Healing on the Streets of Edinburgh

What a great training session we had, last night and today, for 'Healing on the Streets'. It was led by a baptist Elder, a Vineyard Pastor and a Church of Scotland Minister! A really wise and helpful introduction to ministering healing to people in the open street - something that I have never found easy and last did on the street like this 20 years ago! Gosh! ..... Today, the really helpful thing I learnt - I had never thought about it - was how to give out a leaflet properly! But very practical and it really helped. Didn't feel like a 2nd hand car salesman!

Now, you're asking, 'what on earth is he doing praying for people on the streets?' Well, we need to go where the people go. And if it's on Princes Street, that's where it has to be. But we really enjoyed it. The three of us who went on the training found it really uplifting - we all prayed with people who had very real and very genuine need. And we saw blessing too.  Yep - not the normal thing we do; but we have to reach people 'by all means'. Well worth it!

Simple faith

Over many years, I have been quietly obsessed by finding an adequate translation in modern English for a simple word in Greek: pistij. Usually translated as ‘belief’, ‘faith’ and sometimes ‘trust’. Well here it is: 'faithful focus'. It works. If you hold on to a faithful focus on Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Try it.

The Heart of the Matter

I wish I had really grasped this truth years ago, and never let it go ....

'If the mission of Christ through the presence and power of the Spirit determines the nature and ministry of the church, then we should expect that mission itself becomes the source of the renewed vision and life of the church. This is why mission, rather than ministry, expands Gods kingdom and renews the spiritual life of the church'.  

Ray Anderson, An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches, IVP, 2006, p. 186

Riots and righteousness

I woke this morning with a powerful sense of need to write down and express something of what we are presently seeing in God’s Word on Sunday mornings, and the implications of that for each of us. Our society is beginning to reap the rewards of the sin and decadence that have been among us for a long time. God is allowing the repercussions of abandoning Christ to be seen and felt in our nation, as in others. We are entering a difficult time when it is important to focus on what being a person of faith is really about. Here it is, spelt out in a fresh translation of Romans 3.21-26:

And now, apart from through Law, God’s righteousness has been revealed, which is born witness to by the Law and the Prophets. It is God’s righteousness, through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, for all who would be faithful. For there is no distinction – for all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, being brought into righteousness as a free gift of God’s grace. This free grace comes through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed as a mercy seat in the faithfulness of His blood. God did this for the purpose of displaying His righteousness in overlooking, in the forbearance of God, sins previously committed. And He did this for the purpose of displaying His righteousness right now, showing that He Himself is just and is the justifier of anyone who takes on board the faithfulness of Jesus.

This is what being saved – being a disciple of Jesus Christ – is all about. It is about stepping into the life of Jesus Christ through the door of baptism, being brought into eternal life through the power of His resurrection from the dead. This power comes into us by the Holy Spirit.

And let’s be clear. The Holy Spirit is not just a nice feeling. He is the fire and wind and water of life that comes from God. And because of what He’s done for us all through His sacrificial life and death, Jesus is the key to anyone receiving this Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit? Death. With Him? Life.

So let’s also be clear about what the Holy Spirit does. Jesus spells it out in John 16.8-11. The Holy Spirit brings us into the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He shows us where there is sin in our lives, that we might repent of it. He shows us the path of righteousness, that we might walk in it. He shows us that the dark powers that would blanket us with fear and would control us in daily life are now judged by God and are impotent in the face of the Holy Spirit’s life giving power.

I invite you to take these teachings very seriously. Press on into renouncing sin – especially sexual sin - and resolve to walk in holiness! Pursue policies as church together that seek to express God’s righteousness through personal goals as an individual and well as a congregation! Show the world around us what it means not to live in fearfulness of a defeated devil! Show the world rather what it means to live a life of purpose and purity rooted in the love of God.

I believe that all of us have the potential of being a light of Christ to many. But we need to be faithful. We need to walk in righteousness.

Riots and justice

Today, in the face of the London riots, I want to recommend a book to you by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: rights and wrongs, Princeton University Press, 2008.

In recent days, the issue leading to the riots was presented as being one of ‘justice’. But what is justice?

Constitutive justice is dependent on the establishing of a society that holds to virtues or convictions that are adopted, embraced and implemented. To do this, people have to have a vision of a social state that they are working towards.

Determinative justice depends on an environment where the judgements can be enforced.

As Christians, we are called to live in and generate, through church, an environment of constitutive justice. The country’s problems are not going to be sorted overnight! But as church, we can model something of what Jesus Christ began and continues to do through His disciples, as we wait for the New Society that will come on His return.

Determinative justice? As Christians, we believe that’s up to God. Our job is to live with a love that generates holy, healthy relationships and responsibilities. Let’s focus on this, on being salt and light. And be realistic as to how quickly / slowly things will change in our nation.

Whose in whose image?

Back from Bulgaria. Great holiday!
Play a game with me. Look at these options. Do you prefer:

a. i. to do a hard task by yourself (to prove a point)
   ii. have a hard task done for you (and you can’t do it!)
b. i. do what you think is best
   ii. do what you’re told by another
c. i. accept a gift with no strings attached
   ii. accept a gift that you are to use for a purpose

Each of these goes with different types of personality. My observation is that the ones most people struggle with are b.ii or c.ii. Which is tough; because the Gospel message in Jesus is that God brings us into eternal life and to be part of His Kingdom through Jesus Christ in sequence of a.ii, c.ii and b.ii.

So, I'm convinced. Not just culture and context, but the way your personality is shaped will itself shape your preferred way of thinking about God. It takes real effort to hear instead what the Bible says. Literal translations of the Bible into English are not always the easiest to understand! On the other hand, paraphrases can give a smoother reading but betray a particular interpretation, losing subtle points. Romans 3.21-26 is a case in point. Practically all the English translations are paraphrases. In this passage, how you translate two Greek words critically influences your reading and understanding. You can have either justice or righteousness. And you can have any of faith in Jesus, faith of Jesus or  faithfulness of Jesus. Here it is as rendered in Young’s Literal Translation (1862), which I like a lot:

And now apart from law hath the righteousness of God been manifested, testified to by the law and the prophets, and the righteousness of God {is} through the faith of Jesus Christ to all, and upon all those believing --for there is no difference, for all did sin, and are come short of the glory of God-- being declared righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that {is} in Christ Jesus, whom God did set forth a mercy seat, through the faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of His righteousness, because of the passing over of the bygone sins in the forbearance of God-- for the shewing forth of His righteousness in the present time, for His being righteous, and declaring him righteous who {is} of the faith of Jesus.

Think about it. God is serious about getting us into the life of Jesus. Into His faith. The justice / righteousness of God made manifest when God’s Kingdom comes, together with the joy and peace the disciple experiences. This is the marvelous reality that Jesus Christ calls us into.