What in the World am I doing?

This week is the Crosslinks SMILE gap year training conference. There are teams of Gap Year Students heading off to the Gambia, Uganda and Thailand, all on programmes where Evangelism, Service and Discipleship are key.

I popped over to give some talks on Mission. An afternoon session, broken into 3 mini-sessions from Isaiah, Luke and Acts.

We had a lot of fun, starting off by designing 'World Problem' Top Trump cards, thinking about presenting problems in the world. We then saw what God is doing in the world, in Isaiah 66, from which we were able to draw up a time-line, from when Isaiah received his revelation, through to Jesus's return, and his bringing in of the New Creation, and the eternal judgement. Then we filled in the timeline with how God achieves his mission of gathering a people from all nations to see his glory, 1) through sending a sign, the Lord Jesus, 2) through sending out people who have witnessed the sign, to declare God's glory out to the nations...

A break of light relief before looking at Luke 19, and Jesus' coming to earth to seek and to save the lost... by teams attempting to seek and save the lost (a jelly baby of course - in bowls of squirty cream)... using only their mouths... messy and hilarious! Then diving into Luke 19 thinking about Jesus' priority... proclaiming his message: good news to the rich, good news to the poor... good news to the well-fed, good news to the hungry... good news to the oppressed, good news to the oppressor... it's all about whether we see people as Jesus sees people - lost! For only two category will matter on that final day - those who submit to the Lord Jesus, and those who live as rebels and traitors to Him.

Next, groups headed outside, with a box of matches. A member of the group had to light a match, and tell their group members the gospel, before their fingers burnt... some hilarious squeals, screams and people totally crumbling under the apparent pressure of holding a lit match.

Then back together again, for a look at Acts 1 and 2, seeing how Jesus sends the disciples out to all nations (just as we were expecting from Isaiah)... and how then we today are equipped, with the Holy Spirit, and the disciples message (looking at the gospel content from the latter half of Acts 2)... to go out to all nations... while Jesus continues to work from his heavenly throne room...

Awesome time... real encouragement to see young people, eager to align themselves with God's agenda, of taking the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins, to all nations...

Recordings of talks here

Calling Christian Leaders

John Stott’s “Calling Christian Leaders” is a very helpful set of short chapters, teaching from 1 Corinthians 1-4.

In chapter 1, looking at 1 Corinthians 1:1-17, Stott shows us the ambiguity of the church, that the church today: is sanctified, yet still sinful, and called to be holy (v2, v11); is enriched, yet still defective as it longs for the return of Christ (v5-8); is united, yet still divided (v10-17).

Chapter 2 get us into 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, showing how power is to be found in weakness, when it comes to Christian leadership. A weak message, of Christ crucified (yet the powerful way God saves), a weak preacher (that faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power), reaching weak, foolish, lowly people (that the glory would rest with God, not proud, arrogant man)…

Stott then goes on to look at 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, being concerned to show us here the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Scripture. Stott helpfully brings out 4 stages: that the Spirit searches, knowing even the deep things of God (v10); the Spirit reveals God’s salvation to the apostles (biblical authors) (v12); the Spirit inspires the apostles (biblical authors) to communicate God’s salvation to others (v13); the Spirit enlightens those who read the message (v13-16). It’s a call for the Christian leader to humble himself. To humble himself before Scripture, and study it diligently, but in absolute dependence on the Spirit, without whom, our hearts will remain dull, cloudy, deaf and blind.

The penultimate chapter concerns itself with 1 Corinthians 3, and Stott expands the three analogies that Paul uses to describe the church: God’s field (v5-9), God’s building (v9-16) and God’s temple (v16-17). Stott shows us how Christian leaders have nothing to boast about - it is only God who makes things grow; that Christian leaders mustn’t move on from Christ crucified, the foundation of the church, and the way a solid, durable church is built (not with the cheap, perishable teaching of the world); the Christian leaders mustn’t forget what the church is – “it may (in our view) consist of uneducated, unclean, unattractive people. And the congregation may be small and immature and factious. Nevertheless, it is the church of God, His dwelling place by His Spirit, and needs to be treated as such.” The chapter totally downplays the Christian leaders, as God the Father gives the growth, God the Son is its only foundation, and it is the dwelling place of God the Spirit.

Finally, Stott finishes with a look at 1 Corinthians 4. A particularly challenging chapter on who, or what, Christian leaders must be like: servants of Christ (v1); stewards of revelation (v1-2); the scum of the earth (v8-13); fathers of the church family (v14-21). That which underlines each of these 4 is humility, humility before Christ – whose subordinates we are; humility before Scripture – of which we are stewards; humility before the world – whose opposition we are bound to encounter; humility before the congregation – whose members we are to love and serve.

There’s a real challenge to our thinking in v8-13, as Stott gets us into some tough verses on what Christian leadership is like… heading to death in the amphitheatre, the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world, thirsty and hungry. Stott helpfully gets these verses under our skin… “..the difficulty we have in applying this text to ourselves may indicate how far we have drifted from the New Testament. True, the persecution of Christians is increasing in some (especially Hindu and Muslim) cultures. Yet most of use are not cursed, persecuted or slandered. Today, even in a non-Christian, pluralist or secular culture, it is still regarded as quite respectable even honourable to be an ordained clergyman. … but it is not everywhere thus, and it should certainly not be taken for granted. I think we need to listen again to the words of Jesus: ‘Woe to you when all men speak well of you’ (Luke 6:26). Beware, I beg of you, of the temptation to be a popular preacher! I doubt if it is possible to be popular and faithful at the same time.”

The Supremacy of God in Preaching

This short book on preaching by Piper is well worth a read... a great reminder of the goal of preaching, and responsibilities therein. Piper takes a look at Edwards, in the last section of the book, to look at his character and thinking...

This book is full of gems, encouragements and challenges to those involved in declaring the supremacy of God...

As Piper heads to his conclusion, here are some quotes that he uses, which gives you an idea of the kind of content that preceded...

"They felt their infinite responsibility as stewards of the mysteries of God and shepherds appointed by the Chief Shepherd to gather in and watch over souls. They lived and labored and preached like men on whose lips the immortality of thousands hung. Everything they did and spoke bore the stamp of earnestness, and proclaimed to all with whom they came into contact that the matters about which they had been sent to treat were of infinite moment... Their preaching seems to have of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy; it was far too solemn to be such; it was massive, weighty, cutting, piercing, sharper than a two-edged sword."
Horatius Bonar, 1845 (from introduction to John Gillies' "Historical Collections of Accounts of Revival")

"I love to think of coming to Christ, to receive salvation of him, poor in spirit, and quite empty of self, humbly exalting him alone; cut off entirely from my own root in order to grow into, and out of Christ; to have God in Christ be my all in all"
Edwards, "Personal Narrative"

Self Worth

I get emails from GotQuestions each week, which are helpful at looking at what the Bible has to say about various topics... this weeks was on self-worth, and can be read here... a student in Plymouth while I was there on mission recommended them to me, and I certainly pass on that recommendation today.

The article ends:

"Our self-worth is too often based on what other people tell us about ourselves.
The one, true authority on our self-worth is Jesus Christ, and since He gave His
own life up for us by dying on a cross, that should tell us just how valuable we
really are."

Helpfully justified earlier in the article:

"The Bible tells us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans
5:8). In fact, we were “were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). What
worth is there in dead things? None. God imputed to us His own righteousness (2
Corinthians 5:21) not because we were worthy of it, but because we were
unworthy, unlovable, and unable to make ourselves worthy in any way. But—and
here’s the miracle—He actually loved us in spite of our condition (John 3:16)
and because He did, we now have infinite worth."

When we look at the Cross, we don't just see our "self-worth" wrapped up in the love God has shown toward us... we see the seriousness of our sin (it takes His Son on the Cross to deal with it); we see God's righteousness, as he justly justifies through the Cross; we see his mercy and grace, by which we are saved; we see God's glory - a glory that we will share in, as we stand in his grace! What worth has been bestowed upon those who call out in their unworthiness!

The article is worth a read... along with this post from a brother that follows on nicely

3 days of sunshine....

... 3 days of enjoying a Frappocinno....

Just enjoyed my third over lunch with my wife... awesome... bring on the summer sun!!!

Then bring on the Son... when we can bask in the glory and radiance of Him...

"And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,

for the glory of God gives it light,

and its lamp is the Lamb."

-Revelation 21:23 ESV-