Romans 1: 18-32

This was the 500 (and a bit more!) word talk that I gave today for the preaching and teaching module for Teesocs on Romans 1: 18-32.

To look around at the world can be a fairly depressing exercise. You only have to watch the news for a few minutes to see that there are some serious problems. If you look at the lives of your friends and family you see hurt, broken relationships, suffering and pain. Then you examine yourself and unless you're really deceiving yourself you realise that you're not doing too well either. You go through life with good intention, yet you end up not doing the things you want to do and, however hard you try, you end up doing the things you don't want to. You end up hurting the people you love the most.

Let me change gear a bit. Don't you wish God made himself more obvious? If there was a God out there, surely he'd show himself more clearly! How can people ask me to follow someone who it's such a struggle to believe actually exists?

Now you might wonder what exactly i'm going on about – i'm jumping around talking about completely different things aren't I? Well, the Bible says no. You see, the Bible says that the call to follow God based on how he's revealed himself, and the problems of suffering, evil and broken relationships in our world are very closely linked.

The Bible says that God has shown himself to mankind. Though he's shown himself in lots of ways, it says that you don't need to look further than creation itself to see something of the power of God. I'm sure this is something that we've all experienced to a certain extent – whether it's wondering at the majesty of an incredible hilltop view, whether it's through the beauty of a sunset, whether it is through the miracle of a baby being born or whether it's in studying the intricacy of a human cell – most of us have had a moment that has caused us to realise that there must be something powerful behind and above all of this.

But the fact is, though God is the creator of all this, including us, we have all have chosen to reject him. Though he is worthy of praise and worship and complete devotion as the one who made us, we chose to live our lives as though he isn't there, and he is rightly angry at this. Rather than worship him, we chose to devote our lives to far less worthy things – to career, to sex, to money, to our reputation. What's ironic is that he created those things too, yet we worship the things that are created rather than the creator.

In response, he allows us to do the damaging things that we want to do. He has allowed us to mess up the world as we want to. He has allowed us to endure the consequences of our messed up priorities in lots of ways including the way that our relationships with each other are so damaged, causing the hurt and the suffering that we see around us – none of which would be there if God was the most important thing in life, and if the way we lived our lives flowed out of that.

The Bible also tells us that there's worse to come. If we go on rejecting God in the way that we are, then we will face not only the consequences of our sin that we see now but we'll face the judgement of God, and the penalty that that brings.

But though the Bible shows us the problem with the world, it doesn't leave us desperate in the problem with no solution. It also offers hope. If we turn our back on worshipping the things that we worship which aren't worthy of it, if we say sorry to God that we've done that and if we chose instead to put him back in his rightful place in our lives then not only will we be forgiven, not only will relationships with each other begin to heal, but we can have the hope of a time after we die when the problems we face will be over. At that time we won't have to see only the dim reflection of God in the mirror of his creation, but we will be sure of him and his glory because we'll see him face-to-face.

Google Wave

Google wave presents a new way of communicating online.

To be honest, I don't really get it! But I do have some spare invites, so if you or someone you know wants to get an account then reply to this and I can invite you :).

All that I am is for Christ and the church

When the Spirit takes hold of us, he claims us from top to bottom. We may fairly say, then, that whatever about me is taken over in the service of Christ and his church - and that even includes aptitudes and capacities I had before I became a believer - is a spiritual gift

Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. - Are miraculous gifts for today? Four Views

Thought for the future vs contentment

How do you get the balance right between thinking about the future and being content in the present? We're told not to worry about the future, but at the same time it is surely wise to think about how we can explore ministry options and think about the best way to develop gifts.

It's a difficult balance to get right - it's too easy to forget that we are to live for God now and just get on with the ways that he's given us to serve. It's too easy to fall into thinking so much about how life should map itself out in the next few years that you stop living and serving God now. You can find yourself seeking joy in some future situation or some idealistic church or ministry which of course will never actually provide real joy.

I need to somehow not place my hope in the future - to not think that life will be perfect in this situation or that, to not be so interested in what I will be doing then that I forget that I am in the now for a reason. To do that, whilst still thinking through what would be best (especially when you need to apply for things so far in advance!) is difficult, but makes for a life in which joy is found in God and not in a hope of what life might bring.

Barnabas vs Ananias and Sapphira

I've been preaching through the book of Acts on Sunday evenings, approx one a month. The Sunday before last I got to Acts 4:32-5:11 - the section about how the early church shared their possessions and then Ananias and Sapphira.

Here's a link to the talk - I found it a very challenging passage to think about. If you get chance to have a listen, I would appreciated any constructive feedback to help me grow and develop!

The early spread of Christianity

I've just started reading Christopher Catherwood's book 'Church History'. I love studying church history! I'm barely half a chapter through and excited already!

Catherwood describes how the Roman empire at the time of the early church was so beneficial to the spread of the gospel. With the sheer size of it, making a huge geographical area that can be safely crossed without the need to cross hostile borders; with the logistics of travel being so easy due to the roads built by some of the best road builders the world has ever seen; and with the widespread use of common Greek following the conqueror Alexander the Great - all this meant that the gospel 'reached from Spain in the west to Syria in the east, Macedonia in the north and Etheopia in the south, all by the end of the book of Acts.'

In his providence God had set the pieces carefully in place to enable the rapid spread of his Kingdom! How exciting!

Raised with Christ

Check out below Adrian Warnock's video of him talking about his new book, Raised with Christ.

I remember distinctly when growing up understanding very little of why Jesus rose from the dead. It was obvious to me that it was better for Jesus to be alive than dead(!), but whilst I felt I had a grasp of some of the theological implications of the cross and how that impacted my life, it would have been much harder for me to articulate this for the resurrection.

The reasons for this are probably not necessarily all bad. The drive to keep the cross at the centre of church life is good, I think, but to have the cross without the resurrection is like having a cheque without a signature - ultimately it's worthless. It's the resurrection that makes the cross effective and shows God's acceptance of it, it's because Jesus is alive that he is Lord today and his Lordship today is what our hopes are pinned on for the present and the future.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...

So, I look forward to reading this book and getting a deeper understanding of the reasons for and the implications of the resurrection! You can pre-order it now.

Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Desiring God Audio Book

The audio book of 'Desiring God' by John Piper can be downloaded from christianaudio.com for free this month!

Sleep

Why did God create sleeping?

Dealing with guilt

At housegroup on Tuesday evening we were looking together at Colossians 1, and the conversation came round to how we deal with guilt. We'd talked much of how amazing God's grace is, and how we need to be reminding ourselves constantly that it is solely and completely through Jesus' death in our place that we can be forgiven and come before God, and how we must avoid the temptation to feel the need to top up what Jesus has done for us with other things.

Many said though, that despite knowing that our forgiveness is only because of what Jesus is done, and that when we are forgiven it is full and we are given the righteousness of Christ, we still can struggle with feelings of guilt. I read these quotes from Jerry Bridge's book 'The Discipline of Grace' and thought them worth repeating:

"The satisfaction of Christ is more than a mere theological expression. It is a concept we need to become acquainted with in our daily lives. When our consciences are smiting us because of our sin, it is important to reflect upon the fact that, though our sins are real and inexcusable, nevertheless God's justice has already been satisfied through the "satisfaction of Christ" that the penalty has been fully paid by Him."

"... when we are smarting under the conviction of sin, when we realize we've failed God one more time, perhaps even in the same sin, we must resort to the cleansing blood of Jesus... It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance, it is not even the passing of a certain number of hours during which we feel we are on some kind of probation that cleanses us. It is the blood of Christ, shed once for all on Calvary two thousand tears ago but appropriated daily or even many times a day, that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of peace with God."

"Justification is a completed work as far as God is concerned. The penalty has been paid and His justice has been satisfied. But it must be received through faith and must be continually renewed in our souls and applied to our consciences every day through faith. There are two "courts" we must deal with: the court of God in Heaven and the court of conscience in our souls. When we trust in Christ for salvation, God's court is forever satisfied. Never again will a charge f guilt be brought against us in heaven. Our consciences, however, are continually pronouncing us guilty. That is the function of the conscience. Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience into line with the verdict of heaven. We do this by agreeing with our conscience about our guilt, but then reminding it that our guilt has already been borne by Jesus."

We are no longer guilty; our horrific, wrath-deserving, putrid sin has been paid for by Jesus, and we must fix our eyes on that fact and rejoice in it! To not feel guilt can be very hard, but we are no longer guilty but are in fact clothed in the righteousness of Christ