Quotes from Tim Chester's You Can Change

Tim Chester's You can Change (IVP:2008) is a brilliant book. Biblical, sane, pastoral, warm, honest. Highly recommended. I am going to put some helpful quotes up and will start where I am, chapter 7, and add others later. So, here goes with chapter 7: What stops you changing?

It's not lack of discipline or knowledge or support. These all matter, but the number-one reason why people don't change is pride, closely followed by hating the consequences of sin, but actually still loving the sin itself. (127)

Perhaps the person is mad at himself for repeating the same sin over and over again. this is actually a veiled form of pride that assumes he is capable of doing good in his own power. He is minimizing his spiritual inability apart from God's grace. (citing Ed Welch, Addictions, 170)

Explaining that pride is part of the 'definition of sin' as it 'puts us in the place of God', Chester goes on to show how humility is 'a paradigm of repentance.' Humility is 'the realization that we can never merit blessing from God.'

It's the recognition that grace is our only hope. It's giving up on ourselves and finding all we need in Jesus. If you're frustrated at your inability to change, then the first step is to give up - to give up on yourself. Repent of your self-reliance and self-confidence. Your second step is to rejoice in God's grace: his grace to forgive and his grace to transform. (p129)

Don't Waste Your Life

Desiring God have produced a stunning new music video for Don't Waste Your life (HT - Justin Taylor)

Films about Easter

St Helen's Bishopsgate have produced two brief videos about Easter.
The first, Life to Death, focusses on Jesus' death for our sins, and the second, Death to Life, explores the evidence for the resurrection, including interviews with Peter Head and Peter Williams from Tyndale House.
Why not check them out and circulate them to friends.

A.N. Wilson repents and believes in the Risen Jesus

One of the more radical reads over the Easter weekend was this article by AN Wilson in which he admits that his earlier irrational hatred of Christianity was mistaken.

For ten or 15 of my middle years, I, too, was one of the mockers. But, as time passed, I found myself going back to church, although at first only as a fellow traveller with the believers, not as one who shared the faith that Jesus had truly risen from the grave. Some time over the past five or six years - I could not tell you exactly when - I found that I had changed. When I took part in the procession last Sunday and heard the Gospel being chanted, I assented to it with complete simplicity.

While he decries the angry atheists like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Polly Toynbee, he also acknowledges the powerful influence for good of the lives of Christians.

My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known - not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die. The Easter story answers their questions about the spiritual aspects of humanity. It changes people’s lives because it helps us understand that we, like Jesus, are born as spiritual beings. Every inner prompting of conscience, every glimmering sense of beauty, every response we make to music, every experience we have of love - whether of physical love, sexual love, family love or the love of friends - and every experience of bereavement, reminds us of this fact about ourselves.

However, at the heart of such people's confidence in the face of death, and at the heart, it seems of AN Wilson's new-found faith, lies a deep-seated reliance in the reality of the resurrection.

In the past, I have questioned its veracity and suggested that it should not be taken literally. But the more I read the Easter story, the better it seems to fit and apply to the human condition. That, too, is why I now believe in it. Easter confronts us with a historical event set in time. We are faced with a story of an empty tomb, of a small group of men and women who were at one stage hiding for their lives and at the next were brave enough to face the full judicial persecution of the Roman Empire and proclaim their belief in a risen Christ. Historians of Roman and Jewish law have argued at length about the details of Jesus’s trial - and just how historical the Gospel accounts are. Anyone who believes in the truth must heed the fine points that such scholars unearth. But at this distance of time, there is never going to be historical evidence one way or the other that could dissolve or sustain faith.

Worldliness in the Church

Charles Spurgeon, 150 years ago, puts his finger on one of the church's besetting problems - the lack of clarity between the Church and the world:

I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

Frustrated by what he witnessed as "worldliness ... growing over the church; she is mossed with it", he had often argued from history that the church was at her strongest when she stood out distinctively from her culture:

Put your finger on any prosperous page in the Church's history, and I will find a little marginal note reading thus: 'In this age men could readily see where the Church began and where the world ended.' Never were there good times when the Church and the world were joined in marriage with one another. The more the Church is distinct from the world in her acts and in her maxims, the more true is her testimony for Christ, and the more potent is her witness against sin.

Charles Spurgeon, sermons from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, cited in CJ Mahaney, Worldlines: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, p.23

How evangelicals can cut and paste the Bible

CJ Mahaney is his helpful book, Worldliness: resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, suggests that, to the extent that "we ignore any portion of God's Word," we evangelicals can be prone to doing as much of a cut-and-paste job on the Bible as liberals

In particular, he asks whether worldliness and verses like 1 John 2:15 "Do not love the world or anything in the world" are uncomfortable for many modern evangelicals. We seek to evade any discomfort by arguing that such matters are personal or that most teaching on the subject is overly legalistic, sounding "like something out of an Amish handbook." But perhaps, our biggest concern is that the issue of worldliness is too close for comfort.

You're afraid if you get too close, these ten little words might come between you and the things in the world you enjoy. You're reluctant to discuss 'worldliness' because then you might have to change.

Of course, ignoring tricky verses is easier if we assume they don't apply to us or we caveat them to death.

Or perhaps you think 1 John 2:15 ... doesn't apply to you. Maybe because of your age, or your position in the church, or your reputation for godliness, you think you're immune to worldliness. From all outward appearances you're anything but worldly - a solid member of your local church, an exemplary Christian who worships on Sunday and faithfully attends a small group. You've never committed a scandalous sin...

If we don't ignore 1 John 2:15 outright, we load it up with qualifications. We file down its edges with explanations. We dismiss it as applying only to those more 'worldly' than us. We empty it of its authority, its meaning for our day-to-day lives.

Mahaney urges us not to do this because such difficult passages are nonetheless God's Word.

It comes straight from a loving heavenly Father to you and me. And it demands our urgent attention.

The Doctor's diagnosis: The danger of taking notes!

Martin Lloyd-Jones was cautious about people taking notes of his sermons. It suggested that what was going on was an information download and at some later point, the lives of his listeners would be changed. Lloyd-Jones wanted lives to change on the spot as people sensed God's holiness while the sermon was being preached. Have we lost that sense of expecting God's Spirit to be at work as we preach?

The first and primary object of preaching is not only to give information. It is, as Edwards says, to produce an impression. It is the impression at the time that matters, even more than what you can remember subsequently….It is not primarily to impart information; and while you are writing your notes you may be missing something of the impact of the Spirit. As preachers we must not forget this. We are not merely imparters of information. (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jonathan Edwards and the Crucial Importance of Revival)

The life of Christ is in us! It is not theory, it is a life-giving teaching, it is a life-imparting teaching. If I am preaching in the Spirit, as I pray God I am, I am not only uttering words to you, I am imparting life to you, I am being used of God, as the channel of the Spirit and my words bring life and not merely knowledge. Do you accept that distinction? I am almost afraid sometimes for those of you who take notes, that you may just be getting the words and not the Spirit. I am not saying that you should not take notes, but I do warn you to be careful. Much more important than the words is the Spirit, the life; in Christ we are being taught, and built up in Him. So that in a sense, though you may forget the words, you will have received the life, and you go out aware of the life of God, as it were, pulsating within you. (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Christian Unity: Studies in Ephesians 4:1-16, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972) 114)

Preach so that we can taste the truth!

When Tim Keller urges pastors to preach to the hearts of their hearers so that God's Word can do its work amongst God's people, he often quotes Jonathan Edwards to underline that the purpose of a sermon is not just to make the truth clear but to make the truth real. In Edwards' sermon, A Divine and Supernatural Light, Edwards uses honey as an illustration to make his point:

Thus there is a difference between having an opinion, that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. There is a wide difference between mere speculative rational judging any thing to be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty. The former rests only in the head, speculation only is concerned in it; but the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is sweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent.

Sermons are bad!

In a letter to his son, Christopher, dated 25 April 1944, JRR Tolkein, author of the LOTR trilogy and friend of CS Lewis, wrote: "But as for sermons! They are bad, aren't they?" However, trying to resist the Eyeore temptation to say it has always been thus, it is instructing to read how his letter continued.

The answer to the mystery is probably not simple; but part of it is that 'rhetoric' (of which preaching is a department) is an art, which requires (a) some native talent and (b) learning and practice. The instrument is very much more complex than a piano, yet most performers are in the position of a man who sits down to a piano and expects to move his audience without any knowledge of his notes at all. The art can be learned (granted some modicum of aptitude) and can then be effective, in a way, when wholly unconnected with sincerity, sanctity, etc. But preaching is complicated by the fact that we expect in it not only a performance, but truth and sincerity, and also at least no word, tone, or note that suggests the possession of vices (such as hypocrisy, vanity) or defects (such as folly, ignorance) in the preacher.

Good sermons require some art, some virtue, some knowledge. Real sermons require some special grace which does not transcend art but arrives at it by instinct or 'inspiration'; indeed the Holy Spirit seems sometimes to speak through a human mouth providing art, virtue, and insight he does not himself possess: but the occasions are rare.

Japanese Banking Crisis!

Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on Northern Rock in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan.

In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song. Today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived. While Samurai Bank fell on its sword, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit but remains in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

Things not to say to your wife!!

Tim Hawkins has served us husbands with these timely - and very funny warnings!

How to get your email inbox down to zero every day

Here is something of enormous potential practical benefit for those of us juggling communication overload. Take it, read it, and put it into practice.

Three Wise Men ... on mercy ministries

Recently, a conversation between Don Carson, Tim Keller, and John Piper, was video-recorded at the 2008 leadership meeting of The Gospel Coalition. The videos are now available on Facebook. In part one, and part two, they discuss mercy ministries.

Church as Gospel Community

Steve Timmis and Tim Chester have helped evangelicals to recover the sense of church as gospel community, not least through their Crowded House initiative. In Total Church (IVP, 2007), they challenge today's prevailing view of life, of us standing on our own 'juggling' our various domestic, work, and social responsibilities.

All too often church becomes one of the balls. We juggle responsibilities for church (measured predominately by attendance at meetings) just as we juggle our responsibilities for work or leisure. An alternative model is to view our various activities and responsibilities as spokes of a wheel. At the centre or hub of life is not me as an individual, but us as members of the Christian community. Church is not another ball to juggle, but that which defines who I am and gives Christlike shape to my life.(pp.42-43)

Interestingly, this works out, among other ways, as church members (including church leaders) 'make decision with regard to the implications for the church and to make significant decisions in consultation with the church.' (p.45)
Such a gospel community is profoundly mission-minded. Although mission develops from being centripetal (moving towards the centre) in the OT to centrifugal (moving away from the centre) in the NT, Timmis & Chester argue that 'mission does not cease to be centripetal.'

The attractive covenant community continues to be the means by which Godfulfils his promise to Abraham. What has changed is the centre! The centre is no longer geographic Jerusalem. Now it is the community itself among whom Christ promises to be present (Matthew 28:20). The community moves out across the globe (a centrifugal movement), all the time drawing people to its Lord through its common life ( a centripetal movement).(p.47)

Are Richard Dawkins' views evolving with time?

Melanie Phillips has written a cracking review of the second debate between Richard Dawkins and Oxford mathematician, John Lennox. Apparently, Dawkins began the debate in Oxford by saying:

'a serious case could be made for a deistic God.'

Now that sounds less like his militant atheism of old, and more like the posters now ubiquitous around London that declare: 'There's Probably No God'. As Phillips comments:

'This was surely remarkable. Here was the arch-apostle of atheism, whose whole case is based on the assertion that believing in a creator of the universe is no different from believing in fairies at the bottom of the garden, saying that a serious case can be made for the idea that the universe was brought into being by some kind of purposeful force. A creator.'

Indeed, as Phillips notes, it undermines Dawkins' previous assertion that:

...all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all ‘design’ anywhere in the universe is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection...Design cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe.

But then, why should we expect logical consistency and rational argument from an Oxford atheist?

Who is worthy for gospel ministry?

John Newton's famous encounter with God during a great storm at sea occurred in March 1748, but within a decade, the young disciple was already considering whether the Lord was calling him into full-time gospel ministry. In 1758, he wrote down a serious of 'miscellaneous thoughts' for his own private reflection. These have now been published by The John Newton Project.

Meditating on 2 Cor 2:16, he asks who is worthy for gospel ministry?

Who is worthy thus to stand between the Lord and sinful man? Who is worthy to be the Lord's prophet - to approach the fountain of light and purity, to receive those communications which an unholy heart can neither receive or retain?

... Who is worthy to be a priest of the Most High God - to present the offerings of a whole people - to intercede for them - to be the mouth, the hands, and the eyes of a congregation? If the Lord is to be sanctified by all that come near him - what clean hands, how pure a heart should he have who leads the way to others?

To bring the first news of the Redeemer's entrance into a lost wold, was the employment and the joy of the angels. Who of all the sons of dust and ashes is worthy to complete their message? Alas! are sinners worthy to show forth the spotless Lamb of God? Are the labours of his life, the wonders of his love, the greatness of his sufferings, and the glories of his exaltation suitable subjects for such cold hearts and stammering tongues as mine? O Lord I am unworthy, utterly unworthy of the meanest station in thy house, or the smallest service to thy people.

How can we reach the UK?

In March 2003, after a major research project in association with the Evangelical Alliance, the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity published a report entitled 'Imagine How We Can Reach the UK'. The report concluded: "The reason the UK church is not effective in mission is because we are not making disciples who can live well for Christ in today's culture and engage compellingly with the people they meet ... Jesus has a 'train and release' strategy, while overall we have a 'convert and retain' strategy."
Although there are many evangelistic resources currently available, many Christians do not know how to live out their faith, due to "the pervasive belief that some things are important to God - such as church, prayer meetings, social action, Alpha - but that other human activities are at best neutral - work, school, college, sports, the arts, leisure, rest, sleep."
Mark Greene & Tracy Cotterell, Let My People Grow (LICC, 2005), pp.3-4

A gospel-centred church?

'The church exists both through the gospel and for the gospel. At one level this is a motherhood-and-apple-pie declaration. Few Christians are going to object to being gospel-centred just as no-one is against mothers or apple pie. The problem is the gap between our rhetoric and the reality of our practice. The continual challenge for us is to apply this principle to church life and ministry without compromise.'
Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Total Church (IVP, 2007), p.32

"Heretical" church structures?

The theology that matters is not the theology we profess, but the theology we practise. As John Stott says: "Our static, inflexible, self-centred structures are 'heretical structures' because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church." If "our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world" it is "a heretical structure". John Stott, The Living Church (IVP, 2007), p.58

Mao Tse-Tung - What a worldview!

'Mao's attitude to morality consisted of one core, the self, 'I', above everything else: "I do not agree with the view that to be moral, the motive of one's action has to be benefiting others. Morality does not have to be defined in relation to others ... People like me want to ... satisfy our hearts to the full, and in doing so we automatically have the most valuable moral codes. Of course there are people and objects in the world, but they are all there only for me."
Mao shunned all constraints of responsibility and duty. "People like me only have a duty to ourselves; we have no duty to other people." "I am responsible only for the reality that I know," he wrote, "and absolutely not responsible for anything else. I don't know about the past, I don't know about the future. They have nothing to do with the reality of my own self ... I have my desire and act on it. I am responsible to no one."' (Jung Chang & Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story , p.13)