A Direct line to God

In the toilets at Marjon University they have an emergency red cord and most likely that’s been pulled enough times for someone to put a note on it saying: “Emergency Assistance Cord“. I.E dont pull it unless it is an emergency.

But someone has written above it “A direct like to God“. It made me smile. They saw this red cord and for a laugh wrote this.

Sometimes prayer feels a bit like an emergency line to God.

It is like divine panic button. Call God only in an emergency.

It can feel like that in the christian life. Days and days go by and all is hunky dory, the sun is shining and life seems beautiful. There feels no need for God. No need to speak to him or include him. I am fine thank you – I don’t need you right now.

This isn’t an emergency so I wont pull the red cord.

Not until I get to the point where I suddenly have to find accommodation for my relay worker or my bus is late and therefore I am late for an important meeting or a crises pops up and I think: I need to pray! This is an emergency.

When I read that sign, I laughed. But I also thought; this is how I often see God. My personal 999 operator. Where he will answer with: “what is your emergency?“. From this its easy to think that God only wants to listen to the big, important stuff and if I told him about my worries or even my joys he will respond with “Why are you wasting my time? This isn’t an emergency“.

My view of God in this is twisted. Because God isn’t like this. Our trinitarian God isn’t like this.

I do have a direct line to God. But not just for emergencies. I have one through Jesus Christ by the Spirit:

Hebrews 7v25 – Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

I love this. I love that Jesus is ALWAYS interceding for us. I love that Jesus prays for us as we see in John 17. I love that the spirit cries Abba Father on our behalf. Jesus brings us to the Father, he intercedes for us. Without him we could never of gone to the father, we would have been like the Israelites not being able to go near the mountain because we would die.

We are carried on Christ’s heart to the Father. A Father who loves us. This direct line that we have to God is a line that is carried by Jesus to the Father through the Spirit. And he wants to hear our hearts and our worries. Not just big emergency stuff, although that too. But also everyday stuff. Worries, anxieties, jobs next year, healing for my friend, good results, getting to work safely, good relationships at work, good conversations and whatever else faces us in the day.

Sometimes people may think we shouldnt be so quick to bring our problems to God. We shouldn’t be so quick to ask for healings or an ease to our suffering or help in our day. That we shouldn’t bring things that may seem trivial. That we should sweat it out a bit. But I am not up for that.

If we have a Father in heaven who wants to hear us. A Son who ALWAYS interceded for us carrying us to the Father on his heart and a Spirit that helps us and cries Abba Father to the Father. Then I want in on that. It makes me want to pray about everything. I want to thank God for everything. If God is Tri-unity of love and invites me in on that – then I want in.

Why? Because I am deluding myself in thinking that I can manage on my own or do perfectly well without God. I am wrong in thinking that God is only interested in certain prayers. It is all lies. Sometimes lies of the enemy. Sometimes lies I buy into because I forget the Gospel.

Some people may say – you can’t just ask God for things all the time.

And I wonder – why not? I don’t mean to demand things from God or treat him like a jackpot machine. But why not come to him like a child comes to the Father and ask for help? Or bring my worries? And also thank him for being great? Why can’t I do that all the time? Isn’t that what a loving Father wants? Isn’t that what Jesus is doing already on my behalf?

My heart needs to remember this. And this is a preach to myself more than anything else.

But I do have a direct line to God. But not a red emergency cord. I have a person who carries me on their heart all the time and another person who cries out Abba Father and a Father who hears this and delights in this and never tires from this.

I really want in on that!

Winning Hearts for Christ

I woke up this morning with a cold heart. Post mission week blues. I couldn’t bring myself to do much and so I put on some talks because a friend (Emily) said I should listen to this guy John Hindley. After listening to two of the talks I found my heart warmed again as he spoke about Christ. He not only reminded my of the love of Christ but that Christ is The Truth and sin is a result of not loving Jesus.

So if you are feeling weary, cold, distant and rubbish. Come and listen to these talks. Just listen and allow your heart to be won to Christ again.

Winning hearts to Christ Part 1a and 1b

Part 2 – The truth is a person

Part 3 – Preaching to the heart

Part 4 – Beauty wins the heart

Can we know God?

I read a sad article today. An article written here.

A question is behind this: Can we know God? The writer of the article says no, he says “The more you claim to know God and attempt to delineate his nature the less likely you are to have hit the bull’s eye.”

He goes on to say: “Faith is not the progressive unearthing of God’s nature but a recognition that he/she is fundamentally unknowable. The signpost points not to growing certainty but towards increasing non-knowing.”

It saddens me because if this were true, if God is indeed unknowable then all of us are in trouble. An unknowable God does not speak into or indeed to his creation (Genesis v3) or walks among them (Genesis 3v8) or dies for them at the cross (Mark 15v33-39). An unknowable God doesn’t adopt us as sons to the Father (Galatians 4v1-7) or betroths us to the Son (Hosea 2v19-20). He doesn’t sing over us (Zephaniah 3:17) or warms our heart with his tender mercy (Luke1v78). Instead we are left outside, cold and very alone.

We can do as David Bryant advises: Is anything left or does this destroy the very fabric of spirituality? What remains is a Quakerlike silence during which we can respond to the numinous, develop our perceptions, hone our morality and enhance our wonder at the staggering complexity of the universe.

It sounds modern, inclusive and quite pleasant. Keep God unknown and then I don’t have to seek him, I can instead find my own path. But this silence will eventually erode you and keep you lost forever. This silence feels very lonely and I don’t think the universe is shouting any answers back.

Instead there is better news than this: come and meet the God that is revealed to us. Come and meet Jesus who reveals the Father to us. For he is:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
(Colossians 1:15 ESV)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
(Hebrews 1:3 ESV)

Can we know God? Yes through Jesus Christ. Jesus reveals to us who the Father is:

No-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.(Matthew 11v27).

What a glorious verse! Come and know the Father because the Son has revealed him to us! Come to Jesus and you will know God. My friends, God is not unknown – the Trinitarian God has been revealed and has pierced this world with his everlasting light so that you no longer have to sit in darkness. Faith is not saying that God is unknown, Faith is receiving what Christ has done for you and believing that he is truly God and truly reveals the Father to us.

Bryant says: “If we envisage God as a person clothed with epithets such as powerful, loving, just, fear-inspiring and omnipotent we are creating a manmade image.”

And yet God chooses to come to us as a baby, which is what the Christmas story is all about. And through being fully human and fully God he shows us who the Father is and what he is like. And he is powerful, loving and just. Believe me you wouldn’t want a different God. The Trinitarian God that is revealed to us through Jesus Christ which we can read in scripture and it is good news and better news than an unknown God.

Calvin says: “For God would have remained hidden afar off if Christ’s splendour had not beamed upon us.”

But if God is unknown to you. Then come to Jesus. You could sit in silence and search for the hero inside yourself or cry out to the vacuum universe for answers of “who am I?” Or instead you can come to Jesus.

Come to him who holds the universe in the palm of his hand, who says to you that he will carry your burden, who will be a light in your darkness and who will give you his identity and the Father will proclaim over you “I am well pleased”. My prayer is that David Bryant and all who may agree with his article will come to Jesus, come and know him and drink deep out of his living water because then they will know God and God will no longer be unknown to them but revealed and found so beautiful.

Christmas: A lamb will be sacrificed

Advent Day 6:

At this point in the story it would seem that Isaac was the offspring we were looking for. Is he the one that will crush the serpent’s head? Is he the one to shed blood? Is he the one that brings adoption for slaves?

It starts off with the appearance that he may be because the Lord asks Abraham to do something that seems crazy:

“He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2 )

Here the son is to be offered as a sacrifice, blood is to be shed. And Abraham obediently prepares. Abraham knows the Lord and trusts in him, he trusts that either the Lord will raise his son to life or will provide another sacrifice. Abraham trusts that a lamb will be the sacrifice:

Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”(Genesis 22:8 )

Just as Abraham was about to perform the sacrifice, the Lord interrupts and stops Abraham:

“He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.”

(Genesis 22:12-13 )

This son wasn’t sacrificed but the Lord provided a sacrifice in his place. But the sacrifice wasn’t that of lamb as Abraham thought, it was a ram. And so Abraham calls this mountain “The Lord will provide”. And here in Moriah is the same place that the temple is built-in 2 Chronicles 3:1.

And so we wait for the lamb to be sacrificed. We know that Isaac isn’t the offspring that will crush the serpent’s head and so we wait for the Lord to provide the offspring that will be a sacrifice for us all.

Christmas is about God providing a Son to be sacrificed, a lamb to take away the sins of the world.

Christmas: Sons not Slaves

Advent Day 5:

We meet a man in Genesis called Abraham. He has great faith and trust in the Lord. The Lord promises him a son but Abraham and his wife Sarah are old.

So Abraham decides to take the promise into his own hands. He sleeps with Sarah’s servant and a son is born. They name him Ishmael. But he is not the son of a promise, instead he is a son of a slave. The Lord had promised that Sarah would give birth to a son, not her servant Hagar. Genesis 17:21 -

“But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

Galatians paints us a picture of why this is important:

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offspring’s,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 ESV)

We are already waiting for an offspring and that offspring must come from the line of promise. The offspring cannot come from slavery but from sonship.  Through his sonship he is going to offer us a great adoption:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV)

We are slaves and its only through this offspring can we be sons. His adoption of us means we are heirs, we can call on God as Father and it means we are no longer slaves – we are free.

If the promise came through a slave then there would be no sonship to offer. But Jesus offers the perfect adoption for us to be sons.

Christmas is about slaves becoming sons through the chosen offspring.

Jesus came Eating and Drinking

I have had the pleasure of writing a guest blog post on our church’s blog about Jesus and his ministry of food and how we as a community can do the same thing – inviting people for food and to hear the Good News of Jesus!

Here is a snippet of the post, but please do read more here.

All throughout Luke’s Gospel Jesus seems to be eating or seems to be at parties. Jesus enjoyed meals with other people and often it’s during those times that he spoke parables, broke stereotypes, included the outcasts and ministered to the people. Tim Chester has written a book called “A meal with Jesus” and he quotes Robert karris saying that “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal”. Jesus’ ministry in Luke’s Gospel revolves around food and he knows how to use meal times well to build relationships and to share his good news.

Grant then did a brilliant preach on how we are invited to the feast and how we invite others as well. Please do have a listen to this talk when you have some time to spare.

Also, on the subject of hospitality and inviting people in. Recently there was a great blog on the Fusion website where Miriam Swaffield and Pipa Elmes was given the task to host a dinner party and invite everyone and anyone in york to come and be fed and also a chance for them to chat to them about Jesus. Do watch the video below about it, I think its brilliant and check out the blog post to find out more!

The Sweetness of the Gospel

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’” – Hosea 14-16

Hosea 2:14-23 is the sweetness of the Gospel. The Lord sets out to allure and draw to himself a bride that has nothing in her worth alluring. By nature she is an outcast, running after the dregs of idols to satisfy a longing deep in her but soon finds murky water at a broken fountain. But the Lord, a sweet overflowing spring of fresh water calls her out from these dregs and calls her into a wilderness. This wilderness is desolate, reflecting the state of her condition; he draws her away from the distractions of the world to stand before Him. It is easy to assume that the Lords tone of voice towards the unfaithful bride would be that of anger and jealousy. This would seem fitting and at times we have seen the Lord be angry towards his bride for the way she has deserted Him and played the whore with other lovers. But in this passage the Lord speaks tenderly to his bride, it seems so soft and dripping with forgiveness. The sweetness of the Gospel is illuminated at this point, the Gospel is unveiled to show a great mercy and love from the Lord towards a wretched prostitute. Not only does the Lord speak tenderly to the bride, but he gives her vineyards and he makes the valley of trouble into a door of hope. He brings life and hope to a place that should be trouble and he gives it to her as a gift for she cannot earn such love. But with this gift he also gives her the most treasured gift of all – himself. He is no longer seen as a master or a ruler but she shall call him her husband. The wretched prostitute is spoken to with love and mercy, given hope and life and has been given a husband who loves and cherishes her, she shall not see him as a slave driver, master or dictator – but as a husband who will make her lie down in safety, who will never leave her, who will die for her and will give her his righteousness.

This Lord draws me and you to himself and speaks a great tenderness over us. I love this because it goes against what I expect the Lord to do and the way I hear people talk about the Lord. Often we hear how God hates us and hates the things we do. At this point in Hosea I don’t see a Lord who hates, but a Lord who loves very deeply for his people and his bride. This Lord speaks tenderly to capture her heart away from idols and shows her that the fullness of life is in Him alone. Despite times before where the Lord is jealous and angry with his people, it is always due to the overflowing of his love because it pains him to see his people drink from the maggot invested pits where next to it is beautiful spring water. So the question I ask myself is – do I preach this? To myself and to others? Or is it far easier to preach a God that is full of wrath and anger? It seems more affective, especially if it motivates people to live better lives. Many times I have heard – “we speak much of the love of God, but not enough of his wrath”.

Yet if we just speak of wrath it will only frighten and dull hearts. The love of Christ is the one that frees us, the Love that speaks tenderly, allures, gives himself, dies for us on the cross and gives us a new identity – brothers, sons, and bride. I want that to captivate my heart and the heart of my friends so that they may be drawn to Christ in awe and a burning love, rather than out of fear and duty.

The Gospel cannot be sweeter than this,we are that bride, we played the whore and gone after other lovers and yet he allures us and speaks tenderly over us. It’s a relief to know that in Jesus my desires and longings are fulfilled where as in idols I am left wanting with a broken heart and a deep hunger. And as a wretch myself to know that the Lord has called me out of slavery and into an adoring relationship with him where he is my husband and will never leave me is very good news!

Feasting on the Bible Part 2

In the last post we looked at why we don’t read the bible and hopefully you saw that some of the ways we view the bible are not helpful. But once we realise that we are not at the center of the bible and we read it because we want to know more of Christ, how then do we go about reading the bible?

May I share with you some ideas that have helped me? Remember this is in a realm of no guilt, we read for the pleasure of feasting on the word because it points to our beautiful saviour, not because we feel like we are reading it to please God.

Firstly I would start reading this wonderful article that turned my bible reading on its head.

There are two things that astounded me:

1. You can just read the bible, like a novel.

2. You can read in community

When I first heard that this guy read the bible like a novel I did ask myself – “Are you allowed to do that?” I mean this is scripture, holy words – can I just read it like Lord of the Rings? Shouldn’t I be studying every sentence and its context and implications on my life? I think this is where the guilt seeps in – I know of a scripture meditation technique where they would take a couple of verses and just meditate on it and wait for the Holy Spirit tell you what it means in your life. So I was in a group doing this and I waited… and I waited… and I waited… and well when it came to my turn to share my thoughts, I found that this just wasn’t working because I didn’t have anything. (Actually just made something up… which I wouldn’t recommend). But again I find this founded on the idea of scripture is all about *me*… and it’s not. So when I started just reading scripture, reading through the chapters from Genesis to Revelation like a novel,  I found that I was enjoying the story, things were starting to piece together, I learnt more about who Jesus was and I felt no pressure to try and draw something out of it. And there is nothing that says we can’t read the bible like a novel, we arn’t being dis-respectful at all. That doesn’t mean we don’t do bible studies, because we do and its good to do – there are times when I get to a point in my bible reading where I don’t understand something and I will stop and dig deeper. But for our “quiet time”, for our enjoyment to know more of Christ we can just sit and read about him and how he interacts with his people.

The second thing is that you can read the bible in community. There is an idea that our bible reading is private and “my time” with God. But what if we could share what we are reading with some other people and encourage them and be encouraged by them. In the article it describes how Ron does this – he chooses reading partners, they go away and read through a book in the bible and come back and chat about what they have been reading. Reading in community means accountability, sharing what we are learning, encouragement and also sharing our struggles and questions! I am sold on this idea. So myself and the lovely Emily are reading the bible together. We have date for when we are going to Skype each other and chat through what we have been reading. I am looking forward to it. I am looking forward to sharing Jesus with her and for her to share Jesus with me… it’s going to be good.

So why don’t you give it a go?

Start in Genesis and read as many chapters as you want a day… its not a race, there is not set amount of chapters you should read. Just read what you can and what you want to read and underline what you have noticed, what you find interesting, what you find difficult, what you have found exciting!

Then find a friend or two and ask them to do the same and set a date for when you meet/Skype together and share what you have been learning, underlining, struggling with. Pray together and then set a date for the next time you will do this again. It doesn’t matter if one of you is in the middle of Genesis and the other is ahead in Numbers… it doesn’t matter. It all about knowing Jesus more.

I have to say that I have done this read through a couple of times and each time I see something new and see something more of the big picture. The reason why I want to share these things with you is because I really struggled with reading my bible and there are hundreds of techniques but the most simplest technique of “just read it” really helped me understand who the bible is about, why I would want to read it and why I have no need to feel rubbish when I don’t.

I hope this helps and encourages you too.

Feasting on the Bible Part 1

Do you feel guilty when you think about reading the bible? When someone asks you – “so hows your bible reading going?” – what do you say? Do you feel guilt and shame rise up in you because you know you haven’t read it for weeks, maybe months? I wonder why that is? What compels you to read it in the first place and what stops you? Who makes you feel guilty when you don’t? Who told you that you should and what reason did they give?

Dan Hames has written a great article on three reasons why you don’t read your bible, here it is in a nutshell:

1. You don’t have time

2. You think the bible is about you

3. You think your bible reading is for God’s benefit

The first one doesn’t really count. Honestly it doesnt. If you have time for TV, facebook, looking at blogs, going out, shopping etc then you have time to read your bible – we make room for what we want to do. Having no time is not an excuse – let’s be honest here, you just don’t want to read. And let me be honest, there are times I don’t want to read it either because I find it boring, irrelevant and a waste of time. Yeh I am being honest. Why do I think those things? Because of the other two points that Dan Hames has mentioned. Its boring and irrelevant because I think the bible is about me and when I open it and if I don’t see me there then I think its boring and out-dated, in fact it gives me no sort of guide on what I should do today and what type of job I should get. It doesn’t give me any horoscope type predictions on my life – what happens if mars meets venus at a coffee shop and spills latte over the red carpet, what does that mean!! Tell me: Where am I in this story?!

Dear God,

In this bible you gave us, you are missing the main character – me! please change this so that I can read more about me in this story… Ok? thanks….  Amen.

Well here is the thing, we arn’t the center of this story. From Genesis to Revelation its all about the Fathers son – its all about Jesus. He is the focus of the story. Yes the Old Testament is about Jesus and it brings me joy to tell you that when you read the OT you can see Jesus in the scriptures and it’s not just about morals and strange laws. Why not open your bible and pray that you would see Jesus in what you are reading. It’s not a “where’s Wally”, it’s a  story  about the chosen seed, offspring, saviour, deliverer, redeemer, husband, king, and lover… the thread of the OT is woven from Jesus, with Jesus and to Jesus.

Where do you feature you may ask? Well if you are going to appear anywhere your character is the rebel, prostitute, outcast, foreigner, grumbler, sinner, disobedient one. Yeh you don’t start out that great. But that’s you and me. But look what happens to those people when they trust in their champion and saviour – they are brought to new life, they are saved, they winners with their champion because he has won it for them. This story isn’t about me, it’s about Jesus. Lets take our eyes off ourself and onto him. Lets see him in scripture and I tell you that you will delight in scripture much more – because the bible isn’t a great “how to guide” and it was never meant to be, we are meant to read it so that we may see more of Jesus who reveals His Father to us. That is wonderful.

And so reading your bible isn’t for God’s benefit. Really it isn’t. It’s for your benefit – to feed you, point you to Jesus and warm your hearts. God isn’t keeping tabs on your bible reading. If you are reading it because you think you have to or God will be displeased with you, then you will only read it out of guilt. As Dan Hames says:

“”In this context the Bible is given to us as a gift to feast on, rather than a project to complete before judgment day.  We will find we go to it to savour and enjoy, and when we miss a day we might feel hunger pangs, but we could never feel guilt, fear, or condemnation. “

Come and feast on the wonderful banquet that is on the table in front of you. Come, taste and see. Come and see Jesus and find that he is wonderfully fulfilling, warming our cold hearts. Thats what I need every day.

Part 2 will be about how we can read the bible.

Uncover Gospel Project Launch

Last night Plymouth CU uncovered some evidence…something that will change lives and they will be giving this evidence to their friends. The CU launched their Uncover Gospel project where they:

• Pray for 3 friends,
• Give the Gospel to 3 friends and
• Read the Gospel with 3 friends.

It was a great and creative launch night, we had a lot of fun with Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple appearing. It seemed like people were up for doing this project. Lets pray that they do! Here are some pictures of the night:

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