Reflections

The road to hell is wide

2012-01-30T10:20:00.000Z

Whose Rules Rule? - Part Eight

To recap, I've been talking for a few months about moralityand it's place in Christian thought. I've compared Christian rationalfoundations with non-religious foundations. Non-religious philosophies, I'veargued, have no rational basis for morality. They want to say some things areright and some things are wrong. They even sometimes treat Christians as if weare evil because we transgress their rule that no-one is allowed to questiontheir authority! But because they have only themselves to turn to forauthority, because their fundamental belief is that humans are no more specialthan rocks, apes, dolphins or roses, because they can't define anythingobjectively, their rules reduce to arbitrary preferences that they try toenforce on everyone else.

In the last couple of articles I've tried to show thefoundations that Christians have for morality in more detail. Ourresponsibility is to God, because He created human beings to have a specialrelationship with Him. We are created equal. But because of the sin of Adam andEve, the first human beings, every descendent has been tainted withself-centred, God-rejecting, sinfulness. And out of that sinful, self-centredheart comes immorality and sin. Human beings are equally sinners.

The consequences for sin are the same for every human beingtoo.

Since all sin is an expression of a rejection of God'sauthority, He is perfectly justified to be filled with wrath and anger andindignation. The Bible warns us that we will all one day face God's judgment,and our sinful rejection of God's authority will be punished forever. Frankly,we deserve Hell.

People baulk at the idea of Hell, but if we only understoodthe nature and perfection of God we would see that it is the only punishmentpossible. God is perfect, and the source of everything good - love, joy, peace,perfection. To be cut off from God is to be cut off from the source ofeverything good, and therefore to suffer everything bad for the rest ofeternity. Those who reject God's authority, because they would rather go theirown way, want to enjoy the good things that come from God - beauty, love, joy,peace, power - but they refuse to submit to Him. God only allows that situationtemporarily in "this life" - up to 80 years or so nowadays. When theJudgment Day comes, those who reject God's authority, evidenced by their sin(using the good things God has made and given to them for their own selfishends, rather than for the purpose He gave them), will be given what theiractions deserve - to be cut off from God forever, and therefore sent to aneternity without access to anything good, sent to Hell.

"It is appointed for man to die once, and after thatcomes judgment…" (Hebrews 9:27)

"For you may be sure of this, thateveryonewho is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater),has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no onedeceiveyou with empty words, for because of these thingsthe wrath of Godcomes uponthe sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 5:5-6)

"… following the course of this world… among whom weall once lived inthe passions of our flesh, carrying out thedesires of the bodyand the mind, andwere by naturechildren of wrath, like the rest of mankind..." (Ephesians 2:2-4)

We may not all be equally sinful, but we are equally sinnersand therefore equally deserve God's wrath and the eternal punishment in Hellthat comes with that.

I'm going to publish the next chapter soon, but I do want togive you chance to dwell on this for a little while. In fact, if you arereading this retrospectively (in other words, you are picking up the seriesafter the series has been completely published) then I'd encourage you to pausehere and reflect.

This is not popular stuff, but it is reality. It's not justidle talk, it's not simply for lecture theatres, pulpits and blogs. It's notsimply "very interesting stuff". It's about our eternal destiny. It'swhat will really happen in history because of what our real actions have beenbased on. And that's why it's important, as Christians, that we don't shirkfrom talking about it, unpleasant though it is.

I once talked to one of my housemates at university aboutthe gospel, and tried to do so as sensitively as possible. At one stage,though, he asked me outright, "so you believe I'm heading to hell?" Isaid quietly, "Yes, I do." And he walked out of the room, and didn'tspeak to me again… ever. He avoided me until the end of the summer term, andthat was his final year. I have not seen him or heard from him since that dayin 1991.

In the film The DayAfter Tomorrow, one scene always strikes me. The film is a disaster movie,about how a particular combination of weather events conspire to bring aboutextreme weather across the whole world, leaving half the USA under snow and ice.Dennis Quaid plays the heroic scientist (Jack Hall) who predicts the events,and then has to go and find his son, Sam, who is trapped in the ice in NewYork. Having managed a brief conversation on the phone with his father, Samknows that the best chance for the group of survivors he is huddled with in theNew York Public Library is to stay indoors. If they go outside they may getcaught in the huge freezing cyclones that are moving over the world, and theywill freeze to death in seconds. At one stage the survivors in the library getimpatient and talk of moving on to find better shelter. Sam pleads with themnot to, telling them what his father has told him. He knows that by goingoutside they will die, and he tries to warn them. Some of the group simplyignore Sam, some argue with him and tell him to be quiet. Even when he explainsthat his dad is a climatologist and knows what is happening, and that he hasjust spoken to him, they still refuse to listen. All except a couple of thegroup go outside. Jack discovers their frozen bodies as he treks north throughthe snow to try to rescue Sam and his friends.

It strikes me that this is like the way Christians aretreated when we try to warn about hell, eternal punishment. What we are doingis warning, because we have been told by our Father, that a big storm is coming- a Day of Judgment. Yet we are ignored, marginalised, mocked and sometimesshouted down for doing so.

The worst outcome can be avoided by listening to the Son.Jesus.

If you are not a Christian, don't, whatever you do, exitthis series at this point. There is good news to come.

Nobody's perfect

2012-01-10T10:18:00.000Z

Whose Rules Rule? - Part Seven

When we say, "nobody's perfect!" we are normallytrying to find an excuse for something we have done wrong. But at the same timewe all know that it's true. We know that we have faults as individuals, and weknow that everyone has different faults. We disappoint ourselves with the messwe make sometimes, and others disappoint us too.

The Bible gives the reason that this is universally true andnot just an exasperated exaggeration. We sin because we are sinful, not theother way around. We are not made sinful by the sins we commit. We commit sinsbecause we are already sinful. Human nature is corrupt and therefore we alltend to do things that are wrong. Of course, it is also true that our sins tendto further corrupt us and that we can wreck our lives by getting into sinfulhabits. But my point is that none of us can escape sin. Our nature is corrupt.

It all stems from Adam and Eve, the original human beings.They disobeyed God, and were punished, and their condemnation comes down on thewhole of the human race (read more in Genesis chapter 3). This is taught mostclearly in Romans 5:12-21. Paul says, "Therefore, just as sin came intothe world through one man [i.e. Adam], and death through sin, and so deathspread to all men because all sinned - for sin was indeed in the world beforethe law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet deathreigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like thetransgression of Adam…" In other words, since death was the consequence ofsin, sin must have been universal in the world from Adam onwards, even thoughthe Ten Commandments and written law of God were not given until thousands ofyears later. Sin is still sin even if it does not arise from transgressing anexplicit command (like the transgression of Adam).

Paul continues, "… many died through one man'strespass… the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation… because ofone man's trespass, death reigned through that one man… as one trespass led tocondemnation for all men… by one man's disobedience the many were madesinners."

Because of this, as Paul says earlier in the letter to theRomans, "all have sinned andfall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

So when Christians talk about equality of human beings, weare not just talking about being equally created - created equal and beingequally responsible. We also mean that we are equally sinners.

This can seem harsh, because we have to say in all honestythat no-one in the whole world, except for Jesus Christ, is or has been perfect.And God's standards are perfect, because they arise out of His own perfections.God's purpose in creating the universe was to show His power, wisdom, beauty,perfection and love. But rather than following His purpose we have gone our ownway. Adam and Eve's sin was not fundamentally about a piece of fruit. It wasabout seeking their own pleasure and trying to set their own direction, ratherthan following that of their Creator.

There are obviously specific rules which people trip over -whether that be lying, gossiping, cheating, having an affair with a marriedman, getting unnecessarily angry, killing an unborn baby, assisting an old ordisabled person to commit suicide or offending people with the language youuse. But these outward actions occur because they spring from a sinful heart -a heart that is basically selfish and self-centred and does not love God aboveeverything. And everyone has asinful, selfish, self-centred heart. If we were honest we would acknowledgethat. The foundation of all that we do is actually our own pleasure, and notthe pleasure of God. But that's the reason why we say that we are all equallysinners, even if some don't exhibit obvious outward sins. Nice people aresinners too!

That's something that some non-religious people also need totake note of when they accuse Christians of victimising them for their sins.And it is something that Christians need to be better at articulating. Nicepeople are sinners too! It is not just murderers, not just fraudsters, drugdealers and rapists. Respectable people are sinners too, because at their corethey are self-centred and refuse to acknowledge God or follow His purposes andHis rules.

In fact, let's be explicit. Christians are sinners too. Alot of people who are not Christians think they are giving a great rebuttalwhen they point to our flaws, failings and sins. But far from disproving ourgospel it actually emphasises the point! We know we are sinful. We knowwe are internally corrupt. We are human and therefore that's what we are. Weare ashamed of it, we don't like it, we pray for the strength to be less so.But we are equally sinners along with the rest of humanity.

Note that I didn't say we are all equally sinful - some sins are worse thanothers, as defined by God's law; and some people, therefore, sin more thanothers (more frequently, more seriously, more brazenly). Some people are more sinful than others. But we areall equally sinners - we are all sinful.

If you are not a Christian this may leave you wondering why moralitymatters so much if every person who has ever lived (apart from Jesus) has beenbrought down by it. But this is the road that you must travel in order tounderstand Christianity. It will take another two or three chapters to fullyexplain this.

How to enjoy Christmas

2011-12-23T17:00:00.000Z

I was walking back from the office to where my car wasparked in a side road one evening a couple of weeks ago. It was 5:15pm, cold, dark and crisp. Itwas early December, and one of the local residents had newly decoratedthe outside of their house with Christmas lights. Pulsing, multi-colouredchains. A reindeer running. A glowing, sparkling snowman, with a glowing,sparkling polar bear. I smiled as I walked past, glowing with the prettinessand the fun of it, picturing the smiles on the kids' faces.

And I got thinking of the excitement of my own kids as theylook forward to Christmas, the fun and enjoyment they have from havingpresents, the fun they had decorating the tree, the way they all still enjoyopening the doors on their Advent calendars every day. And I thought of thecandlelight carols, the Christmas crackers and mince pies with family that wespend far too little time with at other times of year.

Christmas is a time of joy.

Before I started writing this I had in mind to write aboutall the things I dislike about Christmas. For one thing, I was taken seriously illon Christmas Day 2009 and I've been made redundant three times - all of themjust before Christmas. But that's not important. I was going to complain aboutthe commercialisation, the materialism, the overspending. I was going to bemoanthe way that we exalt lie of Santa above the truth of Jesus. Jesus is, afterall, the 'reason for the season'. I was going to ask why we celebrate thehumble coming of the Son of God with glitz, glamour and excess, why we celebratethe coming of the sin-bearer with drunken parties and greed.

Don't get me wrong. Those issues are important and they areworth talking about. But it's the joy of Christmas that I have found myselfreflecting on.

Joy is good. We were made for joy, not for hate, anger,despair or bitterness. God wants us to be happy.

From one point of view the source of our joy is morallylimited. For example, if we get enjoyment from killing people, that's wrong; ifwe get enjoyment from sexual immorality, that's wrong; if our enjoyment comesfrom stealing, that's wrong; and so on.

But is the enjoyment of innocent things always right? Thatwould be part of the response if I were to criticise the Santa cult. "It'sjust a bit of harmless fun!" (There's the 'no harm principle' I wastalking about in "Whose Rules Rule (Part 5). Allegedly, if it does no harmit must be right.) How can we criticise fairy lights or tinsel? There is surelynothing wrong, per se, with parties, with alcohol, with glamour, gifts, treesand decorations, snowmen, and even myths of a red-velvet-clad-bearded-bloke andreindeers.

The answer is that it depends on our attitude to thesethings. We were made to glorify God by finding our joy in Him. One way of doingthat is when we respond with joy, amazement, wonder at the beauty of creation,we are supposed to complete the thought with, "Thank you, Father".When we feel loved by, and love for, family and friends, we are sharing anemotion that God had first - first within Himself, between the Father, Son andHoly Spirit, and then shared with His human children. We were made for joy -not any joy, but a joy that explicitly exults in God.

So if I love the nature programmes on TV, I must realisethat God made those wonderful creatures for us, so that we would marvel at howwonderful, great, wise and gracious He is.

If I love competing and doing sport, I must realise that Godgave me skills and talents, and that these are a microreflection of God'sskill, wisdom and power.

If I love a good book, or a nice car, music, drama, moviesor paintings, I must realise that God gave human beings creativity,imagination, and aesthetic appreciation, so that we would be like Him whocreated the universe from His own perfect design, and so that we would see thedesigner and creator behind everything.

When I love another person so much I want to spend the restof my life with them, I must realise that Jesus feels much greater love for Hispeople, the church, and that "We love because he first loved us." (1John 4:19)

When I love my children more than anything in the wholeworld, I must realise that this is only a pale shadow of the love my HeavenlyFather has for me.

And God's love is exactly what is supposed to be in viewwhen we celebrate Christmas. "God so loved the world that He gave His oneand only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternallife." (John 3:16)

When we think of the sin that cuts us off from God, thesource of life and everything good - oursin - we know we are powerless to save ourselves. There is nothing we can dofor ourselves to take away our sin or to make God think differently about it.So when the angel said to the shepherds, "I bring you good news of greatjoy that will be for all the people," (Luke 2:10) he was not exaggerating.

It really is good news of great joy that the eternal Son of God should put off His eternalglory and take on Himself our weak human flesh in order to die for us on thecross. "Today in the town of David a Saviourhas been born to you; he is Christ the Lord," the angel said (v11).Another angel had said to Joseph, "you are to give him the name Jesus,because he will save his people fromtheir sins." (Matthew 1:21)

The coming of Jesus Christ into the world is a cause forcelebration. In fact it's the biggest cause for celebration the world has everknown! The only bigger event to celebrate will be when He returns to bring acomplete end to this broken world and bring in the new and perfect world. Tosay that Jesus Christ is worth celebrating would be a massive understatement!

The travesty of Christmas is when we have so much enjoymentof the celebration that we forget that we are celebrating God's grace towardsus. But that's the travesty of life in general - when we get so caught up inthe world, good and bad, that we forget/refuse to worship the God who is incharge of it all, and we fail to accept His offer of forgiveness through faithin Jesus.

So as we do all our celebrating this Christmas, as we smileat the pretty lights in the winter darkness, as we share the thrills of thechildren as they open their presents, as we stuff our faces with lovely food(and maybe the odd glass of wine), as we relax with friends and family - let'snot forget the reason why Christmas is so worth celebrating. Let's keep the joyof Christmas and praise God!

'O Come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!'

Merry Christmas, everybody!

It's good to be human

2011-12-19T06:30:00.000Z

Whose Rules Rule - Part Six

In order to start to sketch out Christian moral foundations we need to understand that the way Christians talk about equality is different to the way modern secular atheists talk about it. That's because secular atheists can often appeal to equality as the fundamental truth on which to base moral principles (which, as we've seen, is in itself quite an arbitrary appeal). We also need to contrast the Christian view of the origin and purpose of human beings with non-religious views.

As I have already implied, I believe that when non-religious people talk about equality they include some notion of all humans equally having the right/authority to work out their own morality. For them the equality of human beings really stems from having the same origin. Logically that also puts us equal with animals, rocks and plants, and therefore it means that we have the same rights and responsibilities with regard to morality as animals, rocks and plants. Nothing in their assumptions necessarily leads to there being natural distinctions between things. There is no logic to it. But in an attempt to find meaning, arbitrarily, they distinguish between things (e.g. coal, water, air), living things (e.g. fish, birds, animals, flowers), and intelligent living things (human beings). Non-living things tend to just follow the laws of physics and chemistry. Non-intelligent living things tend to just follow the instincts of their species. But as intelligent living things we humans are characterised by a conscious struggle, according to the secular atheist or non-religious Westerner - the struggle for meaning and to "find our place in the universe". That struggle includes the struggle to work out right and wrong, but since we are equal we all have equal rights to find the answer for ourselves.

For the Christian, equality also starts from equality of origin, but to fully appreciate the Christian's moral framework we have to also appreciate other levels of equality. Human beings are equally created, but also equally sinners, equally deserving of eternal punishment, equally called to repentance and faith, and equally offered grace to eternal life. We'll look at some of these in later parts of this series. For now let's think about our place in God's creation.

Since God created everything, all of creation owes its existence to Him and its allegiance to Him. The Bible teaches that the human race was specially created to manage the rest of creation for God. Human beings were created "in the image of God". God defined the distinctions between things, living things, intelligent living things and human intelligent living things. Humans were created with the extraordinary and special capacity to relate directly to Him, the need to relate to Him. And we all - every single human on earth - trace our ancestry to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. (Incidentally, this does leave open the possibility that we may find other non-humans that show intelligence. Intelligence does not define our special relationship with God. Our humanness does.) Nothing else in the material universe was given the same direct relationship with our Creator - no animal, no bird, no fish or tree.

Before God, humans have special responsibilities that come with those extraordinary capacities. But under Him we are all morally equal, equally responsible. But note: we are responsible to God, not under our own authority.

What this means is that when Christians talk about morality, we seek to reiterate God's standards and apply them to particular behaviours and contexts. And as we reiterate God's standards, we do it for ourselves too, as fellow human beings. If abortion is wrong, then it is wrong for me too. If sex outside monogamous heterosexual marriage is wrong, then it is wrong for me too. I am not at liberty to re-engineer morality, since God has hard-wired it into the universe.

We're all equally judged by God's standards, which are the same for all human beings. So when a Christian makes a moral statement about whether something is right or wrong, that statement does not automatically include within it a moral judgment that puts the Christian above anyone else. This is key for non-religious people to understand, because their moral judgments do involve seeing themselves as better than others because their morals are based on themselves as final authority. So when a Christian makes a moral statement they are saying something objective and factual. When a non-religious person makes a moral statement they are saying something subjective and comparative. This actually makes it possible for a Christian to be hypocritical and still make moral statements that are no less true. And as we'll see next time there is a sense in which Christians are all hypocritical, but that doesn't invalidate what we say about right and wrong, so long as what we say is in line with God's Word.

But we also need to emphasise to people that God created human beings for a purpose. He did not just make a man and woman and say, "ok off you go and have a play, and I'll check in on you from time to time!" He gave us a purpose and a job to do - "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:28) He also said that we have to do that in a way that honours Him by obeying Him. The command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17) was God's way of saying that this world is His and we are not allowed just to do whatever we want.

We are not meaningless blobs, we were not just created and left lost in a big universe. We are the special creation of an All-powerful Creator, with a special job to do, to manage the world in the way that He tells us to.

In fact what I've said so far doesn't really do justice to God's purpose for us. The Bible consistently talks about God having a loving purpose for us. He calls us His children. He didn't create human beings and then leave us to do whatever we want in the universe while He went off to do something else. Nor did He create human beings and then leave us a job to do while He went off to do something else.

God created human beings to work with Him. We have a whole universe to discover, and it's as if He's like an excited Father watching His children learn new and wonderful things, discovering amazing things He made for us. He made us for that relationship. When we discover something new and wonderful, He wants to hear us say in effect, "Wow! Thanks Dad! How did you do that? That's amazing!" (I hope I'm not being irreverent in putting it like that.) He made us to love His power and wisdom. He made us to love Him. And He is alongside us in every step we take. We humans are special to Him.

So whilst it is right to think of God as Judge, because the Bible speaks of Him as Judge, we ought not to think of that role as an impersonal one. It is very personal. When we refuse to follow His instructions in the way we conduct ourselves in the world we are acting like delinquent, rebellious children. Everything we have is from Him (whether material possessions or intellect and wisdom or power) and yet we use those very things to shut Him out. We are selfish. We think life is all about us. But it's not. God is ultimate. Everything in the universe comes from Him and is for Him. So when we are out of step with God, disobeying His rules, we are out of step with the whole purpose of the universe.

In conclusion, non-religious views of morality are based on arbitrary foundations, because their assertions regarding the distinctiveness and equality of human beings have no foundation. In contrast, Christian morality is based on God's creation of human beings as special, to relate to Him and go with Him throughout the world to discover His wisdom and power and glory through everything He has created. As it has often been said, Christian morality is all about "following the Maker's instructions". And the equality of all human beings is firmly based on that purpose and special creation, giving God's rules a firm rational ground.

But there are other things that apply universally to all human beings, and therefore reinforce the equality of all humanity. And we'll look at those in the next few pieces.

No harm done?

2011-12-05T06:30:00.001Z

Whose Rules Rule - Part Five

If I were to say to a couple who were sexually active with each other outside of a heterosexual marriage (to each other!) that their sexual activity is wrong or sinful, I guess their response would probably be, "why is it wrong? What harm is it doing to anyone?" It's a response that would reveal one of the principles often given for non-religious moral standards. Since non-religious people have no absolutely infallible reference point (like the one Christians have from God via the Bible) they have to choose their own principles. One such principle used in civilised cultures (I would say those that have been historically influenced by Christianity) is that we can do many things, but we must not harm other people.

Of course, history is full of examples of where people have not used that principle. Hitler and Stalin obviously thought it was ok to inflict a great deal of suffering on a huge number of people. However, this only demonstrates how arbitrary these principles are when they have no absolute and objective reference point. When a higher principle is developed, for example, from the philosophies of Marx or Nietzsche, for the positive evolution of the human race (i.e. involving the elimination of those who are substandard), the 'no harm' principle gets an exclusion clause. And the recent English city riots and looting demonstrates that the 'no harm' principle is being gradually ditched, because it is arbitrarily restrictive, and replaced in many people by the 'if it feels good do it' principle.

I am also aware that some of those who have called themselves Christians in the past - e.g. the Crusaders or the Roman Catholic church with the Spanish Inquisition - have not lived up to the teachings of their Lord when they have caused suffering to their opponents. Atheists are quick to point this out and even grossly generalise by saying that all wars are caused by religion. However, my point in this introduction is not to say that Christians are morally better than atheists. We are no less sinners. Neither do I want to get into historical debates over which philosophies gave rise to which wars.

My point is simply that it is very common in today's Western cultures to say that our guiding moral principle should be that anything is ok if it does not harm others. The point of mentioning Hitler and Stalin was only to reinforce what I've said in an earlier article, that moral standards without God are necessarily arbitrary. I am simply choosing for examination a foundation principle that is often held by non-religious people who want to portray themselves as respectable and civilised.

So let's look at this 'no harm' principle. First of all, some people may question why I say that the principle is arbitrary. A rule is arbitrary if it has no logical basis or deduction - it cannot be deduced logically from true statements or facts. For example, parents are sometimes arbitrary when our children ask, "why do I have to do tidy my room?" and we answer, "Because I say so!" If something is only so because I say so, then that is arbitrary. My earlier articles have tried to show that all moral standards that are not based on God's revelation of right and wrong, good and evil, are automatically arbitrary. They are subjective, as no-one can argue with someone else that one moral statement is right and another is wrong.

So we should ask from a non-religious perspective why it would be wrong to harm someone? Having asked this several times in real life, my experience is that the answer from the non-religious person is always something like, "well it's obvious that you shouldn't hurt someone". But I don't have to accept that it is obvious. As I mentioned above, there are many examples of people who don't see that as obvious - people that the majority of civilised human beings frown upon or see as evil. Most people do not see Hitler or Stalin as simply having different philosophies. They see them as evil. But how would our civilised non-religious friends reason with someone who shared the same views as Hitler or Stalin? How would they argue that human beings should not inflict harm on each other? They have no basis. In practice, because they have no basis, they don't try to reason. They resort to dehumanising people less civilised than themselves - so the likes of Hitler and Stalin are called madmen or monsters. The rioters of summer 2011 were called 'feral rats' and 'scum'. The cannibals of the jungle are patronisingly called 'primitive' (they don't know any better).

The non-religious person has no basis for the 'no harm' principle because this principle conflicts with their other basic assumptions. As I have highlighted in earlier articles, their basic assumptions about the origins of life lead them to believe that human beings are not set apart from other animals or even other things that exist. So why should we be upset about human beings - just one type of meaningless formation of molecules amongst millions - being harmed? And on the other hand, why should human beings be the only species or entity with their own moral code? Animals base their behaviour on fear and strength and class distinctions, rather than right and wrong. Why shouldn't human beings? And if the response is simply that intellect, self-awareness and morality is just the particular way that human beings have evolved as distinct from other species, then intellect, self-awareness and morality are meaningless distinctions. On that basis one person's morality based on not doing people harm is as good as another person's morality based on using other people for their own pleasure.

But let's also ask the question, what is harm? We could say that harm is an action performed on an entity that detracts from the quality, pleasure or good feeling of that entity. So the countryside can be harmed by leaving litter, because it detracts from the quality of the countryside. A person can be harmed physically, financially or emotionally by attacking their body, taking their possessions or by threatening their safety or security or pleasure.

But what defines quality in a universe where one formation of atoms is no more meaningful than any other? We could just as well say that quality is something esoteric that evokes pleasure in human beings. It's something we sense.

But then what defines pleasure? Has pleasure any meaning? Isn't pleasure just a release of endorphins in the human body, caused by certain predictable triggers? Is pleasure any more meaningful than something that gives human beings a will to survive?

And what if one person's pleasure is limited by another person's pleasure? Relationships are a good example. If your relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend (pre-marriage) is not making you happy, or you can be happier with someone else, should you end the relationship or continue? Your boyfriend or girlfriend may be upset (reduced pleasure - i.e. harm) if you end it, so that your increased pleasure results in their reduced pleasure. Would it be wrong to end the relationship?

And if the response is that this is a trivial example, because hurt feelings don't count, then why do we have a concept of 'psychological abuse' or bullying? Sometimes a domineering husband or wife may not physically hurt their spouse, but they inflict psychological damage by the way that they speak or act. And in the school playground a big kid may not actually physically hurt others, but may hurt someone's feelings by their threatening or manipulative behaviour. Why would this be wrong if hurt feelings are trivial?

And why is it ok to harm criminals? Some would say it's not ok, on the 'no harm' moral principle. That's why many psychologists and politicians refuse to talk about punishment. If we don't like someone's behaviour to the extent that we call it criminal then we try first to 'rehabilitate' them (i.e. persuade them to live by the moral standards of the majority), then if they won't be rehabilitated they are restricted. Prison becomes something that protects civilised society, rather than something that punishes criminals.

There are many many more avenues we could explore to show that the foundations of any morality without God are arbitrary, subjective and meaningless. We simply have to keep asking for definitions, asking why and pointing to the inconsistencies.

In the end we all basically know what harm is, what pleasure is, what quality is. The point is that non-religious people have no rational basis for these definitions. They simply feel what is right and wrong. But as Christians we know that people know these things because we are all created by God, in His image. God gives meaning to everything and is the foundation of truth and knowledge. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we cannot change the fact that we are God's special creation. And as such we are made to think in terms of right and wrong, truth, emotion, pleasure, and such like. And therefore it is no surprise that all these things only make sense in a Christian worldview. But if non-religious people try to do without God and still have right and wrong, truth, pleasure, emotion, etc, they find they end in meaninglessness, irrationality and emptiness.

Next I want, God-willing, to look at the foundations of Christian morality, where it comes from, why it is a positive thing, and how it works. This will take another few articles.

Why should we care about morality?

2011-11-14T06:30:00.000Z

Whose Rules Rule? - Part Four

I've been writing recently about morality, and comparing non-religious concepts with the Christian source of morality. I am writing this series of articles for two reasons. Firstly, I have noticed the apparent paradox whereby many non-religious people, who seem to have strong moral repulsion to awful acts such as rioting, looting from shops or child abuse, also have a strong dislike of Christian morality. So I’m trying to point out why this is, and why Christian moral standards have much more in their favour than people think, even if they don’t like living by those standards.

Secondly, Christians, influenced by the pressure from the prevailing philosophy of our culture (thrust at us through every channel available – billboards, tv, newspapers, magazines, internet) have become timid in our reasoning about morality. That’s a big problem in our presentation of the gospel, the core of our faith, and the good news we have for the world. You see, without a conviction of sin, the news of salvation from sin makes no sense. My perception is that much of our evangelism makes no sense to the non-religious people who make up the majority of our population in the West, and it makes no sense because we do not challenge their faulty concept of sin.

Of course, this should not be any surprise to us, and it isn’t just that the non-religious have a faulty concept of sin. They also have a faulty concept of God, humanity, knowledge, science, and just about everything else. It shouldn’t be a surprise because the Bible tells us that in order to see the kingdom of God we have to be born again of the Spirit (John 3:3-5) – i.e. it is impossible without God’s spiritual intervention.

However, every age and every philosophy and every false religion have their own major blind spots and points where they diverge from the truth. It has been noted by evangelical commentators for many years that as generations through to 20th and 21st Centuries have passed, the influence of our Christian heritage and institutions has become less and less (see, for example, Telling the Truth, D.A. Carson (ed); The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, John Piper and Justin Taylor (eds); Above all Earthly Powers, David Wells; The Gagging of God, D.A. Carson). Whereas 60 years ago, when Christian assumptions were still influential, an evangelist could speak of the sinfulness of people and be more or less understood, that is not the case now in an age where Christian assumptions and beliefs have been largely rejected.

My conviction is that this is no reason to minimise talk of sin in our gospel presentations, and indeed our day-to-day conversation (which is what leads to personal evangelistic opportunities). It is instead time to recognise the need to press deeper into our culture’s philosophy. When we present the gospel, at almost every point we will meet with challenges and misunderstanding. And therefore the work of apologetics – answering objections – is now a more important discipline than ever, and something that all Christians should become proficient in.

So part of my purpose in writing these articles is to attempt to work through how we should, as Christians, talk about sin and morality. How can we engage with the culture in which we live in a way that not only tries to democratically prevent further descent into God-dishonouring behaviour, but also forces debate that allows us an entrance to share the gospel. After all, it is not politics but only the gospel that is the “power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

What our non-religious friends and neighbours need to see is that Christian talk about sin and morality, even in politics, is in actual fact our way of being kind to them. We want them to know what sin is, acknowledge it as sin in their lives, and have the opportunity to turn from it, and in turning from it and turning to Christ receive salvation. The church needs to have this explicitly in our rhetoric when debating in forums such as the Church of England’s General Synod (though I acknowledge that the media often portrays even the most loving rhetoric as hateful).

I have to admit to being more than a little concerned when I hear the language of outrage being used by Christian preachers and politicians speaking about homosexuality and abortion. The very fact that the worldly counter-rhetoric speaks in terms of phobias and religious hatred may partly indicate that we are not communicating in the right language. We are being misunderstood. I admit also that part of this misunderstanding is deliberate prevarication by the liberal intelligentsia and media in an effort to avoid the truth, but at least we ought to take care in the words we use.

At the same time I firmly believe that Christians ought not to stop talking about sin, specifically and generally. And should not pull punches when it comes to talking about its seriousness and serious consequences. We should not expect necessarily to remain friends or to be popular when we tell the truth about sin and morality. However, we should only fall out for the right reasons – because of the truth and not the harshness of the way we present the truth. “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

So far, I’ve outlined the following:

That non-religious people have moral standards, but the source of their morality is themselves. This is the reason why they get upset when Christians say that some actions are sinful that they do not think there is anything wrong with – even if they do not do these things themselves. They take it personally.
That non-religious moral systems are therefore necessarily subjective, and have no objective basis. The logic of this is anarchy, unless sufficient common ground can be found to keep the peace in a democratic society.
That non-religious assumptions either devalue humanity and make even their own moral standards pointless, or reduce to arbitrary emotional biases. Both situations militate against a peaceful and orderly society.

To summarise: non-religious people, even though their basic assumptions about life and the universe give them nothing on which to base moral standards and care for others, still get upset about the brutal killing of a child, the famine victims and AIDS victims of Africa, or terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. This seems illogical, but it actually isn’t when you take into account that they see themselves arbitrarily as the final authority in matters of right and wrong. If something makes them feel bad, then it they define it as bad. As someone has said, non-religious morality is based entirely on “the yuck factor”.

In future articles I hope to probe other areas that demonstrate the emptiness of postmodern thinking about morality compared to the robust rationality and cogency of Christianity. I also hope to demonstrate further how Christians can talk about morality in clearly loving ways.

What’s so special about being human?

2011-10-24T06:30:00.001+01:00

Whose Rules Rule - Part Three

What I’ve done so far in this series of blog articles is only to sketch outlines. I’ve tried to outline the fundamental difference between Christian morality and non-religious philosophies of morality – the final authority. For the Christian the final authority in all matters is God, and He communicates through His Word, the Bible. For the non-religious person, however religious his background and upbringing, the final authority is himself. I believe, as I’ve said, that this is the reason why Christians are treated so harshly in the West when we use our right to free speech to point out the immorality of certain actions and lifestyles. It’s because any criticism is taken personally, as an affront to the non-religious person’s authority and autonomy.

However, I also indicated that the lack of absolute standards gives problems for the non-religious person. When they meet someone whose moral standards are different they have no basis on which to argue.

But there are other problems. The majority of moral opinions held by non-religious Westerners – those brought up under the influence of Christianity – assume human beings are superior to, or at least set apart from, other animal species, and further regard all human beings as equal. In some ways this is not remarkable. Since we are human we are naturally concerned with the morality of our own species, and we naturally generalise for all of the same kind. Apes have certain general habits and traits, iguanas have their own general characteristics, eagles and rats too, and so on. So we humans focus on the general moral characteristics of humans. But in many ways it is more than that. We do tend to talk about the human race as somehow special or greater than animals.

The problem is that these assumptions are inconsistent with other fundamental beliefs of non-religious people.

First, let’s think about whether human beings have any intrinsic value that means we should care what happens to them. To do that we have to have some definition of what it means to be human. If we want to have a concept of some kind of intrinsic value in humanity, then that must come from what we are. And what we are is determined by how we originated.

My amateur assessment is that non-religious people divide into two camps with regard to how we originated. One group is the atheist group that believes everything that exists is the product of random chance evolution. This is their most basic assumption. (It’s an assumption that has no proof… but that’s not for discussion here!) The other group cannot bring themselves to believe that the intricate beauty of the universe - in its majesty, complexity, intricacy and variety – could have evolved randomly. They believe that the universe was probably designed and made by an intelligent being, greater than any other being or any part of creation. In short, they believe in a Creator. They just don’t see Him as relevant to the way they live their lives, or indeed have any concept of His attachment to any particular religion.

The atheist, I assert, would be inconsistent and irrational to build any moral code at all based on the value of human life. As Christians living in a democracy we are thankful for this inconsistency, for without it we would have violent anarchy and a disintegration of civilisation. However, for the atheist to say that something is wrong because it attacks a valuable human life is irrational, because it conflicts with their basic belief.

I’m worried that this may be stating the obvious, but I’ll explain it anyway, just in case. If atheistic, random evolution is true then the basic building blocks (let’s call them atoms and molecules to save us from unnecessary technicality) of the universe simply ebb and flow in a meaningless progression that we define as evolution. One formation of atoms looks like primordial soup, another like rocks, another like invisible gases such as oxygen. Chemical reactions happen as these atoms and molecules come into contact with each other, and these reactions bring about big changes from time to time. The result is yet more different formations of atoms and molecules. Mutations happen so that some fish spawn new amphibian species; some amphibian species spawn bird and reptile species; some bird and reptile species spawn mammal species, and so on through to apes and humans.

With evolutionary philosophical foundations, though, the progression has no meaning. And the distinctions between different forms have no meaning either. Different forms of atoms are just different forms of atoms. End of story. And yet even an evolutionist makes distinctions between things, even though in his own worldview these distinctions are meaningless. They persist in distinguishing between non-living things (solids, liquids, gases) and living things (animals, birds, trees); between plants, animals, fish and birds; and between non-intelligent animals and intelligent animals (of which human beings are allegedly the only type so far known to have evolved… but leaving the possibility that we may find that some animals or aliens qualify as being intelligent). Non-living things tend to just follow the laws of physics and chemistry. Non-intelligent living things tend to just follow the instincts, cycles and habits of their species. But as intelligent living things we are characterised by conscious struggle, according to the secular atheist - the struggle for meaning and to "find our place in the universe".

However, these distinctions are arbitrary for the atheist, since he wants to say that fundamentally we are just random collections of atoms. Feelings, knowledge, memory, understanding, wisdom, relationships are all meaningless for the atheist. They are simply, for him, just more random chemical reactions within the random atomic residue. So we, as human beings, surely should have no more rights than the gecko, the gopher, rocks, seaweed or nitrogen gas!

The atheist is inconsistent and irrational because they persist in living their lives as if things that happen to human beings matter whilst philosophically asserting that they don’t! Why do they get so upset about certain things they claim are “wrong”? Why do they get upset about people who disagree with their irrational babbling? Those are not the logical responses of people who really believe that all human beings are only different to rocks, plants and lizards by degrees of evolution.

The real logic of atheism and evolution is that human beings are not special at all, and deserve no special laws. So what if one random atom blob called a child is attacked by another random atom blob called an adult, and in a way that other random human atom blobs call sexual abuse? So what?

In the film Collatoral Vincent (played by Tom Cruise) is a cold-blooded contract killer who hijacks a taxi and forces its driver, Max (played by Jamie Foxx), to take him to various places to kill people. Max asks Vincent at one stage why he is killing the people he kills that night. Vincent’s reply is typical of the consistent atheist, “Get with it. Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, and a speck on one in a blink. That's us, lost in space. The cop, you, me... Who notices?” Later on, he says simply, “There's no good reason, there's no bad reason to live or to die.”

So the atheist not only has the problem that he cannot find an absolute and universal basis on which to argue for his moral standards, he also has the problem that his own philosophy concludes that morality and immorality is meaningless!

But what of the non-religious person who believes in a Creator? Their basic problem is that their concept of the Creator or god comes from within themselves. As such it has no objective truth, and therefore there is no way to know this god absolutely. The reason I say that their conception of god comes from within themselves is that it cannot come from anywhere else. What I mean is that even if they are influenced by Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or whatever, they consider themselves authorized to vary and contradict elements of those religions on the basis that they simply don’t feel like believing them. You may hear them say things like, “I don’t see god as being angry,” or “I see god as primarily a benevolent force,” or “I don’t think god will judge people”. If you were to ask them why they believe these things about god, they would say they just think it’s obvious or that they’re entitled to their opinion.

This applies just as much, by the way, to the assertion that the gods of all religions are really different faces of the same being, and therefore all religions lead to God. It is a belief that has no basis. It is wishful thinking, inasmuch as people don’t want to have to choose. They don’t want God to be someone whom they must know and honour. That would be too threatening. They want the Creator to be a being so distant and unknowable that we only catch glimpses of him/it in the insights of various religions. From that distance and obscurity he/it is no threat and they can choose to ignore him/it.

Their feeling that the human race was created, or that evolution was guided, by some intelligent powerful being, however, gives them no clue as to what they are as human beings. They too, like the atheist, are left wondering, making it up out of their own emotions and intellect. They have no basis on which to talk about what human beings are or what our purpose is. And therefore they have no basis on which to build any conclusions about whether we are distinct or set apart from animals, and about what constitutes right and wrong things that we should or should not do.

So non-religious people of the West in the early 21st century have some serious problems when it comes to discussing morality. Everyone has concepts of right and wrong, as we saw, but the criticisms of Christian moral standards from contemporary non-religious people fall apart because they have no rational basis.

What makes something wrong?

2011-10-10T06:30:00.001+01:00

Whose Rules Rule? - Part Two

I made a big assertion in my last article. I said that the non-religious people of the West basically see themselves as the final authority when it comes to deciding what is right and wrong. I see that as the primary reason for conflict between Christian moral standards and the norms of the non-religious West, because if people are their own final authority then they tend to define right and wrong in a way that suits their self-interest. They tend to define things as right that make them feel good. And therefore the Judeo-Christian moral code is seen as oppressive, because it limits their enjoyment of things they have given themselves the right to enjoy.

It’s a big assertion and it masks a lot of variety and complexity in the presentation of those beliefs. But don’t worry. I’m not going to leave that assertion ungrounded. I may not explore absolutely every angle of the issue, but I hope that I’ll talk about enough for you to see the direction of the argument and the logic of it.

I think having shown that both Christians and non-religious people have standards of right and wrong, the next place to go is some discussion of how we decide what makes something wrong. That’s obvious for the Christian, or the Jew or Muslim for that matter. Something is wrong if God the Creator, the King of the Universe, says it is wrong. For the non-religious person it’s more complex. Of course, the application of God’s law to different situations is not always clear-cut, and therefore there is legitimate debate amongst Christians. But at least we all agree that God is the final authority and we turn to His Word for guidance.

For the non-religious, the source and rationale for their morality varies from person to person. A couple of brief examples will hopefully suffice in the limited space we have.

Let’s ask an imaginary atheist why it would be wrong of me to kill them. What would they say? Because it is wrong to hurt other people, they might say. To which we would say, why is it wrong to hurt other people? We may point out that doctors often hurt people in the process of helping them to get well.

The atheist may reply that doctors hurt people in order to benefit them in the long term, so the principle is that we must do things that benefit other people. Why, we should ask again, should we benefit other people?

Because the survival of our species depends on us helping each other to survive – that could be the answer. One of the things which separates human beings from other species, and which has made us the dominant species after millions of years of evolution, they may say, is our ability and urge to help each other. But why is the survival of our species important? After all, evolutionary theory suggests that all species are the result of random chance mutations and changes. Why shouldn’t we expect to be superseded in the evolutionary process?

They may respond that it may not be important or meaningful for our species to survive, but it is a natural urge to survive. It is what living things do, they may say. And caring for each other is the human way of living out the collective urge to survive. But, we could answer, why then do we see human beings who like to kill people – cannibals, serial killers? They obviously don’t feel the same way about the wrongfulness of killing. Why is my atheist friend’s principles and arguments any better than the cannibal’s? What right has my atheist friend to say that the cannibal is wrong to kill people, or that Ted Bundy was wrong to kill all his victims?

At this point the atheist is in a really sticky place, because he cannot say that killing is absolutely wrong for everyone. To say that he must have some absolute authority to appeal to. But he denies the existence of absolute authority. So all he can say is that the majority of people in our culture have decided that killing in certain circumstances is unacceptable. In fact, he can’t really talk about things being right and wrong at all. All he can say is that he doesn’t like people murdering other people, and so on. If he can get enough like-minded people on his side then together they can enforce that as a rule.

But notice the final authority is nothing absolute. The authority is the individual. Collectively the majority view is forced onto the minority, who are supposed to either accept it or they suffer the consequences. So the atheist’s final authority is himself. He decides what is right and wrong, and seeks to be in the majority to promote those views in democratic systems.

What of the non-religious person who claims some church background? It seems still fairly normal in England for people to say that they are Anglican when it comes to filling in surveys or school application forms. And yet much less than 5% of the population is in church every Sunday. So there are some people for whom the Christian church is a badge or part of their heritage, but means nothing more to them on a day-to-day basis. They too are practically non-religious.

It is not unusual for people such as these to be sexually promiscuous, or to have sex before getting married – they simply fit in with whatever the fashion of the day happens to be. If most couples live together and enjoy sexual relations before they get married, then so do they.

If they were asked why they don’t see that as wrong even though they call themselves Christians, a high proportion might just reply simply that they think parts of the Bible are old fashioned and out of date.

And there again we see the final authority is not God, but themselves. They give themselves the authority to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they accept as having influence in their lives and other parts they choose to ignore. But if they do that they fall over the same problem as the atheist. They have no grounds on which to say any particular thing is right or wrong for all people – if they are the final authority for determining right and wrong in their lives, then there is no absolute right and wrong.

They may or may not find this perturbing. I do. You see, when people start to accept that there is no absolute right and wrong, and they start to see themselves as the ultimate authority over their own moral standards, then they start to act in increasingly selfish ways. If they can decide what is right and wrong for them, why not make up rules that make them rich and happy? If I’m a bloke and I can’t get a girl, then why not see if I like sex with other blokes? And if I don’t like sex with adults, then why not get thrills with children? If I am a girl who gets pregnant from casual sex, why not kill the baby to save the hassle? If I am brought up in a poor family and have a rubbish education, why not rob rich people to get money? If I have a depressing life, why not take drugs or drink to excess at the weekend to block out reality and get at least some thrills in life? If I see rioters attacking police, why not take advantage of the situation and steal from an electrical store? If a rival gang is threatening my neighbourhood, why not teach them a lesson with a gun? Why not? Why not? Without an absolute standard of morality that we all appeal to, we have nowhere to get the answer.

The fact that every non-religious person does not act so selfishly is a blessing, but is ultimately only due to the fact that we are in reality all made by God and have a conscience. But as that conscience is increasingly and collectively ignored, we will descend further and further into anarchy.

There is so much more to be said, but there is not enough space left today. I have sketched very faintly the contrast between the firm source of Christian morality and the crumbling foundations of non-religious Western morality. I have not laid out positively the Christian position, or made any calls for change at this stage. Those will come, but there are more areas to cover.

Whose Rules Rule? - Part One

2011-09-28T06:36:00.000+01:00

Part One - What is sin?

When non-religious people talk with Christians about morality they normally do so with the belief that there is common ground that can form the basis of discussion. But there ultimately isn't! In terms of the ultimate principles that underpin and guide what we feel is right and wrong, we are in completely different belief systems. I'm going to try to illustrate this over what is currently planned as a series of twelve articles, by looking at several questions where Christians come from a completely different basis of belief than the non-religious person.

Ok, let's pin this down with real brutally honest examples before we start on the philosophical reflections:

Christians believe that abortion is wrong. It is killing a child. It is murder. Killing other people is wrong, except by accident, in war or in self-defence. It is sin. We are given a hard time for saying that by the non-religious masses. Not only do they think that abortion is not wrong, they believe that Christian opposition to abortion is wrong. Christian opposition is a sin against their freedom.

Christians believe that sexual intercourse outside heterosexual marriage is wrong. That means, of course, that we believe that 'living together' is a sin, one-night stands are sinful, adultery is sinful and that homosexual sex is also sinful. We are frowned upon big time for saying that too. Not only does the modern non-religious person think that homosexuality and sex outside marriage is not wrong, they believe that Christian morality is wrong. Christian sexual standards are a sin, in their view, against their freedom. And they find that offensive.

So it’s not the case that Christians believe in sin and the non-religious person doesn’t. The non-religious person clearly believes in sin, but their definitions are different.

(And when I talk about the 'non-religious person', as I outlined in my article about the riots in England in August 2011, I intend to talk about the majority of people in the UK, Western Europe and other English-speaking nations. Some of these people are confident enough to call themselves atheists or agnostics. Others still want to call themselves Christians, Anglicans, Catholics or Jews, but what they are really saying is that they don't want the hassle of arguing about the existence of God, but they still just want to get on with living life without religion intruding on it.)

Where views differ so radically it is normally because we have different basic assumptions. But many of us fail to recognise this, and we continue to argue as if we were agreed on certain principles and are only arguing about the particular details. This is the case when non-religious people in the West argue about moral standards with Christians.

You see, for the 21st century non-religious person there are two things that annoy them. The first is when someone transgresses their own standards and does something that they believe is wrong – for example when someone sexually abuses children or defrauds the state benefits system. The second is when someone tells them that their standards are wrong – i.e. when someone says something is wrong that they think is not wrong. And these opinions may be different from one person to another.

Why is that? I believe it’s because both scenarios are a challenge to their authority and autonomy (control) in the world. When other people do things they don’t like that is an implicit challenge to their authority. When other people tell them that they are wrong in their moral statements, that is an explicit challenge to their authority. Either way they are confronted with the brutal fact that they cannot control what goes on in the world, because other people have different views of right and wrong. Normally so long as these other views do not impinge directly on their freedom to live in the way they want they just get on with life, with a slightly uneasy feeling. But when crimes are very bad, in close proximity, or their freedom to do what they want is at risk they become very unhappy.

To put it bluntly, effectively 21st Century non-religious people take it personally when someone does something they believe is wrong, or tells them their morals are wrong. And it is personal according to their basic assumptions, because they believe that they have the final authority to set the rules in their lives. Even law-abiding citizens only agree to be bound by the law of the land because it has their seal of approval, their vote, because they recognise that their own peace and prosperity depends on everyone limiting their behaviour by agreeing to go with the majority. To get political about things, in a democracy this clearly only works when people have similar basic assumptions and similar moral codes. The wider the divergence of opinion, the more likely factions will occur, as one or more group starts to feel their power for self-determination unacceptably limited by the majority, without apparent benefit to them. And when the benefits of self-control cease to outweigh the cost to their freedom there is often resentment and then occasionally violence.

In summary, for the 21st Century non-religious person their moral authority is ultimately themselves alone.

Christians, on the other hand, put moral authority wholly outside of themselves, in the hands of the One who created us all – the Almighty God. When we say something is wrong it is not on our say-so, it is on the basis of higher authority, the ultimate authority of God.

This has several implications for the way that we approach each other:

The non-religious person often feels that Christians are acting ‘superior’ when they point out things they think are wrong. However, this is often because they think Christians are arguing on the same basic assumptions as themselves – i.e. that they have final authority in their own lives. Actually when a Christian says something is wrong it is not because we are trying to force our own personal opinions on everyone else. It is because we are trying to help our friends, families and culture avoid the anger of the Almighty God, whose rules have been broken. So I’d urge our non-religious friends not to take offense, taking it personally when we talk about sin and morality. We believe we are under the same rules, and have also transgressed those rules. We are equally sinners.

Christians have, I tentatively suggest, also allowed that misunderstanding to go unchecked. Realising that we live in a culture that does not accept God’s Word as a sufficient reason for restraining behaviour, we have tried to find common ground on which to argue for traditional moral standards (that we believe God requires). For example, when arguing against abortion or assisted suicide, we tend not to say that God forbids it because it involves killing someone. Instead we try to persuade people on the basis of science and psychology. In general terms public opinion is divided on these issues, so the success of these arguments is mixed. But the point is that in an attempt to lead society to behave in ways that do not openly displease God we have tried to use worldly arguments, and ended up giving the impression that our motives are the same as the non-religious people we argue with.

So when we say, “abortion is wrong” or “euthanasia is wrong”, what most people hear is, “we are better than you, we have better standards than you and we want you to join our party”.

What I am urging is that we allow the argument to go deeper. We should recognise that we have different morals because we have different principles and beliefs, and discuss those as well. Then we may find we both understand each other better, but hopefully also start to see the firm rationality of Christianity compared to the irrationality of non-Christian principles. That’s what I hope to drive into in the next few articles.

Riots in England 2011 - thinking about the reaction

2011-08-16T07:30:00.002+01:00

A lot of articles have been written trying to come to terms with the recent riots and looting in England (August 2011). Most people I spoke to while it was going on were asking "Why?"

In fact, just stating the fact that the incidents occurred in England says a lot. Nothing of note happened in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. So there were no sectarian undertones involved. There may initially have been a hint of racial disgruntlement, but this was actually expressed peacefully and was not part of the violence. The attacks were mainly on property, rather than people. People who got hurt were almost invariably protecting property. No organisation, as far as I can tell, played any part in encouraging or organising violence.

But why? Few of those involved can really give a reason or purpose that anyone else can understand or believe. Many people have attempted explanations based on political agendas. Some point to the withdrawal of community services because of cost cutting, and the social exclusion of the lower classes. Others point to the dismantling of the fabric of society (e.g. the attack on the traditional family) by the "liberal intelligentsia" and the previous socialist government. Others cite the "entitlement culture" which encourages people to feel they should expect to be provided for, whether they work hard or not.

We've heard the offenders spoken of as "feral rats". I've heard people I know rant about them, saying they should be packed off to Afghanistan to see what it's like at the sharp end. Some have ranted that they should be lined up and shot, or that they don't deserve any place in our society.

So there has been widespread condemnation of the rioters and thieves, and a whole lot of finger pointing as we try to understand the reasons. And on top of that there was criticism of the police for not preventing it all.

The Prime Minister spoke of pockets of society being, "not just broken, but sick." In the Daily Mail article by columnist Melanie Phillips (11 August 2011, www.dailymail.co.uk), she begins her lengthy analysis by saying that these events were the, "all-too-predictable outcome of a three-decade liberal experiment which tore up virtually every basic social value." She goes on later to say that, "What has been fuelling all this is not poverty, as has so predictably been claimed, but moral collapse… We are not merely up against feral children, but feral parents."

She brings her article to a close by saying that, "Repairing this terrible damage also means, dare I say it, a return to the energetic transmission of Biblical morality… When church leaders stop prattling like soft-headed social workers and start preaching, once again, the moral concepts that underlie our civilisation, and when our political leaders decide to oppose the culture war that has been waged against that civilisation rather than supinely acquiescing in its destruction, then - and only then - will we start to get to grips with this terrible problem."

And lest I be misunderstood in what I am about to say, I believe that Melanie Phillips has some very perceptive observations. I too have been concerned through the New Labour years at the attempt to break down the family, but I think if we're honest the rot started a lot further back than 1997. And it wasn't 1979 either, when the socialists say that we all became materialist through the work of the Thatcher government. It was probably also further back than the "permissive society" that boomed in the 1960s (before I was born).

I also think it is right to track down lawbreakers and see that they face justice - that should go without saying. People who do wrong things should be punished for their wrongdoing.

So what is my take on it all… for what it's worth!?

I tried to think of where Jesus might have focussed his attention. Did He condemn the rioters, fraudsters and thieves of His day? Did He condemn the lone-parent families, the prostitutes and the drunks? Who were His harshest words reserved for?

The conclusion I came to was that Jesus reserved His harshest words for the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious traditionalists, who thought they were above everyone else because they kept the law. They looked down on the tax collectors (fraudsters), prostitutes, the adulterous, the irreligious. They would have been the ones wringing their hands over the collapse of the moral fabric of society. They were morally upright and perfectionist down into the fine detail.

But why did Jesus condemn them? Why did He call them "whitewashed tombs" (Matthew 23:27)?

Basically it was because they thought they were better than everyone else. They thought that their morality and uprightness made them more acceptable to God than the ordinary Jew, and certainly a cut above the tax collector and sinner. They followed the letter of God's law, and even embellished it, but they did not understand what God's law was all about.

And that's what I think we see today too. We see non-religious Pharisees, the respectable middle-classes, the Daily Mail readers… those who spit blood as they talk about lone parents on benefits, immigrants, youths outside Tesco Express, the language of young people today. We think we are so much better than the looter, the rioter, the inarticulate gangster ("init bruv"!), the heroin addict, the binge drinker, the uneducated. In contrast we are respectable, we are upright, we give to charities, we are on the school PTA, we discipline our children, say 'please' and 'thank you', we don't have too many children and we are polite to our neighbours.

I think it would be just as much a shock now as it was then for the Pharisees to hear Jesus call us sinners, as much sinners as the rioter. Perhaps Melanie Phillips might be shocked (although I don't know her, so I shouldn't personalise my point) to be called a sinner alongside the looter and the liberals and Harriet Harman.

The truth is that Jesus calls us all to repent of our sin, and to turn to Him. If we "return to the energetic transmission of Biblical morality" - and we should - it should be to serve the energetic transmission of the good news of salvation for all sinners. Truly Biblical morality, of the kind that Jesus preached, is the kind that calls us all sinners, all under the judgment of God, and all heading for Hell. But the Christian gospel is the good news that all are called to repentance and faith, and all are offered eternal life through Jesus' death and resurrection.

And I could leave it there. But I think this opens a bit of a can of worms. You see, whilst the Jewish Pharisees of Jesus' day at least believed in God and knew what sin was, we middle-class Pharisees of the 21st Century do not even comprehend the word sin. We do not see why God shouldn't accept us. In our own eyes we are not bad people. I remember many years ago bringing an unbelieving friend along to a Sunday morning church service at which Lindsay Brown (of IFES and Lausanne) was speaking. Lindsay spoke very strongly of the need for repentance. My friend was extremely offended and fumed quietly afterwards that he had no need to repent because he had done nothing wrong. Many of us these days think like that.

So I'm going to spend a few more articles reflecting on Christian belief about sin and morality, how we should talk about it as Christians, and how it contrasts rationally with the non-religious worldviews of 21st Century Britain. I hope and pray that it will be useful.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Fifteen)

2011-07-24T08:19:00.000+01:00

Conclusion: Learning and submitting

I can remember learning - but I can't remember where - as a teenager, that actions spring from belief. And it's something that resonated so strongly with me that it has stuck in my consciousness since then. Actions spring from belief. What I believe about things will affect what I do and the way I do it. Or put another way, the way I act is evidence for what I really believe, no matter what I say. Actions speak louder than words, as they say. So I should challenge myself in both directions: Examining my beliefs, how do they affect positively the way I live my life? Examining my actions, are they consistent with what I say I believe? Of course, it's more complicated than that, because we don't know ourselves as well as think we do sometimes. And that's where I often get frustrating inconsistencies in my life, and sin. And that's the way this series about prayer came about, and how it has concluded, but in different ways.

I think that when I came to James 5:15 last year I knew deep down that God would only grant the requests that He wanted to grant, and therefore there is a possibility that some of our prayer requests are not granted. And therefore I was content (was that rest, though, or resignation? There is a difference, and I confess to oscillating). James 5:15 removed my contentment, because I felt the strain of an apparent inconsistency. "The prayer of faith will make the sick person well." Should I be content? Or should I be holding out for healing for all those sick people that I regularly pray for? Different passages in the Bible appeared to say different things.

But I think that the challenge to put my beliefs into action has become more pressing through the study of the passages I identified. And in rounding off this series I just thought it would be helpful to briefly list all those challenges.

• Ask God boldly for what we need;

• Humbly acknowledge God as our heavenly Father, who knows what is best for us and who loves us, and will give us what is best;

• Pray for what will enable us to glorify our heavenly Father by seeking His kingdom before anything else;

• Pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to fill us more and more.

• Prayer requests are not granted to those who have no faith.

• Conversely, if we have faith in God then we must have boldness to pray for big things as well as small.

• Faithful prayer involves perseverance.

• Praying in Jesus' name means having the glory of God at the heart of all we desire.

• Praying in Jesus' name means acknowledging that we are only able to come to God in prayer through Jesus' death and resurrection.

• Praying in Jesus' name means asking for God to work in our lives to enable us to do the work He has given us - namely, bearing fruit in good works and sharing the gospel with other people.

• Be assured that God is ready to help us as we work for His glory and the coming of His kingdom.

• Don't pray for our own pleasure and self-satisfaction. Pray with God-centred motives and for God-centred motives.

• We see more of our prayer requests granted when we know we pray for things that God wants, as revealed in His Word, and as we understand and align our lives with that more deeply.

• Praying according to God's will means knowing the Bible.

• Praying according to God's will means accepting and rejoicing that God has the final decision in the answer to my prayers.

• Praying with the church is an important and special privilege, giving us even deeper access to the presence of Christ.

• Don't shy away from praying for big and amazing things, not least the raising of a dead soul to life to receive salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Our faith when we pray should be based on our knowledge of God and His promises in His Word, not on our past experiences of answered prayer.

• Praying with righteousness, repentance and confession, in the community of the church, will result in healing… but the full extent of that healing may have to wait until Jesus' second coming.

• Just keeping praying and don't give up.

And of course, those are just the things we learnt about prayer. I'm sure that we also learned a lot of other things as well, such as the importance of caring for the weak and those in the margins of the church, such as the way God assures us of His work in us, and many other things.

One of the things I pray for is that I may never lose sight of all that I've learnt through these studies.

It is quite moving for me to realise that when I started studying these passages I was just approaching the end of my course of chemotherapy. As I come to the end of this series of blog articles, just over a year later, I am fully fit and have been back in work for six weeks. The Lord has been very gracious to me. Not only have I been "raised up" from my illness, which is amazing enough on its own. But I have felt the warmth of His love through the church. And I've been given the time to study and benefit from His Word, and to share His Word with other people.

Apart from to urge us once again to never neglect persevering and faithful prayer, my final point is this: God uses our questions and confusions, weaknesses and doubts, to teach us huge amounts more than we ever expect, if we turn to His Word with faith.

It started, if you remember, with simply reading the Bible. Literally, just reading. How many of us miss out on learning all these big things about God and His infinite love for us simply because we don't simply read the Bible?

And then I allowed myself to ask an honest question. My reading led me to some confusion, and into asking questions. And I turned to God's Word to get the answers to those questions.

And all that learning about prayer, and the other things as well, stemmed from that one simple honest question, "Does God guarantee I will be healed if I pray for healing?" It started with weakness and doubt, and the result was a superabundance of encouragement.

I am certain that the Lord will do the same with your weaknesses and doubts, whatever they are. Read the Bible. Allow yourself to ask questions. And turn to the Bible to find the answers. Act on the answers. And the Lord will provide you with an overflowing amount of learning and encouragement.

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11)

May God bless us and glorify Himself in us.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Fourteen)

2011-06-14T08:02:00.001+01:00

Pray!

So after studying thirteen or fourteen Bible passages about prayer and faith, what were my thoughts as I turned back to the passage that had set me thinking? That's what I will share with you as I come close to the end of this series. I learnt a lot about prayer and about God, and I hope that you have done too, as I've taken you through the verses that challenged me.

The verse that triggered my thoughts was James 5:14-15, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven." Is it as simple as that? Pray, and get better?

Back in Part 5 of this series I said that, when we consider the rather blunt statements James makes throughout his letter, we ought to have in mind the purpose of the letter. Once you get to know him James is not difficult to understand. He's just knock-down blunt!

He starts his letter, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (1:1-4)

He is straight to the point. The letter is all about the right response to suffering and hardship. It's not scattered, random, thoughts ranging from temptation, to favouritism, to faith and deeds, to grumbling, to prayer, to healing sick people. It is challenging the responses to hardship that come from lack of faith. It is encouraging an uncompromising walk in the wisdom of God, through faith, with love, underpinned by prayer.

So when we come to the fifth chapter, let's spend a little time looking at how he leads into the verse we are looking at. Here's the passage (James 5:7-18) in full so that we can refer to it:

"Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

"Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

"Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

"Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops."

James has been condemning, in the verses immediately before this, the rich believers who are using their wealth as protection against persecution and hardship, rather than helping their poorer brothers. They have "hoarded wealth" (v3) just in case they might need it as they face hard times for the Lord. But they have ignored those who have hardly anything and the people who are starving to death around them.

The godly response to this hardship is not in using wealth, but to, "be patient… until the Lord's coming." (v7) They are not to "grumble against each other" (v9) over who has and who hasn't, or whether they can avoid persecution. In short, they are to have faith, believing and trusting that the Lord is coming again to bring judgment on their oppressors and bring them salvation as He promised.

He gives the example of the Old Testament prophets (vv10-11), who persevered in the face of suffering, never compromising, never failing to proclaim God's Word even if they were tortured, imprisoned or ignored. He gives the example of Job, who refused to speak ill of God, even in sickness, poverty and bereavement. And he assures us that, "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." (v11)

When he says, in verse 12, "do not swear… Let your 'Yes' be yes, and your 'No", no…", he is warning against trying to bargain with God: "I swear on my life, I'll do xyz if only you will relieve my suffering…" We are to simply do the right thing because it's right, patiently waiting for our vindication at the coming of the Lord.

Is anyone in trouble? "He should pray." (v13) God is full of compassion and mercy. We don't need to swear and try to bargain with God and twist His arm to do good to us. We should pray, knowing that He intends our hardship for our own good, persevering so that we, "may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (1:4)

Are we happy? Let's not, in complacency, forget the one who provides "every good and perfect gift" (1:17). "Let him sing songs of praise." (5:13) Don't neglect prayer and praise when you are in trouble or when you are happy. Both are from God and are for our good.

Are we sick (vv14ff)? Here we get to what we wanted to understand. Isn't the tendency to complain, to languish in bed feeling sorry for ourselves, to ask why God has done this to me or let this happen to me? "He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord." James bluntly says, in effect, "don't just lie there! Have faith in God and go and gather the church around you and ask for God's help!"

James is not here giving a ritual or an instruction book for divine healing. He is telling us to wake up and get serious with God! Anointing with oil is not a magical remedy. Having the elders come and pray is not giving them wizard-like powers. Those are to picture someone who seriously, truly believes that God is powerful and compassionate. When one of us is sick, we should get on our knees, calling on the name of the Lord in earnest, persevering prayer.

So James says in v15, "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven." Literally, the phrase is, "… will save the sick person." In the context, making the sick person physically cured of his sickness seems, at first sight, to be the primary intention, but James doesn't elaborate. Likewise, the phrase, "if he has sinned, he will be forgiven" does not imply that James makes a link between sin and sickness, as it appears at first. As we shall see, James is pointing at the mercy of God, who forgives our sins freely through faith in Christ and repentance.

So James is expressing the confidence that if we pray in faith, a sick person will definitely be saved - those who trust in Christ to such an extent that they confess their sins, ask for prayer, and are confident of forgiveness through him will receive forgiveness and eternal life. But James does hold before us the possibility that we may also receive physical short-term salvation from our particular illnesses. Whether our salvation is an immediate freedom from sickness, or a complete freedom from sickness and death after the Lord's coming (which James has only been talking about 8 verses earlier), faith manifested in earnest prayer will bring it about. Whether we are raised up from our present sick bed, or raised up from the grave, faith in Christ, manifested in prayer is what gives us access.

I think this is the right way of looking at the verse, since James says at the start of the passage that we are to "be patient… until the Lord's coming." Jesus never promised complete freedom from hardship or sickness before His second coming, even if we pray our socks off. In John 16:33, Jesus assures us that, "In this world you will have trouble." His promise is not to always relieve us of trouble. His promise is, "But take heart! I have overcome the world." In particular, Jesus did not promise His followers freedom from death before He comes again. Those who are not chosen to be alive when He returns will definitely die. And that means that some sicknesses will end in death, and some sicknesses will last until death. The greatest thing that Jesus did for us by taking the punishment for our sins on the cross, and rising from the dead, was to give us victory over death. Death is not to be feared, because it is the gateway into eternal life, when we will all be "mature and complete, not lacking anything" (1:4). As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:56-57, "The sting of death in sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

What James wants from us ultimately, which is what God wants from us, he spells out in v16: "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." We are to be a community, a church, a family that loves and cares for each other, so that we pray for each other. We are to be a family that strives together for righteousness, humbly confessing our sins and our failings, and encouraging each other to trust Jesus for forgiveness, and encouraging each other to look forward to His coming. In a community like that our prayers will be "powerful and effective".

However, lest we shrink from prayer because we know that we are not perfect, he gives the example of Elijah in verses 17 and 18. "Elijah was a man just like us." If you read about Elijah in the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament, you will find that he showed both great faith and great cowardice. He argued with God and then spoke boldly in His name. He had failings and fears just like we do. And yet when he prayed God brought a drought, and when he prayed again God brought rain. God answered Elijah's prayers in an amazing way.

To quote George Stulac's commentary, "Having emphasised righteousness as a condition for effective praying, James is not wanting Christians to postpone praying while they try to attain some level of perfection or super-spirituality… James is saying: Strive earnestly for the goal of righteousness, but get down immediately to the business of praying." (p186)

And I can't think of a better way to sum up the passage in James 5, and indeed probably the whole of James' letter, than with Stulac again: "In your trials, you don't need the power gained by money or favouritism or selfishness or fighting or swearing; use the power of prayer, for which you need righteousness. Commit yourself to doing what is right without compromise; then you may rely on God in prayer for all your needs." (p185)

I'll write again to summarise the lessons from all these studies, but if there is one thing that has come through time after time it is this: Even though God does not promise to give us everything we ask for without exception, He is our Father, He is compassionate and merciful, He loves His children so much that He purposed that His only Son should die so that we can spend eternity enjoying Him in Whom is the greatest joy, and He wants us to pray. He enjoys giving us things we pray for, if they are according to His will.

So I want to encourage you, as I have been challenged, if we have learnt nothing else together studying these passages - pray! Pray! Pray! Strive for righteousness, strive to know God's will from His Word, and pray some more! Pray privately. Pray with the church. Pray for healing. Pray for strength. Pray for more righteousness. Pray for small things. Pray for big things. Pray for amazing things. Pray at home. Pray at work. Pray in bed. Pray at mealtimes. "Pray continually!" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Pray! Pray! Pray!

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Thirteen)

2011-05-30T08:30:00.003+01:00

I've nearly finished sharing with you the fruit of the studies I did in the summer of 2010, looking through some Bible passages that talk about prayer and faith. There are two more passages to go through. Next time I thought it would be good to come full circle and talk about James 5:15, which was the verse that starting me thinking in the first place. After that I may try to sum up the lessons learnt (I'm not sure how many more articles that will take, so I am making no promises now!).

For this time, though, God willing, we ought to look at probably the most difficult verse of all the ones I studied. That is Mark 11:24:

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

It's difficult because it is the only verse that does not appear to have any limitations or conditions, except to believe. So it appears to force the blame for unanswered prayer onto our lack of faith. If we are not receiving what we want then Jesus appears to say that the reason would be because we do not have enough faith. And I think all honest Christians would admit that our lack of faith disappoints us. Are we then to feel guilty that we don't achieve more, or we suffer too much, because we don't have enough faith? I don't think so. There is a challenge, but I will get to that later.

Let's look at the context. Both Mark and Matthew include the events that led to the statement we are considering. Mark 11:12-25 and Matthew 21:18-22. There are one or two differences between the accounts, but it will only be a distraction if we go into them here.

Jesus has come into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, to the acclaim of a great crowd who laid down cloaks and palm branches in front of him as a kind of royal procession (Matthew 21:1-11). He immediately puts himself in conflict with the Jewish establishment, who hated him. His teaching and his parables, from this point on, relentlessly chide them for being self-seeking and self-righteous rather than recognising the coming of God's Messiah, their Saviour.

For the benefit of his disciples, travelling with him, he gives a dramatic illustration:

"The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And his disciples heard him say it….

"… In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!'

"'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered. 'I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, "Go, throw yourself into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.'" (Mark 11:12-25)

The fig tree was a picture of the Israel of Jesus' day, which was largely fruitless because of its self-righteousness. Jesus was making the point that Israel as a nation was going to be cast aside because of their unbelief. He cursed the fruitless fig tree so that it withered in the same way that Israel would wither because of their unbelief and their rejection of the Messiah.

If you were to ask me what was the most surprising thing about this passage, however, it would not be Jesus' statement about faith and prayer. What is most surprising, in my opinion, is that the disciples were surprised! In Matthew's account we are told that, "they were amazed" (21:20). That's striking to me, because they had been with Jesus for three years and had seen him walk on water, heal the sick, feed thousands of people from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, drive out demons and do many other miracles. Why would they be surprised that he should curse a fig tree and that it withered? Surely they had seen Jesus do things more powerful and dramatic?

Perhaps it was a little bit unexpected. Perhaps they expected that when Jesus said, "May you never bear fruit again!" the fig tree would simply be fruitless and leafy for the rest of its life. Perhaps they did not expect it to dramatically die immediately. Perhaps after so many healing, liberating and creating miracles this destructive miracle startled them. But Jesus makes it clear that he understood their amazement as lack of faith. So his response was to challenge that lack of faith. "Have faith in God!" Jesus says.

Did the disciples not believe that God could move mountains if He wanted to in response to their prayers? Did they not believe that through Jesus Christ they had access to God to ask Him to do amazing things? They should not have been so surprised. But the picture that Mark and Matthew paint of the disciples before Jesus rose from the dead - throughout their gospels - is a picture of slow understanding and timidity. They did not yet clearly see the closeness of the relationship between Jesus and His Father, and the full implications of the access to God's power that went with that. Still less did they understand that Jesus' work enabled them to have that same access, through faith in Him, so that they too could ask for amazing things.

Moving mountains may not be something we would ask God for, and if we did it would only be to test Him. But the point is that God is able and willing to do really amazing things for us in response to genuine prayer that has His kingdom and glory at heart.

One of the reasons we feel we don't see God working in an amazing way is because we don't ask Him for amazing things. We need to understand that we can ask God for anything, and have faith that He can do anything. Nothing is beyond His power. I think this is a major thing for all of us. We don't have much faith if we're honest. If we did, wouldn't our church prayer meetings be consistently well attended? (I challenge myself in this too!) If we really believed that God is ready, willing and able to answer our really difficult requests, wouldn't we pray and pray and pray?

But am I ducking the issue of the strong words, "whatever… it will be done… it will be yours"? Perhaps. But once I understood that Jesus was trying to respond with something suitably scathing for the disciples lack of faith, I could see a deliberate overstatement.

It would be an absurd interpretation to take the word "whatever" without any limitation, but because Jesus' point was about the disciples lack of faith he makes his statement without limitations. For instance, we can't ask to be greater than God! We can ask to be preserved from death, but since death has to come to everyone we cannot expect prayer to stave it off forever! We can't ask something sinful to not be sinful just because we enjoy that particular sin. We can't ask for the destruction of people we don't like. We must, therefore, understand the limitations in this passage naturally from elsewhere in the Bible, and we have spent many weeks uncovering those.

And yet that does not lessen the challenge to our faith. Whilst God does not promise to give us anything and everything that we ask for, the fact is that we very often miss out because we do not believe. We may say that we believe, but actions speak louder than words. We talk about the power of God, the sovereignty of God, the love of God for His people, and yet our absence in church prayer meetings, our laxity in setting aside time for private prayer, our small mindedness in prayer, demonstrate that we lack real faith. Without faith we either don't ask God for what we need, or we are too reserved in our prayers. And if we don't ask, how can God answer?

I'll be tentative here, but there may also be a sense in which Jesus is not overstating. He says, "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:23-24) There is a specific assurance of receiving what we ask when we have no doubt about what we ask for, when we are so sure that we will receive it that it's almost like already having it. But apart from when we pray for things that are specifically promised in Scripture, the only way to have that certainty is if God gives it to us supernaturally. This is unusual. The apostles certainly experienced it, as they did great miracles with great confidence. But after the apostles it is more usual to have to pray, as we have learnt in earlier studies, "nevertheless, not my will but yours be done." I simply leave open the possibility. Whether this is the case of not, we are challenged to have more faith, and pray more boldly.

But what is the remedy for our lack of faith? I've said in Part 5 of this series that we are not to have faith in our own faith, or try to muster positive thoughts, wilfully suppressing mental doubts. We can fall into the trap of trying to manipulate God by our own power of positive thinking. Having more faith is not a matter of taking a big gulp, squeezing your eyes shut and dismissing anything negative that was in your mind.

You build your faith by filling your mind with the Word of God, learning about His love for His people, learning about the mighty works He has done in history, keeping God's promises in the forefront of your mind. And you build your faith by asking the Holy Spirit to increase it in you.

If I look back on my own life and the way the Lord has responded to my prayers, I am now almost ashamed that I was prompted to start this study a year ago. I have recounted on this blog how the Lord has blessed me and my family in the last few years, in the face of various hardships. And that has all been in response to prayer. There have been amazing "coincidences" that simply do not happen without prayer. I think of the way that my health has improved, even though slowly; and the way that certain sick friends have been graciously preserved even after the worst prognosis - all after prayer.

I think that most of us shy away from praying for what we consider to be big things because we are afraid that God will say no, and we will be discouraged. We like to only pray for things that we will definitely receive. But Jesus' challenge to us in Mark 11 is to be bold in prayer, even if God eventually says no. If a mountain needs to be moved - perhaps a metaphor for an illness, or a blockage to our ministry or service - God is able to move it and loves His children enough to do it, if it fits with His plans for His glory and their greater good. We should not allow the extent of our faith and faithfulness in prayer to be based on answered prayer from our past experience. Our faith in God and faithfulness in prayer should be based on the promises of God and the character of God revealed in His Word, the Bible. If our faith is in God, and our love is for His glory, then we will continue to pray even after He has turned down various requests.

However, I am sure that God gives us most things that we ask for, if we ask with believing hearts that truly treasure Jesus Christ and seek His kingdom. Jesus' words in Mark 11/Matthew 21 should be a challenge to us - myself very much included - be encouraged, believe… and pray… pray for big things, small things, amazing things… but above all, pray and don't ever give up praying!

Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer - Desiring God

2011-05-22T22:36:00.000+01:00

The next part of my own series on prayer is coming up soon. But I happened to hear a sermon by John Piper this week that I thought was great. I commend it to you. You can find it to read, watch or listen to by clicking the link below.

Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer - Desiring God

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Twelve)

2011-04-30T10:05:00.002+01:00

Part Twelve - Pray with the Gathered Church

So, where next in our tour? It started with a question from a passage in James, which expanded into studying a number of New Testament passages that make bold statements about prayer and faith. There are three more left to share with you.

This time, God willing, I would like to share my thoughts on Matthew 18:19-20, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

So, God will grant anything we ask if we come to him with a united request with at least one other person? That would seem to include every public prayer that we say "Amen!" to in a prayer meeting, or in church, or with our kids at bedtime. But is Jesus really making such a general and sweeping watertight promise?

We find in this case that the context is critical in understanding the scope of what Jesus is saying in these verses. We need to look at the whole of chapter 18 of Matthew, and see that Jesus is teaching here about the way that we should treat people within the church, and in particular the way that we should be disciplined and guided to follow Christ.

In verses 1 to 4, Jesus is asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He replies by calling a little child among them as an illustration of the kind of humility required in the kingdom. "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (v3) We are to have a humble, learning, attitude, knowing our weakness and our need of help and instruction. We are not to go around using our standing in the church to lord it over others, thinking that we are better or wiser or more holy than others. A patronising, judgmental spirit has no place in the church, and those who display such attitudes will have no place in the kingdom of heaven.

In verses 5 and 6, Jesus pushes further to tell us what our attitude to the humble and weak should be. He says, "whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." If we welcome among us those who humbly accept their need to change, their need of forgiveness, their need to know Christ more, then we welcome Christ. And if we are humble ourselves likewise as little children, we will see that we, in Christ, are here to help each other. And Jesus condemns those who through their actions cause any believer to sin, including those arrogant people who call themselves Christians but who place burdens on the weak and cause them to fall away.

This context, in fact, gives more weight to the familiar saying in verses 8 and 9, "If you hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell." The weight comes from the way Jesus introduces this in verse 7: "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!" It appears to me that when Jesus speaks of hands, feet and eyes that cause sin, he is first of all talking about people. He has been talking about the acceptance of humble people within the church, and he goes on to talk about our treatment of them in verse 10. Hence, I think primarily Jesus is asking us to be careful who we keep within the church. If people cause ordinary, weak and humble, genuine believers to sin, to give up or to fall away, then they should be cut out of the church. People and attitudes, for instance, that turn people away from Christ because they do not feel good enough to get into heaven, are absolutely not to be tolerated. Of course, the individualistic and personal way in which we normally see these verses is not wrong. Jesus is saying that we ought to take all sin seriously and eliminate from our lives as well as our churches those things that cause people, even ourselves, to sin, even if it causes us temporary disadvantage.

In verses 10 to 14, Jesus switches from negative to positive reinforcement of his point. We should not look down on other believers ("these little ones") because they are personally known and cared for by God the Father. In fact he is happier when one of these is brought back and nurtured than about ninety-nine who do no get lost in the first place. "… your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." (v14) If He cares for all of His children, even the meekest, weakest and humblest, then so should we. We should go after them, protect them, care for them, ensure that they are well taught and that they grow in their knowledge of Jesus. We are not to play percentages, as if keeping the majority is the best strategy. No, expending disproportionate time and effort to hold on to the weakest and the most problematic is what we are to do.

Verses 15 to 18 give an example of a disciplinary process, which both builds up the weak and weeds out the proud. In the case where one of our brothers or sisters wrongs us we are to show them their fault. This aims at helping them to grow and change in the way that we all have to. "If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." (v15) Winning him is our aim. If he doesn't listen we should get one or two others to back us up, so that he knows that it is not just a matter of opinion. After that we should take it before the church, by which I think Jesus means the elders of the church, rather than the whole congregation. If the person still does not listen then they have proven themselves to be too proud to listen and change, and therefore they are not showing the humility required of a believer, and they should be put out. "Treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (v17) In our day, perhaps we'd say, "treat them as you would an atheist or a drug dealer." In other words, they cannot be part of the church until they show repentance.

The point isn't a one-size-fits-all disciplinary policy. The point is that our first priority should be winning our brother, but also that the church should be kept pure.

Verse 18 is what gives the church, in particular the eldership, the responsibility and authority to make these judgments. "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." When the church makes a judgment in line with God's will, as revealed and correctly understood from His Word, that judgment is binding in heaven as well as on earth. God will back it up.

And that is what gives the immediate context for the verses we are particularly interested in. "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (vv19-20) Why does the church have authority and responsibility with regard to discipline? Because Jesus gives them this authority. Because when we gather together as the church He is with us.

But it is not just worldly authority. It is only authoritative and binding in a heavenly sense if it is done "in my name" (v20). We've discussed those three important words before in this series (Parts 6, 7 and 8). In that sense, the church is only authorised to teach, discipline and pray within what God has revealed through His Word. We have authority in the church only because Jesus meets with us in the church. He is present with us as we make these judgments and ask for His blessing in doing His work. In other words, the authority of the church is always under the authority of Jesus, in doing the work of Jesus. And we find Jesus' teaching in the Bible.

Nevertheless, whilst the context shows that this is not an open-ended promise to guarantee anything we want, it is a great comfort to us that we when we come together and submit to Christ and His Word He is there with us, hearing us, supporting us.

So what shall we take away from this study to encourage us in prayer?

First, that Jesus is with us in a special way when we meet together in His name. When we meet with childlike humility, seeking to honour Him, seeking to learn from Him how we can best serve Him in pursuing His kingdom, He is present with us to grant our requests according to His will. He will give us the help that we need. What a great assurance that is.

Second, that we should not neglect the assembly of Christian brothers and sisters, signifying our submission to Him. He has given us the gift of the church, brought us into it, for our good, for our growth in knowledge and holiness, for the pursuit of His kingdom. Within the church we are built up and edified. Within the church we are corrected and nurtured. Within the church we meet with Christ.

We can and should pray privately, following the example of the likes of David, Daniel, Moses, Paul and the apostles and prophets. But we should all the more pray with the gathered church as we seek to support each other humbly in doing God's will and preaching the good news of His kingdom.

To finish with a quote from John Calvin (emphasis is mine):

"There is therefore no reason to doubt that those who give themselves up to his direction will derive most desirable advantage from his presence. And since it is an invaluable blessing to have Christ for our director in all our affairs, to bless our deliberations and their results; and since, on the other hand, nothing can be more miserable than to be deprived of his grace, this promise ought to add no small excitement to us to unite with each other in piety and holiness. For whoever either disregards the holy assemblies, or separates himself from brethren, and takes little interest in the cultivation of unity, by this alone makes it evident that he sets no value on the presence of Christ." (Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. 2.)

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Eleven)

2011-04-15T22:45:00.000+01:00

Part Eleven - Not as I will, but as you will...

I guess I ran out of space in Part Ten! We were considering two statements in John's first letter to first century Christians.

Last time we had a thorough look at one particular statement in 1 John 3:21-22, "if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." We saw that the wider passage is all about our assurance, which God gives both through His Spirit within us and the obedience He works within us. As we obey His commands more, the more confidently we know that He is in us, and the more confidence we have before Him. And as we grow in that obedience, our priorities are changing to be more in line with His, and therefore we find ourselves asking for more of the things that God knows are best for us and therefore He is willing to give us.

As David Jackman says (The Message of John's Letters, The Bible Speaks Today, IVP, p106), "Understood in this way, [this verse] becomes not so much an impossible challenge as an encouragement. As we seek to live in a way that pleases God, practising truth and love, our desires become moulded to his. We want his will in our lives and the lives of others, rather than pursuing our own selfish desires willy-nilly. The more we enjoy and develop that relationship, as obedient children, the more we shall find ourselves asking and receiving those things that are pleasing to God."

So we saw that when John says, "we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him" (1 John 3:21-22), he does not mean that God sees our obedience and repays us with good things that we ask for. Rather, our confidence before God grows as He shows us that He is working in us through enabling greater obedience to His commands (to believe in Jesus and to love one another), and in that confidence we ask and receive.

And yet we must be honest and say that John's other implication is that if we are not obedient, and do not love one another, then we will lack that confidence and will not receive. David Jackman says, "How can we receive God's good gifts in answer to prayer, if we do not ask in accordance with his will? And how can we ask like that, unless we are obeying God's will already revealed in Scripture?" (The Message of John's Letters, p106).

And that leads us nicely on to the second statement in 1 John that I looked at in my study - 1 John 5:14-15, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

"According to his will" is a very important limitation on the requests that we can expect to be granted by God. What it means is that God decides what is best for us. If we ask for something that is in keeping with what God has decided is best for us, then He will grant our requests. He loves to act in response to our requests, but what He says is decisive in the end. And that is what we would expect of a loving Father, as I said last time.

Does "his will" here mean his commands, or his intentions as revealed in Scripture, or does it means His secret will, i.e. the specific purposes for things that happen in our lives that He does not normally reveal to us? Fundamentally, of course, "the will of God" simply means "what God wants to happen". But what that is depends on the context.

For example, in 1 John 2:17, John says, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever." In other words, the person who does what God wants lives forever. But how does a person know what God wants? The answer is from Scripture, where God tells us what is required of us. (See also John 7:17 and 9:31.)

On the other hand, when Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me" (John 4:34); or, "I have come down form heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38), the context determines that we understand the will of God (since it was God who sent him) slightly differently. Why? Because in John 6:39-40 Jesus goes on to say, "this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day… my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life…." So the will of God in this case was the mission that was given to Jesus - to take for Himself a people, and to die in their place, so that they may be raised from the dead at the last day, and have eternal life.

So what does the context determine in 1 John 5:14?

I don't think that it would make sense for it to simply mean his commands. When we are commanded to "do His will", that means that we are to do things that He commands and in a way that He reveals. In the context of prayer, that would then mean that if we prayed according to the right formula then God would respond. But that conflicts with the teaching about prayer in the rest of the Bible (e.g. "do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:7-8)). It also does not fit with the variety of different types of prayer that are contained in the Bible.

I think it makes more sense to take "his will" as meaning the purposes of God for the world. That fits better with the Bible's teaching, page after page, about the Sovereignty of God. God's purposes always come to pass. No-one can thwart them and no-one can twist His arm to do something He doesn't want to do. Then we would interpret this verse as meaning that if we ask God anything that is in keeping with His purposes for the world, then He will hear and grant our requests.

And how do we know the purposes of God for the world? Well, there are two answers to that. The answer at a high level is that we are given insight into God's purposes in His Word, the Bible. The answer at a more detailed and specific level is that we don't know. Only God knows what His plan is for every little thing that happens in the world. But we can be sure that He has a plan.

So it boils down to two lessons:

1. Praying according to God's will means knowing the Bible. We can be sure that if we get greater understanding of God's purposes in and for the world, through reading, studying and being given understanding of His Word, then we will know better what we ought to pray for. We will have a better idea what will fit with His plans, and we will pray for that, because we love Him and know that His plans and purposes are good (Romans 8:28). And as we grow in our understanding we will pray more "according to his will" and have more of our requests granted. Of course, we can never know the particular mind of God in a specific sense, so when we pray for specific things we will be led to pray, like Jesus, saying, "if it be possible… nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)

2. God grants the requests that He wants to grant. If we ask for something and it fits with what He wants then He will give it to us. It cannot be any other way when we come to the God who created the universe and controls every atom and every transfer of energy, and who has a purpose in everything that happens in the world. He is not sitting back watching what happens. He is pushing it along and keeping it going, displaying His glory, His grace and His wisdom all the time. His will is ultimate, and our wills are subordinate. So there may be some things that appear to us, with our finite and fallen minds, to be in line with God's revealed will. But because He knows everything, He knows whether specific requests are good for us and for His strategy in the world. But also conversely we should be confident that part of God's purpose is to involve us, to grant requests in working our His purposes.

Quoting David Jackman again (The Message of John's Letters, p161): "For prayer is not an attempt to get God to see things my way and to extract from him what I have decided I need or want. Prayer is submitting my will to his… It is opening the door of my need to the Lord Jesus. And this means that prayer is God's means by which my submission to the Christ's lordship can be developed. The less I pray, the more self-willed I become. But the corollary is wonderfully true. 'Not my will, but yours' - that is the essence of assured prayer, the secret of prevailing prayer. What confidence we can have! This should be a great stimulus in our personal lives to find out God's will, to build on the commands and promises of his Word in our prayers, to talk every situation through with him, and to submit all our thinking, planning and deciding to God. Answers to prayer do not depend on a right diagnosis or analysis of the problem by us as we pray, but on a childlike submission to the Father, knowing that he will give us what is best according to his will. If he were to answer on any other basis, which of us would ever dare to pray again? We do not have that sort of wisdom."

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Ten)

2011-04-01T08:35:00.002+01:00

Part Ten - Having Confidence Before God

Back in parts six, seven and eight of this series we looked at some passages in John's gospel where Jesus appears to promise that we can ask for literally anything we want and that He will always grant our requests. Now we come to the part in the series where we look at John's letter to Christians in the early church. And it ought to be no surprise when we find that the statements we find in John's letter are very similar to the ones he records Jesus saying in his gospel.

This time I want to have a look at the following verses:

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." (1 John 3:21-22)

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." (1 John 5:14-15)

I think I said earlier that I have found John's writings very difficult to understand. You really have to wrestle with them. John does not write in a standard way. He says nothing without a lot of theological packaging. Whereas Luke, Matthew and Mark wrote gospels that are mainly historical narrative, John wrote a gospel that is a theological treatise. Whereas Paul may have written letters containing fairly linear arguments (where each point is based on the truth established immediately before), John seems to have written in circles and patterns - almost poetry. His arguments tend to be couched in symbolic language about light and darkness, anointing, purification, truth and lies, seeing and blindness, and so on. And I don't think this style is necessarily just a literary device being deliberately used. In my opinion (for what it's worth) I think John's mind worked like that. God gave him a gift of seeing things differently and presenting truth in rich, vivid, complex language, in ways that would engage our minds to meditate on God's Word. Remember he also gave us the book of Revelation! Often we find, however, that John makes some very simple points, but illustrates them in many and various intertwining ways.

So where shall I start with these two verses?!

Ok let's back up a bit and take 1 John 3, starting from verse 11 and going through to v24. I'll reproduce it all here, just in case you don't have a Bible to hand:

"For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

"This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

I'm now going to reduce it down a little so you can see the thought process, which in spite of what I said earlier is reasonably straightforward. The words "this is" shows where the argument moves on. I've put in bold the key words in each segment of the argument:

"For this is the message… We should love one another…"

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us… let us… [love] with actions and in truth…"

"This is how we know that we belong to the truth… God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything… we have confidence in God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him…"

"And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another… The one who keeps God's commands lives in him, and he in them…"

"And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

So we should love one another. How do we know what authentic love is? Jesus showed us in dying for us, so we should love in the same sacrificial way, not just in words but authentically. And how can we know that our love is authentic and truthful? Because God knows everything, including our hearts. The fact that we keep his commands, even imperfectly, gives us some assurance that He is at work within us. He knows that we trust Him and want to do what He commands. And what is His command? It is to believe in Jesus and love one another. If we believe in Jesus and love one another then this shows that we are living in God and He is living in us. But how can we know that He is living in us? Because His Spirit works in us and assures us.

The interesting thing about this is that believing in Jesus and loving one another, with sacrificial love, just as Christ loved us and died for us, is not the reason that God lives in us. It is the fruit of God's work in our lives. It is God's evidence to us that He is working in us.

But as we know, this does not happen in the blink of an eye. It is a lifelong struggle to bring ourselves into line with what God has called us to be. As we obey his commands more and more, we show more and more evidence that God is at work in us.

John has said this earlier, in 1 John 2:1-6: "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

"We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."

Living a life consistent with the way Jesus lived is not what makes God love us. But living a life consistent with the way Jesus lived is evidence of God's love at work within us. If someone claims that they are a Christian, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet they do not pay attention to the need for faith working out in holiness, then they are liar. God is not at work within them, no matter what they claim. But for someone who has faith in Christ, if we sin, He is the atoning sacrifice (literally, the propitiation, the one who turns God's wrath away from us).

Returning to 1 John 3, we see that this is all about assurance. And indeed, a bit more investigation shows that this is what John's whole letter is about. How can we know that God is working in us? How can we know that we have eternal life? 1 John 2:5 says, "this is how we know we are in him…". 1 John 5:13 says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." And in our passage, we see, "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us." (1 John 3:19-20)

The evidence we need is in our obedience, as the Spirit testifies within our hearts. And as our obedience increases, we have increasing confidence that God is in fact working in us. "If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in before God" (v21). Our hearts condemn us less and less as our obedience grows, through the work of the Spirit cleansing us from within. And we grow in confidence in God.

And as "we obey his commands and do what pleases him" we have more and more confidence to "receive from him anything we ask" (v22). At last we come to the point. We had to go through all of the above to understand that in context this verse is not all about getting whatever we want from God. It is all about the fruit of God's work in our lives giving us confidence in our eternal status in Christ. But can we receive from him anything we ask?

Well, let's just think. If our priorities are those John commends in his letter - to have more faith in Jesus and to love others more and love them more authentically, to live as Jesus did - what will we pray for? We will pray for that assurance! We will pray that God will work more obedience in our lives. We will pray that we may love others as Jesus loved the world. And yes, when we pray for that, we will receive it.

If I were a perfect father (which is far from the case) I would not give my children whatever they asked for unless it was in their best interests and those of the whole family. The more their priorities became aligned with what I knew to be their best interests and the good of the family, the more naturally they would ask me for things in keeping with those priorities. And therefore the more I would feel able to say yes and grant their requests.

So John is not saying that we should be obedient in order to buy God's favour, and be able to get good things from Him. He is challenging us and encouraging us that God is at work in us, and that as our desires fall more into line with His we shall see our requests granted.

So we should pray for whatever we want, and pray that we would be given grace to want the same things as God does.

We'll look at 1 John 5:14 next time.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Nine)

2011-03-21T08:30:00.002Z

Part Nine - Why are you asking?

I didn't expect this series to last this long. I have to be honest and say that we are only about half way through! I'm hoping it's not boring, but encouraging. I'm simply sharing what I learned after I started to ask the question, "does the Bible teach that we will receive everything and anything we ask for in prayer?" I found around 15-20 verses in the New Testament that appeared to lead to that conclusion. And that was a problem for me, because I could think of examples in my own experience and in the Bible itself where prayer requests were not granted. I don't like to live with contradictions, so I studied for a couple of months, looking into whether these verses really did teach that, and what I should be learning about prayer to my thinking straight.

I also have to admit that I am not good when it comes to prayer. I seem to talk, write and read more about prayer than I actually do it! And that is wrong. If there are two things that I can sum up out of the passages we have gone through so far, it would be that the Bible encourages us, if not nags us, to pray; and that God wants to give us good things in response to our prayers, because He is our loving and gracious heavenly Father. Those things should, and often do, spur me on to pray in my imperfect way. So as I write this, I am praying that I would pray more and learn how to pray in a way that is honouring to God.

The verses I want to look at today are James 4:1-3:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

The suggestion that we will receive everything we ask for in prayer is not explicit in this passage. I initially took it as implicit. But I think you only have to read it once or twice to see that it's not even implicit.

As we saw in Part Five of this series, James is talking about how we should respond to suffering and hardship. He is challenging us. And one of the things that can happen when hardships come upon us is that we can become bitter and jealous. We want to live comfortably and we see that other people either prevent us from living comfortably or simply live the lifestyle we want. And it can cause quarrels and fights.

The ticking off from James is really, "why are you complaining and fighting about things you don't have? You haven't even asked the One who can give you anything! Nothing is impossible for Him. So ask Him!!"

Hence, we see again the emphasis on the asking, not on the receiving.

But there is a second point in this passage, which is something that we have touched on before. "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives…" (v3) What are the wrong motives? "… so that may spend what you get on your pleasures."

This is why the "name it and claim it" philosophy that was popular for a time, especially in America, is so wrong. Popular preachers were saying, "if you want a mansion, ask for a mansion, claim it, have faith, and it will be yours. If you want a pink Rolls Royce, visualise it, ask for it, claim it… and it will be yours."

James would have said, "Why? Why do you want a pink Rolls Royce or a huge mansion?" If we have selfish motives then we are never entitled to expect God will grant our requests.

So we see again the challenge to ask ourselves whether we are praying in the name of Jesus. Are we sharing His priorities? Or are we asking selfishly, for only our own benefit?

And here we have to understand the bluntness of what James is saying. This is not a call for all Christians to agonise over every phrase in their prayers to see whether they have the right motives, to wonder whether they are being spiritual enough. Ultimately that kind of agonising drives us away from prayer (at least it does for me), because we get to the point where we don't feel like we can trust our own motives. We are in danger of spending so long in self-examination that we don't leave enough time to actually talk to God! And that conflicts with James' point - don't neglect to pray! When James speaks of those who people who ask with the wrong motives, hoping to spend what they get on their own pleasures, he is talking about people who are, deep down, still worldly and unconverted. They ask for riches, freedom from persecution, so that they can be comfortable and enjoy worldly pleasures. They have no interest in glorifying and serving God, no interest in following their suffering Saviour. As we saw when we looked at James chapter 1 (see Part Five of this series), these are not people who are weak in faith, but people who have no faith at all.

From the moment we become Christians - when we are brought to the realisation that we need to repent of our old selfish ways, to live God's way rather than our own, to change and believe things we didn't believe before - our lives are a struggle to bring our motives into line with God's will. We struggle to make our priorities and motivation consistent with God's. We will struggle with this for the rest of our earthly lives. And part of that struggle will manifest itself in our prayers. But that should not stop us praying! On the contrary we should pray all the more, that the Lord would continue His work within us to change us and enable us to have His priorities at the centre of our lives.

So in conclusion, if we are struggling it ought not to be because we are neglecting to ask the Lord for help. We ought to pray - pray with God-glorifying motives, and pray for God-glorifying motives.

Reflections on What it Will Be Like Meeting God on Judgment Day

2011-03-13T08:30:00.018Z

When we think about dying and meeting God we should be afraid, afraid enough to think how we can prepare for that day. We will all die one day, and when we do we will meet our Maker! An atheist may say they don't believe they will have any conscious experience after death, and therefore they have nothing to be afraid of. But God has told us that we will all face Him after the end of our life in this world. We can choose whether we believe that or not, but that will not affect the truth of the situation. And the prospect of meeting the Creator, the Lawmaker, the Judge, the All-Powerful, the Ruler of Everything, should make us nervous.

I had an experience recently that made me think about this. It's not an experience I really wanted to talk about. I would rather forget about it, to be honest. But for the sake of a helpful illustration I will share! If someone finds this helpful then perhaps it will make a bad experience a bit more bearable!!

I had a claim for "Jobseekers Allowance" (a UK state benefit for the unemployed) turned down in 2009 when I had been out of work for eight months. I thought that was jolly unfair and so I appealed against the decision. I thought nothing more of it, since I finally found an interim management contract, and then fell ill. It was not worth chasing. But then a few of months ago I got a letter acknowledging my appeal and inviting me to a tribunal to hear the case. The hearing was several weeks ago, at the end of 2010.

I went along to the hearing having done a little preparation, but not armed with enough evidence to back up my case. I completely underestimated the formality and seriousness of the occasion. And I was utterly humiliated!

The case was heard by a "judge". Ok, not a real judge, but an independent lawyer with authority to judge in the tribunal. I walked into the room alone and sat at a desk facing the judge's bench, which was raised up on a platform. He spoke with a confident, posh accent - like the judges in the TV courtroom dramas.

He chided me for not bringing enough evidence, made me feel very small and reduced all my arguments to mumbling. I had set up my affairs in a particular way, and had not ordered them correctly in a way that would allow me to claim benefits. The fact that I had reached the point of selling a car, cashing in mortgage endowment policies and maxing out credit cards was of no interest. The fact that I had not asked advice from someone who could have given me good advice was of no consequence (even though I had asked advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau!). I had tripped over the letter of the law, I should have known better and my appeal was a waste of everyone's time. And since I had earned a fair amount of money before my lengthy spell out of work I was made to feel bad for even applying for benefits in the first place.

I wished I had taken the whole thing more seriously, but it was too late. I wished I had been better prepared, but it was too late. I wished I had brought an advisor or a representative with me, but it was too late. (Actually, to be perfectly honest, I wished that I had just given up on the claim in 2009 and not bothered with the appeal!)

My point is not the rights or wrongs of my case. My point is that the experience of sitting in front of an unsympathetic judge, on my own, with no advocate, no advisor, in a quiet room on a grey Tuesday afternoon, and receiving what I felt was a "telling off", was extremely unpleasant. I would rather forget about it.

Without Christ, when we face God, the Judge of all People, we too would go before Him alone. We would feel exposed. We would realise how unprepared we are. We would kick ourselves because it would be too late to do anything about it. We would kick ourselves for not taking this court more seriously. All our arguments and complaints against Him would be reduced to mumbling. We would not be able to exonerate ourselves. God's courtroom would be infinitely more forbidding and scary than the mini-courtroom I sat in. God would not have to say very much before our arguments would crumble, and we would realise that we should have known. And instead of being free to walk out of the hearing into the bleak streets of Reading, with only an ear-bashing and a failed appeal, we would go straight to face eternal punishment.

Many of us know this deep within ourselves, and we fear it. How will God, who sees everything, look upon our impurities, our selfishness, our greed, our sins? Can we really comfort ourselves with not being as bad as the worst? We're not Myra Hindley, Saddam Hussain or Adolf Hitler, but is that good enough? Everyone does things that are wrong, but is that a good enough excuse? Who will help us after we die to make our case before God, the Creator, the Judge?

If we dwell long enough on the subject of our death, we realise that it will be a lonely journey. Can we really believe it will be a journey into darkness and nothing? Or will it be a lonely journey into the presence of the One whom we have spent our lives trying to avoid? And if we have spent our lives trying to avoid Him, how angry will He be? Who will help us then?

There is only one person who can help us. And only one way we can avoid this humiliation. That is Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 1:8-2:2) (NB. "Propitiation" is where God's judgment upon us because of our sin is turned aside by Jesus standing in our place, taking our punishment upon himself.)

Jesus is our advocate with God the Father. Jesus stands for us in the courtroom of God if we have faith in Him and repent of our sins. He speaks in our defence. God could justly punish every human being with eternal damnation for our rejection of His rule in our lives. And yet because Jesus, the perfect Son of God, came as a human being on earth, and took the punishment that should have been handed to His people, by dying on the cross and suffering separation from His Father, God can look at us in that courtroom and acquit us. And we will be acquitted, not because God simply sweeps our sins and wrongdoing under the carpet, but because His justice has already been satisfied by Jesus' death. All the wrath of God that we deserve was brought down on the head of the Son of God.

And God, through Christ, offers that forgiveness, to everyone if they will only turn, acknowledging their sin against Him, trusting in Jesus.

The bad news of life without Christ is death without Christ - a lonely journey to a courtroom where wrath with be full, wrath will be forever and wrath will be just.

The good news of life with Christ is eternal life after death with Christ - a life accompanied by the best friend and advocate anyone ever had, freedom to enjoy the new perfect creation that God will bring in to replace this passing universe at the end of time, a life never having to come in to the courtroom of God because Jesus has been there on our behalf.

Some more verses:

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

If you are not a Christian, understand that this is serious and true, and this is the reason why your Christian friends want to convert you so much!! Your urgent attention will not be wasted for all eternity.

For Christians these thoughts should fill us again with gratitude and worship, that we should be forgiven and redeemed even though we deserve wrath. And we should be filled with compassion and concern for our friends and family members who don't yet believe the good news, leading us to urgent prayer and taking every opportunity, with humility and grace, to share this salvation with them.

May none of us have to face the courtroom of God, but instead, through Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, may we look forward to eternal life and friendship with God.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Eight)

2011-03-06T08:30:00.001Z

Part Eight - Yup, ask for Anything!

I shared in the last two articles some thoughts on some verses in John's gospel relating to prayer. I'll reiterate the verses here:

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:13-14)

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 15:7)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16)

"I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:23-24)

We saw that these statements do not assure us that all our requests will be granted without exception. Rather, they challenge us to pray with the same priorities as Jesus, because that is the basic condition for the granting of our requests. And Jesus' ultimate priority was His Father's glory, seen through His love and the eternal salvation of His people. And so we should learn to pray, "your will be done," whatever our desires may be.

However, I feel that simply saying that does not entirely do justice to the discourse from which these verses are taken (John chapters 13 to 17). You see, whilst it is right that we note that the promises are conditional, the main point Jesus is making is not that.

When Jesus starts speaking at the beginning of John 13 He knows that this will be the last time He has chance to speak to the disciples before He goes to His death. This is where He wants to tell them things and show them things that will comfort them when all appears to be lost. John introduces the section by saying, "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." (John 13:1) He shows them how they should love one another and predicts the betrayal and denials that will shortly follow. He can feel their fear, and says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." (John 14:1,27) He assures them of their eternal salvation, and their relationship with the Father. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to be with them and give them peace (John 14:26-27). He tells them about the priority to bear fruit, and the expectation that they will be persecuted (John 15). He predicts their grief, but also assures them that they will see Him again (John 16:22). And then He prays for them (John 17).

They are going to need help. They are going to face trials, hardships and persecutions. How are they going to get what they need to get through all this? Answer: "You may ask me for anything in my name…" (14:14) "Ask whatever you wish…" (15:7) "… the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name…" (15:16; 16:23) "Ask and you will receive…" (16:24)

What a comfort it is to know that we can ask God for anything, whatever we want. He is our heavenly Father and He wants us to know that we can ask Him for anything, because He loves us.

Jesus is sending us on a really tough mission - to glorify the one true God, and His only Son, among nations and people that hate to submit to Him. We have a message of salvation, good news for those who will repent and believe, and submit their lives to Him. It's a message worth dying for, because it speaks of a life beyond this life. But we will meet obstacles, hardships, troubles, anxieties, turmoil, objections, illness, pain, along the way. But we must still press on. And as He stands there giving us our mission, knowing what we must face along the way, He says, "I will be there for you. My Father will be there for you. My Spirit will be within you. If you need anything, anything at all, just give us a shout, and we'll help you out!"

Wow! No matter how tough life is, we can ask God for anything! God, our Father, the one who loved us so much He sent His Son to die to save us. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) God, the all-powerful Creator, for whom nothing is impossible. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) This God is the only God, and the one of whom we can ask anything, anything as we seek to fulfil our mission.

So, let's live out this mission, knowing it will be hard. And when it's hard, let's not forget that Jesus told us we can ask God for anything, because not only can we not do it without Him, but He wants to help us! "What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!"

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Seven)

2011-02-20T08:30:00.003Z

Part Seven - Whatever you want... from the menu, sir...

I've been sharing recently some thoughts arising out of study I did in some passages relating to prayer and faith in the New Testament. Last time I covered some verses from John's gospel, where we looked at what it means to pray "in Jesus' name". I noted that this acts as a kind of precondition for proper prayer. The basic thrust is that we must pray with the same objectives and priorities as Jesus if we are to pray in His name. That involves living for Him, living by His words, bearing fruit, and ultimately aiming in everything for the glory of God.

I did say at one point last time that I would come back and talk about the specific context of the promises. Without noting the context it would be easy to get the impression that Jesus is promising to give us everything and anything we ask for in prayer, immediately and without exception - and so every Christian bloke (at least the English ones) would expect to be married to Cheryl Cole, and own three Ferraris, a private jet, a mansion in Barbados, a gold iPhone and a box at Stamford Bridge! Jesus says in John 14:13, "And I will do whatever you ask…". One limitation on this is the next three words, as we have already seen, "…in my name". The other limitation is in the context.

The immediately preceding verse leads us in the direction we need to look. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (14:12) What Jesus has been doing is the work of God the Father by speaking the words of the Father (v10), and performing miracles (v11).

But what are "greater things than these"? The passage does not say. However, back in John 5 Jesus talks in a similar way. "For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father." (John 5:20-23) Here it is clear that "greater things" refers to the granting of new life to souls that are "dead in transgressions and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).

Greater than healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, raising the physically dead, will be the work of saving souls. And Jesus' followers are to be engaged in saving souls especially after He is resurrected and ascended into heaven, since we have now been given the Holy Spirit to help us. Of course, it is Jesus and not we who save souls. We pray for it and work for it, but Jesus says (14:14), "… I will do it."

Hence when Jesus tells us that He will do "whatever you ask in my name, so that you may bring glory to the Father" (14:13), He means we are to ask for whatever we need in order to perform those great works of soul-saving. We are to ask for Him to do His soul-saving work in the lives of the people around us, using our words and our actions.

When we come to John 15:7 and 15:16 we find that the context is all about bearing fruit.

"… Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (15:7-8)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (15:16)

More broadly Jesus is talking about the necessity of remaining in him in order to bear fruit. He uses the illustration of the vine and branches. The branches cannot bear fruit unless they remain part of the vine. And in the same way we cannot bear fruit unless we remain part of Christ. And if we do not remain in Christ, why should He grant our prayer requests? That's why verses 7 and 16 are almost stating the same condition. Bearing fruit is only possible by remaining in Christ, and He will only grant our prayer requests if we remain in Him.

But that doesn't quite answer the question. If we remain in Him, connected to Him, trusting in Him, bearing fruit (which I take to mean especially the holiness of our lives - Galatians 5:22), then Jesus said that he would give us whatever we wish. And yet there are Spirit-filled, fruit-bearing, Christians who fall sick in spite of praying for health, who are persecuted in spite of praying for peace.

And this is where we have to understand that the word "whatever" is one of those words that is almost always contextually limited. It sounds unlimited, but it rarely is. For example, if I went into a restaurant the waiter might say to me, "order whatever you want". And I'd say, "I'll have an Aston Martin DB7, please!" And the waiter would then make explicit what I should have understood before, "Actually, sir, I meant order whatever you want from the menu!" (Actually I wouldn't have asked for the DB7, because I could not have paid for it… but you hopefully get my drift!)

So yet again, rather than carte blanche to get whatever riches and comforts we want, these verses are the encouragement we need to take up the challenge to be God-centred. Jesus tells us we are to be fruitful, we are to remain fully devoted to Him, God-centred, focussed on doing the work on God, glorifying Him. How can we do that? We are only human! We are full of sinful desires, temptations. We cannot change ourselves. We cannot enter the hearts of other people and change them. And yet we are asked to be soul-savers, to do greater works than Jesus Himself! The encouragement is that in that mission we can ask God for whatever we want - whatever we want to be more fruitful - and if we are in Christ He will always give us what we ask for.

The challenge, yet again, is to align ourselves with Christ's priorities so that we can ask in His name.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Six)

2011-02-09T16:30:00.001Z

Part Six - In Jesus' Name

I've been sharing recently what I learned when I did a study in passages relating to prayer and faith. In particular, you'll remember if you've been keeping up with me from the beginning of this series, I wanted to investigate thoroughly passages in the New Testament that appear to give some warrant for believing that we should expect to receive everything that we ask for in prayer.

I've been wondering all along whether I've bitten off more than I can chew when I presume to write about these things. I've read and dipped into some great books and articles in doing this study, written by theologians with greater insight and knowledge than I am likely to attain to this side of glory. That's why I'm careful to say that I'm sharing my thoughts, rather than teaching with any kind of authority. This is especially so when dealing with passages in John's gospel, which I have found to be one of the most difficult books of the Bible to get to grips with.

And it's to John's gospel that I wanted, with the Lord's help, to turn to here. The relevant verses are all within Jesus' last conversation with His disciples on the evening before His crucifixion. This is given to us in chapters 13 to 17 of John's gospel. It is well worthwhile reading the entire passage on your own, before you read any further, to get a feel for the themes Jesus covers.

The verses I will home in on are the following:

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:13-14)

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 15:7)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16)

"I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:23-24)

Conditions for answered prayer

I think, if I'm honest, my initial problem with these verses was that I focussed too heavily on the words "whatever you ask" or "whatever you wish". I got a bit carried away! "Whatever I want! Great!"

However, when you read carefully you pick up not only that the context is quite specific (which I will touch on later), but that each of these promises is conditional. So we ought to pay attention to the conditions in order to pray in a way that the Lord will response positively to.

The one that crops up most often is "in my name" (14:13; 14:14; 15:16; 16:23). (The other conditions we see in these passages are saying similar things. "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask…" (John 15:7) "… go and bear fruit… Then the Father will give you whatever you ask." (John 15:16)) So what does it mean to pray "in Jesus' name"?

Well, it hopefully goes without saying that simply ending a prayer with, "in Jesus' name, Amen," does not necessarily qualify. It's not a magic formula. Through history, we have come to use those words in our prayers really as a self-checking device: Can I really ask for what I have just said and then say it is in Jesus' name?

As a starting point I think we simply have to compare what it means to act or make requests in the name of someone in general. In formal situations we may think of someone like an ambassador. An ambassador goes in the name of their King or government to communicate with the government of another country. They may communicate and make requests freely, but only within the bounds set by the policies of their own government or King. Whatever they say within those bounds is treated as if it were direct communication or requests from the ambassador's King or government. Or think of having legal representation in court. Your lawyer speaks in your name, and speaks freely, but may only speak in line with your instructions beforehand. Whatever they say in your name (i.e. in accordance with your instructions) is treated as being from you.

So when Jesus says that we can approach God the Father in His name, He means that we are free to communicate with God directly and ask for things that are in keeping with His own words and actions, based on our faith and union with Him. In fact, the whole point is that because of our relationship with Jesus, we can go directly to the Father and make requests. See John 16:26-27, "In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." We don't pray to Jesus, so that He can mediate our requests and pass them on to God on our behalf. Jesus has mended that broken relationship, so that we can approach God directly. And we do that in Jesus' name, according to our love for Him, our faith in Him and in obedience to Him; more than that: according to His love, obedience and sacrifice for us.

Praying in Jesus' name is at heart praying on the basis of what Jesus has done. When we appear before God the Father with our requests and claim that we come "in Jesus' name", we are saying fundamentally that our permission to come before God and present requests rests in Jesus' name. And Jesus' name cannot be separated from what He did on the cross, and in the resurrection. The writer to the Hebrews says exactly this when he says, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16) Jesus' sacrifice is the reason we can come to God. "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." (1 Peter 3:18) He took our sin onto Himself and dealt with it, suffering its penalty, so that we could be counted righteous and be accepted as God's children. And only God's children, those who are in Christ, can approach God confidently in prayer.

So when we pray "in Jesus' name" we should not be presumptuous, but humble, knowing that it is only by the death and sacrifice, and victory, of Jesus, when He laid down His life for us, and rose from the dead, that we are able to pray. Does it make sense to come before God and ask for things with selfish motives on the basis of Jesus suffering the wrath of God for our sins? For example, should we say, "Lord, in Jesus' name - because Jesus suffered and died - please give us an easy life?" Doesn't the fact that we are only given the privilege of prayer through Jesus' death and resurrection force us to align the purpose of our praying with the purpose of His death and resurrection - namely so that His people might be "to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:12).

But further, if we are to pray in the name of Jesus we should only pray for things that Jesus would approve of, and in a way that He would ask.

And what kind of things are those things that Jesus would approve of? What are His priorities? That we "bear fruit" (15:8,16), that we testify about Christ (15:26), that we love each other (15:12), that we remain obedient (15:10). Ultimately, Jesus' priority was to glorify His Father, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." (17:1) And He wants us to join Him, sharing in that glory. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." (17:24)

So we should challenge ourselves when we pray. Are we praying in Jesus' name? Do we want what Jesus wants? If we pray for whatever we want, is it displaying Jesus' priorities? The real question is not whether God will give us whatever we want, but whether we want the things that our Saviour wants. If we want to be like Jesus, we should pray for that, and God will grant our request. If we want to love others, to have wisdom, to be humble, to have the right priorities, to seek first the kingdom of God, to be righteous, to be holy, to glorify the God who alone is worthy of glory, honour and praise; if we want those things, then we should ask for them, and God will grant our requests.

If we are primarily concerned to bear fruit to the glory of God, if we live our lives in line with Jesus' teaching, His words remaining in us, then we will ask for things that show those priorities.

In that context, prayers for success in business, freedom from problems, even healing of sickness, are all less important than we think. If we want to pray in Jesus' name we should say, "if healing me will glorify you most, then I pray for healing. If success in business will glorify you most, then I pray for success…"

And that's where we learn to pray as Jesus did in the garden before He died. "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it possible, may this cup [the plan that involved his death and suffering on the cross] be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)

I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray about every little thing that concerns us, from the job interview, the argument with the girlfriend or safety for the 100-mile trip, to the agony of losing a close relative or suffering persecution. But I think if we want to pray "in Jesus' name" we should always ask ourselves why we are praying as we do. How will getting what we ask for bring glory to God? And is His glory what we ultimately want?

And within these limitations, Jesus says that He "will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." (John 14:13)

There are other things to say from these passages in John, but they will have to wait until next time.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Five)

2011-01-24T17:00:00.000Z

Part Five - If you need, ask!

This is the fifth article in a series thinking through Bible passages that appear to promise that God will give us anything and everything that we ask for in prayer. It started, while I was having treatment for cancer, with tripping over a bold statement in my daily reading: "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." (James 5:15) As I studied more broadly in the Bible, I discovered almost twenty similarly bold statements in the New Testament relating to what can be achieved through faith and prayer. So this series of articles is really just sharing what I found when I studied each of these passages. Fittingly, I think, James 5:15 will be the last passage I will talk about in the series! I learnt a lot on the route back to that passage, and I hope I manage to get that over to you in a way that will spur us all on to greater faith and bolder prayer.

Today I will try to share what I found when I had a look at James 1:5-8. It reads:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

I think one of the most helpful things to get straight first with the book of James is the purpose of the letter. There are some very bold statements in the letter, somewhat startling in many cases, and they make a lot more sense when you understand what James was trying to achieve overall.

And you don't have to look very far. Whereas some writers will work gently and diplomatically up to a point, James comes straight in with it at the beginning with characteristically blunt style: "To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:1b-4) He was writing to Christians who were suffering for their faith, they had been scattered throughout the nations. How should they face their suffering, their "trials of many kinds"? With "pure joy"! PURE JOY!!!! Yeah right! Why? Because there was a good purpose in their suffering - so that through the testing of their faith they may persevere, and through perseverance become "mature and complete, not lacking anything".

So the letter is really about how we should respond to suffering if we are to become "mature and complete, not lacking anything." How are we to respond? To sum up in a sentence: We are to respond to suffering with faith, working itself out in obedience, love, humility and prayer. When we look at what read in James with that context in mind, it makes a lot more sense.

So, what's the first thing we might lack if we are aiming to become "mature and complete, not lacking anything"? We probably wouldn't know what to do. So James says straight away, "If any of you lacks wisdom…" (1:5) If any of us lacks wisdom and we don't know how to respond in the face of suffering, so that we might move to greater maturity in Christ, what have we to do?

Ask God! The call to prayer begins and ends James' letter (see 5:13) and crops up in the middle as well (4:2). There are many bad responses to suffering, dealt with later on by James: bitterness (1:13), anger (1:19), sucking up to rich people (2:1ff), cursing people (3:9), envy (3:16), fighting and quarrelling (4:1), slander (4:11), pride (4:13-16), greed (5:5). What should the first response to suffering be? Talk to the Lord about it! Pray!

This is so simple, but how often do we forget? I neglect prayer much too often. I often feel like I don't know what to do in difficult situations. Why don't I just pray? In the words of Joseph Scriven's hymn (1855):

What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

Here I learnt again what I mentioned in Part Three of this series, that the emphasis is on the asking, not on the receiving.

But why should we ask God for wisdom, or for anything else for that matter?

Ask God, because He gives generously and graciously to all who ask. And because He is gracious (He does not hold back good things because of our sinfulness, if we have faith in Christ) and generous (he "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Eph 3:20)), if we ask for wisdom it will be given to us. This is akin to the encouragement we found in Matthew 7 (see Part Three of this series), where we saw that God is our loving heavenly Father, and therefore will give good things to His children (us) when we ask.

So again I found that this passage does not promise to give us everything we ask God for simply because we ask. But it does encourage us to pray, and assure us that God is both generous and gracious. It also tells us that if we ask for wisdom, and whatever we need to deal with suffering to persevere and become "mature and complete" in our relationship with Him, and in His service, then He will surely give us what we need.

But there is one last thing to draw out of this passage.

Those without faith will not receive anything. "When he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord." (James 1:8)

As we saw last time, even a mustard seed faith, a faltering faith that says, "help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24), is a faith that God can bless with miracles. So the doubt that James speaks of is not the "faithful doubt" that I have spoken about in other articles (the lack of understanding or the confusion that is more than counterbalanced, if not underpinned, by clinging to absolutely certain promises). This is what James calls being "double-minded", kind of hypocritical, claiming to be a Christian and yet never letting go of self-reliance. Since this double-minded, doubting person is not approaching prayer from the standpoint of faithful reliance on God, he cannot expect to receive anything from God.

So the challenge to us is do we really believe? Have we ditched our self-reliance and acknowledged that we are dependent on God for everything? Have we asked Jesus to be our Saviour, so that our relationship with God may be redeemed? Do we come to God as our heavenly Father, the one who is able and willing to give us wonderful things in Christ?

Regarding this faith, I like what George Stulac says in his commentary on James (IVP New Testament Commentary on James, IVP, 1993):

There are certain distortions of this teaching common today which should be recognised. The first distortion occurs within what is popularly known as the "name it and claim it" philosophy, when Christians are taught that they should name whatever they need in faith and so claim it as given to them. The dangers are the misplacing of faith and the raising of unbiblical expectations. Christians are sometimes led, in effect, to place their faith in the force of their own believing, and then to expect freedom from hardship or deprivation. What James is prescribing is something different: faith in the grace of God, which enables faith to be exercised even within hardship and deprivation.

A further distortion of the biblical teaching occurs when Christians treat James's warning against doubt (and the similar teaching by Jesus in Mt 21:21) superficially, taking it to require a wilful suppression of mental doubts. This can become an unrecognised attempt to manipulate God by one's own power of positive thinking. The error has left many in bondage to fear, afraid of their own thoughts and afraid of the God who might hold their doubts against them and therefore not grant the wisdom needed. The result is a crippling of people's faith and a perversion of the very truth James is teaching: that God gives freely, without finding fault.

So pray, pray with faith in our generous, loving, gracious, Father. Ask for wisdom. Ask for whatever you need to become mature and complete in Christ, as you seek His kingdom and His righteousness. And He will give us "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Four)

2011-01-12T16:00:00.000Z

Part Four - You Gotta Have Faith

We're continuing here our study in Bible passages related to prayer, specifically those that appear to suggest that we automatically get what we ask for.

I thought the next passage we should look into should be Mark 9:14-32, which is paralleled in Matthew 17:14-23. I am not going to reproduce the whole of these passages, so I recommend that you get your Bible out and read through them, so that you can relate to what I say.

Jesus has just been amazingly transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and John. They had heard the voice of God coming from out of a bright cloud surrounding them, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him." (Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7).

The remaining nine disciples had been left in the town, continuing the mission they had been given (Matthew 10:1; Mark 6:12-13). When Jesus, Peter, James and John met up with them, they found them in dispute with a crowd. The dispute had arisen because a man had brought his demon-possessed son to them for healing, but they had been unable to do so. Jesus heals the boy, but the disciples want to know why they had not been able to heal him.

Jesus' reply, in Matthew 17:20 is, "Because you have so little faith." Mark, on the other hand, records Jesus saying, "This kind can come out only by prayer." (Mark 9:29). These accounts do not conflict, however, when you consider that faith and prayer are so intimately linked. As William Hendriksen says, "Of course, these two go together. Where there is little faith, there is little prayer." (New Testament Commentary on Mark, p352)

Some demons evidently are more powerful and malignant than others, and therefore some are easier to drive out than others. Jesus had given the disciples authority to drive out demons, but He never said that it would be easy in every case. As human beings, they (and we) cannot tell how powerfully someone is enslaved by demonic power, spiritual darkness or sin. We cannot look into a person's heart. All we can do is read the external signs. Therefore, Jesus chides the disciples for giving up so easily. If they had had faith, believing the promise implicit in the mission Jesus had given them, then they would have persevered in prayer.

Hence the real lesson of the passage is about persevering in prayer. But there are two other points relevant to our study. Why should we persevere in prayer? Why should we have faith?

Jesus' statements about faith are puzzling in the context of my question as to whether we can expect God to grant us every request. He says in Mark 9:23, "Everything is possible for him who believes." In Matthew's account he adds, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

Do these statements amount to a promise that if we have even a small amount of faith we should be able to do amazing miracles whenever we want, things like moving mountains? Is Jesus promising to grant our requests for anything every time if we have enough faith? Well, no!

For a start, the mention of mustard seeds and mountains should be enough to make us realise that Jesus is talking about extremes to make a point. Mustard seeds are the smallest of all the seeds, and moving mountains is something so cataclysmic that no human being in the history of the world has ever been able to do it. Moving mountains is something that God alone does, with earthquakes and volcanoes and floods. The smallest imaginable faith is shown performing the greatest imaginable miracle.

Secondly, Jesus does not say that everything is promised for him who believes. He says everything is possible. Nothing should be thought of as impossible if we ask the one who created the universe and keeps it in existence.

Thirdly, the scene is set with a crowd, including "teachers of the law", arguing with the nine disciples (Mark 9:14,16). The argument evidently arose from the faithless lawyers and the crowd, bringing the disciples their trickiest case of demonic-possession, and then gleefully rounding on them when they could not drive it out. There was no faith involved in bringing the poor boy to the disciples. It was a test designed to trip them up and disprove Jesus' claims about Himself. Jesus was not unfamiliar with these sneaky tactics, and His first response is significant. He says, "O unbelieving generation." (Mark 9:19; Matt 17:17)

Jesus sets up a contrast between the lack of faith of the crowd and the lawyers, and the faltering faith eventually shown by the father. He draws attention to this in verses 22 to 24 of Mark 9. The boy's father says to Jesus, "if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

"'If you can'?" replies Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

The man is convicted and realises that he is standing in front of someone who can really do something for his son. He exclaims, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" He sees that he is full of doubts and fears and uncertainties, but underneath he does believe that Jesus is special and is able to heal his son. This is mustard seed faith, and Jesus performs the miracle.

Jesus is very bluntly saying that the problem is never that He lacks power, but normally that we do not believe.

There are three lessons we should learn:

1. Prayer requests are not granted to those who have no faith. Everything is possible for him who believes. We only need a mustard seed of faith. There is no suggestion that we need to try to muster within ourselves a strong, unwavering faith. We simply need to cling to Christ as the one who is able to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20) But nevertheless we need to understand that without faith we are not in touch with the one for whom nothing is impossible. We're told in Matthew 13:58 that there were occasions when Jesus did not do many miracles "because of their lack of faith". And the same principle applies today. Where people reject Jesus and do not put their trust in Him, and do not pray to Him, God is less likely to do amazing things and grant requests.

2. Conversely, if we have faith in God then we must have boldness to pray for big things as well as small. If we do believe, and we pray, then big things, miracles, are possible. Not promised, but possible. The boy who was brought to Jesus was relieved of his demon-possession. All because his father expressed his faith in Jesus and asked for healing.

3. Faithful prayer involves perseverance. There may not be easy or quick answers. But having faith involves carrying on believing and praying until we receive the answer, yes or no.

I should leave it there for now, but next time, God-willing, I'll talk about a similar lesson from James' letter.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Three)

2010-12-31T15:25:00.000Z

Part Three - Ask, Seek and Knock

We're embarking, God willing, on a study of passages in the Bible - specifically the New Testament - that appear to promise that God will grant all our prayer requests. I will resist the temptation to recap again! The previous two introductory articles are still on the blog, and you should start with them if you have not already read them.

The first passage to look at is Matthew 7:7-11.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

The first thing to note is that if you read carefully you cannot find a promise that we will receive everything that we ask for. Jesus says, "everyone who asks receives". He does not say, "everyone who asks receives everything he asks for".

The emphasis is on the asking, not on the receiving. We are being encouraged to ask, seek and knock. These are three degrees of requesting things from God. Sometimes we may just ask. Sometimes we may have to work a little harder and have to seek to find what we need from God. Sometimes we may have to knock, as if the door is closed. The point is that, however hard it seems to get through to God, He is always there waiting to answer us. If we ask He will answer. If we seek Him we will find Him. If we have to knock, He will most certainly open the door to us. Jesus is encouraging us that God loves us, and therefore we should not neglect to come to Him.

Secondly, Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater when He asks how a human father treats his son. Those of us who are parents, and those who know good parents, will see the parallel. If one of my children comes and asks for something, I will definitely give them something good. I want to give good things to my children. And that is true even though I am "evil" in comparison to the perfect God. It does not mean that I give my children everything they ask for. Sometimes they may ask for things that are good in themselves, but I may refuse because it may not be best at that time, or I may refuse because I have something better to give them.

I had an example of this in the last year. One of my children moved up from Primary to Secondary school this year. He desperately wanted to go to the Secondary school that most of his school friends were moving up to. He did not want to be separated from those friends. But Heidi and I knew that it would be better if he went to a different school. He pleaded with us constantly to change our minds and send him to his preferred school. It was heartbreaking! But the beginning of September came along, and he started his new school, and even after the first day he acknowledged that we had made the right decision. We denied his request, because we knew that we could give him something better.

I was going to say that God treats us like children, but it's more than that. We are God's adopted children. "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." (1 John 3:1) He knows what is good for us better than we do. He loves us better than we love our own children. He has infinitely more knowledge of the good things we need. And just as we would prefer to have parents who give us what is good for us, not just what we want, so we should have the same attitude towards God.

The point is that God, as our heavenly Father, knows the good that we need better than we do, and He loves to give us those good things. So we should always ask Him, as a child asks his father.

I remember another example where one of my children came to ask me for something, and he was wringing his hands nervously as he asked, as if he thought I would bite his head off. It brought a tear to my eye. I never want my children to be afraid to ask me for things. I just want them to know that I will only give them what I believe is good for them. And that is exactly what the point of this passage is. God does not want us to shy away from asking for things. He simply wants us to understand that He will only give us what is good for us. If we ask for something that fits in with that, He is only too happy to give it to us. It gives Him the same pleasure that I get in being able to give my children things that they ask for.

Finally, Jesus said these words in his "sermon on the mount", which runs all the way through chapters 5 to 7 in Matthew's gospel. We should always read things in context, and therefore we cannot ignore the rest of the sermon when we try to understand a part of it. And one of the things that is striking when you read the context is that less than ten verses earlier, in 6:33, Jesus introduces the idea of seeking. He says, "But seek first [God's] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

He has been chiding us for worrying about earthly needs (6:25-34), having earthly treasures (6:19-24), and telling us that our highest need is to seek the kingdom of our heavenly Father. Then in 7:7 he tells us that if we seek then we will find. If we seek the kingdom of God we will find it. We are to be Godward in our asking, our seeking and our knocking, and He will not only bring us into His kingdom but give us many good and needful things (which are much less important) for this life as well.

At this point it's probably relevant to bring in the other passage I wanted to cover today, and that is Luke 11:9-10. It's exactly the same as Matthew 7:7-11, but in a slightly different context.

The parable that Jesus tells in the preceding verses in Luke 9:5-8 confirms what I said earlier:

Then Jesus said to them, 'Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him." And suppose the one inside answers, "Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything." I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.'

Your friend will give you what you need simply because you ask boldly, even if not because he is your friend. God is greater than that, but the point is that you must ask boldly. Here again the asking, not the receiving, is the point of the passage.

But the particular thing to note with the teaching in Luke 9, is the way Jesus ends the section in verse 13: "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Seeking first God's kingdom (Matthew 6:33), laying up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20), involves asking for the Holy Spirit. He is the one we need to make us into the people our Father wants us to be. He is the one, when we are tempted to worry about earthly things like where we will live, what we will wear or what we will eat, who will change our perspective. With Him we will be able to say with Jesus, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." (John 4:34) That is truly seeking the kingdom of our heavenly Father, and when we seek we will find.

So to sum up what we have learnt from these two passages:

• We ought to be encouraged to ask God boldly for what we need;

• We ought humbly acknowledge God as our heavenly Father, who knows what is best for us and who loves us, and will give us what is best;

• We ought to pray for what will enable us to glorify our heavenly Father by seeking His kingdom before anything else;

• We ought to pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to fill us more and more.

And if you want further encouragement for your prayers, I'd commend to you John Piper's sermon on Matthew 7, which you can find at the following link: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/ask-your-father-in-heaven

Next time we will, God willing, look at the first pre-requisite for our prayers, and that is to have faith.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Two)

2010-12-18T14:10:00.000Z

Part Two - More Thoughts...

In Part One of this series I laid out a number of Bible verses, mostly quotes from Jesus himself, that seem to suggest that we should expect to receive everything that we ask for in prayer. I painstakingly studied each of these passages, asking myself whether that is really what they are trying to tell us, and if not what are we to learn?

I guess it's worth saying that my main conclusion is that we are not to expect that we will receive everything that we ask for in prayer. For one thing, we could state the obvious and say that if we pray for things that are sinful then we cannot expect to receive those. But also, two or more people may pray for good things that cannot be possible at the same time. David Needham tells a story that illustrates this in his book, Close to His Majesty (Multnomah Press, 1987):

Imagine two farmers in the USA: One raises wheat, and the other, just down the road, raises tomatoes. Both farmers have very large payments due on their mortgages. Everything hinges on harvest time. A crop failure would mean the loss of the farm. Let's complicate things a little more. In each family the farmer's wife is very sick and in need of expensive surgery. Without it, there is little hope of improvement. And one more thing: both families are faithfully walking with God.

It's evening. Each family listens intently to the weather forecast. There's a fifty-fifty chance of rain this particular night. The wheat farmer is well aware that his fields need one more heavy, soaking rain to bring the grain through to the harvest. With that, the farm could be theirs and his wife might be able to walk again.

Down the road, the other farmer knows that his tomatoes are right at their prime - ready to be harvested. But if the rains come, not only will his fields become a muddy bog, making it impossible to harvest, but also the moisture would trigger a blight that would destroy the entire crop. Without the harvest, they will lose everything.

After the weather report, each family gathers around the bed in the room where Mum is resting. Each family prays…

You get the picture. Some prayers conflict with each other, not in the sense of good things and bad things, but simply in the same sense as rain or not rain. God does not promise, in the Bible, to order everything miraculously in response to the wishes of His children - ordering everything to suit each individual, so that each individual had their own individual reality! Philosophically speaking, if miracles were the order of the day then there would be no such thing as miracles! So that is not the way God promises to work ordinarily. So there will, logically, always be some people who do not receive what they ask for.

Also, if God gave everything that we asked simply because we asked, then He would not be God. He would be akin to Aladdin's genie and we would be God! God is God, and we are subservient to Him, not the other way around. John Piper makes the point, in his sermon on Matthew 7:7-11 (http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/ask-your-father-in-heaven), that we should not want to receive everything we ask either. He says, "the reason I say that we would not want to get everything we asked is because we would then have to bear the burden of infinite wisdom which we do not have. We simply don’t know enough to infallibly decide how every decision will turn out and what the next events in our lives, let alone in history, should be."

Not only that, but there are examples in the Bible itself, where prayer requests go unfulfilled. I will skip the ones where persistent prayer requests are eventually granted - such as the women in the Old Testament who were barren and, after years of pleading with the Lord, they received the baby they had asked for - although we must not forget them.

Take, for example, Jesus on the night that He was betrayed. He prayed at Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39) That was a request that even the Son of God was not granted.

The other example I would mention is Paul, who was afflicted by what he called a "thorn in my flesh". We are not told exactly what it was, but we can deduce that it caused him some discomfort. He says, in 2 Corinthians 12:7ff, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" Paul "pleaded" three times in prayer for relief from this affliction, and yet God did not grant his request.

However, these points aside, how should we look at passages that seem to suggest, or even clearly say, that we can, as Christians, ask the Lord for whatever we want, and He will grant our requests? I believe that the Bible is God's Word, and as such it is consistent, trustworthy and true. If I were to come to a conclusion that some Bible passages teach one thing and others show something mutually exclusive, then my confidence in the Bible would be undermined. Ultimately if I cannot have confidence in the Bible as God's Word, which it clearly teaches it is, then I could not have confidence in knowing the truth about God or His way of salvation through Jesus Christ. The stakes are that high.

Hence, we must look seriously at what the Bible says, and be able to reconcile different passages with each other. If we conclude that we are not necessarily to expect to receive everything we ask for in prayer, simply because we ask, then the question really is, what does God promise through Jesus and His apostles in relation to receiving what we ask for in prayer? I want to look more carefully at the words, and more carefully at the context, and find out what our mindset needs to be, so that we can have the right attitude and expectations.

So I hope to lead you through a study of the passages that I have studied, and show how I have come to conclusions I have reached. I will try to show why I don't think these passages teach that we should expect the granting of our requests automatically. But I also want, more positively, to draw out how these passages should challenge and change the way that we pray.

I have struggled to think of the best way to present these studies in a series of shortish blog articles, so that I can best share what I've learned. The method I've settled on is to go through passage by passage, drawing out applications at appropriate points. The headings I mentioned at the end of the last article will turn into application points, and may be augmented and adjusted as I go along. Sorry. It just shows what can happen when you publish bit by bit before you have actually finished the whole thing!

I hope that as I share what I've learnt we will all increase in confidence in the Scriptures and learn to pray in a way that brings glory to our Lord and Saviour.

And so yet again I have introduced the subject without going into the detail! Sorry. I promise we will dive straight into the detail next time, and you won't have to wait so long for that!

Prayer - Ask for Anything?

2010-10-19T11:36:00.000+01:00

Part One - What's the Problem?

One morning as I was having my daily Bible reading and prayer time, I read a passage that sent me into a bit of a spin. It was James chapter 5. Verses 14-15 read, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven." I had to challenge myself. Do I really believe this? This appears to say that if a Christian is sick, and healing is prayed for, then that person will definitely be healed. But I then thought of all the Christians I know who have been sick and have not been healed, even though prayers have been offered to God. If the Bible promises healing for all who pray for healing, and even one Christian does not get the healing that is requested, then doesn't that undermine that trustworthiness of the Bible?

Given my own situation, of serious illness, I could not leave those questions hanging. I had to push for some answers. (I have to admit that I cannot use personal experience to challenge the Bible, mainly because the Lord has graciously answered many prayers in my case. I am in complete remission, and my cancer is gone. The doctors can't say it is cured, because they can only say that if it doesn't come back within 5-10 years. But "complete remission" is still a pretty amazing answer to prayer, and I thank God for the chemotherapy and for the doctors who gave the treatment. God has also provided for us in many ways as a family, materially, physically and emotionally. So I am very grateful, and acutely aware that my questions may be unfair. I may only be reflecting my own lack of faith, and my own weak understanding of God's care for His children. So I push for answers with a humble attitude, asking for more faith as well as illumination.)

As I started to look into this question, however, I started to realise that I was not dealing with an isolated verse in the letter of James. Promises like this are made consistently throughout the New Testament. Let me list the verses that piled even more weight into my problem:

Jesus said, "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11:9-10)

Again, in a slightly different context, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8)

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

Jesus also said, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:19-20)

On another occasion, Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24)

Six times in the space of three chapters in John's gospel, Jesus makes similar statements:

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:13-14)

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 15:7)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16)

"I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:23-24)

James, in his letter, says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." (James 1:5-8)

He also says later on, "You do not have, because you do not ask God." (James 4:2)

The apostle John says in his first letter, "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." (1 John 3:21-22)

He goes on to say, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him." (1 John 5:14-15)

Hence the question I am now drawn into is not the question I originally set out with. It is much deeper. I started out questioning whether God really promises to heal every Christian for whom prayers are said. The questions I now find myself with are these: Does the New Testament promise that God will infallibly give His children whatever we ask for in prayer? If not, what should we learn from those passages that speak in those terms?

I'm afraid I've now run out of space to share my thoughts on those questions. That's the trouble with writing on such serious subjects on a blog! I hope that the survey of passages above has provoked your interest, and that you are feeling as keen as I was to find the answers. But don't worry, I'm not going to leave it at that. I will share my thoughts in future pieces, soon, although I'm not claiming to have found all the answers! Here are the headings I will use in the next few articles:

The conditions for receiving what we ask for:

Have faith;
Ask according to God's will;
Ask in Jesus' name;
Abiding in Christ, and His words abiding in us;
Ask for the right reasons;
Keep his commandments and do what pleases Him;

The humility required to pray in Jesus' name;
The importance of praying as a church;
God is our loving Heavenly Father and we can ask Him anything;
The emphasis is on the asking, not on the receiving.

So I'll leave it there for now. Let me know if you have any thoughts. Please also join me in praying that we will understand how we ought to pray, so that we may do so with confidence and joy.

Reflections on Hardship - Thank God I'm Better!

2010-10-11T03:51:00.000+01:00

After nearly 2 months in hospital at the beginning of the year, followed by more than 4 months of chemotherapy, I was given the news that my cancer no longer shows up on any scans. I am in complete remission. The news was the best we could possibly have heard as a family, and is certainly the best news I've had for a long time. We praise God for the healing, which was an answer to the prayers of many people.

Of course, there is still the small matter of getting my body fit again after the hammering it has taken, both from the disease and from the treatment. And then further mountains to climb in getting back into work. But that's another story!

My reflection this time around is on the phrase I used a few lines above, which is the sort that comes naturally to Christians - "we praise God for the healing". Why do we praise God? Wasn't it the doctors and the chemotherapy that made me better? The doctors even said from the start that they thought there was a good chance I would do very well from the treatment. So this is in no sense a "miraculous" healing. And yet I still thank God that I'm better.

Christians, you see, believe in a God who uses means. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father." (James 1:17) The gift of drugs that make us better, the gift of doctors and nurses with the skill to use them, the gift of researchers to discover their good effects, the gift of prosperity to be able to afford them; all these gifts come from God, who made everything and holds the whole universe in the palm of His hand. Further there is the gift of prayer, by which we can ask God specifically for His help.

We often may long for the miraculous in our lives - the miraculous cure, the miraculous provision of money or food, the miraculous guidance to do the right thing. And those things certainly do happen when God wants to do them. But God's normal way of working is through things He has already created. When He sent the 10 plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery, he sent natural disasters. When He parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape the pursuit of the Egyptians, He used a "strong east wind" (Exodus 14:21). As He spreads the good news about Jesus and the salvation we can receive through Him, He uses evangelists, missionaries, apostles, preachers, ordinary Christians. As He teaches us about Himself, He uses prophets, kings, poets, writers whose collected works make up the Bible.

For me, when I ask God for help, I don't really mind if He uses a miracle or uses means. Whenever help comes, and in whatever way, I know that it is from God, who loves me as His child in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm sure I remember in one episode of The Simpsons there is a scene where Homer is shipwrecked and is floating around on some driftwood. He prays to God to save Him. Soon afterwards a ship comes past and throws him a lifeline, saying, "here climb aboard, we're here to rescue you." Homer's reply is something like, "no it's ok, God's going to save me!" Of course as the ship goes out of sight we then hear the inevitable, "Doh!" We're so often like that, not recognising God's hand in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.

But, as one person said to me, if God made the cure and gave the skill, etc, who made the cancer in the first place? The challenge is whether I am selective in seeing God's hand at work. Do I think God only works in the good things, and is only reacting to the random bad things? If God is powerful enough to use means to make me better, wouldn't He also be powerful enough to prevent cancer in the first place?

If the challenge comes from an atheist, my response could be summarised as saying, "who are you to talk about good and bad? You don't believe anything is good or bad, just different configurations of atoms."

But from the standpoint of faith, the Bible is clear. Nothing is outside of God's divine power. Paul, in Ephesians 1:11, speaks of God as being the one who "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will". In Romans 8:28 he says that, "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him". If you read the book of Job, where poor Job suffers horribly, bereavement, financial ruin, bodily pain, you read that the suffering would not have been possible without God's express permission. God's hand was at work behind the sufferings of Jesus and the sins that led to them: The disciples acknowledged to God in prayer afterwards that Herod and Pilate "did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen." (Acts 4:28) I don't believe you can read the Bible and escape the conclusion that God plans everything, good and bad, whilst remaining perfect and holy in His character and motives.

Therefore, I am happy to say that God made the cancer, and planned that I should be laid low under it for a time. I don't think, because of what the Bible says, that is saying that God is doing anything wrong. On the contrary, because I believe God is in control I can have confidence that even the worst of suffering is for my good… And it will take me a lifetime and probably the whole of eternity to learn that "my good" is to find my treasure in Christ, the ultimate treasure.

Job's response to suffering was, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:20)

As the prophet Habakkuk watched the Jews carted off into exile, his response was, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation." (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Some of us struggle because God is not obliged to give us reasons for our sufferings. Perhaps, you know, we wouldn't understand the reasons even if He were to tell us. How can we humans, who are like specks of dust compared to the Creator of the whole intricate and vast universe, hope to understand, even if we were to add all our brain power together?

The point is to trust God. He is good and He knows what He is doing.

I guess I see it a little bit like this (and I know that this is a poor analogy). When I was in hospital I trusted the doctors and nurses to do the best or me. But sometimes they had to do things to me that hurt in order to progress with either diagnosis or treatment. I had endoscopies that were really painful, because of where my gut was so inflamed. The naso-gastric tube was very unpleasant. The bone marrow biopsy was uncomfortable to say the least. I hated having a cannula inserted into my veins. And then there was the daily blood test. The phlebotomist or the doctor would come along and jab a needle in my arm to get me to bleed. Every time they give a little warning a split second before the needed goes in, so that it's not a complete shock. "Sharp scratch!" they say. What if, in the context of the eternity we have to look forward to, all our pains, hardships and sufferings are like that? What if all that pain that we feel so acutely now will seem like just a "sharp scratch" when we look back from eternity?

For the Christian, we can take comfort from Paul, who says, "this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." (2 Corinthians 4:17) Incidentally, Paul's light momentary afflictions included imprisonment, beatings, shipwreck, venomous snake bite, persecution, and eventually execution.

For the unbeliever, the same applies. The pains and sufferings of this life are a "sharp scratch" in comparison to the eternity of pain that Hell will be.

For the believer the pain keeps us looking to Jesus, praying to Him, trusting in His goodness and His love for us. For the unbeliever the pain warns of more to come, and to urges them to seek the only true escape route - repentance and faith in Jesus.

So I do thank God for making me better. But ultimately, I want to be able to say with Paul, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12-13)

When Things are Not Clear

2010-09-14T06:52:00.000+01:00

One of the reasons I have lapsed in my blogging over the last couple of months is that I stumbled on a verse I read in my daily Bible reading. When I say I stumbled, I mean that I met a mental block and my faith was tested.

Ok, the verse was James 5:15, "And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up."

For those who followed my blog over the last 8 months, and for those who know me well, the reason for my stumbling will be immediately apparent. I have been very sick, suffering with cancer. And obviously I have prayed quite a bit for healing and help. Reading that verse again made me shiver, because in reading it that morning it seemed as if James was saying that there is no need for a Christian to suffer with illness. If we suffer with illness all we need to do is call the elders, have them pray for us, and we'll get better. Simple as that!! And I started to argue in my mind - not only did this not seem to hold true, but it also seemed to contradict other parts of the Bible.

I will write more about my conclusions with regard to that particular issue next time. For now I just wanted to reflect on the process that I went through to resolve the issue in my mind.

All Christians hit these difficult issues either practically in life or when we read the Bible. How do we resolve them? I'll list what I did. I'm not saying this is definitive, or that I did everything right. I probably could have done things differently, or done different things. You may have other things that you do in these situations, and if so please share in the comments box. But what I did helped in this case, so there is probably some merit in sharing. It's also worth saying that I didn't do these things in a strict order. I'll talk about them in a logical order, but in reality I went back and forth between all of them throughout the whole investigation. It's more of an iterative process than a linear process.

1. See if someone else has found the answer

The first thing I normally do, and I did in this case, was to see if I have any books on the issue in question. I looked through my bookcase for a book on prayer. Unfortunately I didn't have one! I would have liked to look in Tim Chester's book, The Message of Prayer, but I cannot afford to buy lots of books at the moment. If I'd had the time I could have asked my local library to get it in, but I didn't.

So the next thing I did was to go searching the internet. There are positives and negatives to this. It is true that you can find advice on just about anything on the internet, but not everything you find is reliable. So you have to be discerning. In fact, if you don't read much Christian stuff, or you don't know who the most reliable and doctrinally sound writers are, then I would advise against searching the internet. Ask your pastor/vicar, or friends who are Christians, which websites they find helpful and bookmark them.

One of my personal favourites is www.desiringgod.org. It contains just about everything that John Piper has ever written or said in a sermon, and he is one of the most helpful writers I have found over the last few years. He takes the Bible seriously and his teaching always leads you to God, rather than glorifying himself as a writer or speaker. So I looked at that website.

Sometimes you will find a satisfactory answer at this stage, and you need go no further. However in my case I wasn't satisfied with the answer I initially found in John Piper's sermons on James 5. On the other hand I did get some further clues, and this is something to watch out for too. He referred to difficult passages on prayer in Mark 11, amongst other things. So I looked those up and it highlighted to me that I had a bigger issue than just James 5. There appear to be a number of passages that give a similarly broad and certain promise of answered prayer.

2. Share the burden

Having done some initial investigation I had at least clarified what I had a problem with. So I started to ask other Christians what they thought about the issue.

Now I should advise you to normally speak to your pastor, or someone in your church with teaching responsibilities, such as a housegroup leader. They are the ones who have been given the responsibility to teach us, so we should go to them to help us. I have to admit that in my case I didn't do this. Instead I chatted with a few of the more experienced Christians that I know - friends and family.

I think that part of the reason we are often reluctant to go to pastors and leaders is that we don't want to appear stupid. We want to appear as those who have avidly lapped up their teaching and now know everything. We don't want to appear weak and doubtful. But this is wrong. It may be the church has an intimidating ethos, where most people act in public as if they have everything sewn up. But there is normally more than a small element of sinful pride within ourselves, which worries about what people think about us. In fact it's the aggregation of the sinful pride of many individuals within a church that gives rise to the intimidating ethos within the group.

Whoever you go to for help with your questions, just be honest with them. Our purpose within the body of Christ is to help each other. No-one is perfect. All believers in this life are on a journey of faith, and we all experience ups and downs along the way. We should share our experiences and learnings honestly, and share our questions and doubts honestly too.

3. Find all the relevant passages

In my case the people I spoke to did not have all the answers I wanted. They sympathised and agreed that it is a difficult question. They also affirmed some of the ideas I had, so I knew that they were worthy of further investigation. However, I needed to do a bit more work, investigating for myself in the Bible.

So I assembled a list of all the passages that appeared to speak about the same subject - the success of faithful prayer. I also assembled a list of passages that give background information on the subject and put the subject in a wider context. So, for instance, I made sure that I thought about the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. I also had another list of passages that gave practical examples of prayer in the New Testament (I skipped the Old Testament partly because the Psalms would have kept me occupied for months (!), and partly because my problem was in New Testament teaching and therefore I most needed New Testament background).

I found those passages using a concordance. A concordance, for those who have never used one, is a book that lists all the references to particular words in the Bible. You will normally find a short concordance in the back of a "study Bible". An "exhaustive concordance" is one that goes through every single word mentioned in the Bible (except words like "the", "a", "and", and "but") and gives lists of all the instances of those words, with chapter and verse references.

In fact, in this case I wasn't actually using my concordance. I used a great internet resource: www.biblegateway.com. On this website you can search for words and get the list of verses, or you can search for specific verses, out of many different translations of the Bible (and in several languages). It's really useful, especially if you do most things on a computer, as I seem to do nowadays.

You have to use your brain here, though. The concordance will only tell you instances of words. You have to edit that list to only include passages that are relevant to your investigation. And you have to think of synonyms and alternative ways of expressing the ideas you want to investigate, so you may need to do several searches to make sure you have covered everything.

4. Look at the context of each passage

Now comes the time consuming part! Each of the verses you identified needs to be read in context. We've all seen on TV where "sound bites" taken out of someone's conversation can give a completely incorrect impression of what they were actually trying to say. The same is true of the Bible, where we can read a verse out of context and miss the whole point of what the passage is trying to say.

So in my case I had assembled about 10 or 12 verses, and I went through each one, looking at the surrounding context. What I mean by the surrounding context is the verses before and after. How far you go back before the verse in question, and how far you follow on after the verse, is subjective. I tended to try and identify a "major section", which in some cases was the whole of a sermon or discourse, or a particular section of an argument in a letter. In the case of the verses in James' letter, I took the whole letter as the context. It's only five chapters, so I might miss something if I divide it down into sections too small.

In looking at the context you really have to paraphrase the argument that the writer is trying to present, or the thing that the writer wants us to understand from a narrative. The question is, "what's the point?" It's looking at the big picture and asking what the major points are. By doing that you get a better feel for things like hyperbole (exaggeration!) or irony.

5. Study each passage

Studying each passage is an art rather than a science, but there are various tools you can use. One of those tools I will mention below. Basically the purpose is to get clear on the meaning of a small section within the context of the big section.

One of the hardest things, I find, is sometimes actually trying to understand the flow of a passage or an argument. Sometimes different bits of teaching will be put next to each other by an author, or even narratives involving completely different events, without the author explicitly telling us how they link together. Is there a chronological link between events? Or is there a thematic link? And if there is a thematic link, what's the theme? Are they steps in an argument?

Looking at parallel passages, or allusions, can help too. For instance, Mark 11:24 was one of the verses I was investigating. Matthew also records the same incident in Matthew 21:21. But Matthew tells it slightly differently, which leads you to ask why. And then the answer to that explains what they are each trying to emphasise by including the incident in their accounts.

Ask questions, think laterally, look at patterns within the passage. Do everything you need to do to really understand what the author is trying to get across.

6. Do word studies if necessary

One way that you can get some light on a particular passage is to analyse the use of a particular key word or phrase that you may have picked up. If you are up for it you can investigate the Greek or Hebrew original languages even if you don't know any Greek or Hebrew - you just need a concordance that has Greek and Hebrew references. That highlights where the particular word in the original language is translated in different ways in the English version.

By looking at other passages that use the same word or phrase, you can often get a lot of insight into what the writers meant by it. For instance, when I was looking at John 14:13 and John 16:24 I noticed the use of the phrase "in my name". In John 14:13, Jesus says, "I will do whatever you ask in my name." What did he mean by "in my name"? So I found a bunch of places, especially in the New Testament, and especially spoken by Jesus, that include that phrase. I looked to see what this meant in different contexts, so that I could build up a picture of what it meant when Jesus said it in the passage I was primarily looking at.

7. Read commentaries

Commentaries are books written by Bible scholars to go through and explain books of the Bible verse by verse. Each commentator will have their own style and emphasis, as well as unique insights and way of looking at things. But their aim is to go verse by verse through particular books and give a deep insight into what we should get from them.

Commentaries are very useful when you have found the Bible passages that you need more light on. But I find that they are most useful when you have first done a lot of the studying outlined above. That way I find that I will have more specific questions and issues that I would like to find the answers to.

But sometimes you find that the commentaries don't comment on the particular questions you have. That's frustrating. But their lack of comment on your questions may, in fact, be telling in itself, especially if you have scoured two or three different commentaries on the same book. You may be asking the wrong questions. That happened to me on several occasions while I was studying the passages on prayer recently.

As a word of caution, remember that commentaries are not the Bible, and they are written by fallible, sinful, human beings, just like you and me. Many commentators are very knowledgeable and give great insights, but they are still not exempt from making mistakes. Read these books with discernment, and do not just accept what they say.

8. Summarise your findings

After you have amassed all this study material, you have to see whether it is leading in a consistent direction to a conclusion. Weigh the different pieces of information carefully, and decide what you believe.

9. Ask the ultimate author

Above all things, throughout the whole process, pray. James 1:5 says, "If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God." We get our guidance from God's Word, and He lives within us in His Holy Spirit. We rely on Him. Without Him we cannot understand anything. So we should acknowledge that and pray often, humbly and earnestly for understanding.

Well, those are a few thoughts. You will have to wait for a future article to judge how successful I was in the study on prayer. It took me about two months altogether. So sometimes it does take a bit of wrestling and hard work.

I would also recommend these kinds of methods when you have a practical issue for which you need Biblical guidance (e.g. you want to find out if it is right for a Christian to date a non-Christian, or whether it is acceptable for Christians to drink alcohol, etc.).

Perhaps there will be another opportunity to write more on this, but for now I'll just finish by recommending a book that helped me. It's What to do on Thursday by Jay E. Adams (Timeless Texts, 1995). The subtitle is A Layman's Guide to the Practical Use of the Scriptures, and that just about sums it up. It's premise is that it's all very well reading the Bible and hearing it preached on a Sunday, but what do you do on a Thursday when you have a practical issue to resolve and want to know the right thing to do? How do you get the Bible's guidance? So what Adams does is give you a process like the steps I outlined above, but much more detailed (and from the perspective of an experienced pastor and counsellor).

All the best with your own studies!

Thank God for the Church

2010-08-16T21:04:00.000+01:00

I wanted to write an article that expresses my feelings of gratitude and praise for the church I belong to with my family - St Mary's, Eastrop, Basingstoke. But I wanted to do that in a way that glorifies God and encourages all Christians to see in some measure the true value and glory of the wider church in general. So I first of all want to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow members of St Mary's. But my encouragement to other Christians is that you should see the great blessing of belonging to a church, as well as attending.

It is more than 18 years since I first moved to Basingstoke and came to St Mary's. I found the welcome there to be warm and was drawn in, as a young single Christian man, to the fellowship. I got involved in leading the music in the services, and in leading services, preaching, teaching at housegroups, evangelism, and in helping with some of the teaching and activities for young people. But my involvement has varied over time, and certainly has been much less since we had kids. I met my wife at St Mary's, was married at St Mary's, and had all my four children baptised as infants at St Mary's. And things have changed subtly and matured over time. Clive Hawkins is still the rector, but curates, associate pastors, ministry trainees, youth workers, housegroup leaders have come and gone. The "new building" is no longer new! And our styles of worship, our evangelistic activities and other regular activities have evolved.

But, over the past four or five years, and especially in the last year, I have really experienced first hand St Mary's as a Christian community. I really can't tell you all the ways we have needed help, counselling and support as a family. But I can say that we would not have got through the past few years without the church.

The most overwhelming example has been this year. I was taken ill and rushed to hospital on Christmas Day, and I stayed there until the middle of February. I was diagnosed with cancer and started having chemotherapy during that time.

Heidi and the kids were well supported by church members while I was in hospital. They had a rota going whereby meals would be delivered to them every day, so that Heidi did not have the worry of having to do that.

I was visited in hospital, not just by Clive and other leaders, but by quite a few members of the church. Being in hospital can be boring, apart from the unpleasantness of illness, so just having people come to chat was great.

Since I came home, and have not been able to work while going through the chemotherapy treatment, things have been tough financially. And whilst it is true that most of the financial support that has kept us from going deeper into debt in the last few months has come from state benefits, we have also been humbled by the generous and spontaneous donations of Christian brothers and sisters both at St Mary's and beyond. Some gifts have been anonymous, some direct. We have not asked for anything, and yet people have seen our need and given generously. Without those gifts we would be seriously struggling.

One Christian friend left some cash in our house without telling us after visiting one day. When we sent a text message later on to ask if it was their cash, the response we got back was simply, "Acts 4:34". This verse is from a passage that speaks of how the early church ensured that there was "not a needy person among them" because they shared their possessions. This brought a tear to my eye, not only with gratitude, but because it was clear that their generosity was not just because we were friends. This was a gift following the example of love in the early church, and in response to the love of Christ who "was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Church members have also helped us out with a variety of jobs that I didn't have the energy or strength for.

And we have been constantly upheld in prayer. This is something that I cannot fully grasp. People at St Mary's have mentioned us to the only God, the Creator of the Universe, in their prayers! There are so many other things to pray about and pray for, and yet they pray for us. But it doesn't just stop at St Mary's, or in England for that matter. I am aware of brothers and sisters praying for us privately and in churches around my own country, and in Canada, the USA and India - people I don't even know!

I should say that we have received a lot of help from other people outside St Mary's and outside of the wider church as well, including some of our unbelieving friends and family, which really is equally appreciated. If they are reading this I do not want them to feel that I think less of their help and their gifts than those of Christians. I am not trying to say that Christians are more caring than anyone else. And I am not trying to say that people at St Mary's are more loving than other people. The Lord indeed provides for His people through many divers means - but that is something to write about another time!

I am only trying to say that church is much more than a Sunday thing, and we have experienced that over the last few years for us, both through St Mary's and through the wider church around the world. You see, the way that love, support and care works, in this context at least, sets church apart from, say, the help received from a charity or a social club, or from close friends and family. We have been treated with generosity in many cases spontaneously and without direction from the church leadership, so it's not a formal organisational thing. We have also received help and been offered help from people within the church that we don't even know very well. These are not necessarily our close friends at church who are helping us out. People want to help because Jesus Christ has loved them, and they want to share that love as he commanded.

I was reflecting on this. And I was thinking how little teaching the Bible contains on the things we normally associate with church - church buildings, church government, church meetings, church music. When the New Testament speaks about church it has much more to say about relationships as a group of people. In fact, it fundamentally addresses us as a church and not as individuals. It's what John Frame calls "one-anothering" in one of his books that I'm reading at the moment (Salvation Belongs to the LORD, P&R Books, 2006).

Peter says, in 1 Peter 2:9-10, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God's] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people…"

Paul, in Ephesians 4, speaks of the church as "the body of Christ" (v12). And he says that the reason God gave apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists was, "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…"

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, again uses the analogy of Christ's body to describe the church, where, "there are many parts, yet one body." (v20) His thrust is that different people in the church have different gifts and talents, and therefore different roles, but we all need each other.

But after talking very practically about everyone having different gifts and needing each other, and the fact that it is good to desire the higher gifts, Paul says, "and I will show you a still more excellent way." (1 Corinthians 12:31) He then goes on, in the well-known passage in chapter 13, to say that exercising these gifts with love is more important than anything else. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (13:1-3)

And that reminded me of what Jesus said in John 13:35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples…" What did he say next? If you have a great choir and sing nicely every week? If you read your Bible and pray every day? If you wear an ichthus, fish, badge at work? If you refrain from swearing and getting drunk? If you give up every Sunday to meet with Christians and hear preaching from the Bible? None of these things are bad. Some are very good and essential. But they are not what Jesus said. Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

John expands on that in his first letter: "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:16-18)

Love within the church community, and love for those outside the church, is to be the main defining mark of our Christianity and our churches. And that's what I have experienced in St Mary's, Eastrop, Basingstoke, whatever our faults and foibles in all sorts of other areas. And that's why I thank God for St Mary's and for his grace towards me through the church there and the wider church. And I want to encourage all my brothers and sisters to keep on loving, because in your love God is working His love through you.

But I also wanted to share this for the sake of some of my friends and family, who would call themselves Christians and have a strong belief in Jesus Christ, and yet are not members of a church. They have a variety of reasons. Some don't think it's important. Some haven't made a huge effort to find a church to go to, and say they can't find one. Some are put off by superficiality in Sunday services. Some are shy. Some didn't like the last church they went to and have been put off. Some are simply chickening out.

I don't judge anyone. But my heart aches for them, whatever their reasons, because they are cutting themselves off from one of the main channels of God's love for them. ¬¬I do also believe that God commands us to meet together as Christians, and to align ourselves with other Christians publicly by belonging to a visible church. And therefore staying away from church whilst wanting to call yourself a Christian is sinful. However, my main concern is that without the support of the church they will fail to grow and will eventually fall away from Christ altogether.

There are, however, at least two objections that these Christian non-church people might throw at me for my audacity:

First, the concept of church in the Bible encompasses both a visible church and an invisible church. All believers, those who have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and their eternal life, are part of the invisible church. We don't get a choice. We are all automatically part of it by God's choosing of us before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and then his calling us into it (1 Peter 2:9). Therefore, they might argue that they are already part of the church, Christ's body, and they don't need to actually go to church on Sunday or belong to a church in this life.

But this overlooks at least two things.

It overlooks that the New Testament never speaks to anyone outside the visible church. The gospels and the letters were written to people who had relationships with other Christians in churches - good or bad. We are told to love one another visibly and obviously so that people will know that we follow Christ. How can we display that love for one another if we do not do it in the context of a visible church? If New Testament Christians had issues with other Christians they were never given the option of ostracising themselves and acting as an independent, lone believer. They were taught how to act, speak, learn, grow, submit, love, care, build up, edify, in the context of the church.

More importantly it also overlooks the fact that the invisible church doctrine was conceived in order to highlight a particular truth, and not to minimise the importance of physically belonging to a church in this life. The invisible church concept is important when we consider that Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7:21-23) So Jesus knew that there would be some in the visible church whom we would think are genuine believers, but he would know them to be "workers of lawlessness". He also said, "I know my own and my own know me." (John 10:14) So whilst the visible church may be a mixture of true Christians, the deluded and the "wolves in sheep's clothing", we can be sure that, "the Lord knows those who are his" (2 Timothy 2:19).

Second, they may say that they just don't get anything out of the meetings at the local churches. They may say that they publicly confess that they are Christians, and are part of the wider church because they have ad hoc fellowship with other Christians. And I may have been misunderstood earlier as saying that meeting together on Sundays is not important, because the main thing about church is the relationships and not the meetings.

However, the thing about the meetings is that these are the focal point. We meet on a Sunday to worship God, to hear His Word, to pray to Him and to sing praises to Him, to visibly show that as a group of people this is what we are all about. "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people." (1 Peter 2:10) God's people, not just a random group of people. God's people, not a networking group or a therapy group or a commune. Our purpose is to, "proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light." (v9) And when we meet and do what we do, we say to the world, "we are God's people and we proclaim His excellencies, we rely on Him, we trust Him, we learn from Him, we praise Him. He is our God, and Jesus Christ is our Saviour!"

It's also an expression of love for each other, because in our meetings we build each other up and encourage one another through Bible teaching and through prayer. So if we treat Sunday services with apathy or lack of commitment we are effectively saying that we don't care about our brothers and sisters - we can't be bothered. Christianity without meeting with other Christians is all about what we can get out of God directly, whilst refusing to be His means of helping, loving and caring for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The church is one of the main means that He uses to help His people, and yet we both refuse that channel for ourselves, and refuse to be part of that channel for others, if we refuse to be part of a church. We want help from Him directly - in the way we determine, rather than the way He reveals. In short it's self-centred rather than God-centred, and is therefore not true Christianity.

I have gone on long enough. I hope you see why I thank God for the church - my own local church at St Mary's and the wider church - especially in my time of need. And I hope that if you are reading this as a Christian you will place importance on the church, and give yourself to it. And I pray that as we give ourselves first to God, and then to each other, we may visibly demonstrate the love of Christ and thereby commend the gospel to the watching world.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

For the Encouragement of Faithful Doubters - Part Two

2010-05-21T18:48:00.000+01:00

Times of doubt

A while ago I wrote to encourage those who are worried that they don't have strong enough faith. I was, to be honest, concerned that my previous reflections may be overly dogmatic, and end up discouraging those who read and say, "I still don't get it!" I don't want to give the impression that I have everything sewn up, and that having everything "sewn up" and solidly grounded is part of the character of saving faith. I want my public reflections to be encouraging and not discouraging.

So I pointed out that nothing can be absolutely crystal clear to us in this life, both because of our finiteness and because of our sinful nature. I showed the examples of those we sometime see as the great men of faith in the Bible, who quite often went through times of doubt and fear. I pointed out that salvation comes through believing in Jesus Christ, in having faith, not a certain amount of faith. And I held out the Bible as God's means to lead us into greater knowledge and certainty about the hope that we have, to enable us to grow in faith.

I hope that was helpful, and pray that these reflections will be an encouragement to grow through studying deeply in the Word of God, relying on the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see ever more clearly the wonder and glory of Jesus Christ.

But it also made me think about some of the times of doubt I've had in my own life, and the way that I have been brought back from the brink of unbelief. I admit that when I talk about "the brink of unbelief" that's a little over-dramatic. By God's grace, I have never even temporarily given up my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that doesn't mean I have not had times when I have seriously questioned what I believe, and have times when I simply do not know the answers.

Sometimes I have come across difficult passages in the Bible that I can't make sense out of, and seem inconsistent with other teachings. And I have thought to myself, "What if this isn't true? What if this undermines everything? What if my faith is misplaced?"

Sometimes I have envied the prosperity and "freedom" of those who do not follow God. Like the psalmist, "I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills… always carefree, they increase their wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure." (Psalm 73:3-13) Freedom to be promiscuous, freedom to get pleasure out of life and get what I want without caring about anyone else - surely that would be easier sometimes. Am I restricting my own progress and enjoyment in life because of something that I simply accept from an old book?

Some unbelieving friends may have told me not to be so hard on myself at those times, though they never got the chance because I have always kept these thoughts to myself. You see, many unbelievers admire faith in other people. They see noble qualities, selflessness, love and giving, grounded in a kind of hope and certainty that they simply don't have. They wish they could have that, but they accept that they don't. They would think it a shame for someone to give up such a faith, because they want to believe that it is possible.

I may have mentioned elsewhere how I was intrigued by the film, The Invention of Lying, written by and starring Ricky Gervais. It's what I would call a double philosophical satire. It mocks Christianity, because it wants to make out that God is just a concept made up by people who really want to believe there is something more than emptiness in life. But it also mocks anti-Christian philosophy, because it wants to point out that faith brings about great things and great feelings. The worst position in the world, it implies, is to know for sure that God is a fantasy and yet have to get by in life.

But I just don't get that. For me, either life is something or it isn't. Truth is truth, and I can't change it. If God exists and Jesus is the Saviour of the world then I have to accept that as true. If it's not true, then I must live consistently with that alternative. There is no point living my life as if God exists, and that I can have the hope of eternal life through the death and resurrection of Christ, if it's not true. Paul said the same thing too. He said, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Corinthians 15:19) There is nothing noble or praiseworthy about faith in something that is not true. Like the dying man in the desert who staggers on towards the mirage on the horizon, we would be pitiable, not pious.

What are the alternatives?

But what has brought me "back from the brink" time and time again is the emptiness of the alternatives. And this was brought home to me again while listening to John Piper preach on John 6:68 (you can find a transcript of the sermon, and the audio and video, at http://tinyurl.com/2vpvhak).

In John 6, Jesus feeds a huge crowd of people with only five loaves of bread and two small fish. He is then tracked down all the way to the other side of the lake, because this miracle has made him so popular. Condensing the story somewhat, Jesus treats this popularity with contempt, seeing that all the crowd wants is a miracle worker to carry on feeding them. He therefore gives them some pretty strong and difficult teaching, not only about the nature of his person, his mission and the ultimate gift he came to give, but also the inability of man to come to him without God's inner working. "No-one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him," he concludes in 6:65.

The result, we are told in v66, is that, "from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."

Jesus then turns to the twelve who are left with him, and asks them, "You do not want to leave me too, do you?" (v67)

"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.'" (v68) Who else is there to turn to? Every other alternative is empty. To quote John Piper, "'Lord, to whom shall we go?' In that simple question, Peter is saying, We’ve considered it. We’ve allowed ourselves to ponder what it might be like to turn away from you."

In one Christian Fellowship meeting at work, when I worked in Windsor, instead of sharing testimonies about how the members became Christians, we were asked to share the answer to the question, "Why am I still a Christian?" It was a very valuable session, which I think came from the recognition that sometimes maintaining a life of faith as a Christian is hard. How do we do it? In the face of being told day-in, and day-out, in the media, in comedy sketches, by friends, work colleagues and family members, how stupid we are; how repressed we are; how the world's problems are all down to people like us (ref Dawkins and Hitchens, etc al); how we are bigoted, prudish, killjoys; why do we persevere in faith? When we find things in the Bible that we don't understand, when we face hardships that we can't explain, when we see evil in the world, why do we keep going?

My answer was the same as Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" The alternatives are empty, they do not make sense. I've heard what atheist philosophers have to say. I've listened to other religions. Faced with the impulse to be rational, I have put a lot of consideration into that question. And no other alternative works. Far from the Christian worldview being a leap of blind, irrational, faith, it is the only rational choice. Of course, that's just my testimony. It doesn't prove anything. And it does not mean that I just dismiss the problems that I face - in life and in thinking - or that I have every area of life and existence "sewn up". I simply see enough to know that God is real, that I deserve His wrath for the ways I dishonour Him, that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead so that I can have that wrath taken away from me, and that through faith in Jesus I can look forward to a wonderful future when God finally brings an end to this present age. I say to Jesus, "'You have the words of eternal life!' (John 6:68) I trust you. Every other alternative is either empty and hollow, or dishonouring to God. So I will continue to cling to you by faith, even when my tiny, sin-tainted mind cannot fathom the answers to the questions that arise from life."

The main alternative, living in Western culture that has lost its Christian foundations and that is increasingly secular and godless, is the prevailing secular atheism and pluralism. This is where most of my unbelieving friends and family come from when they look at my faith with varying degrees of scepticism (this may be the scepticism of pity, which "tolerates" faith only when it does not impinge on their "freedom"; or it may be the scepticism of admiration, which wants the faith without the restrictions on personal autonomy). And so, whether they like it or not, I feel the pressure to conform and live like them.

The apparent attractions are obvious. Conforming is easy. I wouldn't have to say unpopular things about abortion being the murder of a child; or about homosexual, pre-marital or extra-marital sexual acts being sinful. I wouldn't have to be seen as repressive and prudish in my complaints about what gets shown on TV and in the media. I wouldn't have to offend my friends and family with the unstated implication of my faith, which is the implication that they are sinners (along with me) and are facing an eternity in hell. I wouldn't have to face the laughter of the intelligentsia when I say I believe that the whole universe and the whole spectrum of existence was created by God, let alone that I am one of these terrible fanatics who believes that He did it in six days. Ok, so I would drop out of the support net of the church, which is widely acknowledged as a great force for social good on both a personal and cultural level. But on the other hand I could do my own thing, without worrying whether it's right or wrong. I could choose to follow my own path to my own happiness. I could follow money, or power, or sexual pleasure, or all three! I could save time and mental energy on prayer and Bible study. I wouldn't have to worry if the Bible said something I didn't understand. I could go on with the list of the apparent attractions of secularism.

But having been attracted, and having thought about it, I still call them "apparent" attractions. They are superficial, because when I start to dig deeper and examine the foundations of this secular worldview that appears so attractive, it crumbles. I would have to give up too much in terms of rationality. I would have to live in a world of wishful thinking. Let me give you a brief example.

Atheism, because it denies the existence of God, has to posit an alternative theory for the existence of everything. It normally suggests the theory of evolution. Note that I put it that way. If you look into atheist philosophy it is never put the other way around. So we never hear of people being persuaded there is no God because of evolution being the way everything came into existence. For one thing, evolution is still a theory. It is not a fact, as popular presentations of science would have you believe. People believe evolution because they want to believe something about their origins and the origin of life and existence. If God did not create everything, how did it get here? (There are other basic philosophical questions that we could consider - such as, what is reality or how do we know anything - but I don't want to go on too long.)

Existence (broader than just simply life) is either meaningful or meaningless. Being meaningful or meaningless are mutually exclusive. The atheistic theory of evolution says that every present form of existence has randomly formed over billions of years by a process of mutation and the survival of certain of those random formations. The implication of that belief is that every form of existence is meaningless. It's meaningless in the sense that evolution implies no significant difference between forms of existence. E.g. A human is just a different formation of matter to an elephant or a tree. E.g. Life and non-life are just different ways for matter to react within itself. E.g. Love, hate, good and evil are just different reactions within the different formations of matter. But if it's all randomly formed, then distinctions between formations and reactions are meaningless (by applying the definition - if the distinctions between things don't ultimately signify anything then they are meaningless).

The thing I find empty about today's atheism is the shrug that everything may all in fact be meaningless and with no ultimate significance: lymphoma or good health - equally meaningless; love or war - equally meaningless; care for our children or abuse them - equally meaningless; kill people or heal people - equally meaningless!

And yet everybody lives as if existence has meaning, in that everybody gives significance to things, and to things that happen. What I ask is where the significance comes from, and why do we live that way. If you reject God as ultimately being behind everything, then you are left with randomness, which doesn't give significance to anything. It's at that point that I believe that the Christian worldview provides consistency (living solidly based on belief), but atheism does not (because atheists say there is no meaning, but act as if there is).

And coming back to the point, therefore, I find that I would have to give up too much if I were to give up the Christian faith. I could go for the ease of conformity with the secularism of the age, and give up my allegedly restrictive faith. But I would have to then accept a view that ultimately says that nothing has any meaning, or everything has no meaning. And yet I would find it impossible, honestly, to live that way. Can I see the love of my wife and children as meaningless? Can I see the terror and awfulness of war and oppression as insignificant? Can I cry real tears? Can I feel real joy? Can I have real fun? Can I experience real love? Can I know real guilt? Can I know real forgiveness? I honestly cannot accept these things are unreal, illusory, meaningless or insignificant. And therefore I cannot accept atheism.

To whom shall we go?

And so I am forced back to God, in Christ, where I find real love, feel real guilt, experience real forgiveness, real sadness and real joy. Because He made the world and made me in His image, and that gives me the capacity to understand these things and really feel them. He gives me a concept of sin, judgment and justice which explains the evil in the world. He gives me hope. I find atheism bankrupt. Atheists have to live in a dream world of wishful thinking. As hard as it is to be a Christian, or to understand some aspects of theology, it is the only worldview that makes sense and fits with reality as we experience it.

So don't be afraid to consider the alternatives to Christianity. But dig into the roots. You will find that every alternative ultimately crumbles into a heap of inconsistencies and irrationality. And so you always come back to Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3) and say, with Peter, "You have the words of eternal life!"

What is prayer?

2010-05-05T12:44:00.000+01:00

"Do not be anxious about anything," says Paul, "but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Philippians 4:6) James writes, "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray." (James 5:13)

If we turn to Matthew 26, when Jesus was "sorrowful and troubled" (v37) in Gethsemane, we find that his response was earnest prayer. "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed…" (v39). If the Son of God felt the need to pray in his darkest hour, then we should too. In fact, in that very hour Jesus told his disciples to do just that. He had asked his disciples to keep watch with him, but they feel asleep. When he rose from praying and found them sleeping, he said to Peter, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." (v41)

Prayer is one of those typically religious things. Most religions have prayer as one of their core ingredients. Muslims pray, Jews pray, Hindus pray, Sikhs pray, even the Roman pagans used to pray. But that can lead to confusion. I didn't even understand the definition given in Wikipedia: "Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional connection to some greater power in the universe through deliberate practice." The fact is that the concept of prayer is different - sometimes subtly, sometimes drastically - in different religions. That is not a surprise, since every religion differs in its view of God, mankind and the relationship between God and mankind. Since prayer is, at the very least, about communication by human beings, different religions will have different views and practices when it comes to prayer, depending on, a) who or what that religion says we must communicate with, and b) how said entity/entities prefer or demand to be communicated with according to that religion.

So we must beware of having a view of prayer that is a kind of eclectic mishmash gleaned from the pluralistic culture of our day. As Christians we must let the Bible guide us when it comes to prayer. And since when tough times come prayer feels most necessary and natural, we need to know what to pray in those times and what to expect.

For Christians prayer could simply be defined as the way that we speak to God. Let's not confuse things by talking about listening to God in prayer! God's communication to us might come while we are praying. But it isn't prayer. God speaking to us comes through much more diverse means. Mainly God speaks through His prophets and apostles, and therefore through the Bible. But we may also refer to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, for example, as "the Lord told me". But when the direction of communication is from us to God there is only one way of describing it - prayer.

It's also worth pointing out that prayer is communication between persons. Our God is a "personal" God. That doesn't mean that we each have our own individual God! I don't mean "personal" in the same sense someone might have a "personal shopper" or a "personal identification number" - i.e. an individual thing that can only relate to one individual person. God is personal in the sense that he exists in a way that relates to us as persons. Human beings were the only creatures made "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27). And so He does not have the same relationship with animals and trees as He does with human beings. Because we are made in the image of God, we are wired to specially relate to Him. The communication between God and human beings is person to person. And therefore the way that we communicate with God will be very similar to the way that we communicate with other human persons.

I make that last point because there are other religions that see prayer as simply connecting to a higher power. Their concept of god is simply a powerful being or a mystical concept or such like. Therefore, their gods cannot be communicated with on the same level. For them, prayer is something different than talking. When I visited Bangalore in India on business once, I had the opportunity to visit the ISKCON temple on the Saturday and to go to the local Anglican church on the Sunday. It struck me that one of the main differences between the Hinduism practised by ISKCON and true Biblical Christianity is visible in worship and prayer. Hindus say mindless mantras, in this particular case the Hare Krishna. Christians use intelligible, propositional, linguistically rational, communication. The Hindu aim is to use the mere sound waves from the Hare Krishna mantra, said over and over for hours on end, to revive a state of Krishna consciousness. The Christian aim is to communicate in words that people understand, an intelligible message from God and an intelligible prayer to God.

We speak to God, he hears, he understands and he answers.

But to say that prayer is "speaking to God" is to state only a very basic truth. When human beings speak to their creator it is a very special form of communication. Because God infinitely transcends us, the communication with him will naturally transcend any other person-to-person communication. Think about the most obvious differences. We are limited by space, time and by physical and mental capacities. We will only be heard by other people if we speak out loud (telepaths are extremely rare, if they exist at all in reality) or write or make signals. We can only be "heard" by people within an audible or visual range, or by those who are able to receive our written communication. The audible or visual range of our communication can be extended by technology (printed books, the postal system, telephones, video, internet, etc.), but not infinitely. There will never be any way for a human being to communicate with everyone on the planet. God, on the other hand, can hear the thoughts of our hearts, so that we can think our prayers quietly and he hears them. We can only concentrate on receiving communication from a limited number of sources. God hears all the prayers that are directed to him, and can in the same instant take in prayers from an infinite number of sources. He sees and hears everything in the whole universe all the time. We are limited to communicating in languages that we understand. God is not limited by language. Prayer may be "speaking to God", but God's transcendence means that speaking to him is something very special.

But we should push further. When human beings speak to God it is not just the transcendence of his nature that we need to consider. In other words it's not just the fact that he is an infinitely greater being that makes speaking with him special. He is our creator. He made us. He made the animals, birds, fish, mountains and flowers too. So we are not just lesser beings, we are subordinate beings. Being lesser or greater does not imply any rights or responsibilities to each other. I am a lesser footballer than Wayne Rooney, but that does not create any relationship between him and me, and there are neither of us has automatic rights or responsibilities towards each other arising from his greater athletic abilities. However, my children are subordinate to me, owing to the fact that Heidi and I brought them into the world. They owe their existence to us, and therefore that creates rights and responsibilities within the family. Hence, in the same way God's creation of the universe puts the universe under God - subordinate to God. Hence, in prayer we speak not only to a greater being, but to the one who gives us the breath to pray, the strength to live, the environment to survive within, and the mind to understand our needs, our environment and our responsibilities.
Furthermore, he didn't make animals, birds, fish, stars, galaxies, atoms, etc. to relate to him in the same way as human beings. Men and women were made "in his image" and were given authority over the rest of creation (Genesis 1:27-28). So not only are we beings that are subordinate to God, we are subordinate with specific delegated responsibilities. God has given us an active role and purpose within his creation.

It's worth pausing to take note that the recognition of this relationship between human beings and God, our creator, who is the source and ruler of everything, is absolutely fundamental to understanding the meaning of life, the universe and everything. At the very least, it is something you need to understand if you want to understand Christianity. In this age of postmodernism people tend to look at Christianity from the outside with a kind of watered down caricature of God. If you look at the cartoons and the satires of Christianity you would tend to find God pictured as a man with a white beard sitting on a cloud. In one classic episode of The Simpsons, God comes to sit down next to Homer beside the swimming pool in heaven! He is that great being who sometimes does things in the world and sometimes chooses not to, who has a place called "heaven" for people who choose to honour him before they die. We are lesser beings than God, but in no way subordinate to him, and certainly with no responsibility to him. It's like me and Wayne Rooney: greater than me, but not in any way implying any responsibility. By contrast, the Christian view of God and man, which we take as being revealed by God himself in the Bible, is that he created us to have delegated authority in the universe, and therefore he has a right to demand our service, our allegiance, and we have a responsibility to live the lives he has given us in a way that honours him.

So when we pray we are speaking to the one who has created us and given us a role of great responsibility within his creation. This should fill us with awe.

Dropbox is worth a try!

2010-04-10T15:08:00.000+01:00

If you like to either backup files from your computer to an internet storage site, or need access to up to date versions of files on different computers, then Dropbox is probably worth looking into.

You can get 2Gb of free online storage / backup space by clicking on the link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTIyNzg0NzM5

I’ve been trying it for a while and it works better than iDisk, which is part of the MobileMe package. I found the following review, which backs up (please forgive the pun!) what I was thinking myself (can’t vouch for this blogger’s command of the English language, unfortunately, but he makes some good points!). http://tinyurl.com/yawhewk

It works on Windows or Mac or Linux. There is a small piece of inobtrusive software to download. After that the automated backing up and file synchronisation happens quickly and quietly in the background. There are other nice features, one of which is that it keeps a history of all the different versions of files that you save (and access every event that happens to your files and folders via an RSS feed – for those so technically inclined!). So if you want to go back to previous versions if you have edited a document, say, and saved it, then you can – very easily. The other thing is that you can share folders with other people very easily, although they have to be dropbox users too. This sharing feature is so much easier than Apple’s iDisk it’s like kindergarten by comparison. It’s also better than google docs, because you can share any type of file, not just office documents.

And if you sign up using the link above, then I get an extra 250 Mb of storage space!

Just thought I would share!

For the Encouragement of Faithful Doubters

2010-04-07T16:26:00.000+01:00

Some people seem to have rock solid faith. They talk about God, Jesus, and the world, as if they see things with absolute clarity and as if nothing is going to shake them.

This can be disturbing for people for whom things are not so clear. They feel like they only see parts of a jigsaw puzzle. Some things fit together. Other bits are left to the side and don't seem to have a place. Perhaps they see parts of the Christian message really well - they know that God made the universe, they know they are sinners, they love Jesus for dying on the cross for their eternal salvation, and they pray to God as their Father in heaven. But perhaps other things make them wonder whether they are right to believe. Perhaps they cannot understand why the world seems such a cruel place, or how Jesus could have risen from the dead. Perhaps they wonder how God can continue to love them if they keep letting him down, or how God can overlook their sin without being unjust. Perhaps they can't see how God can be in control as the sovereign ruler over his creation at the same time as holding us responsible for our wrongdoing. Bits of the puzzle are all over the table, and they seem to suggest that the bits that they've already pieced together may not actually go together. Perhaps they should start all over again, they sometimes think. And when they see the confidence of others, they are discouraged, thinking that they can only really be faithful and believe if they have finished the puzzle with total clarity.

If you are in this second group of people, then I am writing this for you. I want to encourage you to press on and not to give up.

There is much that could be said, but I will try to be brief. There are basically four points I want you to understand:
• First, that absolute clarity in our understanding of God, ourselves and the world, is not possible in this life, because of sin and because of our finiteness.
• Second, that many of the great men of faith in the Bible were also struck with doubt and fear at times. We should learn from them.
• Third, the important thing is to have faith, not a certain amount of faith.
• Fourth, that the Bible has been given to us by God as our guide, and therefore greater clarity in life will come from studying it carefully. But we should understand it as a guidebook, and not as a map or Lego instruction book.

So firstly, we should understand that finishing the jigsaw puzzle is not possible in this life, because of sin and because of our finiteness.

Consider what God said through Isaiah. "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.'" (Isaiah 55:8-9) The simple fact that we are created, and God is the Creator, means that there are things that we can never fully grasp.

Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." So there are things that we only get to see as a "poor reflection" now, but will be made clear in the future when we meet Jesus face to face.

Sin-tainted, finite, human wisdom is just not cut out for the job of getting to grips with God and the meaning of life. Listen to Paul again. "Where is the wise man? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:20-21) He goes on to elaborate - Jews look for miracles, but we present Christ as crucified - apparently powerless! Greeks look for wisdom, but we present Christ as crucified - apparently absurd! In human terms this is the foolishness of what we preach. But to those whose eyes are opened by God, what we proclaim is, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." (vv24-25)

Let's be careful here. This is not saying that the Christian faith is an irrational leap of faith. I argue that the Christian faith is completely rational, and in fact is the only worldview that does justice to the world we experience - the nature of reality, how we know things and the way we live our lives. What Paul is saying is that when human beings try to use their own intellect to understand God without listening to what he says, then the result is foolishness. But people don't recognize it as foolishness. They have so constructed their worldview that actually the real truth appears to them as foolishness instead.

True wisdom consists in listening to God and seeing things the way he shows them to be. That's why non-Christian worldviews can all be shown intellectually to be foolishness. I believe that. And I don't believe that's arrogant in any sense, since it is founded on the humble assumption of God's transcendence.

But if the Christian faith is so rational, and the arguments are so logical, why do many more people not believe? Paul gives the answer in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ."

The only way we can see the truth properly is if God takes away our spiritual blindness. "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

When God brings an end to this present universe, and brings us into the New Heavens and New Earth as he promised, we will see his light with pure, crystal clarity. Now, we see even this glorious light as a "poor reflection" by comparison. In between now and then we make progress, which too is given by God. We, "are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory." (2 Corinthians 3:18) "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16)

So we should not lose heart because we only see a "poor reflection", or because other people seem to see things more clearly than we do. We have been given the "light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ", and this will increase in intensity through our lives until it reaches its perfect fulfillment in eternity. That's why Paul says elsewhere, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (Philippians 3:12)

Secondly, we need to follow the example of some of the great men of faith in the Bible who had their moments of doubt.

You've heard of "Doubting Thomas", right? Did Jesus condemn him for faltering in his faith?

"Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came [after he had risen from the dead]. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord!'

"But he said to them, 'Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.'

"A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'

"Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'

"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" (John 20:24-29)

John the Baptist also had a period of doubt, which you can read about in Matthew 11:1-19. Remember John was the one who baptized Jesus at the start of his ministry, and who called out, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) And yet in Matthew 11:2, we read that he sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

Did Jesus' answer condemn John for his faltering? No, he commends him, but with a serious encouragement - "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." (v6) And then he says that, in spite of this faltering, "Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (v11)

Both Thomas and John were blessed with seeing first hand the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, walking and working on the earth in Palestine two thousand years ago. They both faltered in their faith and yet were accepted by Jesus. But in both cases Jesus pointed forward to those who would be more greatly blessed - the humble people who would believe in him in the future without seeing first hand - you and me!

My last example is one of my favourites, because it is such a great picture of how we feel in times of doubt.

In Matthew 14:22-33, we have the account of when Jesus walks on water. The disciples had gone on ahead of him in a boat, across the Lake of Galilee, and they got hit by a storm. In the midst of the storm, Jesus came walking out to them on the water! To say they were a bit startled is slightly understating the reaction!

Peter, always the hothead, says, "Lord, if it's you… tell me to come to you on the water." (v28) And Jesus tells him to come.

"Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!'

"Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'" (vv29-31)

Sometimes we doubt because of stormy situations - maybe hardship, maybe the criticism of others. We should simply cry out, like Peter, "Lord, save me!" And he will reach out his hand and catch us, and then he might just give us a gentle ear-bashing for doubting!

Thirdly, the important thing is to have faith, not a certain amount of faith.

Admittedly, it is a bit imprecise to talk about having a certain size or amount of faith. But Jesus talks like that. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus tells his disciples that great things can be achieved, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed." I mentioned above one of the many occasions when the disciples were rebuked for being of "little faith".

Theologians have tied themselves in knots over the implications of this. How much faith is necessary to be saved? Does that mean there are some things that are essential to believe for salvation, and other things are optional? Or rather, are there some things that it is ok to disagree about, or have doubts about, without calling into question the salvation of a person? But the problem with that way of thinking is that it can give us excuses to avoid repentance. If we say that only certain core truths are necessary to believe for salvation, then it may give us the mistaken impression that we can just choose those and believe whatever we like about everything else.

I don't want to go off here into a huge tangent about the nature of saving faith. There is a necessary place for that, but probably not here.

At the risk of over-simplifying, however, we should see saving faith more as an attitude worked out in actions, rather than intellectual agreement with a set of propositions. Intellectual agreement is part of the story, but not all of it. The attitude of faith is one of trust and love, and this is worked out by persevering in holiness and loving other people.

You may be worrying that your faith is not strong enough to carry on and see you through to salvation. But friend, thankfully the strength of our faith in our own perception is not what is important. Jesus Christ already went to the cross and achieved your salvation. And it is that that assures you of eternal life, even though you are a sinner. We ought to learn that faith is not something that exists within a vacuum. Faith is a belief and hope in someone. And our faith is in Jesus Christ, who bought our salvation for us with his blood on the cross on a particular Friday two-thousand years ago.

As an illustration – and all illustrations have limitations – picture several life rafts floating in the middle of the ocean after a big cruise ship has sunk.

In one of the boats, the occupants lost hope the moment they got into the water. They managed to salvage a few crates of vodka into the dinghy before the ship went down. And they set about drinking themselves into a stupor so that they don’t have to think about their predicament. They don’t know about the international coastguard, and they can’t be bothered with the distress beacon that they can simply switch on. Very soon they are unconscious and dehydrated and they die before the helicopter arrives.

However, the people in some of the rafts have started their distress beacons, sending out signals for someone to come and rescue them. They have recognised their need, and they have called out for help.

In one of those boats, the occupants are experienced sailors and know what is happening to the distress beacon, who is hearing it, and whereabouts they are in the world. They know that the beacon is being picked up, because they have some knowledge of the international coastguard and something about the technology of the beacon. They know what will happen when the distress beacon is heard. They know the sort of helicopter that will arrive, and roughly how long it will take it to reach them. And they’re planning their consumption of food and water in preparation for their rescue. They have such confidence that they immediately set the distress beacon going and set about planning for the arrival of the rescue helicopter.

In another of the boats, the occupants are scared and sea-sick, tired and irritable. They have started their distress beacon because they saw the people in the other boat do it, and it seems like the right thing to do. But they keep arguing with each other over when the helicopter is going to turn up, and what it’s going to be like in the helicopter, and some days they feel like they are never going to be rescued. Some of them are not even sure that anyone is hearing this distress beacon - I mean, it’s a mysterious radio wave that they can’t even hear, so how do they really know anyone is picking up the signal, hearing it, understanding it and acting on it. But most days they continue to watch the sky for signs of rescue.

And yet none of them were aware that a satellite had already seen and transmitted all the events of the ship sinking, and the rescue ships and helicopters had been sent out before the life rafts had entered the water! Did the strength of faith of the people in the life-rafts affect whether they were rescued or not? No! The rescue had already been assured before the life rafts even entered the water, to all those who would recognise their need of rescue and call out with the distress beacon to the one who could rescue them.

And so it is with Christ. He will certainly save all those who call out to him in faith, recognising their need and asking to be rescued, whether their faith is strong and fully knowledgeable or weak and sometimes doubting. The critical work of salvation has been done by Christ alone – the rescue helicopters have been sent out.

The attitude of faith is that we trust the Saviour, and we cling to his words. We may not understand everything God says, but we trust everything he says. We may not have fitted the entire jigsaw puzzle together, but we trust that he is showing us the picture bit by bit. We trust that even though we falter here and now, we see only the "poor reflection", and we will indeed see clearly later.

That's why I addressed this article to "faithful doubters". There is no irony really. All of us will have some doubts at various times. None of us will be able to fit all the pieces of the puzzle in place and see everything clearly this side of Christ's return. But we are called to be faithful and trust him.

Finally, the Bible has been given to us by God as our guide, and therefore greater clarity in life will come from studying it carefully. But we should understand it as a guidebook, and not as a map or Lego instruction book.

There is a great prayer in the first chapter of Colossians. Paul says to the Christians in Colossae that, "we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…" (Colossians 1:9ff) There is an excellent full exposition of this in A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson. For my purposes in this (not very) short article, I want to point out only one thing.

One of the things that is involved in living a "life worthy of the Lord", and in pleasing him, is "growing in the knowledge of God."

Peter ends his second letter with a similar exhortation: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)

Growth is a necessity. It is part of living faithfully. Jesus also likens his disciples to the branches of a vine. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit…" (John 15:5) We must be branches that grow and bear fruit (see also the full passage, vv1-8).

Two of the main things that God has given us to help us to grow in our knowledge of him are prayer and the Bible.

To grow and be stronger in the faith, ask God: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." (James 1:5)

To grow and be stronger in the faith, use what God has given you already! "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

My final point on this is just a word of caution on how the Bible works in teaching us about God, ourselves and life. I would say that the Bible is more like a travel guidebook, rather than a map or a Lego instruction book!

In our pilgrimage through this life sometimes we wish we had a map. We wish that we had the satellite navigation version of the Bible. In other words it would give us the step-by-step guide to being saved and then a virtually flame-proof route from conversion to heaven. We could then switch off from everything else around us and just follow the voice.

Or we may wish that we had the design drawings for the universe and life, like a Lego instruction book. We want God to lay out before us how everything works, how everything fits together, step-by-step, brick-by-brick. Then we would know how to live in the right way and know what to believe.

But the Bible is not like that. It is full of letters, laws, songs, history, poetry, prophecy, parables, biographies, and so on. Some things we are told explicitly. Some things we are left to work out by implication.

The reason for that is that our lives are not all about getting to the end of the journey, but about the journey itself. We are assured that we will get to the end of the journey, and that the end of the journey will be fantastic. But God has things to show us in this life, while we are on the way - things about himself. He doesn't want us to know about his love in the way that we know Anthony's love for Cleopatra! He wants us to experience it. He doesn't want us to know his glory and greatness in the way that we know the Himalayas and a tidal wave (i.e. remotely). He wants us to experience it. He doesn't just want us to know his forgiveness in the way that we know that King David was forgiven. He wants us to experience it and delight in it.

So the Bible is given to point things out to us, to make us work at understanding God, to show how it has been done before. So it acts more like a tour guide. It helps us to appreciate what we are going to see and experience, and then confirms what we have seen and experienced in the context of God's creation, his love, grace and providence. It is multi-dimensional, showing more than a map or a design drawing could ever do. It works with our experiences and with the Holy Spirit to keep us growing. And therefore it is never a dead book of ancient texts. We will never get bored of it or grow out of it, as it keeps working through our souls day by day, year by year. Sometimes studying the Bible is hard work, but it is always worthwhile. As John Piper says sometimes, "Raking is easier than digging, but you only get leaves. If you dig you may get diamonds." (When I Don't Desire God, Crossway Books, 2004, p126)

Conclusion

OK, so as usual I've made this longer than I thought it would be! I apologise, but I hope that it has helped you and strengthened your faith and trust in our great and loving God. I wanted to encourage people who, though Christians, often see themselves as doubters.

Don't be put off by people who seem to have things "all sewn up", who see things clearly and who seem so confident. I know that I can come across like this sometimes. My confidence is real, but it has not arrived overnight. Neither is it based on exhaustive knowledge or wisdom, or a perfect life. I don't know everything. There are many things I don't understand. I fail time and time again. But "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12)

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)

God bless you.

Get Real! (Part Two)

2010-03-25T10:11:00.000Z

Belief in an unseen future and an unseen world

I was brought up in a Christian home, going to church every week. I am very thankful to God for that upbringing. But there came a time, when I was twelve years old, when I consciously committed myself to the Christian faith. That's, I guess, the time I go back to and say that's when I "became a Christian". I am not precious about the terminology. I know there is a sense in which it was a "conversion" and a sense in which it was simply growing in faith.

The point of me mentioning it is that I can remember various things awakening at that point. I can remember conscious thoughts, probably none of which I shared with my family at the time. I was listening to a sermon in the morning service at church. I have no recollection of what the subject or text of the sermon was. The main thing I remember thinking was that I had been listening to sermons and reading the Bible week in and week out for years, but it had never previously consciously dawned on me that this was all real! I thought to myself, heaven is real, hell is real, Jesus and his atonement for my sin is real (although I may not, admittedly, have put it exactly like that at the time!). So if it is all real, then I had better live as if it is real, and therefore start to pay attention to what it means to put my faith into action. And by the grace of God, that is what I started to do.

And it's the reality of the truth of our hope as Christians that I am reflecting on now. The issue I started to think about in my last essay was whether the emphasis on the unseen makes the Christian faith a bit "pie in the sky". I have been reflecting on how we find comfort in hardships as Christians. And our comfort comes from an invisible God, who promises a new perfected world that we cannot see now, in the future which by definition cannot be seen by us.

I've already shown that belief in God is not only possible but necessary, because of other unseen things like natural laws and the requirement to be rational. (I didn't even mention other unseen things like our internal moral conscience, consciousness per se, self-awareness, the ability to conceptualise, and the ability to know anything at all - with similar logic all these things strengthen the argument that we all actually act like we believe in God even if we say we don't. That's because none of these things make any sense outside a Christian theistic worldview.)

Now I'm going to take that for granted. But now I'm going to acknowledge that even for committed Christians it sometimes feels difficult to rest all our hopes and our faith in what God will do in the future in an unseen world. I have had people who call themselves Christians say to me, "you simply can't rationalize all your suffering by saying that God has a purpose and he will sort it all out in the future anyway. That would be stupid! It's just trying to explain away bad things through wishful thinking!"

And it would be uncharacteristic of me if I pulled any punches at this point - that attitude is sinful and requires repentance. Ultimately it shows unbelief and if you persist in this unbelief then you will be judged with unbelievers. Why? Why should I be so bold about this? Isn't some doubt a healthy thing? Is it sin to be weak? Is it sin to be uncertain? I should temper my point by saying that I do not in any way fail to remember that we Christians do still struggle with sin of all kinds, and unbelief and sinful desires of different kinds are the root of all that sin. Struggling with sin will not rip us from our Saviour's gracious hand, even when the sin involves unbelief. But if we fail to recognize our sin when we are confronted with it, and if we do not repent even when we know we should, and if we persist to the end in rebellious unbelief, then we show that we never had saving faith, and we will be lost.

So my aim here is to encourage Christians, who have put their faith already in the invisible God to save them through Jesus Christ, his Son. I want to show you that this same God is the one who is with us when we suffer, and that the same hope of salvation through Jesus Christ is the hope that strengthens us through every hardship. I want to show that the unbelief that underlies despondency in hard times is of the same character as the unbelief that we turned from when we turned to Christ. And I want you to know that our most fundamental faith in God for our salvation is future orientated, so our faith in God for our endurance and perseverance must be future orientated too.

1. Questioning God's promise to bring us into a New Creation is as sinful as the first sin.

Let's think about the first sin, and it's context.

Adam and Eve were created and put in the Garden of Eden, and were given a specific instruction regarding one particular tree. "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;" said God, "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) As we know, Adam and Eve chose to disobey that instruction and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. But the sinful action came from a sinful attitude that arose earlier.

First, in Genesis 3, the serpent tries to twist God's words and paint him as unkind, introducing doubt into the woman's mind about God's goodness and care for them. "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'" (v1) The woman rebutted that one, but in doing so misquotes God. She quotes God as saying that they "must not touch it," or they will die.

Then, the serpent goes for complete contradiction, "'You will not surely die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'" (v4) He questions God's motives. Effectively he's saying, "God is just trying to hold on to power by withholding the knowledge necessary. Humans have the potential to compete with God and do their own thing. All they need to do is to reach out and take and eat this fruit. God's not really in charge, he's just trying to force you to do what he says."

And the sinful attitude that came before the sinful action was that Eve and Adam bought into that lie. Instead of trusting God, their creator, to provide for them in the perfect world that he had made, they allowed themselves to question his care for them.

What I realized when I thought about this was that for Adam and Eve they had very little past experience of God to go on, except the knowledge that he had created everything including themselves. They had the whole of the future to trust him for. The call was to have faith in him for his future grace in everything they needed for the rest of eternity. But instead they fell into unbelief and then sin.

We, who live thousands of years later, have the whole of the history of God's people, the whole of the Bible, God's only Son dying on the cross and rising from the dead for us and ascending into heaven to the right hand of the Father, the teaching of the apostles, prophecies, pages and pages more of what God has said. Still the call is to have faith in God for his future grace in everything we need for the rest of eternity in Christ… And still, instead, we call into question his goodness and his love, and his ability to do what he promises. We too fall in unbelief and in sin.

So when we doubt the reality of the unseen hope in the unseen future we are falling into exactly the same sin as Adam and Eve. And we need to repent of that sin, just as with any other sin.

2. When we became Christians we were expressing our faith in God's promise to save us in the future from his wrath through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. So why is it so difficult to have faith in God's other precious promises for the future through Christ?

It hopefully only takes a moment's thought to realize that when we became Christians we were putting our hope in an unseen future. At least I am assuming that would be true in most cases. If you became a Christian for some solution to something entirely in this life then you will be disappointed, and you need to reassess the gospel you claim to have believed. So let's spend that moment looking at a few of the Bible verses we probably came across when we became Christians, and remember what they promise.

First, the problem that human race has in relation to God is sin. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Sin is what separates us from God and causes his punishment to fall on us. "You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live… gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." (Ephesians 2:1-3)

We talk about repentance, which is turning away from a type of behaviour or attitude. And what we are called to repent of is our sins. "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." (Acts 2:38) "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out." (Acts 3:19)

Then, what is the problem with sin? It is that it separates us from God, the main consequence of which is that it brings us death and hell in the future. It prevents us from living forever with our perfect God in a perfect relationship. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36) "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

We look forward to a Day of Judgment and realise we need a Saviour in that day. "Now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice." (Acts 17:30-31)

Jesus said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." (Luke 12:4-5) He was contrasting the fear of bad things happening now with the even greater bad things that could happen in the future if we do not repent.

And so we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sin and enable us to avoid God's wrath and to have eternal life in the future. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand." (John 10:27-28) He also said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:51-54)

So our faith for salvation is future orientated. We believe in Jesus and repent in order to escape God's wrath and to have eternal life. Both these things are things that are in an unseen world in an unseen future. And yet they are the reasons we are Christians.

What I have been saying elsewhere about the unseen world and the unseen future being a comfort to us in times of hardship cannot, then, be seen as "pie in the sky" by Christians whose hope for salvation is already future and eternity orientated.

In conclusion, let's examine our hearts.

I can understand if those who don't call themselves Christians look at what we believe and try to fire it down as "pie in the sky". They just need to look carefully at the basis for what they believe before trying to shoot down Christianity, because they will find that shooting down the basis of Christian faith ends up destroying their own foundations for any understanding of reality, knowledge or morality!

But if Christians falter when being comforted by our invisible God, with promises of an unseen world in a far-off future, then we need to first recognize that faltering as sin, and second go back to Christ, our Saviour, and remember what he has done for us. And let's not just remember what he has done for us. Let's study, investigate, and search the Scriptures, to understand the full, enormous, glorious magnitude of our salvation.

"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
(Ephesians 3:17-21)

Get Real!

2010-03-18T21:47:00.000Z

Well it's not quite what I expected to be dwelling on when I started my blog just over 6 months ago, but my thoughts on hardship and suffering as a Christian do seem to be multiplying. So this is turning into a series, and I intend to pursue it as long as I can find useful things to reflect on. And by useful I mean God-glorifying.

To set the context, I'm starting to write this on 13 February 2010, four days after completing my first cycle of chemotherapy. I am still in hospital. The lymphoma was found primarily in my duodenum (pipe between stomach and intestine). This meant that as the swollen area got worse it was not letting food through, and therefore I kept being sick because my stomach was just filling up. I now have a naso-gastric tube which relieves pressure in my stomach if it happens to get blocked up. That isn't comfortable, I can tell you! And I've been back on IV fluids for a few days. So fully tubed up - that's me!

Apparently even the first cycle of chemotherapy will reduce the swelling, so I should (according to the doctor) be able to eat normally again within the next few days or so. And I can leave hospital when I have shown signs that food is going through properly. So hopefully I will be home in a few days, and be eating fine. And since I haven't had a proper meal since just before Christmas, that will be great.

All that probably sounds unpleasant. And don't get me wrong, it is a bit of a pain. But I am well looked after in hospital. The nurses are brilliant. And there are always drugs on hand to make things feel better. And my mind is, most of the time, pretty alert, even when my body is a little weak. I praise God for those mercies! But it's not particularly the aches and pains of my body that bother me most of the time.

Surely I should be worried about the fact I have a life threatening disease? But I'm not. Not at all. I do not worry about what is going to happen in the future. Not only is there no point worrying about things I cannot change, but I also trust the One who has the future in His hand. And as I have said elsewhere, He holds not just the future in this life, but assures the place of believers in the glorious New Creation after the judgment day.

But it might be that some people are thinking that this all sounds a bit 'pie in the sky'! We "fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18) "We live by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1) "Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." (Romans 8:24-25) "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:8-9) "Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" (John 20:29)

We Christians seem to take a lot of comfort from something wonderful that is completely inconceivable in the present world, promised to us by a God who is invisible, to be received a time perhaps way off in the future and almost certainly after we die… by which time it will be too late to change our minds about it! What grounds do we have for having that kind of hope? Is this "blind faith"? Isn't it just too convenient that we rationalize all the bad things that happen to us by saying it will be all outweighed by something we can't see, in the future we can't see, promised by the God we can't see?!

For those who are not Christians this may be a major obstacle to them having a faith in God. For those who are Christians it is not always easy either. In fact it is in the nature of the "spiritual battle" I have been talking about elsewhere. Part of our struggle is against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12), which we can't see! So this is the fight of faith, the battle to find our satisfaction in God, trusting Him for the present and the future through the love of Christ.

Belief in an invisible God

First of all let's quickly deal with the issue of having an invisible God. Is it irrational to believe in a God that you can't see? Doesn't it involve a leap of irrational blind faith?

Unfortunately, some Christians do talk about a "leap of faith", as if you take leave of your senses and just believe. But true Biblical faith has never been like that. The Bible portrays the truth about God as something rational, reasonable, logical. And can it be otherwise? God, who created the universe in an orderly design, with laws of logic and laws of physics inherent within it, surely would not then hide himself behind a mask of irrationality! Human beings are made "in the image of God", and therefore it is His imprint on us that requires us to be rational and logical in our reasoning. So I am not arguing that this is a battle between faith and reason. I am arguing that faith itself is reasonable, but a lack of faith in the Christian God of the Bible is irrational.

If you were reading fast at this point, I urge you to slow down and pause a few seconds and re-read the last couple of sentences. They look fairly innocuous, but they are pretty significant and worth reflecting on.

So let's deal with this issue of the fact that we can't see God, or the future that He promises, and yet we hold firmly to hope in Him. Is the fact that we can't see Him a convincing reason for not believing in Him? Shouldn't we only trust fully the things we can see, or sense (touch, smell, hear, etc)?

Well, let me ask, can you see the laws of logic? Did a law of physics ever bump into you? No! These are intangible, abstract, concepts. They are not made of physical matter. And yet we live our lives, necessarily, putting our faith in them as universally true. We could not function if we thought that somewhere the laws of logic did not hold true, because the fundamental law of logic is that of non-contradiction. i.e. something cannot be true and not true at the same time. If something could be true and not true at the same time, then all our reasoning would fall apart. So we have to believe that the laws of logic apply universally.

Similarly with the laws of physics. We could not function if we thought that the laws of physics were not true universally in all places at all times. All our movement, our conversation and our living and breathing depends on it. For example, oxygen has the same effect on our lungs anywhere in the world at any time. If it didn't we would live in fear of dropping dead randomly one day because a physical law suddenly changed! All our technology, building, design and communication, energy production, medicine and so on, are all based on the belief that physical laws are true all the time, in every place, and never change. So we have to believe that the laws of physics apply universally.

So if we have to believe that the laws of logic and the laws of physics are always in force, and yet we can't see them, then the fact that we can't see God should be no barrier to belief in Him.

But also this points to the nature of faith in God. I hope that you can follow me through the argument from this point. I'll try to put it as clearly as I can.

But someone may say that believing the laws of nature, laws of physics, laws of logic is nothing like believing in God. Yes, all of them are intrinsically invisible. However, we believe natural laws because we see evidence that they apply. We discover through mathematical and scientific research in the physical world (i.e. the world that we experience with our senses -sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing) that certain rules seem to apply to things. And therefore we believe them. On the other hand surely we can make no such discoveries with God, so why should we believe in him?

The answer to that is that it is incorrect thinking on two counts.

Firstly, it overstates the quality of the evidence for natural laws. Remember we live our lives on the basis that these so called natural laws (laws of logic, laws of physics, laws of mathematics, etc) apply universally. That means they work at any time in any place in the world. But there is no physical evidence that we have, or can possibly have, that the natural laws apply universally. We do not see every action and consequence at every moment in every place. We only see the things we see. How do we know there is not something different and contradictory happening somewhere else we can't see, or that we will see at some time in the future?

So how do we live our lives with the confidence that we can walk down the street without gravity suddenly acting differently, or without running out of oxygen, or without bumping into air? We have faith!

Secondly, the incorrect thinking I was talking about understates or completely discounts real evidence for God. The Bible says that, "God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) The world around us shows the hand of the almighty, personal God. Even our own existence, and the inner workings of our hearts and minds, show the touch of a just, loving and personal God. If we would open our eyes we would see the hand of God everywhere, so that we are "without excuse" if we doubt his presence.

At this point we should note, importantly, that this is where it comes to the crunch. The committed atheist will often cry foul at this argument, saying that we only see design and beauty and emotion and justice as evidence of God, because we have assumed he exists in the first place. They say that all these things are illusions and don't really exist. We've evolved chemical and hormonal responses to external stimuli that we label as emotion or justice or design or beauty etc.

And at first that seems to be a valid argument. But it's not. You see the atheist is doing exactly the same. They are looking at the universe saying, "nope, no evidence of any god", because they have assumed he does not exist in the first place. They can explain away anything that the believer calls evidence because they have decided that it cannot be evidence based on their belief that no god exists.

So how do we resolve this? First of all, it is critical that we all understand and accept that we are seeing worldviews head to head. We are seeing what we call presuppositions. Presuppositions govern the way we all look at the world. If we are convinced God exists then we look at the world one way; if we are convinced God does not exist then we look at it another way.

There is a lot more that could be said, but I am already working way beyond my allotted space. And I want to mention something else important.

Are we at loggerheads? We Christians look at things one way, atheists look at things another. Is that it? No way of resolving the conflict of worldviews?

I believe there is a way to show that Christianity is rational and required, whereas atheism is irrational. And that is, briefly, to go back to the questions we came to above. How do we live our lives with the confidence that we can walk down the street without gravity suddenly acting differently, or without running out of oxygen, or without bumping into air?

With atheism or agnosticism we are left with nothing. No-one can say that they can see the future, so no-one can say that they know everything about everything. And therefore no-one can legitimately say that the laws of logic and mathematics that meant that their bank account balanced today will still apply tomorrow. But none of us questions that will be the case. We'd think someone nuts if they suggested that it wouldn't be the case. So why does the atheist believe it? It turns out that they are only capable of blind faith!

On the other hand the Christian has the reason for their belief. The reason that we have confidence in natural laws applying universally is because we believe in a God who is rational, personal and created the universe with purpose. He has set it up that way, and told us that in the Bible.

The philosophical way of putting it is that belief in God provides the "preconditions of intelligibility". That means that only belief in God can provide the beliefs that are necessary to make sense of the world.

So you see far from belief in an invisible God being irrational, it is the only belief that will make sense of the world. This, in its deepest sense, is why the design of the world, the way the universe works, its beauty, justice, our emotions and our unique abilities, are evidence. They are clearly seen in the world, and we all live using them. And yet the only belief that will make sense of them is Christianity.

So the punch line is that even atheists live like Christians, because they live by presuppositions that only Christianity can substantiate. And yet they use those very things (logic and reason) to try and prove that God doesn't exist!

I find this a really strong reason to believe in an invisible God.

There is more to say, but I will break at this point, and in the next article speak to Christians about how they can believe God's promises about the unseen world and the unseen future.

Reflections on Hardship 6.4

2010-03-10T22:18:00.000Z

If we should have faith in Jesus Christ in everything, including every illness, then why should we do things like medical research and invent things like chemotherapy and antibody treatment for cancer? Doesn't a reliance on God, through faith in Christ, make us complacent about the problems of this life because we can just sit and wait for Him to solve them for us either through prayer in this life or in the New Creation in the future? What motivation do we have in this life to work to make things better if we are convinced that God will take away every problem for ever in the next life?

I guess there have been religious people, some calling themselves Christians, who have taken a kind of ultra-spiritual attitude and shunned technology. They adopt a kind of monastic lifestyle, make only enough food to keep them alive each day, don't take drugs if they're ill, hate cars and mobile phones, etc. It's the kind of attitude that says, "If God had meant us to fly He would have given us wings!"

And, whilst I do genuinely hate this expression, they are the kind of people of whom they say, "they are so heavenly minded they are no earthly use." So I suppose there is a sense in which it's true. And they would have no objection to the saying being applied to them, because they have no interest at all in being of any earthly use.

Before I move on I'd better say that I'm treating this as a final part in my reflections on the way we consider statistics or chances of success as Christians. I've been arguing that, whilst assessing risks and chances of success is not wrong, and planning is not wrong, we can guard against complacency (when we think the odds are good and we rely solely on ourselves and human means) on one hand, and despondency (when we think the odds are hopeless and give up) on the other. We can do that by trusting God, who is powerful and can do anything, and, through Christ, is on our side. And not only that, but he has also already assured us of victory over every hardship, including death itself, in the New Heavens and the New Earth that will be our home after the future Judgment Day for ever, because of what Jesus has done.

This essay is a bit of a balancing statement, because someone said to me after reading the first part that they were left wondering why we should bother with medical science and technology as Christians if we should look at everything from the perspective of faith in Christ.

I hope that my previous essays will have shown (mainly) how we can plan our actions based on risk assessments that show bad odds (humanly speaking), but without becoming despondent and giving up. That's basically because our risk assessment should always include the spiritual realities of God and the future he has assured us of in Christ.

This time, on the other hand, I want to show that we can and should take action in science and technology (and any other field of knowledge, design or construction) to improve the odds in our risk assessments (humanly speaking), but without becoming proud and complacent and trusting only in our own abilities and those of other human beings.

And I guess the main summary of this balancing statement is to say that this life matters! The error of the ultra-spiritual monastic people I described above is either to so look forward to the next life that they treat this life as a kind of waiting room before the next life; or to wait for God to intervene and do everything for them. They abdicate responsibility for anything to do with this life. So that's what I want to highlight this time: that we have responsibilities as human beings, things we should be doing in this life if we want to live in the next life.

First, we continue to have the responsibility that was given to Adam in the Garden of Eden - to be fruitful and fill and subdue the earth. Immediately after Adam and Eve were created, Genesis records, "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be faithful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'" (Genesis 1:28)

God created a world in which all the raw materials exist to carry out the mandate that he gave to mankind. Our creation in the "image of God" (Genesis 1:27) means that we have within us a reflection of the same ingenuity, intellect, wisdom, power, understanding and creative urge that God used to create the universe. He has made a universe for us to investigate and discover. And he wants us to use those advances in knowledge and understanding, and the ingenuity, intellect, wisdom, power, etc, he has given us, to fulfil a responsibility.

And that responsibility is basically to be his deputies in the world, ruling over the creation. We are to be faithful, increase in number, fill the earth, subdue the earth, rule over every living creature in the world.

When Adam and Eve ignored God's one restriction on their freedom and turned against him, he did not strip humanity of the responsibility of deputies. I take it that this means that that responsibility is inherent in what human beings were created for. Instead the punishments that God gave out for their sin were to put natural barriers in the way of fulfilling their responsibilities. Increasing in number would become painful - "To the woman he said, 'I will greatly increase you pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.'" (Genesis 3:16) Subduing the earth would become toilsome - "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life… By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground…" (Genesis 3:17-18) Death and suffering in this life are part of God's punishment of mankind's rejection of his rule.

But we can see later on in Genesis that mankind makes progress in subduing the earth through technology and science - Cain and Abel were farmers (Genesis 4:2), Jubal was a musician (Genesis 4:21), Tubal-Cain invented tools (Genesis 4:22). By the time we get to Genesis 11, we find that human beings had made such technological advances that they were able to build a city and a "tower that reaches to the heavens" (Genesis 11:4). (The problem with that plan was the attitude with which the plan was made, rejecting God's command to "fill the earth" (Genesis 1:28) and instead attempting, "to make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:4))

Subduing the earth (exploring, controlling, using, creating, building) was always, from the beginning, part of our responsibilities as human beings. From the fall it became a much harder job. And now the job involves overcoming suffering, disease, toil, sweat, difficulty, hardship, confusion, language barriers, conflict, environmental and geological problems.

So my first point is that scientific research and technological advancement are part of what God fundamentally requires of us as human beings. And that now involves medical research because of the effects of the fall.

Second, we are to love our neighbours as ourselves. If subduing the earth is what our role is, then God's Law shows us how we are to carry that out. We are to love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and we are to love our neighbours as ourselves (Luke 10:27).

Loving God sets the context for all our endeavour. We are to do everything to bring him glory. So in everything we do we recognize that he is the Creator and we are the creature, and he sets the limits of our responsibilities, our abilities and our actions.

Loving our neighbour also puts limits on some of our actions, but also gives a motivation for some of the choices that we make.

So when we see human beings suffering with disease, pain, bereavement, unemployment, depression, injury, and misfortunate, we are called to love them. And love involves finding ways to alleviate suffering, heal disease, prevent death, and put right things that are wrong.

God's punishment of mankind's fall into sin has made the world a somewhat harsh place to live. And yet he has also hidden within the world the knowledge and the resources to combat that harshness, and given us the intellect and wisdom to use that knowledge and those resources for the good of our fellow humans.

So my second point is that science and technology can be used rightly to do good to human beings, and researching ways to cure diseases is part of doing good and showing love.

Finally, through the spread of the gospel on this earth God is bringing in a taste of the New Creation before the Old Creation is destroyed. So just as suffering negatively points to the regeneration of creation as a contrast (and a need), so the alleviation of suffering and toil positively points to the even greater victory over suffering and toil promised in the future. Romans 8 shows that the groaning of creation (with hardship and suffering and decay) is linked to the longing of Christians to be renewed and escape their own suffering and decay. God has so ordered things that just as Christians are themselves called a "New Creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17) while still living in their old bodies and battling with their old sinful nature, we should aim towards the perfection of this world so that we may start to taste the future New Heavens and New Earth before it fully comes.

So the advancement of technology, science, medicine, surgical techniques, etc has always been something that Christians have been motivated to be in the forefront of. We are seeking to "think God's thoughts after him", seeking to be obedient in loving our neighbour, and seeking to give the world a diluted taste of the perfect world order promised to all who trust in Christ.

So in conclusion, faith in Christ, far from giving us an excuse to abdicate any responsibility for the world, gives us more motivation to use scientific research and technology to help with the problems of the world. This life matters! But, to come back to where I started, it's a life to be lived with the confidence and assurance that God is with us, is for us, and gives us a truly amazing victory to look forward to through faith in Jesus Christ.

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen." (Romans 11:33-36)

Reflections on Hardship 6.3

2010-03-03T13:29:00.000Z

I was arguing in the last two posts that statistics should not make us despondent or complacent, because our God is above the statistics and has, in any case, assured His people a future victory over every adversity through Jesus Christ.

However, that raises a couple of practical questions which need to be addressed so that we have at least an outline sketch of the full picture.

One of those questions is, if faith in our great God guards against complacency if (from human experience) the odds are good on one hand, and despondency if the odds are bad on the other, does this mean that statistics and odds should not affect us at all? In my case, am I saying that my actions should be completely unaffected by the doctor's prognosis?

Well of course I'm not saying that. That would obviously be untrue. If that were true, then I would be back at work now.

So I wasn't in any way suggesting that medical experience, such as treatment success rates, should not be a factor in my decision making and planning. Neither was I saying we shouldn't weigh the odds relating to various potential outcomes in our decision making and planning in general.

We all have responsibilities in the way we live our lives under God. And even when you're ill you have to provide for those as best you can. And since different things take different amounts of time and energy, with different levels of urgency and importance, we have to make plans. And since we don't know everything we have to base plans on "risk assessments". And risk assessments involve odds, judgments about probabilities of various outcomes, often based on statistics from past experience.

Really we cannot help planning and risk assessments. They are part of what make us human. "Risk assessments" (can't you tell I'm an accountant?!) simply highlight what the potential risks are in the things that we don't know about a course of action. If those risks are considered too high, we seek more information until we are comfortable with the risk, or we dismiss the course of action as too risky. "Risk assessments" also help us to develop contingency plans, things we can do if things go wrong to put things back on track. On that basis we make plans.

So my previous essays were not in any way detracting from that. In fact I wasn't really saying anything about planning. I was really just guarding against the emotional responses that omit from the risk assessment the most important factors in looking at the future - God and His grace.

I'll come back to my own practical example at the end. But first let's take a look at what the Bible says about these things. The Bible is full of planning, and we are never criticized for planning per se. "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed." That was the advice in the book of Proverbs (Proverbs 15:22).

Paul made plans: "… I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now)…" (Romans 1:13) "When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner…" (2 Corinthians 1:17)

So planning is not wrong, but the Bible also encourages us to make risk assessments as well. That's, I take it, why the proverb says that it's best to have "many advisors". Jesus also appeals to our natural inclination to assess risk when we make decisions or make plans when he advises us to count the cost of being a disciple before committing ourselves to him: "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace." (Luke 14:28-32)

There are also right and wrong attitudes towards planning. James says this in his letter:

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:13-14)

If we left the quote out of context, finishing it at that point, we might think that James is just criticizing over-confidence. Perhaps he would prefer it if we just said, "Well hopefully if everything goes well, and nothing goes wrong - because of course I don't know the future - then I intend, if possible, to do this or that." That sounds a little more in keeping with the humility of being a "mist that appears… and then vanishes." But he doesn't say that. He says this:

"Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil." (James 4:15-16)

The challenge to the tiny sphere of knowledge about our decision making and planning is not just from the bigger machine of the universe, and the whole course of time, which contains many more variables than we can compute. It is from the One who controls that whole machine - universe and time. Why else would James say that we must humbly acknowledge "the Lord's will" when we make plans with our own will?

The Psalmist makes effectively the same point, arguing from God's creating power:

"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
"He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.
"Let the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him.
"For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
"The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
"But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." (Psalm 33:6-11)

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails," it says in Proverbs 19:21.

So for me, knowing the medical experience of success in treating my kind of cancer is useful information. It helps me to plan the things I should be prioritizing in the short term and long term. Different success rates lead to different predictions, and therefore result in different priorities and contingency plans. But when I make those plans and decide on those priorities I do it with humility, recognising that I don't have all the information, and that God is the one whose purpose is really going to prevail. So I say, "If it is the Lord's will, I will do this and that or go here or there…"

Therefore, whilst it is right to plan, and to assess the risks (including recognizing the odds/chances of success), we must do so with humility, acknowledging that the Lord's purpose will prevail over ours and we accept that. And the reasons we accept it without grumbling are the ones we looked at the previous two articles - we know God is powerful, He is good, He is on our side in Jesus Christ, His Son, and His purpose includes rolling everything towards a great future that will include rest, peace and joy for His people for eternity.

Reflection on Hardship 6.2

2010-02-25T12:31:00.000Z

Last time I wrote I was reflecting on how cancer treatment statistics could affect my approach and attitude to life. I concluded that only faith in Jesus Christ could provide an antidote to the complacency that trusts doctors and medicine more than God, and to the despondency that thinks there is no hope.

As I write this - so you know, when you read it weeks or months later - it is still only just less than two weeks since receiving the news of my cancer. And my chemotherapy treatment is due to start in the next few days. I am apprehensive. I don't know how I will react. I don't like feeling ill and tired, and yet all I can see ahead is months of that. So even though my writing can sometimes be a little theological, I assure you I write (especially about hardship) with trembling. I know these things to be true. I taste them. And one of my greatest fears is ever letting go of these truths, forgetting them or taking them for granted.

Neither do I want to be accused of not living in reality. I'm not sure whether you felt this at the end of my last essay, but there is a problem that still hangs over my explanation of the Christian's antidote to reacting to statistics. And that is that Christians still suffer. Faithful Christians still go through hardship. Christians who are prayed for very specifically by the church still die of cancer. Surely if God were on our side, through faith in Jesus, then He would use His infinite creative power on our behalf to heal and rescue us when we need healing and rescuing?

I've already quoted Paul in Romans 8:31-32, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" All things, right?!

I realized as I was writing the last essay that I was picking up quotations from Paul's letter to the church at Rome in a rather systematic way, almost like I was subconsciously presenting a similar argument. Be that as it may, the main reason I am still left with this problem is that I skipped a few steps in the argument.

A definite shift occurs as Paul progresses through his exposition of God's grace in Romans. That shift occurs in chapter 8, around verse 17, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

We are heirs. There's a future focus now that has not been particularly prevalent up to that point in the letter. We look forward to receiving an inheritance, to sharing in "his glory".

And Paul then makes a contrast. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18) He admits that our present sufferings will continue, and that the full realization of what God achieved for us in Christ is still to be revealed in the future. But the comparison between the two is not worth making.

Until that full realization occurs we feel a tension. There is something we desperately long for and look forward to - a glory, a rest, a freedom - but we have to wait for it. Here is how Paul describes it:

"The creation waits with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration… in hope that the creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." (Romans 8:19-25)

Similarly, in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Paul says, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Likewise Peter says in his first letter, "In [God's] great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5) That's one of the longest, most convoluted sentences I think I've seen even in an English translation of the Bible! But you can't really miss the things to focus on. They are:

the hope;
the imperishable, unspoilable, unfading inheritance;
our shielding by God's power through faith;
the coming of our salvation in the future.

The point is this. If I focus on my cancer, and what God may be doing with it, whether it will be cured or not, I am fixing my eyes on what is seen. And what is seen is temporary. The temporary things remain temporary and are fading away, groaning, waiting for something better. In fact, illness is one of the things that points to the fact that there is something better.

God has healed people miraculously at various times, when Jesus and His disciples were on Earth 2000 years ago, and since. But we must also reflect on the fact that most sick people that came into contact with even Jesus did not get healed supernaturally. These miracles were/are signs, pointing to the redemption of the world that Jesus achieved by dying on the cross in our place. But the full redemption and the full glory of that kingdom is still in the future.

We cut ourselves off from such joy, and such comfort, if we restrict our view of God's work in our lives through Jesus to the here and now - the forgiveness we have now for our past sins, the joy we have now in our forgiveness, the peace we feel now in our trials, the prayers that are answered now. This is almost nothing! God has promised us a whole new world, an "eternal glory", an "inheritance", the fullness of salvation - in the future - all because of what Jesus has done for us.

This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:50-57:

"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, now does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep [i.e. die], but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'
"'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'
"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

This brings us full circle, back to Romans chapter 8:37-39:

"…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We are "more than conquerors" in "all these things", because our future victory is assured, no matter what happens in this life. We are assured a bodily resurrection, where our imperfect bodies will be changed and become perfect. We will live in a "new creation". "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:3-4)

So I will not trust in statistics, or get depressed by statistics, telling me how likely I am to be cured. In reality, taking the very long view, I am 100% likely to be more than cured - because of what God has done for me in Christ! No comparison really! Praise God!

But I have one more circle back left to do. And that is to Hebrews 12, which is where I started this series (I didn't realize it would be a series back then!).

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3)

We are following in our Saviour's ways if we look to him, fix our eyes on him, imitate him. He endured the worst thing ever on the cross - the punishment, the hell, the separation from God, the shame, the wrath, that we deserved - because he looked forward to the "joy set before him". He looked forward to His resurrection and His vindication and exaltation to the right hand of the throne of God. And we too can look forward to that kind of glory, if we are in Christ.

That's why it's so important to "fix our eyes on Jesus."