Thanksgiving 2014

Today, i'm thankful for;

My salvation. It should come first, it's the foundation for everything else.

My marriage. Seven years ago this week i first told Rachel, 'i love you.' I've not regretted one moment since.

The Church. The global body of believers who love Jesus and will one day be with Him.

My church. I love Trinity.

The Bible. Nourishment, joy and hope every morning.

My Bible. I use the ESV Readers Bible, and i recommend it to you.

My family. I love my parents and my sister, and i'm thankful i get to be their son and brother.

My in-laws. Who welcome me in, love me, and put up with my cheap West Virginia jokes.

My wife. I love her heart, her compassion and her desire to do all things well.

My new house. Perfect for us, a mercy from God.

My ministry. A joy and a responsibility to work with teens day in and day out. One that i love, and i love them.

Trinity Christian School. It thrills my heart to see what the Lord is doing here.

God's love is steadfast and enduring. And the more i know myself, the more i understand how it must endure.

Five Things From Skokie

I just got back from taking a team of teens and adults to Skokie, in Chicagoland. We were there for five days helping out a new church plant, Living Hope. Here are some lessons i learnt, and things i'm thinking about.

1) Church Planting Is ___________
Hard, wonderful difficult, encouraging, discouraging, and a thousand things more all at once. But vitally necessary. Skokie was a different world from North Carolina, a world that needs more men and women that love Jesus, and more churches filled with those men and women.

2) I Love The South-East, But
I commented to Rachel over the week that people who complain about living in Greenville have probably never lived anywhere else. North Carolina has everything, beaches, mountains, cities, stunning weather. Greenville has all the advantages of a college town with few of the disadvantages. And churches, lots of churches. It was refreshing to be out of the Bible belt for a while and help a pioneer work.

3) Planting Trees
Fifty years ago you could knock fruit off the trees into your church basket. Today you have to plant the tree, and that's if you can find a field. We rejoice at the Biblical, moral, freedom protecting, common sense decision of the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case, but we weep that it took an act of the Supreme Court to get it.

4) Only The Word Creates
The Bible is the rock on which the church stands or falls. Preach it, unleash it, unlock it, let it out and let it roar, and people will grow, and life will be created, and people will be saved. It will be slow, but it will be eternal. No one can convince me that turning the lights down and the music up is at all helpful. It may draw a crowd, but draw a crowd to what?

5) America is Mostly Farms
America isn't Manhattan Island and 90210. We drove the 912 miles to Skokie on Wednesday, and drove every one of those miles back yesterday. Farms brother, just farms. There's a long, dead straight stretch of highway in Indiana where every slight bend in the road feels like an event. From the farms in the Hoosier state, to the broken down old towns in Ohio, to the mountains of West Virginia we saw a great deal of America. Why do i mention this? For two reasons. The people that live in Chillcothe, Ohio and Renssaeler, Indiana need churches. Sure, we must aim for cities, because that's where the people are, but there are people in unfashionable places too. And secondly, because the priorities and passions of the coal miner in Milton, West Virginia are almost irreconcilable with those of the coffee shop owner in Boystown, San Fransico. If the Lord tarries, the next one hundred years of American life will see not just a schism between the two, but a chasm.

Why I'm Thankful for Sunday Nights

I know a Sunday night service doesn't fit into the model of every church. Some churches use Sunday nights for prayer meetings or small groups, some churches don't have a sunday night service for a variety of good reasons. I don't want to debate the rights and wrongs of Sunday night services, i just want to say this:

I'm so thankful for our Sunday night service at Trinity.

I'm thankful for an opportunity to just go to church

On Sunday morning i teach sunday school and children's church. I want to meet visitors and make sure i touch base with all our teens. I love the sung worship, but i'm focussed on teaching for most of the morning. Teaching and containing the forty kids we had in children's' church this morning! But Sunday night, i just get to come to church, sit next to my wife, and be fed from the Word. And i'm thankful for that.

I'm thankful for an opportunity to sabbath

Sunday's are for God's glory and our improvement. Rest for the Christian doesn't mean to cease from activity, but to be with Jesus. There's a wonderful rest in being with God's people, in singing, giving and just seeing each other. There's rest in praying together, there's rest in gathering to sit under the Word, because there's rest in Jesus.

I'm thankful for family

In these Christ-haunted south eastern states, we might might be the last people in the world who are expected to be at church in Sunday morning. It's just part of the cultural make-up. Sunday nights though, are made up of the people that really want to be there. They really want to grow, they really want to sing, they really want to commune. They want to get up, get dressed and come to church again. I love the praise time we have sometimes on Sunday nights at Trinity. The battles and victories of the last week are shared and rejoiced in. Details are shared, because we're family. We love eachother and we love our church.

I'm thankful for the chance to be upside-down

The early believers were described as 'men who turned the world upside down.' And the Bible has that effect on it's readers. As i read through Matthew's Gospel recently i was struck by how Jesus constantly upends our categories and thought processes. Reading Genesis at the moment is teaching me that there is no middle ground, you're either following the God of Abraham, or you're not. And Sunday night church gives us another opportunity to do that. It'd be so much easier not to go back to church, so much easier to spend Sunday afternoon chasing our own entertainments. But what a waste! I'm thankful that Sunday night gives us a chance to say that there is something more important than our own comforts or interests, and that thing is churxh.

Before I Preach

My Master God,

I am desired to preach today,

but go weak and needy to my task;

yet i long that people by edified by divine truth,

that an honest testimony might be borne for thee.

Give me assistance in preaching and prayer,

with heart uplifted for grace and unction.

Present to my view things pertinent to my subject,

with fullness of matter and clarity of thought,

proper expressions, fluency, fervency,

a feeling sense of the things i preach,

and grace to apply them to mens consciences.

Keep me conscious all the while of my defects,

and let me not gloat in pride over my performance.

Help me to offer a testimony for thyself,

and to leave sinners inexcusable in neglecting thy mercy.

Give me freedom to open the sorrows of thy people,

and to set before them comforting considerations.

Attend with power the truth preached,

and awaken the attention of my audience.

May thy people be refreshed, melted, convicted and comforted,

and help me to use the strongest arguments drawn from Christ's incarnation and suffering,

that men might be made holy.

I myself need they support, comfort, strength and holiness,

that i might be a pure channel of thy grace and do something useful for thee.

Give me then refreshment among thy people,

and help me not to treat an excellent matter in a defective way,

or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a Redeemer,

or be harsh in treating Christ's death, it's design or it's end,

from a lack of warmth or feverency.

And keep me in tune with thee as i do this work.

A Minister's Preaching, Valley of Vision Pp348-349

Lessons From Ecuador

So here are four lessons i learnt from my recent trip to Ecuador. I went along with four other adults and nine teenagers for 8 days, two of them in Quito, five of them in Misualli, the 'gateway to the jungle,' and one more in Bella Vista, a deep jungle tribal village that doesn't even appear on Google maps. It was, by almost any measure, an extraordinary week.

The Gospel really is the hope for all nations

OK, so i didn't 'learn' this in Ecuador, but i tasted it. I guess it's easy living in the United States to feel like the power of the Gospel is somehow limited by borders or ethnicity Or to feel like we've limited it. Most people in our churches are 'just like us,' one way or another. It's easy to drift into the mindset that the Gospel is only powerful in in the Bible belt. But that's a lie, as you know. The Gospel is powerful to change lives everywhere. Monks Risborogh, Greenville, Quito, everywhere. It was so good to be reminded of this, and reminded of it so powerfully. And it has to be the Gospel. What is the hope for kids in those remote places? Just the Gospel. Sure, running water and electricity would be nice, but only for a life time. The Gospel offers life beyond life, life after death. His Word speaks and creates life wherever we are. It was wonderful to see the Jesus of the nations, to hear His praises' sung in Quichua and to see His Word at work deep in the jungle.

Faith is radical

The word radical has lots of traction in Christian culture at the moment. We all want to be radical in our faith, which is no bad thing, as long as we understand what it really looks like to be radical. I guess one of the first things we think of to define radical is the family from the States who pack up everything and move to another country to teach people about Jesus. And we met some of those people last week. People who had given up nearly everything to be play their part in the great commission. And it was inspiring. Like i told our teens at one point, either they were in love with Jesus or they were out of their minds. Maybe sometimes there's not much difference. But, the same radical seed that blooms in the hearts of those overseas blooms here also. Getting on a plane does nothing to your relationship with the Lord, by itself at least. Reading the Bible is radical, Heaven breaking out on Earth as we open the Word. Being faithful to church is radical. In a me, me, me society, why would i give my time, and treasure and talents so freely, so abundantly. We've either lost our minds, or we love Jesus. And increasingly, as anti Biblical morals are legislated and celebrated, simply living like the Bible is true will become more and more radical.

I almost had a religious experience

To be a Christian is to be an iconoclast. No sacred space, except everywhere, and no sacred time, except all the time, but at the Saint house, the renovated HQ for Operation Auca, now turned into a museum, i nearly had a religious experience. To stand at the very radio, in the very room, where Nate, Jim, Roger, Pete and Ed failed to radio in at 4.35 on January 8th 1956, to see the airstrip from which Nate Saint would fly into the jungle from, to stand in the kitchen where the five wives were told of their husbands' fate, to know that real, living, recent Christian history happened in these very walls, was almost too much. What a legacy and calling those men and their wives left behind.

Never grab a monkey by it's tail

And that's all i'll say about that.

Sometimes. And That Time

Sometimes the words flow easily. Sometimes it's a matter of getting them out of my brain and onto a screen before i lose them. Sometimes, even 140 characters for a tweet is asking too much, never mind a few hundred words for these pages.

And who knows why. Sometimes i read the Bible and find what Edwards might have called 'a pleasing symmetry' between the Word and my heart, sometimes i'm just dull, dull dull.

Sometimes singing in church is a labour (because of my heart, you understand), but this Sunday it was a joy, so that's something. Such fluctuations in our hearts, our minds, our lives. Such coolness where warmth is appropriate, such out of place warmth for things that don't much matter. How can my smartphone be more interesting than Jesus? And yet so often it is.

On Saturday morning, i'm headed to Ecuador. Me and Rachel, three other adults and nine teenagers will board and early flight from Norfolk, Va, to Miami, and then to Quito. A night or two in Quito and then a bus ride over the Andes. We're going to the town of Missualli (probably not how you spell that!) to lead a Bible school, and then working our way back through Shell Mera and Banos, before flying home on Sunday week.

I've never been to South America before, and being the most south westerly Wycombe Wanderers fan appeals to me quite a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing how our nine teenagers (and me!) cope with a totally different environment, and what we'll learn from people in Ecuador.

But, as you might have guessed, one of the highlights of the trip will be the visit to Shell Mera. If the church were the right way up, people would drive for days to visit this place, not Elevation, although of course, if the church was the right way up, they wouldn't, but for different reasons! I can still remember the affect that hearing the story of Nate, Jim, Roger, Ed and Pete had on my in the final year at uni. It still does to this day. To stand in the very room, at the very radio, where their fate unfolded promises to be an overwhelming experience. It certainly should be. It will be a massive privilege to follow, even in the smallest ways, in the legacy of those men. Rachel and I have been watching these short Youtube episodes as we prepare, if you'r interested in finding out more, i can't recommend them highly enough.

So pray for us, and i'll see you on the other side.

A Birthday Prayer

O Lord,

Length of days does not profit me,
except the days that are passed in your presence,
in thy service, to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides,
sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that i may not be one moment apart from thee,
but i may rely on they Spirit,
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire to show forth thy faith;
testify to thy love,
advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with thee, O Father, as my habour,
thee O Son at my helm,
thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ears open to thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me thy grace to sanctify me,
thy comforts to cheer,
thy wisdom to teach,
thy right hand to guide,
thy counsel to instruct,
thy law to judge,
thy presence to stabilize.

May thy fear by my awe,
thy triumphs my joy.

A New Year, Valley of Vision. Pp206-207

Green Living

International travel is a discombobulating thing. You wake up in the oldest parish in the Kingdom, and you go to bed in the Bible belt. One day you're at Tescos in a small but perfectly formed market town, the next, you're pondering BBQ pigs feet. The only thing that really stayed the same was the hideous weather both sides of the Atlantic, weather that we avoided thanks to the quick thinking and re-routing of a very helpful United check-in man.

But for all the thousands of miles clocked up above an ocean since 2008, it's always been crossing the border that's been the most fun. Before i got my green card early last year, i had a visa for entry into the USA, and i was often pulled into secondary, as i came back from England. Secondary is the place where you spend time proving to the TSA agents that you are who you say you are, and wonder when you'll be let through those door to carry on your life as normal. Now i've got a Green Card i don't need to do that any more. I line up with Rachel, and the border agent takes my finger prints and lets me though. There's nothing to worry about. I live here, they're expecting me, i'm home.

But still i get nervous. They start building as i get off the plane and build to a crescendo as i join the back of the line. It's daft and it's pointless. 'Permanent Resident,' the card says, remember who you are.

Remember who you are. Isn't that the point of discipleship? Remember that in Christ you are looked on, loved, and listening to as God's own Son. Remember that He stands there, speaking for you, defending you. Remember who you are, permanent resident, remember who you are born again son.

Remember who you are and quit panicking as your cross the border. Remember the forms and the background checks? Remember who you are, and stop doubting God's love for you Christian. Remember His blood, His resurrection.

So discipleship becomes remembering, and reminding others who you are. Your spiritual equilibrium has been knocked sideways by sin? Well, you knew you were sick when you came to the doctor right? Your joy is being sapped by disobedience? Then remember who you are, and go, sin no more.

Bible reading becomes a feast at the family table, not a to do list. I stop worrying how i can be like the Patriarchs and realize they were basically sinful men whose only hope was God. I've got that covered!

 If we are to grow and thrive in 2014, it must be a year of remembering who we are. Empty by ourselves, but filled in Him. Dead by ourselves, by alive in Him, outside by ourselves, but brought in and welcomes by an eternal life, despite ourselves, because of Him.

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.

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.

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.

Stones in the Easter Garden

This week, in a field a thousand miles away, my family says goodbye to Beryl Sparks.

That won't mean much to most people, but indulge me for a moment. Beryl was the closest thing to family there is without actually being related. She was my parents' friend, she was the first person my mum left my sister with, she took me to my first Wycombe Wanderers game, she was one of the people that made my childhood special.

It's an odd thing death isn't it? Odd to think about, and odd not to think about. And over the last few months, i've thought about it a lot. My maternal Grandfather, Beryl, and in between, our faithful, lunatic hound, Limestones Burt have all died this summer. It still astonishes me that Grandfather, such a force of life, such an exuberant fount of joy should be gone. He doesn't walk to the Bowjey stores for his Times anymore, he doesn't do his stretches overlooking Newlyn Harbour any more.

But why does death so astonish? Why does death surprise? If, as enlightened minds tell us, death is just part of life, why should it shock us any more than, say, being hungry. Why does death leaves such a gash in the living if it's normal? Not just death, why does the passing of of time shock us so? Five o'clock already? Time to get up? Time to go back to school? If we are supposed to be people that live in a world marked by time, why does time catch us out so? Are fish caught out by being wet? If we're supposed to die, why does death puncture those it leaves?

Well, you know the answer, it's because we're not. Because we're made to be like the One who is outside time. The One who entered time to take us out of it. Jesus, He who was before time began, He for whom time exists, came. Time had no hold on Him except what He gave it, and we are made in His image. So of course time is an unwelcome impostor on our reading, our summers and our lives.

This is our hope, that Jesus came, submitted to time, and bested it, skipping out of the tomb on that first Easter Sunday, Psalm Two playing around His lips. It's our hope that time points to the day He'll come again. He'll come not this time to enter time, but to end it. Earth and sky flee from His presence, and time too. Because He left the tomb, we know one day He'll climb His war horse, and knock time off it's throne.

And death too. Oh yes, and death. Jesus rose, defeating death, and so will we. We'll hear His voice, rise from the stones planted in the Easter garden, and be with Him forever. We'll be outside time, as we were meant to be, we'll be healed of death's sting by our groom. We'll see His face, and He will wipe the tears from ours.

A Change of Status

Looking for treasure in the Bible is like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.

Looking for treasure in the Bible is like looking for sand on a beach, it's like looking for diamonds in a diamond mind. You only fail to see treasure, life giving, heart warming treasure in the Bible if you're failing to look. It's everywhere.

Some of these treasures are big and obvious. Romans 8 and Isaiah 53 for example. Some are smaller diamonds, but when you hold them up to the light, they take your breath away. Colossians 3:1-2 falls into this latter category.

Colossians 3:1-2 tells us our status has changed. It's graduation time in schools in North Carolina, so status change is something we see happening all around us. The seniors that walked across a stage in their cap and gown this week can't come back when the new school, year starts. Their status has changed, they need to go somewhere else. The new seniors can't take 11th grade classes, their status has changed. Life is different.

I recently applied for and was given a Green Card. This literal green piece of plastic changes my status. When Rachel and I showed up at customs and immigration on Friday, we got to stand in the same line. I presented my Green Card, and the customs officer barely even looked at me. I still had to be finger printed and photographed, and tell him how long i'd been out of the country but that was it. No secondary inspection, no long wait in line, no proving, to the nth degree, that everything i said about myself was true. I'd done all that, my Green Card had changed my status from visitor to resident.

Something fundamental happens when you graduate, and when you get a Green Card, and something fundamental happens when you're saved. Your status changes. You're now seated next to the Father in Christ, you're seating in the Heavenly realm in Christ. We've been raised with Him, and we are, in Him, where He is.

Salvation is not a small thing. It's a total change. It's not just a 'decision,' it's a change in location. And it has to be done. High school seniors can't just want to graduate, they have to follow the requirements, and so do we. By faith in Jesus, we are joined to Him, and seated with Him.

And with a change in status comes a change in responsibility. I challenged my sunday school class this weekend not to fall in love with summer, but to use summer to fall more in love with Jesus. Summer is a signpost, it's not the beach. It's a picture, it's not the reality, it's the mailman, not the wife. So set your minds on the things that are above, and love the reality.

Loving summer, or any good gift, more than Christ, is as backwards as a high school senior going back to grade school, or a Green Card holder standing in the visitors line. It doesn't make any sense, it's a mind not set on reality.

Let's set our minds on what's real, true and beautiful. On Christ, and our changed status in Him.

Spring Broken

It's been spring break this week. Rachel's been off work, and i've been able to spend some more time with her. It's been lovely. I love the busy rhythms of normal life, but i also enjoy a break from time to time. And extra time with Rachel is never a bad thing.

In the mornings i've been prepping a series of messages in 1 John for Teen Discipleship which starts in a couple of weeks. John Piper described 1 John as 'uncannily relevant for our time.' John Macarthur writes at length about the diverse melting pot of beliefs in Ephesus at the time John wrote. This study has helped me and edified me, in the way that sermon prep should. I love the toughness and tenderness of the beloved apostle. Don't sin! But if you do, we have an advocate! Don't call God a liar! But come and be His child. This toughness and tenderness is what we need in the church today isn't it? Tough on sin, tender on sinners. Hold out Christ as all light with no darkness, and holding out Christ as our advocate, who bled to free us.

Also, apart from the first message on the chapter 1:1-4 and the last message on 5:18-21, i'm preaching more thematically than verse by verse, looking at the three tests of the Christian faith. Belief in Christ, obedience to God and love for the brothers. I'm looking forward to growing as a preacher in this area.

I've also been reading and enjoying/convicted by The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. Reading this on the back of Paul Tripp's Dangerous Ministry has been really helpful, and like i say, convicting. The cool breeze of the centuries has given me a fresh perspective on pastoral and preaching ministry, on my relationship with God and my church.

Finally, a wise man remarked this week that 'everyone in the Bible is either Adam or Christ.' Absalom, tragically, is a type of Adam, but David is, as we know, as type of Christ. We see this so clearly in the close of 2 Samuel. God turns His face against the House of David, and as a result, there is a place that man can meet with God. You don't have to read Christ into the Old Testament, in fact, He's so obviously there, you have to try to read Him out!

Like Lightening

The first sermon i ever preached was on Luke 10:1-23. Jesus tells the rejoicing 72 that He saw Satan fall like lightening when they were out preaching the Gospel. But He tells them not to rejoice in this. It's hard not to hear Peter saying something he'll later come to regret isn't it?

Let me tell you about this weekend at church. We had our True Love Waits 'lock-in,' from 9pm Friday to 7am Saturday with about 35 teenagers. I'm not the best preacher at 3am, but the Word does and did the work, and i'm looking forward to seeing the fruit. As you can imagine, Saturday was a low-key day, but we still got to spend some time with a family in our church and one of the kids that Rachel teaches. Then Sunday evening we had a presentation by a five man team going to Ecuador on a short term trip next month, and then our True Love Waits commitment service. Afterwards, we stood and spoke for about forty minutes to a couple of guys who are considering going to college to study for ministry.

I share all that to ask this, how does one not rejoice in these things? How do i not wake up in the morning with a warm feeling and an expectant heart because of all that God is doing in my church and in people that i love? How do i avoid ministry idolatry?

Well to answer that, let me tell you a story. For the first year that Rachel and I were 'dating' she lived in North Carolina, and i lived in Reading. Not much dating went on, but a lot of letter writing. When those letters arrived i'll tell you the one thing i didn't do, i didn't kiss the postman! I didn't kiss the letter either, i didn't buy the letter a ring, and i didn't move across the Atlantic to be with the letters. I loved the letters because of my love for Rachel, which was deeper, and further back.

My love for Rachel was deeper than my love for the letters because she, at last, was bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She was the bit of me that had been missing, she was the other (better) half (three quarters) of me. Of course i didn't love the letters more than Rachel, of course i rejoiced more in our relationship than in the arrival of a letter, my love for her was deeper.

And my love for her went further back. No Rachel, no letters. No love, no love-letters. No postman bringing joy in Hallmark form, no plans and prayers shared on paper. It was because i love Rachel that i loved the letters, it was because they came from her. Our letters were the overflow of our love. We don't write letters anymore, if i want to talk to her, i can just speak.

Our love for Jesus is deeper and further back than our love for ministry. We must rejoice our names are written in Heaven. That truth is far deeper than salivations, or baptisms or discipleship. It doesn't make those things unlovely, it just means they don't go as deep. And our love for Jesus is further back. No Jesus, no ministry, no Jesus no preaching, no studying, no conversations. One day, i'll never preach another message, but i'll still have Jesus.

Remember the source, remember the heart, remember Jesus.

Both Sides of the Line

Hear Paul David Tripp from his excellent book, 'Dangerous Calling.'

The private nurture of your own heart as a pastor is not only a humble confession of your need and a confession of your love for the Saviour; it is also a statement of your love for the people that God has placed in your care. It is in this way that preparation and personal devotion intersect. No, you're not reading that passage in the morning to develop content for a moment of teaching; you're reading it to feed your own heart. But in doing so, you are preparing your heart to face all the responsibilities, opportunities and temptations of local church ministry. What you're doing morning after morning raises the potential that in crucial moments of pastoral ministry you will be part of what God's doing rather than in the way of it.

Dangerous Calling, P189

At the moment in my morning Bible reading i'm in Numbers, Psalms and Acts. I'm currently preaching though Revelation in teen Sunday school, and Mark in teen church on Wednesday nights. So does that mean my devotional reading and my prep reading are totally separate? Well yes and no.

Yes, they are separate in that i read Numbers, Psalms and Acts in the morning in the side room off my kitchen, and Mark and Revelation in my office at church. Yes, they are separate in that i'm reading in the morning with my eyes solely on me. How can i apply this text to my situation, my marriage, my ministry and my temptations. When i'm prepping in Mark and Revelation i'm looking for more general application. How is this relevant to a 14 year old? How would this challenge someone who has grown up in church? But in another sense they're not separate. What i read sitting at my desk feeds my soul in the same way that what i read in the morning does. Unless i develop a calloused, 'professional,' heart, when the Bible is open, God is speaking to me, leading me though the city to find my beloved. If i am to serve my church well, i must apply my own preaching first of all to myself, so when i'm reading Mark or Revelation, when i have a commentary open, i'm asking the Lord to keep applying to me, as well as to my teen group. If there is a line between personal and preperational reading, it's one we must stand on both sides of at all times.

Sometimes this works out differently. Last Wednesday i was scheduled to preach high school and middle school chapel at our Christian school. The prep time i had went on a message from Ephesians 2:1-10. But that morning i read Leviticus 16. My heart was so gripped by Christ's expiatory and propitiatory work that i couldn't not preach on it that same morning. Instead of about 1600 typed words i had about fifty scribbled ones. Less bookwork preparation, but plenty of heartwork preparation. Again, standing on both sides of the line at the same time.

Later on this morning i'm meeting with a student. I've no idea what is on his heart, and so in that sense i can't 'prepare' for the meeting. Except i can. What that young man needs from me is not stock answers from a Bible study on whatever his problem is, but my own relationship with God overflowing into our time together. As McCheyne said, what a minister's people need more than anything is his own personal holiness. This young man needs to meet his youth pastor as a beggar who has found a feast and invites him along, not a professional with all the answers.

So all devotion is preparation. Preparation of my own heart and mind. A feeding on the life, death and resurrection of Christ. A feast in the wilderness. An opportunity to taste and see with the purpose of inviting others to do the same. If my heart isn't warmed, ho can i offer that warmth to others? And all preparation is devotional. When the Bible is opened God speaks, and He speaks into my life. He speaks to me about the Kingdom of God in Mark and the soon coming end of all things in Revelation. As i pray, read and reread my passage, make notes and look and commentaries, i must have my heart open. I must be, so to speak, 'on my knees over my books.' Then, with my heart warmed and my head informed, i can offer Christ to me teenagers, and we can feast together. 

Today I Am Thankful For

My salvation. I'm thankful that Christ came to save anyone, i'm amazed that He came to save me. I was reading Isaiah 52-53 this morning as providence would have it. Upon Him was the chastisement that brough us peace.

My wife. A constant, faithful, helpful provocation to me. I'm thankful for her hard work both in her job and mine.

My ministry. It really is a privilege to be the youth pastor and Trinity. I can't really think of a better job than where you get paid to study the Bible and tell people what you've discovered. I'm thankful that three times a week in church, and four times a week at school i get to teach the Bible.

My church. For their love, prayers, trust and faithfulness. I'm excited about what God is doing among us. I'm thankful that it's usual to see people saved, baptised and discipled.

My immediate family. Working with young people, i know how rare it is to grow up never doubting my parents love and support. I'm thankful that my family loves and supports me to this day. I'm thankful for facetime.

My extended family. This is my sixth thanksgiving. I'm thankful for how the Cash/Sweeney/Justice/Ferguson tribe has taken me in.

Church planters. As a group of people, no one stirs me more than men and women who set off into the great unknown to start churches. I'm thankful for Logan and Grayson in Provo, Jay and Annette in Dover, Myron and Julie in Gilbert and Heath and Jamie in Houston. I'm thankful that we got to take our teens to Provo and Dover this year, and thankful for the impact those trips have had. I'm always thankful for Sean and Liz in Reading.

For enduring friendships. I've had two conversations this week that could have happened at any time over the last six to eight years.

Right now, i'm thankful that it's eight o'clock on Thursday morning, and i have the prospect of three days with Rachel in front of me. Happy Thanksgiving!

Romans 13 and November 6

As election day looms ever larger here in the US, i think there are two equal and opposite errors we are at risk of falling into. As we view this election through our Christian glasses, we are tempted in two ways to either put too little, or too much emphasis on what happens on November 6th. Romans 13:1-7 is the simply, Christlike, Spirit inspired, Pauline antidote to both of these ills.

It Does Matter Who Wins. Jesus Is On The Throne
Like most error, this is dressed up with just enough truth to make it palatable. Yes and amen, Jesus was, is and will be on the throne. Though all the world run against Him, He will not be overthrown. Good news my friends, good news! But not responsibility absolving news. Jesus is on the throne, i won't look both ways before i cross the street. Jesus is on the throne, i won't fill my car up before my long journey. Jesus is on the throne, i won't tell my wife i love her. It's a nonsense isn't it? Because Jesus is on the throne we are motivated to live as responsible citizens, using our rights and privileges as we can. Because Jesus is on the throne we can vote, fully confident, and joyfully so, knowing that His hand is in and behind everything we do. Romans 13:2 tells us that God appoints authority, and if we resist authority, we resist Him. Don't resist God, Jesus is on the throne, pray and vote!

If [my preferred candidate] doesn't win God's not going to bless us
If option one put too little stock in elections, option two puts too much. If option one had a wrong view of God's sovereignty, so does number two. This election represents a quandary on many levels, not least politically and morally. Politically because, even though we might believe that the incumbent has been a disaster in almost every category, is the opponent any better? If the President is Blair, his challenger is IDS and William Hague. The Republicans are almost exactly where the Tories were ten years ago. And morally. It's pretty obvious that one candidate's policies are more driven by what we find in the Bible than the other, neither do anything to hide their point of view, we must be very careful about attributing a Biblical worldview to a Mormon. Whoever wins, 'he is God's servant for your good.' (verse 4)

I can say these things as someone who can't vote. Even though I undergo taxation with no representation, seriously America, someone should do something about this injustice! I can say these things as an outsider on the inside. Someone who loves the southeastern United States, without forgetting the dangers of living in the Bible belt.

How do we approach November 6th? Confidently, joyfully, hopefully and prayerfully. Knowing that whatever happens, God's Kingdom is advancing with the preaching of the Gospel. And hey, even if your guys don't win, at least those dreadful campaign ads will be off your TV!

JK Rowling and Happy Endings

I've read a couple of reviews of JK Rowling's new book, 'The Casual Vacancy' yesterday (here and here. Some bad language in the second one). Quite apart from the fascinating thought that one of the most recognizable authors of our day can not seem to get away from the Biblical narrative, what seems to unite the two reviews is a problem with the lack of a happy ending.

There's no Harry Potter in Pagford, no one to overcome evil and set the world aright again. Not eucatastrophe, just catastrophe. Just racism and classicism and an ending that 'makes Thomas Hardy look like PG Wodehouse.' Something about a book, or a film, or any story, without a happy ending leaves us wanting more. Something about a story without redemption makes us feel like the story isn't quite finished yet. When the guy doesn't get the girl, somethings wrong. Why is that? Because the reality of the Biblical narrative is written into our hearts. We can't accept an bleak ending, we can't accept things not turning out alright in the end, because it's not true.


I used to tease Rachel because she just likes movies with happy endings, but now i've come to see that not only is she right to like happy endings, but that she's more in touch with reality because of it.

Tolkien says: (the happy ending) denies universal final defeat, and insofar as evangeliom, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief...When the sudden 'turn' comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and hearts desire, that more a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through.

Happy endings are true endings. Because Jesus has come, and lived, and died and lived, happy endings are true endings. How will the universe end? Happily ever after. This sounds like hopeless wishful thinking doesn't it? And it is, until we put our hands in His wounds and talk to the eye witnesses. If the resurrection isn't true, we're to be pitied more than all men, but if it is true, we can look forward to the happiest of happy ending.

Happy endings are true endings. Morning Glory was a film that was forgotten almost as soon as it was made, but we liked it. Why? Girl from nowhere gets dream job in city, she's given a tough deadline to make things come together in the face of adversity and...well you get the rest. It was a happy ending, and a true ending. We like happy endings because, as Tolkien said, they touch us somewhere deep, somewhere real, somewhere almost primal. Because they're true. Because in the wedding supper of the lamb, time itself has the happiest of endings.