It's funny reading Christian books which are a hundred plus years old for the type of problems they mention which the church faced are often the very same problem we see today. The type of problems that faced Christians are usually the exact same problems facing Christians today. The outward form may change but the heart of the problem does not. This is really no surprise, "there is nothing new under the sun" the Teacher says in Ecclesiastes and he was right - human nature doesn't change and God doesn't change. The world, the flesh and the Devil still fight the same battles with Christians.
I was reading J.C Ryle's Practical Religion, it's brilliant, as Ryle always is, and in it Ryle talks about how the biggest problem with the church is that too many Christians are Little Christians and it struck me that while over a hundred years have passed since he wrote his book then his analysis is still spot on. Many, if not most, Christians today are Little Christians. If I am being honest then I must include myself in this category too. We are Little Christians because we have a little faith, a little hope, a little peace, a little love, a little courage, a little knowledge and a little holiness. That is not the problem though - we all start of our Christian life with little of everything. The problem, and as problems go this is huge, is that we are content with being Little Christians.
0 Comments
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a Christian is assuming that holiness is an automatic process. It is an easy mistake to make; we know that Jesus has saved us and "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." (Philippians 1v5) And it fits our natural laziness, our want of the Christian life to be easy, we want holiness to just happen.
Holiness never just happens. The natural route we follow, even as Christians, is decline. If holiness is not our main priority then we will swiftly find that we begin to slip back into old ways and old habits. We have to strive for holiness; we cannot sit and wait for it to find us. I speak from personal experience when I say that holiness is not a progressive linear function - it is entirely possible to become less holy in your Christian walk. Yet, because of the work of the Lord Jesus and because we have the Holy Spirit within us then it is possible to become more holy. And it should be the aim of every Christian to become increasing holy as the years go by for as Jesus said: "Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5v48). This deals with the latter part of the title: increasing holiness. This is just a heads up that I have just published a book on the Kindle!
It's called Don't you just hate it when the penguins start World War III? and you can buy it here for just 77 pence or check out my author website here for free! The story is about the Great and Glorious Penguin Empire's attempt to wipe out humanity. The fate of the human race rests on the shoulders of the One, a sixteen year old girl, yeah, not exactly the great hope everyone was expecting. Queen Elizabeth takes over the running of Great Britain and reveals herself to be forewarned and forearmed to deal with the threat. She must face the full might of the Penguin Empire and train the One to be of use. No mean tasks by any stretch of the imagination. Join an all star cast on the adventure of a lifetime. A lifetime that may be cut rather short if the penguins get their way! The broader problem with the Church of Scotland (and the CoE, Baptist Union, Southern Baptists, etc)21/6/2012 “As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.” as the proverb goes and my thanks go to Mark for his comment on my last blog post about the Tron leaving the Church of Scotland. You can read his comment here; as I thought it over I realized that my joy at seeing the Tron leave the Church of Scotland was not related completely to the homosexual issue but more to an overall objection I have to the Church of Scotland and not just the church of Scotland but the many broad church groupings including Baptist Union, Sothern Baptist, etc ,etc. For the purposes of the post I will concentrate on the CoS though.
I realize that many of my readers may well be in such a denomination and I will try and proceed graciously. My intent is not to stir up trouble but to stir up debate and at the very least force others to think about these issues. This post is not meant in anyway to detract from all the good the Church of Scotland does or to question the godliness or sincerity of evangelical leaders within the CoS. On 14th June it was announced that the Tron church in Glasgow was leaving the Church of Scotland over the issue of homosexual ministers. When I first heard the news I’m not ashamed to admit that I almost danced for joy. Usually church splits sadden me because they’re normally for reasons which are secondary in nature and as Christians the call for unity is a strong one. There was once a church that spilt over the issue of having a service on Christmas day, splitting over such trifles does not magnify Christ as Head of the church. But while the call to unity is strong the call to faithfulness is stronger.
Two verses spring to mind: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5v11) and “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1v8). The issue of homosexual ministers can appear to be a minor one but at its heart is a refusal to bow to the clear command of Scripture. Homosexually is declared by God as being morally wrong so to allow homosexual ministers is to go against God’s law. This idea runs contrary to modern culture; if you watch any romantic film, listen to most popular music or read any teenage fiction then you’ll find yourself submerged in happily ever afters, ‘love conquers everything’, when you meet ‘the One’ everything will be fixed mentality. It all stems from a single lie fed to us in so much of the media we consume: you were made to be in a relationship. If you’re not happy then you will be if you find ‘true’ love, if you have problems in your life they will be solved by a relationship, if you are not in a relationship you are somehow lacking in some way or other.
In one sense it is an easy mistake to make, we were created to be in a relationship with God, our chief end in life is to be in that relationship with him. And so we warp it and confuse it and think that our chief end is to be in a human relationship. We think that sinner plus sinner might actually equal happiness, that one flawed person plus another flawed person will somehow create something perfect. It would all be laughably deluded if it weren’t for the fact that it is so tragic and easy to fall for. I don’t write as one unaffected by this message but as one who swallowed it and then found to my surprise that it was ultimately just like any other idol: worthless. The extent to which you are affected by this lie is measured by your reaction to the following statement: there is no marriage in heaven. Whenever I hear Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot I always get the same image in my head: I’m standing on top of a hill in a raging storm and yelling the song out in sheer defiance of the elements. As the lyrics go: “Hello hurricane, you’re not enough, Hello hurricane you can’t silence my love.” This nicely leads me onto the topic I have in mind: the justified defiance of a Christian against everything and by that I mean that faced with all the storms, troubles, futilities, worries and suffering of life the Christian can be justifiably defiant against them all. For in Christ we are granted victory over all things and he will see us through all things and not a single thing can prevent a Christian from reaching glory.
To prove this point I’m going to go through a few of the biggest ‘hurricanes’ life in this world throws at us and show how through Christ we can be defiant against them for they hold nothing that can tear us from his side. I must make it quite clear from the start that this defiance only applies to Christians, without Christ the hurricanes of life tear down and destroy; a life without Christ is a futile existence and has no hope. But for a Christian, for a child of God, for one who has put their faith in Christ, there is all the hope in the world. “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Psalm 56 v 8.
Imagine what such a book would look like: it would be a huge heavy tome for there is a lot to cry for in this world we live in. It would be meticulously detailed for God sees the tears that no one else does. It would be well worn for such is the compassion of God that he would leaf through it regularly. And if you’re a Christian and part of God’s family it would have a page in it with your name written at the top, written in the same handwriting that wrote the Ten Commandments, for the author of this book of tears is God. Underneath would follow a note of the first time you cried and then every single instance from then until now. Not a single tear would be unrecorded, in fact, if you think about it, this book would contain records you no longer remember but what passes from your memory does not pass from God’s. How little do you grasp this: that when you’re upset God cares, he cares so much that he writes it all down so he will not forget the troubles you face and the sorrow you feel in your heart. The least of all your tears are in his book; how much more the tears you shed over greater things. “I slept but my heart was awake.”
Songs of Solomon 5 v 2 In Songs of Solomon we have a glorious story of Christ wooing his bride, the church and as ‘the Love of Christ’ by Richard Sibbes will show you it deals with all aspects of the Christian life in its up and downs. In Chapter 5v2 we have a picture of a Complacent Christian: a Christian who sleeps, a Christian who is lethargic, a Christian who has grown lazy and apathetic in the fight of faith. I have been this Christian before and no doubt, knowing my weakness, I will be this Christian again. It is not a good place to be; in fact, and I don’t say this lightly, the most frustrating and, in hindsight, joyless times of my life where when I was in this sleepy state. It is a deadly state to be in because you never realize at the time what a deadly state you are in. As the second part of the verse says: your heart is awake, you are still a Christian, you still love God, you still pray, still do Christian stuff, still acknowledge Christ as your Saviour, and you’ve probably fooled a lot of others and yourself that you’re doing fine. But you’re not; you can’t be for you have fallen into a spiritual sleep. The source of this sleep is always in sin, some worldly vanity that has distracted you and dulled your senses to the things of God. You begin to coast in your Christianity, neither giving it up nor putting much effort in. Your earnest desire is not to seek God out but be comfortable in life. Prayer and Bible reading become less important, spending time with God less necessary, church can become more social than spiritual, and you don’t realize it. I don’t like suffering, I’m fairly sure this isn’t an uncommon view, indeed, pleasant suffering is an oxymoron. In fact, suffering sucks, whatever it might be whether physical, mental, emotional – there is nothing nice about being in pain, grief, sorrow or anguish. And there are those of you out there who are going through hard times and I’m not here to tell you that you should go around with a huge big happy smile on your face, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t cry (for as the shortest verse in the Bible says: Jesus wept) and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t come before God and pour out your grief, pain, loss and trouble to him for such complaints he cannot helped but be moved by for the compassion and love of God is steadfast. This world we live in carries on it the curse of sin and this is made known with every ache of pain, every grief, every sorrow, every heavy beat of the heart, all point to the fallen nature of this earth and the men and women on it. And let’s face facts: it might not be alright, in this life at least there’s no guarantee that everything will turn out fine. It is through ‘great tribulation’ that we’ll make it to heaven as Jesus said. And it might seem cruel of me to talk about the joy of suffering when you you know is pain.
How then can there be joy in suffering? How can we both accept suffering for the pain it is and yet have joy? The first thing to stress is that this is not natural; this is not a human thing for the only joy a man could naturally find in suffering would be a false comfort. Outside of Christianity, outside of Jesus Christ, there is little comfort for those suffering other than the ‘sweet oblivion’ of death which is a terrible lie. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1 v 2-4 |
Archives
November 2013
Categories
All
|