Rest

August is what we hope as a leadership at X1 will be 'rest' month.
We are seeking to pull back a number of things in order to know somewhat more of a restful season because, firstly, it is very good for us, and, secondly, it will hopefully enable us to be full of energy to move forward with renewed vigour and focus in the ministry life of X1 as the summer ends.
We as the LJ family are really going to try and make this work for ourselves and I am sincerely hopeful that, even as we still offer ministry and celebration times together as a church this summer, many of the X1ers will find time to enter "sabbath," the rest of God.

I pulled out an old quote from Eugene Peterson's, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places and some thoughts upon that to reinforce the idea, and importance, of rest:

"Most of us have a difficult time understanding history with God as the major and definitive presence. We have grown up getting our sense of history from so-called historians, scholars, and journalists for whom God is not germane or present in what they study and write. We are thoroughly trained by our schools, daily papers, and telecasts to read history solely in terms of politics and economics, human interest and environmental conditions, military operations and diplomatic intrigue. If we have a mind for it, we can go ahead and fit God in somewhere or other. But the biblical writers do it the other way around; they fit us into the history in which God is the primary reality."- Eugene Peterson

One of the things most 'reassuring' in the above insight by Peterson is the reminder he gives that God is fully at work in our every-day run of the mill lives. God does not need to work distinct from our reality He loves to be fully alive in us as we do whatever we do for most of the day.
The powerful words I have quoted above are a poignant challenge to not only secular society, but to Christians who are being won over by the views of said secular society.
Here is the call folks: If we are immersed in the information overload offered by those who will not include God (and I assure you He is not awaiting an invitation He is everywhere present) we will lose sight of God for ourselves.

Peterson calls believers to return the notion of sabbath, to rest in awe and wonder at the person of God and His work in creation. We must remove ourselves from 'history' sometimes and look fully and humbly at all that God is and has done. When we do not do this, when we do not stop and wonder, we will lose our connection to God, we will forget Him and be defined by secularity.

His word, silent meditation, and getting away to a place where we are confronted by the naked beauty of God's creation shouting forth the glory of God are all means of seeing God again, feeling Him, loving Him, dreaming Him, knowing Him and above all worshiping Him.
Please let us not be defined by those who for now have removed God from 'history' because at the end of this season of 'history' they too will bow the knee and confess that "Jesus is King" and it is actually His Story after all!

Simon

Non-Minced Words from Spurgeon to Hearers & Preachers

I've literally known people leave X1 - I've certainly had people call me up saying I was condemning them - through feeling what I had preached was an attack on them or their behaviour. I personally find this remarkably arrogant to feel that someone has crafted a whole sermon - the hours of labour and prayer it involves - simply to use it as an opportunity to 'single someone out'. If preachers are doing that then they should stop and they of course will meet an exceedingly righteous judge and one whom will put them straight. It is of course, by the way, precisely the role of preaching to "cut to the heart" but that is maybe a little too biblical to digest.

Anyways, while preparing for this week's message at X1 I came across Charles Haddon Spurgeon's inimitable, majestic way of saying what a preacher needs to say about his sermons (if of course the sermons are any good and in fact are NOT crafted to please the listeners and draw the crowds - some teachers give in to that temptation I assure you)

"Please remember that it is not my objective to extol doctrine that is the most popular or most palatable, nor do I desire to set forth the views of any one individual. My one aim is to give what I judge to be the meaning of the text. I probably deliver doctrinal principles that many of you may not like. Truly, I would not be at all surprised if you did not like it. Even if you become vexed and angry, I will not be at all alarmed, because I have never believed that I was commissioned to teach what would please my readers or that I was expected by sensible and gracious people to shape my views to suit the notions of my audience. I count myself responsive to God and to the text. If I explain the meaning of the text, I believe that I will give the mind of God and will be likely to have His favor, which will be sufficient for me–whoever may contradict me. However, let every candid mind be willing to receive the truth if what I am expressing is clearly in the inspired Word."

- C.H. Spurgeon

God's word is a two-edged sword able to cut to the very depths of human being. A preachers aim is to wield it with boldness, incisiveness, and transforming effectiveness.

Simon

100% and 100% = 100%

We had a brilliant discussion at our X1 Explore group last night (check out more about Explore groups here). We met in the home of two single men (pre-legends I may say) who hosted excellently and one of them leading on the evening asked this, deliberately difficult, question, "In living life for Christ, who's responsibility is it to obey, God's or ours?" The response, the ensuing confusion, dare I say the apparent tension proved it's effect! (Questions can be hard, and can force us to have to REALLY think, it's not a sin!)

For many the conclusion was, "It's 50-50. 50% God and 50% us." Wrong! It's All God all us! It's 100% God and a 100% us. It is a delightful insight first highlighted to me by the ever-remarkable Jonathan Edwards and, fortunately, an insight profiled by John Piper on Twitter on July 4th for his invite to Desiring God's Upcoming Conference, "Act the Miracle" (See link here).

Here is Piper quoting directly from Edwards

"We are not merely passive in [efficacious grace], nor yet does God do some and we do the rest, but God does all and we do all. God produces all and we act all. For that is what he produces, our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects wholly passive and wholly active.

So God is said to convert [2 Timothy 2:25], and men are said to convert [Luke 11:32], or turn. God makes a new heart [Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26], and we are commanded to make us a new heart [Ezekiel 18:31]. God circumcises the heart [Deuteronomy 30:6], and we are commanded to circumcise [our hearts, (Deuteronomy 10:16)]. Not merely because we must use the means in order to the effect, but the effect itself is our act and our duty." (Writings on The Trinity, Grace, and Faith, WJE Online Vol. 21, 251.)

Thus Edwards exhorts us:

"I would earnestly exhort those who hear me, to make to themselves a pure heart (James 4:8). Though it be God's work to purify the heart [Psalm 51:2], yet the actual, or rather the active, procuring of it is your act. . .

We must not think to excuse ourselves by saying that it is God's work, that we cannot purify our own hearts; for though it be God's work in one sense, yet it is equally our work in another; James 4:8, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."

If you do not engage in this work yourselves, and purify your own hearts, they will never be pure. If you do not get a pure heart, the blame of it will be laid to your own backwardness." (Sermons and Discourses, 1730-33, WJE Online Vol. 17, 85)

Even John Piper on his brief commentary for these words of Edwards for the invite notes that this is what? Yip, paradox!

Do ALL you can to obey God, He'll do His bit I assure you!

Simon

Juggling?

How do you do with the juggling? Maybe that's not what it feels like to you - this 'life-balance' thing! That's precisely what it feels like to me, to us - wifey LJ included. Maybe for you its like some sort of harmonious, synchronized process that flows seamlessly in congruence with your spiritual growth, personal development etc. Not for me/us! Actually, increasingly, I'm coming to see that this juggling - and remember some of the 'items' being juggled are of such inestimable worth and startling fragility - is precisely the 'soil' in which my spiritual growth and personal development take place.

One powerful verse from Paul's first epistle to the Corinthian church which has always had significant meaning to me comes to mind in this context, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (I Co. 10.31) Why that verse? Well I think growing up, and in the preponderance of messages on Christian living that I hear, I thought/hear growing in love for the Lord and developing spiritually were/are things that take place in some sort of vacuum - let me break it to you they don't! For the vast majority of Christ-followers it's not in some remote, tumultuous part of the globe as a brave missionary that we will fight for spiritual growth; it's not leading some dynamic ministry praying for thousands and seeing the dead raised, but in the midst of the juggle, the stuff of daily living that we can most develop Christlikeness, that we MUST develop Christlikeness. We are to be Christlike in real life: holding down a job, loving wife, kids, extended family, keeping healthy, reading the word every day, serving the local church, loving the church family, balancing the books, consistently growing in holiness, driving on the roads, and checking in on what shows our kids are watching. Know what I mean?

Man I want to juggle well, I want to love my Lord, wife, kids, and church family well and still feel like I'm standing and flourishing being light and salt to a dying world. Going to need serious power from above and those old-school biblical traits of perseverance and steadfastness.
How about you? You going to re-commit to it again?

Simon

Be Provocative about our Joy

Last night we shared a simply brilliant evening as an Explore group (our name for small groups in X1). The intimacy and unity we shared as 12 people was sublime. At X1 we push this area of church community almost relentlessly - sadly it flies in the face of both a consumerist and individualistic mindset so the message is ignored in many quarters - because of moments like last night. Sunday mornings and just having dinner with one other or another couple you "like" do not offer what we shared last night.

We're going through the X1:01 content as a group; content we are hoping as a leadership will introduce people to X1's ethos, vision, mission, and philosophy of ministry. Some of it is purposefully provocative and a brief paragraph in last night's topic, "How Can I Live for Jesus?" was precisely that. Here it is:

"It is critical that a new believer who has recently come to faith in Christ understands that this is life as humanity was intended to live. Jesus promised that He came to grant abundant life to his followers. He stated that rivers of living water would flow within them. He also declared that as we live a life of obedience, inspired by the wonderful intimacy with God that is ours as a Christian, He would abide with us and cause us to live a fruitful, joy-filled life."

Why is this paragraph even in X1:01? Well it is there for three reasons really

1) Joy-filled, abundant-life faith is the sole message of Christ regarding his followers.
2) Sadly few believers are portraying this reality. I think this is primarily due to the contemporary Christian misinterpretation of the context of joy. We think it should be my devoid of sorrow, pain & suffering but the biblical picture is that it is joy in the midst of sorrow, pain & suffering.
3) Joy is contagious, freeing and powerfully evangelistic.

So, what does your 'living for Jesus' look like? You may retort that I do not know the pain which you suffer, to which I simply allow the author of Hebrews speak, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross ..." (Hebrews 12:2) Speaks powerfully.

Don't Get this...

In the course of my bible-reading today I read 2 Corinthians 6. It is a passage of scripture that always causes me to ruminate upon a pastoral situation that is repeatedly encountered in any church situation and often with increased regularity in a church with younger people seeking their "life-time partner" so to speak.
It is an emotionally charged time and one, in an increasingly individualised setting, which few people are genuinely and wholeheartedly willing to receive the input of the church family. The pastoral situation I am referring to is the dating/marrying of an unbeliever.

To not want to hear what your peers and spiritual overseers may want to say in relation to the issues of romance and marriage is one thing, but to not heed the overt command of the Scriptures is wholly another. Again and again as I was a single young man hoping and longing for someone with whom I could honour the Lord and pursue the calling I sensed from him I received counsel regarding whom I was pursuing at any one time. But one thing that was an, "Umm duh, you don't need to tell me that" issue was the dating of someone who did not share my love for the Lord.

Seriously, I have always found dating or marrying an unbeliever a most remarkable state of affairs as it is not something "perhaps debatable in scripture." It is overtly opposed by scripture: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?"
We can't make this one subjective. We can't fluff the lines with this one? I've even heard people say to me that they felt the Lord tell them they were called to marry an unbeliever cause they were going to "bring them to the Lord." Yes that sounds very likely that the Lord would ask you to disobey his revealed will. In fact, I can remember suggesting to my designated pastoral mentor at Bible College that maybe I could do "missionary dating" as my weekly pastoral placement - I said it to expose the absurdity of such an idea.

There are times when we, and we alone, must take the full brunt of a decision we have made - one which of course our remarkably gracious King can redeem if He chooses - but we cannot bring the will of the Lord into such decisions. We are making thousands of choices daily and the predominance of them are those in which we use the "set up" we have received from the Lord without going to Him in all reality.
This is right and actually is how it works. Thousands of choices should merely be made inside parameters inherent within our structure as human beings. For us, as believers, these parameters should be redeemed and be increasingly Christ-like the more we are transformed to His image and so in even everyday decision making we can become more God-honouring. But it is us who make the decisions, not Him.

If God did maybe get the absolute say on who we dated and/or married (not even sure Christians should date, but that's another can of worms) marriages, churches, and perhaps even our whole society would be vastly different. But, alas, we are seemingly most unwilling to listen or TO READ, when it comes to matters of the heart!

Simon

Edwards on Christian love, giving and the poor.

In a simply excellent book I am reading through which is a thorough overview of the theology of one of the greatest Theologians to have lived, Jonathan Edwards, I have encountered these thoughts in relation to Edwards' on Christians and the poor:

"He preached to his church in Northampton that charity to the poor was a Christian duty as important as prayer or church attendance. No commandment was 'laid down in stronger terms' than the commandment of giving to the poor. It was therefore an all-important test of grace [This means a test of whether one was in grace - controversial I know!]. 'And the scripture is as plain as it is possible it should be, that none are true saints, but those whose true character it is, that they are of a disposition to pity and relieve their fellow creatures, that are poor, indigent, and afflicted.' ..."

"... Edwards practiced what he preached. His first biographer, disciple Samuel Hopkins, who lived in the Edwards home for 6 months, reported that Edwards was a stellar example of giving to the poor and usually did it secretly -- despite his having a large family to support and remaining in debt for most of his career ... Hopkins told of a time that Edwards heard of a family in another town that had fallen into poverty because the father had become sick. Edwards made arrangements to have the man receive a bundle of money without knowing its source. Among his last words on his deathbed were the following: 'May my funeral be like Mr. Burr's, without pomp and cost. Any additional sums of money, that might be expected to be laid out that way, I would have it disposed of to charitable uses.'" - The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (519)

God has a radically open and gracious heart to the poor, as did Edwards. Do we? Does our church/es?

Sow people, sow and be God-like!

Meaning of Marriage - Timothy Keller

Just finished The Meaning of Marriage a thoroughly enjoyable and insightful read on the dynamics and realities of marriage envisioned from a Christian perspective. Marriage is God's, it - in all humility but with biblical foundation - is a Christian idea/reality and so it is helpful that such a brilliant Christian Pastor (and his wife Kathy Keller) have given us this book.

It is definitely a 'recommended resource' for anyone in our church, Christ First Watford, whatever age, background or marital status. The authors' clarity and forthright insight into the multi-love demands of marriage and its often "seemingly impossible demands" is of notable value and will provide hugely beneficial input for all people. The authors broach so many of the integral elements of Christian love in the wonderful Christocentric (cutting through the extremities in which so many people in our time approach marriage and erotic love) style that makes Tim Keller almost peerless at times.

I certainly suggest this as a read. I sense it, if read in humility and openess, will demand reassessment of how we understand marriage and perhaps even a humble stepping down from any lofty position we may have assumed in our marriages. It is a read that will, if taken on board and ingested, place demand upon you to be a more Christlike husband or wife or future husband or wife pursuing biblical marriage within biblical community. That must be a good reason to give it a thorough read!

Simon

Death: 'Sting' and 'Effect'

Today is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the day in which we in the United Kingdom are to experience the greatest amount of light in a twenty four hour period. Although for a precious family whom, like me, are from the Southern Hemisphere this day will most certainly be long, very long, but there will be not much light in their life. Why, you might ask. Today the Chemabus family lost their daddy, husband and friend. Today the darkness of death descended upon such a light-filled family. This dear man and his family were unequivocally the most God-loving family I have had the joy to encounter. His life radiated the love of God and was permeated by an 'aura' of one who was Enoch-like in his being constantly with the Lord.

You may rightfully question the apparent gloom with which I have written above. The often accusative finger would point out that surely we Christians are those who should be most full of hope when one whom we love has passed. Can I respond by saying a resounding "yes and Amen" to that! I, his lovely wife, my wife, my co-elder and the beautiful X1 church family will boldly proclaim with valiant assurance that our dear friend is resting in peace indescribable, and is filled with joy unimaginable in the presence of his dearest friend and most loving brother the lord Jesus Christ. NO ONE else has this hope, hope is Christianity's sole prerogative and we will stand in that. Death for us followers of Christ has "lost its sting." But...

Death has not lost its effect. One whom we embraced, one who always charged us to pray, who was an ever-present at every occasion in the life of this family of God's people, one who encouraged many with relentless energy, one who brought immense joy and strength to his wife and family is no longer with us. This rests with rightful sombreness upon us. I think we can often kid ourselves that we deserve in some sense that pain and sorrow and loss shall never come our way because we 'love Jesus.' But that, if I may be forthright, is downright stupid, shallow and in no way reflects truth. Hope is the mighty measure of our faith precisely because we live in a world which is real, broken, and saturated with pain within which we need such hope.

So we rest in hope - the sting of death is hopelessness, apathy, end - but we grieve, we reflect, we contemplate and, and what, we pray and love with deed not just word.

Rest in Peace my dear brother Humphrey Chemabus, I wait with great expectancy till the day we shall meet again. Until then I will seek to be as prayerful and Godly as you, because you were always a model of that to me!

Simon

Refreshing Romans 14

Just been reading the truly refreshing Romans 14 asset of my McCheyne reading plan provided brilliantly for me via the youversion app (try it it's excellent). I say "refreshing" as I received again from Paul the singular ethic of Christian living - Faith through love.
Our tendency to legalism is endemic within the church. We had Steve Goss of Freedom in Christ UK speak to us on Sunday morning at X1 and his message of grace drawn from the eternally significant parable of the Prodigal Son was a helpful dose of biblical truth against legalism's constant presence. Romans 14 obviously cuts across the inherent legalism of the apostle Paul's own time but, as is so often the case with God's divine word to us, an ever-fresh and powerful antidote to our own legalism.
I've encountered, and sadly embraced, more forms of legalism than I can remember in my 17 years as a born again believer and have been strongly advised to embrace and enforce others in my almost 3 years of Lead Eldership here at X1. Then I read these words, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit," and these, "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." (Vss. 17 & 14,15)
Love is the paradigm. All is clean but out of love I may need to refrain. Let's enforce righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit as our new 'legalism!' You must have joy in God, you must have the peace that surpasses understanding! That would be truly refreshing. Legalists are not happy and live without peace cause they can never be certain they've done enough or even whether their version of legalism is actually the one that's right.
Romans 14 - refreshing!
Simon

A second dose of Carson Brilliance

Just have to add another point Carson makes. Love it!
"A second category of phenomena is in danger of displacing the primacy of the gospel. A litany of devices designed to make us more spiritual or mature or productive or emotionally whole threatens to relegate the gospel to irrelevance, or at least to the realm of the boring and the primitive. The gospel may introduce you to the church, as it were, but from that point on assorted counseling techniques and therapy sessions will change your life and make you happy and fruitful. The gospel may help you make some sort of decision for God, but ‘rebirthing’ techniques—in which in silent meditation you imagine Jesus catching you as you are born from your mother’s womb, imagine him hugging you and holding you—will generate a wonderful cathartic experience that will make you feel whole again, especially if you have been abused in the past. The gospel may enable you to be right with God, but if you really want to pursue spirituality you must find a spiritual director, or practise asceticism, or discipline yourself with journalling, or spend two weeks in silence in a Trappist monastery. These are not all of a piece. What they have in common, however, is the diminishing of the gospel in order to magnify the current device that is guaranteed to bring you toward wholeness. By contrast, the NT passionately insists that everything we need for life and godliness and a walk in the Spirit is secured for us in the gospel. It follows that if someone chooses to adopt some ascetic practice in order the better to focus on the Jesus of the Bible, the attention is still on Jesus. But if someone so ties asceticism to altered moods or to experiences of ‘spirituality’ that the gospel itself is virtually ignored or is implicitly dismissed as a sort of initial stage now to be improved by ascetic practice, the name of the game is idolatry. Again, if someone has experienced cathartic relief and emotional integration after an imaginative ‘rebirthing’ session, I am glad that the emotional integration has taken place. But we must insist that a better emotional integration could have been achieved by meditating on, say, the passion narratives, or on Ephesians 3:14–21. For then the emotional catharsis would have been tied to what God himself insists is the clearest and most complete demonstration of his love for us in Christ Jesus. In other words, the emotional integration would have been tied to the gospel instead of to something as ephemeral and diverting as manipulated imagination. This is a time for Christians to return to the basics, the comprehensive basics, and quietly affirm with Paul, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel [p. 85] because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith”’ (Romans 1:16–17)."

Carson's sheer brilliance on Centrality of The Gospel

Here the brilliant theologian-pastor Don Carson hits one of the primary (as I see it) church 'problems' - everyone has an 'agenda' that we SHOULD be focusing on because, seemingly, preaching 'The Gospel' (and by this I mean the full counsel of God) is not enough:
"Many in the Western world have become single-issue people. The church is not immune from such influences. The result is that many Christians assume the gospel (often, regrettably, some form of the ‘simple gospel’) but are passionate about something on the relative periphery: abortion, poverty, forms of worship, cultural decay, ecology, overpopulation, pornography, family breakdown, and much more. By labelling these complex subjects ‘relatively peripheral’ I open myself to attack from as many quarters as there are subjects on the list. For example, some of those whose every thought is shaded green will not be convinced that the ecological problems we face are peripheral to human survival. But I remain quite unrepentant. From a biblical-theological perspective, these challenges, as serious as they are, are reflections of the still deeper problem—our odious alienation from God. If we tackle these problems without tackling what is central, we are merely playing around with symptoms. This is no excuse for Christians not to get involved in these and many other issues. But it is to insist that where we get involved in such issues, many of which are explicitly laid upon us in scripture, we do so from the centre out, ie beginning with full-orbed gospel proclamation and witness and passion, and then, while acknowledging that no one can do everything, doing our ‘significant something’ to address the wretched entailments of sin in our world. The good news of Jesus Christ will never allow us to be smug and other-worldly in the face of suffering and evil. But what does it profit us to save the world from smog and damn our own souls? There are lots of ways of getting rid of pornography. For instance, one does not find much smut in Saudi Arabia. But one doesn’t find much of the gospel there, either. The point is that in all our efforts to address painful and complex societal problems, we must do so from the centre, out of a profound passion for the gospel. This is for us both a creedal necessity and a strategic choice. It is a creedal necessity because this gospel alone prepares men and women for eternity, for meeting our Maker—and all problems are relativized in the contemplation of the cross, the final judgement, and eternity. It is a strategic choice because we are persuaded that the gospel, comprehensively preached in the power of the Spirit, will do more to transform men and women, not least their attitudes, than anything else in the world."
Amen and Amen.

Wanting to just 'play.'

The people of X1 gathered last night for our regular Unite prayer meeting and it was a truly precious time for all of us. There is a dynamic when we get together and earnestly and humbly seek God's heart together like this in prayer that is different to every other setting. I encourage so many of you out there who see the prayer meeting as the 'cop out' moment of church life to really seek your hearts and allow God to convict you of any wrong attitude towards this part of a church's true spiritual identity.

Anyway, on to what I wanted to share briefly. Praying with charismatic people who still believe that God is real, alive and longing to personally communicate with His people is so exciting. So often the Spirit of God leads individuals to share what they feel is on God's heart for us as a family and then we are blessed, strengthened and encouraged as we follow that 'theme' in our prayers together.
Last night one of the wonderful themes was that of God expressing His desire for us to just 'play' with Him. To enjoy Him I guess. To be in on His team, not to feel like we'll be the last one chosen, waiting at the very end of the line (like the 'bad old days' at school if you were anything like me) but to be chosen first, and to just truly enjoy freedom, peace, exhilaration, fun, activity and joy with Him.

We felt that so many of us miss out on this vital element of our faith in Christ whether it be through sin, pre-occupation with self, distraction, apathy, just add to the list, but so many of us are not 'playing' with Jesus, our whole journey with Him is laborious and official. I am certain that is not God's heart for us - certainly the gospels portray a very different Jesus to that - and I ask our God and King to set many of us free (at X1 and wherever else) to know this lifestyle as we follow Christ.

Simon

Joshua's Gilgal and Calvary

A true joy of being called to 'feed' the flock God has enabled us to lead as an Eldership here at X1 is that of searching deeply multiple resources to provide the most beneficial sustenance possible. I love this, even when it is a chore (as it can be demanding spending 10 - 15 hours a week preparing a sermon) as the input it gives to me personally is great - I only pray it will have the same effect on those who hear the sermon weekly.
With that said I want to highlight a brilliant quote from one of the commentaries I am using for the "Living Life without the Fear" series here at X1 in relation to the camp of Gilgal as a 'Spiritual Home Base' for the Israelites. The quote is from the British Expositor Alan Redpath and it gives a 'fascinating parallel between Gilgal and Calvary:

"May I remind you of the great words of NT truth and salvation which have their roots deeply imbedded in Gilgal. Here they are; refresh your memory. It was a place of rememberance, where all of God's people together went down unto death; it was a place of resurrection, where together they came up with their leader into life. It was a place of renunciation, where they cast off the carnal existence of the wilderness; it was a place of restoration, where they came again into fellowship with the lord. It was a place of realization, where they began to taste of the strong food of the land; it was the place of revelation, where they met their captain with a drawn sword.
The Christian life has its own roots firmly imbedded in Calvary, the place where we died with Jesus and rose with Him, where we have deliberately renounced carnality and have entered into a living fellowship with our Lord, where we have begun to take the strong food of His Word and to realize every moment of our lives that the Captain of the Lord's hosts is with us."

Yes o Yes - the great victory of Calvary!

Simon

Revival Thoughts from Finney - Breaking the 'fallow ground' or confession of sin

Ok now Finney is starting to get just a little inappropriate, highly un-PC should I say for our contemporary-Christian liking. O I'll just write what he states regarding confession of sin:

"You must honestly look at yourself, using your bible as your checkpoint. Do not expect God to miraculously break up your fallow ground [remove sin from your heart] for you. You must actively participate, and you must submit your will. If you look at yourself accurately, taking note of your sins, you will definitely feel something. You cannot see your sins for what they are without feeling something...

... Start your work now. Resolve that you will not stop until you find you can pray. You will never have access to the full power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you unless you completely confess your sins. Let there be this deep work of repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God.
Then YOU WILL HAVE AS MUCH OF THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER AS YOU CAN TOLERATE!"

My my my, Lord Jesus what has been my experience of 'the spirit of prayer' up till now as I feel I am barely tasting such?

Are we hungry for revival?

Simon

Revival Thoughts from Finney - The Role of the Church & it's 'Minister'

Yesterday, one of the zealous young men that God has blessed X1 with recently came to my home for breakfast, giving a book to me that he noted was just 'burning him up.' I promised to read the copy he was giving me and set to it this morning. The book is 'Experiencing Revival' by Charles Finney (an updated, abridged version thus easier for us all to read). Finney was an alarmingly gifted evangelist but also a theologian and a man of the word, so a good read indeed.

On the early pages he states the demands upon the people of the church and the 'minister' of the church in expecting/allowing revival within the church. A taster:

"A revival is when Christians begin to confess their sins to one another. Usually they confess in a general, halfhearted manner. They may do it in eloquent language, but it means nothing. But when there is an honest breaking down and a pouring out of the heart in confession of sin, the floodgates will soon burst open, and salvation will flow everywhere [O please precious Lord!].

A revival can be expected when Christians are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to carry it on. They must be willing to sacrifice their feelings, business and time to help the work. Ministers must be willing to expend their energy. They must be willing to offend the impenitent [proud, self-righteous, 'sinless' members of your congregation] by plain and faithful speech and perhaps offend many members of the church who will not repent. They must take a stand regarding the revival, whatever the consequences. They must be prepared to go on with the work even though they risk losing the affection of the impenitent cold members of the church."

I know Terry Virgo has urged the leaders and people of Newfrontiers to start praying deliberately and passionately for revival. I guess I better get down to it, more importantly better prepare myself/us for what it may require!

Simon