All In!

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39 ESV)

It's amazing what gloss we put on the call of discipleship. Globally there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian leaders selling their version of the call to follow Jesus that typically is rather comfortable for us or, in fact, totally physically rewarding. I love Christ's 'sales pitch' here: LOSE YOUR LIFE, GIVE IT UP! That's my type of call man! Cut away the dross, strip away the false dressing and lay it out. That's exactly what our saviour does here.

There is stunning reward for following Jesus. In fact the cost, which if you read this verse again is ALL - there is no halves here, there is no comfort style option, Christianity with all the trimmings so to speak - is infinitely outweighed by the reward! He's the reward, it is relationship with Jesus that makes 'sense' of tossing aside all other 'valuable' things and joyously holding on to the great treasure, the pearl of great price, that is life in the Kingdom, living for, and following devotedly after Jesus Christ.

In Him
Simon

Peter's denial

I wonder if there has been a 'darker night' in the soul of any other man. Think of it, not only have you shot your mouth off about the mighty measure of your boldness, but you've told Jesus Christ that he does not know what he's talking about when he exposes your false bravado. Then you go ahead and deny your friendship with the man who actually defines all that friendship is and should be - in front of a servant girl no less. Could it get any worse, any darker, any more bleak? Answer: Yes!

As you deny your association with the incarnate God, the one who is on a predetermined mission to give His life for you to ensure eternal oneness with your creator and give the gift of abundant life which we all long for - he looks over at you and 'looks straight' at you!
What do you do? Where do you run? Do you ache with every ounce of your entirety that maybe just maybe this is all a dream? Do you fake a 'so what, I never really was in on all this discipleship following Christ stuff any way?'
No you do exactly what Peter did (yeah it's Peter I'm talking about, you're free to read all about it in the 22nd Chapter of Luke) - you "weep bitterly.' Looking up the understanding of these words in the original Greek you come to see that this was no passive, gentle, quit sob. No this was loud wailing: heart-broken, emotion-releasing, tragedy-realizing wailing.

Not sure about you, but may I tell you that this pastor has stood in those shoes, maybe not to anywhere near the same degree, and of course without the incarnate Christ there to look into my eyes and display to me His deep, loving sorrow. But, I've lived in such a way, thought in such a way, been silent in such a way that I've denied my Lord. So what now... what about Peter? Is this the end of the story.

No it isn't. You see God is incomprehensibly forgiving to those who turn to Him in Godly sorrow - maybe too forgiving for many as they are unable to forgive themselves. The story goes on. Peter's does. Look at the restoration in John 21; see his participation in the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 (he's not left out cause he 'failed'); see just a little later as he displays the inner transformation that takes place with repentance, reconciliation, and Holy Spirit endowment.

O the grace of God, "He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I Jn. 1: 9)
How can you not love this one?

Simon

The Glory of Christ

John Owen was one of the most incisive writers of his generation. His generation was that of the Puritans so that is saying a lot. I love returning to his words when I am needing to be pushed deeper in my understanding of Christ and I did so today as part of some preparation. Here is some words he has to say regarding The Glory of Christ

"In Christ we behold the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy and power of God all working together for the great work of our redemption and salvation. The wisdom and love of God are in themselves infinitely glorious. But we cannot see how glorious they are except in the redemptions and salvation of the church which is achieved only in and by Christ. Then the beams of their glory shine on us with unspeakable comfort and joy...
...We believe in God only in and through Christ. This is the life of our souls. God Himself, whose nature is infinitely perfect, is the highest object of our faith. But we cannot come directly to God by faith. We must come by the way and by the helps he has appointed for us. This is the way by which he has revealed His infinite perfections to us, which is Jesus Christ who said, 'I am the way... No one comes to the Father except through me.' By our faith in Christ we come to put our faith in God Himself. And we cannot do this in any other way but by beholding the glory of God in Christ..."

Deep stuff hey.

Simon

Atonement Thoughts II

The orthodox, reformed view of the Atonement (Vicarious Penal Substitutionary Atonement) has faced much criticism in recent years (in fact for far longer than that). One accusation is that it puts across a God who is shockingly angry with His own Son which seems impossible as it pits God the Father against God the Son... this is Anti-trinitarian. Well Paul Wells puts sword to such an accusation with these words I read today.

"The mediator removes liability to penal judgment and guilt in the sense of condemnation leading to death. That Christ 'bore our sins' means He took on Himself their fatal consequences and died the death we ought to have died...

Surely God could never be angry with His own Son? That is wholly the case. God was never for an instant angry against the beloved Son. God was not at odds with Christ, He was at odds with sin. His anger was not pointed at the person of Christ like the anger of one person can be directed at another or at an object. In the particular function of mediator He accepted for others, Christ acted together with and for God and too the anger of God on Himself. Forgiveness is not wrung from a violent and a grudging God. Christ is the subject and the object of His own acts. By taking the anger of God against sin to Himself, and dying for it, He obtained forgiveness."

Such love Divine, O Saviour Mine

Simon

What 'Owns' You

"You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity..."

These are the words with which John Piper challenged 20000 college students in the summer of 2000 (see here). Piper's earnest plea was that this groups of 20-somethings not waste their life on the cheap temporal pleasures lavished upon them by a society fixated only with the now. Piper wanted their lives to count for so much more.

What owns you? What dominates your affection, what grasps your attention more than any other thing? Maybe it is a multitude of things all wrapped up in this wicked rat race of keeping up with the mind-blowing levels of consumption by our peers in order to maintain 'the image.'

Piper's whole message is borne out of his focus on the words of Paul in Galatians 6:14. Here Paul claims that he will boast only in one thing: THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. For Paul, and so it should be for us, the cross of Jesus Christ was the central element of all reality. For him reality is because the cross was. As Christians we must ask ourselves if we could make the same claim.

We must ascertain whether everything we seek to do, our thoughts, our affections stem from our absolute love for the person and work of Jesus Christ crucified. It will bring about transformation if that is the case.

Simon

Entwined Stories

I had the great privilege of sharing at our (Church of Christ the King Watford) Christmas Service on the evening of last Sunday. It is always a difficult message to prepare as a Pastor because it seems that you need to make it fresh, or new, each and every year, even though it is obviously the same theme. Christmas is the only time of the year that there is a 'retained' inclination within the people of the UK to actually attend a church service, so it is important that each of us as leaders uses it as an opportunity to bring the gospel to the ears of those who do attend.

The theme that struck me this year was to highlight how the stories of Santa and Christ intertwine at this time of year in a way that actually muddies the water and destroys any clarity about what may be true and what is fantasy. The story of Santa is a fun one, even a good one. It is one that is meant to bring smiles, and expose us to a season of peace and goodwill, so that must be a good thing. But the joy does not last, in fact 'Experts' say that the last Tuesday of the month of January is typically the saddest day of the year. So you have 5 weeks to enjoy any good feeling that may have come with the Christmas rush.

The Christmas story of a Saviour born as a child is riddled with reports of peace to all men and goodwill. In Isaiah chapter 9 where the birth of Christ is foretold over 700 years before the event, we see some stunning phrases about the eternal reign of Christ, the peace that will last forever as the 'government' rests upon His (Christ that little baby) shoulders. This is the essential point of departure for the two stories. In fact, the way to see the difference is to imagine a world without either of the two stories.
A world without the story of Santa and his industrious elves leads to quite a mundane, even if less chaotic, end of the year without the hope of receiving that 'super gift.'
A world without the story of Christ... well that is a world without a hope; it is a world where the horrors of the World Wars; traumatizing stories like the murder of Baby P (see story) have no conclusion; and where there is nothing to deliver us from our own passion for genocide.

Think about it...

Simon