Thank God for the Church

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)

Fighting for holiness like Black Hawk Down

One of my favourite films is the Ridley Scott classic, Black Hawk Down. I don't need to describe the storyline in much detail here. The point is that it's a war film. Now, many film buffs may say that there are better war films around, perhaps like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon. But I haven't seen those. War films have never really been my thing! I only saw Black Hawk Down on TV by accident, and was gripped from the moment I started watching! I've since watched it again on DVD.

What was so striking to me, and what caught my attention, was that there was nothing really macho about it. It seemed to be straightforward and real, with characters who were all different. The soldiers were not all macho killing machines with super strength and stamina, like many of the characters played by Shwarzenegger, Stalone, Van Damme, and the like. And the story did not gloss over emotional weakness. Some of the soldiers were scared, some made mistakes in the heat of battle. Bravery did not always prevail. Some brave men were killed early. Some weak men were saved. It was portrayed the way I imagine war to be: Messy, awful, triumphant, depressing, anxious, terrifying, and just sometimes a bit random.

Readers who are real soldiers, or men of the forces, will probably smile at my naivity. From their point of view, probably even Black Hawk Down is too Hollywood and unreal. But for me it was real enough!

But the thing that really got to me was the ferocity of the fighting. Once the operation was underway the American soldiers were under attack constantly on almost all fronts. In part, that is what made the film so gripping. There was no rest, no time when the soldiers could put their weapons down and relax. Even when a group of soldiers found a building in which to hide to wait for help, they still had to post guards and rest nervously in shifts.

The Bible talks about life as a Christian as either a battle or a race. Consider the following passages:

'Put on the full armour of God,' says Paul, 'so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.' (Ephesians 6:11) He speaks in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 of the way that we 'wage war,' and the 'weapons we fight with.'

Peter writes, urging his readers to, 'abstain from sinful desires, which war against our souls.' (1 Peter 2:11)

'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,' is the way Paul described his life as he neared the end of it (see also 1 Timothy 1:18-19 and 6:12).

The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us to, 'run with perseverance the race set before us.' (Hebrews 12:1)

If there is one thing you should take away from these passages, if not from any other, it's that Christianity does not just consist of conversion. We often talk about evangelism and becoming a Christian as if it's everything, but it's not. There is lots more to being a Christian than starting to believe and starting to come to church! It is a continuous battle, or a race, with an objective. The objective is to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ and to glorify Him. It's about the whole of your life, not just a moment in your life followed by 90 minutes every Sunday!

What Black Hawk Down made me think was that if the spiritual battle is really analogous to a real battle, such as the one depicted in the film, then I must be fighting it wrong. Real soldiers take care to choose the right weapons, and the right armour, they choose routes carefully, plan their missions purposefully, hide from danger, avoid unnecessary risks, and fight the enemy when they have to.

And the enemy in a physical war never gives you any space, never lets up in its pursuit unless it is beaten or in retreat, will fire a shower of bullets if you show so much as a toe around the corner of a building, and will never give up hunting you down and inflicting you with pain and damage until you are defeated.

That is how Black Hawk Down depicts the physical battle in Mogodishu. Gritty, relentless, well-planned, but with plans that go wrong, under attack all the time, relying on each other, using heavy weaponry and armoury, shouting at each other to warn, protect and encourage, never giving up, being alert, thinking quickly, keeping watch, calling for backup, tending the wounded… all those kind of things.

The competitors in a physical race don't give you a head start, or slow down to let you go ahead. They pump their arms and legs relentlessly as fast as they can, with no break, with the aim of leaving you far behind.

Being honest, this is not the way I live my life. And that's why the enemy catches me so often with his temptations. That's why my sin trips me up, and I get brought down by unbelief and sinful desire. And I do, let me assure you.

I live focused on the external, the journey to work, the pressure of work and family, managing the finances, what plans I have for the future, the way the children are behaving, how to fit in more service for the church, what to make for dinner tonight. And for a few minutes every day I may say an abstract prayer asking for spiritual growth, relief from temptation and the protection or conversion of friends and family.

My life, being honest, is not one that is lived with spiritual warfare constantly in mind, as the Bible urges so often. I live like the Christian life is a picnic or a fairground, not a war!

"Be self-controlled and alert." Says Peter, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

Paul says, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)

There is a saying of some people that they are, "so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use." I hate that saying. I don't think I'd be ready to admit it has even a grain of truth in it. Read again Paul's words from Colossians - where are our minds to be set? "On things above"! The interesting thing to notice, too, is that not only does Paul say that, but he continues the letter with outlining ways in which this heavenly-mindedness will affect their earthly lives, how they will fight the spiritual battle:

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming… But now you must rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Colossians 3:5-10)

Being heavenly-minded gives rise to practical, down-to-earth, holiness! Oh how we need more Christians to be more heavenly minded! It's only the sight of Christ on His throne, conquering for us with His death and resurrection, assuring our own victory over death, that will give us the hope that we need to overcome the spiritual warfare. Satan longs to tear us down from the road to Christ's throne by planting our feet firmly back on earth, where we get bogged down in lust, lies and evil desires.

Here’s the other thing about being heavenly-minded - our trials, sufferings and hardships will not pull us off course, but will help us in our spiritual battle. One more passage:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 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." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

In summary, let's hear the challenge of God's Word and fight for holiness with the tenacity of a real battle in the spiritual realm. But let's fight by being more heavenly-minded, setting our minds on things above. Let's remember the spiritual battle is fought with spiritual weapons and spiritual armour, so that we may fight the good fight of faith in this life, and attain a "crown of life" in the next. We can't, if we are to persevere to the end, be lazy and comfortable with the way we are. We can't live as if the holiness and sanctification that God wants to see in us is not worth fighting for, not worth sacrificing for.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:12-18)

Book Review - You Can Change by Tim Chester (IVP 2008)

When I saw Tim Chester's book, You Can Change (IVP 2008) on the church bookstall I was intrigued. It touched a nerve. There are things in my life I am not proud of that I would like to change. It seems sometimes like I have been trying to change them for years without success. And here is a book that offers some encouragement. You can change!

I already had some sense of Tim Chester's penetrating insight into human nature through part-reading The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness. But I did not expect the seismic impact You Can Change has had.

I can honestly say that You Can Change is one of the most refreshing Christian books I have ever read - and I have read quite a lot. It ranks alongside Desiring God and The Pleasures of God, by John Piper, and Knowing God, by J.I.Packer, at the top of my reading list. I concur with Tim Keller's endorsement, when he writes, "A book about Christian growth that is neither quietistic nor moralistic is rare. A book that is truly practical is even rarer. This volume falls into both categories." Paul Tripp says that You Can Change is, "Shockingly honest, carefully theological and gloriously hopeful."

My approach to reviewing the book will be to highlight the things that have made an impact on me personally, and will, according to the Holy Spirit's gracious work, change me. Through sharing the way the book helped me, I hope to commend it to you.

Biblical, doctrinal and practical
Like a well-balanced expository sermon, You Can Change weaves Biblical exposition, careful doctrinal teaching and penetrating practical insight with challenging specific applications. This, it has to be said, is what makes it great.

Every main point is backed up with exposition of relevant Bible texts. So the entire progression of thought throughout the book is anchored in Biblical wisdom.

Perhaps even more surprising, but pleasing in the age in which we live, is the freedom with which doctrines are brought into the argument. Many popular writers shy away from talking about doctrines, perhaps partly on the basis that the modern church is so theologically illiterate and therefore many readers would not understand the meaning of "sanctification" or "justification". Or perhaps it's also partly a desire not to be labelled and pinned to any theological school, especially if that happens to be Reformed/Calvinist. Tim Chester does not show any reticence in this, freely showing how the doctrines of justification, sanctification, repentance and faith work together. I will come back to one way in which this helped me later.

But of equal importance is Time Chester's supreme gift of understanding human nature and motivation. Chapter after chapter he unlocks the deepest urges that move us to sin, shows they are dealt with in the Bible and gives the Biblical antidote. This is what makes the book so rare. It carries the reader seamlessly through primary Biblical texts and systematic theology through to practical application.

Neither is practical application an afterthought. Not only is there helpful application in the chapter text itself, but the questions for reflection are also extremely helpful. He also has a section of questions at the end of each chapter to help you with your own "change project". This enables the reader to road test and learn to apply the Biblical principles laid out in the book.

This was one of the main reasons that I took nearly 6 months to finish reading the book, even though it has less than 200 pages. If you are serious about growing and changing into the likeness of Christ, you need to take time to understand your heart and understand how God works in your life through the Spirit, based on Christ's work. The questions at the end of each chapter are not, as they are in so many popular Christian devotional books, almost superfluous and disconnected. They are a core part of the objective of the book, and I would contend that your progress in the Christian life will be less sustained if you skip them.

Sanctification is by faith
"Sometimes people say conversion is all God's work, but sanctification is a co-operation between us and God. Neither statement is entirely true. Conversion is all God's work, but we have a responsibility to respond with faith and repentance. It turns out that faith and repentance are also God's work in us, his gift to us. God opens blind eyes; God grants repentance (Mark 8:18-30; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; 2 Timothy 2:25). That's why conversion is entirely an act of God's grace. But, at God's initiative and with God's help, we're involved. And it's the same with sanctification. Sanctification is God's work. But we're not passive. We have to respond with faith and repentance. And it turns out that faith and repentance are God's work in us. So salvation from start to finish is God's work, in which we are active participants through faith and repentance by the grace of God. We work hard, but then say with Paul, 'It was not I, but the grace of God that was in me' (1 Corinthians 15:10, ESV). 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose' (Philippians 2:12-13)." (pp62-63)

I admit I am one of those people who, for practical purposes, acted as if I had been justified by grace through faith, but had to take personal responsibility for my Christian growth (sanctification). So I was living with severe guilt, wondering if God was punishing me for failing him time and time again. I tried making vows, praying hard, reading more of the Bible. But Tim Chester's book uncovered the fact I was doing this to try to impress God, to earn His favour when God has already done everything necessary to bring us all His riches without any of our works.

Now I may be a layperson, with no theological letters after my name. But I have read a fair number of books by the likes of Piper, Packer, Sproul, Montgomery-Boice, Stott, Carson, Calvin, Luther and some of the puritans. So these are Biblical truths I should have known, but when I examined the way I was living I discovered I did not live by them.

This was liberating for me, and I expect it will be for most Christians reading You Can Change. I can now look to God, trusting in all His promises, working within me, rather than looking to my own strength (that I patently do not have). It will be a continual refinement of my faith, battling the unbelief that still lies within me, and repentance, killing the sinful desires that still seek to control me.

Exposing the roots of sinful behaviour
One of the other things that makes You Can Change so helpful is that it doesn't deal only with the sinful behaviour itself. This was an eye-opener for me, but again, something I should have already known.

Supported with Biblical wisdom, the author peels back layer after layer of human psychology until you get a picture of the causes of sinful behaviour. It's not that he's saying there are causes of sinful behaviour that remove our responsibility. It's that our sin runs deeper than we know. The sinful behaviour that we often regret is based on deeper issues, things that we need to expose and deal with.

Layer number one: "There is a twofold problem in the heart: what we think or trust and what we desire or worship. Sin happens when we don't trust God above everything … and when we don't desire God above everything… Sin happens when we believe lies about God instead of God's word and when we worship idols instead of worshipping God." (p76)

Layer number two: "Behind every sin and negative emotion is a lie" (p81). Knowing and embracing the truth is what sets us free - the truth about God, that He is great, glorious, good and gracious. And let's be clear this is not about belief that is intellectual or confessed with our lips. This is about what our lives show that we believe about God.

Layer number three: "We desire or worship idols instead of worshipping God" (p109). An idol is clarified as, "whatever you're greedy for". These are the "sinful desires" that are spoken of in the New Testament.

Another extended quote will probably help at this point:

"'For where your treasure is,' says Jesus, 'there your heart will be also' (Matthew 6:21). Whatever you treasure most is the thing that has your heart and controls your life. The process is described well by our English word 'captivated'. We're made captive by our desires. Our hearts are captured. We confuse 'free-willed' with 'self-willed'. We think we're free when we break away from God, but we become enslaved by our own sinful desires. 'A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him' (2 Peter 2:19). 'No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money' (Matthew 6:24). We serve whatever our hearts desire most. If that desire is for God and his glory, then God is our master. But if our desire is, for example, for money, then money is our master, and that's idolatry." (p111)

Layer number four: We often struggle to change because of love of sin or love of self. Sometimes we struggle with changing because we actually only hate the consequences of sin, but still love the sin. Sometimes we struggle because we are trying to change in our own strength, so our failures hurt our pride. Sometimes we proudly minimise our sin, or make excuses (blaming things like upbringing, context, personality, etc), or we try to hide our sin.

By the time all these layers had been stripped back in my own change project I felt like I was staring at a festering can of worms where my heart used to be! I had exposed an idol worshipping, unbelieving, sin-loving heart, which I could hardly bear to look at. And I had thought I was at least part way along the road of sanctification! No chance! I have hardly begun. I am still taking my baby steps! Oh what grace I need in this race, this battle!

The antidote for sinful behaviour
If you are anything like me, you will find yourself resonating at many points during the almost surgical analysis of the sin-diseases that cause our sin-symptoms. But what becomes patently clear is that much of our failure in purifying ourselves to grow into the likeness of Christ is because we only deal with our sins at the level of symptoms. We need to go to root causes to successfully combat the sin-diseases deep in our hearts.

It is perhaps the right time to again say that this work is as much God's work as our initial conversion. His transforming power is given in ways and measures according to His will, just as He predestines and calls and justifies according to His will (Romans 8:29). However, we also need to know what actions are our responsibilities, so that we can seek the power of God to work within us for them.

The answer is part of the logical flow of the book, but does not gel very well with the way we are normally taught to battle sin. We are normally taught to discipline ourselves. And therefore rule-based strategies are the natural inclination.

According to Tim Chester, the way we battle sin in our growth as Christians is the same way we battle sin in our conversion. Putting this in more theological terms, our sanctification is not disconnected from our justification. The two are based on the same foundation of Christ's death on the cross, and victorious resurrection and ascension. Our part in that is to repent and believe. We are converted and are justified through faith. We are sanctified also through faith.

And repentance is not something additional to faith. It is part of the same action. Repentance is turning from our sin and unbelief. Faith is turning to the one true God through the only mediator, His Son, Jesus Christ.

So the book helps us to think through Biblically practical strategies for killing sinful desires and battling residual unbelief. We kill sinful desires by a) avoiding things that provoke them; b) avoiding things that strengthen them; and c) saying 'no' to them. We battle residual unbelief by strengthening our faith in the truth. And we do that through a) the Bible; b) prayer; c) community; d) worship; e) service; f) suffering; and g) hope.

You may think those practical strategies sound very much like the standard, discipline and rule-based approach. But listen to what the author has to say in You Can Change:

"Sometimes people call them [the seven things suggested to reinforce faith] 'spiritual disciplines'. But I believe this is unhelpful terminology. It can make Christian growth seem like an achievement on our part. In reality, it's God who changes us through his grace. The only true spiritual disciplines in the Christian life are faith and repentance, actions that direct our attention to God's gracious activity. So instead I prefer the traditional term: 'means of grace'. These are ways in which God is gracious to us and by which he strengthens his work of grace in our hearts. They are the means God uses to feed our faith in him." (p153)

For me this gives a fresh motivation for the things I do as a Christian. Again, I should have known these things, but somehow they had been lost amidst the busyness of just doing stuff because that's what Christians do! Now I am freed from just doing stuff. I now know these things are feeding my faith, which will strengthen my desire for God and joy in Him.

We need each other
Here we come to an area that will take me time to absorb and practically accept, even though I am now convinced that it is essential. It calls for an openness that is, for me at least, scary!

For years I have read in Christian growth books that we must makes ourselves accountable to close Christian friends, so that we ask them to make sure that we are continuing in the way we should go. I have always resisted that, partly for right reasons (at least I can rationalise them), partly for wrong reasons.

The right reasons for not going along with the accountability approach, I would argue, are that a) we can never be truly accountable to another person that has not been appointed by a higher authority; and b) it encourages us to put other mediators between us and God. In truth we are accountable directly to God for our behaviour, and Christ is our only mediator. The accountability approach is just another part of the discipline that deals only at sin-symptom level, but does not get to the sin-disease.

However, what You Can Change has made me realise is that really I am just making excuses. "Why don't we look to one another for support in change? What don't we open up to others? Why do we avoid messy relationships? No doubt there are many reasons. We're too busy, too independent, too fearful, too self-absorbed. But if we truly believed that Jesus has given us the Christian community to help us change, then we would make it a priority." (p179)

With Biblical arguments I already knew (yet again!) the author establishes that the Christian church exists in order to encourage and build each other up in repentance and faith in the truth. Rather than thinking about accountability to others in the church we should look to receive the grace of God through our brothers and sisters. And we receive that grace as we ask for their help, confessing our sins, allowing them to pray for us, allowing them to share their experiences and to challenge us. And we ourselves can be a channel for God's grace to others as we help them.

When you see it like that it becomes difficult to come up with a reason for not asking for help! But for me, I confess that one of the things that the whole "change project" exercise highlighted was that I care deeply what other people think of me. Whatever my sinful behaviours and negative emotions are when they manifest themselves, beneath it all are the sinful desires for the approval of others. I crave desire, love, respect and attention. And therefore one of the consequences is that I find it difficult to admit my faults to other people. This is what Tim Chester says in the "change project" questions at the end of chapter 7: "Have you asked someone to hold you accountable in your struggle? If not, then either you fear exposure more than you desire God or you still want to keep open the option to sin." Ouch! (Incidentally, I am still not very comfortable in principle with the language of "accountability", but I got the point… sharply!)

I have gone almost the whole of my life as a Christian, thinking that I would be able to grow by individual effort (with God's help) alone. I have failed to realise practically that God uses means. He does move supernaturally and miraculously in our hearts and wills directly, but most commonly he uses means such as preaching, worship, suffering, music, baptism, the Lord's Supper, Christian books… and all these within the community of the church. I cannot neglect seeking the help of my Christian brothers and sisters any longer if I want to grow more like Christ, who is our Head.

Conclusion
The book is rounded off with the Biblical hope that we can change, because God has secured the victory for us over sin and death in Christ. It also highlights that change is not a one-off project, but a lifelong daily struggle. It's a battle, a race. Progress is made normally through winning small daily battles to press forward day after day, not gigantic struggles to make giant leaps forward.

I was left with the impression, rightly I believe, that this is what the Christian life is all about. It addresses the fundamentals of our hearts, our sinful nature and the way God works in us from conversion to glorification. And because of that I count You Can Change as no ordinary practical guide to growing as a Christian. It lays forth clearly the Biblical keys that will enable many otherwise ordinary struggling twenty-first-century Christians to become closer to the likeness of our glorious Christ. And only God knows what kind of change in the church and society that might usher in.