the mercy of God to undeserving sinners

Just found this excellent quote in Mark Dever's The Message of the Old Testament:

'As the great congregational minister Edward Payson said, "You cannot make a rich man beg like a poor man; you cannot make a man that is full cry for food like one that is hungry: no man who has a good opinion of himself cry for mercy like one who feels that he is poor and needy." Christian churches are not congregations of the righteous, the morally successful, and the completely obedient. Such people do not exist in the world. Christian congregations are founded on a recognition of our own poverty, our own spiritual need, and Christ's fullness. Christ died to procure mercy, and he calls you to turn from your sins and to trust in him. Oh friend leave your sins for Christ.' p194

We are always the poor who need the great physician, to forget this is to become self dependent, self satisfied and ultimately to become self-righteous which is really unrighteousness.

LORD be merciful to be a sinner!

Shalom
Stephen

Ben Witherington , Noah's Ark and the problem of modern scholarship

In many many ways Ben Witherington is a fine New Testament Scholar. I have benefited from his writings on numerous occasions and learnt a lot from both his Grace in Galatia and His Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Acts. Recently on his own blog he commented on the recent claim of Some Chinese Christians to have found Noah's Ark. Whilst he is right to be cautious about this pointing out that there have been several supposed finds in his life time. He is also open to the idea that it could quite possibly be Noah's ark. His cautious comments are encouraging he doesn't want Christians to make claims in their excitement that are needed to be withdrawn after the event. My issue is not with his caution but with his understanding of the Genesis account, he writes:

What I am prepared to attest to is that geologists have long pointed out that there is clear evidence of a huge flood in the ancient near east, a flood which was spoken of not only in the Bible but also in Enuma Elish another ancient source as well that tells the story of a Noah like figure named Utna-Pishtem (see Heidel's Babylonian Genesis ). The evidence suggests a flood of the then known world, not a world wide flood as we would consider it today. And indeed it would take one whopper of a flood to put a boat 11,000 feet up on a mountain in eastern Turkey. We will leave to the flood geologists and oceanographers the issues of how big a flood it would take to put a boat where this team of explorers say they found it.

Witherington is an evangelical scholar and like a lot of evangelical scholars he is prepared to give to much away for the sake of academic credibility. A flood of the then known world rather than a world wide flood is not what the Bible talks about. What the Bible says is enough for me, the Bible says the whole earth was flooded I believe it. However it is not just the Bible, there are flood stories from all over the world. I knew this and so I asked a friend of mine from India if he knew of any flood stories from there. He came back with two accounts and both of them had a universal flood, a speaking god and a massive boat. The Genesis account is about universal judgement, Ben Witherington, you and I are descendants of Noah and we are here today because God showed mercy to one family during the flood. The horror of the flood account is hard to take ,it is not a fairytale or a delightful children's story it is a judgement that the world has never seen before or since. Yet it also speaks of two other things, it speaks of a future judgement, also on a global scale. Even greater the Ark points to God's mercy we are told that the judgement was delayed for 120 years so others could repent. We are also told that Noah found grace in God's sight, Noah received God's mercy. Today there is still an Ark which can save from God's judgement, the LORD Jesus Christ, the ark of God's mercy. Only by trusting in Him will we be safe from the wrath to come. Again his wrath is delayed so that you might find mercy.

God Bless
Stephen <><

Jerry Bridges -Love God with all your heart

A friend of mine works for Navpress and told me that Jerry Bridges who has some excellent books in the reformed tradition is a great guy, when he walks into Navpress' offices in Colorado Springs he speaks to everyone. One of the guys that writes about relationships walks in and only talks to the big wigs. It is why the emergent church thing wont last without truth, relationships are not built on the solid rock. I really enjoy Jerry Bridges, I am currently reading his devotional Holiness day by day here Bridges talks about love:

Have you thought about what it means to "love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37)

Here are a few obvious aspects: you seek fellowship with Him and long to gaze upon his beauty (Psalm 27:4). You rejoice in meditating on His Word and rise early to pray (Psalm 119:97, Mark 1:35). You always delight to do His will (Psalm 40:8). A regard for His glory governs and motivates everything you do (1 Corinthians 10:31)- eating and drinking, working and playing, buying and selling, reading and speaking, even driving. You're never discouraged or frustrated by adverse circumstances because you're confident God is working all things together for your good (Romans 8:28). You're always content because you know he'll never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

Or look at What Jesus called the "second" commandment: "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 22:39, NIV) Among other things, this would that you never show selfishness, irritability peevishness, or indifference in your dealing with others. You take a genuine interest in their welfare and seek to promote their interests, honour and well-being. You never regard them with prideful superiority or talk about their failings. You never resent any wrongs they do to you, but instead are always ready to forgive. You always treat them as you would have them treat you. Do you begin to grasp some of the implications of what it means to obey these two commandments? Most of us don't even think about them in the course of a day, let alone aspire to obey them. Instead we content ourselves with avoiding major outward sins and performing accepted Christian duties.

Well that's me convicted I am off to do some praying and repenting, praise God for Jerry Bridges and his challenging insights!!!
Shalom

Stephen <><

fairness for all

Last night I was listening to a speech from Gordon Brown, the leader of the Labour party who is campaigning for re-election. He spoke about fairness for all, something that resonates with me.

However Joy had our twenty weeks scan yesterday, we didn't get a twenty week scan with Hannah so it was just an amazing experience. At twenty weeks the baby is moving around, fully formed in miniature, we could see their face, ten little fingers and toes it was a real opportunity to see the creator's handiwork. Psalm 139:13 says 'For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb' What occupies the womb is a little life, someone created by God, in his image and that is something that carries an enormous amount of dignity. In the UK election no-one is speaking up for the unborn, all three leaders of the main parties abstained or voted against the bill to lower abortions from 24 weeks to 20. With technological advances it is clear to see that a life occupies the womb as the Bible says and so a termination is a termination of someone who is fearfully and wonderfully made, someone created by God for His glory. If governments are going to speak about defending the weak and the vulnerable they should start with those who occupy the womb. Fairness for all should include those who are yet to be born but are already experiencing life, life in their mother's womb.

Shalom
Stephen <><

Why I love this book

Yesterday I heard the 5 minute religious slot on BBC radio 2, the guy seemed nice, what he said was also nice but it just wasn't biblical. In his understanding, God doesn't even see bad things in humanity and sin doesn't exist. This understanding is very common outside of the church and is becoming increasingly common in the wider evangelical church. What a breath of fresh air then are Kevin Deyoung and Ted Kluck with their deep commintment to the faith once delivered to the saints and their deep commitment to the local church. In their latest joint work, 'Why We Love The Church', In the closing chapter, Deyoung shows that our greatest need is not contemporary services, nor seeker sensitive services but continuing to deal with a real Saviour who saves sinners.

Deyoung writes:
The nice thing about the doctrine of original sin is that it focuses our attention on issues that are a little more timeless. People will always be sinners. So our main problem is not lack of integration on balance, or lack of success or education, or even poverty and injustice, as serious as these problems can be. Our main problem will always be sin. And, hence, we are always in need of a Savior. This doesn't mean we can be blissfully ignorant of the world around us, but it means our focus will be squarely on the gospel. We can forget about being the church of what's happening now, and relearn to be the church of Christ, and Him crucified. p.216-17

This book is a book that is honest about the church and its faults but still believes there is no salvation outside of the community of faith that is the universal church expressed locally in a vibrant bibe centred Christ exhalting local church. The Church is the bride of Christ and will one day be presented to Christ, in all His glory with no spot or blemish and looking perfectly radiant as it radiates the beauty of Christ.

Shalom
Stephen <><

What's good about Good Friday?

I didn't grow up in a Christian home, my parents are agnostic at best, living with no thought to the big questions about God and why we are here. Yet as a small child I knew without anyone telling me that there was a God. In our home we did celebrate (in a very secular way) both Christmas and Easter, and I knew that Christmas was a celebration of Jesus' birth and that Good Friday was a celebration of Jesus' death. This confused me so I would ask people 'what is good about Good Friday' or 'why did Jesus die'. My dad told me it was so people didn't have to get cancer, I knew that wasn't the answer as it didn't make sense. I remember asking the local Anglican vicar but I didn't understand his answer. When I got into my teens the question moved to the back of my mind, in Senior School I met an Evangelical named Glen, Glen was a nice guy but I had no idea what an Evangelical was. All I knew was that he wasn't C of E like me (and the rest of my non-believing family) so maybe he was in a cult or something. Glen and I would have philosophical/ religious discussions from time to time and sometimes I felt like I had the upper hand (although I had no clue what I was talking about). By this time I still believed there was a God out there and I even prayed but it didn't effect the way I lived my life. My language was pretty bad for a teenager, I would also steal stuff for the fun of it, worst of all I messed around on Quiji boards. I was about as far from God as any teenager could be, but God was at work.

When I was 15 years old my family went to the North of Wales for a vacation during the summer holidays from school. I was so pleased that early in the first week I bumped into Glen so I had someone to hang around with. On the Wednesday night I was with Glen and we were having another one of our philosophical/ religious debates and I sensed that I was losing. Having asked lots of people the question about 'Why did Jesus die-what is good about Good Friday' and never getting a good answer I thought I would throw that in as a spanner in the works, so that I might get the upper hand.
What a thunder bolt from heaven- Glen shared with me something I had never heard before.
He told me that God exists in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He then told me something that had never dawned on me, that I had sinned against this Holy God, in word , thought and deeds because I was a sinner. As a sinner Glen said, you deserve to go to hell. Yet God the Father sent his Son into the world to become a man and life a perfect live. Jesus never sinned, he was without sin and didn't deserve to die. Yet he died in your place so that if you turn from your sin you can have eternal life with God. As Glen spoke in a very tender voice, for the very first time in my life I realised that even though I believed in God's existence and prayed ,I wasn't a Christian. I knew that if I died that moment I would rightly go to hell, and it felt like to do this I would just need to step backwards as though hell was under my feet at that very moment. Yet it wasn't the fear of hell that grabbed me, but the love of Jesus. At that very moment Jesus was the most wonderful, most attractive, most desirable person in the universe and I wanted to know Him. So right there and then as we walked a cross a railway bridge I asked God to forgive me of my sin for Jesus sake, and to take me and change me and use me for his glory. I realised later that I crossed another bridge, the bridge from death to life. That moment I felt no flashing lights, heard no angels sing but had a sense of peace. The next morning when I woke up I realised I was a new person, I had never felt empty but now felt that I had a purpose in life. I never felt dirty but now I felt clean, I described it at the time like I had taken a bath on the inside. I was born again and my life now belongs to God, over the years God has kept me and I know that He is and that His love is the most awesome thing you can have. Nearly 2000 years ago on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem three guys hung on a cross. Two of them for the crimes they had committed against humanity, the other one dying for the crimes of humanity against God. God forsaken by God, bearing the wrath that we deserve so that we can be forgiven. What is good about Good Friday? That though we have offended a Holy God we can know forgiveness because His Son, the just laid down His life for the unjust.

Praise be to God for His wonderful love!
Stephen <><

Happy 15 Months

How time flies when your having fun! Our miracle baby is now a little girl of 15 months old today, so far the journey has been fun as we have watched Hannah grow and develop each day. At one point I almost became a semi-Pelagian as I found no evidence of original sin in my little girl. However I still need to hold onto the orthodox position because even though she is fairly laid back like her Mommy and Daddy wow does she have a temper!!! It is amazing to see when she doesn't get her own way how quickly she loses her rag. Still she is very cute and the apple of her Mommy and Daddy's eyes. She has brought us much joy and we are looking forward to seeing how she handles being a big sister in September when baby number two arrives :-)!

Shalom
Stephen <><>