The preacher's motto.
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Author: glenscriv
Don’t trust the supralapsarian youth leader
Last week at youth club it was pandemonium. We had to ban 3/4 of the kids for this week.
So tonight we were expecting small numbers. But not as small as it turned out. Only four turned up. And three of them had actually been banned the week before and should not have been there. The one legitimate member was desperate that we let in her three mates.
What should we do? Should we let them all in even though word would get around that our 'no' doesn't mean 'no' (these kids really need to learn boundaries!)? Or should we stand on principle, keep the three out and admit the one girl who really didn't want to be the only kid in the club?
Well the other youth leaders know I'm a soft touch, so before I caved in and let everyone come they issued a firm 'no' and we ran the club with five leaders and one youth. The one youth was not happy. She neither spoke nor joined in any of the activities. Sigh.
It was only as we left that I realised the right course of action. See as we left, the three banned youth were still hanging around church property - they had nothing else to do on a Thursday night. And then it struck me - I should have gone out and joined them in their exile. Wouldn't that have been the Christmas thing to do?
Wouldabeen great! We would be telling them, Our no means no - they can't come in. But nonetheless, I will go out to them. If they can't come in to hear the word of life I'll go out into their cold, dark banishment and bring it to them.
And so I kicked myself all the way home. Why didn't I think of that earlier? But as I was berating myself, a plan began to form... In future, I'll ban 'em all just so that the following week I can join them in it! Cunning huh?
Which brings me to the moral of this story: Don't trust the supralapsarian youth leader.
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We’ve got the whole world in our hands
Walking through a London train station yesterday I had to weave my way through hundreds of protestors. Their favourite placard seemed to be this one:
photo from here
The message reads: Our climate is in our hands. And at least 20 000 gathered in the capital to remind us of this: we've got the whole world in our hands.
Maybe it's coincidence but it's pretty close to a Guardian headline this week that said, regarding Copenhagen, "Our destiny is still in our hands."
Wouldn't we love that to be true!? How we long to be this world's solution! And therefore, however costly it might be, we are eager to cast ourselves as the problem. (See this former post entitled 'Anthropogenic')
The cost we seem willing to pay to keep ourselves at the centre beggars belief. The Spectator reports the cost of making good on pledges agreed at the G8 summit:
A high global CO2 tax starting at $68 could reduce the world economic output by a staggering 13% in 2100 - the equivalent of $40 trillion a year. That is to say, it would cost 50 times the expected damage of global warming. (Bjorn Lomborg, The Spectator, 5/12/09)
But hey - that's the price you pay when you take your destiny into your hands. And you pay it willingly and with self-righteous zeal. Because you are coming of age. To this you were born. We are the ones we've been waiting for, and all that.
But Christmas tells a different story. He is the One we were waiting for. And the government is upon His shoulders. (Isaiah 9:2-7).
Yet whenever we turn from Him we become slaves to the devil's lie: 'Be like God'. And the result is a captivity to fear and an incessant struggle to make the world work. We end up as slaves and we willingly pay for the honour. Eventually in blood. But no cost is too dear in order to secure our own messianic delusion.
I don't know about the science involved here. But if you ever wonder whether a skeptic's approach to the debate could account for the so-called scientific consensus on warming or why people would be willing to pay so much if it's unnecessary - I think the gospel has ready answers for this.
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Church as ‘Date-night’
Worship is all of life right? Romans 12:1 right?
Well ok. But try telling your spouse, "We don't need to set aside special time for each other, marriage is all of life.'
No, no, no. Church is date-night. (My Sunday night sermon).
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Recipe for a 20 minute ‘Quiet Time’
Close your eyes.
Imagine yourself kneeling at the side of Christ's throne, head on His chest, His arm around your shoulder.
Christ is speaking. He's addressing His Father.
And this is what He's saying: Psalm 119.
Listen in. This really is the one thing you must do. Listen.
Add your Amens and your Thankyous as He speaks.
Find a verse or phrase to hide in your heart for today.
Pray the Lord's prayer.
Stand up and walk into your day.
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Are we afraid of preaching news that’s too good?
I dunno, this isn't based on anything but a vague gut feeling (yeah, yeah, as opposed to my usually well-researched and even-handed analysis!) but...
Are we afraid of preaching news that's too good?
I just wonder whether that 'honey mouthed' Puritan preacher, the 'sweet-dropper', Richard Sibbes was surrounded by a more bitter fraternity of preachers. You can imagine them, can't you. Consoling one another behind closed doors that their dull and tasteless offerings were the more faithful for it. "Sibbes is nice, but you can make the good news too good sometimes. We need to be more measured."
Now obviously we must preach judgement - I'm all for that. (As was Sibbes). I intend soon to write some stuff about preaching hell. But can we manage to preach judgement in such a way that the gospel is magnified? I hope so. (Cue enthusiastic comment from TheOldAdam!)
But yeah - it just seems like an unspoken rule among conservative evangelicals that the gospel offer we hold out is allowed to be somewhat encouraging. We can even make it quite appealing, so long as we guard it around with enough conditions and qualifications. But I do sense an unspoken fear of really and freely offering Christ in all His life-giving, Spirit-anointing goodness.
Is it just me or does anyone else feel the invisible hand of some well-meaning wowser keeping us in our chairs and urging us not to get too carried away but rather to content ourselves with being 'challenging, clear, faithful, helpful' and all that. Who is that guy? And what's the big fear?
Anyway... just a thought I had when I should have been finishing off my sermon. Must go and make it plainer.
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I don’t open the bible to receive a lecture…
I open the bible to receive Christ.
Here's my sermon on John 20:30-31. Audio here.
The Scriptures bring me Jesus. Jesus brings me life.
Sermon text below...
...continue reading "I don’t open the bible to receive a lecture…"
You’re in good company
Just so my regular readers know, you're vastly outnumbered on this blog by image searchers (so wordpress tells me).
The most popular searches are 'kebab', 'waterfall', 'puffer fish', 'fat cat' and 'ned flanders'...
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...which, I think you'll agree, represents with eloquent simplicity the profound and far-reaching concerns of Christ the Truth..
If Satan’s got that much cheek, there’s no way I’m gonna have less!
Wednesday afternoon bible study. Hebrews 4:14-16 - "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence..."
Sheila pipes up with my favourite bible study comment ever:
Well of course I'm going to approach with confidence. I mean the blinking devil waltzes into God's throne room doesn't he?! What a nerve! Blasted devil walks straight in. Well if Satan's got that much cheek, there's no way I'm gonna have less.
No merit in man’s receiving – only in God’s giving
“To be bursting with thanksgiving is a true witness of the Spirit within us. For the voice of thanksgiving speaks without ceasing of the goodness of God. It claims nothing. It sees no merit in man’s receiving but only in God’s giving. It marvels at his mercy. It is the language of joy because it need look no longer to its own resources.
The Christian rejoicing in this blessing of a thankful heart will have his eyes fixed upon the right person and the right place, Christ at God’s right hand. He cannot be taken up with himself without being immediately reminded that everything he possesses is the gift of God.”
R.C. Lucas, The Message of Colossians and Philemon
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Thanksgiving for a God who is already good, merciful and radically, super-abundantly giving. Daddy already looks good, and I'm just grateful!
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