When Evening Comes

Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me

let me be singing when the evening comes

I love these lyrics from Matt Redman's song, '10,000 Reasons.' I think they demonstrate, as well as you can in two lines, one of the essences of the Christian life.

When we wake up each day, we've got no idea what will happen. Will we get in a car wreck and spend the night in hospital? Will we receive some terrible family news, an unexpected bill? Or will some unexpected good news come our way? We have no way of knowing. So why don't we just hide under the covers all day? Because we know the living God. 

For the Christian, the best is always yet to come. Whether a day may realise your wildest dreams or your darkest nightmares, the best is always yet to come. Look at the book of Ruth. From the unspeakable tragedy of the death of her husband and two sons, life gets better and better for Naomi. She inherits Ruth, a hard working and faithful daughter in law. Her sons land is redeemed by Boaz, then she has a grandson...and then the end of Ruth takes us far beyond the limits of Bethlehem in the time of the Judges, to the eternal plan of God in Christ. For Naomi, even at the end of the book, bouncing her grandson on her knee, the best was still yet to come. The same is true for us today. The best is yet to come. More experiences that Christ will work for our good, more opportunities to grow in our relationship with Him, and, at the end, Heaven, which will get better and better each day.

This logic leads us to the second line. We know when we awake, that there's nothing that can happen that will stop us singing at evening time. John Piper calls this 'faith in future grace.' The knowledge that Christ will never leave us, and that He works all things to our good, gives us a joy and happiness that transcends our circumstances. A joy that is rooted deep in Christ's work, a joy that keeps burning when our happiness merely flickers. These verses understand that, and put them into song.

Christians sing because we can't help it. And i'm thankful for a song that puts so much precious theology onto our lips, and into our hearts...

The Sign of Jonah (Jonah 1:17-2:10)

Last time we saw how Jonah is about more than a man and a big fish. We see more of this idea when we read Matthew 12:40, as Jesus, in typical meek and mild style tells His listeners that evil and adulterous people look for a sign, no sign will be given them apart from the sign of Jonah. Jesus will be three days and nights in the earth, just as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the fish. What's the sign of Jonah? A man rising from the dead. This sign should be enough to rest our faith on.

So how does the rest of Jonah 2 point us towards the sign of Jonah?

When we pray, God hears.


Sometimes we can think that we need to be 'doing well,' with the Lord to pray effectively. Now, it's true that when we're mired in sin our prayers will lack the clarity and passion that they will otherwise, but does Christ ignore the prayers of the sinful heart? of course not! He'd have to ignore every prayer if He ignored any prayer. Christ's name is the signature on our crumpled dirty cheques. If He hears Jonah in the fish, he hears you and me, no matter how far we feel from Him. Why? Because of the sign of Jonah, because He died and rose for us, Our sins are dealt with, we can pray freely.

All things for good, even fish.


Jonah doesn't pray to be saved from the fish. He's praying because he's been saved by the fish! Romans 8:28 reminds us that God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So? So, when Jonah get's swallowed by a fish, he still knows that God hasn't forsaken him. And no matter where you end up, God is working it together for good, and you will again look upon His holy temple. This has to be tyre iron that holds up the bruised reed of our faith. Our faith goes beyond our circumstances. Why? Because of the sign of Jonah. If God didn't hold back His Son, how will He not also graciously give us all things that we need? Can you see the logic? God did the hard thing, He gave us Christ. Jesus died and rose, and now that means good things, in all circumstances, forever.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.


In some ways Jonah is just like Israel. Called to be a canal, but decides to be a puddle. He doesn't want those people getting saved, so he's off to Tarshish. But he realises that salvation isn't his to dole out as he pleases, it belongs to the Lord. It takes him a while to work out all the implications of that, chapter 4 stops rather than finishes. It's almost like Jonah turns to us and says 'and how about you...?' Do we share our faith with the confidence that salvation is the Lord's not ours? Do we take risks for the risen Christ as we step out and witness? When we grasp that salvation belongs to the Lord, we become liberal sowers of the seed, flinging it left and right, knowing it will find good soil. Why? You guessed it, because of the sign of Jonah! Because Jesus died and rose again, carried sins to the watery depths, so we can share our faith in confidence, knowing the results are in the hands of the sovereign Lord.

Sunday Song: Abide with me

Wasn't this brilliant at the Olympic Opening ceremony on Friday? I wish it was sung more often...

Joy and Obedience

 I love the way that Luke organizes his material. In Luke 15 he helps us to see what is lost and what is found, in Luke 18:25-19:10 he shows us that those who we think can't physically see end up seeing who Jesus is. In Acts 8 he shows us what real saving faith looks like by contrasting Simon and the Ethiopian eunuch. We looked at Simon the magician before, and now Luke shows us two things that demonstrate saving faith.

What do we see from the Ethiopian in verses 36-39? Obedience and joy. He obeys the command to be baptised once he's been saved. Luke doesn't record this part of the conversation, but we have to assume that Phillip had told him. He'd been saved, he saw water, he wanted to be baptised. His faith issued in obedience. What happened next? After he was baptised, Phillip was taken away from him, 'and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing.' He obeyed and rejoiced, because he was saved.

James says the man who hears God's word and doesn't do it is like the man who looks in a mirror and forgets what he looks like when he looks away. What sort of word would we use to describe that a man? A fool? The sort of fool who says in his heart that there is no God. He knows God when he sees him with eyes, but forgets him when he can't. Of course, our obedience will never be perfect until we get to Heaven, but a general course of obedience, growth in love and holiness and growth in service is excellent evidence we're saved. This is what Simon the Magician lacked, and this is what the Ethiopian had.

And he had joy. Jonathan Edwards said 'God is not only glorified by being understood, but by being enjoyed.' Intellectual knowledge of God isn't always saving knowledge. It has to issue in joy. Enjoyment of God in Christ, enjoyment of His word, or His church, of being with Him, and of obeying Him. That's what the Ethiopian experienced when he went on his way from his baptism.

In short, Acts 8 teaches us that non saving faith is inward looking. Simon wanted the show, the power, the glory. Saving faith is outward looking. The Ethiopian looked outward in joy and outward in obedience. He had the faith that saved...

Cool Things Happen On The Third Day

Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, on the third day he was vomited out. Cool things happen on the third day...

Abraham took the son of the promise up the mountain on the third day, and he was ransomed for a sacrifice that God provided. 

Genesis 22:3-5  So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy^[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 

As they walked through the wilderness, it was on the third day that the LORD met Moses and gave Him the law. On the third day in the wilderness the story of revelation continued. 

Exodus 19:1-3 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ² They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, ³ while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel

After being chased through the wilderness and fighting a war, on the third day, God's anointed King, David, was crowned King, with the news that Saul was dead.

2 Samuel 1:1-3 After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. ² And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.³ David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” 

On the third day, showing her total faith in God, Esther went before the King to represent her people. She was the only one who could have an audience with the King, and it might've cost her her life.

Esther 5:1-3 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. ² And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. ³ And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.”

On the third day, God's people will be revived, they will return, they will be raised up.

Hosea 6:1-3 Come, let us return to the Lord;

    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.² After two days he will revive us;    on the third day he will raise us up,    that we may live before him.³ Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;     his going out is sure as the dawn;he will come to us as the showers,     as the spring rains that water the earth

The Difference Between Hymns and Praise Choruses

This made me chuckle:

Every Morning?

One of the best things about being on holiday is waking up without an alarm. There's not much that can rival the hatred i hold for my alarm clock in the depths of the school year! When i woke up this morning, i thought what i was going to do first, grab my coffee, sit in the morning sun and read Mark.

Then a thought flashed across my mind. 'Do I have to? I already know what happens!' That thought was right. I've read Mark, preached from Mark, read commentaries and led studies on mark's Gospel, do i really need to read it now? What about Boy Meets World? Thankfully this thought was chased away, and i had a lovely time this morning. But the questions lingers, why do I need to read the Bible every day? I can think of a few reasons.

I don't wake up in Gospel model.


I don't often wake up excited about the Gospel. Sometimes i do, but often i don't. I need to be reminded, i need to be brought back to reality. Away from twitter, facebook and ESPN, and back to the reality that grounds existence. I need to be reminded of the Gospel every day by the Bible.

I'm hungry for breakfast.


I've never considered skipping breakfast because it'll be the same as yesterday. I've eaten thousands of bowls of cereal, and they all taste about the same. But i'm hungry for another one every morning. I think, to some extent, Jesus gave us those sensations to teach us how we need to feel about Him. We wake up physically hungry to remind us that we wake up spiritually hungry. We never have doubts about feeding our stomachs. Why our souls?

The Bible is precious.


'The most precious thing the world affords,' as the incoming Monarch is reminded at their coronation. There is simply and objectively no better way to start each day than by reading the Bible.

Precious because...


There's no magic in the pages of my Bible. I like my Bible very much, but it's not an icon. The Bible is precious because it introduces me to Jesus, i hear His voice, sit confounded with the crowd, stop and pray at Gethsemene, weep over Jerusalem. I meet Jesus in Mark, and Malachi, Lamentations and Romans. It's fresh manna every day, just like a fire needs stoking, my heart needs fresh coal to burn for the morning.

The Bible sets me, centres me, reminds me, envisions me, cuts me, warms me, stops me and starts me, The Bible shows me the glory of God in Christ, and i need that...every morning.