you are, if you like!

Sabbatical ends

Today, as Jennifer and I pass through what has become my theological 'home' at IBTS in Prague, on our drive home to Edinburgh from Bulgaria, I cannot reflect on the wonders of contrast in life. The contrast where there is no contrast - how people have shown genuine love and friendship, and are as delightful in North West USA as they are in South East Europe; and the inherent contrast and contradiction of humanity - so innately lovely and yet so inherently sinful - Christians and pagans all!

And it causes me to see again that only God is good; only He is unchanging; only He is pure love; and the only place where He, as He fully is revealed can be found, is in the person and works of Jesus Christ of Narareth. He is the complete focus and example for human life. Participation in His life is life itself. And such cause for peace and pleasure and hope and faith and love ....

This, truly, is what I see with such vivid clarity refreshed and thankfulness renewed. Praise God!

Delightfully disagreeable

One of the sheer joys of Sabbatical study is having the time to read and seek to understand writings that one would never normally have time for nor choose to look at. Infuriating, frustrating …. and always instructive! It’s not just about enforcing self-abasement, although that has to be part of it. It’s good to be faced with a well argued conviction that one finds hard to own. There’s something good about the way our convictions are shaped by not only our response to the Word of God, but also by our character and circumstances. And its also good to read something that one, initially, wands to disagree with! and then perhaps to rethink and reevaluate. To rejoice in the diversity that is born out of the reality of Christ impacting upon people in so many different circumstances and situations.

Following in faith

And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant (Exodus 14.34).

This morning, I have been reflecting on this verse. Increasingly, I see how our ability to read and understand the Bible is both enhanced and curtailed by the parameters of the culture and context we find ourselves embedded in. Now, given that God’s Word has the power to speak into each and every situation, this should not unduly alarm us. At the same time, however, we need to be aware how our own presuppositions can limit our appreciation of the revelation that comes in and through the Word of God.

I am increasingly discomforted by popular, contemporary interpretation of faith in God in our western context. Too individualistic, too voluntaristic. Here, the reality of God evokes a response that is here rendered ‘and put their trust in him’. This interpretation is based on the LXX rendering, but the Hebrew reminds us of another, deeper sense: one which carries the connotation of a relationship characterised by an acknowledgement of God’s sovereign power and the need for our submission to and seeking of Him.

I think a deeper understanding of this submission is what is needed in our culture. It would transform, for one thing, the nature of prayer. Submission brings a culture of faith that looks for the fulfilment of God’s covenant desires, not our covetous ones.

Glimpse

Karl Barth –a great theologian, misunderstood and misrepresented by so many. But does dogmatic theology get better than this?

“If God required and makes possible that He should be served by the creature, this service means that the creature is taken up into the sphere of divine lordship. We have always to remember that God’s glory really consists in His self-giving, and that this has its centre and meaning in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and that the name of Jesus Christ stands for the event in which humanity, and in humanity the whole of creation, is awakened and called and enabled to participate in the being of God …. The self declaration of God is true and real, which means that God Himself is God in such a way that He wills to have the creature as a creature with Him, that He does not will to be God without it, without claiming it, but also without being personally present to it”

(Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 2.1 pp. 670 & 756, quoted by John Flett in his impressive monograph, The Witness of God, Eerdmans, 2010, p. 196.)

Submission

Submission is not something that we find readily acceptable in our day. The rights of the individual are so strongly asserted that any challenge to free, personal determination can be received as a violation.

But this is how it is in the life of Christian discipleship. Our Lord models submission, submission to the God of Israel, Creator and Sustainer of the Cosmos. Although in the nature of God, he embraced the nature of a servant and, as man, humbled himself in obedience. For the Christian, submission is a necessary way.

Submission begins in the heart of each of us. But it does not end there. The security of corporate discernment is that it is allows an environment of confirmation as to the will of God. Submission to our own delusion or ambition is no submission at all. It is one of the beauties of fellowship in Christ that we should find confirmation through the discernment and confirmation of others. If we are truly seeking to submit to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Pursuit of Excellence

Meeting with the leadership mentoring group of the ABC has provided interesting insights. The overall philosophy of this denominational region, much the same size as the Scottish Baptist Union, emphasises missionality. This stress, under the leadership of the executive pastor, Charles Rees, has helped serve in transforming this area of Christian witness from one of decline into one of growth. There is a critical self-analysis among the pastors, as they seek to focus together in Lifelong Learning Groups and hold each other accountable. The question, ‘what is the best way to do this’ is constantly before them.

I’m impressed by this drive to be mission centred is giving focus and energy here. May it be so also in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

Sifted like Wheat

I have spent the last 2 days, coming as a guest speaker, at a conference here for the pastors and lay leaders in this region of the American Baptist Church, historically separated from the Southern Baptist at the time of the Civil War tragedy of the Americas in the 19th century.

There has been an ‘uncommon grace’ present in these meetings. The people are lovely Christians, but the sense of oneness and the favour of God present here has been special. It appears that it has not always been so. Some 7 years ago there was a real sense of crisis here, ‘dark days’, that threatened to pull apart the very fabric of denominational life.

In conversation, one leader reflected that Jesus spoke to Peter saying, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22.31-32).

We should not imagine that each of us will not, at times, disappoint the Lord and succumb to the temptations and attacks of the evil one at times. Times of testing will surely come.

But the Lord intercedes, holding us in union with Himself and lifting us in the power of His resurrection. This transformation of those who are crushed and are lifted into the reality of renewal is what has come among Baptists here. And the promise is for us all.

One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic

After a wonderful and blessed first day at the ABC conference here in the heart of the Rockies at Ross Point in Idaho, I'm reflecting on the way that, wherever you are in the world, the essence of real Christian, confessional community remains the same. Here I am, 5,000 miles from home and 10 time zones away from Jennifer, yet the pastors and leaders here are the same gracious, humble and Christ-centring people that I know in Scotland and Bulgaria. And it causes my heart to rejoice with praise to God, for I see yet again the indellible stamp of the Spirit of God on the lives of people, imprinting on them (and me!), imperfect and fallible people all, the present reality and presence of the risen Christ. This is a real joy.

And it's not just the people who you expect to agree with. I'm reading a book for review, which I didn't expect to enjoy, by an English Calvinist. It's excellent and has challenged and corrected me in quite unexpected ways. What joy! There really is, despite all the fleshly difference, one church of Jesus Christ in the world, carved out by the Spirit of God - one, holy, catholic and apostolic. A taste of heaven indeed.

Elk burgers, buffalo steaks and guns

Greetings from Great Falls, Montana in USA. Great to be here as guest of IBTS research student Patti Duckworth and her husband John, pastor of the baptist church here. Great hospitality, Christian love and fellowship and yet also another experience of how the context and culture we have to express our faith in Jesus varies so much. Never eaten elk or buffalo before, but both were great! John and Patti also took me to the local county fairground yesterday, and an exhibition of stalls selling hunting gear and so many tpes of weapons and guns! People here are strong on their right to hold weapons and hunt in the wide open country of northwest USA, and are very suspicious of government control and legislation.

Many Christians here will have weapns in their homes. And this is the context for John, Patti and their people in which the Christian life of transformation and change has to be rooted and come to find expression. In a way that engages with the culture and context that is real for people here. No place for sweeping judgments on weapons control or unrelenting vegetarianism. But, as everywhere, a need to find the voice of Christ's call speaking to people where they are and draqwing them into the life of God's transformational love. God help us all to realise this and to be slow to judge and quick to love.

Full Atonement

In these days of prayer and reflection, I’ve been challenged to summarise in a very concise way what the Atonement is all about. In other words, what it is that Jesus Christ has really done that makes Him so important. It struck me that there are three distinct but complementary dimensions that can be summed up: the propitiatory, the palliative and the paradigmatic aspects. Yes, I know they are big words, but they fit well. And the alliteration can be helpful.

Propitiatory comes from the translation of a Greek word used in Romans 3.25, but also summarises that aspect of the cross that is about punishment and penal retribution as well as propitiatory sacrifice. It’s an important – crucial – aspect of what Jesus Christ has done for us. God punishes sin but Jesus took our punishment. It’s the triumph of mercy over judgment for those who will receive Christ. It is something to be proclaimed now by us, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Palliative refers to the healing aspect of what Jesus was doing, bringing healing and restoration to people. It is interwoven with the first aspect but is distinguishable in itself. God heals. It’s a critical mark of his ministry in Galilee, as it is now. He delivers us from the devil. He brings us His peace and tasters of healing, when we are willing to receive it. All this flows out of Christ’s atoning work. It is something to be manifested and ministered now in Christ’s name by us, in the power of the Spirit.

Paradigmatic is the life lived by Christ as a man and vindicated by God. He gives us a pattern of human life, acting as the paradigm for humanity – the second, unsinning Adam. He gets crucified because of it, but God does not allow that to be the end of the story. God raises Him up from the death and equips Him with the new body that we all now long for, when Jesus ushers in the new heaven and the new earth. A life to be demonstrated through outworking what it means to live for the Kingdom of God today.

The full atoning power of Christ has to be proclaimed, manifested and demonstrated. All of these aspects of telling, ministering and behaving are involved. This is the power of the three dimensional understanding of the atonement Jesus Christ brings. It is all of propitiatory, palliative and paradigmatic. It removes the risk of simply being about ideas alone, power alone or deeds alone. Anything less runs the risk of reducing the truth to but a fairy tale, fantasy or social fashionability.

Cruciform and contemporary?

I’m feeling challenged over being more missional. The question arises, ‘is it possible to be both missional and cruciform’? At one level of analysis, being missional is about being relevant to the society that we’re rooted in. Communicating with people in ways that they can understand. But I’m left with the question, ‘communicating what?’ The Gospel of the Kingdsom of God, come in Jesus Christ?

If the Gospel is essentially cruciform (entering the Kingdom of God by conforming to the call of the Christ whose path leads to and through the Cross), can we focus in phrasing the Gospel in a way that is readily attractive? Or is it not first necessary to express that message in the way and manner in which we live and form and express our agendas for life and living? What’s our focus? Being relevant or radical?

I can’t get away from the conviction that the greatest need of relevancy is to focus on church life that prioritises the Nazareth Manifesto. Where Jesus is found amidst our pusuit of care for those who suffer because of societal values that are fashionable yet unrighteous and unjust, merciless and unfaithful.

Seems to me that being radically cruciform is the meat in the meal of missionality, with everything else a side salad.

What names are really needed?

I have come to something of a watershed in my attitude towards identifying ‘ministries’ or ‘giftings’ in a way that allows us to tag individuals. I decisively dislike it. A fashionable preoccupation with blandly referring to the importance of the ‘fivefold ministry’ of Ephesians 4.11-13 as if such demarcation or identification were easy or even possible in our contemporary church is, I believe, at best facile and at worst dangerous. Too easily it encourages a secret agenda that is about status and power.

What really matters, says Paul later in that Epistle, is the pursuit of the imitation of Christ (Ephesians 5.1). I suspect this is better served today by speaking of fivefold ‘voices’, voices that reverbate with Christ centring, Scriptural emphases and practices. Be wary of stressing personal ‘ministries’ that we are to identify. Rather, let us listen for voices that carry the resonance of the voice and implement the message of our master, Jesus Christ.

I am guarded against any mindset that produces such questions as, ‘What is your ministry?’ I am far happier with a stress on relationality and servanthood, prizing the work of those who faithfully seeks to serve in whatever way they are released into within the body of Christ and in His name. It seems to me that God will take a man or woman with such an attitude and use them in any number of different ‘ministries’, in different places and at different times, as the needs of the occasion demand.

Certainly, give me someone to work with who seeks to be known as a ‘servant’ rather than recognised in their ‘ministry’ any day. Egos that accompany ‘ministries’ are hard not to trip over. I have to confess, I have become both wary and wearied by claims to charismatic anointing from individuals, sometimes meriting serious consideration but often, sadly, simply spurious. The floating of fanciful notions accompanied by proof texting, masquerading as Scriptural teaching, is neither honouring to God nor proves itself fit for equipping the saints.

If there are, as I believe there should be, differing and complementary ministries within the body of Christ that are to be recognised and affirmed, it should be on the basis of them being offered with servant hearts and in sincerity; but they should be properly assessed and where appropriate affirmed.

Within our Baptist Union, we specifically assess and affirm, through a thorough process, those recognised and accredited for a teaching, pastoral and oversight ministry. This process of identification has proven fit in affirming recognised ministries that serves both the local and wider church. We talk, in our Board of Ministry, of looking for indicators that bespeak ‘call, character, competency, conviction and conduct’. If these are fit criteria in assessing candidates for the church office of pastor, then they might happily be applied to any other offices that the local church feels it appropriate to identify and affirm for the pursuit and execution of its corporate ministry. Otherwise, let people be happy to be know and function as servants of the Lord. Is there a better title?

Ecstasy

Meeting with God in prayer. And ecstasy. Because without some sense of being caught up, embraced, confronted and met with by the God of Glory and Goodness; well, it can all seem a bit dreary, can it not? So for me, prayer and excitement in engaging with it always has this sense of expectation, and the need for moments of tasted fulfilment and consummation. But that by itself can seem a little too self indulgent.

I’m so aware of two things. Firstly, ecstasy is not the end we seek. Many approaches, religious and otherwise – even now, a tablet – can bring experience of ecstasy. Which has to bring doubt as to whether this is the summit of Christian meaningfulness. Secondly, ecstasy in the Bible always finds context in another, bigger picture. Whether we look at Exodus 34, Jeremiah 31, Joel 2 or Ezekiel 36; Acts 2 or 4 or the baptism of Jesus, the mount of transfiguration or the Ascension, all of these and related passages are set in the context of being taken up and involved in the plans and purposes of God: the mission of God.

And this makes sense. The profoundest moments of communion with God come, not when we seek it for our own gratification, but when as willing servants of God we focus on the hope of the Resurrection Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Relationships, mending with forgiveness and reconciliation. And give our creativity and imagination to pursuing this and sharing the vision with others.

What a relief.

Sabbatical begins

I have been reading a book newly written and published by a colleague at IBTS, Rollin Grams. It is a tribute and a biography of his parents’ ministry in South Africa, as independent Pentecostal missionaries. Their story is interesting, but what I especially value are the reflective comments of their godly and scholarly son, himself a New Testament theologian and missionary teacher.

As I enter further into my sabbatical in prayer, reading and reflection, I am especially arrested by his reflective ‘capsules’, and especially one on ‘prayer and healing’, where he notes, relating to serious and answered prayer in their mission activity,

‘The prayers were spoken in a pleading voice, perhaps different from the prayers one sometimes hears in certain Pentecostal and Charismatic circles today, where the vold voice of prayer has a certain air about it, as though one can demand healing because some Scripture or other is thought to hold a divine promise to heal in every instance. But the prayers of former times often meant wet faces: they were an emotional seeking and beseeching of our miracle-working and all compassionate God’.
(Rollin Grams, Stewards of Grace, Wipf & Stock, 2010, pp 89-90)

I’m not sure why, but I find this really helpful. Maybe I’ve become too mechanical in prayer, or unwittingly ‘name it and claim it’ orientated. But this reminder, to cast myself before God in His sovereign compassion, I find really helpful. It reminds me and calls me back to the excitement of meeting God in prayer.

A Plain Man's Guide to Being Baptist

How can we get baptists into meaningful mission? Three keys:

1.   Christ centring

To state that we are ‘Christ centred’ can sound a bit presumptuous. A safer and more humble tack may be to affirm that we, amidst all our sinful struggles, we are really trying to keep our eye on Jesus and to focus on Him. Remember Peter walking on the water? It’s really easy, amidst all the splashes, spray and waves we make in our declarations and defences, to sink theologically. A claim to be aspiringly Christ centring, rather than already Christ centred, may prove firmer ground!

Our forbearers had a stroke of genius when, back in 1869 when the Scottish Baptist Union was founded, they swallowed their parochial pride and followed the example of their neighbours the English Baptists by affirming that Jesus Christ is the sole and absolute authority in all matters relating to faith and practice. Now, it would be daft to suggest that the Bible was not critically important for them as it is for us now. So they rightly joined on the affirmation, ‘as revealed in the Holy Scriptures’. This wasn’t an ‘add on’ or a slip of focus. It kept things in perspective. You see, it’s a question of where our emphasis lies. Lots of folk can and do misuse the Bible. From the very start of church, it was therefore acknowledged and affirmed that the fullness of God’s revelation to us is in and through Jesus Christ. That’s in the Bible. And it affects the way that we read and look at the Bible. This emphasis on reading the Scriptures with Jesus as the key to what they’re about is what they had in mind. When we search the Scriptures, it has always to be in our minds that the key to reading, understanding and applying the Scriptures to our life today is Jesus Christ. He is alive and by the Holy Spirit mediates His mind to us: Who He is, What He does and How He does it. The measuring rod, or canon of this, is recognised as being in the Scriptures. Lose sight of that and we lose our way with Scripture. Lose sight of this and Conservatives become legalists just as Charismatics become phenomenalists.

It’s so easy to get carried away with theological theories and succinct summaries. But the truth is, we need to keep coming back to test it all in the light of Jesus Christ and what’s said about Him in Scripture. This is the reason why early Baptists, right back in their central European Anabaptist beginnings, struggled with forming ‘Statements of Faith’. Because they realised that anything we say is conditioned by the power-plays of people and the politics of a place. And people, politics and places change. So with a Bible in our hands and history in our heads, we need to keep going back to reading the Old, Old story again in a fresh way for our time, working out its implications for our context and contemporary culture. What was said yesterday was for yesterday. The Bible sets a standard for measuring and assessing the faith of every succeeding generation. We have to learn how to say ‘it’s all about Jesus!’ in a way that’s both socially relevant and Biblically accurate today.

Of course, to say that we are Christ centring is also to affirm that every person can and needs to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. ‘You need to invite Jesus into your life!’ and ‘There’s a difference between being Christian and being religious.’ These convictions we share with all evangelicals. And they’re absolutely basic for us. Christian faith involves coming into relationship with a person, Jesus Christ. Until that relationship is there for someone, then they haven’t entered into Christian faith.

One more thing. By stressing that we’re ‘Christ centring’, we’re emphasising that the folk others see us to be are neither the finished product nor people who have arrived at their final destination. We’re on a journey. A journey of change and transformation. A journey where we’ve heard about Jesus, are trying to share our lives with Jesus and are focussed on becoming more like Jesus. It’s not just a matter of sticking our hands up in a meeting, saying a wee prayer and then that’s it all – done and dusted. We delight in acknowledging that we’ve not got it all tied up and neatly explained. We’re following a route plan. Jesus is our guide. The Bible is our map. And we’re on the journey. We’re Christ centring.

2.  Community discovering

Community first, individuals second. Too much to handle? Why? Because, of course, we live in a culture where we’re constantly told that ‘me matters!’ We are bombarded through media with the affirmation that discovering who we truly are, finding out what our potential is, seeking our own destiny and having the right to be the people we choose to be is what matters. Good, secular values. But such emphases have more to do with the ‘I’m worth it’ affirmations of contemporary, cosmetic consumerism than with Christ-centring Christianity. And mark this well: it’s so dangerous and potentially destructive when such selfishness is repackage and rebranded for Christian congregations, all in the name of ‘seeker friendliness’.

Make no mistake. Jesus called people into relationship with Himself and others. He stressed that what matters the most is that we root our identity and self-worth in following this way. Not in who we are in ourselves, but in who we are in our relationships. With Jesus and with others. Learning to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves. Discovering and maturing our Christian identity not by looking inwards into ourselves, but looking to Christ and others who follow Him.

Now, if it’s true we are to highlight community, we might question whether is it right to have more than one congregation in the world! What’s the answer? Well, there is an obvious limit to the number of people we can gather in one place and meaningfully relate to. If meaningful relationships define church, then there is a point when a group becomes so big it ceases to be a church and then becomes a crowd. It is not by accident that we refer to local churches as ‘congregations’: gatherings of people congregated together. It’s good and natural that there is diversity in styles and structures among and within different denominations. There are going to be factors, such as shared culture and context or language and lifestyle that will bring people together. We just have to make sure that Jesus – Who He is, What He does and How He does it – remains the key catalyst for our own group.

As Baptists, in common with other Christians, we want to emphasise that the main relationship that counts is that key, personal relationship with Jesus. But having established that, we aren’t then to hurry back to look into ourselves or simply to look out for ourselves. Baptists stress that before we come back to ourselves, there’s a second base to visit. And that base is the relationship we share with others.

This is how the church gets formed and how people get truly reborn. It’s not just a collection of individuals who are a local, Jesus fan club. It’s a gathering of people together, constituted by their common owning of the identity of Jesus. Praising together God, the Father of Jesus. Listening to the teachings of Jesus. Exploring the values and convictions of Jesus together. Discovering and working through the implications of these together. Discussing and praying together. It’s this network of people, built together in relationship, that constitutes real church. It’s an organic, local body designed by God. Constituted by Christ. His community.

This is no small thing to get into. It’s huge. It’s really difficult for people today. It involves renouncing the quest of ‘me matters most’ and really turning round our lives to face up to the calling and teachings of Jesus Christ.

What’s fundamental to being a Baptist Christian is this act of gathering to worship God and centring on Jesus. Through praise and prayers. In reading Scripture. Learning from those who have a deeper understanding of the Bible and a longer experience of living the Christian life. And from those who have different experiences of following Jesus from our own. Listening to one another. Learning to empathise and sense the presence of Jesus as part of a group, of something bigger than ourselves. Moving forward together.

There’s a momentum when the convictions and goals of Jesus Christ grips people. We learn to take seriously people beyond ourselves, because the Spirit of God reaches out to them. We begin to look beyond our own identity, towards those who are not yet part of our identity in Christ. Now, people who are focussed on themselves only see the value of others in terms of serving self. But people who are focussed on Christ will see others in a different way. They will start to look at those who are still strangers to Christ with a new yearning. A new longing to develop disciples.

3.  Disciple Developing

It may seem startlingly obvious, but it bears saying. Before we talk the talk, we need to walk the walk. Before the disciples were sent out by Jesus, they were called to follow Him. We have to develop disciples. And we have to begin with ourselves. So a Baptist church can never be a static community identified by a sterile building. As long as the people are changing, Christ centring and community discovering, the shape of things will continue to change.

 

Our message is that God forgives and welcomes failures. But not just that. As people come to realise God’s love, they need to repent and change their ways. They have to learn to take steps to live out lives of submission to God and conformity to Christ. We’ve got to model this in ourselves. We’ve got to have the confidence to say to people, ‘Look, we’re taking Jesus and His way seriously, can’t you see? Come and join us.’ It doesn’t develop people as disciples to tell them we have the best preacher, praise band or biggest gathering around. It just invites them to become corrupt consumers, like ourselves. But it does develop disciples if we ourselves are pursuing a new identity, a reason for living and a way of doing things that is rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

 

No one can develop as a disciple by themselves. Why not? Because the only voice we’ll listen to is our own; or perhaps, in times of praise, prayer and perusing God’s Word, also God’s voice: heavily filtered through our own ambitions, preferences and prejudices! We need other people to develop as disciples.

 

The Baptist Christian is committed to humility. To listening to others. To saying, in the face of the profoundest of epiphanies, ‘this is what I think God might be saying to me. What do you think?’ The Baptist Christian knows the reality of their own sin well enough to know the power of self delusion. They look for confirmation from those other Christians who are seeking to pursue God’s way with them, especially from recognised leaders within their communities of faith.

 

We need other people to develop as disciples. Because discipleship is discovered through relationship. Relationship with God and with one another. We are in God’s recruitment business. To set up meetings and outreaches where others simply are led to make decisions for or have experiences of Christ, without being challenged to repentance and nurtured into disciples of Christ, is a parody of evangelism. To develop disciples is to grow organically. To draw others into a community of searching the Scriptures, together seeking to work through how we can conform to God’s will and Christ’s way.

 

Baptist Christians know that Christian faith will always lead them to expand and grow, personally and dynamically, beyond their comfort zone.

 

So .... what about mission?

Well, it all depends on whether you’re truly Baptistic. Because mission is simply the expression of who we are. Are we intent on being Christ centring, community discerning and disciple developing? A church caught in this dynamic cannot help itself. It is being missional, without seeking to be. As a baby stands up and learns to walk, so any developing community of Christians will learn to engage in mission.

But beware. To try and shortcut this way, to enter mission for mission’s sake, runs the risk of turning the church into a lecture or concert hall or, at worst, an entertainment centre or freak show. Baptists are not interested in gathering groupies. Our focus in plain and simple. Christ centring. Community discovering. Disciple developing.

Psalm 22

1-8
Real life can be hard at times …..

Faith begins with the recognition of another dimension there with God: BUT YOU!

Not just A god. God in His holiness is self defining. The God of Israel is the Creator, known through His promises and His past deeds. He is not under our control. He brings His own presence, purpose & power.

‘BUT YOU’ Faith is not defined from the culture and context we are in, but redefines for us our environment. It adds the DNA of the presence of God. This is why church can find expression in so many different ways. We need to recognize that there are many ways of expressing church. What matters is the defining presence of the DNA of holiness.

9-18
Baptism is the door into a new identity. By discovering our identity is in Christ, we recognize the amazing agenda that God has for us to shape and form us for our destiny as His children.

That agenda might not be easy. This psalm is amazing, in that it speaks in advance of what will happen to a ‘seed of David’ – a descendent, Jesus Christ. It speaks of His crucifixion, and of what He will experience at the cross. Amazingly, it even senses the sharing of His clothes at His crucifixion.

To be taken up in the purposes of God does not mean that we will have an easy life. God has His eye on maturing, preparing and perfecting sons and daughters for eternity.

19-31
But faith is not just about recognition that there is a God there. It is also about this invitation for this God to draw close. We recognize that there might well be hard times, but these come for a purpose that God has in mind. He looks into the present and also in the future. And this is what He comes to us for.

For this is one of the resurrection psalms. It looks forward to what will come. When God will take people from the dust of the earth and bring them into His future.

Prayer needs the readiness to have our request changed in the light of God.

The Cost of Discipleship

I’ve been reflecting much on some conversations I’ve had recently. The most noticeable is something I learnt from one of our Bristo interns, David Nemeshegyi, as we were reading through Old Testament together. In looking at Ruth 1, he commented that the conversation between Naomi and Ruth, where the former seeks to discourage the latter from going to her hometown of Bethlehem with her, is the reason why rabbis have the duty of seeking to dissuade three times any potential convert to Judaism.

Can you imagine a revival evangelist? The invitation goes out. The people come forward. And then the reasons why they should not become Christians and the persuading begins!

Which leads us to a question. When is a convert really made? Is it simply when a persons has been coming around regularly to church? Is it when they respond to the truth that Jesus died for their sins, that God loves them and that they can have eternal life? Can we make the Christian life and entry into it seem too easy?

Perhaps we should stress that there is always cost and renunciation when we become a Christian. And now I remember the reason for the title of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic work ….

The Wisdom of Elders

Eric Watson retired 17 years ago as Superintendent of our Baptist Union of Scotland. He's as sharp and insightful as ever. Three quotes from table-talk with him:

• The endless search for programmes for revival is useless, unless people see that being, not doing, is where you must start 
• Christians have to realise that they are doing mission every day, whether they want to or not. The only question is 'what witness are others seeing in them?'
• Real fishermen go out and let their nets down into the deep places, to reach down to catch fish, where they get torn and ripped by rocks. They need to repair the nets. Sunday is our time for repairing the net of the church, before the net is let down through the week to catch fish among the rocks. 

Scottish Pastors' Conference 2010

That time again, in St Andrews. Great to meet with colleagues from all over Scotland. This morning's seminar is with Michael Harvey speaking on ‘BackToChurchSunday’.

Michael’s message was about ‘unlocking the growth’ - acknowledging that God gives the growth; but it is the constituency of the church, within a time, culture and context, that tends to lock down and inhibit God’s plan, purpose and power. The starting point is in acknowledging that God is active and working across the nation. This strategy is simply serving God’s purpose. All we have to do is invite people.

So … we need to just chill  and believe that people might enjoy church. I like it.

Life infused creativity

We had Alan Donaldson, our new General Director for the Baptist Union of Scotland, join us today at our weekly pastors' meeting in north Edinburgh. Great guy, and with a real heart for getting our union of churches functioning together. I'm really excited about the way ahead. This is the biggest crossroads both in our Union and in the history of Bristo in a lifetime; and if we get it right, we can see our congregation being taken forward in renewed purposefulness within an exciting and bigger picture.

I was reading NT Wright again today, in The Resurrection of the Son of Man, and was impressed in how he talks of John's Gospel's emphasis on the new creation. We live in the season of the 8th day - the new creative act of God that issues, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to fashion and reshape all things in the life and the light of the Resurrected Jesus Christ.

I like that. For those who are arrested in the ministry and mind of Christ, things will never get stale. There is always freshness, newness. Amen - come, Holy Spirit!

Preparing for Pentecost

1 Corinthians 15.45-46

Who and what we are

The natural human (before he/she sins) = a ‘soulish’ body. This is a very Hebraic understanding rooted in Genesis 2.7. A being created to have communion with God and reflect God, yet a creature made out of dust. Temporary. Contingent. But a creature fitted for more: with the potential to become more than temporary. A potential, not realised, through being debarred access to the fruit of the tree of eternal life, because of sin.

v 45   quotes from the ancient Greek Genesis 2.7, ‘the man became a living soul’ (Heb nephesh, Gk psuche) adding the first Adam. Then adds, the ultimate (eschatos) Adam ‘life imparter’(zwopoioun ) by (eis) Spirit.

Jesus, in and through His resurrection, is the MEANS, the MODEL and the METHOD of heaven-infused living here and now, on this earth.

We start of as ‘soulish’ or natural people. Every person on earth is like this when they are born. But our potential, ruined by sin, is for more. But Jesus has dealt with the sin! Because of what Jesus has done and now does by the Holy Spirit, we can know and receive the life that is Holy-spirit-ual!

What the Spirit does to us

v 46    It is important to understand, practically, what it is the Spirit does to us. He infuses us with His presence and purpose. Therefore because the coming of the Spirit is influential in shaping us, to make a significant difference He has to come in power.

So we can know His peace: that is significant, but it is not what the power does. We can receive the teaching: that too is significant, but it is not what the power does.

What happens when the Spirit comes on us in power? He come in a way that will shake us to the very core of who and what we are. He does this in many different ways. I’ve known the Spirit to come in power on people, quietly and beautifully, when they have been seeking the Lord in prayer. I have known Him come in power with suddenness, shaking them to the very core. I have known people find it exuberant. And I have known people find it so challenging to their identity that it has terrified them.

But what is happening at essence is that the Spirit comes in Pentecostal power in order to transforms us and enable us to be taken up in the ministry that is the mark of those who belong to Jesus Christ. Come, Holy Spirit!