“I want you to do this, the future hangs on it.”

“But I don’t know if I can.”

“Right now, I am only asking you to speak to Pharaoh and tell him what I tell you.”

“But I don’t know what scares me most—him ignoring me, or what happens if he does let your people go.”

“They are not just my people, Moses, they are your people too.”

“But I am here in the desert...I feel safe out here.”

“Yes, and I have been preparing you these past forty years. You will be coming back!”

“I don't really want to do anything new; I like my life.”

“Yes, and now I have molded your youthful impulsive foolishness out of you; I am ready to send you.”

“But I might just make things worse, like when I killed the Egyptian.”

“Yes, you will at first, your people will hate you when Pharaoh punishes them for what you say.”

“But why do you want a murderer, anyway?”

“I will not share my glory with another, so I am glad you realize your need of my grace.”

“But I can’t even speak clearly, God, can’t you send my brother?!”

“I will send him with you, but you must go and free them.”

“But I don’t know if I can!”

(Based on Exodus 3-4)

One of the tragedies of the modern church is that we just don't seem to understand a lesson the Moses learnt from his father-in-law. Sadly we fail to realise that not every godly Christian leader should aspire to be the so-called "number one" leader of a church. Many churches are started and do not grow because the person at the helm was never meant to be in such a role. Perhaps in some cases that leader could be helped to birth a church by despite branching out on his own remaining under the care and close direction of another. Perhaps the initiator and father-figure role of some leaders can be exercised from afar via someone who looks up to them. But, surely one of the real challenges is to help people find their place in leadership which in most cases may well not be in yearning after leading their own church. In order to grow large churches, we need to multiply many leaders who are secure in God enough, and in their own calling from God to fulfil their role without "doing their own thing".

In the story to follow, it is striking that Moses appointed godly people as leaders over 10s, 50s, 100s and 1000s. This reflects the differing capacity for leadership we all have. Surely we need such leaders in the church today. Whats your capacity? And what kind of leader are you? Are you in a team right now? Are you content to do whatever God is calling you to do? Are you being faithful with the small job that God has entrusted you with right now so that just maybe you might be entrusted with more in the future?

These words from the scriptures could have been written about leading today:

Exodus 18:13-26

The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” 24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.

It's that time of year again. As I have done in previous years, I thought I would take the opportunity to reflect on the year that was. This post will consider personal matters, family matters, and my church.

The year began with my regular tradition of putting the blog onto autopilot to give me time to reflect, pray, and recuperate. I have a tendency to end the year feeling exhausted and drained, and find the discipline of switching off my blog after the holiday period gives me a real lift. This year I am busier than ever, but I don't feel as drained. I still plan on shutting down the blog during the month of January, and probably into February, as my book deadline looms closer, but I have set Blogger to republish some posts three times a week, and, as always, the Warnie Box remains to lead you to other great sites.

I felt like the year got off to a slow start, but then in February, I took a lovely holiday with two of my children. Watching all five of the kids grow has been another great highlight this year, with the baby becoming a toddler and our oldest rapidly on her way to becoming a teenager, having started high school.

It's been a good year for me personally. I found myself thrust into new roles, including writing a book, which wasn't something I ever expected to do. In spite of the business, and the fact that my annual leave was all burned up by the summer, I don't feel as if I'm ending 2008 running on empty as much as I've felt that way in previous years. I praise God for the way he has sustained me.

One joy this year has been that in the latter half of the year I started the Every Day in the Bible reading plan together with my wife (also available as a podcast or printout). We listen to Max McLean, and it has helped my relationship with my wife and my Lord in one fifteen-minute chunk of time every day.

We have enjoyed a stable year as a family. No pregnancies. No births. No house moves. The same job. The same church. No major sickness. We are so grateful to God. We plan on staying right where we are for the forseeable future, still being convinced God has called us to remain here for at least another couple of decades or so. I stay where I've been planted, but I hope I can somehow encourage and support those who do go.

I have been so glad to be part of Jubilee Church this year. Our growth continues, we are often over 400 on Sunday morning now, and are seeing a prolonged period of regular weekly responses to the gospel. God is blessing us in so many ways, and we are all very grateful. The kids love the church too. Over the last year I have preached there eight times, as well as giving other talks to smaller groups of people at different times during the week and continuing to serve in the leadership team. Below are links to the sermons I've preached this year. Tomorrow I will give a brief review of the blog in 2008.

• Comfort Like a Mother (Mother's Day Sermon)


• God's Gift of Life (Thou Shall Not Kill)


• Work Rest and Play (Sabbath-keeping)


• Philippians 1 - Living for the Future


• Philippians 2 - Living for the Good of Others


• Philippians 3 - Living to Know Jesus


• Nehemiah 3 - Building for the Glory of God


• Nehemiah 8 - Back to the Word

I want to introduce you to a very unusual book by Mark Driscoll and his writing buddy and professor, Gerry Breshears. I would go so far to say that this is a unique book in that I have never seen anything quite like it.

If their first book together, Vintage Jesus, was a light cheerful book that offended some by its use of humor and at times edgy topics for illustrations, this new book by these two men is more of a grungy, almost dark book. The video over at the ReLit site leaves you in no doubt that this is a book that will wrestle with darkness, pain, and even demonization.

Certainly this book represents just a tiny sample of the ocean of pain that a pastor of a large church has to handle over the years. Some neoliberals argue that people who believe in penal substitutionary atonement do not engage with the real suffering found in the world. This book demonstrates emphatically that this is simply not true in Driscoll's case. Such critics also argue that the evangelical's gospel can become overly narrow, eventually focusing solely on the "felt need" of the feelings of guilt many still feel. Guilt, however, is far from the only reason people come to Christ. The New Testament is full of helpful ways we can understand what Jesus did on the cross.

Without in any way softening his commitment to the centrality of Jesus taking the punishment of sin in our understanding of the cross, Driscoll is far broader in his understanding of and application of the cross to hurting people's lives today. From convicted child molesters, to cheating husbands and raped women, Driscoll shares pen outlines of the destruction manifest in the lives of specific people to whom he has ministered. He then shows in a letter written to each individual how a specific aspect of what Jesus has done on the cross can bring wholeness and salvation to them.

This is a vital book that should be read by every Christian who is serious about reaching out with the gospel into this dark and damaged world. I will share a video of Mark speaking about the book, followed by an excerpt from one of those letters that particularly struck me. You will have to buy the book to see exactly how Driscoll and Breshears apply the gospel to Bill and his violent, abusive father.

"As a little boy you rightly felt angry at your dad, and that anger rightly compelled you to confront his injustice and protect the rest of the family. Therefore, anger can be a righteous virtue, which explains why God gets angry at sin too. The Bible is full of examples of God getting angry at sinners. A few examples will illustrate my point clearly, but a reading of Leviticus 26:27-30, Numbers 11:1, and Deuteronomy 29:24 for starters, speak of God's anger as being hostile, burning, and furious.

Flaccid church guys will often accept that in the Old Testament God did get angry, but they will say that Jesus was a nice, emotionless, flaccid church guy, just like them, who chose a hollow, fake smile over anger every day. But even Jesus got angry, furious, and enraged . . . [Here Driscoll cites Mark 3:5 and Revelation 19, but one could also add Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-17.]

In speaking of God's anger, I want to be careful not to give permission for us to lose our temper and rage, because that is a sin—the very sin your father committed repeatedly. However, because God is perfect, his anger is perfect and, as such, is aroused slowly (Exodus 34:6-8), sometimes turned away (Deuteronomy 13:17), often delayed (Isaiah 48:9), and frequently held back (Psalm 78:38).

Furthermore, God feels angry because God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-19, Zechariah 8:17). Sadly, it is commonly said among Christians that "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." This is as stupid as saying that God loves rapists and hates rape, as if rape and rapists were two entirely different entities that could be separated from one another. Furthermore, it was not a divinely inspired author of Scripture but the Hindu, Gandhi, who coined the phrase, "Love the sinner but hate the sin" . . .

Regarding God's anger and hatred, it is commonly protested that God cannot hate anyone because he is love. But the Bible speaks of God's anger, wrath, and fury more than of his love, grace, and mercy. Furthermore, it is precisely because God is love that he must hate evil and all who do evil—evil is an assault on whom and what he loves.

Therefore, Bill, your anger toward and hatred of your father are justifiable and are the healthy response to seeing your dad beat the mother and siblings you love. However, in a mysterious conflict of deep emotions, you continued to love your father just as God continues to love unrepentant sinners whom he simultaneously hates . . .

I know this will be difficult for you to comprehend, Bill, but Jesus has fully experienced what you have, and much more. Jesus was mocked and beaten, though he was without sin. He willingly substituted himself for those he loved and wanted to save . . . "

From Death By Love by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, copyright 2008, pages 127-129. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

Here are notes from a sermon I preached on the 27^th April at Jubilee Church. The mp3 is available to download here or listen to using the following embedded player-

“You shall not murder.” (Ex 20:13)

Ok, right at the outset, do we have any murderers here? No? Anyone planning on committing a murder? No? Good, so then we can all go home, yes? We got it straight, since we live in a Christian country means its Chicken for dinner tonight rather than human. Lets go get some coffee.

Actually there is some more to this commandment than first meets the eye.

No careless killing ESV footnote "also causing human death through carelessness or negligence" so see for example Ex 21:28-29 “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 22:8: “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring blood-guilt on your house if anyone falls from it.”

Risk assessment is biblical! “[The Jew] was to do everything humanly possible not to cause the death of another person” -The Master's Seminary, Master's Seminary Journal Volume 11, 11:206 (Master's Seminary, 2000; 2003).

- Therefore, human life is precious we should take good care of it. Every human is made in Gods image and therefore worth looking after. It is the Christian faith that teaches us we are not just the outcome of millions of years of chance reactions. We don't kill because life itself is a gift of God. We should also support initiatives that reduce the risk of death or serious injury.

eg car and road safety - 1 in 200 risk of dying on the roads! So driving at no more than 30 mph in built up areas is a good idea due to the dramatic risk of death if hit faster. 95% live if hit at 20mph, 90% die at 40mph. Also wear seat belts, pay for proper maintenance, and buy the safest car you can afford.

-also health measures, smoking in public bans is good as it will lead to less premature death. Form of Russian Roulette – 50% will die prematurely loosing ave of 16 years of precious God-given life. In country after country smoking bans have led to dramatic drops in the rates of heart attacks – 17% in Scotland for example in one year. Christians should support the provision of good health care and also simple social changes that can make massive impact by saving lives. Especially in developing world eg lack of clean water.

However, although this commandment applies to careless killing, there were clear distinctions made in the punishment depending on the intent “(1) the weapon used, (2) the enmity of the killer toward his victim, and (3) premeditation” (Numbers 35. 16–24) -The Master's Seminary, Master's Seminary Journal Volume 11, 11:205 (Master's Seminary, 2000; 2003).

Similar rules are still used today.

What other things that might be called murder?

-We have seen that negligence such as careless fighting or driving, is surely potential murder by the broader hebraic definition. But what of some areas that may be less clear to some. Lets be very clear here -

-Euthanasia or so-called “mercy killing”- so far even the unbelievers cannot bring themselves to legalize this in the UK. How could we know someone really understood what they were asking for and weren't coerced or depressed? Bible simply says "no killing". This surely even applies to some of the grey areas being discussed such as removing food and drink via tubes from brain damaged.

-Assisting Suicide remains illegal, but what about neglecting to prevent it?. Psychiatric services should be used appropriately... sadly the quality of our services vary. But people have a right to be treated against their will when they pose a danger to themselves and are not in their right minds.

-Abortion? We all agree that life exists after birth. We believe it is wrong to murder a newborn baby. So surely life exists just before. When then does it start? There is no logic to our current term limits for abortion- loosely based on when a child might survive "independently" outside the womb. But when technology improves will that mean the date changes? And, since a baby is not truly "independent" are they less fully human?

Our question should simply be is this a human? Does he or she have the image of God? If so we must protect, not kill. John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mothers womb whom when he met Jesus (Luke 1:44) and Psalm 139 makes plain God saw us and knew us there as he knit us together.

-Contraception? Pre conception fine, anything that definitely acts post conception is clearly not. Some methods are controversial as to their mode of action (eg oral contraceptive pill, coil etc). Christians should examine the evidence for themselves, pray, seek advice if needed then make the decision their conscience is happy with.

-IVF? Christians undergoing this procedure may wish to speak with their doctors about the fate of so-called "spare" embryos. Although they are routinely discarded, this need not be the case.

-War? The police? Romans 13.1-4 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.”

In the end this boils down to a simple question. If you were holding an armed gun, and had a chance to kill someone who was definitely about to kill another, would you be wrong to pull that trigger? The balance of the bible strongly suggests that you would not be wrong to do that.

So far, though, for the vast majority of us, none of this will have touched us. Perhaps there are some in the room who have had an abortion, if so, please bear with me as there is forgiveness for you as we will explain later.

But for the rest of us there is a danger that we will feel morally superior and proud of ourselves. So we haven't murdered... Big deal! If we think that makes us worthy of praise by God we are deluded!

Jesus punctures that bubble by saying “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5.21-24

Words can kill!

“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” 1 Jn 3:15

“It is not only the act, but also the sentiment underlying the act, which is evil” - Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Map on lining papers., 2044 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1988).

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning” Jn 8:44

Actual murder is just the extension of anger and bitterness. Billy Grahams wife was once asked if she had ever considered divorce during their long marriage her answer- "divorce, NO! Murder, YES!"

If murder is sometimes the ultimate punishment for some imagined harm done by its victim, forgiveness is the opposite. Far from merely not murdering our enemies, God calls us to love them and forgive them.

We are told to forgive as we have been forgiven and warned that he will not forgive us if we do not forgive others.

Christians should be recognized as those who practice the reverse of murder. If murder is treating someone as sub-human and a less valuable object then the opposite is surely thinking of others as more important than you and selflessly loving them expecting nothing in return.

You can't murder someone you love. Jesus said love fulfills the law - love God covers the first few commandments, love your neighbor covers the rest.

God is the ultimate forgiver. We see this in the sad story of King David. We see the king who is described as the man after Gods own heart that the smallest sin can grow to become a major one. Most murders happen as a result of an argument between for example husband and wife. It is even possible that by causing us to stop and realize how dangerous anger is that this sermon might prevent a future murder.

Owen once said “be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

In Davids case, laziness led to a roaming eye. In our day he'd have visited certain websites or the top shelf at the news-agent. Then, he went on the roof to catch a glance at a woman bathing. That led to adultery. That led to deception and trickery. That led to murder.

Sin is sin. We stand before God bankrupt. When you are bankrupt it doesn't really matter if you owe a few thousands or a few million. You simply can never pay. An eternity in hell facing the wrath of God wont wipe away our sins.

The scandal of the cross is that on it, a man was murdered. Without removing the moral responsibility for that act, and the fact that we are all guilty of killing the son of God....ultimately there was something else going on.

The cross was a judicial killing. God the Almighty poured out his righteous wrath and punishment on his son. Jesus paid our debt. Not only did he cancel our debts, he credited our account with his righteousness. If you are a christian this morning he is as pleased with you not just as if you never sinned but just as if you were always righteous or put another way he is as thrilled with you as he is with Jesus!

Murderers are Invited to become Christians. Why? Because God can even forgive murderers, So he can forgive you.

Yesterday morning I preached a sermon at Jubilee. The following notes are almost identical to the notes I used while preaching. You can download the audio or listen to it right here.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

Do you remember the Mars bar advertisement? “A Mars a day helps you work, rest, and play!”—That was smart, because the advertisers knew that we all value those things. And some of us are much better in one of these areas than in others. Are you a good worker? Do you love your work? Are you committed to it? Many jobs these days demand much from us. Do you feel imprisoned by work? I found this on the Internet:

IN PRISON—You spend the majority of your time in a 10x10 cell.
AT WORK—You spend the majority of your time in an 8x8 cubicle.

IN PRISON—You get three free meals a day.
AT WORK—You get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.

IN PRISON—You get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK—You get more work for good behavior.

IN PRISON—The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK—You must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself.

IN PRISON—You can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK—You could get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON—You get your own toilet.
AT WORK—You have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.

IN PRISON—They allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK—You aren’t even supposed to speak to your family.

IN PRISON—All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK—You pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON—You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK—You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

IN PRISON—You must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK—They are called managers.

Are you a workaholic? Here's my definition of a workaholic:

Like an alcoholic, the problem is not work itself any more than it is alcohol. The real problem is simply not knowing when to stop!

People are workaholics for different reasons. For some of you this is due to fear of losing your job, or because things aren't good at home so you throw yourself into work outside of the home. Or maybe it’s because your identity is with your work, and you want people to value you. Maybe you feel indispensable. The truth is, you are not! All of us have an identity in our work (or what we do instead of work). After the service when we have our teas and coffees, lots of first-time meetings between people will occur. People will say, “What do you do?” It's not wrong to get a sense of who we are from our work. It IS wrong to let it totally define us. We should be defined by who we are—A CHILD OF THE KING. This is why I am so glad that often people here don't even know what I do for a paid job. Or do you wish you had a paid job? Or a better job. Work is what we do with our hands or our brain or a combination of both, so we ALL work. Never ever say, “I am just a housewife” or “I am only a cleaner!”

Or are you like some who say, "Sure I love work, I really love work—I could watch it for ages!". Some people make it their goal in life to do as little as possible and earn as much as possible. The image that springs to mind is the 'surfer dude—you have every TV channel going and your idea of a great day is when you watch a WHOLE series of “24” in one sitting! Or maybe you are someone who spends a lot of time on hobbies or sports.

The Bible has a lot to say on the topic we are looking at today. In the Bible there are 652 verses on work, 643 verses on rest, and 65 verses on play. Today’s message is, in a nutshell, that God wants us to be good at all three of these and to do all of them in an appropriate rhythm—rather like marching. “Left, right, left—work, rest, play, work, rest, play.” Let’s look in more detail at the words we just read from Exodus 20.

What Did This Commandment Originally Mean?

1. To keep one day each week special to remember God and to rest. But notice that it also says to work hard for six days!
   
   
2. Be a good employer, and give rest to those under your charge.
   
   
3. If God could take a rest, so can you! God is God and you are not. Rest reminds us we are not indispensable, and whenever we sleep the world goes on just fine without us!
   
   
4. What we see here is a biblical principle that says,” You need a rhythm in your life.” You need good habits, you need work, rest, and recreation. All of these need to be properly balanced.

How Did Legalism Distort This Commandment?

The Old Testament contains ever more complicated rules about what you can and can't do on the Sabbath. There are 39 categories of work described. For example, “winnowing” (separating wheat from chaff) becomes any activity to separate edible food from inedible, so picking out fish bones or filtering water is prohibited. On the other hand, “lighting a fire” leads some today to ban driving a car or switching on an electric light, or even going in a lift.

How Does the New Testament Apply This Commandment to Us?

Jesus was criticized for breaking strict Sabbath rules, and also for doing good on the Sabbath:

“One Sabbath he was going through the grain-fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him" (Mark 2:23-3:6)

Jesus seems to argue that the Sabbath is for man, i.e. for his benefit. It is not to become an oppressive law. He also says it is fine to “do good” on the Sabbath.

It’s amazing how easily we tend to turn something that’s meant for our benefit—first into a duty, and then into a legalistic command. For example, take church attendance, small group attendance, and prayer. Each of these things is designed to give us a break from our weekly routine and to refresh us; to give us a chance to worship and/or study the Bible together. We would do well to get into the habit of just doing them every week. But too often we think of each of these things as “work” and “an effort.” We come home from a busy day and think, “Shall I go to small group?” That is our mistake right there. We would do well to build it into our lives in such a way that we don't have to make a decision, we just go! For when we try and decide, we are tempted instead to watch TV. I, for one, don't think I have ever regretted forcing myself out to small group because when I get there I am refreshed, invigorated, and I go home feeling so much better than when I started. But we don't ask you to turn attendance into a duty, still less a law. Rather, we commend it as good for you! If you love God and want to grow in your faith, just resolve now that you are not going to constantly be deciding whether to go or not, but instead you build it into the rhythm of your life—you make it a habit.

The New Testament clearly says that we are not under law (Romans 6). So when it comes to the Sabbath, the key issue is not following precise rules about what we can and can't do. Under the New Covenant, God's laws are written on our hearts and it becomes a heart attitude rather than a ritualistic legalistic rule. As Christians we are not bound to keep the Sabbath in the way that the Jews were. In two places Paul declares our freedom from the Sabbath and such religious festivals:

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain” (Galatians 4:9-11).

Every day is a Sabbath day for the Christian—separated to God, for worship, and to rest from our labors.

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest. . . .

[God's] works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. . . .’

[T]here remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:1-11).

How Do We Strive To Rest?

Abandon our trust in our own righteous acts to please God both here and/or to get us into heaven! Grace truly does mean there is nothing I can do to make God love me more or less than he does.

“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:2-5).

We enter into a glorious liberty of knowing we have no law, no duties. But instead we have a relationship with Jesus and we love him and want to follow him.

Work with all the energy he gives us.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Do everything for him, and do it well.

Expect to be successful at work, be the best you can be! It’s not wrong to earn money as a Christian!

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

“. . .obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:22-24).

God is not glorified by Christians who are slack at work, and have no desire to work well, and perhaps no desire to even pursue a career. He wants us to be his representatives at work, or in the home as we work—what has God called you to be? To be the best you can be at work! Work is your mission. We have been SENT! We are:

SALT—to make our workplace less rotten!
LIGHT—to show Gods glory.
YEAST—to quietly infiltrate and multiply.

Sometimes it is hard to speak much about the gospel in certain careers. We should live the kinds of lives that lead people to ask questions of us.

I do believe God wants us to enjoy our work. Sometimes we don't enjoy it because we fail to appreciate what work gives us. Without work we couldn't afford to eat, drink, or for that matter play! We should be happy we have that job and try to enjoy it as best we can. I remember meeting people in factories when I was working there as a student. I was mainly doing it for the paycheck, but many had the same job for years and some said they liked the fact that it didn't tax their brains too much so they didn't feel tired when they got home. What are the good parts about your job? If you really hate it so much, is there possibly another job you could do?

Find your calling.

God is not looking for a place for you—he made you for a place! When you know you are in the right place, the place God has placed you, it will lead to contentment and a sense of ease.

WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LOVE TO DO, AND OTHER PEOPLE NEED YOU TO DO, ENOUGH TO PAY YOU?

Learn to be intentional and disciplined in your lifestyle.

1. Come to church EVERY Sunday, not as a duty, but because it brings refreshing. Similarly, come every week to your small group where tiredness will give way to renewal for your souls. Know when it is the right time to STOP work, go home, or take that holiday. But don't live for the beach!
   
   
2. Build a rhythm of work, rest, and play into your life. Make resting and playing a part of your discipline.

We need different spheres in which we can find identity. This can be through relationships and shared activities. It can be with workmates, family, or friends. It was good enough for Jesus. That was how he lived on earth.

“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2)

If we get our rhythm right, we will not only thank God it's Friday, but we will also thank God it's Monday!

WE TEND TO PLAY AT OUR WORK and WORSHIP OUR PLAY. GOD INTENDED US TO WORK AT OUR WORK, PLAY AT OUR PLAY, and WORSHIP at OUR WORSHIP.

Come to JESUS and allow him to strip away your weariness and false sense of responsibility.

“Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
(Isaiah 40:30-31)
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Come to Jesus. He has:

• A word to the workaholic or the weary person who is in need of refreshment—RECEIVE GOD'S REST.
  
  
• A word to the lazy—RECEIVE GOD’S YOKE—new enthusiasm for the work he has for you.
  
  
• A word to the non-Christian or backslidden—STOP STRIVING TO LIVE YOUR WAY.

Come to Jesus and find rest.

Before going on a summer break, I ended with a post which expresses clearly the driving passion behind my life—I DON'T WANT BALANCE, I WANT IT ALL!

Other than that, and the posts on the atonement I listed in yesterday's review, July was totally dominated (and rightly so) by Together On a Mission. This conference is a phenomena that you really ought to experience at least once in your life. The fact that next year we will have Mark Driscoll here in the UK as the main speaker is just one reason to come. There are many, many more! Here are all my posts from this amazing conference and the events surrounding it:

• TOAM07 - Quotable Quotes


• TOAM07 - Pedro Reflects


• TOAM07 - Many More MP3s Now Available FREE


• TOAM07 - Session 1: Stephen Van Rhyn on Exodus 32


• Andrew Fountain Interviews Adrian Warnock


• TOAM07 - Conference Video


• TOAM07 - Final Thoughts Around the Blogosphere


• TOAM07 - FREE Audio Available and a Video Introduction


• TOAM07 - Interview with Rob Rufus


• TOAM07 - Session 9: Terry Virgo on the Sin of Achan


• TOAM07 - Seminar: Sam Poe and Guy Miller - Prophecy: The Battle for Team


• TOAM07 - Video of Prayer Giving and Worship


• TOAM07 - Prophecy From Smith Wigglesworth


• TOAM07 - Interview with John Lanferman


• TOAM07 - Session 8: Rob Rufus on the Glory of God


• TOAM07 - Session 7: David Stroud on the Identity Markers of Newfrontiers


• TOAM07 - Seminar: Guy Miller and Julian Adams On Prophesying in Power


• TOAM07 - Interview With Tom Shaw: Leader of Mobilise


• TOAM07 - Session 2: Rob Rufus


• TOAM07 - Session 6: Dave Devenish on World Mission


• TOAM07 - Session 5: Rob Rufus on Faith and Healing


• TOAM07 - Session 4: P-J Smyth


• TOAM07 - Updates From the Blogosphere


• TOAM07 - Live-Blogging From Andrew Fountain


• Partying For Jesus


• George Whitefield's Final Resting Place and the Lewis Revival


• TOAM07- Introducing Pedro Anosike


• Newfrontiers - A Family Of Churches Together On A Mission


• Terry Virgo On Apostles Today

In August I also did a mini-series of quotes on the Calvinistic doctrines, otherwise known as TULIP—just in case people thought I was just some kind of wacky charismaniac. The posts were:

• Will I Make It Until the End? The Perseverance of the Saints


• The Unstoppable Saviour - Irresistible Grace


• Limited/Unlimited Atonement - Just Who Did Jesus Die For?


• Credit God, Blame Man, Or Why Double Predestination is Error - Charles Simeon


• How Total Depravity Helps Your Marriage

Another really interesting thing happened during the "silly season" of August. All the big guns got involved with a big debate with each other about baptism. It was a historic first and of great interest to the rest of us who did not dare to express an opinion! I provided excerpts of all the key posts as follows:

• Why Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and Church Membership Differences Exist


• Massive Collection of MP3 Messages Made Free


• Lig Duncan On the Great Baptism, Church Membership, and Lord's Supper Debate


• "Lig Duncan Baptized as a Believer," Reveals Justin Taylor


• Sam Storms Feels Mark Dever is Confusing on the Lord's Supper


• Wayne Grudem Says Sam Storms is Right About the Lord's Supper


• Sam Storms, John Piper, and John Bunyan vs. Wayne Grudem, Al Mohler, and Mark Dever


• Baptist and PCA Agreements About Baptism


• Lig Duncan Speaks Up for Paedobaptists


• The Pipers Respond to Dever in the Baptism Debate


• John Bunyan and the Grudem & Dever vs Piper Baptism Debate


• Mark Dever Joins the Grudem vs Piper Baptism Debate


• Wayne Grudem Replies to John Piper On Baptism


• John Piper Disagrees With Wayne Grudem Over Baptism Graciously


• Wayne Grudem Changes His Mind on Baptism

Stephen van Rhyn
Stephen is the Lead Elder of Jubilee Community Church in Cape Town, South Africa. He is married to Anna and has two young boys, Josh and Ben, and one daughter, Bethany.

See also Andrew Fountain's notes from this talk, Leadership Lessons From Moses and Aaron.

Together On a Mission 2007 continues to have an impact as the talks are beginning to be made available on the Net. This talk from Stephen Van Rhyn (otherwise known as 'the other guy'!) is one of the first two made available online for which you can order a CD.

He took us to Exodus 32. Stephen began by explaining that this story teaches us that leadership matters. There was a direct correlation between the spiritual health of the leader and the spiritual health of the people. What we do matters. When Jesus said the crowds were harassed and helpless, they had experienced tremendous healing where ALL were being healed. This was because the people had no leader. There is no leadership responsibility, however small, that is insignificant. The kingdom of God advances on delegated leadership.

The church advances as it multiplies leadership. We are called to plant growing vibrant churches, and if we are to achieve this, great senior leadership is not enough. We need depth — great leadership at every level.

Aaron was seduced by his own success. We need to remember that we all need help. Aaron forgot that he was there because of Moses, and fell into pride and deception. Proverbs 16:18 warns against pride.

Aaron abdicated his leadership. He tried to give the people what they wanted rather than seeking God. The people are leading and he simply implements the desires of the people. This attitude pervades the Church today — give people what they want, take a survey, etc. We should be courageously leading the people to do what is right in the sight of God. We need to love people enough to give them God's best even if that is not popular. We cannot simply aim to entertain people and give them what they want!

Aaron called for God's people to sacrifice the wrong things. They weren't just sacrificing jewelery; they were sacrificing the Word of God and the presence of God. The ten commandments had already been given.

The Church is often reduced to an echo of the culture rather than a prophetic voice. We should be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Matthew Paris seems to understand the Bible more than many in the Church! We need to be those who have a submissive attitude to the Bible.

The presence of God was to be withdrawn. Moses wouldn't settle for an angel. Christian maturity is an increased desperation for the presence of God. The gifts can mess up our carefully constructed worship services.

Stephen contrasts Aaron's response to being found out in sin with David's response. God can deal with sin, but wants us to own up to it. We cannot fool God. When we are honest we find a God who is slow to anger and delights to forgive us. We need to admit what we have done wrong to the God of grace.

Moses' response indicated five things from which we can learn:

1. Moses sought God.
   
   
2. He wasn't content with personal success at the expense of corporate failure — he didn't take the option of destroying the people of God.
   
   
3. He didn't stay static in the face of evil. One man can radically change a nation.
   
   
4. Moses called Aaron to account. Senior leadership cannot have an “anything goes” attitude. This saved him from destruction.
   
   
5. Moses led and lived for the glory of God.

In a previous post in this series on the atonement, we asked, “Does the Cross of Jesus Matter?” Today we will look at the historical background surrounding the cross in the Bible. You will find a list of some of the most recent posts about the atonement from my blog at the end of this post — and if you follow the xml link you will see a longer list.

This series is based on teaching I first gave at Jubilee Church. If you want a sneak preview of what is coming you can download the audio (you may need to right click and save to your PC) or listen online here:

Mark Dever’s masterful book, The Message of the Old Testament — Promises Made, rightly states that the message of the Old Testament is that there were certain promises being made. These promises were all to be fulfilled in Christ. It is not a cliché to say that, in one way or another, the whole of the Old Testament points to Christ — and in particular to His cross.

From the fall of Adam, to the flood, to the Exodus, the Passover, animal sacrifices, the life of heroes like King David, and the encounter of Isaiah with a terrifying God who cleanses his sin, we see the coming of Jesus prefigured. Many of these images simply require a form of atonement in Jesus which includes some of the difficult concepts like a God of wrath who hates sin and will punish it.

The God of the Old Testament has made certain demands on us which form the law. We cannot seem to obey the law without sinning. Therefore, we are left in a terrible place — being under his wrath.

Some people believe they can make a different God from the New Testament than the wrathful, jealous, and vengeful God we see in the Old Testament. The problem with that is — the New Testament nowhere repudiates the image of God that we are left with from the Old.

The Old Testament, however, does not merely portray God as angry and full of hatred towards sin. From the first pages of Genesis — where we see God promising to kill Adam and Eve the day they eat the fruit, and yet He does not do so, promising instead a future deliverance — we see a mystery.

The mystery is simply this: how can a holy and just God love and forgive sinful mankind whilst remaining just? This is the question of the Old Testament. We are left with a massive question after an honest reading of the book. How can God be just and still forgive sin?

This question is raised nowhere more clearly than in Exodus 4, where the two sides of God are clearly described. Since we are all guilty, we are left with a problem for which the Old Testament largely does not offer a clear solution. God is both loving and forgiving, yet never “clears” the guilty. Any understanding of the cross has to contain within it the answer to this dilemma.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty . . .” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Continues with "The Atonement - The Mission of Jesus"

The latests posts from my blog about the atonement can be seen below. For more, follow the xml link:

Today we draw to a close our series on the attributes of God—which has been inspired by the T4G Statement—by publishing an article which, in an abridged form, has already been published in the online Comment magazine.

The article addresses the nature of God, but focuses on the fact that we need to learn to love this God—which is surely a good way for us to round off this series.

For more posts on the T4G Statement, Articles 1-4 see Ten Conclusions About Expository Preaching, and for more on Articles 5 and 6, see the following posts:

• Book Review on How Much Does God Foreknow?
  

• T4G Articles 5-6 — Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Trinity and Attributes of God
  

• International Federation of Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches Issue Warning — Do Not Jump in Church This Weekend
  

• T4G Articles 5-6 — The Attributes of God and the Trinity
  

In the light of eternity, we are all beginners in the task of learning to love God. It is the most significant challenge faced by the Christian. When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” It is a measure of our spiritual weakness that we see this challenge as somehow less critical than the challenge to live morally.

How can I love someone I have never seen? We may experience a form of “love” for a character we read about in a book or see in a movie, but is that anything like the love we feel for someone we actually know? Is our love for God just a form of admiration that we might feel for a hero in a novel or the long-deceased subject of a biography. God is not the long-dead subject of a book. He is a living, breathing Person. How then can we learn to love Him as a real person?

I am convinced that the way we learn how to love God is to think of our relationship with Him in the same way we do with people we can physically see. God wants us to be His friends and to enjoy loving the One who is the most worthy of our love. We grow in our love for God in the same way we grow in our love for anyone else. In this article I will show you ways in which we build our relationships with other people and then apply them to how we can learn to love God Himself.


Love Goes Beyond Mere Feelings
The first thing to consider is, what does love actually mean? Many people think that love is simply an emotional feeling — like the way you feel when your knees go weak when you meet that someone of the opposite sex for the first time. Too often songs and sermons tell Christians to relate to God as if He were their heavenly boyfriend. Not surprisingly, that picture is frequently not very appealing to men. As Mark Driscoll says, “It's hard to worship someone you can beat up.” We must learn to love the real Jesus—not a weak imitation.

The contemporary concept of love is far from the biblical one. It is dangerous to think of love in merely emotional terms: Love is a “doing word,” a word full of action. It requires choices—hard choices sometimes. Love is about sacrifice, about faithfulness. It requires commitment. It doesn't always feel so good, and sometimes may even be very painful. As Daniel Bedingfield sings, “Nothing hurts like love, nothing causes your heart so much pain.” Loving God is no different. It, too, will at times be painful.

The first step toward learning to love God is to respond to His love for us. We do this because of what He has done for us: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Like any other covenant relationship, we decide to love irrespective of how we feel or, indeed, how it appears to us another person is treating us. The extent of true love for someone else is not measured by how we feel about him when everything is going well. Satan's words could as easily have read, “Does Job love God for nothing?” (Job 1). Our challenge is to love even when we feel things are not going well — to love from the core of ourselves even when we feel despair attempting to take hold.

What is love? Love is a deep-seated orientation of your life towards someone else. It involves your whole being. It usually involves deciding to put the needs of another person before your own. Just ask any parent. Our relationship with God is no different, except that He doesn't have any needs—we are needy. We come to God determined to centre our lives around Him, and to put ourselves in the position of needy recipients of His grace. He calls us to serve Him and worship Him, but it is not because He is deficient in any way. We come to God as receivers, not givers. We love God as little children love their parents, and serve Him in the same way a good mother will ask her child to help her in the kitchen so the child will learn and so they can be together.


Love Requires Spending Time Together
There are no shortcuts to loving someone. Love demands interaction and communication, and these require an investment of time. Imagine a friend who comes to you complaining about his girlfriend. He explains that their relationship just doesn't seem to be going anywhere. You ask him how long they have been going out, and what their conversations are like. Your friend replies, “Oh, we don't actually go out and talk with each other!” Many Christians spend little or no time with God and then wonder why they are not growing in their relationship with Him.

What does spending time with God look like? Clearly one of the most important ways we spend time with God is in prayer. But how do we pray in such a way that we actually feel that we are in the presence of God — that we are in a real conversation with Him? Prayer must not be merely reciting a shopping list to God. Instead of rushing to ask Him to do things for us, we start by praising Him for who He is and thanking Him for what He has done for us. As we do this and experience clear answers to prayer, just as in any relationship, more of a sense of a shared history with God will emerge and love will deepen. The longer we know Him and the more we remember how He has helped us and answered our prayers, the more we will love Him. But prayer is not only about setting aside special periods of time to be with God. It's that sense of continually communing with Him in our daily routine. It is critical that we also spend time with God in repentance and receiving forgiveness. Jesus said that those who are forgiven much will love much (Luke 7:49).


Love Requires a Deep Knowledge and Understanding of the Other Person
There is no substitute for getting to know and understand God by reading the Bible. We must grow in the biblical knowledge of who God is and what He is like. Many Christians have only a vague idea of the character of God and are unable to identify where the Bible teaches what we assume about Him. To grow in our love for God, the Bible must shape our beliefs about God. I believe it is important that we know why we believe what we do, and that we do not merely parrot theories taught by others.

Do we merely “assume” certain truths about God? Unfortunately, not all of these can be assumed these days. Where C. S. Lewis was able to say, for example, “Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow” (Mere Christianity), we can no longer assert it as something generally understood by our culture. If we compromise on these truths and we end up with a God who doesn't know everything or who isn't all-powerful, our ability to love such a weakened God is severely diminished.

As we learn more about God—His glory, His perfection, and His existence as the Trinity—I believe our love for Him will grow. We can trace throughout the Bible the unique characteristics of God, and see how Jesus shares every one of these. It is said of Jesus that "in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). He is the revelation of God to us. The more we learn of Him, the more we love Him.

We must understand God in all his transcendence and immanence. As the book of Exodus describes God: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7). Many Christians emphasize one or the other of these aspects. It is only as we understand that God is both loving and holy, near to us yet separate from us, that we will learn to love Him for who He is. The following table will help you to allow the Scriptures to shape your understanding of God and the way that Jesus shares all of His attributes:

GOD EXISTS ETERNALLY
God: Psalm 90:2; Revelation 1:8
Jesus: John 1:1-5; John 17:5; Revelation 22:13

GOD IS LOVE
God: 1 John 4:8
Jesus: John 17:24

GOD IS THE CREATOR
God: Romans 11:36; Psalm 104:24; Acts 17:24-25; Ephesians 3:10
Jesus: Colossians 1:15-17

GOD IS OMNISCIENT - HE KNOWS EVERYTHING
God: 1 John 3:20; Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 139
Jesus: John 2:24-25; John 16:30

GOD KNOWS THE FUTURE
God: Isaiah 46:9-11
Jesus: John 13:19

GOD IS NOT BOUND BY TIME
God: 2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4; Exodus 3:14
Jesus: John 8:58-59

GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE
God: Malachi 3:6
Jesus: Hebrews 13:8

GOD IS WISE
God: Romans 16:27; Psalm 147:5
Jesus: 1 Corinthians 1:24

GOD IS TRUTH
God: Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2
Jesus: John 14:6

GOD IS OMNIPRESENT - HE IS EVERYWHERE
God: Psalms 139:7-10; Jeremiah 23:24
Jesus: Matthew 18:20

GOD IS OMNIPOTENT - HE IS ALL POWERFUL
God: Jeremiah 32:17; Ephesians 3:20
Jesus: Mark 4:41

GOD IS UNCONTAINABLE
God: 1 Kings 8:27
Jesus: Matthew 17:2-6

GOD IS LIGHT
God: 1 John 1:5
Jesus: John 8:12

GOD IS SPIRIT
God: John 4:24
Jesus: John 1:14

GOD IS HOLY
God: Psalm 99:9
Jesus: Luke 4:34

GOD IS RIGHTEOUS AND JUST
God: Luke 18:19; Matthew 5:48
Jesus: 2 Corinthians 5:21

GOD IS JEALOUS AND FULL OF WRATH
God: Nahum 1:2
Jesus: John 2:17

GOD'S WILL ALWAYS ULTIMATELY COMES TO PASS
God: Ephesians 1:11; Job 42:2; Proverbs 19:21; Psalm 115:3
Jesus: Matthew 28:18

The Spirit Helps Us to Love God
It is sad that the arguments over charismatic gifts of the last century have led so many of us to forget that for hundreds of years many Christians understood that our birthright is an experience of God mediated by the Holy Spirit.

Christian leaders of the past spoke of a pouring out of the Holy Spirit that would help us to experience God's love. That is rarely spoken about today—even charismatic Christians sometimes have a tendency to over-emphasize the gifts instead of the Holy Spirit’s work in promoting the intimate knowledge of God that we are intended to have. The Bible describes the Spirit as follows: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). Clearly it is not an option to ignore the Third Person of the Trinity if we want to grow in our love for God.

Jesus is very clear about how we demonstrate our love for Him, and what the results are. He links obedience with love, and then He promises that those who obey Him will know the presence of God by way of the Spirit’s presence in the world: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him . . . my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:21).

The Apostle Paul describes it this way: “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5) He also writes, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). If we need help in loving God, we should ask His Spirit to aid us in our weakness and teach us how to love Him.

Jesus says an incredible thing: “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). I am increasingly provoked that few Christians would say that their experience of the Spirit was preferable to Jesus’ living in the world bodily. But Christians should seek a deeper experience of God's Spirit — not for experience's sake, but that we might love God more.


We Learn to Love Others by Spending Time With Their Friends
How often do Christians effectively say to Jesus,, "I love you, but I don’t really like your bride," by their indifference and their lack of commitment to a local expression of the Church? For all of us who are beginners at loving God, playing active roles in local congregations will help us learn to love God in all of the way I have mentioned so far. But more than that, by giving and receiving love from other members of the family of God, we will be exposed to the many facets reflecting the glory of God. The church is intended to demonstrate the multicolored wisdom and glory of God (Ephesians 3:10). We cannot love God properly without loving His Church. As we learn to give ourselves sacrificially in love to our spiritual family in the same way we love our natural family, our love for God increases. This is of such vital importance that Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

I believe God has put the Church on earth to love God, to love each other, and to love the world. I pray that God will give us the desire and ability to do each of these better.

Read more about loving God on Adrian's blog:

• What is Love?


• What is God Like?

The next two articles in the Together for the Gospel Statement discuss the nature of God. The concept of the Trinity is so entwined with God’s attributes and who He is I have decided to roll these two articles into one. I have already posted an extensive set of notes and an audio on the attributes of God and the Trinity. In my talk I demonstrated that Jesus can be shown from the Bible to share every major attribute of God that theologians describe. Enough of these are also ascribed clearly to the Spirit for us to say He must hold all the unique attributes of God also. There are also more articles on the trinity elsewhere on my blog.

Today, after sharing the two articles, I will share a long quote from what may possibly be the best article on the Trinity in the world. It is cited as by "Desiring God Staff" tho I am sure Piper was involved in it somehow. I encourage you to go read it all—I think it will be incredibly helpful.

Article V

We affirm that the Bible reveals God to be infinite in all his perfections, and thus truly omniscient, omnipotent, timeless, and self-existent. We further affirm that God possesses perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including all human thoughts, acts, and decisions.

We deny that the God of the Bible is in any way limited in terms of knowledge or power or any other perfection or attribute, or that God has in any way limited his own perfections.

Article VI

We affirm that the doctrine of the Trinity is a Christian essential, bearing witness to the ontological reality of the one true God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of the same substance and perfections.

We deny the claim that the Trinity is not an essential doctrine, or that the Trinity can be understood in merely economic or functional categories.

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT GOD IS A TRINITY?

The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons; (2) each Person is fully God; (3) there is only one God.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3-4). Are these just three different ways of looking at God, or simply ways of referring to three different roles that God plays?

The answer must be no, because the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as the Son. Likewise, after the Son returned to the Father (John 16:10), the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world (John 14:26; Acts 2:33). Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be distinct from the Father and the Son.

In the baptism of Jesus, we see the Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove as Jesus comes out of the water (Mark 1:10-11). In John 1:1 it is affirmed that Jesus is God and, at the same time, that He was "with God"—thereby indicating that Jesus is a distinct Person from God the Father (cf. also 1:18). And in John 16:13-15 we see that although there is a close unity between them all, the Holy Spirit is also distinct from the Father and the Son.

The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Jesus is God, but He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son or the Father. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God.

The personhood of each member of the Trinity means that each Person has a distinct center of consciousness. Thus, they relate to each other personally—the Father regards Himself as "I," while He regards the Son and Holy Spirit as "You." Likewise the Son regards Himself as "I," but the Father and the Holy Spirit as "You."

Often it is objected that "If Jesus is God, then he must have prayed to Himself while He was on earth." But the answer to this objection lies in simply applying what we have already seen. While Jesus and the Father are both God, they are different Persons. Thus, Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying to Himself. In fact, it is precisely the continuing dialog between the Father and the Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; John 5:19; 11:41-42; 17:1ff) which furnishes the best evidence that they are distinct Persons with distinct centers of consciousness.

Sometimes the Personhood of the Father and Son is appreciated, but the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is neglected. Sometimes the Spirit is treated more like a "force" than a Person. But the Holy Spirit is not an it, but a He (see John 14:26; 16:7-15; Acts 8:16). The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that He speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). These are all qualities of personhood. In addition to these texts, the others we mentioned above make clear that the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Personhood of the Son and the Father. They are three real persons, not three roles God plays.

Another serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the passages we have seen imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all eternal.

While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities.

Each Person is fully God. If God is three Persons, does this mean that each Person is "one-third" of God? Does the Trinity mean that God is divided into three parts?

The Trinity does not divide God into three parts. The Bible is clear that all three Persons are each one hundred percent God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God. For example, it says of Christ that "in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). We should not think of God as like a "pie" cut into three pieces, each piece representing a Person. This would make each Person less than fully God and thus not God at all. Rather, "the being of each Person is equal to the whole being of God." The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into "parts."

Thus, the Son is not one-third of the being of God, He is all of the being of God. The Father is not one-third of the being of God, He is all of the being of God. And likewise with the Holy Spirit. Thus, as Wayne Grudem writes, "When we speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together we are not speaking of any greater being than when we speak of the Father alone, the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone."

There is only one God. If each Person of the Trinity is distinct and yet fully God, then should we conclude that there is more than one God? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one God: "There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:21-22; see also 44:6-8; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4-5; 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:60).

Having seen that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, that they are each fully God, and that there is nonetheless only one God, we must conclude that all three Persons are the same God. In other words, there is one God who exists as three distinct Persons.

If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." First, notice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. We baptize into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second, notice that each Person must be deity because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, would Jesus have us baptize in the name of a mere creature? Surely not. Therefore each of the Persons into whose name we are to be baptized must be deity. Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their name (singular), not names (plural). The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. This can only be if they share one essence . . . .

How is God one? He is one in essence. How is God three? He is three in Person. Essence and person are not the same thing. God is one in a certain way (essence) and three in a different way (person). Since God is one in a different way than He is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. There would only be a contradiction if we said that God is three in the same way that He is one.

So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. But how does it show us why there is only one God instead of three? It is very simple: All three Persons are one God because, as we saw above, they are all the same essence. Essence means the same thing as "being." Thus, since God is only one essence, He is only one being-not three. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. For if we deny this, we have denied God's unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God).

What we have seen so far provides a good basic understanding of the Trinity. But it is possible to go deeper. If we can understand more precisely what is meant by essence and person, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will then have a more complete understanding of the Trinity.

ESSENCE AND PERSON
Essence. What does essence mean? As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. God's essence is His being. To be even more precise, essence is what you are. At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the "stuff" that you "consist of." Of course we are speaking by analogy here, for we cannot understand this in a physical way about God. "God is spirit" (John 4:24). Further, we clearly should not think of God as "consisting of" anything other than divinity. The "substance" of God is God, not a bunch of "ingredients" that taken together yield deity.

Person. In regards to the Trinity, we use the term "Person" differently than we generally use it in everyday life. Therefore it is often difficult to have a concrete definition of Person as we use it in regards to the Trinity. What we do not mean by Person is an "independent individual" in the sense that both I and another human are separate, independent individuals who can exist apart from one another.

What we do mean by Person is something that regards himself as "I" and others as "You." So the Father, for example, is a different Person from the Son because He regards the Son as a "You," even though He regards Himself as "I." Thus, in regards to the Trinity, we can say that "Person" means a distinct subject which regards Himself as an "I" and the other two as a "You." These distinct subjects are not a division within the being of God, but "a form of personal existence other than a difference in being."

How do they relate? The relationship between essence and Person, then, is as follows. Within God's one, undivided being is an "unfolding" into three personal distinctions. These personal distinctions are modes of existence within the divine being, but are not divisions of the divine being. They are personal forms of existence other than a difference in being. The late theologian, Herman Bavinck, has stated something very helpful at this point: "The persons are modes of existence within the being; accordingly, the Persons differ among themselves as the one mode of existence differs from the other, and-using a common illustration-as the open palm differs from a closed fist."

Because each of these "forms of existence" are relational (and thus are Persons), they are each a distinct center of consciousness, with each center of consciousness regarding Himself as "I" and the others as "You." Nonetheless, these three Persons all "consist of" the same "stuff" (that is, the same "what," or essence). As theologian and apologist, Norman Geisler, has explained it: "While essence is what you are, person is who you are. So God is one 'what' but three 'whos'."

The divine essence is thus not something that exists "above" or "separate from" the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. Neither should we think of the Persons as being defined by attributes added on to the being of God. Wayne Grudem explains: "But if each person is fully God and has all of God's being, then we also should not think that the personal distinctions are any kind of additional attributes added on to the being of God . . . Rather, each person of the Trinity has all of the attributes of God, and no one Person has any attributes that are not possessed by the others. On the other hand, we must say that the Persons are real, that they are not just different ways of looking at the one being of God...the only way it seems possible to do this is to say that the distinction between the persons is not a difference of `being' but a difference of `relationships.' This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human `person' is a different being as well. Somehow God's being is so much greater than ours that within His one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons." READ MORE . . .
© Desiring God. Website: http://www.desiringgod.org/

At Jubilee we have been doing a series of talks this autumn, each one lasting about an hour, during which we attempt to instruct the hearer to a greater extent than is possible in our Sunday morning sermons. One of the ones I did - which was on the subject of "What is God Like?" - has just been made available online at the Jubilee Audio Sermons site. You can visit there to download the sermon or listen to it here:



These talks have been inspired by the following verse:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

I do want to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Wayne Grudem, whose Systematic Theology was used as a major resource for this talk. When preparing to speak as a Christian, I believe that it is important to lean on the wisdom found in the work of others, and I certainly did that here.

I definitely did make this my own, however, so don't blame Dr. Grudem for any errors! I will now share the full notes here. You can also download the PowerPoint file. As with all my material on this blog, you are welcome to use it in any way that does not involve making a profit, and you should, of course, attribute it if you copy the entire article.


THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD - WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

Do NOT expect to understand everything about God - He is infinite; we are finite and cannot understand Him fully. Almost all language used about God is a metaphor, and therefore it has the whisper “God is, but is not the same” as the concept used to describe Him.

This is not a mere intellectual exercise, but has two goals:

1. To know, worship, and follow God more.

2. For our beliefs about God to be clearly grounded in the Bible.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Arguments for God’s Existence

• Intelligent design of the universe (teleological).
• God as the ultimate cause - that which came first (cosmological).
• The greatest being we can conceive (ontological).
• The presence of a universal basic set of ethics (moral argument).
• The spiritual nature of mankind – the mind/body problem.
• The God-shaped hole in all cultures.
• Christianity does people good (pragmatic argument).
• But . . . we cannot use our reason to prove God’s existence, for that would make our reason above God.

The Bible Assumes God Exists and People Know

• “In the beginning, God created ...” (Genesis 1:1)
• “…his invisible attributes...have been clearly perceived...” (Romans 1:18-22)
• “The fool says in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1)
• God is unknowable and invisible, but chooses to reveal Himself.
• “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways…” (Romans 11:33-34)
• “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

God Has Both Transcendence and Immanence

• Christians often emphasise one or the other.
• Jesus – the revelation of God.
• “…the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power...” (Hebrews 1:1-4)
• “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18)
• “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” (John 12:41)
• “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him … Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:7-10)

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)
• “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
• “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9-11)
• “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6)

The Trinity Reflects a Chain of Authority

• “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26)
• “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Corinthians 11:3)
• “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10)
• “God has put all things in subjection under his feet...when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

We Believe in One God in Three Persons

• “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
  “...baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
• “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (Matthew 4:10)
  “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5)
• Jesus accepts worship: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
• “Let all God's angels worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6)
• Jesus shares seventeen attributes unique to God - “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Colossians 2:9)

1. God is an Independent Community - Because of His Self-Sufficiency and Trinity, He Doesn’t Need Us!

• “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24-25)
• He didn’t make the world because he was lonely.
• “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
• Jesus: “Father . . . you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

2. God is the Creator of Everything.

• God: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
• Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
• The Spirit: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)

God created diversity

• “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (Psalm 104:24)
• “...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 3:10)

3. God is Eternal – He Always Existed

• God: “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)
  “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8)
• Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
• “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13)
• “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5)
• Spirit: "...through the eternal Spirit..." (Heb 9:14)

4. God is Omniscient – He Knows Everything

• God: “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20)
• “No creature is hidden from his sight...” (Hebrews 4:13)
• “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)
• Jesus: “...needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” (John 2:24-25)
• “Now we know that you know all things.” (John 16:30)
• Spirit: “For the Spirit searches everything...” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11)
• Psalm 139:1-6

God knows the future

• God: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose . . . I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.’” (Isaiah 46:9-11)
• Jesus: “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am.” (John 13:9)
• "God knows everything that ever was, everything that now is, and everything that is to be; all that is actual and all that is possible. Therefore God knows in advance all the free acts of all free creatures." (John Edgren)
• “Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow.” (C. S. Lewis)
• Openess Theology denies this.

5. God is Not Bound by Time

• God: “. . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)
• “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4)
• “I am who I am.” (Exodus 3:14) or I am what I am, or I will be what I will be – God’s name Yahweh.
• Jesus: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him.” (John 8:58-59)
• Wayne Grudem: “God views the whole span of history as vividly as He would if it were a brief event that had just happened. But He also views a brief event as if it were going on forever. God sees and knows all events – past, present, and future – with equal vividness. Though He has no succession of moments, He still sees the progression of events at different points in time.”

6. God is Unchangeable

• God: “For I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)
• Jesus: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
• God both does and doesn’t have regrets!
• “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me.” (1 Samuel 15:11)
• "The Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (1 Samuel 15:29)
• But God does truly relate to us.
• “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.” (Jeremiah 18:7-10)
• John Piper: “So the repentance over Saul means not that he did not know what Saul would be like, but that he disapproves of what Saul has become and that he feels sorrow at this evil in his anointed king, and that he looks back on his making him king with the same sorrow that he experienced at that moment when he made him king, foreknowing all the sorrow that would come. For God to say, "I feel sorrow that I made Saul king," is not the same as saying, "I would not make him king if I had it to do over, knowing what I know now." God is able to feel sorrow for an act that He does in view of foreknown evil and pain, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise reasons.”

7. God is Wise

• God: “. . . the only wise God.” (Romans 16:27, see Psalm 147:5)
• Jesus: “Christ...the wisdom of God.” (1 Cointhians 1:24)
• Holy Spirit: “. . . the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and under-standing, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2)

8. God is Truth

• God: “God is not man, that he should lie...” (Numbers 23:19)
• “God, who never lies.” (Titus 1:2)
• Jesus “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6)

9. God is Omnipresent – He is Everywhere

• God: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence...” (Psalm 139:7-10)
• "Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24)
• Jesus: “ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20)
• But, it is not wrong to speak of God “coming.”
• “...we will come to him and make our home.” (John 14:21)
• “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send...” (John 15:26)

10. God is Omnipotent – He is All-Powerful

• “... Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17)
• “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20)
• Jesus: “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41)

11. God is Uncontainable

• God: “…heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you...” (1 Kings 8:27)
• Jesus: “...he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light...” (Matthew 17:2-6) (Building a tent to contain him was foolish!)

12. “God is Light.” (1 John 1:5)

• Jesus - “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)

13. “God is Spirit.” (John 4:24)

• Jesus “And the Word became flesh...” (John 1:14)

14. “God is Holy.” (Psalm 99:9)

• Jesus “I know who you are the Holy One of God.” (Luke 4:34)

15. God is Righteous and Just

• God: “No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19)
• “. . . your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
• Jesus: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

16. God is Jealous and Full of Wrath Against Sin

• God: “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful…” (Nahum 1:2)
• Jesus: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:17)

17. God is Sovereign - His Will Always Comes to Pass

• God: “. . . according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (Ephesians 1:11)
• “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
• “… it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)
• “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” (Psalm 115:3)
• Jesus: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18)

But he is not responsible for sin.

• “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one...” (James 1:13-14)

WHO IS JESUS?

Jesus Shares All the Attributes of God

• He was eternally one of the three persons in the Trinity. He is frequently described with the word “lord” which is used 6,814 times in the Septuagent for Jehovah/Yahweh. Jesus is also fully man and a real man’s man.
• “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him . . . the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1) “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” (John 2:15)

Jesus Was Truly a Man

• He was born of a normal human mother.
• He “grew and became strong” (Luke 2:40) and “increased in wisdom and in stature
  and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
• He was hungry.” (Matthew 4:2) and he said, “I thirst.” (John 19:28)
• He got “wearied” from a journey (John 4:6) and he slept. (Luke 8:23)
• He was not a “Clark Kent” figure only pretending to be vulnerable.
• There were things that Jesus, the man, did not know. "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32)

Jesus Felt All Our Emotions

• He “marvelled.” (Matthew 8:10)
• “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” (Psalm 45:6-7)
• “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)
• “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” (Matthew 26:38)
• John Piper: “Jesus was fully human and fully God – he was not God with a human veneer – like a costume. He was a real flesh and blood man, a carpenter's son.”
• Mark Driscoll: “It's hard to worship someone you can beat up.”
• Wayne Grudem: “An infinite God came to live in a finite world. In Jesus, God and man became one person . . . For Jesus Christ was and always will be, fully God and fully man in one person.”

Jesus Remains a Man Forever

• “…a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have...” (Luke 24:38-43)
• “This Jesus…will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

How Can Jesus be Both Man and God?

• Error 1 - A human body, but not a human mind or spirit – Mickey Mouse suit.
• Error 2 – Two persons in one body – circus “horse” suit.
• Error 3 – One new nature – neither God nor man! -Drop of ink in water.
• The Solution: Two natures, but one person (see Power Point for graphical images of these - thanks to Wayne Grudem for the illustrations!)

Some Things are True of Only One of Jesus' Natures

• Jesus’ human nature ascended to heaven and is no longer in the world - John 16:28 “I am leaving the world.”
• But . . . his divine nature is everywhere present. -Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always.”
• Jesus felt weak and tired. (Matthew 4:2; 8:24; Mark 15:21; John 4:6), but in His divine nature He was omnipotent. (Matthew 8:26-27; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3).
• Jesus was 30 years old and existed from eternity!
• A false objection: “Omniscience and ignorance, omnipotence and impotence cannot coexist. The former swamps the latter.” (A.N.S. Lane)

The Two Natures and Jesus’ Death

• “. . . it is not correct to say that Jesus’ divine nature died, or could die, if “die” means a cessation of activity, a cessation of consciousness, or a diminution of power. Nevertheless, by virtue of union with Jesus’ human nature, his divine nature somehow tasted something of what it was like to go through death. The person of Christ experienced death. Moreover, it seems difficult to understand how Jesus’ human nature alone could have borne the wrath of God against the sins of millions of people. It seems that Jesus’ divine nature had somehow to participate in the bearing of wrath against sin that was due to us (although Scripture nowhere explicitly affirms this). Therefore, even though Jesus’ divine nature did not actually die, Jesus went through the experience of death as a whole person, and both human and divine natures somehow shared in that experience.” (Wayne Grudem)

A BIBLICAL SUMMARY – KEY VERSES

• “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty . . .” (Exodus 34:6-7)
  
• "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose . . .I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” (Isaiah 46:9-11)
  
• “...who, though he was in the form of God ...” (Philippians 2:6-11)

WHAT WE SHOULD SAY ABOUT GOD

• Together for The Gospel 2006
  -We affirm that the Bible reveals God to be infinite in all his perfections, and thus truly omniscient, omnipotent, timeless, and self-existent. We further affirm that God possesses perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including all human thoughts, acts, and decisions.
  -We deny that the God of the Bible is in any way limited in terms of knowledge or power or any other perfection or attribute, or that God has in any way limited his own perfections

• What does Jubilee Believe About God?
  -“Life in Jubilee Church can be summarised as: loving God, loving each other, and loving the world.” (Membership Course)
• Jubilee is a member of the Evangelical Alliance and holds to its Statement of Faith:
  “We Believe in . . .
  -The one true God who lives eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  -The love, grace, and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming, and judging the world.”

This God Chooses to Take Delight in Us!

• God: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
• Jesus: “. . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)

He Wants Us to Delight in Him!

• “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4).
• “Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4).
• “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” (John 14:1)

CONCLUSIONS

• If we believe in a good, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-wise, all-loving God who is in control of every detail of the universe and works it all out for our good, how can we not worship Him and trust Him with our future?
• When we know God better, we become more like Him.
• “And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
• “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” (Psalm 27:4)
• “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24-25)
  

I seem to have stirred up a lot of interest with my post on God Killing Christ. I thought I'd ask John Piper to spring to my defence!

This is very much how I see this verse, do you agree with what John Piper says in What the Law Could Not Do, God Did, Sending Christ?

Romans 8:1-4
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Verse 1 declares that in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. God does not condemn us for our sins if we are in Christ Jesus. Jesus is a safe place from the hurricane of God's holy and just wrath . . .

Let's draw out some of the wonders in these statements. First, "God condemned sin in the flesh." Notice three wonderful things about what this statement says.

Sin Has Been Condemned, not Merely Shown to Be Condemnable

First, sin has already been condemned. What does that mean? It does not mean that sin has been criticized and called condemnable � as when we say, President Bush "condemned" the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. We know it does not mean this because this is something the law could do and did do quite well. The law criticized sin and called it condemnable. The law says, for example, "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17). And the law pronounces punishments on law breakers (Deuteronomy 28:15). So the law clearly "condemned" sin in this sense.

But Romans 8:3 says, "What the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did." So God did something more than merely criticize sin and call it condemnable. What then does Paul mean when he says, "God condemned sin in the flesh"? He means that in Jesus' flesh � in his suffering and dying body on the cross � God executed a final sentence of condemnation on the sin of everyone who is in Christ. In other words, "God condemned sin" means God found sin guilty and sentenced sin to be finally punished and carried out the penalty of suffering in the death of his Son . . .

He says "likeness of sinful flesh" because he was not sinful. Jesus had no sin. His flesh was human, and it was like sinful flesh. But it was not sinful. So how could God condemn sin in his flesh? There was none there to condemn. The clearest answer is given in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." There it is. Paul says it as clearly as it can be said: "He knew no sin." Jesus never sinned. Of all the people who have ever lived, Jesus is the only one who did not deserve to die. Jesus is the only person who ever lived who did not deserve to suffer. But he died and he suffered.

So the question is: Whose sin was condemned when Jesus' flesh was tortured and killed? God condemned sin in the flesh of his completely innocent Son. Whose sin? The answer is given clearly.

• Romans 4:25: "He . . . was delivered over because of our transgressions."
  
  
• 1 Corinthians 15:3: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
  
  
• Galatians 1:4: "[He] gave Himself for our sins."
  
  
• 1 Peter 2:24: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree."
  
  
• 1 Peter 3:18: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.
  
  
• Isaiah 53:5-6: "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him."

The answer is that our sin was condemned in the suffering and death of Christ, not His. He had none . . .

And now we know why the death of Jesus Christ takes away all my condemnation. Because when he died God was condemning sin, sentencing it, and punishing it completely and fully and finally for all God's elect � all who are in Christ by faith. Therefore it was my sin that was being condemned and sentenced and punished completely and fully and finally when Christ died. And if my sin was punished there finally and fully, I will not be punished for it again.

Brothers and sisters, there is no other cleansing agent in all the universe that can clean your conscience, besides this one. There is no other shield that can protect you from the white hot wrath of God, besides this shield. There is no other argument that will hold up in the final courtroom of heaven than this argument: Christ died for my sins. Christ bore my condemnation. Christ absorbed all the divine wrath that would and should have come on me . . .

That's the second wonderful thing about this statement that "God condemned sin in the flesh." The first is that sin has already been condemned, sentenced, punished, executed in Jesus. The second is that Jesus had no sin to condemn. It was ours that was punished. "[God] made Him who knew no sin to besin on our behalf" . . .

The third wonderful thing about this statement is that God did it. "God condemned sin in the flesh." Two things are powerfully relevant for us here . . .

The text says � and the whole Bible is built on this view � that God did this.

"Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God!] condemned sin in the flesh." Jesus did not put himself forward between God and man; God put Jesus forward between God and man (Romans 3:25). God "sent His own Son." God saw to it that the eternal, uncreated Son of God took on "the likeness of sinful flesh." God poured out his wrath on the Son as the condemnation and punishment of our sins. Jesus didn't butt in to save us from God. God sent him in to save us from God. God himself saved us from the wrath of God.

When you ponder the cross, don't just ponder the love of Jesus rescuing us from the anger of God. Ponder the love of God rescuing us from the anger of God. If you know Jesus, you know the Father. The heart of Jesus is the heart of the Father. Jesus is as angry at sin as the Father is. And the Father is as caring for sinners as Jesus is . . .

God did it. God condemned sin in the flesh. And the first thing that is so relevant about that for us is that it keeps us from playing Jesus and God off against each other. It helps us see that the Father and the Son have one heart and one mind as they take their different roles in saving us from our sin . . .

But this is what Paul is saying here in Romans 8:3. God � the one and only Creator of the universe � sent his Son (his pre-existing, divine, eternal Son) in human flesh to bear the outpouring of his wrath in condemnation on sin. THAT is who God is. If you say, "God did not do that," then the God you worship is not God . .

The true and only God sent this divine Person into the world and in his flesh condemned sin � sentenced it, punished it, executed it. Yours and mine. And everyone's, who by faith are in Jesus Christ . . .

God did it. God condemned sin in the flesh of his own Son. There is no other cleansing for the conscience. No other protection from wrath.No other argument in the last judgment. Let's believe it, bank on it, live it, and sing it.

My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device nor creed;
I trust the ever living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that he died for me.

Enough for me that Jesus saves,
This ends my fear and doubt;
A sinful soul, I come to him,
He'll never cast me out.

My heart is leaning on the Word,
The written Word of God,
Salvation by my Savior's name,
Salvation through his blood.

My great Physician heals the sick,
The lost he came to save;
For me his precious blood he shed,
For me his life he gave.

---

UPDATE: For a continuing discussion on this subject, please see my latest post "Did God Kill Jesus? Am I Really Alone?"

Grace Full Words has a great post entitled "T4G Nuggets of Truth " with yet more quotes from the conference. These are the ones that stood out to me but there are more over on his blog!

Mark Dever
"The Apostles were ministers not masters."
"We are not to write the mail, we are only to deliver it."
"Do not be concerned with being original, but you must be reliable."
"We are fallen enough to even have a clear concious and still be wrong."
"The only way to follow Jesus is to die daily to self interest."
"All the spiritual attributes are brought to us through humility."
"Gentleness and severity are both parts of the Christian ministry."

Al Mohler
"Our concern for the culture is because of the sinners in the culture."
"I'm not called to change the culture but to be used by the Holy Spirit with the fullness of the Scripture to change sinners."
"We have the only message in the whole world that applies to every culture."
"Expository preaching causes one to ask: "How do we have to realign our thinking because of the word of God? How do we have to change the way that we live because of what I've heard from God today?"
"The Gospel is NOT therapy"
"The Gospel is NOT self-help."

SEVEN SELFS of our Culture:
1. self fulfillment: "its all about me" - most Americans believe that their problem is because something has happened to them.
2. self sufficiency: "we are our own authority"
3. self defintion: "we define ourselves" "we define our marriage" "we define our own truth"
4. self absorbtion: expressed through divorces: "I needed to divorce so that I could become the person I needed to be. Divorce was a good experience for me."
5. self trancendence: we are enamored by spirituality. The gospel is just another spirituality.
6. self enhancement
7. self security: "we live in a world where we are told not to worry. We think we are safe."

Ligon Duncan
"Preach The Gospel from the Old Testament" - 2 Timothy 3:14-17
"Preach the O.T. as a Christian book.
"Preach the O.T. expositionally.
"Preach Christ from the O.T."
"Preach the 'One Plan' of redemption from the O.T.
"Preach grace from the O.T." - "Gospel logic = grace before law." Exodus 20:2
"Preach the Character of God from the O.T." because the O.T. is our primary source for many of our doctrines, including the character of God."
"Preach experientially from the O.T." Psalms, Job, Jeremiah.
"Preach the Christian life from the O.T." Moral exhortations from the O.T.

links for 2006-01-07

• Google Pack
  A great free software collection that will install and update a whole bunch of really useful software including firefox and Adobe PDF reader. Will they ever stop having great ideas?
  (tags: google web tech free software)
• Time Management for the Glory of God
  Girltalk are ceasing the opportunity the New Year brings to encourage us to be more organised and have the right motives
  (tags: article children family discipleship mentoring)
• Genesis
  Search Christian Blogs and honory bloggers Piper and Spurgeon for work on Genesis
  (tags: genesis bible textual)
• Exodus Blogsearch
  (tags: exodus bible textual)
• A Community of Bloggers?
  Bob rightly believes that true community can only be found in a good church. But blogging and the intense relationships that can arise might serve those without such a church by producing a godly hunger for real community.
  (tags: leadership blogging christian discipleship)
• Motives for blogging
  Why blog? "I�m persuaded that my desire to see my Savior exalted is greater than the desire to exalt myself"
  (tags: blogging discipleship christian)

Phil Johnson is preaching through Galatians whilst at the same site, Don Green is preaching on the Beatitudes from Matthew 5. Meanwhile, John Stott (yes he is still preaching!) and others from All Souls are preaching through the gospel of John. C.J.Mahaney, Josh Harris and the rest from covenant life church are preaching through Acts (as is a certain london church I know!). John Piper continues his long running Romans series, the notes for which are worth their weight in gold. Seven sessions from the newfrontiers 2004 leadership conference are available- including messages by Terry Virgo, Simon Petit and Dave Holden. Greg Haslem, now filling the pulpit previously occupied by R.T.Kendall and Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones is preaching through Exodus and a series entitled "Thats the Spirit" on the Holy Spirit.

Too many sermons not enough ipod time..........

UPDATE
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 12th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 13th most-read post was my post concerning Bishop Tom Wright's response to John Piper.

The post below was republished from an article I wrote many years ago. In some ways it was this article that first stirred the "writing bug" in me. I survey the historical events associated with what was called "The Toronto Blessing" and examine some biblical and church history data. Some of my reformed friends are uncomfortable with the fact that I am willing to see good in what happened. No doubt some of my charismatic friends will be unhappy with the fact that I accept that unhelpful excesses also occurred in some places.

***************

I thought I would share with you—for history's sake and in its entirety—an article I wrote almost eleven years ago about the so-called "Toronto Blessing."

An Outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What on Earth is Going On?

In the months following May 1994, there was a sudden wave of bizarre phenomena in many churches in the UK, USA, and elsewhere in the world from a wide variety of backgrounds. Since then, the city of Toronto, Canada, has become closely associated with these events. Much attention has been drawn to all of this in both the secular and Christian press.

Phenomena widely reported with these events included falling over, laughing, crying, shaking, peculiar movements, cries, roars, intoxicating joy, and incoordination. While a dramatic transformation in the life of many of the people affected by these phenomena was observed, a large number of conversions was not reported and most people did not call this a revival.

The falling may, on occasion, have been sudden and violent. I am unaware of any cases of injury resulting. Giddiness was sometimes reported prior to the fall. There usually was not a total loss of consciousness, and most were able to hear, although they might not respond. A feeling of detachment was common—hours could go by and seem like minutes. An apparent spastic or flaccid paralysis was often present in individuals affected. Many reported impressions and visions imparted to them while on the floor. Some felt as if they were physically pinned to the floor and felt quite unable to move.

Likewise, shaking and other apparently involuntary movements took a wide variety of forms. These had to be seen to be believed, but included repetitive leaping to a great height, a heightened physiological tremor, twitching, and being thrown as though hit by an electric charge.

All of the above phenomena occurred in combination with the same individual. They sometimes followed prayer, with laying on of hands, or began spontaneously during worship, preaching, or alone at home. People became so intoxicated with joy that they had to be carried to their cars. Some were carried out rigid, others staggered as though drunk. It was very difficult to observe all of this without wondering, "What on earth is going on?"

A pattern emerged from study of the spread of the these phenomena. People, and especially church leaders, flocked to the affected churches to investigate. Even the skeptical found themselves being affected, much to their surprise. Upon their return home, often before assimilating what had happened, they found similar events breaking out in their own churches. The briefest of statements about God doing strange new things might be followed by a request for any who would like a fresh touch from God to stand. Often at this point an entire congregation would stand to its feet, and following a short prayer, a sudden outbreak of the above phenomena occurred. Those affected might not have even heard of the specific phenomena that had occurred elsewhere!

Origins of the Movement

The center of much of this attention, with 20,000 to 30,000 visitors from around the world in the first six months of 1994, was a tiny building at the end of a runway in Canada where the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church (now Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship) was meeting. John Wimber was the unofficial leader of the Vineyard Movement, of which this church was a member. This was one of several groups of charismatic or "new" churches worldwide. The Vineyard Movement was strongest in the USA, but certainly had churches elsewhere, including London.

Although the controversial John Wimber had seen many of these reported phenomena on a smaller scale in his conferences, he seemed to have had little to do directly with the birth of this movement. Indeed, Mr. Wimber subsequently died.

The first place where these phenomena occurred in the intensity and extent now so well known was actually not Toronto, but in the USA. In 1989, South African evangelist, Rodney Howard-Browne, complained that his meeting was being ruined when many people fell off their seats and began laughing. He soon became convinced that God was to blame. These events followed Howard-Browne and persisted after he had left, spreading rapidly. In April 1993, during meetings in Florida which were attended by 10,000 people, waves of laughter affected the congregation. Subsequently, widespread attention was drawn to these events. Approximately 2,200 people were baptized in water, and 800 new members were added to the host church by the middle of 1994. Another church in the area, whose initially reluctant pastor was suddenly struck to the floor with laughter, reported that by the middle of 1994 the church had grown from 800 to 1,500.

As a result of this meeting, Howard-Browne was invited to preach to 4,000 students later that year. He reported, "One night I was preaching on hell ... [laughter] just hit the whole place. The more I told the people what hell was like, the more they laughed. When I gave an altar call, they came forward by the hundreds to be saved."

The interesting thing has been that far from dying down after this evangelist left town, the phenomena continued and spread. The movement did not appear to be centered in a man, and in terms of its spread to the UK, Howard-Browne played a very limited role.

Since 1991, there has also been a separate outbreak in Argentina, where the phenomena seemed to be associated with a full-scale revival. In November 1993, John Arnott, the pastor of the Toronto Vineyard Church, traveled to Argentina and the United States to see what was happening. He met with another Vineyard pastor, Randy Clark of St. Louis, who had been prayed for by Rodney Howard-Browne and subsequently experienced similar effects in his own church.

On the 20th of January 1994, a meeting with Randy Clark took place in the Toronto Vineyard and the phenomena broke out. Very soon, news spread and the people started coming to investigate. From this church, other Vineyard churches and many other groups were affected.

Spread to the United Kingdom

A church in Columbia, Missouri (near St. Louis) was at that time led by a man named Terry Virgo. Terry Virgo was the founder of another international network of "new" churches known as New Frontiers International (NFI). New Frontiers was made up of over 200 churches, most of them in the UK, and included a number of prominent Baptist churches which maintained their links with others. Terry Virgo's church in Columbia began to be affected after members attended Rodney Howard-Browne's meetings in St. Louis. In late April, Dave Holden, the UK leader of NFI, made a scheduled visit to this church, and due to an airport delay, also attended a Rodney Howard-Browne meeting. Following his return, the phenomena followed him—first to Cambridge on Sunday May 1st, then to fifty other London church leaders, and then to his own church on May 4th. His church in Sidcup began having an extra evening service on Sunday June 12th, and 900 people completely filled the hall and side hall. Hundreds were turned away, and a wall-to-wall carpet of bodies resulted.

Separately, on Sunday, May 1st, the meeting of the Brighton NFI church was disrupted by an outbreak of the phenomena as one of the elders, Alan Preston, began to speak of what he had seen in Toronto. The church had been in a sense of expectancy since a prophecy in February had warned to prepare for disruption.

On the following Sunday, May 8th, Gerald Coates (the leader of Pioneer, another grouping of thirty "new" churches) attended the Vineyard church in Putney and was surprised by the phenomena which followed his message. Subsequently, the Pioneer movement gradually became affected, particularly after a leadership meeting in July.

That same Sunday, May 8th, in the Queens Road Baptist Church in Wimbledon (also part of the NFI network) one girl on her knees weeping after the service led to widespread weeping and repentance, continuing to 11 p.m. Norman Moss, the church leader, visited Toronto the following weekend. He was there at the same time as Mrs. Eleanor Mumford, the wife of the pastor of the Vineyard Putney church.

On Sunday, May 15th, while he was away, one of the elders, Malcolm Kytes, asked the Wimbledon Church to quietly wait on God. After seven minutes, he fell to the floor and remained there for almost one and a half hours. As he lay there, the phenomena erupted in the rest of the church. A weekly ministers' fraternal, hosted by the church, grew from 6 to about 200, many traveling from all over the UK.

On Tuesday May 17th, two hundred NFI church leaders, including Terry Virgo and David Holden, met for prayer and fasting and most were overcome by these phenomena. Many were still surprised when the same thing happened in their own churches the following Sunday. The phenomena also spread from this meeting to the NFI churches in South Africa and India who had been represented there.

On Tuesday May 24th, at a small meeting for leaders in her home in South London, Mrs. Mumford shared about her time in Toronto. Nickey Gumbel, a curate at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), a well-known charismatic Anglican church in London, was one of those present when, after prayer, everyone was remarkably affected. He then rushed back to a prayer meeting at his church, to arrive as it was finishing. He briefly shared, prayed, and instantaneously people were affected in ways few had ever experienced or seen. People fell to the ground again and again. Other people walking past the room were also affected.

Sandy Millar, the vicar, was telephoned at the Evangelical Alliance with the news that the whole team was on the floor following prayer. On asking how the caller had got to the phone if that was the case, the caller responded, "I crawled!"

On the following Sunday, May 29th, after Mrs. Mumford shared her experiences, HTB was "rocked by waves of 'holy laughter', weeping, and a multitude of other phenomena." Two days later, Sandy Millar traveled to Toronto to investigate further. The involvement of this church drew the attention of the secular press, and in September 1994, the church considered issuing tickets to their services to ensure regular attendees could gain admission. Holy Trinity became a major focus for the spread of the phenomena, especially among Anglicans.

From the 3rd to the 4th of June, Icthus (another group of "new" churches which began in London) had a leadership conference culminating in a celebration held at Westminster Chapel. Sandy Millar of HTB spoke, and the Icthus movement then experienced the phenomena. David Pytches of St Andrews, Chorley Wood, also visited Toronto. The phenomena broke out in a special church meeting held on 12th of June following his return.

These phenomena have since spread to hundreds of mainly Anglican leaders in meetings held at this church. Another group of charismatic churches, based in Southampton and led by Tony Morton, also experienced the phenomena in June and became a base for further spread.

Many churches in the midlands, including another group of charismatic churches—Covenant Ministries (led by Bryn Jones)—also became affected following Rodney Howard-Browne's meetings in Birmingham from June 14-17. Most outside of the midlands were unaware of his visit. The Covenant Ministries group also saw hundreds of other church leaders travel to various locations and experience the phenomena.

In July, an Evangelical Alliance leaders' meeting at Westminster Central Hall resulted in most leaders present being on the floor following prayer, with many shaking. At another leaders' meeting held on October 1st, Roger Forster, leader of Ichthus, reported that at that point (in what some thought was a conservative estimate) 2,000 UK churches of all types were involved.

These peculiar events have appeared in the secular and Christian press alike. One particularly astonishing account of a meeting at the Vineyard in Putney speaks for itself and was published in the Times:

"After his sermon, Mr. Mumford prayed for 'the tornado to visit the church'... Outside it was calm, but suddenly the curtains shielding an open door blew in and over my face, a huge wind rushed in, scattering service sheets and papers ... nearly everyone else fell over, stood rigid, or [were] shaking, sobbing, clutching at their faces, or waving their hands before them ... I clambered over a couple of prostrate bodies for tea and coffee and found myself giggling uncontrollably ... I felt dizzy, grasped a chair in order not to collapse ... I downed the coffee and ran."

Billy Graham, the well-known evangelist, has commended the current work and declared he is praying for a new touch from the Holy Spirit.

It's Not New! - Similar Phenomena in History

Much of the secular press, and even at times the Christian press, speak as though these phenomena are a recent occurrence. They have actually been seen on and off in various places within the charismatic section of the Church for some years. In particular, John Wimber conferences have been noted for the phenomena. American psychiatrist and author, Dr. John White, wrote on the subject in 1988 and discussed all of the various phenomena. It is the extent and intensity of the current phenomena that is different now.

The phenomena have also been reported in Church history, particularly during revivals. Earlier this century, in the Belgian Congo revival, there were many "drunk with the Spirit, many shaking beyond their control, others throwing themselves on the floor ... yet none were hurt."

The so called "holy laughter" was also a feature of the Welsh Revival of 1904, as were the "sobbing disorderly meetings."

In 1859, a revival broke out in Ireland which then spread extensively in the British Isles. Physical "prostrations" were very marked in Ireland, and also in Scotland and parts of England. "Even strong men have staggered and fallen down under the wounds of their conscience. Great bodily weakness ensues. The whole frame trembles."

Towards the end of the 1700's, in camp meetings in the USA, "large numbers fell and would lie motionless for hours or would shriek or groan at intervals ... Some talked, but could not move. Some beat the floor with their heels ... It was a common sight to see men leap, sob, shout, laugh, or swoon ... the scoffer was as likely to be stricken as the convert."

Charles Finney, the famous 18th century revivalist, "saw people weep, cry, and fall senseless." John Wesley, a revival preacher earlier in the 1700's, was no stranger to these sort of phenomena. For example, while preaching in Wapping, London, "Many of those that heard began to call upon God with strong cries and tears. Some sunk down, and there remained no strength in them; others exceedingly trembled and quaked; some were torn with a kind of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies, and that so violently that often four or five persons could not hold one of them."

One man who listened to Wesley on another occasion found that before the sermon was over, "I was so overpowered with joy and love that I had much ado to walk home." This experience sounds remarkably like the "drunkenness" reported by many more recently.

Wesley also reports having discussed with his colleague, George Whitefield, the latter's reservations about the phenomena. Wesley says,

"But the next day he [Whitefield] had an opportunity of informing himself better: for no sooner had he begun (in the application of his sermon) to invite all sinners to believe in Christ, than four persons sunk down close to him, almost in the same moment. One of them lay without either sense or motion; a second trembled exceedingly; the third had strong convulsions all over his body, but made no noise; the fourth equally convulsed, called upon God with strong cries and tears. From this time, I trust, we shall all suffer God to carry on His own work in the way that pleaseth him."

There is even a most remarkable reference from the revival in Camberslang, Scotland, around this time to roaring, where the wife of a Carter in Rutherglen, following family prayers, "was made to roar out twice in a hideous and terrible manner ... not like a human voice."

David Brainerd saw a revival among American Indians beginning in 1745. He writes, "The power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly 'like a rushing mighty wind' and with an astonishing energy that bore down all before it."

John Bunyan, the seventeenth century divine and author of Pilgrim's Progress, while reading Hebrews 2:14,15 "thought that the glory of these words was then so weighty on me, that I was both once and twice ready to swoon ... yet not with grief and trouble, but with solid joy and peace."

Responses to the Phenomena

There have been numerous explanations of the phenomena. Mass hysteria or hypnosis have been suggested by many lay people. Alan Morrison, a Baptist minister in Derbeyshire, linked the phenomena with mesmerism. This, however, reveals a simplistic view of such phenomena. Mass hysteria is an illness associated with negative symptoms. Hypnotism cannot explain the phenomena, particularly when the 'hypnotist' (church leader) is already on the floor himself!

Suggestion and peer pressure are other factors that have been used to explain what is happening. In meetings where the phenomena are all of one type, or individuals are prayed with for prolonged periods, the pressure to conform must be strong. Some individuals may also learn "appropriate" responses to certain stimuli.

Baldwin, a consultant psychiatrist, wrote a critique of John Wimber's meetings for the CMF, describing similar phenomena on a smaller scale. He felt that much could be explained in terms of CNS excitation due to excessive sensory input and primed by suggestion. The release of certain behaviors such as laughing, etc. could result, and "in the extreme instance, momentary deregulation of the brain stem occurs, resulting in complete physical collapse." Baldwin is quick to point out that this does not rule out the Spirit's activity in producing these phenomena, but merely allows the influence of other factors. He points out the danger of exaggerating the differences between the natural and the supernatural. It would certainly seem to be the case that previous experience, unwitting suggestion by the leader of a meeting, and the phenomena experienced by others can all have an influence on how a person responds to a sudden experience of God.

The presence of bizarre phenomena, even if we suppose them to be supernatural in origin, does not guarantee that the Spirit is at work. The prophets of Egypt were able to reproduce most of the signs that Moses produced. (Exodus 7, 8). Jesus warns that false prophets will appear and produce signs (Mark 13:22), and warns that even miraculous powers exercised in his name are no guarantee that a person will be saved. (Matthew 7:22)

There are some who find the whole thing somewhat disturbing. Citing the Scripture, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40, AV), the rampant display of powerful emotions and peculiar actions is seen as inappropriate. There is a tendency among evangelicals to downplay experience altogether. Faith is made to be mere intellectual assent, and if there are no feelings or experiences, that really doesn't matter. This is simply not biblical.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the famous preacher (who was also medically trained) said that the trouble with many Christians today is that they

"talk much about the truth but very often they have never felt its power ... They have never been mastered by it ... The essence of the Christian position is experience—experience of God! It is not a mere intellectual awareness or apprehension of truth ... It is inconceivable that a man should really perceive the truth of this Gospel and feel nothing ... It is impossible that this amazing message that tells us that God, before time, planned this scheme of salvation, that the Son came in the fullness of time, humbled himself, divested himself of the signs of his glory, should leave us unmoved."

It would seem that if we become profoundly moved, the depths of our emotions may naturally find expression in at least some of these phenomena. As the American, Jonathan Edwards (who saw revival in the 1700's characterized by many of these phenomena) put it:

"It is easily accounted ... how a right influence, a true and proper sense of things should have such affects on the body, even those which are of the most extraordinary kind, such as taking away bodily strength, or throwing the body into great agonies, and extorting loud cries."

Of course, the mere force of emotion does not indicate the reality of a person's experience of Christ; we must look elsewhere for that.

The scriptures mention many of the phenomena seen today. The accusation of "drunkenness" (Acts 2:13-16) made to the Apostles is interesting. Scripture does not say what it was that led to the accusation. It is unlikely that people speaking in languages they did not know would be sufficient in itself to produce these accusations. As the disciples were suddenly filled with the Spirit and boldness, it seems that they knew the same intoxication with joy seen today. The current move has been identified by many as "a time of refreshing." (Acts 3:19) Certainly many today are feeling empowered for Christian service. The flourishing of new life in the desert seen in Isaiah 35, and the typological interpretation of Ezekial 37, with the river representing the Spirit of God which we are called to enter fully into rather than only ankle deep, have been widely quoted.

Laughter is the result of God restoring his people in Psalm 126:2, and is also described positively in Abraham (Genesis 17:17). In this reference, Abraham also fell to the ground. Falling to the ground in the presence of God is frequently described in the Bible. The following are examples: Joshua (Josuha 5:14), the parents of Samson (Judges 13:20), Jehosophat and all the people of Judah (2 Chronicles 20:18), Daniel (Daniel 10:9), Jesus' disciples (Matthew 17:6), Jesus (Mark 14:35), the guards arresting Jesus (John 18:6), the Apostle Paul on his conversion (Acts 9:4), and John (Revelation 1:17). Admittedly most of these fell forwards and most of today's cases fall backwards, but in not every case is the direction described. Something similar may be meant by the references to trances (Acts 10:10, Acts 11:5, Acts 22:17). Saul also is described as lying all day and all night prophesying. (1 Samuel 19:24)

This "falling over" has often been referred to as being slain in the Spirit. Many do not like this terminology as the phrase is more in keeping with the experience of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5-11) than the experiences of many currently reporting this phenomena.

There are also many examples (e.g. Exodus 19) of trembling before the Lord, although these examples are usually accompanied with fear, which does not always seem to be the case today.

If we are to believe in a God who never changes, we have to accept that God could do the same today. The question is—Is he actually doing the same today?

Testing the Movement

If we are to accept the unavoidable conclusion that, both in the Bible and in Church history, God has acted in similar ways to what we are seeing today, we need discernment in order to determine whether he is indeed doing so.

Jonathan Edwards discussed how to judge if a movement is of God. According to Edwards, we should not be influenced by

1. Bizarre and unusual phenomena
   
2. The interest generated by the phenomena in the world
   
3. The ecstasy and reports of impressions or visions
   
4. The fact that imitation is to some degree responsible for producing the outward effects
   
5. The conduct and teaching of those affected.

It was his opinion that none of these things prove anything.

It was in his study of 1 John 4 that he found the signs to indicate the genuineness of a work of God:

1. An increase in esteem for Jesus as the Son of God
   
2. A greater following of God's ways
   
3. An increased hunger for and understanding of God's Word (thus listening to the Apostles)
   
4. An increased love for God and man.

It is by the fruit of this movement that we will know its genuineness. (Matthew 7:15-20). The result of all of this ought to be a greater desire for holiness and to see souls saved.

What of the current movement? Terry Virgo reports that he has observed several specific results of this movement.

"Prayer meetings are growing in size and number. People have a greater desire to be with the people of God. Bad relationships are being resolved. There is a new desire to witness, and an increase in the participation in meetings. Morale has been lifted greatly, and there is a fresh hunger."

Sandy Millar writes, "People are experiencing a tremendous new love for Jesus Christ, for the Bible as God's Word, and for the things God loves."

At least some of what has been going on seems to be genuine. Thousands of believers have been asking God for his Spirit's influence. To claim that they are all receiving something else flies in the face of Scripture. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:11)

At times there have also been excesses. It is hard to disagree with a charismatic pastor's concern about a few people in Toronto laughing uncontrollably while God's Word was read concerning the death of Christ. A response to this kind of thing, where powerful words from the Bible have seemed to excite a few people further, is to quietly ask the affected to remove themselves or be removed if incapable. We do not have to accept everything we see simply because we conclude that God is at work.

There is a worrying tendency among some to try to appropriate the movement as though it belongs to them, or indeed to attach it to a particular church or place. This article deliberately has not called the phenomena, "The Toronto Blessing," which has become an all-too-frequent name for it. If this is a blessing, it is God who has given it, not Toronto. In fact, the very fact that this "blessing" has not been confined to any particular group in spite of our terrible divisions is perhaps a sign of its genuineness. There are some signs of a growing unity where churches and groups who have separately discovered the same phenomena are having joint meetings, particularly among their leaders.

What Should I Do?

Four broad categories of response can be observed:

1. The Pharisee Response
   After a minimal investigation, possibly largely by hearsay, some vigorously oppose what is going on. As one Baptist pastor who had never attended a meeting pronounced, "This movement is not of God." The extreme denunciation of any movement is out of place without a careful investigation. In the case of the Pharisees, their opposition to this young upstart, Jesus of Nazareth, was largely based on jealousy. To oppose from a distance is dangerous since, unless one throws aside the history of revivals, one has to conclude that these phenomena could be the work of God. How sad to fall into the same trap as those biblical men who opposed every revival in history.
   
   
2. The Gamaliel Approach (Acts 5)
   Leave it alone since, if it is of God, it will continue; otherwise, it will fail. At first sight, Gamaliel's "stand back and see what happens" advice seems good. It is certainly an improvement on the first position. We should not forget, however, that these were the words of an unbeliever. The biblical view of the Church is that, like it or not, we are all part of one another. When a widespread movement is affecting so large a part of the Church, if you feel you have wisdom and maturity, you have a responsibility to investigate. If this is a work of God, don't miss out! If this is a deceptive endeavor, rescue your brothers and sisters!
   
   
3. A Blind Acceptance of Everything
   There are those who become so enraptured by experiences that nothing else matters. There was apparently at least one church which had not had a sermon for nine weeks solid. This is a road fraught with danger. Power is dangerous. Heresy, error, and sin may result. We need to be more responsible than this.
   
   
4. Recognize Carefully the Work of God and Seek His Blessing
   Careful investigation with discernment is called for. We should actively promote this movement if it is of God. It is a fearful thing to oppose God. At the same time, we need to be wise, as excesses can happen. We need to ensure that decency is always maintained. For example, sometimes young women wear clothing that can become revealing as they fall. This needs to be managed to prevent improper exposure. We need to care for those prayed for, and particularly those who feel left out. Any appearance of manipulation ought to be rooted out.

A careful eye needs to be kept on the stricken. A medical emergency could easily be missed. There has already been one case of status epileptics which was, fortunately, discovered amidst a mass of twitching bodies. This is one area where the trained eye of a doctor could be especially useful. The graying face could also easily be missed if surrounded by a carpetful of other prostrate bodies. Let's endeavor to conquer our built-in cynicism and discover whether this is a move of God. There is a great need for the wisdom and steadiness that a doctor provides. Should you be serving your brothers and sisters in this way?

If you choose to attend a meeting, it's important not to merely go as a spectator. Nor should you go with a strong desire to be struck by a particular experience. You may well merely witness a bizarre, possibly humorous, spectacle if either attitude is yours. Instead, attend with a desire to experience God for yourself if all this is genuine. Do not seek phenomena, SEEK GOD! We are desperate, needy people who live in a world destitute of any hope, except that which is offered in the gospel. We ought to cry out for the sovereign influence of the Holy Spirit for our renewal—yes—but also for revival where countless people become Christians. We need to see a work that is not confined to church buildings, still less to a time for prayer. There are some who believe that we stand on the threshold of a great revival. Lloyd-Jones, who died in 1981, believed he was doing a preparatory work for a great revival by helping to renew a foundation of biblical teaching. Let's hope this movement is indeed a small shaking, leading up to a great earthquake of God's moving to awaken his Church and add many, many people to his bride.

If that is so, the current phenomena could very well be a part of God testing us to see whether we are faithful in the small things so he can entrust us with the big things. Let's not veer away from our biblical roots, nor despise the work of God. In view of the dangers of both excesses and blanket rejection, the correct approach to the movement is surely found in one of Paul's letters:

"Do not quench the Spirit ... but test everything; hold fast to what is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:19,21, NRSV)

Recently I have been preaching on the life of David. Powerpoint files are available for three sermons
David the servant king, The strength of the King and The character of the King

The last one speaks a fair bit about law and the Christians attitude to it.

One of my hearers has posed me a question, following being challenged during the sermon to read the 10 commandments

Further to your preach on Sunday last I turned to Exodus and read the 10 commadments (no surprises thankfully).

One question if I may.... the commandment re the sabbath does not appear to considered of equal importance in the church today with the other commandments. What is the biblical reason for this exception.

Yet again I found your preach both challenging and encouraging.

I could wax lyrical about the difference between the moral commandments and the ceremonial ones. I could talk about identity markers for the jews, and such like.

Instead, lets take a look at what the bible itself says about the Sabbath post Jesus.

Jesus himself said 'The Sabbath was made for man, anot man for the Sabbath' (Mk 2:27) Which gives us a clue. Instead of legalistic rules and being forbidden to do certain things, Jesus is surely hinting at the underlying purpose for the sabbath.

Most Christians today would argue that the principle of a regular pattern of work and rest should be a part of our lives as a way of respecting this commandment. So I guess respect for this commandment is as much about getting home at a decent time from work (at least some of the time!) as it is about attending church.

But there is another meaning altogether given to the Sabbath in Hebrews:- "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God�s rest has also urested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest" (Heb 4:9-11)

So I believe that we are intended also to live in a kind of eternal sabbath of rest from our labours. This clearly refers to our labours to please God. Since he is already pleased with us and has forgiven us, we no longer need to work.

So work for a Christian stops being the curse it so often feels, and because we can now do all things through Christ who gives us strength, we can take on the easy yoke of Jesus. Actually Paul speaks elsewhere of working harder than all the other Apostles with the strength that God gave him.

So to me that all relates to the sabbath, and actually, in many ways under the new covenant the sabbath is not relaxed at all, but like the other commandments becomes a matter of the heart firstly then expressed in our actions.

The mature Christian eminates calm, rest, contentment and peace because he is living in the good of sabbath. He also knows when to take time out- as Jesus frequently did.