Published on 24 November , 2007
in Articles.
I need to lay my cards on the table right at the outset. As far as I know I have never been persecuted for being a Christian. Certainly there have been occasions where ‘friends’ have made fun of me. Undoubtedly there have been times when my Christian faith has caused me to be excluded from some activity or opportunity. But persecuted? Not yet.
And that, frankly, is quite remarkable. The Christian heritage that we have enjoyed in Britain for centuries has kept the vast majority of us shielded from the truth which most of the rest of the world knows all too well. The persecution of Christians is a normal state of affairs.
I say all this because there is an increasingly realisation that the privileges that we have enjoyed for so long are beginning to come to an end. Even in this country there have been recent occasions where Christians have lost their jobs simply for living out their Christian convictions. There have even been those arrested and prosecuted for doing what you and I believe the Bible commands us to do.
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I recently had a conversation with a well-known pastor who claimed that theological colleges shouldn’t teach theology. After dropping that bombshell, he explained what he meant. Instead of simply teaching theology, he said, they should teach students how to do theology.
The distinction is important, and goes for churches as much as for theological colleges. Every Christian – not just those who will become our pastors – needs to be equipped to know not just what the Bible says, but how to find out what the Bible says. Sadly, few of our churches explicitly teach this skill, and most Christians are relying more and more on preachers and commentators to tell them what the Bible says, and losing the joy of discovering it for themselves.
Worse still, some evangelical churches appear to be preaching a new Catholicism. Just as medieval priests did not believe that the laity could be trusted to read the Bible on their own, so many evangelical churches give the impression that it’s just too risky to let the ‘ordinary Christian’ read the Bible without the help of more experienced Bible teachers in print or in person.
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Published on 5 October , 2007
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Loving the truth is definitely not an optional extra for any Christian. Loving the truth is not less important, nor less ‘spiritual’ than loving the gospel, living a holy life, or even loving our Saviour. Indeed, it is impossible to separate loving the truth from those things. We cannot do them unless we love the truth.
Yet there are many Christians who show by their lives that they do not really love the truth at all. They may believe the truth, and possibly even admire the truth. They may defend the truth, and perhaps even preach the truth. But they do not love the truth. They are not passionate about the truth. Some Christians have a worldly attitude which shows itself in immorality. Some have a worldly attitude which shows itself in materialism. And some Christians have a worldly attitude which shows itself in that they do not really love the truth. Perhaps you are one of them. I fear that sometimes I am one too.
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Every consistent Christian is passionate about the truth. We know this because 2 Thessalonians 2:10 tells us that those who are not Christians “perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved”. I have never met a Christian who does not believe that we ought to be passionate about prayer, passionate about the gospel, and passionate about Jesus – even if we have to admit that often our lives don’t reflect what we say we believe. But I’ve met lots of Christians who regard those who are passionate about the truth with some suspicion, as if they’re not really sure whether it’s right to be passionate about the truth at all. So what evidence do we have from the Bible that tells us that every Christian must be a lover of the truth?
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Within evangelicalism a war is brewing. It is a war of ideas, or more accurately, a war of theology. And it concerns the most central aspect of our entire system of faith – the atonement. If we misunderstand this doctrine, it has eternal consequences. he war, of course, is not new. It has raged for centuries, ebbing and flowing throughout the generations. What is new, at least within living memory, is that the war is now raging inside confessional evangelicalism. Last month it was announced that the Word Alive partnership was to separate. For the previous fourteen years three organisations — UCCF, Keswick Ministries and Spring Harvest — had worked jointly to organise this annual event, enjoyed by thousands every Easter.
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Published on 18 March , 2007
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During my lifetime I’ve heard about three and a half thousand sermons. Often I’ve been challenged, uplifted, provoked, transformed. Sadly, during others, I’ve been bored.
I believe preaching is one of the most important things that the church can do. 1 Corinthians 1:21 says, “God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe”. But in Romans 10:17 Paul also says “…faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (emphasis added).
And the writer to the Hebrews makes things even more explicit. Hebrews 4:2 says, “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”
So is the way a sermon is heard any less important than the way it is preached?
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Published on 15 March , 2007
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A few days ago I was discussing the excesses of our entertainment generation, and the way that can so easily creep into our lives. I finished by saying “What is God’s great plan for you and I to find fulfilment? Not television or concerts or the weekend. God wants us to be fulfilled, and He’s given us a wonderful gift to ensure that happens — the gift of work.” Today, I want to spell this out in a bit more detail
Work is good
Why then do we never wake up on a Monday morning and shout to the heavens: ‘Thank you God! I can go to work today!’ Why instead, do we spend our week longing for Friday and the weekend?
It is true — work really is good…
- Genesis 2:15 says, ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.’ In paradise itself, where everything was ‘very good’, work was being done. And not just being done, Adam’s very existence in the garden was in order to work.
- Ephesians 2:10 tells us ‘For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.’ Adam was created so he could work. The Christian was saved in order that he could work.
- In Matthew 9:38 Jesus says we are to ask God to ‘send out workers into his harvest field’. The Christian is not just to work, he’s to pray that more would joining him!
- 2 Timothy 3:16–17 says, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful… so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ One reason the Bible was given was so that we would be able to work well.
- Finally, in John 17:4 Jesus says, ‘I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.’ What did Jesus do while He was here on earth? He worked!
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