The End of the Bible at the End of the Year

If you do such a thing, you're probably coming near the end of your Bible reading plan for this year. Bible reading plans are great, until they make you proud or discouraged, when you throw them away and read Galatians.

It's helpful to think about the end of time at the end of the year. What happens at the end of time? We are glorified and satisfied. We see Jesus face, which is eternal life, and our joy receptors have to be re-routed before they blow up. What happens at the end of the year tho? We wake up, and it's January, back to the beginning, back to Genesis, back to school, back to church. It's not Christmas songs anymore, but the slightly dull realisation that summer is still months away, and the only think to look forward to before then is your writer's birthday, (February 21st).

2013, for various reasons already documented on these pages, will not be a year i'll remember fondly. I hope it does let the door hit it on the way out. But how did we love Jesus in 2013? Did we continue? Is that what we'll look back on fondly as we voyage off into 2014? Our great acts of faith and service? Did we love Jesus well in 2013?

Probably not, and that's ok.

Will we love Jesus well in 2014?

Probably not, and that's ok.

Not ok because we're all antinomians and it doesn't matter how we live. We must kick that idea in the teeth. It's ok because Jesus is our champion, Jesus goes out and fights Goliath while we cower behind Him, Jesus loves the Father perfectly and is not afraid to call us brother as He represents us. Jesus loved, and served, and delighted the Father perfectly in 2013, and He will in 2014, and you know what, because He did, you did.

At the end of time, like at the end of the Bible, we'll see Jesus' face, we'll have eternal life. Why? Because we worked hard and paid our tithes? No! Because Jesus did, because He was perfect, because He paid what was needed. That was our lode star this year, and it must be next year. In triumph and tragedy, there is nothing else.

On Home

Rachel and I have come back to the UK for Christmas. I've been thinking a lot about the word 'home' over the last couple of weeks, perhaps inevitably. I've come to love the desolate beauty of the coastal plains as much as the gently rolling green of the Chiltern Hills, so what does that mean for the word home? That i have two? Or none?

I don't suppose it really matters. When i go through customs in the States, the man at the desk says 'welcome home,' (well, he does now i've got a Green Card anyway!) when i crossed the border last night, the man at the desk told me what a bad picture i took. So there's that.

I guess home is where my life is, where my wife is, where my parents are. But those are two different places. Have i come home for Christmas? Or have i left home for Christmas? Yes. I look the wrong way when i cross the street and i'm shocked at home expensive things are, (Rachel! That's twice as much in dollars!) But my family's here, i grew up here, tomorrow, i'll go to watch the famous Wycombe Wanderers play with my dad, and howl at eleven men i've never met before. And that will feel like home too.

So what of all this rambling narcissism? Well, i've come to embrace living in two places, because it reminds me to look for a city to come, it reminds me that until Christ returns to reclaim what is His, no one who belongs to Him has a home here. No one. I remember that it's healthy to feel unsettled, it's an object lesson.

So i might be the only one in south Bucks who believes that gun control means using two hands (well, apart from Rachel anyway) and the only one in eastern North Carolina who knows what a chairboy is, and that's fine. That's good. It's wonderful to have two homes, because it reminds me that i only have one, and He was born in a manger.

Christmas in Dark Places (A video by Glenn Scrivener)

It used to be summer when Christmas came round,
Neath tall southern skies, over sun-scorched ground,
With the backyard cricket, the barbies, the beach,
And munching on mangoes to watch the Queen's Speech.
The slatherings of sunscreen, the glorious glare
And toasting the glow in the warm evening air.

It used to be summer... when I was young.
A golden age in a land far flung.
But there came a point, I crossed a divide,
Went up in the world and summer had died.
December is dark now, the nights close in,
So we huddle together as kith and as kin.

It's winter now when Christmas rolls round,
We celebrate still though with different surrounds.
We mull the wine and strike the matches,
Light the fires, batten the hatches,
Gather around the warming beam
Of family love or a TV screen.
So safe inside, no place to go,
We toast marshmallows and let it snow.

Our summer's gone, if you've been around,
you've felt the fall: life's run aground.
We've gone up in the world, seen summer die.
So what's our hope? The dark defy?
Stoke the hearth? Retreat indoors?
Rug up warm with you and yours?
The shadow reaches even here,
But THIS is the place for Christmas cheer.

It's dark, in the bible, when Christmas is spoken.
Always a bolt from the blue for the broken.
It's the valley of shadow, the land of the dead,
It's, "No place in the inn," so He stoops to the shed.
He's born to the shameful, bends to the weak,
becomes the lowly: the God who can't speak!
And yet, what a Word, this Saviour who comes,
Our dismal, abysmal depths He plumbs.
Through crib and then cross, to compass our life.
To carry and conquer. Our Brother in strife.
He became what we are: our failures He shouldered,
To bring us to His life: forever enfolded.
He took on our frailty, He took on all-comers,
To turn all our winters to glorious summers.

It's Christmas now... whatever the weather,
Some soak in the sun, some huddle together.
But fair days or foul, our plight He embraces.
Real Christmas can shine in the darkest of places.

Cover Me

A few weeks ago, some rogue motorist swerved down my street, and collected our mailbox on his way. He knocked the door off, and the handy yellow flag that told us if we had any mail that day. Eventually, i've got to go and buy a new mail box to replace the old one. It has to be a mailbox, i can't put a microwave there, or a bowl of soup. Mailbox for mailbox.

Likewise, if the lady driving the car who hit our mailbox showed up at my door to replace it, she'd need to give me a new one, or at least, a decent replacement. A picture of a mailbox won't do, neither will a new sweater or a pair of scissors. Mailbox for mail box.

We see this idea all the way though the Bible. God told Adam and Eve that a life would be taken if they ate the fruit of the tree, and so it was, although we like to think that God was making a coat to keep them warm, He was shedding blood to pay for sin. The Old Testament sacrificial system depended on and illustrated this idea every day. There had been sin, there must be death. On the Day of Atonement some estimate that over three hundred thousand animals died. The Brook Kidron ran red, the Priests were covered and the mercy seat stained with the blood that paid for sins.

Hebrews 9:22 puts it bluntly, 'without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.' Life for life, death for sin. It's always been this way, and we understand why. Mailbox for mailbox, life for life. But come on, we now that a goat can't pay for the sins of a man. So a man came, the lamb of God, the final lamb, making a satisfying sacrifice, finally giving God and man justice for sins, finally paying the price, finally cleaning our consciences.

We ask this man for mercy, we ask Him to cover us. That's what's going on at the end of Luke 18. The tax collector stands far off beating his chest, and says 'Lord, cover me, a sinner.' Cover me, have mercy on me. Cover me with the blood of a substitute. Just like Moses did in Exodus 24:5-6. An animal was killed, half it's blood poured in the basin, the other half sprinkled on the people. They were covered with the blood of the substitute. Sin brings death, life for life.

Have mercy on me, cover me with the blood of a substitute, pass over me.

The longer i'm a Christian, and the more i see the dark recesses of my own heart, the more precious this becomes. The world needs a God angered by sin, but the world also needs God. Jesus has dealt with that huge problem, He has died, a life for a life, and His blood covers us. If you try to live with Christ primarily as your example, not your substitute, it's like living in a house with no foundations, you're just not safe. Come to Christ instead, and be covered with His blood.

The Son Of Righteousness

In the middle of winter, being woken up by the sun feels like a distant dream. At the moment i watch the day slowly dawn as i read the Bible in the morning, and, on very bad days, while i'm driving my wife to school sometime later that morning. But there's something wonderful about sunrise, something hope filled, something refreshing about seeing the sunrise, something significant.

And because the Gospel is true, we should expect everything in the natural world to be filled with significance. This was clearly Malachi's point of view, when he described the coming of Christ like the rising of the sun. And there's lots of ways that's true. The sun brings hope, healing, help, security and joy, just like Christ's coming does.

But i think there's something else that Christ being like the sun does as well. It wakes us up. Malachi ministered in such a depressing time in the history of Israel. Not as bad as the times of the Judges perhaps, and in some senses better than the exile itself, but not by much. The people had returned the the promised land, free from captivity. As good students of Moses, they'd have known what to expect next. A glorious temple and a glorious kingdom, and they got neither. The temple was ok, but nothing in comparison to the old one, and as for the kingdom, they'd gone from being a world power to a provincial backwater.

And worse, they were asleep spiritually. The people offered the blind and sick animals in sacrifice, and the priests let them. Few took God's Word seriously. Worship had become wearisome to the people. There were few who were faithful, few who heeded Malachi's call. They were asleep, and they needed the sun. And the sun is the prescription for all our ills. We need to stop chasing the darkness away and open the windows.

If we're asleep, our prescription is the same. If tithing seems like madness to us, we need to be woken up. We need to remember that we have no earthly city, we have to remember that what we earn belongs to God anyway, we have to remember that our faith is seen as we serve God not money. As the sun rises, we hold money cheaper.

If worship is a weariness, we need the sun to warm us up. We need to remember our riches in Christ, our salvation from sin, our union with the Son of God. We need the sun to warm us up until we sing. And worship isn't just singing. We need to be woken up so that we live our whole lives as if the Gospel is true. So that what we read in the Bible stays with us, and changes us. we ned to bathe in the sun until we sing.

If we struggle to take the Bible seriously, we need to open our eyes and be dazzled by the sun. We need to ask for help every morning to see what's really there. And just like an eye doctor is glorified when we ask for help to see the sun, so God the Father is glorified when we ask for help to see the Son. And those are the prayers He loves to answer.

This is the healing we need. To give, to sing, to see. We need to be weaned off the dark, cold air, which we're told to desire, which we're told is safe, and come out into the light. We need to leap like calfs, because the Son of God has come, and He shines on us in all His glory.

Live on Nothing but Mercy (Jeremiah Burroughs)

The following is an excerpt from 'Of Lovers and Whores,' a selection of Jeremiah Burroughs' sermons on Hosea, compiled and published by my friend Dave Bish. He has two other books of heart warming Puritan sermons published, which i highly recommend to you. Find them here.

Let us learn to wonder at these riches of mercy in Christ and exercise much faith about them. Certainly we would thrive in godliness much more if we exercised our faith in the bowels [heart] of God in Christ.

Fruit like apricots and May cherries that grow up by a wall and enjoy the warm beams of the sun are sooner ripe and have more sweetness than those which grow in shady places.Grass shaded by the trees in orchards are sour. So the fruit which Christians bring forth under discouragements and despairing thoughts is very sour. Some things they do because conscience compels them to duty, but it is sour fruit. Though it is better to do what conscience requires than not, yet merely to follow conscience is sour grass.

When a Christian can by faith set himself before the sunshine of these mercies of God in Christ and continually live in the midst continually in the beams of that grace he grows ripe sooner and the fruit is sweeter.

You can easily know whether the Sun of righteousness shines on you. Does your fruit grow ripe? Is it sweet fruit? Those who talk of mercy and of Christ and have His name in their mouths but bring forth sour and crabbed fruit are not in the Sun; they are blind and cannot discern it, and are but a light of their own fancy in a heart of their own making.

In Ephesians 3:18-19 the apostle prays that the Ephesians 'may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth ' of the riches of God in Christ. The philosophers tell us of only three dimensions, but there are four.

What fruit is this, 'to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.' Here is the effect of it, when we know the breadth and length and depth and height of God's love, and have that knowledge by the Spirit of God, that surpasses mental knowledge, then we are filled with the fullness of God.

Here now is a glorious Christian, a Christian filled with the fullness of God. Do you want this to be so of you? Learn to exercise faith much about the infinite riches of mercy of God in Christ.  f. This will fill you with the fullness of God. You complain of barrenness and emptiness in your hearts and lives, it is because you give little heed to this.

God betroths Himself to the church in mercies, in bowels. let us learn when we are in any trouble to plead with God for bowels of mercy. Isaiah 63:15, 'look down from Heaven, and behold from the habitiation of your holiness and you glory, where is your zeal and your strength, the sound of your bowels, and your mercy towards me? Are they restrained?' Lord, have you not said you will betroth your church to yourself in bowels? Where is the sounding of your heart? Lord, let us have your heart, from which you have betrothed us through Christ.

Oh what confusion there will be one day for those who have missed these mercies of God, in which the Lord has betrothed Himself to the Church. Will you content yourself with crumbs, with the fruits of His general bounty and patience, when you hear of the glorious mercies in Jesus Christ? These things should raise our hearts, so that we protest as Luther did; 'I protest that God shall not put me off with the things of the world, with my portion here. Oh no the Lord has shown me greater riches, and though i am unworthy of any, yet, as i know His mercy is free, why should i not have my portion in these glorious things?

Come in then, come in, oh sinful soul. Be in love with Jesus Christ and the ways of godliness. Know that all these mercies are tendered to your soul this day, to break your heart, even that hard heart of yours.And they are free for you as any. There is nothing more pleasing to God than for you to be taken with the glory of His riches in mercy. You cannot perform any duty acceptable to God as this, to have your heart broken on the consideration of his heart, to have your heart yearn again and come in and join with this infinite ocean of mercy. Breathe the element of mercy, live by nothing but mercy.

What did the Lamb Do?

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and said, 'behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'

John 1:29

Isn't it good news that Jesus takes away our sin? That he covers it, atones for it and ransoms us from it's penalty and power. It's the shed blood of Jesus, and His substitution death and resurrection that makes the good news good.

When John the Baptist sees Jesus and calls Him the lamb of God he is speaking fluent Old Testament . What was the purpose of the lamb? To die, to shed blood, to cover the sins of God's people. Once a year on the day of atonement, the priest would enter the most holy place, sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, and when he came out into the daylight again Israel breathed a sigh of relief knowing that another's blood had been accepted as a sacrifice for their sin. Their sin demanded death, and death had occurred.

Those lambs didn't die as an example. They didn't die to show people how to obey, or how much it costs to follow God. They died to cover sin. And Jesus is the ultimate one who died to cover sin. The death of a lamb can not pay for the sin of a man. If i write off your car, you're not satisfied when i draw you a picture of a car and give that to you. Justice has not been served, and God is just.

It's good news that Jesus didn't come to set us an example. It's good news that we're not supposed to have faith in God like Jesus had faith in God. Good, good news.How monumentally depressing it would be to sit in the side room off my kitchen, cradling my coffee, trying to warm my heart up with the news that Jesus was my example. That's awful news, bad news, heart cooling news. Imagine saying, every morning, today, you must be holy like Jesus, you must be pure like Jesus, you must love God like Jesus, you must love man like Jesus, and if you don't, you've no hope. I just wouldn't get out of bed.

Instead, much better news the Gospel brings. Jesus purity paid for my impurity. His white hot devotion covers my mumbled inattentiveness, His obedience covers my disobedience and His love my selfishness. What extraordinary news! What liberating news! I'm not supposed to have faith in God like Jesus had faith in God, i'm supposed to have faith in Jesus.

In His life lived for me, His body broken for me, His blood shed for me, His resurrection won for me. In His wounds i find comfort, because they don't say 'do better,' they say 'job done.' The risen Christ doesn't say 'go thou and do likewise,' He says 'come and have breakfast.'

Then, and only then, if my service worth a rip. When i remember the 'dones' of the Gospel, my 'dos' are the overflow of love, of joy at the death Christ died for me. To take the substitution of Christ out of the call to obey is to gut the Gospel of it's goodness and power. Christ has come to take away your sin, rejoice, and have faith in Him.

Like Refiners Fire

Malachi was written during the most depressing time of Israel's history. Not the darkest, that honour goes to Judges or Lamentations, but definitely the most depressing. The Hebrews had returned from exile, been blessed with Godly leaders and rebuilt a temple, but still the people sinned, still they offered blind animals in the temple, still they married the daughters of a foreign God.

There's a depressing familiarity about all that isn't there? Your author has been blessed with loving parents, world class training, a faithful wife, and types this from an office on a million dollar campus, but he still sins, he still shows unfaithfulness, ingratitude and laziness whenever he feels like he can get away with it. And the same is true (to a greater or lesser extent) of you too.

So what's to be done? Malachi tells us. And the answer is not found in religious activity, nor moral relativism, nor a government programme, the answer is a person. This person will suddenly come to His temple, He'll turn up one day and throw out the money changers. This person is the messenger of the covenant, He has made promises to the Sons of Jacob that He will keep. And He's like refining fire.

Fire. Bad news. Fire is a terror, as Smoky the Bear reminds us every summer. Fire will burn up the alloy, and since we're all alloy, we need some good news. The good news? That sweet word, refiners. Yes we're alloy, but there's silver to be made, when we are refined.

So Christ comes to refine us. He comes to end our false worship, our spiritual adultery, our lazy sins. He comes to burn up the things in life that displease Him. He comes to help us live by the Spirit, He comes to help us choose the narrow way. He comes to save, and to sanctify. He has saved us from the penalty of sin, and He is saving us from the power of sin. Slowly but surely those joy killing weeds in our hearts are being burned up. Slowly but surely sin looks less and less attractive, and Jesus more and more.

This is the hope that Malachi held out to the faithful remnant. There won't always be blind and sick animals being sacrificed. There won't always be priests who lead their people astray, Judah won't always be a forgotten backwater, God will keep His promises. The Christ will come, committed to His people, and save them from sin.

And it's that same hope that the whole Bible holds out for us this morning. We won't always sin. One day, we'll be with the Lord, and sin will be, well, not even a memory. But before then, be encouraged, that the Lord is so committed to your happy holiness, to your refinement that He not only lived to make it happen, but He died to make it happen.

I am Second® - The Robertsons

If you live in the States, the Robertson family probably need no introduction. If you don't, then the Duck Dynasty phenomena is probably unbelievable for a number of reasons! But either way, if you can stand the apalling camera work, their story is well worth 27 minutes of your time.

 

Single Superior Sacrifice

How can we be sure Jesus has paid for our sins? How can we know that the Father has accepted the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, or, better, on my behalf? How can i know that the things i did yesterday won't (justly) condemn me forever? We can know. The solid logic of Hebrews 9:11-13 tells us that Jesus is the single, superior sacrifice who brings forgiveness of sins and a cleansed conscience. Do you want to be free from guilt? You can be! Do you want to feel free from condemnation? You can do. Let’s see how.

First of all, Jesus entered the real tent, the greater and perfect tent as verse 11 tells us. He wasn’t entering an earthly copy with bells around his clothes and a rope on His ankle. He was in Heaven, He was in the real thing. It’s one thing to have a picture of the fake Eiffel tower at Kings Dominion, how much better is it to have been to the real thing! Jesus can clean our conscience because He entered the real sanctuary, not made with hands, but made by God. The son of Levi ministered in the copy, and it gave the Hebrews some assurance, but Jesus is in the real sanctuary, not made with hands. Look and look until you see and are assured. 

Secondly, Jesus can cleanse our conscience because He has shed His own blood. If God took the blood of a goat as a covering, then there is no way He will reject the blood of His own Son! No way. That animal blood was a picture, Jesus is the reality. That picture gave some assurance to the Hebrews. When the scapegoat ran off into the wilderness, they could see that God had a way of removing their sins, when the priest shed the blood of the lamb, they could see that God had a way of paying for their sins. When we sin, we’re tempted to do something to pay for that sin aren’t we? I lied to my parents so I’ll get up half an hour earlier tomorrow to read the Bible. We’re tempted to do that. But we don’t need to. What covers our sin? What makes us whole again? Nothing but the blood, and that blood has been shed for us. We have nothing to fear, because we are covered by Him.

Finally, Jesus blood can cleanse our conscience because He works on the inside, not the outside. Verse 13 teaches us the blood and ashes of a heifer purified the flesh. But only the flesh. The old sacrifices never changed anyone’s heart, never cleaned a conscience. The new one can, and does.

The application is right there in verse 14. We are now free to serve God with all our hearts. There is nothing holding you back from giving your life to God’s will, nothing stopping you from doing whatever He wants you to do. Is there? Why should sin stop you, your sin has been dealt with. Why should guilt stop you, Jesus has cleansed your conscience. Why should what you did yesterday stop you from what God wants you to do tomorrow? It shouldn’t!

If You Will Not Listen

How do we know we're listening to God? How do we know we're hearing His voice? How do we know it's not just our thoughts, or desires, or something worse. If you listen to the local Christian radio station, you'll end up thinking that God speaks through waterfalls and sunsets, through this song and that song, and maybe He does. But wouldn't it be good to know for sure.

You know where we're going.

In Malachi 2, The Lord has a serious problem with the priests. So serious that He wants to rub dung into their faces. he them to stink physically because they stink spiritually. He wants people near them to be as disgusted with them as He is. Why? Because they refuse to listen to listen. They're not taking His Word seriously. They're not reading, meditation and applying the scriptures. And even though God talks to the priests, and we don't have a priestly class any more, the point for us is clear. What you think about the Bible is (ultimately) what you think about God.

There are four consequences in our lives when we don't listen to the Bible that we see in this passage. The first, in verse 2, is simply that we will not have a heart for God if we don't listen to Him. I can't know what my wife wants, what she likes, what she needs if i never listen to her. I can't please her, i don't know her if i never hear her voice. And the same is true with God. What a shame if we feel more connected to our favourite tv characters than we do to the living God.

Secondly, in verses 8a and 9b, when we don't listen, our lives will fall short of the standard that God sets us. Narrow is the way that leads to salvation. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you will never see the Kingdom of God. Not in quantity, but in quality. Our righteousness must be of a different sort, it must be faith produced and joy filled. But those flames won't burn if they're not stoked by the Bible.

The end of verse 9 gives us our third warning, relevant not just to preachers. If we don't listen to the Bible then we will show partiality. Preachers will start preaching for a pay cheque not the glory of God, Christians will become yes men, rather than prophetic challengers of their friends. Because that makes sense, unless our categories of success and failure, of what matters and what is inconsequential are shattered and rebuilt by the Bible.

And lastly, when we don't listen you'll lead other people astray. if i don't listen i'll lead my wife astray. I'm like a child, not knowing how to go in and out, how can Fox Sports Live be more important than what God has to say. How can you best serve your friends, and family and co-workers and students and employers and employees? Listen to God!

Verses 5-7 gives the rewards of listening. Life and peace. Fear and awe. True instruction. Fight for time in your day to listen to God, neglect something else. Listen to the Bible.

Blood Soaked Youth Ministry

We've all heard the stats i suppose, about teenagers who grow up in church, go to college, and then never darken the door of the church ever again. Teens who grow up in youth choir, at camps, on activities, and now spend their Sunday mornings sleeping off the night before.

We've heard the stats, and though i struggle to believe that the number really is as high as the 70-80% i've heard quoted (what is it about evangelicalism and a love for negative statistics?) it's obviously a problem. 

What causes that problem? I guess there are a couple of obvious ones. Firstly, if your teen grows up in a teen centric environment, if they are always entertained and never asked to serve, always eating pizza and never studying the Bible, of course it's going to be a rue awakening when they go to church at 19 and suddenly they're treated like an adult. Of course they're going to be surprised when the plate in question is for them to give, not to take another piece of cake off. So there's that. The second is like the first. Maybe the majority of our 'church kids' just aren't getting saved. Maybe the sickness is in the youth group, not the frat house.

Both of those and more are part of the problem, but you know what i think a big, and overlooked problem is? I'm so glad you asked.

We've never taught our teenagers to sin. 

Let me explain. If our teens grow up in a world where they never fail, guess what they're going to equate Christianity with? Not failing. And when they fail at college, anywhere on the scale from fornicating to...whatever is on the other end of that scale, they're not going to know what to do with that failure. They've got no answer to the 'how're you going to go to church now?' question, so they quit.

If we teach young people that Christianity equals perfection, of course they're going to leave the church when they fail. Of course their seared conscience is going to keep them out of the Bible. They've sinned, how can they approach a holy God now?

This is the burden of the book of Hebrews. The blood of bulls and goats never changed a man's heart, never eased a seared conscience, never assured man of his salvation. But the blood of Jesus can and does. Hebrews 9:14 promises that the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience so that we can once more serve Christ. This is what our teenagers need as they go to college. A blood soaked youth ministry. We can teach five steps to a better recess when we run out of Gospel. We can fire up the attractional smoke machine and rock band when the blood of Jesus stops being relevant.

We need to be honest about sin. I sin, you sin, and our good church kids sin. Blood talk only makes sense in the light of sin talk. And it's blood talk, and only blood talk, that will grow faithful teenagers into faithful adults.

Out of Step with the Gospel

Have you ever messed up? Check your pulse, then yes. You've messed up and i've messed up, probably since you woke up, at least in the last hour. But when we mess up, we're in good company. Has anyone messed up as gloriously as Peter? One minute the rock, the next minute Satan, one minute swinging his sword to begin (as he thought) a final battle, the next minute ashamed of his saviour, one minute the pentecost preacher, the next minute eating at the kosher table in Galatia.

We read about this last incident in Galatians 2:11-14. Paul opposed Peter, and the rest, to their faces, because they were out of step with the Gospel. Now, pausing a second to rejoice that being in step with the Gospel means eating bacon, we have to recognize that we mess up, we sin, we lie, cheat or steal, because we all too often don't understand the consequences, the reality, that our sins create.

In 'No Other Gospel' Josh Moody points out that Peter messed up, and we mess up, because of four things.

What you do as a Christian needs to come out of what you believe.
I believe that it's my role to love and lead my wife, and that for a Christian, leadership is service, which is why i currently hear the whir of the washing machine. What we do needs to match up with what we believe. If we believe in a just God who will judge sin, we'd better not sin, if we believe that this God has sent His Son to die in our place, we'd better repent, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We should spend our time, talents and treasure on our eternal city, not the one we see around us now. Peter forgot that, and forsook the gentiles. What we believe about the risen Christ and His bride needs to inform every area of our lives, other wise we'll constantly be messing up.

What you actually do shows what you really believe.
We hoard instead of tithe because (even if only for a moment) we believe that we can provide for our families better than Jesus can. Peter moved tables because (even if only for a moment) he believed you had to be a Jew before you could be a Christian. We're never too busy to do the things we want to do. You're not 'too busy,' to go to church, you just have something you'd rather do. You can talk the talk as much as anyone, you can teach sunday school, serve on a board, do whatever, but your actions, finally, will speak louder than your words.

What you do will change what other people believe.
Teenagers are a fascinating people group. It's amazing to see how the leaders of each group of teens will influence those around them. But it doesn't stop in high school, and it was going on in Galatia. Peter's actions spoke louder than his words, and he led people astray, even Barnabas. Because what you do changes the people around you. As a leader, people will follow what you do far more quickly than what you say. If i am never sharing my faith, it doesn't matter how often i teach on it, my teen group won't be either. If i'm never giving money to church, it doesn't matter how often i tell them it's a good idea, my teens won't either.

What you do will change what you believe.
Sin is death by a thousand paper cuts. Will one sin shipwreck your faith? Probably not. But that same sin over and over again, will leave you weaker and defenseless. Because what you do changes what you believe. if you're always skipping Bible reading and private prayer, eventually you won't think those things are important. if you're always seeing movies filled with nudity, eventually you'll think it's ok. Peter believed that salvation was by faith alone, but if he'd kept on eating at the kosher table, he would have believed in justification by circumcision eventually.

The Gospel teaches us that we are a whole. Our hearts and our hands, our minds and our eyes, are all part of us, and what we do with them matters. If the Gospel has truly ruined our heart for any of it's rivals, the outside will be consistent with the inside. But if not, we'll always be messing up and taking others with us, unless someone confronts us to our face.

Matt Maher - Lord, I Need You (video)

Sacrament Sunday at Moulin.

The congregation was numerous, and the communicants nearly a thousand. I preached a short sermon, and while they were partaking, i spoke a few words of encouragement, and bid them depart in peace. I expressed to them in the former exhortation my fears respecting the formality which obtains among all people, and urged them to devote themselves truly to Jesus Christ. After that i partook of the third table. On the whole, this Sabbath was not like the last. Then i was very much affected, now i was barren and dull. God, however, is the same, and His Word is unchangeable, and in that is all my hope. Woe to me if i were saved by my frames; nevertheless, i would never willingly be in a bad one. At six in the evening i preached again to those who understood English; but they were few, and they seemed not to understand me.

Charles Simeon, Pastor of a Generation. Handley Moule, P130

Woe to me, says Simeon, if i am saved by m,y frame of mine, and woe to us all if we let our feelings guide us. Some mornings we're up and leaping out of bed. Ready for the word, ready for prayer, ready to meet with Jesus once more. Some mornings, it's ten more minutes, it's let me check twitter, it's let me see what the weather's doing. But all our hope as Christians is, as Simeon says, in the unchanging God and His Word. Christ sits and the Father's right hand, and doesn't leave there when we're having a bad day. Christ has risen from the dead, our poor frames don't Him back in the grave.

It's so important, to know this, deep in our hearts. To be fed on the truth, again and again, that our salvation is all of Him. Don't look at a decision, don't look at your heart in the moment, look at Christ, and see Him dying under the wrath of God to pay fully for your sins, and then see Him walking away three days later, your salvation bought by Him.

Elimelech

Elimelech was a good man. A responsible member of society. Never missed synagogue, and his sweet wife Naomi was always at his side, always helping with the nursery, always willing to fill in for a missing kids worker. So people understood when he took his family to Moab. There was no food in the land remember, and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Even though his friends indulged in a sharp intake of breath when he shared their plans, it all made sense. It's Elimelech you see, God is his King.

But what happened in Moab hardly bares repeating. His sons married pagan girls, well, surely there had been saved by Naomi's prayers...right? The stories kept coming back to Bethlehem. No children. Barren women. Then the worst of all news. Elimelech dead, his two sons left standing over a hole in the ground, and then, surely not, but a few months later came still worse news, Mahlon and Chillion had died too. Whether in an accident or from an illness, the reports weren't clear. All they did agree on was that Elimelech had chosen himself as King, not God, and it had led, as it always does, to separation.

Just like Adam and Eve. They wanted to be their own king, and it looked sensible. We've got all the other trees, surely we can have this one, and this friendly snake makes such a good case. And they, like Elimelech died. When you're your own king, however sensible it looks, you'll always die. When you skip church to work, or play, or sleep in, however good it feels, and however sensible it looks, you'll die. When you leave the house of bread to get bread, when you do what is right in your own eyes, you die, no matter how sensible it looks in the moment..

And sin looks sensible, it looks reasonable, it looks good. We know we probably shouldn't, but what's the harm. And if it doesn't ruin your union with Christ, it will ruin your communion with Him. Where there used to be a fire, now a rock, where there used to be joy only duty, where there used to be service only shirking.

The Jews cried out, 'we have no King but Caesar,' and my heart cries amen all the time. It looked sensible at the time. Why choose this redneck carpenter over the imperial machine. And what did it lead to? Separation, Mahlon and Chillion, burying and then buried.

When my heart cries no King but Caesar, for whatever good or bad reason, the Spirit replies, no King here but Jesus. When the guerrilla forces in my life take ground, the real King fights them back. Aslan is on the move, and it's certainly not safe. The real King, not Caesar, but Jesus claimed you by dying for you, by bleeding for you, by removing His grave clothes and humming Psalm Two, early in the morning on the first day of the week. The first first day, of the rest of the weeks.

 Because what we need is not to say, 'God is my King, and i'm going to make it.' We won't, it'll be death by a million paper cuts. What we need to say is 'Jesus is my King, and i only have hope as i hold tight to Him.' If Jesus is your king, yes, there are serpents in the garden, but they'll be crushed, yes there are holes in the ground, but they'll only be filled until He calls, yes there are sins we struggle, but they've been bled for.

Whisper it with humble confidence, and ask God for help...elimelech...God, be my King.

His Doctrine was Jesus Christ

'His matter was never trivial, and he never wandered into idle rhetoric. To expound the Scriptures before him as closely and as clearly as he could, then to bring the message to bear full on the conscience and will of the hearers, was his settled aim, first kept in view intelligently and with great pains. And what was his doctrine? In two words, it was Jesus Christ. Everything from Simeon's preaching radiated from Jesus Christ, and returned upon him. Not that he forced texts away from their surroundings, and forgot the literal in the mystical. But he was sure that Christ is the burden of the worlds of the Prophets and the Apostles, and he knew that He was everything for Charles Simeon.

Mere moral essays in the pulpit were for him impossible, though no man could well hold the standard of virtue and duty higher than he did. And so were merely critical discussions, though he always stimulated his hearers to think. For him,. Christ was the centre of all subjects for sinful men, and all hius heaerers were sinful men, for whom the Gospel was the one remedy. Christ was the Gospel; and personal faith in Him, a living person, was the Gospel secret. To Christ all men were called, for 'pardon, and holiness, and Heaven; and those who came at that call belong henceforth to Christ, His property, bound to live and die to their Lord.' Simeon himself thus described the three great aims of his preaching: 'To humble the sinner, to exalt the Saviour, to promote holiness.' 

Charles Simeon: Pastor of a Generation. Handley Moule, Pp50-51

Jesus and Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-10)

The major theme in the middle of the book, where we are now is that Jesus is our High Priest. He is our representative, the best representative there is. He sits next to God the Father in Heaven and represents us before Him. After last weeks interlude, where the author encouraged his readers to grow and be mature Christians, tonight we’re back to the main point, Jesus is our High Priest, our representative, in heaven.

And tonight, we meet one of the most mysterious, but helpful people in the Old Testament. As we continue our study of Hebrews we are constantly being reminded that Jesus is better. Jesus is a better King, a better prophet, a better offering. Jesus is better than anything else anyone else can offer. So we need to come to Him for salvation, for holiness and for hope.

That person is Melchizedek, and the author is going to use him to help us understand more about Jesus. Melchizedek is a ‘type.’ The OT is filled with ceremonies, events and people that are pictures of Jesus, or types of Jesus. King David is a picture of Jesus. So is the Passover, so are Abraham and Isaac going up the hill to make a sacrifice. So, what we learn about Melchizedek is what we learn about Jesus. what we see in Melchizedek, we’ll also see in Jesus.

These verses of Hebrews 7 tell us more about Melchizedek than the rest of the Bible. Melchizedek only appears in three places. Genesis 14, where Abraham meets him, then in psalm 110, when David tells us that Jesus will be like him, and here in Hebrews 7. This, incidentally is another great argument for the divine inspiration of the Bible. There’s no way that Moses, writing Genesis, and David, writing the Psalms and whoever wrote Hebrews thousands of years apart could have all imagined this same man with this same role. But here is Melchizedek ready to teach us about Jesus.

The first thing we see in verses 1 and 2 is that Melchizedek is righteous and royal. Four times in these two verses Melchizedek is said to be the King of something. He is King of Salem, mentioned twice, king of righteousness and king of peace. M was a priest and a king, just like Jesus is. Zechariah 6:13 says that ‘there shall be a priest on the throne,’ and M is a great picture of Jesus the priest-king. Melchizedek is also righteous. This doesn’t mean that he has never sinned, unless we think that Melchizedek was Christ Himself but it means that when he sinned he sought forgiveness before God, and asked that God would help him to fight against his sin. He was righteous in that he could be trusted, he could be respected, he could be looked up to.

M is a great picture of Jesus, who is the righteous and royal priest and King. Just think about that for a moment. The one who you pray to is the righteous and royal priest King. No one else get that. No other system of religion or belief gets to have access to God though Jesus, and yet we so often take it for granted. This knowledge should flood our heart with joy. We have Jesus, who loves us, who represents us. He’s righteous, so He will never let us down, and He’s royal, which gives Him every right to ask for things on our behalf.

The next thing we’re shown in verse three is that Melchizedek is personal, and perpetual. Read those verses with me. How did you get to be a priest in the OT? You had to be a Levite, and then you had to be the right kind of Levite. This is a problem for us, because Jesus wasn’t born into the tribe of Levi, He was born into the tribe of Judah. And no priest comes from Judah. But His priesthood is like Melchizedek s priesthood. Melchizedek wasn’t a priest because of his parents, he was a priest because of who he was. His priesthood was personal, just like Jesus’ is. Jesus is a priest because of who He is, not because He was born in the right place at the right time. Jesus is a priest because He was appointed by the Father, not because of who His parents were. Just like M.

And just like Melchizedek  Jesus will be a priest forever. Melchizedek's priesthood is perpetual, it never ends, just like Jesus’ priesthood is. He will never stop being a High Priest. In the Old Testament, this must have been a constant problem. You’d get a good High Priest, one who loved God, and was sympathetic to sins, but then he’d die, and who knows what the next guy would be like. This is never a problem with us. We know that Jesus has conquered death. As Jesus tells John in Revelation 1:18, he died, and now he is alive forevermore. So repent, and pray and share your faith, and read your Bible, and be faithful to church, and grow, and mature, safe in the knowledge that Jesus, your priest, your representative, will never die. He is always there for you. 

Luther, Justification, and me

The is a repost from over three years ago, and although the details have changed, the principles remain the same. It seemed appropriate for Reformation Day.

Yesterday i read a prayer letter from some dear friends. It mentioned that part of their new year routine was to get up earlier in the morning to spend more time reading the Bible before going to work. Amen, i'm there with you.

The only 'resolution' i made this year was to get up at 6am, so i could have a longer quiet time before heading off to work. Edwards probably wasn't joking when he said Christ recommended getting up early by rising early on the third day. Now 6am isn't very early by Pitt County standards, but it is only shortly after the time i'd go to bed in my student days, so it still presents a challenge to my motivation and discipline.

So far all's been going well. I have my coffee, a chapter of 'What Jesus demands from the world' some prayer, my Bible schedule (leviticus and matthew at the moment) and then some of whatever book is next in Teen Church (Colossians at the moment). After this i go to work happy, satisfied, ready.

This morning, my time was unavoidably interrupted. Interrupted is the wrong word, cut short perhaps would be better. But anyway, i was out of routine. And here's the challenge that represents to me, how much is my standing with God based on what i do between 6-730 each morning.

I'm told that on his desk Luther had written something like 'Ex baptisma' meaning, 'i am baptised'. This was to remind him that his salvation was out side of himself. That his justification depended on something that he had not done. Not 'being baptised', that was his way of remembering the life, death and ressurection of Christ on his behalf. Luther knew that whatever he was doing, telling Melanchthon he hadn't sinned enough, building his bowling alley, or throwing an ink well at the Devil, he was safe, he was secure, his justification was outside of him.

I'd love to say that my quiet times leave happy, satisfied and ready because because my heart is filled by the glory of the Gospel of the happy God each morning. But more often than not, i'm happy because i can tick a box, i can file away 'devotions' for another morning. Justification by quiet time is the great evangelicalism of my generation.

So on a flustered, irregular morning, what does Luther remind me? That i am a son of God through faith in Christ (Gal 3:26). And that is enough.

Waiting for Sunrise

In the face of loss, and the sorrow that goes with it, we really only have two choices. Curse God and die, or thank God and keep living. Mourn like non believers, or mourn like Christians. So today, this week, this season, we mourn for Harry Goode, (whose name i can barely type) but not as those who rage against the fading of the light. We mourn like those who are waiting for sunrise.

This year, both my parents' fathers have died, and i've greeted both of their deaths in the same way. One part sorrow, two parts incomprehension. This is the first week that Dadda has missed since 1921. That's a lot of weeks. And how can he be gone, he's always been there. Reading the paper, sweeping up, baking, and when the baking was less successful, calling his sister-in-law (in Australia) for help. And Grandfather, such a force of life, silenced. And in their place, a heavy man, who won't stop sitting on my chest.

Incomprehension. I wonder if this was the problem in the road to Emmaus. How could Jesus be dead? How could the one who spoke to Moses, to calmed the storm, who made the lame dance, be dead? If you're struggling to believe someone's dead, you'll have an even harder time believing their alive and leading a Bible study.

But He was alive. More than alive, He was life. He had won, He had stepped out of the grave, He had fallen to ground and even now bares much fruit, He lived, he died, and now behold He lives forevermore.

So now, even as we mourn our eyes are peeled for sunrise. We're learning forward in our chairs waiting for the call to come out, which is no longer restricted just to Lazarus. We wait, and we know that dawn is coming. And then incomprehension will turn to understanding, mourning to dancing, aching to singing, defeat to victory.

Halloween: Trick or Treat? (Video)

On Comfort in Life and Death

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That's a pretty serious question i suppose, especially in a culture that doesn't like to think much about death. Comfort in life is pretty easy. I'm popular, i'm loved, i'm rich, i'm famous, i'm successful. Even if none of those things are true, we comfort ourselves with virtual reality, or our drug of choice. Comfort in life can be found, but what about comfort in life and death?

If there a comfort that goes beyond the grave? Is there a comfort for those left behind. You can't take it with you, they say...but what if you could. The Heidelberg Catechism provides an excellent answer:

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Isn't that wonderful? What's our comfort in life? Not fame or fortune, but that we belong body and soul to a faithful Saviour. What's our comfort in death? That Jesus Christ has paid fully for all our sins with His precious blood and all things must work for our salvation. True comfort in life, lasting comfort in death.

To see this comfort and assurance lived out is a special thing. My paternal grandfather, 'Dadda' passed away on Tuesday morning. He was never rich, or famous, he didn't need to be, his riches were found in the comfort that came from Christ. He fought in a particularly brutal theatre of World War II, protecting the Arctic Convoys after a spell in North Africa and Southern Europe, but he never really talked about it. He came home, put his medals in a box, got married, and lived his life. Even earlier this year, when he could have gone to Buckingham Palace to be awarded the new Arctic Cross medal, he wasn't really interested. His comfort was never in trinkets.

His comfort was in the fact that Christ's blood covered his sins. Out of this comfort he loved his wife, he worked his job, he raised my dad, and took his grandchildren on days out to cathedrals, RAF bases and old race tracks. There's not a village or footpath in Bucks that he was unfamiliar with. He never got lost. Even this summer, well into his 92nd year, he was sill walking canals, still gardening, still sweeping up leaves in the churchyard. His quality of life, inwardly and outwardly, was nothing short of extraordinary.

He no longer lives by faith, but by sight, and his body rests, awaiting his glorious resurrection. I'm glad Christ's death was his comfort in life, i'm glad that Christ's death was his comfort in his own death, and mine today.

Jesus is our... (Hebrews 5:1-10)

I love studying the book of Hebrews, because it’s helping me grow as a Christian, it’s helping me love Jesus more, and love sin less. This is how it’s supposed to be for Christians. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says ‘we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.’ Put simply, as we spend time with Jesus, we become more like Him. As we spend time with Jesus, we come to life. Jesus says in John 17:3 that ‘this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.’

Every religious activity is only valuable to the degree that it helps us to see Jesus. And the author to the Hebrews is relentless in His approach, grabbing us by the collar and focusing us on Jesus. When you know Jesus better, your confidence in Him is stronger and you are filled with courage to live and speak for Him. We need to meet the real Jesus in the Bible. We need to see Him as our only hope if we are to have any hope.

We see four things about Jesus in this passage as the author continues where we left him a couple of weeks ago explaining to us about His role as our High Priest, our representative. Tonight we see that Jesus represents us, helps us, heals us and saves us. What a great God we have, what a great God Jesus is!

First of all we see that Jesus, our High Priest, represents us. Verse one tells us that the High Priest was chosen from among men to act on behalf of men. Verses 9 and 10 tell us that Jesus, as a man, was made perfect so He could represent us. We understand why the High Priest had to be a man. No one else could represent men, no one else could stand in front of God for the cause of men. And that’s why Jesus had to be a man. Every Christmas, near enough, we hear people talk about the virgin birth as if it didn’t matter. What do we lose if we lose the virgin birth, they ask. Well we lose Jesus, we lose our representative. What does it matter that Jesus was fully man? Well He is only our representative to the extent that He was a man. Only a man can stand before God and represent men, Jesus can only represent you if He was fully human.

Just let that sink in for a moment, Jesus is able to represent you. That’s why we pray ‘in Jesus name,’ because He represent us. When you think about Heaven, it’s not a place where you are a stranger, or where you are not known or recognized, it’s a place where you are represented by the Son of God.

Next we see that Jesus is able to help us. Look at verse 2 and verse 8 with me. Verse 2 is talking about the human High Priest. Since he was best, or weighed down, or familiar with weakness, he was able to sympathize with those who were weak. You could go to the High Priest and find a sympathetic hearing because he was just like you. Verse 8 tells us that Jesus, ‘learned obedience though what He suffered.’ Don’t be thrown off by the idea of Jesus learning to be obedient, He was always 100% obedient to His Father, but, as a man He now has knowledge of what suffering really is like. First hand, knowledge of brutal, unfair suffering. He didn’t have that in Heaven at His Father’s side. So He didn’t become obedient, he became obedient through suffering.

So get this. The next time you suffer, whether physically or socially or spiritually. The next time you’re injured or betrayed, and you go to Jesus about it, He knows. He mourns with those who mourn and hurts with those who hurt, and He knows exactly what it’s like. What a saviour, how can this Jesus not dominate our lives.

Next we see that Jesus is able to heal us. Verse 3 tells us that human high priest ‘was obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins,’ but verse 7 tells us that Jesus was heard, not because of His offerings, but ‘because of His reverence.’ The human High Priest had to make an offering for his own sins before he could make an offering for the sins of the people. He was heard because he killed a goat and shed it’s blood on the altar for his own sins. Jesus was perfect, and was heard because of His reverence. Now, the blood of sheep and goats can not take away sins, they can not healing a sinner. They were never supposed to, they were always just a sign post.

But Jesus blood can.

If you feel trapped in a sin you can’t get out of, Jesus can heal you. If you fell stuck in sin, Jesus can heal you. If you feel like there’s no way you have any hope of escaping sin, you’re right. Only Jesus has that power, and Jesus blood can heal you. Jesus shed His blood to win you from sin. Jesus went to the cross so that you would see Him and love Him more than sin. He went to the cross to heal you. He didn’t shed goats blood, He shed His own blood.

And because He shed that blood, He’s able to save us. Verse 9 tells us that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. Isn’t that good? The human high priest could not save his people, he could only cover their sins and look forward to the day when Jesus would come and die, and by dying offer forgiveness. Eternal salvation to those who want it. That’s what it means to obey the Him in verse 9. Just by asking for salvation, living with confidence in Jesus, not yourself. Have you done that? When the devils comes and asks you why God would ever listen to you, ever accept you, ever save you, does your answer start with ‘because I,’ or ‘because Jesus?’

Where is your confidence tonight? This author, and this youth pastor desire that you trust, and hope, and delight in nothing apart from what Jesus has done. You will be tempted your whole life, every moment, but when you are tempted remember you have a sympathetic representative in Heaven who can and will help you overcome sin. And when you fail, you have someone in Heaven, God’s Son, who has shed His blood for you, and will forgive you every time you ask. The next time you’re tempted to compromise your faith, the next time you’re tempted to walk away, the next time you’re tempted to trust in yourself for salvation, remember Jesus helping you, healing you, sympathizing with you, and saving you.

Because He Didn't He Will

I love reading the Psalms. It's hard not to be moved by the thought of Jesus and the twelve signing the songs of ascent on the way to the Garden of Gethsemene. If you're sad, or lonely or betrayed, or overjoyed, there's a Psalm for that.

The Psalms are David's song book, and therefore Jesus song book, because if David did it, Jesus did it. But how do we reconcile the Psalms where Jesus is praying for rescue, for deliverance, and for help? Well, in two great, encouraging ways.

First of all, we know that Jesus was heard by His Father. Every time He retired to a quiet place to pray, He was heard. he prayed all night, and He was heard all night. His prayers were answered as thousands were fed and Lazarus was raised. The Father heard His Son.

Except in the Garden. 'Remove this cup...' And nothing but silence. No booming voice, no still small sound. Nothing. Just the night, the breeze, and the deep breathing disciples. That time the Father turned His back on His Son, and he didn't hear Him, He didn't listen to Him, He didn't answer Him.

And because He didn't hear Jesus, we know He'll hear us. Jesus wasn't heard, the cup wasn't passed over, so our sin was. Jesus carried His cross up the hill, the Lord provided a lamb, and our sin was taken away. And now, in Jesus name, our sin is paid for, and the Father's ears unstopped. What a saviour!

Because He didn't hear Jesus cries for rescue, we know He'll hear ours. Because He turned His back on Jesus, He will never turn His back on us. Even our half mumbled, ill attended early morning prayers are heard in Jesus name, the rich man's signature on the crumpled cheque.

Jesus wasn't heard, so you always will be. So you can pray boldly, pray confidently, pray for help, pray for your friends, pray for your concerns and worries and sickness. Because he didn't hear Jesus, He will  hear you.

Hungry Beggars

Let me start with a statement: religious activities are only valuable insofar as they open our eyes to Jesus.

By Religious activities i mean things like church attendance, Bible reading, baptism and communion and sharing our faith. They only have as much value as they give us of Jesus. By themselves, sitting in a cathedral/movie theatre/somewhere in between, has no value. By itself, memorizing an old book has little value outside pure aesthetics. Eating and drinking inside that building may fill our stomachs (a tiny bit) but has no value beyond that. Unless...unless we remember, and know, and revive these things as full of meaning, full of blessings, and full of glory. Unless, in other words, these things open our eyes to Jesus.

You should go to church. The more i think about it, and the more i see it, the more i think that your attitude to church is a direct reflection of your attitude towards Jesus. The Bible doesn't tell Christians to go to church any more than it tells us to keep breathing oxygen.

We should read our Bibles. If you ignore your spouse except when you're in trouble no one thinks you have a good marriage. If you only talk to your friends when you need a favour, then they won't be your friends for very long.

You should take part in the ordinances of the church. If you aren't baptised, and skip communion, you probably don't understand the death and resurrection of Jesus. And you need to understand these things.

You should share your faith. How can we say 'look at my new clothes,' or 'did you see that goal,' but never 'do you know Jesus?' We talk about the things we love, we can't help ourselves.

But, none of these things, by themselves, mean a rip if they don't help us to see Jesus. Life is about seeing Jesus. Life is knowing Jesus, as He prays in John 17:3. Growth is about seeing Jesus, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17. There's a scene in the first Matrix movie where Neo complains that his eyes hurt. Morpheus tells him that it's because he's using them for the first time. To see Jesus with our ears, eyes and heart is to use them for their purpose. It might hurt for a while. It's supposed to.

So read the Bible. But read it like a hungry beggar who has happened upon a feast, not a detached literary critic, or a 10th grader learning algebra. 'Open my eyes so that i might see wonderful things...'

Commit to seven day a week church life. But not to collect a token, not because you may live in the only corner of the world remaining where people will talk about you if you're not in church. Commit to church because Jesus is committed to church, commit to church because that's where you belong. 'Open my eyes so that i might see wonderful things...'

Be baptised, celebrate communion. But not because 'that's what happens at church,' but because these ceremonies are filled with life and meaning by the risen Lord. Because we have been lifted out of the water, and we must feast on His flesh to live. 'Open my eyes so that i might see wonderful things...'

Share your faith. Tell your friends, and co-workers and neighbors to come with you because you'll do them good. Overflow with Jesus when people ask you about your weekend. So live and so speak that the aroma of Christ floats around you. 'Open their eyes, so they might see wonderful things...'

Christianity is seeing Jesus. Make sure your glasses are on straight.

On The Fringe

Over the past thirty years, people's view of atheism has shifted from seeing it as being fringe, extreme, and morally suspect. Now, secular, atheistic ideology seems to be at the heart of the British establishment. No one bats an eyelid that the leaders of the two main political parties are atheists.

Michael Foot, leader of the Labour Party in the early 80s, was seen to be brave, principled, even foolish for not tempering his atheistic beliefs. This can't be waived off with the suggestion that 'everyone used to be a Christian,' - even the ruthless sceptic Voltaire admitted 'i want my lawyer, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God, because it means that i shall be cheated and robbed and cuckcolded less often...If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.' 

While many find the new atheists (Dawkins, Miller, Grayling, et al) a tad angry and awkward in their presentation, their application of evolutionary biology to religion and ethics is mainstream. Moreover it is now Christianity which is held to have the extreme, edgy and morally suspect worldview. Christianity is variously accused by aspects of the establishment as being totalising, judgmental, homophobic and threatening to the harmony of our secular state. Christians who wear crosses to work or who publicly express the historic, Biblical view on homosexuality may find themselves arrested by the police or dragged in front of employment tribunals.

Richard Cunningham, UCCF Director, UCCF Annual Review

In my 10th grade history class on Friday, we talked about how Christianity went from being illegal to mandatory in the Roman Empire in just 70 years. 'And the church has never recovered,' i quipped. The current state of affairs, and the change in that state has been brilliantly outlined above by Richard Cunningham, and the situation in the United States can't be far behind, in the bigger cities at least. But i'm not sure it's a bad thing. Richard goes on to talk about how the change in mood on British campuses has lead to more and more people asking about the Gospel.

Why?

I think because Christianity, by design, does it's best work around the edges of culture, rather than in the mainstream. Jesus, after all, was a carpenter living in a backwater of a backwater, rather than the Roman Emperor. His earliest followers were fishermen and tax collectors from the wrong side of town. It was Peter's redneck twang that revealed him in the high priest's courtyard. And yet these men changed the world. You're reading this because of them!

I say all of that to say simply, we must not lose heart, or grow frustrated when we see Christianity and Christians pushed to the fringes of social acceptability. That's where we've been for most of time, in most of the world. And as proven by the work on British university campuses, that's where we do our best work...

How To Deal With Sin

There is one thing that you have in common with a man drowning in the ocean. There is one thing you have in common with the student who hasn’t studied for his math test. There is one thing you have in common with the explorer lost in the desert. You need help. They all need help, they all need to be rescued from a hopeless situation, and so do you and I. That’s what these verses are about, remembering and finding grace to help us in our time of need.

But our need is much more desperate than the drowning sailor, or the poorly prepared student, or the wandering explorer. We need rescue from an eternal punishment, we need help in dealing with our sins. We need help to not sin sure but we also need help in the aftermath of our sin. What do I mean? I mean, we need help to deal with what happened on Saturday night when it’s Sunday morning. How will we deal with what we did at 10pm on Saturday at 10am on Sunday? How will we deal with what we did on Wednesday morning on Wednesday evening?

The answer to that question tells us a lot about our faith, it tells us a lot about what we hope in, and what we think saves us. I think there are three options before us when it comes to dealing with our sin the morning after.

The first is to ignore our sin. To tell ourselves that it was no big deal, that we didn’t mean it, that Jesus is ok with it really. We’re saved by grace through faith right? So nothing I do or say or think makes any real difference. Sin is no big deal we tell ourselves. That joke, that look, that smart off to the teacher that made everyone laugh, they don’t matter. I’ll just ignore it and carry on like normal. To not take sin seriously, to make light of it, to brush it off and ignore it is a terrible place to be. This is the way to a hard heart; this is the way to losing grip on Jesus and falling away from your faith. I’ve said before, but it’s true, no one wakes up one morning and decides to fall away, but over time, we sin and we sin and we sin, and we think it’s ok. And then we stop caring. And then we fall away.

The second option in dealing with sin has the same result, falling away, but it gets there differently. When we sin, instead of making a small deal of it, we make too big of a deal about it. We start thinking, ‘if I was really saved I’d never do that.’ We sulk and hide, we quit reading the Bible, we quit going to church, and we stop talking to God and to our Christian friends. We start hiding, and we fall away. We think that, somehow, our sin is bigger than Jesus death, we think that there’s no way we could be in a relationship with God now, so we give up. This is the reason that so many Christians disappear. They fall into sin and they have no way of dealing with it. So instead of ‘holding fast to their confession,’ they give up on Jesus.

Verse 14 tells us that we have a high priest. The high priest was the figure in the Old Testament who would represent the people before God. He was the one who made sacrifices in the temple and once a year and stood before the presence of God Himself to shed blood for His people. He was the people’s hope, they knew as long as he made his sacrifices every year that they would be able to have their sins forgiven. But he was just a man…our High Priest is Jesus! The Son of God! Who sits at God’s right hand! What a much greater hope we have in Him! 

But, this is only good news if He is on our side when He represents us. When we sin, the last thing we want is Jesus sitting there pointing it out to the Father right? Rolling His eyes at us. That’s why verse 15 is such good news, fresh air and cool water to the sin troubled soul. ‘for we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.’

Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest. That is such good news. He knows our weaknesses, He knows our struggles and our burdens, He knows we’re weak, because He’s been there, so He sympathizes. When you come to Jesus for the 1000^th time over the same sin He doesn’t turn away, He helps.

How good is it that we have a God, a High Priest, a Saviour who has been tempted like us in every way, faced a greater temptation than you or I will ever know, and yet came through it all. And now this Son, this High Priest sits next to God, sympathizes with us, and represents us. His ear is turned towards you, and His arms are open to receive you, no matter what you’ve done. Or how many times you’ve done it.

How do we deal with sin? As Christians. We don't ignore it, but neither do we let it overwhelm us. Instead we let temptation drive us to Christ, and Christ drive us from temptation.

Don't Harden Your Heart (Hebrews 3:7-19)

What does it mean to harden your heart? Well look at the illustration that we’re given in verses 8-11. These verses are a quote from Psalm 95:7-11, which was written in David’s time, but talks about the time of Moses. Notice who the author tells us is ‘speaking’ in these verses. Psalm 95 talks about the forty years in the wilderness that God’s people had to endure because of the hardness of their hearts. Why did they have to spend forty years in the wilderness? Because they had hard hearts, which meant they grumbled and tested God. Remember what Jesus told the Devil in the wilderness in Matthew 4:7? You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. You shall trust Him instead.

Verse 9 tells us that the Israelites in the wilderness kept testing God. They kept complaining to Him, they kept asking for more, they kept not believing in Him. He rescued them from Egypt and they complained that they were better off as slaves. He fed them with manna six days a week, but they complained that it tasted bad. He showed them great miracles, but they went astray in their hearts and worshiped other gods, they didn’t trust in the God who saved them.

And you and I are about the same sometimes aren’t we? Sometimes we’re not satisfied with all that God has given us, and we complain, and we want more. The truth is that if Jesus never did another thing for us, in saving us, and creating this amazing world to live in, He’s already done more than enough. More than we deserve. But like the Israelites in the wilderness, we test, we grumble, we complain. Don’t be like that. Don’t fail the test in the wilderness like Israel did. We have the amazing privilege of living after Jesus came and died for us. Don’t harden your hearts to the goodness and love of God. Listen to Him, obey Him, trust Him. Today, the Holy Spirit says. Today listen. Today obey. Today there are things you need to sort out to grow in your relationship with Jesus. Today! You’re not promised tomorrow.

Don’t provoke the wrath of God by grumbling and testing Him. Trust Him, have a soft heart towards His Word and His commands. The reason Israel didn’t trust and hardened their hearts was because they didn’t listen. So listen to God, and trust in Him.

What’s the opposite of an unbelieving heart? Read verse 12 with me. What causes a hard heart? Unbelief. What caused Israel to moan and grumble about God? Unbelief. What’s the problem when you and I are not satisfied in everything God has given to us? Unbelief. So we can either believe in Jesus, and be thankful, and praise Him for everything He’s given to us. Or we can harden our hearts. The author tells us that this is evil. Have you ever thought about that? When you complain about God, when you complain about what He’s doing, or what He’s giving you, or anything, it’s evil.

And it causes us to fall away. Don’t harden your heart, because it causes you to fall away from Jesus. Where do I see that? At the end of verse 12 ‘leading you to fall away from the living God.’ The warning is pretty clear isn’t it? If we keep hardening our hearts to Jesus, if we keep ignoring the warnings, if we keep starving our faith and feeding our sin, eventually we’ll fall away. No one wakes up one day and says ‘this is the day I’ll fall away from Jesus.’ But slowly, over time, as we make poor choice after poor choice, as we sin and fail repent time and again, our hearts are heard, and we fall away. What a tragedy.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Look at the instruction in verses 13-14. I love the vision of church life we see in these verses. What’s the remedy to the danger of having a hard heart? Your Christian friends, your church, your family are the remedy. As they encourage you, and you encourage others, our hearts are protected from growing hard. The Christian life is a group project, and we all need each other. How long will we keep doing this for? As long as it is called today! As long as we live in this moment of history between Christ’s first and second comings, we will have to encourage each other. So who are you encouraging today? Who seems like they might be struggling today that could do with some help? Who looks like they’re lonely? Who is out of church?

Who is being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Who is listening to sins lies? Sin lies and tells you it doesn’t matter who you date, or whether you go to church, or read your Bible, or share your faith. The Bible tells us that these things matter a great deal. Who are you seeing around you who fits into these categories? Verse 14 gives the best reason possible for encouraging one another, ‘we have come to share in Christ.’ You brother or sister who is struggling, shares with you in the greatest faith in the world, the greatest thing in the world. How can we stand by and watch their hearts harden. And the end of verse 14 makes it even more clear how important our encouragement is: ‘if indeed we hold fast our original confidence to the end.’ What’s the author saying? The best way to prove that Jesus saved you is that Jesus is still saving you. Someone in your life needs that encouragement.

Whether or not your heart is hard is a matter of life and death. Read verses 15-19 with me. The author starts to sum up his argument. Don’t harden your heart, because those that did harden their hearts didn’t get away with it. They provoked God, and fell in the wilderness, and did not enter God’s rest. God’s rest is something the author will talk more about in chapter 4, but the application for us is clear. If we harden our hearts, we will fall, just like they did. If we behave like the Israelites did in the wilderness, we’ll suffer the same fate. They didn’t enter the promised land because of unbelief, and if we continue in unbelief, with a hard heart, neither will we.

The illustration, the invitation and the instruction are all worthless if they don’t lead us to faith in Jesus. Proverbs 29:1 warns us ‘he who is often reproved yet stiffens his neck (or hardens his heart) will suddenly be broken beyond healing.’ Jude 5 reminds us that after Jesus saved a people out of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe. One the way home tonight you’ll put your faith in your car and the roads, the next time you eat out, you’ll put your faith in the restaurant. Don’t harden your heart, put your faith in Jesus.

On Papercut Persecution

On Sunday morning i walked out of my church building, enjoyed the warm early autumn breeze, and walked to my car, hand in hand with me wife., I wasn't confronted with blood, dismembered body parts and screams.

On Friday afternoon my wife and I did a little bit of shopping. We were safe, we were free to move around where we chose. No one shot us because we couldn't name the prophet's mother.

In the light of these weekend's terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Kenya, it seems almost mind blowingly insensitive to ask whether Christians in the west are being persecuted, or to talk about persecution in the west in any way shape or form. It's almost funny that removing the ten commandments from a public place, or calling it a winter festival is mentioned in the same breath as suicide bombers and shooters.

Of course we don't face persecution. I'm currently sitting on a million dollar church and school campus, with my door open. The biggest fear i have is that when the babies in the day care down the hall wake up i won't be able to hear myself think. This afternoon i'll walk across campus to the socc...football field. I'll coach our boys team against another Christian school. We'll pray beforehand. No one will shoot at us. If it goes badly, i'll probably be the angriest one there! I live five minutes from our church building, and Trinity is the sixth church i drive past. Eastern North Carolina ia the buckle of the Bible belt. We're free. Free to worship and free to enjoy our faith. Of course we're not being persecuted. How can we be so insensitive?

But let's think about something else for a moment. What do we expect our government to do in Pakistan or Kenya? Send aid? Send help? Issue a statement? Do something or anything? Why? Why should we expect western governments to protect Christians in Pakistan if they won't protect them in London? Why do we expect a government that views Christians in their own country as (at best) an inconvenience  to do anything to help Christians in another. I mean, we really shouldn't should we?

But hang on, am i comparing government legislation with being blown up or shot by a lunatic? But persecution is as persecution does. Are the restrictions on USAF chaplains the same as being shot or held hostage in a mall? No. Is being arrested for preaching in Perth the same as being blown up because you're attending church? No.

But when we think about persecution, we must avoid falling into equal and opposite errors. We must avoid thinking that legislation that allows two men to get 'married' is in the same category as being blown up at church. Because it isn't. The western church must not claim it's being persecuted if we want to have any fellowship with our brothers in the Middle East.

But, we must not fall into the opposite but equal trap. There is increasing hostility towards Biblical Christianity in the public sphere of American life. It's increasingly obvious that soon it will be intellectually and culturally unacceptable to be a Biblical Christian in America. It already is in some parts of the country. And that probably won't be a bad thing. But it is a real thing.

American Christians in 2013 might only face 'papercut' persecution. But if someone kept cutting you with paper, you'd be sure not to give them a knife, wouldn't you?

My Dear Galatians...Pow!

Letter writers are affectionate people aren't they? I'd never really thought of it before, but how often in the course of normal conversation do we greet people with 'my dear?' But when we write letters, we do it all the time. It's just convention of course, the letters we write to the bank, or the health insurance company, or the taxman might not end up very affectionate!

Letter writer's in Paul's time had conventions too. Introductions, greetings, and a wish for beneficence. Paul normally followed this tradition, but not when he wrote to the Galatians. His letter to them opens with more of a punch in the face than a kiss on the cheek.

Why? Because important matters were at hand, and time couldn't be wasted. The Galatians, by their actions if not their words, were denying the Gospel. They were turning away from the Gospel to 'another' Gospel, really no Gospel at all, and were risking anathema because of it. This was no time for convention, this was a time to confront his readers with the reality, the very God-ness of God.

How does he do that? He starts by reminding his readers who he is. He's an apostle, sent by Jesus, for Jesus, to them. Sent by God, not by another man, with God's message, not the message of another man. It was a message that had cost him a lot, a message that would eventually cost him his life. He didn't care to be made much of, like his opponents. The Galatians were challenged about who they were listening to, and why they were listening. We live in a culture of a million voices don't we. Voices on tv, on the internet, in the workplace, in the culture. Who are we listening to? God's messengers, or the world. The divinely commissioned Apostle or the Judaizers? God, or man?

Paul then reminds his readers why these things matter so much. He reminds them that God the Father has raised Jesus from the dead. They didn't gather to worship a dead icon. Jesus isn't a new Moses, helpful and holy, but dead. He's alive. And because He's alive, prayer works, and repentance is free, but sin is deadly and abandoning the Gospel suicidal. Paul reminds the Galatians, and us, that church is not a game. Jesus is alive, so don't turn away from Him. Jesus is alive, and has proved Himself by walking out of the tomb, it's astonishing that you leave him as soon as you see something shiny. The Galatians, and us. Paul doesn't leave us with the option of a Gospel-lite, of adding a Jesus layer to our American dream. Jesus is alive, so desecrate the altars of your idols. Who is our Gospel about? God, or man?

And Paul reminds is in verse 2 that we're all in this together. He doesn't need the authority of 'all the brothers who are with me,' but he has it. The Gospel wasn't Paul idea, the brothers are with him, the brothers that God has saved and added. Are you with the brothers? Galatians, are you with the brothers in Jerusalem, in Antioch, or Corinth and in Thessaloniki? Or have you abandoned us? Are we with the brothers in Greenville, Reading, Provo and Seoul or have we abandoned them?  If we've abandoned the brothers with our bodies, maybe it's because we've abandoned the Father with our heart.

Paul never got over being knocked off his horse on the way to Damascus. He was overflowing with His Savior till his dying breath. He knew what was of God, and what was of man, and he was prepared to pack a punch with that truth...even when he was saying hello.

A Man Aflame for God

Luther's principles in religion and ethics must be constantly borne in mind if he is at not to appear unintelligible and even petty. The primary consideration with him was always the pre-eminance of religion. In a society where the lesser breed were given to gaming, roistering and wenching, the Diet of Worms was a veritable Venusburg - at a time when the choicer sort were glorying in the accomplishments of man, strode this Luther, entranced by the songs of Angels, stunned by the wrath of God, entranced by the wonder of creation, lyrical over the divine mercy, a man aflame for God. For such a person there was no question which mattered much save this: How do i stand before God?

He never would shirk a mundane task such as exhorting the elector the repair the city wall to keep the peasants' pigs from rooted up the village gardens, but he was never supremely concerned about pigs, gardens, walls, cities princes or any and all of the blessings and nuisances of this mortal life. The ultimate problem was always God, and man's relationship to God. For this reason political and social reforms were a matter of comparative indifference. Whatever would foster the understanding, dissemination and practice of God's Word should be encouraged, and whatever impeded it must be opposed. This is why it's futile to to inquire whether Luther was a democrat, aristocrat, autocrat or anything else. Religion was the chief end for him, everything else was peripheral.

Here I Stand. Roland Bainton, P214 (paragraph mine)

Along with being simply the nicest feeling book i've ever held in my hands, Bainton's biography of Luther is one of the most helpful. Luther was something of a mystery to people even in his own time, even before he started to reform. Some felt he spent too much time in confession, naming every little sin, instead of going out and doing the work of a monk. If this is madness, it's an ailment i want, frankly. Then, when the Reformation took hold, some felt he didn't got far enough, while some felt he went too far. He remains something of a mystery today, it's hard to fit him into a box. Is that just because he was 'a man aflame for God?' I wonder if we're so unused to seeing men make their every decision based on the proclamation of God's Word, rather than political or social expediency that it seems strange to us. If that's the case, it says much more about us than it does Luther.

Consider Jesus

Can i tell you a secret? I didn't much like coffee when i first drunk it. I remember the morning well, i was at one of the coffee bars on Reading University's campus, and ordered an 'americano,' with no real idea what that might be. I was pretty sure i'd been poisoned, and i'm sure i didn't finish it. But, for whatever reason, i wanted to drink coffee, so i kept going. First with milk and sugar (forgive me) and sometime around the summer of 2007, black and fresh and strong, as the Lord surely intended.

Why am i telling you all this? Because i think it's a good analogy for the Christian's relationship with Jesus. In Hebrews 3:1 the author tells his readers to 'consider Jesus,' to think about Him to remember Him and to listen to Him. The first six verses of chapter 3 segway into one of the first sections of exhortation, and out of the wonderful picture of Jesus we find in chapter 2.

Consider Jesus, high priest and apostle. Offering and offerer. Messenger and message. Consider Jesus, the crushed crusher. Consider Jesus, the sympathetic sufferer who knows what you're going through. When we start to consider Jesus, it takes a little bit of work. Like me and coffee, you have to really want to do it. When i started reading the Bible every day i could only read maybe half a chapter at a time, now i spend my day reading, studying, thinking and applying about it. When i started to pray it felt like a chore, now i set my alarm early to make sure i have the time. We grow in our consideration of Jesus, all of us.

Even Paul, probably the greatest Christian who ever was. In Philippians 3:10 he wrote of his desire to know Him, and His power. If Paul needed to know Jesus more, then surely we do. Maybe this is the reason that much of our joy is paper thin, we simply don't consider Jesus. In times of trouble we comfort ourselves with any number of idols and false gods. We consider our bank balance, our friends and our success at work, but seldom Jesus.

Maybe this is why so much of evangelical culture looks like the world. We don't consider Jesus, we chase numbers on Sunday, better facilities and more programmes. And in not considering Jesus, we forget that He is quite capable of building His church without the latest fad left over from the nineties.

Like coffee and me, we simply have to consider Jesus until we enjoy Him. We have spend time with Jesus until we can imagine nothing else. We have to make time in our days, ask for the Spirit's help, and behold our saviour. Then we will become what pleases Him. Then in times of trouble, or in times of triumph, then, whether our church is going multi meeting, or we're meeting in a room off to the side we will naturally 'remember Jesus Christ, descendant of David, risen from the dead...' And in remembering, rejoice.

An Interview with Henry Scougal

Bill Bryson speaks for many when he defines Puritanism as 'the fear that someone, somewhere, might be enjoying themselves.' If the Puritans seem like creatures from a different planet, it's only because church culture has slipped so far from Biblical Christianity.

Lately i've been re-reading 'The Life of God in the Soul of Man' by Henry Scougal. The main thesis of the book is summed up in the title, that Christian life is a divine life, the very life of God, communion with God evidenced and outworked in our souls through good works. He was 27 when he wrote it (if not younger) which makes me feel like Caesar looking at Alexander's statue.

In the first chapter Scougal discusses what real Christianity is, what it looks like, and what it's not. he cautions us against simply judging our affections and actions against those of other men, as many have different temperaments, and many are drawn to the rewards of Heaven in a purely earthly way, without any of the inner change that the Gospel brings.

So what are the evidences of saving faith? 'The root of divine life is faith, it's chief branches are love to God, charity to man, purity and humility. The following comes from pages 55 and 56 of his book.

What is faith?

It is nothing else than a sense or feeling persuasion of spiritual things. It has a peculiar relation to the declarations of God's mercy, and reconcilableness with sinners through a mediator, and therefore, receiving it's denomination through it's principle object is ordinarily termed, faith in Jesus Christ.

What is love of God?

The love of God is the delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto Him desiring above all things to please Him, and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with Him... It grounds itself on His infinite goodness manifested in all His works of creation and providence.

What is charity to man?

A soul thus possessed with such divine love must need be enlarged to all mankind...because of the relation they have to God, and His image stamped upon them. All the parts of justice, all the duty we owe our neighbour are...comprehended for he who doth truly love the world will be nearly concerned with the welfare of every one of them. He will resent any evil that befalls others, as if it happened to himself.

What is purity?

A abstractedness from the body and mastery over inferior appetites. A temper and disposition of the mind as make a man despise and abstain from all pleasures and delights...which are sinful in themselves or tend to extinguish or lessen our relish of the more divine pleasures. A resoluteness to undergo any hardships he may meet in the performance of his duty so that not only chastity and temperance but also Christian courage and magnanimity may come under this head. 

What is humility?

Humility imports a deep sense of our own meanness with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgement of all we are to the divine bounty. This is always accompanied by submission to the will of God and great deadness towards the glory of the world and the applause of men.

Where else do we see the such faith, love, charity, humility and purity than in Jesus? And how else can we be faithful, loving, humble and pure than through a relationship with Him?