A Path Less Followed

Book Review- The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament

2010-06-02T14:26:00.011+01:00

In The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament, Sandra L. Richter (Associate professor of Old Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary) addresses the barriers to understanding the Old Testament and attempts to make it more accessible by explaining how the OT is part of one story- ‘to tell the epic tale of God’s ongoing quest to ransom his creation’.

Richter believes that while many Christians know a lot of information about the OT, many do not know how to organize and use it, a phenomenon Richter describes as ‘dysfunctional closet syndrome’. In this book Richter’s goal is to make the OT narrative more accessible by helping the readers to organise what they know about the OT. In Richter’s opening remarks she states that her hope is ‘that the story of the OT will come alive to you such that you will recognise your own story in the sweeping epic of redemption’.

Richter appears to be passionate about reading the word of God in a literary fashion. A literary reader asks: based on the literary style and historical setting of a text, what was the author’s intended message. Richter’s approach to understanding the bible in this way was most obvious when she explained her view on the 6-day creation debate found in Genesis. While Richter does not specify whether she favors 6-day creation or not, she does communicates that she believes ‘Genesis 1 was written to provide a lens through which to read the rest of the Pentateuch as a whole’. In Richter’s view, whether the earth was made in 6 days or not is not the message Genesis is communicating but rather it’s message is about who God is and his intent for creation before launching into the story of redemption.

This literary fashion in understanding Genesis is controversial, however I do believe that this approach to understanding Genesis and the bible as a whole does hold merit when looking at the bigger picture of the bible- an unfolding story about the one and only creator of the world on a mission to redeem his lost people. Having a literary approach to specifically reading Genesis 1 also provides a reasonable perspective worth considering to those who cannot resolve 6-day creation and scientific theories about the age of the earth.

Richter show’s how the narratives of the bible characters found in the OT are all linked and part of the bigger picture. While tracing the covenantal theme through the narratives of the Patriarch’s, Richter shows how understanding the historical and social setting of the bible writers can illuminate our understanding of the bible message. By sharing her studies of the culture of the time, passages were brought to life and given profound meaning, where I had previously put them in the “too hard to understand” basket.

Richter’s intense passion in breaking down the great cultural barriers to understanding the OT and the bible in it’s entirety does in no way communicate that in order to understand the message of the bible you must have a degree in Israel’s and Ancient Near Eastern history. The word of God is powerful and its message is accessible to everyone. Rather, by understanding the culture of the writers of the bible, to me, emphasized the consistency rather then contradiction of the bible and the plain sense and relevance of the word of God that must have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to attain such perfection.

Has Richter been successful in the goal of her book? I’m my case yes. She has certainly helped organise my ‘dysfunctional closet’. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to get more out of the Old Testament which will result in appreciating the bible in it’s entirety. It's a very accessible and helpful read, even to the lay reader.

The Cross Proceeds The Crown

2009-10-12T09:33:00.003+01:00

Trials. Hardship. Suffering.

No one likes to talk about these issues, even in Christian circles. We hear so much pep talk about walking in victory, becoming prosperous, being constantly happy, etc -- but the fact is that we cannot deny the fact that suffering exists. Firstly, they are a fact of life -- everyone will agree with that. Even at the moment in my life I feel like I am experiencing several little "deaths" inside each day, as God is dealing with some big issues in my heart. It's like undergoing spiritual open heart surgery; it hurts, it's painful, and it is hard to deal with.

And secondly, Jesus promised it to us. The Bible tells us again and again to expect hardship, as John Piper explains:

"Jesus said it. Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Paul said it. 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." The author of Hebrews said it. Hebrews 12:6-7, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons." Peter said it. 1 Peter 4:13, "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation."

The wonderful thing is that none of our suffering is meaningless; it all has purpose and reason. And it is all building up to our eternal inheritance. Piper expands on this:

"No pain, no gain. No cross, no crown. No suffering, no inheritance. That's the way it is. And if you ask, "What kind of pain? Is it just persecution he's talking about? Or is it other miseries we face in this life?" I answer from the following verses in Romans 8 that it is all the groaning that comes with the futility of this fallen age - persecution, calamity, disease, death. Any suffering that you meet on the road to heaven and endure by trusting in Jesus. Any hardship that might destroy your faith and lead you away from God. Read Romans 8:18-25 and see for yourselves.

"If there were no afflictions and difficulties and troubles and pain, our fallen hearts would fall ever more deeply in love with the comforts and securities and pleasures of this world instead of falling more deeply in love with our inheritance beyond this world, namely, God himself. Suffering is appointed for us in this life as a great mercy to keep us from loving this world more than we should and to make us rely on God who raises the dead. "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22)."

I could not have said it better myself. The hymn 'In The Valley' put it so well in saying 'So let me learn that the cross proceeds the crown'.

Just like Jesus, we must go through the pain, suffering, hardship and trials in this earthly life. But also like Jesus, we will have an inheritance awaiting us in the next life that will far surpass anything we will ever have to endure this side of eternity.

I will let Piper conclude:

"There is no other way. Do not begrudge them. They are hard to bear. I know they are. But if you keep your inheritance before you, and if God gives you the grace to see what Paul calls "the riches of the glory of his inheritance" (Ephesians 1:18), then will you not say with the apostle, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us"?"

(For more on what our "inheritance" actually is, please read the rest of John Piper's article -- or watch/listen to the sermon -- 'Children, Heirs and Fellow Sufferers'. It is well worth the read, I promise.)

School of Suffering

2009-09-22T03:53:00.002+01:00

Recently I asked God to teach me more about suffering. For those that know we have a God that hears our prayers and answers them- you may think that this was an idiotic request. Although I may have hesitated a little as I made this prayer request, it is not one that I regret.

The times of sufferings in my life have been the times where I have learned the most about the love and mercy of Christ. It has made me more aware of the extent of hardship Christ had to go through in order to provide us salvation. They have been the most humbling times where I have recognised my profound weakness and grown to understand my complete dependence on Christ’s strength and providence. But mostly they have been times of recognising idols in my own life and surrendering them over to God, in order to re-establish him as the centre of my life.

We all suffer in different ways. The severity and length of those times will differ in people lives. What causes suffering in one person’s life may not cause suffering in another person’s life because we value different things; therefore advising someone to get over something just because they don’t feel affected by it is probably not a wise thing to do. Seasons of suffering are genuinely hard times. However I can testify that they are the times that bring perspective and clarity to the great hope that we have in Christ. They are times that bring us to a place where we can honestly say ‘not mine but your will be done’. They are times that remind us that everything is meaningless apart from obedience to God and the hope we have in him.

Christians are quick to try and avoid suffering. Our prayers more often than not ask God to protect us from times of sadness, loss and pain rather then asking him to teach us through these times to the praise of His glory. Yet 1 Peter 1: 3-9 talks about the necessity of trials so that through the testing of our faith we may rejoice in the living hope that we have, the salvation of our souls.

The day that I asked God to teach me more about suffering I expected that I would go to into work and have the opportunity to share the gospel with a sick and dying patient and get ridiculed and warned for sharing my faith. Now to me, that is suffering for the gospel! As I entered my work place my prayers consisted of asking for the opportunity to share the gospel and to share in Christ’s suffering. God answered my prayers in a way that I didn’t expect. The majority of my patients turned out to be Christians! This is a rare phenomenon, and this continued to be the trend for the next few weeks.

As I had the privilege of nursing these sisters in Christ I was able to help carry their burdens and share in their suffering and genuine pain. As I was called to minister to them over the next few weeks they were also ministering to me in their time of suffering. It was a great reminder of God’s love for his children. All these Christian women had different stories to share about their suffering. Yet what they did have in common was their reaction to their suffering – praise and glory to God. An inexpressible joy in the Lord. A renewed hope in salvation. A better understanding of the faithfulness of God. And an acknowledgement of God’s purposes in allowing suffering - the testing of their faith which has been a great testimony to all those around.

Back In Business

2009-09-09T07:29:00.004+01:00

After a busy season of weddings, traveling and life changes, Emily and I have reunited in 'The Land of Oz' and we are back in business!

Emily and I are sitting in my apartment in Sydney throwing around ideas for this new season of blogging. We have just realized that we started this blog about a year ago. Wow! Time flies by!

Jess is in a fantastic season of being newly married. Emily and I are so happy for her and her husband Will who tied the knot in June. We were honored to be her bridesmaids and enjoyed celebrating the day with her. However, due to having new priorities in her life, Jess will be unable to contribute to this blog. But we hope to have her back as a guest blogger now and again.

We would like to take the opportunity to say thank you Jess for all your contributions and for sharing your heart in your posts - they have really encouraged many people.

So what can you expect in this new and changing season? Well for one thing some regular posting! But to find out what else... stay tuned folks!

Where Have We Been?!

2009-06-01T14:05:00.002+01:00

To our readers (yes, all 3 of you) -- we're sorry we have disappeared on here for so long! We all have found ourselves in extremely busy and demanding seasons of life for the past few months, so many lesser priorities have had to temporarily go out the window!

But we will hopefully be back writing here soon. In the meantime, we have lots of exciting things happening: Jess' wedding is this Saturday (6th June), and is Ali is flying back from Sydney this Thursday as both she and I are two of Jess' bridesmaids! It will be the first time in just over six months that we have all been together, since Ali moved back to Australia last November. We are all incredibly excited to see each other again, and more so to see Jess wed to her wonderful fiance, Will.

We hope that you are all well and knowing the reality of God's grace in your life. And we shall be back soon!

Don't Shoot Other Christians

2009-04-03T03:58:00.004+01:00

I recently listened to this preach on 'suffering' inspired by 1 Peter 3 by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church. Driscoll made points that are very relevant to some of our recent posts on evangelism through the Church. The universal Church should be demonstrating Christ in our relationships and community, as people watch us to see if Christianity works.

Driscoll makes the point that Christians shouldn't add to one another's suffering as we are already dealing with enough suffering from Satan and slander from the world. Although different Churches have different ways of doing things we shouldn't talk trash about one another. Usually most of the gossip we hear about other Churches is just that- gossip. Gossip and trash talk is NOT the gospel! We love Jesus, they love Jesus and Jesus loves all of us. Therefore we should love one another.

The clip below is a section taken from this preach. To listen to the entire preach you can find it at http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/suffering-to-bless

The Loving Church Body + Preaching Christ = Salvation

2009-03-30T19:30:00.001+01:00

Continuing on with the Evangelism series...

Previously we looked at Jesus' prayer in John 17 - that his people and ultimately the universal Church would become more like him, growing in love and unity, resulting in people being saved, to God's glory. This post will look at how this specific purpose for the Church to evangelize, by being the body of Christ in the world, is outworked in the local church. By the end of this post my hope is that if you profess to have faith in Jesus Christ you will see how important it is for you to be an active member in your local church.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Church is the body of Christ. Since we proclaim that Christ is our head and we are in Christ, the world looks to the Church to get their impression of Christ's character. If our claim to be in Christ in genuine they should expect to see evidence of this in our actions and the way we live our lives. This is what they should expect to see in the local church:

Acts 2:42-47: 'And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.'

This passage touches on many different areas in which the Church should be outworking such as being generous, not loving money, being joyful, loving one another, providing for each other's needs, fellowship, praising God, preaching, teaching, remembering Christ, and performing signs and wonders. We will touch on all of these aspects in posts to come. For now the point I want to focus on comes from the last few lines of this passage which says 'having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.'

Here we see a New Testament local church functioning in a way that glorifies Christ - loving God, loving each other and loving the world, not only in their words but also in their actions. The result of this is that people were won over and were being saved day by day. This is amazing! The church community did not seclude themselves from people that were not Christians but rather they embraced them, had friendships with them and invited them into their church community so that they had "favor" with the people. Over time as the non-Christians witnessed the church body functioning in a loving community and also saw the benefit of this community, they were convinced that Christ really does change lives and they wanted in.

This approach to evangelism is still relevant today. Last year I was speaking on the topic 'Evangelism' at a youth group. I asked the youth audience this question: "Raise your hand if you became a Christian through a friendship with a Christian or someone inviting you to church?" All the youth raised their hands. I knew a lot of these young people on a personal basis and had witnessed many of them put their faith in Christ. This was the trend I observed in how the majority of them became Christians - they would have a friendship with a Christian from school or a sports team or maybe a neighbor, and they would be invited to the Church youth group. They would come along to the youth group, see that it was a welcoming, safe, fun place for making friends and over time they would feel like they were part of the family.

It was at this stage that they would start to asking questions about Jesus because they were being convinced by the way Christians lived that they were missing something in their own lives that the Christians around them clearly had. Eventually they would start coming to the Sunday church service as well as the youth group, and it was usually after a preach that they would officially respond to the invitation to accept Christ as their Savior.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, and not everyone goes through this process of being convinced that the gospel message is the truth. There are many people that have had supernatural revelations about Christ, without a friendship with the Church body, which has lead to an instant change of their heart, repentance and faith in Christ. The apostle Paul (who wasn't a friend of Christians, rather he had been persecuting Christians and ultimately Christ) became a Christian after a light from heaven momentarily blinded him and he heard Jesus speaking to him. I've also heard of people living in Muslim countries who have never heard the gospel and then all of a sudden have a revelation about Jesus dying for their sins.

My personal testimony was that the Holy Spirit gave me a revelation about my dependence on Christ for salvation at a very young age, before anyone would even think it possible for me to understand the gospel message to tell me. It is ultimately God who changes hearts and calls us to himself. However from this passage in Acts 2, from Jesus' prayer in John 17, and from 1 Peter 2 (which we will go onto look at) we see that it is God's plan to primarily reveal himself to the world through the Church body.

We will be going on to look at 1 Peter 2 and elaborate on why it is so important to be part of a local church, especially if you desire people to be saved. This should be our desire as it is the desire of God himself.

Unity In The Universal Church

2009-03-17T03:51:00.000Z

"Jesus Christ is the great cornerstone upon which the Church is built. He is the foundation of all Christian experience, and the Church is founded upon Him... Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the founder of the Church, the builder of the Church, and the Church belongs to Him alone. He has promised to live with, and in, all those who are members of this Church. Here is not only an organization but an organism that is completely unlike anything else that the world has ever known: God Himself living with, and in, ordinary men and women who are members of his church...(if) you have accepted Christ as your Savior and put your trust and confidence in Him, you have already become a member of the great universal Church. You are a member of the household of faith. You are a part of the body of Christ. Now you are called upon to obey Christ, and if you obey Christ, you will follow His example of joining with others in the worship of God." (Billy Graham)

God plans to show himself to the world through the universal Church - the body of Christ. We as individual

Christians are many, but we are one. We are one body with many different parts, each with a unique set of gifts to bring to the body of Christ, with Christ as our head. Since this is our God-ordained identity, the world looks to the universal Church for its opinion of Christ. This is why in John 17 we hear Jesus so fervently praying during his last hours before his crucifixion that his body of believers would be sanctified. The world is rightfully looking to the Church to be like Christ. As we continue to be sanctified as a body we should expect to see unity rather then division amongst the universal Church. We should desire this and pray for it.

Unfortunately though, the world often sees the sad aspects of the universal Church - bickering and slander between different denominations over non-fundamental issues, to name just one. The heart behind the arguing can often be personal preferences, upbringing, religious traditions, cultural differences and proud opinions rather then genuine biblical conviction. Don't get me wrong - there is a time and place for correcting and rebuking one another when it is done in a loving and relational way. However, we need to stop arguing over less crucial matters such as how church meetings are run, the style of worship music, and the different ways of doing mission. If this is how the world views the universal Church, no wonder they believe our message of love and grace sounds like hypocrisy! As Ghandi so famously quoted "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ"... Ouch, doesn't that cut you deep in the heart!

When I read the second greatest commandment "love your neighbor as yourself" I see that the way I am able to do is by looking to Jesus who displayed the ultimate example of love - by dying on the cross for me so that I may have life to the fullest although completely undeserved. I find my motivation to love others by casting my hope on the great standard of grace that Jesus has already set. Every member of the body of Christ needs to meditate on this principle. We love because Christ first loved us. We need to see the universal Church loving each member as Christ loved us, before the Church can fully extend that love to the rest of the world. When we see unity driven by love amongst the universal Church, then we will see more people put their hope in Christ because they will have seen with their own eyes that Christ's love transforms lives.

One of Jesus' final prayer request while on earth was "that they (the body of Christ) may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me". I hope this post provokes you to look at your attitude towards the Church. Are you bickering with other denominations? Are you speaking ill about your brothers and sisters in Christ? Have you given up on the Church because you don't think it reflects Christ? Rather than abandoning the Church or allowing yourself to grow bitter towards it, I hope you will join me in continually praying for unity amongst the body of Christ. We should expect to see increased fellowship, love and doctrinal unity amongst the universal Church, as this was Christ's prayer for us - that we would become more like him so that the world may know him.

Sent Into The World

2009-03-03T01:50:00.009Z

Here at APLF we are moving onto a topic that we are very passionate about - evangelism. Your idea of evangelism may be a man standing on a street corner, Bible-bashing strangers passing by. Although there is a time and place for cold- contact evangelism, when I’m referring to evangelism we'll actually be thinking about God’s people loving God, loving one another, continually being built up and sanctified as a body for the sake of mission to the world, so that others may know Christ and glorify him.

Jesus said "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world" (John 17:17-18).

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at evangelism from the perspective of how this is so deeply intertwined with the local church and all that the church is called to be and do. I hope this series will be one that encourages you to be passionate about building up the beloved bride of Christ - the church. Most importantly I hope that as we look to the Bible you will see that you have a significant part to play in the body of Christ. My prayer is that you respond actively to the call to show Christ love to the world through your life and through your local church community.

Newfrontiers Conferences 2009

2009-03-01T06:53:00.003Z

Together on a Mission: 7th- 10th July, Brighton UK

Comprises two conferences which combine for some sessions.

Leadership conference for those with a leadership role in the church- from pastors to home group leaders, administrators to children's workers.

Mobilise is specially for students and twenties.

Mobilise 2009 Promo (1 min teaser) from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Newday 09 (For youth 12+): 1st-6th August, Norfolk Showground UK

Newday Promo 2009 from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Interview with Annie Waller

2009-02-26T10:05:00.009Z

(Above: Annie & myself)

For those of you that know Annie Waller I'm sure you will agree that she is an inspirational woman of God. You most likely know Annie as Joel Virgo's PA, the church administrator for Church of Christ the King, a key organizer in Newfrontiers conferences and leadership training, or you may know her on more of a personal basis as I do - as a faithful, caring, sister in Christ who has such a big heart and much wisdom to share.

I had the privilege of living with Annie and her beautiful family for a few months while preparing to move back to Australia. I can testify that although she has so many responsibilities within the church and her family, her strength and godly character never seems to run dry! I asked Annie if I could interview her prior to my departure back to Australia so that other women may be able to have privilege of getting to know her as I have over the last few years that we have become such close friends. (Family photo above left: Nigel, Ami Loizides, Annie, Frankie, and me)

Thank you Annie for agreeing to this interview. This is a tribute to your friendship, love, kindness, cheekiness and great example that has touched so many hearts.

Interview:

Ali: What is your favourite book?

Annie: 'Redeeming Love' by Francine Rivers

Ali: Favourite movie?

Annie: Beaches

Ali: Favourite food?

Annie: Fresh crab and prawns

Ali: I know you love your girly stuff. What's your favourite clothing accessory?

Annie: I have two: earrings and bags

Ali: If you had a day off work what would you do?

Annie: Spend that day at home which I love, but then I would be catching up with all those jobs too! (Right: Annie caught in action shopping)

Ali: Most embarrassing moment?

Annie: Years ago, I spilt beetroot on a cream carpet – I didn’t know the people very well.

Ali: Ooo shame! Craziest thing you have ever done?

Annie: There have been many, but my recent one was singing a duet in front of 200 people with one of the elders from our church.

Ali: Lol, I witnessed that one. I think that should have been the answer for your most embarrassing moment! Just joking (smile). We would love to know how you became a Christian.

Annie: I attended a close friend's baptism service, filled in a contact card, and then spent time with a neighbour having Bible studies. I eventually gave my life to the Lord - however I never really fully immersed myself into the Christian life until years later when my husband gave his life too.

Ali: Can you tell us about your role in the church?

Annie: I am PA to Joel Virgo, John Hosier, Steve Horne and Steve Walford [4 of our church elders]. I lead the admin team in the office and also jointly oversee the personnel for the church office.

Ali: Most people that know you would agree that the church would probably fall to pieces if you weren’t there (quote from Joel Virgo, the lead elder of CCK). Your role in the church is not limited to administration as you are also a key person in Newfrontiers conferences and camps such as the leadership conference, Newday, and leadership training. With all your responsibilities how do you always stay so chilled out and look calm and in control?

Annie: I try to always look for the good in everything that is happening and stay positive. Every mountain I have to climb I see as God strengthening my character and developing my skills. God gives me mountains of grace and wisdom which often surprises me!

Ali: How would you advise other women who have heavy responsibilities within the church?

Annie: Always be God-centred in every aspect of your role. Be released in knowing that the elders of the church are responsible for all the outworkings of church life. Build great communication with your team and those you work alongside, and ask God continually for grace.

Ali: On top of being a pillar in the church you are also a great wife and mother. How long have you and Nigel been married and how did you meet?

Annie: Nigel and I have been married for 24 years; we met whilst working within the hotel industry in Brighton over 26 years ago. We’ve been here ever since!

Ali: I’ve been told that marriage is hard work…what have you had to work the hardest at?

Annie: Marriage is indeed hardwork. We have over the years had to work the hardest at spending quality time together.

Ali: In your experience what tactics help you spend more quality time together?

The tactics we have used are: we make sure we go through our diaries together and synchronise 'keep free' evenings or days; we stay accountable to each other so we don't lose them in the busyness of life; we try to go out for breakfast together as often as we can on a Saturday as Nigel's working hours can be quite random so it gives us time to catch up.

(Left: Mr & Mrs Waller looking fine)

Ali: What have been the joys of marriage for you?

Annie: Finding God together, our great friendship and our gorgeous children.

Ali: Can you tell us about your children? What are their names and how old are they? What is your favorite part about being a mother?

Annie: We have two children. Adam and Francesca (Frankie). Adam is 21 and works as a carpenter/joiner. He is a very cheeky 21 year old, full of fun, mischief, but totally adorable. Frankie is 17, studying for her AS’s at a local college. She totally loves God and is just a delight. My absolute favourite part about being a mum is 1) knowing what a privilege it is to be a parent. 2) Watching them grow into adults. 3) Knowing that God has all their days planned. 4) Being able to laugh, cry, and have lots of fun together 5) Hearing them tell you that they love you.

Ali: I have had the privilege of watching the beautiful relationship you have with your daughter. How has this relationship developed? Any tips for mothers?

Annie: Our relationship has grown out of a friendship that has developed over the years. We love spending quality time together, even if we do nothing, but just sit and hug watching the TV. The biggest tip I can give is to keep the lines of communication open even when things can get a bit hairy and you don’t like what they're telling you! Pray, pray and then pray some more. (Right: Annie & gorgeous Frankie)

Ali: Where do you find time to pray and meditate on the word of God?

Annie: First thing in the morning, either when I’m out on a morning hike or just sitting in bed. God will also wake me in the night sometimes to spend time with Him.

Ali: A Bible verse you often return to?

Annie: Romans 8.

Ali: What has God been speaking to you about lately?

Annie: Seasons. As a mum I am going through a season of letting go, and at work we are in a season of major transitions. I am also in a season of saying many goodbyes to people I love who seem to be returning or departing for different parts of the world or country. In all this, I do believe God is strengthening my character, but also preparing me for the future.

Ali: Do you have any long-term goals or plans for the future? Have you and Nigel ever thought about moving to Australia? (said with a cheeky grin)

Annie: Hmm this is a loaded question! (said with a cheeky look right back) Nigel and I are planning to visit Australia next year for a month; we both feel this will be a very significant time for us as a couple. When Nigel retires we would love to go on a round the world trip – but within that trip I would love to work with the children in Cambodia. Would we ever move to Australia? Only God knows the answer to that question, but if He spoke to us very clearly then of course we would want to be in His will.

Ali: What in your opinion is the most urgent challenge that evangelical Christian women face today?

Annie: Submitting to God’s will either as single or married women when we are totally bombarded from the media/magazines etc, with how we should look, how we should cook, what our homes should look like, etc. Being a godly example in marriage to those in the world where honoring and respecting your husband is not always a priority.

Ali: A women that has inspired you, and how?

Annie: Sue Hosier. She spoke many years ago about building a dynasty for God. I hold that very dear to my heart. I pray often for the husband/wife of our children yet to come and their children’s children that they would know the love of God and live in His will.

Ali: One modern day person you would like to meet and why?

Annie: Not sure if you mean celebrity or Christian…

Ali: Whoever you want.

Annie: Dame Judi Dench – I love the way she acts, dresses, and her sense of humour. Or Francine Rivers – I would love to ask her lots of questions about the book she wrote.

Ali: One question you would have liked me to ask you and your answer?

Annie: What has been my greatest achievement? Passing my driving test – 25 years ago!

Fear of God vs. Fear of Man

2009-02-24T23:27:00.003Z

In the previous post we looked at what the fear of the Lord means. So how then does it contrast with the fear of man? And what is the fear of man anyway?

In a nutshell, who you fear essentially translates to who you worship. The fear of man is therefore the worship of people -- caring above all else about pleasing them and them having a good opinion of you. Because pleasing people is your primary concern (because you want them to praise you and think well of you; we're not talking about selfless love here), your life, actions, words, everything are all dictated by other people -- that is, people whose opinion you care about.

John 12:42-43 talks about this when it says, 'But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God' (NIV).

The reason we fear other people is because we believe they will give us what we need. As with all of worship, we worship a particular thing because we are hoping it will bless us -- so when we worship the way people view us, it is because we think they can give us the fulfilment and provision we are looking for.

Contrast this with the fear of the Lord, which is of course the worship of God -- where pleasing Him is your priority and the goal of your life, and where you care about His view (and His view alone) of you. Also, by fearing God we are saying that we are looking to Him to give us that fulfilment, satisfaction, blessing, and provision that we need.

But how is this practically seen in our lives? Well, a great example of fearing man vs. fearing God would be you lying to someone. Imagine the scene: a work colleague who doesn't know you're a Christian asks you what you did on Saturday. Now you were at an all-day prayer meeting, but you know that telling him this would make you look weird in his eyes. What do you do?

You have option A: fear God, which would be telling your colleague the truth, therefore obeying God by being honest and not caring about this man's opinion of you. Or you have option B: fear man, which would be lying about what you did by saying something like, "Oh nothing really", therefore disobeying God and instead placing this man's opinion of you higher than God's.

Do you see how this works out in the day-to-day decision of our lives? Fearing man means you are more concerned with what people think; fearing God means you are more concered with what He thinks. But someone might argue, well what does it really matter whether we fear man or fear God? What good does fearing God over man really do for us?

In summary, it is this: when you fear God you fear nothing else; you are free! Free from the control that other people have over you, free to walk in humble obedience to God (which has its own benefits and blessings), free from the impossibility of caring about pleasing every single person. And it is only once we are freed from needing people to make us feel good and right about ourselves, that we are able to truly love and serve them as Christ commanded. 1 Peter 2:17 teaches us to 'Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God.' See how Peter connects honouring and loving people with fearing God.

For more on this topic of fear of God vs. fear of man, and how to overcome the need to please people by learning the fear of the Lord, I'd highly recommend reading the very helpful book 'When People Are Big And God Is Small' by Edward T. Welch. Overall, I hope these couple of posts on the fear of the Lord have really helped you to see the importance of fearing God alone, and I hope you are motivated to live a life that cares solely about pleasing God and His opinion of you.

Christ Is For All Sinners

2009-02-24T16:38:00.007Z

I know we have concluded our series on predestination, and are in between discussing the fear of the Lord, but I just had to post this quote as I believe it will help any of you who might be thinking along the lines of, "If I knew I were one of God’s elect, I would come to Christ; but I fear I am not". Robert Murray M’Cheyne responds to this:

“To you I answer: nobody ever came to Christ because he knew himself to be one of the elect. It is quite true that God has of His mere good pleasure elected some to everlasting life, but they never knew it until they believed in Christ. Christ nowhere commands the elect to come to him. He commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. The question for you is not, ‘Am I one of the elect?’ but ‘Am I a sinner?’ Christ came to save sinners.”

(HT: Of First Importance.)

The Fear of The Lord: What & Why

2009-02-22T12:20:00.009Z

We are going to look briefly at what is means to fear God, as it is already so well covered in the sermon by C.J. Mahaney that Ali posted previously. Also, we would recommend listening to Mark Driscoll's excellent talk 'The Fear of the Lord'. Both messages will leave you with a profound sense of awe of God.

Defining fear

But we do want to define what exactly fearing God means, as I'm sure the phrase conjures up a lot of misunderstandings. Quite simply, the word 'fear' used here is not about phobias or being irrationally frightened or scared -- which is often how we're used to using the term. And so fearing God does not mean that we are scared of an impersonal, mean, cruel, all-powerful, uncaring force who could smite us at any moment.

Fearing the Lord basically means this: living a life that worships, honours and pleases God -- not taking our disobedience against Him, or His incredible grace towards us, lightly, but having a continual sense of awe and reverence towards Him.

Reasons for fearing God

Why should we fear the Lord? Firstly, because we recognise that God deserves our worship. He is our all-mighty, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator who is completely holy, which means He is utterly perfect, pure and different from us (because we are sinful, imperfect, impure and corrupt). We also recognise that, as sinful human beings who have rebelled against God and chosen not to go His way or acknowledge Him as Lord of our life, He owes us nothing except to judge us and allow us to continue in our sinful ways for all eternity and face His eternal wrath (which is what hell is) -- but that in His amazing love and grace, He chose to make a way for forgiveness and redemption possible through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Secondly, because we fear offending God. Just like we wouldn't say something particularly hurtful to a friend for fear of offending them, it is similar to how we live an obedient life because we love God and don't want to offend Him by walking in sin. As we said before, fearing God is about living in a way that pleases Him.

Thirdly, there is the fear of consequences. It is kind of similar to the reason why, as children, we (eventually) did what our parents told us to do; we feared the consequences and discipline of not respecting their authority and obeying them. Another illustration is the way we treat the weather. Because we are subject to the forces of nature, we are wise to fear it and its possible consequences. Now of course, these are mere metaphors -- unlike our parents, God is completely perfect in His treatment towards and discipline of us, and unlike the weather, God is personal and caring and loving.

And lastly, fearing God gets rid of any cavalier attitude towards Him and growing in personal holiness. Above all, fearing God is for our benefit -- because we know that obeying Him is always for our good. Proverbs 1:7 teaches that 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge'. If we want our lives to be filled with true wisdom and knowledge, then we will live our lives under the reverential fear of God.

Next, to conclude this little series on the fear of the Lord, we will be contrasting the fear of God with the fear of man -- what it means to "fear man", and how we tell who it is we truly fear.

C J Mahaney on the Holiness of God

2009-02-13T04:23:00.005Z

I have a wonderful friend who every so often sends me links to quality preaches and quotes from theological books that are worth absorbing.

This particular link that he sent me is especially worth passing onto you:

CJ Mahaney- The Holiness of God (People God Killed) taken from the blue fish project.

CJ Mahaney preached this at a Newfrontiers Conference in 1986. Apparently after he had spoken there was 5 minutes silence from awe of the holiness of God!

The main point of what he teaches is that the biblical God is holy and loving and CJ believes that you must start with his holiness to fully appreciate his love. This is a message that will help you to understand the incredible grace of God that you do not deserve.

Happy Birthday Ali!

2009-02-05T00:23:00.001Z

On this very special day, Jess and I would like to wish Ali a very happy 24th birthday!!

We hope you had a wonderful day chick, and really pray that this new year is filled with new exciting adventures and many blessings from God -- we know it will be! We wish we could be spending the day celebrating with you right now, but we hope you still have fun all the same! We love you so much xx

Who Are You, O Man?

2009-01-23T10:25:00.000Z

We apologise for the very slow start to the new year here on our blog, but we are back and ready to tackle some more tough issues!

As you may know, in response to a comment we received about whether "good Christians" would go to heaven or not if God hadn't chosen them, we have been studying the doctrine of predestination and have attempted to explain the many aspects of this complicated and often controversial topic. Of course, we don't pretend to be complete theological experts, and there are others who have done a much better, clearer job of this--and so if you are interested in learning more about predestination, or still have questions or problems with it, may we suggest the following few excellent resources:

For many of you, I'm sure, there are still some objections when it comes to predestination. "I still just think this is totally unfair, and shows God to be unjust," may be one criticism. "How can a God of love act like this?" another might demand.

The apostle Paul in fact deals with objections towards predestination like these in the book of Romans, chapter 9. He asks rhetorically in verse 14, 'What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?' Sound familiar? What is his response? Verse 15: 'By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”' But the ultimate silencer comes later in verse 20, where Paul demands, 'who are you, O man, to answer back to God?'

You see, we as sinful human beings are prone to thinking that somehow God owes us one--because He's a God of love right? Like a huge fairy in the sky that exists to meet and serve our every whim? But actually, the truth is that the God of the Bible is loving but is also holy. He is our Creator who made us and can do with us as He pleases. Who are we, mere finite created human beings, to answer back to God and tell Him what to do? This is why the Bible teaches that we should fear Him--not in the same way we have irrational fears about spiders or heights or small spaces, but fearing in the sense of awe, respect and reverence towards Him.

This then leads us onto to our new topic of discussion here at APLF--the fear of the Lord. We believe this ties in well with our previous study of humility, and hope that you will join us as we look at what the fear of the Lord means and why we should do it.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T23:58:00.000Z

As the clock is just about to turn midnight (GMT time), Ali, Jess and I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! We hope that this year has been a great testimony of God's grace for you as it has been for us three, and pray that this new one will bring much hope, joy and blessing!

See you in 2009! ;)

Experimenting with Blog Design

2008-12-23T00:56:00.000Z

Please bear with us while we give our blog a much needed makeover! :)

More Reasons to Celebrate this December

2008-12-16T12:08:00.008Z

Not only are we celebrating Jess and Wills engagement this month, we are also celebrating Jess and Emily’s birthdays. Jess turned 22 last Sunday and today Emily turned 23.

Happy Birthday beautiful ladies! I am so blessed to have you both as friends.

Jess you bring so much laughter into the lives of everyone you meet. Although you are the younger one in the “crew” I really look up to the way you always go out of your way to put others first, even if it means you have to sacrifice your own needs. This is the start of a new exciting season of your life, and I am so happy for you and Will. I am really looking forward to coming back to the UK in June to be your bridesmaid- what a privilege.

Emily I hope that you have a lovely day celebrating your birthday today. I miss hanging out with you more then you can imagine. I would have loved to be with you today to give you a big birthday hug. I’m so glad your coming over to Aus next year. Sydney will be blessed to have a girl like you- passionate about the church, talented in many ways, and beautiful on the inside and out. I should probably confess that I have been asking the ‘Big Fella' up stairs to send you to us on a more permanent basis. I hope that is okay ;-)

May the next year of your lives be full of more fun times and lots of laughter. Most of all may you continue to be amazed by the lavish grace of God as he goes before you in the plans he has for you special gals.

Predestination & Human Responsibility Part 2

2008-12-15T06:00:00.007Z

Recap of part 1- Predestination & Free Will

I had originally written a lengthy post on how predestination, "free will' and salvation tie in with one another. I was going to publish this until I came across a preach by Mark Driscoll explaining what "free will" actually is and how this ties in with our salvation. The topic of the preach was predestination. Driscoll has a way of making complicated topics simple to understand, much better then what I can do. So I deleted most of my post and replaced it with a clip of the preach (see below). It only goes for approximately 4 minutes. I'm sure you can find some time to have a listen.

Romans say that there is no one that seeks God. Why? We can not because it is not in our sinful nature. A pear tree does not bear apples as we of sinful nature do not bear fruits of obedience to God but rather we bear fruits of evil. Out of the heart of man comes sin, lust and folly. We are all spiritually dead in our trespasses. I like the way Mark Driscoll puts it "Dead men can't choose anything".

What's That On Your Finger, Jess?

2008-12-06T12:18:00.004Z

Congratulations Jess & Will! We are so thrilled for you both xx
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Does God Desire Everyone to be Saved?

2008-12-04T22:00:00.006Z

As we kicked off the topic of Predestination and Free Will (a.k.a. human responsibility) we established that we believe that the Bible teaches that God desires everyone to be saved through Jesus Christ and this is essential to understand when thinking about human responsibility in terms of predestination. After we released this post we received a comment from one of or readers who suggested that the quotes that we used were out of context and furthermore believed that “nowhere in the Bible do we find God’s desire being that everyone would turn from their sin, desire him and be saved through Jesus Christ”.

This post is in response to this comment and also to assist other readers that may be wondering is the theology of predestination of the elect for salvation compatible with God’s desire for all people to be saved? It's hard to grasp the idea that both these doctrines can be true at the same time, since not all people are saved yet God has the power and authority to change people's hearts. We firmly believe the Bible teaches that God desires all people to be saved and only the elect are predestined for salvation through Jesus Christ. Although this statement may seem to contradict itself, as John Piper would say “this is not double talk”.

As we have mentioned in previous posts the reformed position on predestination is closest to our view on predestination (we may have slight variations). This is not to be confused with Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism denies that the gospel makes an “offer” of salvation to the non-elect, amongst other points that emphasizes God’s divine sovereignty to the exclusion of human responsibility. This misleading doctrine is not in line with what we know from what God has revealed to us about himself and his will. That he does not wish any to perish but rather desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Peter 3:9-10; 1 Timothy 2:4).

I could spend a lot of time writing about this topic however I want to refer you to 2 great articles that do a better job then what I could do explaining 1. The dangers of hyper-Calvinism and 2. That God does desire all people to be saved.

1. A Primer on Hyper - Calvinism by Phillip R Johnson (or for the summary see here)
2. ‘Are There Two Wills in God?’ by John Piper

I hope these resources serve you well.

Now to comment on the rationale behind why we have used Ezekiel 18:23 to back up the claim that God desires all people to be saved: many theologians that I respect and learn from will hold different positions on the relevance of this passage in terms of God’s desire for all people to be saved. I have read arguments for both sides which have been very convincing.

Some people will deny that this verse can be applied to everyone as in context it is written to Israel therefore they believe it can only be applied to Israelites. However other people believe that this verse supports what we know about God’s “revealed will” - that he desires all people to be saved and this is why he shows common grace to all man including the non-elect, and he unconditionally chooses the elect for salvation (ie. saving grace); yet we do not fully understand how this all works because of God’s divine “secret will”.

Ezekiel primarily has in mind the coming judgement of Jerusalem and the restoration to follow; but he would regard it as capable of general application. Ezekiel teaches that every man will be held accountable for their own sin. Likewise every man that turns from their sin (repents) will be saved. We know from the rest of the Bible that this truth is not just relevant to the Jews but also to the Gentiles (2 Peter 3:9-10; 1 Timothy 2:4). Chapter 18:23 is regarded as one of the most important passages in Ezekiel as it follows on from the call to repentance and reveals God’s character - that he doesn’t take pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather expresses that his desire is that they would turn from their wicked ways and gain salvation. Our God is merciful to all (also see Psalm 145:9).

Since we are all wicked, Jews and Gentiles alike, I believe that this desire for all men to be saved is common to all men. The same message is taught throughout the New Testament and is specifically applicable to Gentiles. Furthermore, in 1 Timothy 2:1-7 we see that Paul commissions Timothy to pray 'for all men…for Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all.' The New Bible Commentary expounds on this:

“It is probable that the Jewish or Gnostic heretical teaching was suggesting the restriction of salvation to a particular race, or to certain classes only. Paul, therefore, justifies his universal exhortation by pointing to… the character and will of God as the universal Saviour, Jesus Christ the single mediator between Himself and the whole human race, and to the universal scope of Christ’s redeeming act which was for all...Verse 4 does not say that God has determined that every single man must be saved; but simply that His general desire for mankind is that all alike shall enjoy salvation… The very humanity of Christ and His appointment as the only mediator between God and men supply added indication that the salvation provided in Him for men, and for all men alike.” (The New Bible Commentary, F, Davidson; A. Stribbs; E. Kevan; Pg 1067).

I will finish with Phillip Jonson's conclusion in his article commenting on hyper-Calvinism. He states that their "error stems from a failure to differentiate between God's redemptive love, which is reserved for the elect alone, and His love of compassion, which is expressed in the goodness He shows to all His creatures". I hope that as we go on to look at what the gospel teaches us about predestination and human responsibility you will see that God's love and compassion common to all mankind is compatible with the theology of God's redemptive love shown to the elect alone. Furthermore we will see how this is outworked in his lavish grace , God's righteous justice, and most importantly for His glory.

Farewell Ali - Brighton Misses You Already!

2008-11-27T19:26:00.003Z

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Yesterday, our dear Ali set off from Heathrow airport back to Sydney of her homeland Australia, after having spent about a year and a half here with us in Brighton. We gave her a tearful and loud farewell (I think the whole of Terminal 3 could here us singing "We love you Ali, we do, we love you Ali we do..."!), because she has been one of the most incredible people to ever come over and bless our church in Brighton. She really has left HUGE boots to fill. Here are some photos from the airport last night:

Ali gets the message book we made for her.

The A Path Less Followed girls (Jess, Emily & Ali) together for one last time, *sob*!

And one last silly pose! (Joined by our friend Hannah who miraculously drove us from Brighton to Heathrow against the clock in one hour!)

Ali heads off to the departure lounge....

Very sad hugs and goodbyes all around!

Ali, we are beyond sad to have to lose you... you have made such a profound impact on our church and Brighton in general--always fighting for God's truth, always looking to uphold His standards, always being a living example of His Word, and always in passionate pursuit of Christ. We are forever grateful to God for bringing you over here last year--you really are a mighty weapon in the hand of the Lord.

But we know that God has the most amazing, exciting plans for you in Sydney and Australia in general! We cannot wait to see what He does with you and through you, and are so looking forward to hearing more of your phenomenal stories of God's grace and power.

Ali, you have been such a wonderful friend to both Jess and me and such a vital part of our lives. I just remember all the times we've spent together and how my focus has always been lifted up again to Christ and my perspective has been re-aligned to what it should be. We have no idea what we're going to do without your physical presence in our lives, but we know that our friendship will still remain strong across the oceans (thank the Lord for Facebook and Skype!). And we look forward to continuing this blog from two different continents!

We love you dearly and miss you already so much. Praying for a very safe rest of your trip and that you have a great time when you get back in Australia! With all our love, Em & Jess xx
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18 Obstacles to Effective Evangelism

2008-11-27T12:00:00.000Z

A quick interval from the predestination series:

Mark Driscoll recently addressed 600+ Christian leaders in Sydney Australia about '18 obstacles to effective evangelism in Australia'. I found this summary of his 18 points on a blog called 'the sola panel'. I found his points very insightful and from an Australians perspective culturally spot on. Whether you are living in Australia or not this article is very helpful. Mark Driscoll is a very perceptive bloke!

1. The Bible guys are not the missional guys, which leads to proud irrelevance.

What can happen is that we believe that if our theological systems are faithful, then we will be fruitful.

2. Your culture struggles with a lack of entrepreneurialism.

Two things are wrong here: one is socialism. The other is the influence of Great Britain. They are the main migrant group in Australia. They are not entrepreneurial. Aussie culture is not very entrepreneurial as a result. The concept of socialism means that we fail to prune what we should. We are sending resources to poor churches and poor pastors on the grounds of social equality. We are not sending resources to new buds.

3. There is a lack of reward based on merit within denominations.

You are rewarded for tenure, not fruit. There needs to be a system where a man can be demoted or even taken out of the ministry for reasons other than things to do with money or sexual impropriety. Jobs should not be guaranteed just because a person has spent four years in a college.

4. Australian men are immature.

Christian Australian men are immature. They have a lack of entrepreneurialism and are entrenched in systems which discourage initiative. The average Australian male lives with his mother until he's 25, he is married at 32, and delays taking responsibility as long as possible. Denominational systems encourage this immaturity. Training begins at age 28 in our denominations. What if a young man wants to get married young, plant churches and have a family? There is no way that our denominations allow this. The longer you delay responsibility, the longer you delay manhood. It's the indefinite Peter Pan lifestyle. That is a sin. Jesus Christ had atoned for the sins of the world by the time most pastors take up their first associate pastorship. There are churches in the US with megachurches run by men in their 30s. You don't have them here so you fly them in to give talks.

5. Church planting is not welcome.

Sydney is one of the weakest cities I have visited with regard to church planting. With church planting, the skill sets needed are different, and institutions here don't appreciate them. There are few independents because of socialism. There is not widespread opportunity for men to start new things. This leaves a terrible dilemma: work through the system, and either destroy it or blend in. Both are bad options. Driscoll has had 300 people come up to him and say they want to plant churches but they can't.

6. You suffer from tall poppy syndrome.

You need to work this into your preaching and teaching so that people see that the tall poppy syndrome is a sin. Thinking that 1000 people in church is a high water mark is unhealthy. The culture generally chops down people who rise up, and the church does the same. That's a sin. My church gives 10% to plant churches—$1.2 million this year.

7. The preaching here lacks three things: apologetics, mission and application.

Apologetics means anticipating and answering the objections of those who are listening. If you do this, it will encourage people to bring friends, and it will train them. Second, your preaching lacks mission. What are we here to do? Thirdly, your preaching lacks application for the church as a whole and for individuals. It is not just enough to give doctrine. Paul tells Timothy to watch life and doctrine. Application is where you connect them.

8. Many of you are afraid of the Holy Spirit. Your Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Bible.

Because you are too reactionary against prosperity doctrine, you have reacted badly against all things charismatic. The Holy Spirit calls people into ministry and empowers people for ministry. You don't have to be charismatic. But you should at least be a little bit charismatic, and worship God with more than your mind. Pentecostals plant churches, care for the poor, and sing well, and they are more feverent in their service for God. What I have found is that the word ‘charismatic’ means different things in different places. Here it means ‘prosperity’—bizarreness. In London, it means you're not liberal. Don't get hung up on the terminology. There is a fear about the Holy Spirit; there is an uncertainty about the Holy Spirit. Do you love the Holy Spirit? Jesus says the Holy Spirit is a he, not an it. The Holy Spirit is sent to anoint the church for her ministry. Ministry is not possible without Holy Spirit. Do you love the Holy Spirit? This, in part, is leading to the lack of entrepreneurialism and innovation, because if it is not written down, it is not trusted.

9. Many of you are Anglican.

The parish system works for some, but not all. The parish system was built for when people lived in community. But today, less than half of the people who live in this city own their own home. So they are mobile, and network online. In addition, people have three places: the place they work in, the place they live in, and the place they play. The parish system says let's draw boundaries and stay here. But all your people are going to move, and they all have three places. People no longer organize themselves by geography but by affinity. The concept was invented before cars. The parish system makes church planting very hard.

10. Denominations are built on a paradigm that young men don't understand.

Denominations are built on control. Young men operate by influence. Control systems work like this: we control your wage, we control your workplace, etc. Young men don't understand these systems. Some young men are disrespectful and need to be rebuked. Other people are not disrespectful; they just don't understand control, they understand influence. Influence operates up close, through teaching, rebuke, instruction and example. The old culture is of control; the newer economy is of influence. Young men will find new ways to avoid the system, working alongside it so as to be influenced by it, but not working in it so as to not be controlled by it.

11. There is a propensity to train the called [to ministry] rather than call people to train.

Ultimately, it is God the Holy Spirit who calls people to ministry. There should be an innate sense of desire: “If anyone desires ...” (1 Tim). With Moore College, the four years of residency only works for some, not for all. Four years with insufficient practical experience leads to idealism and a tendency to criticize others who are doing something. People are writing papers to criticize those who are doing something, and this gives them the false impression that they are doing something. I planted my first church at the age of 25, and, by God's grace, I finished my theological education last year. You learn as you do, because that is when you are most teachable.

12. All leaders are under shepherds under Christ: prophets, priests, and kings.

Prophets are good at vision setting, preaching and leading. Priests love people, hospital visiting, small groups, and so on. Kings love control and systems. There is a shortage in Sydney of Prophets and Kings. The system discourages Kings because it doesn't allow people to set up their own systems and structures.

[NB: Driscoll is using the categories ‘prophet, priest and king’ as three broad categories of leadership style exemplified by Christ, rather than in any strict theological sense. That was the vibe, anyway.]

13. There is a lack of missiologists.

Missiologists are people who discern what is going on in the culture, and find the idols so that the missionaries can be found and deployed. What there are plenty of are theologians. They are incredibly important. They defend truths. Missiologists put the truths into practice. Penal substitutionary atonement can get nailed down, NT Wright can get nailed up—and lots of people still don't know Jesus.

14. There is a proclivity to try and raise ministers before making them husbands and fathers.

This is about the immaturity of Australian men. Many people delay marriage and children in order to go to college. But if people are shepherding their little flock of home, then you test them to see whether they can be elders of the church. So much of ministry deals with marriage, sex, gender, responsibility and children. Being a husband and a father trains you more for ministry than any college. It trains you to love, serve, evangelize, disciple, endure and organize. You should really press young men to take responsibility earlier to be good husbands and fathers. Once they have some success at that, if they do this in the wrong order, then their priorities, I fear, will be God, ministry, wife, children. But it should be God, wife, children, ministry.

15. There is the doing of evangelism but not mission.

But does the church see itself as the primary evangelistic tool that God has used to reach the city? It is not good enough to just go and share the faith, as important as this is; the church needs to use every means at its discretion to reach its culture. What does a faithful missionary of the gospel look like in Melbourne/Perth/Brisbane/Sydney? Start a new church from nothing. Churches need to be missional.

16. There are a lot of Number 2 guys in Number 1 slots.

Number 2 guys are not bad guys; they are just not good Number 1 guys. Number 1 guys are teachers, leaders, and innovators, but because of the system of tenure, Number 2 guys stay in Number 1 slots. Number 2 guys in Number 1 slots need to step back like John the Baptist with Jesus. Stepping back requires humility, a devotion to see all things—all means—for the salvation of some. When a Number 2 guy is in a Number 1 slot, a church will survive, but it will not multiply, and so there is no sense of necessity to do anything with any haste.

17. There is not a great sense of urgency.

You have cultural values, not biblical values.

18. Movements have become institutions and museums.

A movement is where God does what he always does, only more so. There's a greater sense of urgency. Puritans. Methodists. Charismatics. Not all movements are good. Every movement has its strengths and weaknesses. Young people are the key. I'm a young guy, but here I'm an old guy. The Puritans were roundly criticized for just being children. Jonathon Edwards was 19 years old. DL Moody was 21. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was 19. Billy Graham was 19. Statistically, it takes 25 years or more to build a megachurch. If you don't even give the leader the keys until he's 40, he'll run out of gas before he gets there

Thankful Thursdays- God, Underpants, and a Truck

2008-11-20T14:22:00.002Z

Today I want to share one of my Dad’s thankful stories. He would always come home from work to his children anticipating his return to hear a new story of how God had provided for him and answered his prayers throughout the day. His example has challenged me to look for the ever-present hand of God and to be thankful. As he has inspired me I hope you to will be inspired.

This is the story as my Dad told it when I went back to Australia at the beginning of this year:

"It was a normal working day morning. I had just left the house and was about to get into my car when ‘snap’ the elastic band in my underpants broke. I ran into the house and said “Jenny! (My Mum) You will not believe it, this is so funny, my undies just snapped. They are brand new, it is so odd”. I was delayed from going to work for a minute while I went and changed my underpants. I said on the way out “ I wonder if God has something to do with this, it is so odd, I wonder if he is delaying me for a reason”.

I was driving my car on the way to work when up a head on the road I saw a double-trailer truck lying on its side. It had only just rolled as dust was still in the air from the impact of he crash. Being a rural road with not many drivers on the road I was the first on the scene. I was able to ring for help and go see if the driver way okay, which he was.

If the elastic band in my underpants had not snapped I would have been on the road a minute earlier. A minute may not seem like much time but in this circumstance it was a lifetime. If I had been on the road a minute earlier I would have been overtaking the double-trailer truck at about the approx time it rolled. It would have rolled on me and I would be dead."

My Dad thinks he is pretty much a rally driver out on those rural roads so I agree that if he was there a minute earlier he probably would have been trying to overtake the massive trailer...That night the accident was broadcast on the local news. Actually hearing about it on the news and understanding how big the double-trailer truck actually was hit home to how close I was to not having a Dad that day. I’m so thankful to God that in his humour, sovereignty and grace he saved my Dad that day by making his underpants snap.

Predestination and Free Will

2008-11-19T12:52:00.002Z

Now that I have got your attention with the much-anticipated topic of “free will” I am now going to tell you that I am not actually going to refer to this term. Rather I am going to call it “human responsibility”. This is because the term “free will” has been mishandled over the years and most people don’t really understand the appropriate context of the term- that only God truly has free will. Rather the bible talks about human responsibility.

There is a misconception that the reformed view of predestination takes away human responsibility and our ability to make choices. It doesn’t. We make choices every day- diet coke or real coke, tea or coffee, to go out or stay home. And we reap the consequences of those decisions. However our choices are limited. For example I did not choose to be short and as much as I would like to be tall I cannot will it into reality. The most I can do is wear some heels and even then I’m not tall, just taller.

To be able to understand predestination and human responsibility I am going to discuss this topic over the next few posts by splitting it up into different categories- salvation, daily choices, and good works. If you have asked any of the following questions then the posts to come will be of interest to you: Did God predestine some to be saved and some to go to hell? How can a loving God allow this? Doesn’t predestination take away our human responsibility?

Before we go onto these topics I think it is so important to understand the loving, fatherly heart of God. His desire is that everyone would turn from their sin, desire him and be saved through Jesus Christ. He does not want anyone to perish but have eternal life.

• Ezekiel 18:23 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they would turn from their evil ways.
• 1 Timothy 2:3-4: He desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth

Theses verses reminded me of a time when I was a teenager and I was praying for my non-Christian friends and family that they would put their trust in Jesus and be saved. I was in pain thinking about being separated from them forever and them going to hell. As I was praying I suddenly had a wave of anger towards God. I said to God “how could you let these people go to hell? How could a loving God do this?” God’s answer was immediate by whispering the truth into my heart ‘this pain you feel in your heart is my pain, yet my desire for them to come to me is much greater then yours’. As I meditated on this truth I felt the heart of God and I wept for these people like I had never wept before. Never again have I accused God of not loving these people- for I know that the depth of his love for them is much greater then you and I can know.

Please remember the loving, merciful heart of the father as we go on to unpack the mystery of predestination and human responsibility in the posts to come...

Image taken from flickr

Predestination- What About Backsliding?

2008-11-15T14:19:00.021Z

Having struggled with this topic myself after seeing friends and family backslide, I thought it would be good to share some of my findings and encouragements.

Firstly, a good one to start with is what is backsliding?

Backsliding is an invented term to describe a person who was once following God and now has turned their back, or is ‘sliding backwards’ away from Him.

Secondly, can God predestine someone and then let them fall away? Or can a person lose their salvation?

A short answer would be no. Emily has already made some great points on this in her post ‘Is Our Salvation Secure?’.

John 10:27-30 says "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Once God has a hold of someone He will never lose them. God never slips up or accidently lets a saved person become ‘unsaved’. Predestination is the beginning of the process of salvation; so God will not predestine someone and then change His mind when it comes to their salvation.

Romans 8:28- 30: ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’

Predestination is part of a process, God chooses us, He calls us, He justifies us through His blood, and one day He will glorify us and call us into heaven. John 15:16 also declares “You did not choose me, but I chose you”.

So from these verses we can see that our salvation was never our choice to begin with. We never by our own efforts decided to become saved, and therefore we cannot decide to ‘de-save’ ourselves.

Another well known verse for assurance is this:

‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 8:38-39)

So when a person is saved, nothing can tear them apart from God!

Thirdly, a good thing to consider is whether the person was really saved in the first place.

It may be that the person backsliding never truly grasped the Christian gospel or fully accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and the one they would follow. Jesus tells a great parable about some seeds that fell on various grounds (Matthew 13:18-23):

A)"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

B)The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

C)The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

D)But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

The seeds A-C can sometimes at first appear to be a real salvation, but as soon as the enemy, or wealth or trouble comes then their true position is realised. Many may see the gospel as just a good set of morals, or perhaps a way to have a trouble free life, but this is different to truly understanding the gospel. Usually a truly saved person will be what the Bible calls ‘fruitful’, producing a harvest of good works and much more.

Fourthly, if they are saved then God will finish His work in them. I love Matt Redman’s song ‘O no you never let go’:

Oh, no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh, no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh, no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

All those who are saved will have trouble (John 16:33) but God is completely faithful; in Philippians 1:6 it says that we can be confident ‘that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’.

We know a great God, who leaves the 99 to go after the 1 (Luke 15:3-6). He cares more for them then we ever could, and when we say in lack of patience ‘shall we forgive after 7 times?’ He says "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22).

Finally, wait for God, keep praying - it’s an awesome weapon.

God’s desire is that all men would be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). He gives out common grace to all (Matthew 5:45) Ali put a great post on the blog that addressed this topic of prayer called ‘Predestination- Why pray?’. I suggest a read of it if you haven’t already.

Sometimes we do not have because we do not ask (Matthew 7:7-8). Keep knocking on the door with faith and perseverance, knowing God’s ways and timings are higher than ours and are always perfect.

Predestination- Why Pray?

2008-11-14T01:03:00.001Z

Prayer and Predestination:

A Conversation Between Prayerful and Prayerless

by John Piper

Prayerless: I understand that you believe in the providence of God. Is that right?
Prayerful: Yes.

Prayerless: Does that mean you believe, like the Heidelberg Catechism says, that nothing comes about by chance but only by God's design and plan?

Prayerful: Yes, I believe that's what the Bible teaches.

Prayerless: Then why do you pray?

Prayerful: I don't see the problem. Why shouldn't we pray?

Prayerless: Well, if God ordains and controls everything, then what he plans from of old will come to pass, right?

Prayerful: Yes.

Prayerless: So it's going to come to pass whether you pray or not, right.

Prayerful: That depends on whether God ordained for it to come to pass in answer to prayer. If God predestined that something happen in answer to prayer, it won't happen without prayer.

Prayerless: Wait a minute, this is confusing. Are you saying that every answer to prayer is predestined or not?

Prayerful: Yes, it is. It's predestined as an answer to prayer.

Prayerless: So if the prayer doesn't happen, the answer doesn't happen?

Prayerful: That's right.

Prayerless: So the event is contingent on our praying for it to happen?

Prayerful: Yes. I take it that by contingent you mean prayer is a real reason that the event happens, and without the prayer the event would not happen.

Prayerless: Yes that's what I mean. But how can an event be contingent on my prayer and still be eternally fixed and predestined by God?

Prayerful: Because your prayer is as fixed as the predestined answer.

Prayerless: Explain.

Prayerful: It's not complicated. God providentially ordains all events. God never ordains an event without a cause. The cause is also an event. Therefore, the cause is also foreordained. So you cannot say that the event will happen if the cause doesn't because God has ordained otherwise. The event will happen if the cause happens.

Prayerless: So what you are saying is that answers to prayer are always ordained as effects of prayer which is one of the causes, and that God predestined the answer only as an effect of the cause.

Prayerful: That's right. And since both the cause and the effect are ordained together you can't say that the effect will happen even if the cause doesn't because God doesn't ordain effects without causes.

Prayerless: Can you give some illustrations?

Prayerful: Sure. If God predestines that I die of a bullet wound, then I will not die if no bullet is fired. If God predestines that I be healed by surgery, then if there is no surgery, I will not be healed. If God predestines heat to fill my home by fire in the furnace, then if there is no fire, there will be no heat. Would you say, "Since God predestines that the sun be bright, it will be bright whether there is fire in the sun or not"?

Prayerless: No.

Prayerful: I agree. Why not?

Prayerless: Because the brightness of the sun comes from the fire.

Prayerful: Right. That's the way I think about the answers to prayer. They are the brightness, and prayer is the fire. God has established the universe so that in larger measure it runs by prayer, the same way he has established brightness so that in larger measure it happens by fire. Doesn't that make sense?

Prayerless: I think it does.

Prayerful: Then let's stop thinking up problems and go with what the Scriptures say. Ask and you will receive. You have not because you ask not.

Original transcript can be found at desiringgod.org

Photo from flickr

Predestination - Get The Focus Right

2008-11-11T14:32:00.022Z

A little while ago I met up one of my friends and we decided to look together at predestination together. After reading Romans 9 and a few other verses she slowly turned to me and said 'Well that doesn’t seem fair, isn’t God supposed to be loving? How is it that God says "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated?" (Romans 9:13), and that God makes some for “noble purposes and some for common use”? (Romans 9:21)'.

So for all those who are perhaps thinking the same, that predestination seems so unfair and unjust, let me tell you that you are right - it is. Let me explain…

1) Who is God, really?

God is love, but before we can fully grasp this we must understand He is holy. He is different from us! The reason most people have such issues with predestination is because they have a low view of God (that He is there to serve and love us) and a high view of themselves (which we will cover later).

God is eternal, all powerful; He knows all things (omniscient): 'I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’ (Isaiah 46:10). He existed in perfect unity in the trinity before us, and doesn’t ‘need’ us (shocking I know).

We must be careful not to invent our own version of God. Many Christians have a view of God as a loving, fluffy santa claus figure who’s main concern is making us feel good. So here are some truths about God: In heaven, every day and every night the living creatures are calling 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’ (Revelation 4:8)

ii) Believe it or not, God has killed countless people in history; one story is of Uzzah: ‘When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.’ (2 Samuel 6:6-8)

Why did God kill Uzzah? Because he was irreverent, he did not respect the holiness of God.

iii) God is all about His glory. Why? Because that is what He must be about! Imagine a God who was all about us, our fragile sinful selves… no thank you.

So God is Holy, other than us, beyond comprehension, awesome and glorious. He is worthy of all glory, all honour.

2) What do we deserve? Really?

Many of us, if we’re honest, think that deep down we are quite good people…

'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23)

OK, OK so maybe we’ve all committed a few sins, but surely it's not that bad…

'For the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6:23)

Well, yes that seems fair, but are you sure that doesn’t just apply to others?...

'God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.' (Psalm 53:2-3)

Hit the panic button. There is no way that sinners like us deserve to know a perfect holy God! The just and fair thing to do would be to punish us, to never think of letting us be near to God.

3) The unjust truth

So here comes the bit that is so unjust:

God. DIED. For. US.

You and me.

Why should a perfect, Holy, Holy, Holy God take the place of sinners who had turned their back on Him? That’s what I call unfair!

And if that is not enough for you:

‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.’ (Ephesians 1:4-6)

So before he made the world, the stars, anything, He chose us.
What did we do? Nothing. What did he do? Everything.

So instead of saying ‘how unfair that God would not choose some’, we should really say, how awesome that a holy God chose a sinner to be His cherished son or daughter in order to show His glory to the world!

Romans 9:22-24: ‘What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?’

Stay tuned for more posts tackling this tough issue of predestination!

Predestination- Why Evangelise? Part 2

2008-11-09T11:00:00.006Z

Following on from Part 1:

PREDESTINATION MOTIVATES US TO EVANGELISE!

We confidently endure because of predestination-

Rather then allowing predestination to be an excuse not to evangelise, it is actually what motivated the apostle Paul to evangelise. Paul wrote to Timothy from a prison in Rome where he was awaiting a trial before an Emperor. He was fully aware that he would be put to death. In the midst of this situation he wrote of his motivation for enduring these sufferings:

"I endure everything FOR THE SAKE OF THE ELECT, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Timothy 2:10).

Paul endured suffering for the sake of those whom God had chosen. He acknowledged himself as a means in which God was using to bring the chosen ones to salvation.

2. Predestination allows us to evangelise without a heavy burden-

When people don't respond when we share the gospel with them it's not because we have failed but because God has not fully revealed himself to them at this point. The words you speak to them may be seeds that God will water and grow over time or they simply have not been appointed (Acts 13:48).

3. Predestination gives God all the glory-

When we share the gospel and people do respond to it, it's because God chose to reveal himself through the power of his words and his Holy Spirit.

In summary predestination takes the anxiety and credit of evangelism away from us- rather it encourages us to share the gospel knowing that God will use us weak vessels to reveal himself to his chosen ones. We don't know who all the appointed ones are- so go on, evangelise; it may be your best friend, it may be the strange person sitting next to you on the bus. Who knows? God does.

Photo taken from flickr.com

Predestination- Why Evangelise? Part 1

2008-11-07T09:10:00.001Z

From Suki- "Why do we need to evangelise if God has already made the decision about who will be Christians?"... Good question!

There are many biblical reasons for why we should evangelise- such as obedience to an all knowing, all powerful God, which in itself is a good enough reason. However this post will only comment on how the command to share the gospel to non-believers compliments predestination rather then gives us reason to doubt predestination.

Predestination is not limited to who will be saved. It also involves the mean and manner in which salvation is brought to each individual. God commands us to preach his word to create a way for those he has chosen to put their faith in Jesus. They will hear his word and believe because he has ordained it.

Romans 10: 14-15 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written,"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

This passage follows closely behind some of the most quoted verses that support the theology of election and predestination- Romans 8:28-30; 9:14-16. I believe Paul wrote about predestination and sharing the gospel so closely together on purpose- not to contradict himself but for us to be able to better understand predestination.

The clue in Romans 10:14-15 that links sharing the gospel with predestination is verse 15 "and how are they to preach unless sent?" God has not only predestined the end result of man's salvation but also the way in which they would be saved. In Romans 10:15 we learn that one of the ways God does this is by sending Christians to share the gospel to them, as the power of the Holy Spirit works within them.

This is exciting! We don't just get saved and then look on from the sideline- God has called us into the action to extend his kingdom.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of 'Predestination- why evangelise?' where we will look at how predestination motivates us to evangelise...

Don't Choke on Predestination- a brief definition

2008-11-04T13:08:00.002Z

To kick off the series on predestination Emily started by commenting on some key underlying truths such as salvation through faith by grace alone and assurance of salvation - which you need to understand to be able to chew on the theology of predestination without choking.

This post will look at the basic definition of predestination and some helpful umbrella terms before we go on to investigate some hard questions that surround this topic in posts to come. As we look at the theology of this topic we need to continually view predestination from the lens of God’s mercy- Predestination is a message of radical grace! We also need to bare in mind God’s sovereignty. He changes us from gory to glory but ultimately for His glory.

Predestination- Summary of ideas from a reformed theology perspective:

As a consequence of the fall all people are morally unable to choose to follow God (Romans 3:11 “no one seeks God”).

Election: God chose before the dawn of time those who he would grant faith in him.

Unconditional election: Those whom God chose to bring to himself is not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people. Rather it is unconditionally grounded in God's mercy alone (Romans 9: 10-14; Ephesians 2:8-9).

Limited atonement: penal substitution for the elect only. (Please note that we do believe that the bible teaches that through Jesus everyone is offered salvation and God desires that all people come to know him through Jesus *1 Timothy 2:3-4)

Irresistible grace: The influence of the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted.

Perseverance of the saints: Those who apparently fall away either never had true faith to begin with or will return.

Reprobation: God passing over the non-elect, in pain, as they continue in their sinful ways rejecting God which eventually leads to condemnation and eternal punishment in order to display God’s just judgement.

If you are a Christians you can probably relate to my experience that there was no way that I chose to follow Christ. My natural inclination was to live my life doing what I wanted and ignore God. If God had not chosen to give me revelation about his lavish grace then I would still be running away from God, blind to his divine power - because of this his grace is much deeper then I could imagine and I can testify that it is completely irresistible.

Relevant Scriptures:

Ephesians 1:11-12; 1:3-6 Romans 9:22-23; 9:15-21; 9:10-14 Matthew 22:14 John 13: 18; John 15:16 Romans 11:5-7 ; 8:29-30 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 Acts 13:48

Also check out this 3 minute audio Q&A session with Tim Keller on the doctrine of election where he explains that predestination is about radical grace.

Stay tuned for more post to come answering your questions surrounding predestination.

Picture taken from Flickr.com

Is Our Salvation Secure?

2008-11-03T12:01:00.002Z

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Continuing on from the last post on whether we can earn salvation by being a good Christian, we will now be taking a look at whether our salvation is secure. In other words, once we accept Jesus as our Saviour, putting our trust in Him to forgive us of our sins and choosing to follow Him, does it then depend on us to be a good Christian in order to maintain our salvation? What if we're not a very good Christian, or if we try our best and it's not enough--will God turn us away and not accept us anymore?

The words of Jesus speak right directly into this question: '"...whoever comes to me I will never cast out'" (John 6:37). It is clear: God will never reject anyone who comes to Him for salvation, for He 'desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Timothy 2:4).

Also, if we have truly accepted salvation through faith in Christ, then we are secure in that. Jesus assures us many times that He will not lose one of His followers, His sheep: 'My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand"' (John 10:27-28); '"And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day"' (John 6:39).

Furthermore, the apostle Paul assures us that once we are saved into the love of God, we cannot be separated from that: 'For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Romans 8:38-39).

The great thing about salvation is that it does not depend at all on us! It depends wholly on Jesus and what He accomplished at the cross! This is what the grace of God means, and what a wonderful thing it is. Walter Marshall exhorts us to see this as something to rejoice over:

“We must not be grieved, that we have nothing to trust upon besides Christ for our salvation; but rather we are to rejoice, that we need nothing else, and that we have a sure foundation to rely on, incomparably better than any other that can be imagined.” ('The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification', p.150)

Going back briefly to the question of predestination, the apostle Paul also describes how the security of our salvation is actually found in this fact that we were predestined: 'For those whom he [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified' (Romans 8:29-30). But we will be looking at this issue of predestination in more detail next!

Overall, I hope you are able to see now that--because our salvation does not depend on us or anything we do but rater solely and wholly on Jesus and the work He accomplished at the cross--we are completely secure in our salvation and God will not lose us or reject us. What hope and comfort is found in this incredible truth! I pray that all of you reading will know this for yourselves and will really live in the good of it.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about salvation and the grace of God, I have put together a list of resources which I hope you will find helpful:

2 Ways 2 Live: the message at the heart of Christianity and the choice we all have to make
'Grace' sermon by Mark Driscoll
'Jesus Died For Our Freedom' sermon by Mark Driscoll
'Jesus Took Our Wrath' sermon by Mark Driscoll
'The Cry: What Really Happened on the Cross' sermon by C.J. Mahaney
'Eternally Secure' sermon by John Hosier
'No Separation' sermon by John Hosier

(Image from Jupiterimages.)
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Earning Salvation by Being a "Good Christian"?

2008-11-01T04:40:00.005Z

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On our recently published statement of faith, we received a very interesting question from Myra. She asked, "In your faith you stated that "He predestines those who are to be saved and added into His Kingdom". Does that mean that even if you accept Jesus as your Saviour and Redeemer, that if God had not picked you to go to heaven anyways, you will automatically go to hell no matter how good of a Christian you were?"

Our thanks to Myra for asking this hard and honest question (we hope we are able to do it justice)--and from this, we are going to be taking an in-depth look at predestination over a series of posts here at A Path Less Followed. But before we do, we would like to address what we believe is the underlying assumption of this question, found in the line "Does that mean that even if you accept Jesus as your Saviour and Redeemer, that if God had not picked you to go to heaven anyways, you will automatically go to hell no matter how good of a Christian you were?"

There are two issues here which I'll be looking at in two posts: the first being how we get salvation and whether we have to work our way to heaven by being a good Christian, and the second being whether our salvation is secure once we accept Jesus as Saviour.

In this part, we'll be looking at what salvation is, how we "get" it, and what being a good Christian has to do with all of it. Simply defined, salvation refers to being saved from someone or something--but what is it that we are actually looking to be saved from in this case? The Bible tells us that God's wrath (anger) against our sin (our disobedience against God, and choosing to reject Him and go our own way) is awaiting all of us (Romans 2:5, Ephesians 5:6) because we are all sinners, and also that because we have sinned we are all slaves to sin (John 8:34); we clearly need to be saved from both of these things.

Now that we've figured out what we need to be saved from, we can turn to how we can be saved. This is where "being a good Christian" comes in. To me, this phrase says that doing good things ("works" as the Bible calls them), especially religious things like going to church, is what you need to do in order to get to God and get to heaven--in other words, you need to save yourself. But is it possible to save ourselves from the wrath of God and out of slavery to sin?

The Bible is clear: you cannot save yourself, because God has said that even the very best of your works are like the most disgusting, filthy rags in His eyes (Isaiah 64:6). Nothing you do--nothing!--can earn you salvation or acceptance with God. We need someone else to save us, someone who can offer up perfect works to God and take the punishment that we deserve for our sin on our behalf.

And that is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do! He came to save sinners like us from the wrath of God by taking it upon Himself at the cross, and to rescue us from slavery to sin by living a perfect, righteous life and dying in our place, therefore breaking the curse and power of sin, and allowing anyone who puts their faith in Him to be set free. There is no work for us to do apart from believing in Jesus, as John 6:28-29 testifies: 'Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."' That is it--faith in Christ, and faith in Christ alone for eternal life! As Jesus says, '"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day"' (John 6:40).

This incredible kindness and mercy of God, to send His Son to save us from experiencing the eternal wrath of God in hell that we deserve, is called grace--it means getting what we don't deserve. And none of us deserve salvation! This is how we are saved; Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us 'For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.'

So now we have seen clearly that salvation cannot be earned by being a good person--even a "good Christian". It is by the grace of God we are saved, through putting our faith in Jesus alone. I believe this quote sums up salvation beautifully and perfectly:

". . .out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart." (The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 60)

Coming up next, we'll look at whether salvation depends on us to keep being a good Christian, or whether it is secure forever.

(Image from Jupiterimages.)

Thankful Thursday - God's provision

2008-10-30T23:06:00.006Z

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For this week's Thankful Thursday, I would just like to reflect on God's provision in terms of money and jobs with me and some of my friends.

God has been incredibly faithful, time and time again, with providing just the right jobs at the right time for so many of my friends who have recently been trying to get work. With the economy in the state that it is and unemployment rates at a new high, good jobs have been very hard to come by recently--but none of that hinders God. He rules over it all and has show His sovereignty in each situation, providing exactly the kind of work that each person has needed.

For myself as well, some of you may know that I run an online jewellery business. Again, the state of the economy hasn't exactly helped, and yet God has been so faithful in providing the right orders of the right amount of money at the right time! Not only that, but as I have also been looking for full time work, He has been presenting me with some great opportunities and I know with all my heart that He will lead me to get a good job.

So thanks be to our Father God for His faithful provision and the way He always looks after us!

Remember to send in your own stories of thankfulness--no matter how big or small--to us at apathlessfollowed@gmail.com. We'd love to hear about what you're grateful to God for!
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Our Statement of Faith

2008-10-25T11:02:00.009+01:00

We girls have put our heads together to come up with our statement of faith. We would love to hear your thoughts on our biblical convictions - weather you agree, disagree, are confused or would like us to explain a point. Hopefully this will be the starting point for some meaty theological posts and discussions.

We belong to an evangelical church, where we believe completely in the inerrancy and total authority of Scripture, as the 66 books of the Bible, and where we believe in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and practise spiritual gifts personally and corporately (in an orderly and proper way as outlined in 1 Corinthians 14). We also emphasise the grace of God -- that we are saved by faith in Christ alone, and that you cannot lose your salvation (if you were, indeed, truly saved in the first place). We are committed to the gospel -- both the centrality of it in the life of the believer, and the spreading of it to non-Christians through preaching, evangelism and planting churches. When it comes to baptism, we do not believe in or practise infant baptism but believer's baptism -- that is, baptising those who have chosen to follow Christ, as the Bible commands (Acts 2:38).We are part of the Evangelical Alliance, whose statement of faith is the following:

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.
The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God—fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
The dignity of all people, made male and female in God's image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers—given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit's gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.

In terms of theology, we would describe ourselves as Reformed (see here and here). This includes a firm belief in the total sovereignty of God, that He knows all things and is over all things, and that whatever happens in our lives and in this world is allowed to happen (note: not made to happen -- God cannot produce sin) by Him for His glory. As mentioned before, we also believe in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit today (the opposite of cessationism) -- such as prophecy and speaking in tongues, according to the teachings of Scripture. These gifts are to be exercised in a way that is loving and edifies the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 13).

Finally, when it comes to our beliefs on the roles of men and women, we most definitely hold a complementarian viewpoint. This means we believe that man and woman were created equal in the image of God, with the same dignity, value and worth, but that they have different roles -- especially within marriage (see Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:18-25, and Ephesians 5:22-33). We believe firmly that men were created to be the leaders and heads of their families and homes, but not in a chauvinistic, cruel, harsh, or domineering way -- rather that their leadership is to be like that of Jesus Christ, who led by serving and loving His wife (the Church), preferring their wives' needs above their own. And women are to submit and follow that headship and leadership -- again, not in a subservient, doormat, weak, or degrading way, but rather because they trust, love and respect their husbands and their God-ordained roles as leaders. When this is done right, it is beautiful. There is no world war at home, no competing for authority; rather they are both trying to outdo each other in serving and honouring the other.

Thankful Thursday, a story of healing by Will Drury

2008-10-23T11:58:00.002+01:00

"When leaving work on Tuesday, I received an answerphone message from my mum saying that my dad was in hospital after having some kind of attack of the brain. He was in his office at home when my mum found him talking and laughing to himself, not knowing who he was, who my mum was, where he was or why he was listening to rock music when he doesn't like it (he listens to this type of music everyday at work). She called NHS direct who immediately put her through to a doctor. Upon hearing the symptoms he called an ambulance straight away.

My dad was rushed to hospital where he collapsed whilst being examined. I got there as quickly as I could and broke down as soon as I saw my mum. She told me that although it looked like my dad in the office, it wasn't him. My dad was lying on the bed in the hospital cubicle looking so fragile which is a state that I could never imagine him being in as, I mean come on, he is my dad, he looks after me and is never the one who needs looking after. I sat with him, holding his hand and stroking his head. I saw his notes which included words such as, brain tumor, bleeding on the brain, stroke, mild stroke etc. At this point I prayed for him.

Now my dad isn't a Christian (yet) so I prayed in my head and my heart but not out loud so as not to make him feel uncomfortable. I noticed an immediate improvement in his state. The sickness feeling that he had started to lift and colour came back into his cheeks. He started to joke with the nurses and doctors so I could tell he was feeling better. He was moved up to an emergency ward to await another visit from the doctors with his CT scan results.

As we entered the ward I was aware of a man in the bed next to my dad. I got a strong positive vibe from this man which became even stronger when I saw the Bible and a book called 'Prayer and You' at the bottom of his bed. The results came back with no sign of anything wrong and my dad was discharged half an hour later. Now, apart from a little tiredness, there is no evidence of this attack ever happening. Thankful? I think so!!"

- Will Drury, Brighton
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Thankful Thursday- Jennifer's Testimony

2008-10-16T00:01:00.007+01:00

This is a great testimony from one of our readers Jennifer. We are so thankful that God has revealed himself to her.

age: 32

location: North Carolina
job: Floral designer
favorite food: spinach (Ali says: Yuck!)

Jennifer's story: I've been pretty confused spiritually for most of my life. I was born into a Jewish family. When we lived in Germany we lived off base so had to have a show of celebrating Christmas. We moved back to the states and my parents divorced not too long after that. My mom has always been very anti christian. I would go to my friends' house and go to church with them behind my mom's back. When I was 11 years old I was living in Augusta, GA. I was baptised in a baptist church. My dad was there. He had stepped out of the Jewish faith which he had only embraced when he married my mom. When we moved to South Carolina I continued off and on to sneak to church with my friends' families.

In 1994 my mom introduced me to Buddhism. I embraced Buddhism. I had thought I had found what I had been seeking for so many years. My life remained a chaotic mess throughout the next 10 years. It wasn't until after I left my ex husband that I began to let go of Buddhism but not completely. I was a slave to astrology and tarot cards still.

I got a job at Biltmore and it was there that the prayers began in earnest for me. There are many Godly people who work there. One of the women I work with invited me to an Easter program at her church this past March. At the time my boyfriend Chris and I were having some troubles but he wanted to go. He ended up not being able to go, neither could my friend Kellie. I almost didn't go. I usually don't go to public things by myself. But something compelled me to go. I now know it was God nudging me. I remember standing at the door not wanting to turn the knob but doing it anyway.

At the church I watched one of the most moving versions of the life and death of Jesus Christ I have ever seen. I was saved that night! I told Chris that night and he went the next night and he was also saved. My life has changed so dramatically from that night. I walked into that church a walking dead person and came out full of life!

If you would like to hear more about Jennifer and her walk with Christ you can visit her blog at http://freakyforjesus.blogspot.com/

(If you would like to share a thankful story please email it to us at apathlessfollwed@gmail.com)

Thankful For Our Salvation

2008-10-14T15:10:00.005+01:00

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When we first get saved and become Christians, our hearts are overflowing with gratitude to God for forgiving us of our sins and giving us new, eternal life. But how many of us still keep thanking God for our salvation? How many of us still remember the cross and all our sin that held Christ there? Or does it just become an old, familiar message that is only really for new Christians or unbelievers?

As sinners saved by grace, we must never become indifferent to the gospel because it is central to the Christian life, and also becuase we can never thank God enough for saving us! Let John Newton help us remember why:

“Salvation is wholly of grace, not only undeserved but undesired by us until God is pleased to awaken us to a sense of our need of it. And then we find everything prepared that our wants require or our wishes conceive; yea, that He has done exceedingly beyond what we could either ask or think. . .It is great whether we consider the objects (miserable, hell-deserving sinners), the end (the restoration of such alienated creatures to His image and favor, to immortal life and happiness) or the means (the incarnation, humiliation, sufferings and death of His beloved Son). It is free, without exception of persons or cases, without any conditions or qualifications, but such as He, Himself, performs in them and bestows upon them.” (“The Consolation”, Works of John Newton: Vol III, p.32)
(HT: Of First Importance.)

Indeed, the gospel is great! The fact that a holy God would send His only Son to die and rise again in order to redeem us -- His enemies -- from sin and death is an astounding truth that we must keep fresh, reminding ourselves of it every morning. So let us give thanks to God for our salvation, and live lives that are pleasing to Him out of gratitude for what He has done!
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Thankful Thursdays

2008-10-09T21:18:00.012+01:00

I would like to share a thankful story of God's faithfulness in returning my yellow bag...

It all started a week ago when I went on a hunt to find my yellow bag. Now in this yellow bag was the following contents: GHD's, most of my make-up, toiletries (including deodorant, which was much needed after the time of searching) and nail varnish. So as any girl will understand, it contained a lot of crucial things. Without this I was facing the prospect of fluffy poodle hair, smelliness and dirty nails... what a catch!

Despite searching a good while I could not find it anywhere. I then went into 'drastic searching mode', looking under every cushion, every draw and even under my housemates' beds. This went on for a week and every morning one of my prayers was "Lord please give me yellow bag back." I definitely didn't have the money to afford to buy all the things again. So after a week I was reaching the point of despair, yet still had faith that God could bring it back to me. I asked the girls to pray that it would be found, and Ali felt God say to except answers when we pray- and boy o boy does he answer prayer.

That very evening one of the girls staying with us found it - Hallelujah!! (it was in a black bin liner if you wanted to know, very random)

Thank you God that you answer prayer and care for even the little areas of our life.

(If you would like to share your story of thankfulness, please email it to apathlessfollowed@gmail.com)

Tim Keller Visits Google Mountain

2008-10-06T00:11:00.011+01:00

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Tim Keller visits Google's Mountain View, CA, headquarters to discuss his book, "The Reason for God." This event took place on March 5, 2008, as part of the Authors @ Google series.

Emily Interviewed on Radio Tonight

2008-10-03T12:12:00.003+01:00

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Just to let you all know that I am going to be interviewed on radio today! It will be this evening at 8:45pm GMT on Revival FM -- Scotland's only full-time Christian radio station -- and I will be interviewed about my own blog 'Unfurling Flower', and issues to do with singleness & dating, biblical femininity, and other things!

You can listen online at http://www.revival.fm/. Please pray for me to have wisdom, and I hope that you will tune in!
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Introducing Thankful Thursdays!

2008-09-30T18:34:00.003+01:00

.As Ali so wonderfully expressed in her post, thankfulness is something that cultivates and displays true humility. And the Bible commands us on countless occasions to be thankful, to give thanks to the Lord, and to nurture an attitude of gratitude (ha, there's a cheesy Christian catch phrase for you!). One of my favourite Scriptures concerning this comes from Colossians 2:6-7, where Paul writes:

'So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.' (NIV)

That phrase 'overflowing with thankfulness' describes a lifestyle of giving thanks -- always humbly recognising our own sinfulness and undeservedness of anything good, and therefore expressing our gratitude continuously as we see every breath we take, every blessing we have, as a gift to thank God for.

But overflowing with thankfulness isn't just something that's meant to be done privately; these verses from the Psalms speak of telling other people why we are so grateful to God:

'Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!' (Psalm 105:1)

'I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.' (Psalm 57:9)

And so this brings me onto the reason for this post.... We would like to introduce you all at A Path Less Followed to Thankful Thursdays! Basically, we want to devote one day each week (Thursdays) to sharing ours and your stories of thankfulness -- making known the great deeds of the Lord among the blogosphere.

We will begin next week with the first thankful story. You can email it to us at apathlessfollowed@gmail.com and we will post a new one each week. So, start sending your entries in! It can be anything you are really grateful to God for -- the salvation of a friend, His faithfulness in bringing you back to Himself, a prayer answered, and so on. We will pick the best story each week and will share it every Thursday with you here. Looking forward to hearing an overflowing of thankfulness!
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Magnify Him with Thanksgiving

2008-09-16T13:47:00.074+01:00

If I try to be humble just for the sake of being humble I will fail! I can't be humble in my own strength. It goes against the sinful nature that was ingrained in me before I was even born. There is only one way to cultivate true humility."Magnify him with thanksgiving" (Psalm 69:30).

To magnify something usually implies to make something bigger then it actually is. It exaggerates the truth. However we don’t need to magnify God in this way. God is already much bigger and glorious then we can imagine. Rather, in the context of what we know about Jesus the statement reminds us to “magnify him” because our human limitations can cause us to have an inadequate perspective of him. It is like looking up into space at night and seeing a small white spec. However with a telescope the small spec can be magnified to produce a large image of a whole planet. Although we only see a spec with our bare eyes the reality is that it is massive.

Magnifying God requires acknowledging the bigger picture- our complete utter dependence on Jesus Christ. The rightful response to this realisation is humility expressed through thankfulness.

The thing that has struck me in a fresh way over the last week is that many Christians, including myself easily fall into spoilt child mode. We forget the grace that is on our lives. We easily become desensitized, indifferent and unmoved by the fact that we where once destined for hell (eternal separation from the love of god) and we deserve it.

Romans 1:21 reveals the seriousness of not thanking God. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened”.

We don’t always feel like being thankful. As we discussed in the last post we have more of a natural tendency to sway towards blaming God for things that aren’t going our way. The truth is that sometimes we have to choose to be thankful even if we don’t feel like it. As Emily wrote in her post “I needed to stop being selfish and instead be thankful that the Lord would even use a weak vessel like me to carry out His work”. We all need to get back to reality and look at our lives from the bigger perspective- it's about grace.

Thanking God is the greatest expression of humility. Thankfulness acknowledges our dependence on God. Thankfulness honors God as our all knowing creator, Lord, savior, loving Father, provider. Thankfulness does not take salvation for granted. Thankfulness rightfully magnifies God above our circumstances and feelings.

I could never find enough motivation for thankfulness without the greatest love story- that is the selfless sacrifice of Christ who took the punishment for our rebellion against God. 'The Joy of the Lord is our strength'. So if you are a Christian these tips for cultivating humility through thankfulness are for you. If you are not a Christian my tip for you is to read the bible, there you will meet humility.

- Begin every day by preaching the gospel to yourself- Confess your dependence on God. Thank Jesus!

- Be aware of your attitude and thoughts throughout your day: swap selfishness, pride and a blame attitude with thankfulness to God for his grace.

- Transfer all the glory to God

- Cast all your cares on Him and meditate on the wonder of the cross

- End your day expressing thankfulness to God. I pray sincerely every night 'thank you for helping me, I really needed you today and I will really need you tomorrow. Thank you for sleep!'

(Photo taken from http://www.flickr.com/)

A tribute to Ali as our housemate

2008-09-03T12:45:00.006+01:00

.Ali has no idea that I'm writing this because I wanted it to be a surprise for her.... So, Miss Henry, this is for you!

As some of you may or may not know, Ali, Jess and I have been living together for some time in our very cool girls house. Jess and I moved in with the other girls last September, and then our Aussie friend Ali moved in April this year. Jess and Ali were good friends already from doing youth work together in our church, and I knew Ali a bit before she moved in, but living together over the past five months has brought us all so close in friendship and sisterly love for one another -- so much so that we wanted to start a blog together.

However, now that her plans have changed, Ali is moving out of our house today to stay with a family from church for a couple of months. It's going to be an incredibly sad day because Ali has become one of our closest friends and we have so treasured living with her. Words cannot describe what she has brought to this house -- her love for God, her great wisdom, her boldness to speak up for the truth, her prophetic gifting, and her very life that is sold out for Christ which challenges all of those around her, including me.

So this is just a short tribute to you, Ali, as our housemate -- Jess and I are going to miss you so much in our house, more than you can ever know. You have set a great standard in this place, you are a true pioneer for Christ, and no one could ever replace you. We have valued your daily presence and input in our lives, and you will be sorely missed.... I will particularly miss coming downstairs for breakfast and discovering that God has spoken to us about the same thing the night before, or that we have had similar dreams! Or hearing about all your crazy lion stories! You are a true sister and pioneer in the faith with us and we love you so much.

But we are also very excited about what God is going to be doing through you and in your life over the next couple of months! You are a mighty young woman of God and He has the most amazing plans for your life.

We'll miss living with you Ali! You still have to come round on Mondays for our weekly prayer time and meal together... :-) With all our love and blessings, Em & Jess xx
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Don't Steal My Glory.

2008-09-02T16:00:00.005+01:00

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Well, Ali and Jess have been spot on in everything they've been discussing on the subject of pride. It really is the core of all sin and it is ugly. In particular, we've been looking at how envy and self-exaltation both find their roots in pride, and these two things have been especially true in my own life.

As Ali mentioned, I had noticed that in my heart I was harbouring pride in the form of wanting the glory for myself for certain ministries I was known for doing, and not wanting the glory to go to someone else or even to share it with anyone else. I was in the worst form of sin -- instead of rightly desiring the glory and honour and praise to go to God for the ministry roles I held (leader, teacher, blogger, etc), I wanted it all for myself.

This realisation came from a meeting I had with some other small group leaders from my church not long ago. We were having a time of prayer and one of the guys was asking God for young men and women to replace us eventually and to do an even better job at it than we had. Everyone gave a hearty "amen" and continued to pray into that request, but as I did as well, I had slight reservations in my heart. Did I really want to be replaced? Did I really want someone else to do a better job than me? The sad truth was that I didn't -- I wanted to hold these positions I had within my church, and I was jealous about the people who would be better at me.

I was a little surprised at my reaction, but not completely. I've always been a proud person and have always secretly wanted the spotlight -- to be recognised and acknowledged by people for who I was and what I did. But I knew that none of this was right. My heart attitude was wrong. I wasn't carrying out this service in humility because I wasn't seeking God's honour and glory in it all, but my own. And after all, why on earth wouldn't I want someone to do a better job than me? I should be rejoicing at the thought of someone taking over my position and going much further for the sake of the gospel than I ever could! I needed to stop being selfish and instead be thankful that the Lord would even use a weak vessel like me to carry out His work.

I'm grateful to the Holy Spirit for convicting me about this because, after all, I want my whole life to be about promoting the great name of the Lord Jesus and giving Him all the glory -- not my name, not my glory. I want John 3:30 to be my life mantra: 'He must increase, but I must decrease.' May God help me to weaken my pride and to change my heart so that I may welcome those who are able to do a better job at what I do than me with a truly glad and humble heart.

(Image from Jupiterimages.)

Book Review - Humility: True Greatness

2008-08-31T12:04:00.006+01:00

I am currently reading (again) Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney. I recommend that you purchase this book a.s.a.p. It will bring you revelation about the daily battle we face with pride and how to combat it with a God-glorifying attitude of true humility- dependence on God.

This book is easy to read and relevant to everyone because there is no one that can say they do not struggle with pride. The person that states this is the person in most need to read this book.

C. J. makes a good point that "Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in the light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness.” I whole-heartily agree because when you honestly assess your life in this way pride will have no justification in your life. As Ephesians 2:8-9 says "for by grace we have been saved, not by works least any man should boast". Amen!

In summary: Everyone should get this book. It will help you to be a better servant leader, teacher, pastor, husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, friend and work colleague; as you cast your full dependence on God and stop beating yourself and others up in your pride. If you are a leader in the church you should make a habit of reading this book often.

I will leave you with a quote to ponder on from page 103 of Humility: True Greatness.

"I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am

quiet certain that, if God had not chosen me, I

should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He

chose me before I was born, or else He never

would have chosen me afterwards; and He must

have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for

I never could find any reasons in myself why He

should have looked upon me with special love."

(Charles Spurgeon)

Humility and the gospel

2008-08-30T13:10:00.008+01:00

While we are on the subject of pride and humility, I read this great quote this morning about how it is the gospel that keeps us humble:

“Preaching the gospel to myself each day mounts a powerful assault against my pride and serves to establish humility in its place. Nothing suffocates my pride more than daily reminders regarding the glory of my God, the gravity of my sins, and the crucifixion of God’s own Son in my place. Also, the gracious love of God, lavished on me because of Christ’s death, is always humbling to remember, especially when viewed against the backdrop of the Hell I deserve.” (Milton Vincent, 'A Gospel Primer for Christians' (2008), p.27-28)

(HT: Of First Importance.)
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Exalting Ourselves

2008-08-26T16:03:00.058+01:00

Hello there! Welcome to the blog, hope you enjoy your stay :)

Firstly I want to echo everything Ali has said. Since starting to talk with the girls about this blog and the subject of pride I have discovered pride in myself I never knew was even there - it's not that I mistook it for indigestion or something, it's more that I never acknowledged it as pride and therefore (as Ali the Aussie will tell you) it's very hard to treat the poison in you unless you know what it's from... (although she was actually referring to snakes).

See the thing is I’ve been learning is that pride is very clever at disguising itself, yet it is responsible for more sin in our lives than anything else. It started at the fall (Isaiah 14:12-15) and has continued ever since - even the disciples were caught up in it (Mark 10:35-45).

The book of James says a very challenging thing: ‘humble yourself before the Lord and He will exalt you’ (James 4:10). I find this such a hard verse, sadly because I find myself constantly trying to exalt myself.

According to C J Mahaney’s book 'Humility- True Greatness' (yes do buy it) pride is contending for the place of God in our lives - in other words it is trying to be in control of our own lives and therefore attempting to exalt ourselves. I find myself constantly striving so that people will notice me- hoping they will see me as a leader, as prophetic, as giving…the list goes ever on.

Therefore I find myself becoming a Martha rather than a Mary - quick to want to be seen by others to be doing something and slow to listen and wait for God’s timing. I found this most eminent when we set up this blog and it seemed that God was speaking so amazingly to Emily and Ali about the same things and giving them discernment. Instead of being so pleased for them I was upset and a little angry. Why? Because I wanted to be noticed, to be hearing God’s voice. I had not waited for God to lift me up, I had not humbled myself and therefore was jealous of them.

God has been teaching me so much over these last couple of weeks. Humility is not just doing the dishes or picking up litter even if no one sees ☺. It’s actually about the heart. In order to gain true humility we must first come to God the creator of all who humbled Himself from heaven to earth, to be torn on cross so that we could be saved (Philippians 2:5-11). This is the most sobering and awesome Truth. You may ask: then why did God save us?

God saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.’ 2 Tim 1:9-10.

Why am I saved?? Because of Him. Jesus. Because of God's own Purpose and Grace. Full Stop.

Well maybe God saw I was doing well and wanted me to be saved? ‘This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before THE BEGINNING OF TIME’. God in mercy and grace saved us, predestined us (chose us first) before time began—WHY? Because it was HIS purpose (you don’t know but in my head I am yelling this louder than a man in a white suit).

God has the perfect plan (Jeremiah 29:11), so really it is a joy and excitement to humble myself under Him, to keep loving Him, serving Him. Not being static in this but preparing myself, learning to serve others. Not trying to make a name for myself, or make my own plans, but waiting patiently for Him, that He would be glorified in my life.

I know I’m not alone in saying - God give me grace to do this.

Green With Envy

2008-08-22T16:55:00.037+01:00

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We started this blog with a message of humility because God had mercifully been teaching us that pride goes before destruction, and we wanted to hold each other accountable to combating this in our lives.

The funny thing is that we didn’t think we would have to hold each other accountable to this so soon! The day that we released our first post you could have cut the unspoken tension in our house with a knife. Jess was in an unhappy mood because being the younger one she didn’t feel like she could contribute to our blog in an articulate way, Emily was concerned that people would be better at the things she was already known for doing, and having inherited shortness from my mother I was jealous that Jess and Emily are hotties and I felt disabled because God hadn’t blessed me with long legs.

So here is my confession - I battle daily with envy. It’s sick and wrong and I don’t like it one bit. Jess and Emily confirmed my strong suspicion that I’m not the only woman that struggles with it. I believe that women not unlike me are battling with these thoughts on a daily basis and then beating themselves up about it.

"Here is my confession- I battle daily with envy"

“Pride” C. J. Mahaney writes, “takes innumerable forms but has only one end: self-glorification”. Pride is at the core of envy. We feel envy because we want what they have and to take it further we don’t want them to have it. Ultimately we are glorifying ourselves because subconsciously or not we think that we deserve all those good things and that they don’t. The truth is that none of us are deserving of anything good, but we are completely dependent on God.

Confessing these matters to friends has been very beneficial for me. Rather then secretly and pridefully dealing with this form of pride in your own strength and continuing to beat yourself up about it, let me encourage you to confess your envious thoughts to wise friends who will be able to correct you in a loving way, and who I guarantee will be able to identify with you if they are being honest with themselves.

Thanks to our merciful God who through his word warns us about the seriousness of pride and has exposed the sin in our hearts. I thank God that he intends to keep us from pride. Lastly, and most importantly I thank God for the total forgiveness for these sins that he has given us through his son Jesus- the only man ever to have the right to be proud yet who committed the most humble act- taking the punishment for our sins by death on the cross.

Stay tuned as Jess and Emily share their own struggle and helpful tips on this topic.

Anyone for Humble Pie?

2008-08-18T19:00:00.026+01:00

Firstly I would like to say a huge ‘Welcome’ to our blog! We hope that ‘A Path Less Followed’ will be a great Christian resource for you and that we can all have a laugh together, hopefully not at the expense of my spelling mistakes.

This week I was listening to a seminar about Spiritual Warfare by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church Seattle. What Mark said was very beneficial to hear from many aspects but the point that caught my attention was this: before the fall of Satan was pride. The core of all demonic activity is pride. Proverbs 16:18 says that "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." God takes pride seriously.

This got me thinking ‘how I can protect myself from the trap of pride?’ The answer was quite obvious; what is the opposite of pride? Humility! I need to make sure I continue to bring myself before the cross and live with an attitude of thankfulness for all that Jesus has done for me and continues to do in me.

Mary the mother of Jesus Christ is a great biblical example of humility. The character of Mary can often be overlooked as it gets lost in the annual Christmas story. I encourage you to take time to study her character (see Luke 1: 26-55), as it is one that Christian women should look up to. The rest of this post is going to focus on the character of Mary. I am not doing this as a form of worship of Mary but to look to her as an example of a woman with great faith in a merciful God who sent his only Son to be a penal substitute for our sin on the cross. The display of Mary’s character in the Bible ultimately reminds us of our full reliance on Jesus.

An angel informed Mary that she was going to be the mother of the much-anticipated Messiah! Put yourself in Mary’s shoes or rather sandals for a moment. What would your response be? If I’m completely honest, if I was in Mary’s sandals I would have thought ‘yeah I’m a pretty good pick to be the mother of the Messiah. I’m a leader in the church, I love and trust God, I know his word, and I live for him. I would raise my child up with a desire to serve God. If I was God I would have chosen me as well.'

It’s a good thing God didn’t pick me! This ordinary woman was given a great and seemingly impossible promise from God. Where there would have been the temptation to be proud she responded “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be according to your word…My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great thing for me and, holy is his name”. What a humble response! Mary recognised that she was undeserving of such a blessing but she trusted that her sovereign, merciful King could do an extraordinary thing in her for the good of his kingdom.

This is the first message of our blog because we want to declare that the only way we have a relationship with God is through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus who has conquered death; the way we have come to trust Jesus is through the provision of the word of God as the Holy Spirit calls us and reveals the sinful state of our hearts, bringing us revelation about our need for Jesus. The only way we continue to be sanctified is by the working of the Holy Spirit within us.

I hope you are starting to get the point - that we acknowledge that we are weak sinners who need God. Our desire in creating this blog is that some humble servants of God can give Jesus glory by stepping out in the gifts that he has given us, for his glory and advancement of his kingdom.

Satan’s boots got too big for him and God’s bigger boots kicked him and all the angels that followed him out of heaven. Our biggest weakness will be pride and therefore we want to continually combat it with an attitude that is opposite to pride - rather putting on humility.

One of the benefits of having a blog with 3 contributors is that we can be accountable to one another in staying humble as we tackle hot theological issues, ecclesiology, missiology and other lifestyle topics relevant to the church. Women, the mission to see people come to Christ through the local church is relevant to you! Please join us in trying to attain an attitude like Mary’s - Lord we are thankful for all you have done for us we know that it is by nothing that we have done. We your servants are willing to do your will - let it be done for your glory.

From left to right: Ali, Emily & Jess