adrianwarnock.com

When Kindness Is Rewarded With Accusation

2010-01-20T18:30:00.002Z

Sometimes those we love turn on us. This is never more true than in any form of church leadership. It never ceases to amaze me how some members of Christ's flock are quick to accuse their pastors. I do not work for a church, and so I have an immense amount of respect for those who do so. Why? Because I know some of the pain that is their lot being involved as I am in our church's leadership team.

These men give up a lot. They are not well paid, and for sure no one goes into local church ministry to earn a good salary. They do not get much time off. Family life is often swallowed up in work. They find it hard to just switch off. They are bombarded by people in need, and those in dire situations. They give themselves repeatedly to care for the sheep. Sometimes it is the very sheep who the pastors have done their best to help that turn on them. Wild accusations that completely disregard the care that the pastor has shown them are not that uncommon.

This psalm leapt out at me when I read it recently. It describes so well the scenario I am describing. It also gives us the remedy. Unable to defend themselves, the godly pastor really has only one place to go: to prayer. I love the way the psalmist simply says "but I give myself to prayer". If you are a struggling pastor, do find someone you can speak to about it, but first follow the psalmists example. The one who called you is able to sustain you, lift you, vindicate your name and uphold your cause. If you are a member of Christ's flock who has this tendency to bite the hand that God uses to help feed you, then please think again. Just maybe your pastor is weeping over you right now.

Be not silent, O God of my praise!
For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.(Psalm 109)

Matt Chandler On How Jesus Is Better Than Life

2009-12-07T07:29:00.006Z

One of the many miracles of the Christian life is when God gives amazing grace to one of his suffering servants. This video of Matt a few days before his surgery was aired it this weekend at the Village church worship services. Your heart will be challenged and encouraged by it. Thank you for your continued prayers that as Matt puts it he will able to come back soon and yell some more!

Matt Chandler Before Surgery: My Heart is full…I am Thankful

2009-12-04T17:03:00.000Z

I am thankful that I have deep, real friendships at The Village with Michael Bleecker, Josh Patterson, Brian Miller, Chris Chavez and Beau Hughes. They have been such a comfort to me and my family this past week. Pastors should have good friends on their staff. It’s risky but worth the risk.
I am grateful for the men of God in my life, namely John Piper who taught me to hold my life cheap and to join with Paul in saying “I don’t count my life of any value or as precious to myself if only I might finish my course and complete the work that He gave me to do to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. I’m nothing, I just have a job. God keep me faithful on the job and then let me drop and go to the reward.” Without this strong view of God’s sovereign will, I’m not sure how you don’t despair in circumstances like mine.

My Heart is full…I am Thankful | The Village Church : From Our Pastors

A Call To Pray For Matt Chandler

2009-12-03T17:11:00.002Z

Tope recorded this video, posted on the Jubilee Church Facebook page to call our church to pray for Matt Chandler. I thought it might help some of my readers consider how to pray.

Matt Chandler To Have Brain Surgery For A Tumor

2009-12-02T10:59:00.008Z

I interrupt my blogging break and my working day this lunchtime to bring you this update on Matt Chandler. I received an email from Matt's assistant today asking me to post this request to the Christian community to pray. Updates on Matt's health condition will be posted on the Village Church Facebook Page. Here is a quote from a letter from the Village church pastors:

Pastor Matt Chandler will have surgery Friday afternoon to remove a tumor located in the frontal lobe of his brain. The surgery will be performed by Dr. David Barnett.

Dr. Barnett told Matt that he was positive about recovery but won’t know the full results until the surgery is performed. The doctor was uncertain about the malignancy of the tumor, and a biopsy will be performed as part of the surgery.

The outpouring of support and prayers from all over the world has been overwhelming to Matt and Lauren. Continue to pray and fast on behalf of the family

There are three things that we can do that will bless Matt. The first is the most obvious one, but one which we often fail in. We must pray for him! If you live in Texas there is a prayer meeting tonight praying for God's hands to be guiding the surgeon's hands, that the whole of this tumor will be able to be easily removed, and that he will be healed.

The second is to listen to one of his messages and embrace the truth of what he taught. Matt is a man who's life is devoted to sharing the message of Jesus. No doubt one of his concerns at the moment (after of course his family) will be that for a season he is not going to be able to preach. Praise God that thanks to the internet Matt can preach even while preparing for major surgery. Earlier today I listened to a recent sermon from Matt about prayer (download here). I would encourage you to do the same. It is one of the best sermons on this subject I have ever heard. There is a passage in it that is especially poignant now, "when the illusion of control that so many of you are living under disappears...you pray." May that sermon inspire us to pray for the preacher in his time of need.

The third would be to pop over to the Facebook page and express your love support and appreciation for Matt.

About Matt Chandler:
Matt Chandler serves as Lead Pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX. He describes his six-year tenure at The Village as a re-planting effort where he was involved in changing the theological and philosophical culture of the congregation. The church has witnessed a tremendous response growing from 160 people to over 6,000 including satellite campuses in Dallas and Denton. Alongside his current role as lead pastor, Matt is involved in church planting efforts both locally and internationally through The Village and various strategic partnerships. Prior to accepting the pastorate at The Village, Matt had a vibrant itinerant ministry for over 10 years where he spoke to thousands of people in America and abroad about the glory of God and beauty of Jesus. His greatest joy outside of Jesus is being married to Lauren and being a dad to their three children, Audrey, Reid and Norah.

Al Mohler on Raised With Christ

2009-11-18T18:45:00.002Z

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead separates Christianity from all mere religion—whatever its form. Christianity without the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is merely one religion among many. Adrian Warnock points us all to the centrality of the resurrection for every dimension of the Christian life. Adrian is a first-rate communicator and a man whose life demonstrates the joy of Christ’s resurrection. You will be greatly blessed by this book.”
—Al Mohler
President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Host, Albert Mohler Program

As I said when I interviewed him for the blog, Dr. Albert Mohler is a remarkable phenomenon who, by God's grace, accomplishes more for the Kingdom than ten ordinary men could possibly hope to do!

This is the final endorsement I have received so far. I now look forward to reading some reviews in the future, including on blogs by some of my readers. If you have a suitable outlet for book reviews, feel free to send me a request to consider sending you a free copy. I have a number to give away. In the meantime there is little left for me to do, at least for now, except wait for the book to come out, and record more video for the free online study guide.

People have been very kind in their comments, and this leads me to dare to hope that Raised With Christ, How the Resurrection Changes Everything will be of use to a number of people. Certainly there are no subject that is more directly relevant to us today. I am very grateful for the help I have received from so many people. Publishing a book is far from a solitary activity. May God take this volume and use it to bring glory to his name.

On that note, I am actually going to check out for a little while now. We may not celebrate Thanksgiving here in the UK, but two tweets today made me realize it was time once more to try to disconnect from as much technology as I can for a while (without dropping out of my job!). One tweet came from @TopeKoleoso: "Spending some extended time thinking, learning, praying, reflecting and writing. The soul needs solitude." The second was from @sdmcbee: "If at the end of your life, your ministry is considered a success, but your family despises you, you have wasted your life." I deliberately shut down the blog from time to time to try to focus more on prayer and free up some spare time to be with the family.

So, tomorrow I am going to post some links to some of my most popular posts of the past, then I plan on not writing anything more on the blog for at least two weeks.

SERMON: The Resurrection And Our Salvation

2009-11-17T18:53:00.002Z

I almost titled this message "Don't Neglect The Resurrection". It still amazes me how easy it is for us to forget, downplay, or assume the resurrection of Jesus. I am grateful to God for his help this past Sunday as I shared a very personal message with Jubilee Church, the contents of which will be no surprise to regular readers of my blog.

You can also download the audio or video from the Jubilee site.

Electronic Edition of Raised With Christ

2009-11-17T00:02:00.000Z

Logos Bible Software are offering my book on their pre-pub program. You can pre-order a copy of Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything to add to your electronic library now.

This was a pleasant surprise to me, since although it was suggested as a possibility several months ago, I only heard it was definite when it appeared on the website just a few hours ago.

Since Logos Bible Software played a major role in assisting me to write the book, it seems somehow appropriate. I would go so far as to say that I would have struggled to write a book at all without the time-saving nature of this wonderful tool. I can't recommend it highly enough, and am glad that blog readers continue to receive a discount on the base packages.

Jesus Wants The Battered Rose

2009-11-16T18:31:00.000Z

This clip is vintage Matt Chandler, and makes me wish he put his regular sermons online in video form. It is also a passionate explanation of the gospel and what is wrong with many churches:

George Whitefield Meets Jonathan Edwards

2009-11-14T18:00:00.000Z

Lex has an interesting post today on George Whitefield's comments on Jonathan Edwards’ Family Life. He shares quotes from Whitefield's diary, but to get you interested here is his description of these two men of God:

Edwards and Whitefield shared many similarities. They were both highly respected Christian leaders, they both had a reputation as powerful preachers, they were both Calvinistic in their theological outlook.

But there, the similarities ended. Their style of preaching was very different. Edwards was a careful, logical teacher. Whitefield was all life and fire, thunder and lightning.

Edwards was a meticulous writer, crafting pamphlets for publication. Whitefield barely had the time to check the proof copies of manuscripts of his sermons and had the disappointment of seeing very poor versions of his sermons in print without his permission.

Edwards was a settled Pastor overseeing a local congregation, and very much a responsible Pastor of one parish. Whitefield, on the other hand, had declared that the whole world was now his parish and lived a life of itinerant preaching.

Edwards was a family man, with a godly wife and several children. Whitefield was still single, and still waiting for the love of his life to come along.

Don't Get Your Timing Wrong!

2009-11-12T19:43:00.001Z

A major factor in wisdom is timing. What can be a godly act one day in one situation may be grievous folly another. Some situations call for tact and biding your tongue. Other call for boldness and a determination to challenge sin openly. Even kind words can be uttered at the wrong time. No wonder God's word urges us to pray for wisdom! We need to think before we act, where appropriate seek the counsel of others, and generally realise how easy it is for us to put our foot in it!

All this is illustrated clearly in the following parable. Surely its point is not just to urge us not to wake our neighbours early with a loud blessing! The point is to use an obvious example to teach us a general principle which goes way beyond this specific case.

Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice,
rising early in the morning,
will be counted as cursing. (Proverbs 27:14)

Terry Virgo on Elijah's Despair

2009-11-11T18:47:00.003Z

Elijah really was a man just like us. Despite seeming like a superman in much of the Scripture, in 1 Kings 19 we see a man who is burnt-out and yet somehow clings onto God. Regular readers of my blog will remember a fantastic sermon preached by Terry Virgo on Elijah's prayer. It was one of the most popular things I linked to this year.

The sermon below is the next in Terry's long-running series from when he preaches at CCK. Terry has several decades of experience of leading a growing family of churches. As a result he has encountered many people who's experience mirrored that of Elijah when he ran into the dessert. His pastoral wisdom and unmatched ability to preach inI such a way that a biblical character leaps of the page with lessons for us today make this an unmissable sermon. I am pleased to be able to share the video here (click to the second part when the first part is done to watch the whole sermon.) Audio and other messages in the series are available at the CCK site.

Mark Driscoll on Raised With Christ

2009-11-10T18:18:00.001Z

“Jesus is alive! And, as my friend Adrian Warnock will help you learn, this fact changes everything for everyone.”

—Mark Driscoll

Founding Pastor, Mars Hill Church

President, The Resurgence

President, The Acts 29 Church Planting Network

For more information about my book see the new website for Raised With Christ - How The Resurrection Changes Everything

Mark Driscoll should need no introduction to most readers of my blog. His vigorous, passionate preaching gift is helping to put strength into the global church. If you have yet to watch one of his sermons, it's time you remedied that as soon as possible. Like some kind of street fighter for Jesus, he is not for the faint hearted, but his preaching packs a punch and has been associated with many conversions. I am pleased to recommend Mark's teaching, and very grateful to him for his kind comments about my book. I have a lot of blog posts about Driscoll, including two interviews with him.

A Movement Of God Cannot Be Planned But It Must Be Prepared For- by Perry Noble

2009-11-09T22:57:00.003Z

I found this video on John Lanferman's Twitterstream. He says every church leader should watch this. It's made me subscribe to Perry's Twitter feed too.

Knowledge Puffs Up

2009-11-08T23:29:00.003Z

This quote from Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones is taken from his Ephesians series of sermons which I keep going back to. He challenges those who settle for a purely intellectual dimension to their Christian faith. Like so much of what he said it is if anything MORE relevant to us today than it was when he said it:

It is possible for a believer who . . . sincerely recognizes the Bible as his sole authority, and desires to submit himself wholeheartedly to its evident meaning—it is still possible for such a man to go astray by becoming purely theoretical in his attitude towards this precious knowledge. It can happen to all, but I emphasize again that it is the particular danger of those who have keen minds, and who desire to understand and to grow in knowledge. The devil knowing us as he does, always suits the particular form of temptation to our exact mentality. At this point I am not referring to people who do not read the Scriptures, or indeed little else, and who say, ‘I am interested in nothing but my experience’. The devil does not trouble such people in this way, but to those who truly long to grow and develop, he comes and says, ‘Of course, you are quite right; what you need, and what everyone else needs, is more and more of this knowledge’. But he presses the thought so far that in the end they get into a condition in which their whole relationship to truth is purely theoretical and academic. And this involves the terrible danger of becoming more concerned about, and more interested in, our intellectual knowledge of Christian truth than in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and if the devil with all his wiles can beguile us into this condition he is more than satisfied. In other words, it is the failure to realize that the ultimate end of all knowledge is to bring us to a knowledge of the Person Himself. We are not to stop at knowledge concerning Him, precious though that is, and vital.

10 Million Words - Has Tim Challies Bitten Off More Than Even He Can Chew?

2009-11-07T18:15:00.000Z

Tim Challies has started a new blog over at the Gospel Coalition. He calls it 10 Million Words. His goal? To review from a Christian perspective every book that appears on the New York Times bestselling non-fiction books list in 2010. To warm up, he has started doing some already. The guy is a phenomena. Here is how he introduces it:

My wife thinks I’m a little bit crazy, I’m sure of it. During eleven years of marriage I’ve done a lot of things that have led her to roll her eyes and sigh. I guess she is getting used to it, though, because even she is interested in what I am planning to do in 2010. I plan to read all of the New York Times bestselling books over the course of the whole year. Do the math and you’ll see that this will come in at somewhere around 10 million words . . .

America’s bestselling books tell us, I’m sure, who America is, who her people are, at this time and place. Surely they will give me a glimpse into the world’s most powerful, the world’s most fascinating nation . . . They will provide, I’m sure, a snapshot of where America is at as she enters a new decade.

Interview With "Bones" A Pastor From Zimbabwe

2009-11-06T18:25:00.000Z

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a soft spot for this troubled African country. It was where my wife grew up for a start. Also, who cannot feel compassion for this nation which should be one of the wealthiest in Africa and yet faces abject poverty?

What amazes me is the way God seems to be working in this land. Good, doctrinally solid churches seem to be springing up all over the place! Not only are there 16 Zimbabwe churches directly in relationship with Newfrontiers, but there are at least two other networks led by godly men who we have good friendships with. God seems to be raising some spiritual giants in that land to carve out church plants in the midst of great adversity, and to help train a whole nation in a form of farming that will help them feed the multitudes still reeling from hyperinflation and the destruction of their currency among other adversities.

"Bones" or Mbonisi Malaba to give him his proper name, is one such man. He is the pastor of a thriving church in Bulawayo. There is no doubt that his talk at Brighton earlier in the year was one of the highlights of the whole conference for me. But I also had the chance to film the following interview with him. You will enjoy it, and be thrilled to realise that God is at work building his church in this part of Africa.

Don't You Dare Try and Worship God With Your Hands In Your Pockets!

2009-11-05T18:42:00.004Z

My pastor, Tope Koleoso did not say the words in the title of this post. But they are very consistent with the tone and thrust of the following sermon on worship which follows on from what he said last week. I would strongly encourage you to watch both of these talks as you will find they have a fresh and challenging perspective on worship.

The video is available in HD at http://jubilee-church.org In response to what we have been hearing about worship, this coming Sunday will be a special service at Jubilee Church with a prolonged worship time. It may be that you live near London and have often wondered what a celebratory charismatic sevice looks like. This Sunday would be a great day for you to visit us. Here is what Tope said in the Facebook event for this coming Sunday's service:

Over the past few weeks here at jubilee Church, we have had some of our most Spirit-filled and liberating times of worship.

Our current series “Worship His Majesty” has been an opportunity for God to teach us about the nature of His character, the Work of His hands, and the Power of His presence.

As we come to the final session of this series, we believe that God is calling us to set aside this coming Sunday service to be a time of extended worship.

It is with this in mind that I whole-heartedly invite you to this wonderful event.

We will triumphantly praise Him with African rhythms, English songs and Caribbean melodies.
We will praise Him with shouting and clapping, and singing and dancing.

I am fully persuaded that it will be a powerful time of worship to God and blessings from God.

Come and join us as we “Worship His Majesty”.

Venue: Jubilee Church (Cineworld Cinema) Enfield
Date: 8th November 2009 (THIS SUNDAY)
Time: 10:00am – 11:45am
www.jubilee-church.org

Love

Tope

Ed Stetzer on Raised With Christ

2009-11-04T18:51:00.005Z

“Adrian Warnock presents a beautiful picture of why the resurrection matters to each of us. In Raised with Christ, the resurrection of Jesus is unleashed to its exalted place where it supplies our new birth, surrounds our new life, and empowers our new mission. With great clarity, Adrian teaches how the resurrection of Christ matters every day.”
—Ed Stetzer, President, LifeWay Research

Ed has been a good friend to me and is one of the leading Evangelical thinkers and networkers of our time. If you don't already you can follow him on twitter or facebook. Few people are invited to speak as widely as Ed with good reason since he brings his passionate missional approach everywhere he goes. I have a previous video interview with Ed over the internet and look forward to hopefully meeting him face to face sometime in 2010.

Clearing Up Some Logos 4 Bible Software Confusion

2009-11-03T07:40:00.002Z

A few thoughts based on my own experiences and on some reports from others around the web. Most of this relates to people who already have the old Logos.

If you are jumping in for the first time you only need read the first point below unless you are a Mac user, when due to the fact they are still in Alpha you are going to need to install a copy of the old version of Logos for mac as well. I would install version 4 first if you are a new user, even if you are on a Mac.

1. Installation Questions

There have been a few comments about the length of time Logos 4 takes to fully set up. The process is straightforward enough, its just that most of us are not used to installing things that can take so long to be fully ready to use. After the installation itself, on both Mac or PC, Logos 4 goes into an "indexing" mode which checks any existing resources you have on your system, creates copies of them in a new place, downloads extra books and updated versions of your books where available, and then takes what can be multiple hours to index them all. This final step is critical for the fantastically sped-up search results (complete with result RANKING!) that we are all longing to enjoy.

There really is no alternative to patience here. Consider it an opportunity for the Lord to teach you more about a fruit of the Spirit we don't get to exercise much in our modern world! OK, to be fair, until I got this into perspective, I was as frustrated as you. And, to be fair, on an old PC I borrowed this indexing never seemed to finish during the private beta stage.

I have also had some specific problems with the Mac version. But, after re-downloading it (they released a minor update at lunchtime on the launch day), and removing some files that should never have been in my old resources folder (I had some failed downloads and a couple of other files that got in there by mistake) and a clean reboot, at least at the moment I have a blue icon in my menu bar that if I hover over will tell me how it is progressing.

Although in theory you can use the program while this indexing is going on, however, since at least on a Mac, given that we are talking about an Alpha, this can lead to a crash, and even on a PC you are probably wiser to just set it up overnight to do the indexing and go have some SLEEP! It will be done eventually! It is possible on some systems (like mine!) that if you have a lot of books that it will tell you indexing will take more than 24 hours. Hopefully it will not take that long, and you can definitely run other programs while it is going on. I will let you know how long my indexing takes in reality.

The program is very sophisticated, and this extensive indexing is a very important step which will give us great results, so don't give up!

2 Where is my ESV Reverse Interlinear?

There is a reverse interlinear feature associated with many Bibles in Logos 4, but it is not a book-like view. At least at the moment your current reverse interlinear Bibles will not work as a book within Logos 4. Bob, who is the boss of Logos has clearly said this will change in the future. This is a massive relief for me, but I love my interlinear so much that I for one will be keeping the old version of Logos on my system for now just for that!

3. Will Logos 4 Read All of my previously unlocked books?

As far as I understand it the answer is almost all of them! There are apparently a tiny number of books that at the moment cannot make the jump across. The upgrade prices are not asking you to re-buy books you already own, but are to cover the costs of new collections of books and the new software engine. You can buy the new engine almost on its own, though obviously Logos want to encourage you to look at the bundles of books that do make exceptionally good value if they are resources you will use. If you are looking for more commentary sets, and other books then there has never been a better time to pick up what may well be thousands of pounds worth of books at a steep discount. Take a look at whats available and buy what you can afford.

Logos on the iPhone at the moment reads a good proportion of the books but not all of them have yet been relicensed to allow that format to be used. More are definitely coming according to Logos. Yes you read that right, you really can READ most of the Logos books you own on your iPhone!

3. Tweaking your set up if you plan on keeping both programs running

As I explained earlier, despite some confusion about this fact online, your new Logos 4 will copy most of your old Logos 3 books into a new folder. Here is my plan to avoid duplication (actually my old resources folder already has some duplicates so this process should actually free up some hard disk space for me!) New users of course do not have to worry about any of this!

a. Allow the install process to go ahead without human interference (fortunately I have enough hard disk space to do this)

b. Copy all of my Logos 3 books onto an external hard drive which I have based on my home network. When I am sure I have these on my external disk delete the Logos 3 copies of my resources on my internal one.

c. Tell Logos 3 to look for books in BOTH the new external hard drive location AND the place that Logos 4 stores its books but not copy them into a new location. You are looking in both Mac and PC for a folder with a path something like this "username/library/application support/data/resourcemanager/resources" a little sniffing around will enable you to find it on your machine.

d. Try running Logos 3 both with and without the external hard disk connected and this will enable you to see what books you are missing in 4 if any, and be confident that your system will work when you are not at home but does not consume too much hard disk room with two copies of every resource.

I have yet to try this, so do it at your own peril, and if you have two external hard disks consider backing up your library TWICE!

Any further important tips about this or other things to do with Logos 4 feel free to share with me by email.

25% Off NEW Logos 4 Bible Software for Blog Readers

2009-11-02T19:02:00.009Z

Logos Bible software has long been my primary tool for bible study, sermon prep, and book writing. Now it just got even faster with a radical new search engine, and an iPhone app that can read my books.

I couldn't have written my new book Raised With Christ without Logos Bible Software, so imagine how excited I was to hear that Logos 4 would be even faster at searching, and could now fit in my pocket with an iPhone app that reads the books I own!

If you have never owned Logos Bible Sofware, this is a great time to jump in, and I am thrilled to announce that the 25% discount for blog readers does apply to base packages for the new version. Just put "WARNOCK" into the coupon section at checkout to get your discount.

You can read other endorsements at their Website. Dan Phillips of Pyromaniacs has the most complete review of Logos 4 that I have seen online, he also highlights the minimal cross-grade link which is the cheapest way to upgrade. As in previous logos upgrades, the standard upgrades give you a collection of books alongside the software update.

There are some more cool things about Logos 4. Firstly, they will give you a bunch more books in some interesting looking packages. Secondly it works amazingly well with the new iPhone app I mentioned earlier. Thirdly, since they realize this is a MAJOR rewrite of the software, and that for some of us longtime users this will take a while to get used to they are leaving version 3 on your system so you can use both versions in parallel.

The biggest drawback I could find during my preview of Logos 4 was that I was using it on a slow PC which I had borrowed from a friend! Sadly, it is not at all ready for prime time on mac yet. Logos acknowledge this, but the good news is they are shipping an alpha for the Mac with the upgrade, and that will be updated regularly over the next few weeks and months to bring it up to speed with the PC version. For some reason, my own mac doesn't want to run the alpha yet, but I am hopeful this will be resolved soon.

You can install your software package on both a PC and a Mac. With the price of PC laptops being relatively low these days, I am almost tempted to buy one just so I can actually use this new search engine which is intended to be almost instant and to rank your results in much the same way something like Google does!

Video about RAISED WITH CHRIST

2009-11-02T18:55:00.002Z

In this video I talk briefly about my forthcoming book, and my reasons for writing it. Please feel free to embed this on your own blog and/or link to it here. I have some free so-called "influencer" copies to give out, and some will go to bloggers who talk about the fact my book is now available to pre-order.

FREE iPhone App From Logos Bible Software

2009-11-02T07:15:00.002Z

I just downloaded the brand new and totally FREE Logos Bible Software iPhone application. It is truly astonishing. Even if you are not yet a Logos user you can read and search and read 30+ Bibles for free. It has a typically awesome iPhone interface and just in case you missed me saying this, it is totally free!

But the app comes into its own when you give it your logos username and password. You can do a passage guide search, and even read many of the books you already own. Considering I tested it over a mobile phone data-link rather than wifi the speed was absolutely incredible. I really liked the simple reading interface as well that somehow makes it seem more inviting to read one of your electronic books than on a computer screen.

Remember that readers of the Blog get a 25% discount on purchases of collections.

If you own an IPhone, then downloading this new software is a no-brainer as you cannot lose since it is free! Just search for "Logos Bible Software" in the App store or visit the Logos iPhone page!

My Experience of Being Bullied

2009-11-01T13:23:00.001Z

Filmed for a project done by my daughter for school, I thought I'd share this video of me talking about what it was like to be bullied at school. I thank God that I have come a long way since then and for his healing power.

A Halloween Alternative

2009-10-31T07:39:00.003Z

I am so glad that my kids do not have to stay home this evening while others in the neighborhood dress up as ghouls and other things that give me the creeps and knock on strangers doors for sweets. Its surprising really that the American holiday ever really caught on in the UK, and surprising that in an age which fears child abduction and worse that society tells kids to do the very thing it tells them not to the rest of the year! I know some Christians think differently about whether we should partake of this activity but I am very much in the "we don't celebrate evil" camp. I was proud of one of my kids who this year was invited to a halloween-themed birthday party for one of their friends and turned it down without me having to "ban" them from going. "We don't celebrate halloween" was the reason they gave to their friend.

But we do celebrate Jesus. Perhaps we should celebrate the Reformation more than we do. But, in any case, for years now our church like many in the UK have run a "not Halloween" party for the kids. As a result the children do not feel left out as they are with their friends. This year it will be close to 100 children playing together wholesomely and eating hundreds of pounds worth of chocolate and other goodies. I am thankful to be part of a church like that and thankful for those who are organizing this event!

Google Social Search: Not Another Social Media Site Actually

2009-10-30T07:30:00.004Z

Google is smart. So they have a new proposition for us. Take all our existing publicly available “social graph” information from Facebook, Twitter, and the like, and when we are searching on Google, they will mix in with their normal results pages taken from your friends blogs, Twitter pages, etc. I have been experimenting over the last few days, and I must say I really like it! In order to make this work you have to set up a Google Profile, which essentially lists all your various services and then enables Google to figure out who is in your social graph. No new list of friends to maintain, you will be glad to know! Take a look at the Google profile for Adrian Warnock to see what it can look like.

More information is included in this video:

Am I "obsessed with the resurrection"?

2009-10-29T18:40:00.000Z

I can think of a worse charge! May we all always be guilty of that. I have two more endorsements for you this week:

“Adrian Warnock rightly highlights the common neglect of the resurrection and helpfully shows why this matters. Come and share the excitement of his own rediscovery of this central event of our faith.”
—Tim Chester, The Crowded House and the Northern Training Institute

“Adrian Warnock is brilliantly obsessed with the resurrection! He believes that Jesus Christ being raised from death is the only way to have hope that goes beyond the grave. In this punchy and accessible book, Adrian helps us to look forward expectantly to a life of eternal future joy, united with God, and in this life, to experience the Holy Spirit and preach the good news in the power of the resurrection. I’m thankful to Adrian for reorienting me to this essential ingredient of life and belief. You will be too.”
—Marcus Honeysett, author, Finding Joy

Don't Neglect The Resurrection

2009-10-28T18:54:00.004Z

You will forgive me, I am sure, if I am somewhat preoccupied this week with the subject of the resurrection. In a way, every Christian should always be just as preoccupied as I am today with that subject. I loved what Henry Christoph Jr had to say on the Raised With Christ Facebook page:

There is nothing more important than the Resurrection, Adrian, but the Christian church today just is not acting as though that were the case. I pray that the Lord will use your book to help turn that situation around. I look forward to reading it when it is available.

Another commenter, Steve Oroszi, wrote in a similar vein:

Thanks for reminding me about the absolute necessity for the resurrection. Merrill C. Tenney wrote about the importance of the resurrection for the Christian’s life way back in 1963, which points to the fact that “there really aren’t that many books out there on this subject;” that surprised you . . .and you're right. Blessings on your effort.

It is so encouraging to me that these two people have grasped so firmly the importance of reigniting this subject for the Church today. I trust that my book will play some role in accomplishing just that for others.

I would ask you to join me in praying that God himself will use many means to wake us all up to the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus, and to all its implications for us today. The publisher page for Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything says the following about it, which also captures well the sense of purpose behind my book:

What impact should Jesus’ resurrection have on individuals and churches? Popular Christian blogger and teacher Adrian Warnock urges Christians not to neglect the implications of the resurrection.

Jesus truly is alive today. But compared to his atoning death, Jesus’ resurrection sparks relatively little discussion in the church. Inadvertently, we can become so focused on the good news that Christ died for our sins that we almost forget he was “raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

In Raised with Christ, author Adrian Warnock exhorts Christians not to neglect the resurrection in their teaching and experience. Warnock takes his cue from Acts, where every recorded sermon focuses on Jesus’ resurrection. He stresses that Christians who faithfully proclaim both the death and the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and live out the implications of that message in vibrant, grace-filled churches, will be enabled to reach a world that lives in death’s dark shadow.

The power of the risen Christ is active in every true Christian, transforming our lives. Raised with Christ will help you discover afresh the massive implications of the empty tomb. Jesus’ resurrection really has changed everything.

But, please don’t wait for my book to come out. There are other books on this subject that you can already read. There are also some great Christian albums that include many resurrection songs, for example:

I thought I would share a few books with you today. You may notice at first glance that some are not wholly on the subject of resurrection. I have included these because I have quoted from them in Raised With Christ and they are incredibly helpful books. Visit the Amazon bookstore.

Worship His Majesty!

2009-10-27T18:33:00.011Z

It seems to me that us reformed believers run the risk that we recognize God is holy, but it can feel as though he is distant. To us charismatics God may instead feel close, but perhaps not seem glorious. Reformed believers understand something of the sovereignty of God, and his glory. All too often, however, we fall into the trap of worshipping a remote God who is not really immanent. As a result God is essentially nowhere to be seen, felt, or experienced. Charismatics often enjoy a sense of intimacy with God. But, all too often we worship a God who is immanent, but can seem warm and cuddly. His holiness, majesty, and glory are somehow lost, thrown out in many cases with a rejection of his sovereignty. Imagine what could happen if the transcendence and immanence of God came together in one worship experience! What would be the result?

One man who is passionate for a reformed theology and a charismatic experience is my pastor, Tope Koleoso Watch this sermon by him and prepare to be blown away as you perhaps realize that you have never truly worshipped as you ought. I encourage you to watch all of it as it builds to a crescendo, and in the last five minutes or so, Tope opens his heart wide, sharing his concern that as our church grows (we have gone from 80 to over 600 in about four years or so) that no one thinks it is because of clever leaders, but rather that we realize it is just the blessing of Jesus, and that as we grow we never lose the foundation that it is all about Jesus. May Jubilee always be a truly worshipping people.

By Tope Koleoso
25 October
download video or download audio more sermons from Jubilee

The series will continue, so please do keep visiting the Jubilee site. As always, I do recommend that if at all possible you watch rather than listen to these messages.

RAISED WITH CHRIST - Now Available To Pre-order

2009-10-26T07:57:00.010Z

I am pleased to announce that it is now possible to pre-order signed copies of my book here, with an exclusive free DVD. Payment is via PayPal:

I am truly grateful to my blog readers for effectively opening up the opportunity to publish a book, which was something I never dreamt would be part of my life. In my acknowledgement section I say the following:

This book would never have happened if not for my website, adrianwarnock.com. Thank you, therefore, to all the friends I have met online and the many who take time out of their busy lives to read my posts. I have learned so much along the way, especially from reading some of your blogs.

Having spent more than 2 years writing Raised With Christ in my spare time, I know that it has benefited me. Now, I am full of hope that others will also find it helpful, as some of the endorsers already seem to. What subject could be more important than the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ? It is astonishing how often we seem to neglect this vital subject.

I am not embarrassed to ask you to help spread the word that my book can now be pre-ordered. I have written before about how you can help publicise books. You can also join the new Facebook Page for Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything

The book is also available in a variety of other places online. Some of these offer a discount:

Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon France
Amazon Germany
Amazon Japan
Buy in Australia
Buy in South Africa
Buy in India
Buy in Korea

Adrian Warnock's 2010 Calendar Plans

2009-10-24T16:14:00.005+01:00

I will be attending the following events in 2010. Please contact adrian.warnock@gmail.com to discuss possible additions to this diary.

Tuesday, January 26
Newfrontiers Prayer and Fasting, Kingsgate Church, Peterborough
Hopefully copies of Raised With Christ will be available by this event.

Monday-Wednesday, February 1-3
Desiring God Conference for Pastors, Minneapolis, Minnesota
I will be doing a book signing and am currently considering the possibility of staying in the USA for a few days on either side of the event.

Tuesday-Sunday, April 13-18
New Word Alive, Wales
I will once again be the official live-blogger at this event.

Tuesday-Friday, July 6-9
Together On A Mission, Brighton
I will also be live-blogging.

Saturday-Monday, October 16-25
Cape Town 2010, South Africa
I am currently exploring the possibility of attending the 3rd Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.

John Piper The Charismatic

2009-10-23T18:42:00.006+01:00

John Piper's website has many places where he reveals a charismatic or as some call it continuationist perspective. Earlier in the week he argued that even in the New Testament the gifts of the Spirit were non-authoritative and inferior to the Apostles teaching:

The apostles viewed their teaching as from God in an authoritative, inerrant way. All of the spiritual gifts are from God in a non-authoritative, non-inerrant way, and therefore always subordinate to the inspired word of God. READ MORE

If you are interested in more from Piper on this, he also posted a while back a sermon on signs and wonders in the 1990s and fascinatingly back in the 1980s took a "charismatic quotient" of his church.

Dinner With A Friend From the Evangelical Alliance

2009-10-21T22:04:00.005+01:00

I got home just a little while ago from grabbing dinner with a man who I am starting to see as a friend. I am usually a little nervous about leaders in the broader evangelical movement if I am honest. I worry that my friendships with the people that run New Word Alive might make some perceive me as their enemy–I do appreciate that I am probably wrong to think that way, at least in most cases! I did not have any such concerns meeting Krish Kandiah, but if I had he would have allayed them instantly with his warm greeting.

In fact, Krish somehow currently manages to personally straddle the growing gulf emerging in UK evangelicalism. For example, he was I think, the only person who spoke last year at both New Word Alive and Spring Harvest and he didn't get thrown out of either!

If Krish is reading this, he may by now be worried. He need not be as I do not believe in making the contents of private conversations public. Suffice it to say that we agreed on many things and disagreed firmly but respectfully on just a few.

Krish has an engaging warm personality and his passion for Jesus shines. In his attempts to foster dialogue and understanding between very different wings of the church at this time I do not envy him. I am not sure that it is even possible.

Krish is active in a number of iniatives. These include, his blog, the Slipstream network aimed at encouraging emerging leaders, the Square Mile, and a four-pronged plan to increase biblical literarcy called Bible Fresh. He has also invited me to be one of the speakers at DigiMission which takes place on 1st December. I can only be there virtually, but it looks like an interesting event.

Raised With Christ - "Not Dull, Repetitive or With Nothing New To Say"

2009-10-21T18:51:00.006+01:00

The first of the following two endorsements for my forthcoming book made me smile. Written as it was by Jonathan Carswell, a significant figure in the UK Christian publishing industry, who hence reads many books, I just wondered if he was having a bad day and was hence a little too honest! But, for him to say what he did was very kind. In addition, Sam is a good friend of mine who has written a short introductory book on the Resurrection which will also come out in 2010.

“Books are often dull, repetitive or have nothing new to say. Raised with Christ is different. It is well-written, well-researched, and well-worth-reading. Read this book and Adrian will excite your heart, stretch your mind, and bless your soul with the fantastic, life changing truth of Christ conquering death. I’m excited to promote this book.”
—Jonathan Carswell, founder of The 10 Group of Companies (incorporating www.10ofthose.com)

“This is an excellent book on a much neglected subject. We Christians need to learn again to be Easter people, and Adrian has done us all a great service in producing this book.”
—Sam Allberry, author, Lifted

It's Leadership Wot Won It

2009-10-20T22:27:00.001+01:00

The remarkable story of the team which was brought back from the brink of closure and won both constructors and drivers championship in their first year under a new name is one that people will talk about for years. One of the best pieces of analysis I have found so far is on the BBC and is entitled The remarkable story of Brawn GP.

There is no doubt indeed that it is Brawn himself who has made the difference to this team. It is his leadership that has inspired and empowered his people. We would do well to study carefully what we can learn about leadership from this man. The Bible says go to the ant and learn, so we can surely learn from examples of good leadership out there in the secular world. Here is how the BBC write-up describes the almost miraculous effect of this mans leadership:

. . . pinning down exactly what makes the softly spoken 54-year-old Englishman the best technical manager in F1 is surprisingly difficult."

"It's amazing - it's all very subtle," says the Brawn insider. "It's almost like you don't know he's doing it.

"He has meetings, and he talks about how he thinks things should be done in the future and so on, and because his reputation is second to none, you don't question where it's coming from. But he doesn't come into the drawing office very much.

"He doesn't tell everyone what to do, he just leaves us to get on with it. He's not autocratic by any stretch of the imagination. He just gives people the confidence to do what they can do, and removes their concerns as they come up.

"The big thing is having the technical organisation he wants and letting them get on with it. It's a strange thing, because it's the same bunch of people who last year designed a dog." READ MORE

Doing It My Way Is Not The Right Way - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

2009-10-19T18:55:00.003+01:00

I want to share today from The Doctor on the problem of self. Our society tells us to feed our independence, our self-sufficiency and as a result our pride. The Doctor wisely points to a very different way:

How well the devil knows our human weakness! There is no method, therefore, that he more frequently uses . . . than just to play on this problem of self as it is present in every one of us. The ways in which he does so are almost endless. He works on self in order to encourage pride. He tries to make us proud of our gifts, our brains, our understanding, our knowledge . . .

Another form which this evil can take stems from the fact that various desires always tend to arise from self—the desire for importance, the desire for position . . . All this leads above everything else to a sprit of self-satisfaction . . .Furthermore this condition leads to selfishness and self-centredness. Self is always interested in itself. Everything revolves round this particular entity; and it becomes the centre of a constellation. That in turn leads to jealousy and envy . . .

To the extent that we are governed by self we are sensitive, and as such we can be easily hurt, easily depressed, and discouraged. Self is always watching for insults and slights. It is always hypersensitive. It is delicate, it is sensitized to everything; the slightest speck troubles it and alarms it. Self is totalitarian; it demands everything, and it is irritated and hurt if it does not get everything. As a consequence it becomes a most fruitful cause of quarrels and divisions and unhappiness . . .

If you have a great brain, it is no credit to you, you were born with it. If you have a wonderful singing voice, you have not produced it, it was given you. What are you boasting about? All that you have is not the result of your action and activity; it is something with which God has endowed you . . .

Paul always kept the grace of God in view; it kept him humble; it kept his spirit sweet; it kept him from the horrible sin of self and of pride and self-importance. Christians have nothing to boast of. We are what we are entirely as the result of the grace of God.

- David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Warfare : An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 13 (Edinburgh; Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), 334.

God Breaks Those He Wants To Make Great

2009-10-18T17:54:00.004+01:00

Spurgeon is at his best in the following quote. He speaks about the way in which God likes to bring people to the very end of themselves before taking ahold of them and using them for his glory:

Is it not a curious thing that whenever God means to make a man great, He always first breaks him in pieces? There was a man whom the Lord meant to make into a prince. How did He do it? Why, He met him one night and wrestled with him! You always hear about Jacob’s wrestling. Well, I dare say he did, but it was not Jacob who was the principal wres- tler—“There wrestled a man with Him until the breaking of the day.” God touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and put it out of joint before He called him “Israel,” that is, “a Prince of God.” The wrestling was to take all his strength out of him and when his strength was gone, then God called him a prince. Now, David was to be king over all Israel. What was the way to Jerusalem for David? What was the way to the throne? Well, it was round by the cave of Adullam. He must go there and be an outlaw and an outcast, for that was the way by which he would be made king. Have none of you ever no- ticed, in your own lives, that whenever God is going to give you an enlargement and bring you out to a larger sphere of service, or a higher platform of spiritual life, you always get thrown down? That is His usual way of working! He makes you hungry before He feeds you! He strips you before He robes you! He makes nothing of you before He makes something of you! This was the way with David. He is to be king in Jerusalem, but He must go to the throne by the way of the cave. Now, are any of you here going to Heaven, or going to a more heavenly state of sanctification, or going to a greater sphere of usefulness? Do not wonder if you go by the way of the cave. Why is that?

It is, first, because if God would make you greatly useful, He must teach you how to pray! The man who is a great preacher and yet cannot pray, will come to a bad end. A woman who cannot pray and yet is noted for the conducting of Bible classes, has already come to a bad end. If you can be great without prayer, your greatness will be your ruin! If God means to bless you greatly, He will make you pray greatly, as He does David who says in this part of his preparation for coming to his throne, “I cried unto the Lord with my voice: with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.”

Next, the man whom God would greatly honor must always believe in God when he is at his wits’ end. “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path.” Are you never at your wits’ end? God has not sent you to do business in great waters, for, if He has, you will reel to and fro and be at your wits’ end, in a great storm, before long! Oh, it is easy to trust when you can trust yourself, but when you cannot trust yourself—when you are dead beat, when your spirit sinks below zero in the chill of utter despair—then is the time to trust in God. If that is your case, you have the marks of a man who can lead God’s people and be a comforter of others.

Next, in order to greater usefulness, many a man of God must be taught to stand alone. “I looked on my right hand, and behold, but there was no man that would know me.” If you need men to help you, you may make a very decent fol- lower. But if you need no man and can stand alone, God being your Helper, you shall be helped to be a leader. Oh, it was a grand thing when Luther stepped out from the ranks of Rome! There were many good men round him who said, “Be quiet, Martin. You will get burnt if you do not hold your tongue! Let us keep where we are, in the Church of Rome, even if we have to swallow down great lumps of dirt. We can believe the Gospel and still remain where we are.” But Luther knew that he must defy Antichrist and declare the pure Gospel of the blessed God! And he must stand alone for the Truth of God even if there were as many devils against him as there were tiles on the housetops at Worms! That is the kind of man whom God blesses! I would to God that many a young man here might have the courage to feel, in his particular position, “I can stand alone, if need be. I am glad to have my master and my fellow workmen with me, but if nobody will go to Heaven with me, I will say farewell to them and go to Heaven alone through the Grace of God’s dear Son.”

Once more, the man whom God will bless must be the man who delights in God alone. David says, “I cried unto You, O Lord: I said, You are my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” Oh, to have God as our refuge and to make God our portion! “You will lose your job! You will lose your income. You will lose the approbation of your fellow men.” “Ah,” says the Believer, “but I shall not lose my Portion, for God is my Portion! He is job, and income, and every- thing to me—and I will hold by Him, come what may.” If you have learned to “delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart.” Now you are come into such a state that God can use you and make much of you—but until you make much of God, He never will make much of you! God deliver us from having our portion in this life, for, if we have, we are not among His people at all!

He whom God would use must be taught sympathy with God’s poor people. Hence we get these words of David, in the sixth verse, “I am brought very low.” Mr. Greatheart, though he must be strong to kill Giant Grim and any others of the giants that infest the Pilgrim path, must be a man who has gone that road himself if he is to be a leader of others. If the Lord means to bless you, my Brother, and to make you very useful in His Church, depend upon it, He will try you. Half, perhaps nine-tenths of the trials of God’s ministers are not sent to them on their own account. They are sent for the good of other people. Many a child of God who goes very smoothly to Heaven, does very little for others. But another of the Lord’s children who has all the ins and outs and changes of an experienced Believer’s life, has them only that he may be better fitted to help others! That he may be able to sit down and weep with them that weep, or to stand up and rejoice with them that rejoice.

So then, dear Brothers who have got into the cave, and you, my Sisters, who have deep spiritual exercises, I want to comfort you by showing you that this is God’s way of making something of you. He is digging you out! You are like an old ditch—you cannot hold any more—and God is digging you out to make more room for more Grace. That spade will cut sharply and dig up sod after sod, and throw it to one side. The very thing you would like to keep shall be cast away and you shall be hollowed out, and dug out, that the word of Elisha may be fulfilled, “Make this valley full of ditches. For thus says the Lord, You shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water.” You are to be tried, my Friend, that God may be glorified in you!

Lastly, if God means to use you, you must get to be full of praise. Listen to what David says, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name: the righteous shall compass me about; for You shall deal bountifully with me.” May God give to my Brothers and Sisters here, who are being tried for their good and afflicted for their promotion, Grace to begin to praise Him! It is the singers that go before—they who can praise best shall be fit to lead others in the work. Do not set me to follow a gloomy leader. Oh, no, dear Sirs, we cannot work to the tune of “The Dead March in Saul”! Our soldiers would never have won Waterloo if that had been the music for the day of battle! No, no! Give us a rejoicer—“Sing unto the Lord who has triumphed gloriously; praise His great name again and again.” Draw the sword and strike home! If you are of a cheerful spirit, glad in the Lord and joyous after all your trials and afflictions, and if you can rejoice more because you have been brought so low, then God is making something of you and He will yet use you to lead His people to greater works of Grace!

-C.H. Spurgeon Sermon 2282 David's Prayer in the Cave(HT TGC)

Letter to a soon-to-be-published author | Culture Making

2009-10-16T19:09:00.000+01:00

Letter to a soon-to-be-published author | Culture Making: "It is good to keep in mind Mark Twain's admittedly harsh dictum, 'Most books come into the world with all the fanfare of a stillborn child.' The truth is that unlike, say, your wedding day, there will be a great and utter lack of excitement about your book the day it is published. And the day after. And most days after that. Believe me. My book has done well, perhaps embarrassingly so, and the truth is it just is not that big a deal. Considering that 'doing well' in these latter days means that maybe 25,000 people read a book over the course of its first year—that would be 0.1% 0.01% of the American population—it's not surprising that it just doesn't rise to the level of a big event for anyone except the author. (The foregoing does not apply, at least not entirely, if you are Bill Clinton, Dan Brown, or Donald Miller. But you are not, so no worries!)" HT Justin Taylor Anyone else with other advice?

Mark Driscoll in the Washington Post

2009-10-16T07:50:00.000+01:00

In an article entitled No 'Best Case' Way to Present God, but Many False Ways, Mark Driscoll has made his debut in the Post: "Christianity is not first and foremost about a sacred place to pilgrimage to, a philosophical system to ponder, a moral code to live, a religious tradition to honor, or an impersonal god to experience. Rather, Christianity is about a person who claimed to be the only God and said he would prove his unprecedented claim by living without sin, dying for sinners, and conquering death through resurrection . . ." Great to see the gospel in this paper!

Joni Eareckson Tada and Mark Stibbe on Raised With Christ

2009-10-15T19:03:00.001+01:00

Endorsements continue to come in for my forthcoming book, Raised With Christ, How The Resurrection Changes Everything. Here are two more which once again encouraged me no end:

“Finally, a new generation of readers has a clear and highly readable book on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Raised with Christ, Christians are in for a delightful surprise as they grasp anew all the benefits which flow from Jesus’ resurrection—what an awesome difference it can make in our lives, our churches, and our communities! Thank you, Adrian, for helping to open our eyes to all the glories and the blessings of Christ’s resurrection and the power, present and future, which proceeds from it.”
—Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center

“This is an excellent, ground-breaking book that fills a huge gap in our understanding and experience as Christians. It is high time the doctrine of the resurrection was put back on the map. Adrian has done us a great service in writing this timely book.”
—Mark Stibbe, Father’s House Trust, www.fathershousetrust.com

30 Years Ago Today John Piper Responds To God's Voice

2009-10-14T19:15:00.001+01:00

Justin Taylor has served us well by putting together a fantastic post explaining how Piper responded to God's call to the pastorate 30 years ago today. There are a number of links in the post that are all worth following.

I will share just three extracts here which combine to make it clear that Piper definitely believed God himself was speaking to him back then, and reflect that he was under no illusions thanks to his dad as to what he was about to take on!

I am sure that given his other comments about this subject, he would have considered such an impression God had spoken to be a fallible one, not on the level with Scripture. Given his fruitfulness since then, I think we can safely concur that it was indeed a work of God that we will be grateful for.

John Piper is a gift of the risen Christ to the whole church (see Ephesians 4) and we should thank Jesus for such a gift and learn as much as we can from this man of God. Interesting that Romans 9 and what I would call a prophecy combined to thrust this professor out into the world of the pastorate. I'd call that a Reformed Charismatic experience for sure!
Firstly, I will share a little more of a quote that Justin references:

I was 34 years old. I had two children and a third on the way. As I studied Romans 9 day after day, I began to see a God so majestic and so free and so absolutely sovereign that my analysis merged into worship and the Lord said, in effect, "I will not simply be analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of controversy, it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will." This is when Bethlehem contacted me near the end of 1979. And I do not hesitate to say that because of Romans 9 I left teaching and became a pastor. The God of Romans 9 has been the Rock-solid foundation of all I have said and all I have done in the last 22 years [ed- This talk was given 8 years ago] .READ MORE

The Second quote is in a similar vein but also referenced another Bible verse:

One of the ways God has said to me “Move Piper,” is this: when I read Philippians 1:19-26, there is in me a tremendous longing. Last October it became an irresistible longing to be an instrument in God’s hands to fulfill these goals in a local church.

At this point in my life I say, and I believe God is saying to me, “The potential, Piper, for magnifying me is greater now in the pastorate than in the professorship.” That’s why the move. When I become a pastor, I am going to have one all-encompassing goal, a very simple goal, that in nothing I might be ashamed but that in everything I might magnify Christ whether by life or by death. To that end, I aim at three things.

I will aim to love Christ with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my strength. Because when I die in the midst of my ministry and say farewell to a beloved flock and a cherished family, I want to be able to believe that it is gain. And in my dying I want to be able to bear witness to a church that Christ is great indeed and worthy of all our trust.

While I live and minister, my goal is going to be to make the people glad in God. Woe to the pastor who uses his position to hammer year after year in chiseling out a hard sour people! He has forgotten his calling. “I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your advancement and your joy of faith.”

Since joy comes from faith, and faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God, it will have to be my main goal–my tremendously fulfilling and joyful goal–to feed that flock the Word of God every week, week in and week out. I will pray that Jesus’ words will become fulfilled in my words. The banner of every sermon I preach will be this: “My words I have spoken to you in order that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). READ MORE

Finally, this quote from a letter to John Piper from his father is remarkable in its attempt to ensure that he knew what he was getting into. Only a fool would become a pastor without being very sure that God was himself calling him into such a role:

Now I want you to remember a few things about the pastorate. Being a pastor today involves more than merely teaching and preaching. You’ll be the comforter of the fatherless and the widow. You’ll counsel constantly with those whose homes and hearts are broken. You’ll have to handle divorce problems and a thousand marital situations. You’ll have to exhort and advise young people involved in sordid and illicit sex, with drugs and violence. You’ll have to visit the hospitals, the shut-ins, the elderly. A mountain of problems will be laid on your shoulders and at your doorstep.
And then there’s the heartache of ministering to a weak and carnal and worldly, apathetic group of professing Christians, very few of whom will be found trustworthy and dependable.
Then there a hundred administrative responsibilities as pastor. You’re the generator and sometimes the janitor. The church will look to you for guidance in building programs, church growth, youth activities, outreach, extra services, etc. You’ll be called upon to arbitrate all kinds of problems. At times you will feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. Many pastors have broken under the strain.
If the Lord has called you, these things will not deter nor dismay you. But I wanted you to know the whole picture. As in all of our Lord’s work there will be a thousand compensations. You’ll see that people trust Christ as Savior and Lord. You’ll see these grow in the knowledge of Christ and his Word. You’ll witness saints enabled by your preaching to face all manner of tests. You’ll see God at work in human lives, and there is no joy comparable to this. Just ask yourself, son, if you are prepared not only to preach and teach, but also to weep over men’s souls, to care for the sick and dying, and to bear the burdens carried today by the saints of God.

Visit Justin Taylor's blog for more information about this remarkable calling by God.

Billy Graham Newsreels From The 1950s

2009-10-14T00:03:00.000+01:00

Pathe has masses of old video newsreels which were played before cinema films as a way of keeping up with the news back in the 1950s. Still fondly remembered and appreciated from that time are of course the missions of Billy Graham. Adrian Holloway at Newfrontiers Prayer and Fasting told us of some fantastic films which detail those events. You can imagine yourself there. It is wonderful to see the crowds and somehow the very English voice-over speaking about what happened makes it seem more impressive.

There is footage of Graham's 1954 arrival at Waterloo and his being mobbed there by thousands. The clip closes with him claiming the crowds are gathered by God and not him. His opening mission at the Haringey Arena which held 11,000, during which he speaks of how it had been a long time since evangelism had filled the front pages of the Newspapers. The mission closed at Wembley Stadium, and in the following year a clip of the Wembley Stadium crusade is perhaps the most impressive.

The 1966 crusade in Earl's Court is also covered and a wealth of other newsreel videos about Billy Graham are also available.

If this all whets your appetite for more vintage Graham, there is also an amazing media site run by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association which includes full sermons.

Our Worship is Not Enough

2009-10-13T13:05:00.001+01:00

God. Creator of everything out of nothing. All powerful. Sovereign over every atom. Ruler with no rival. Glorious. Holy. The one who eternally is.

Who am I? Nothing that's what. It really is all about Jesus, not me. After a session that begun in a rousing rejoicing delighting time in the presence of God here at the Newfrontiers prayer and fasting I found myself hit with the sledgehammer which is Simon Brading's song "Our God he reigns". Laid low before the God who rules whether I like it or not. Convicted of my pride, embarrassed by the frustration I have too often in my heart.

Then, glorious mix of the weighty holy presence of God and the promise of the gospel. Building up to that glorious new hymn co-written by one of our own song writers "In Christ Alone". This same God died for me, was raised for me, now reigns and pleads for me and I am FREE. "Jesus commands my destiny". Humble confidence. Indebted yet called a friend of the one who cannot be limited or constrained. Empowered by this risen Jesus. Envisioned by a glimpse of glory. Head lifted. Strength and faith increasing.

Then an outpouring of the Spirit. Intense presence of the Loving Spirit. Assuring us. Filling us. Release of annointing and new gifts. Specific prophecies for some including me. Ministry time The hand of God on us. Those in storms being touched. And all the time a fresh filling with the Spirit with tangible outward signs. Promises of fruitfulness. Intimacy with God in the middle of a crowd. Singled out by God. More salt to season our conversation. Robustness. No corruption. Grace to lead. Authority. The rest that comes from knowing God. A peace that passes understanding. A trust in him that stops us from taking things into our own hands. Anger and fear and frustration fleeing away. A feeling that this could be a moment that life changes. May people see "that one has been with God". May I go from here a different man. May my wife notice. May my kids be aware of a. change. May my ministry be seasoned with grace.

And to think this is just the first session! I wasn't planning on blogging and I may not blog much more. But all I can say is that this session gave me a fresh insight into what our times of worship and prayer together can be like.

'Politics is Futile' - The Doctor

2009-10-12T21:49:00.003+01:00

The Christian world is divided between those who think Christians spend too little attention to this world and its political problems and those who think we spend too much. Being "in the world but not of the world" surely means we have room for error at either extreme. My observation? American Christians seem to as a group perhaps be overly concerned about politics, while us Brits tend to veer to the other extreme and may even proudly declare that we don't vote. So, perhaps today's quote is for my American readers, while later in the week I think I may just do one of my political posts for the sake of the Brits:

It is a contradiction in terms for Christian people to be giving so much of their energy to this world. Church conferences and assemblies spend most of their time in considering ‘this world’, passing resolutions about this world. But our first business is to prepare for that other world! This world is doomed. It is under the condemnation of God; it will never be made a better place. Recall how men have tried in the last hundred years to reform it, and how ministers of religion and leaders in churches have given themselves to politics. But look at the state of the Church and the world! The men who have been the greatest benefactors to this world have been such people as those in Hebrews 11 who realized that they were ‘strangers and pilgrims’ and kept their eye ‘upon the recompense of the reward’

David Martyn. Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier : An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 20 (Edinburgh; Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1977), 264.

Charismatics Are Not All Crazy

2009-10-11T18:19:00.002+01:00

My friend Marcus Honeysett has been talking about the gap that still remains in places between the "reformed" and the "charismatic" wings of the church. This gap is one that I have in some ways been very aware of all my life, and yet, having grown up in a family of churches that combines both emphases, I have never really understood why some people are adamant that the two must never meet. Marcus speaks of the tendency of some Reformed Charismatics to simply withdraw and get on with building churches, but argues that we have an important part to play in the wider church:

Here is the thing: I know a lot of people who are charismatics who want to strongly identify themselves with the very core of evangelicalism, by their doctrinal convictions and their mission-mindedness. We are Christ-centred, cross-centred, scripture-centred, grace-centred, faith-centred. Passionate to build churches to the glory of God. Not only so, but among some of these friends I number preachers and other Bible handlers of an astonishing degree of gifting: exegetically good, powerful in application and full of the Holy Spirit . . .

I think that biblical charismatics have a terrific role to play right at the very heart of evangelicalism - energising, showing how to build and plant churches, demonstrating what the best preaching and most inspirational Bible teaching can be like. I'm not happy to answer by withdrawing and just getting on with it. READ MORE

Five Kids and A Photographer For a Wife

2009-10-10T19:27:00.001+01:00

We are a computer-loving family. My wife is editting photos and the kids are all looking at various screens. We obviously don't have enough to go round, so at times like this I am glad I have an iPhone. My favorite iPhone app for blogging is called blogpress. It's fairly easy to write with especially if I turn it round to landscape mode. I can tweet with Echofon or Tweetdeck, Facebook, do email or browse the net, listen to music or sermons, or watch video. The only things I need to be able to do are edit my documents and do some kind of remote logos bible software work and I could almost do without a laptop. And to think people wonder why iPhone users tend to love their phones. Actually Apple users tend to have a massive soft spot in their hearts for any of their products. I almost wonder if they are all impregnated with some kind of narcotic!

Nancey Pearcey and David Stroud on Raised With Christ

2009-10-07T19:20:00.002+01:00

Today, I thought I would share two more endorsements for my future book:

"Adrian has provided us with a thorough, thoughtful and inspiring study of the resurrection. It left me better informed, more eager to live the life and more thankful to God for the basis of my faith: a risen Lord Jesus and an empty tomb!"
David Stroud - UK Team Leader, Newfrontiers Author of Planting Churches, Changing Communities

Raised with Christ is wonderfully accessible to ordinary Christians because Adrian Warnock is, in his own words, an ordinary Christian. Those who follow his popular blog will recognize his sincere and straightforward style, as he explains why the Resurrection is not merely a dry doctrine about a past event but a promise that the life of the risen Christ can transform our lives today.

Nancy Pearcey - Author of Total Truth

Spurgeon On Second (& Third, Forth and Fifth) Blessings

2009-10-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

Had a great email from a reader of my blog in Asia which I reproduce with permission in its entirety:

I'm a faithful reader of your blog and a missionary in China. Thanks for being a place to go over the last couple years as God has increased my desire to "have it all". I've learned a lot through some of your posts and links to other Reformed Charismatics. I was blessed by the Spurgeon quote you posted a few days ago and wanted to share another quote that I read this week from Spurgeon. Spurgeon never fails to shock and inspire me with the things he says about seeking God. This is from a sermon on 1 Kings 9:2-3 and God's second appearance to Solomon:

"No matter what level of spiritual maturity we are on, we need renewed appearances, fresh manifestations, new visitations from on high. While it is right to thank God for the past and look back with joy to His visits to you in your early days as a believer, I encourage you to seek God for special visitations of His presence. I do not mean to minimize our daily walk in the light of His countenance, but consider that though the ocean has its high tides twice every day, yet it also has its spring tides. The sun shines whether we see it or not, even through our winter's fog, and yet it has its summer brightness. If we walk with God constantly, there are special seasons when He opens the very secret of His heart to us and manifests Himself to us - not only as He does not to the world but also as He does not at all times to His own favored ones. Not every day in a palace is a banqueting day, and not all days with God are so clear and glorious as certain special sabbaths of the soul in which the Lord unveils His glory. Happy are we if we have once beheld His face, but happier still if He comes to us again in the fullness of favor.

I commend you to be seeking God's second appearances. We should be crying to God most pleadingly that He would speak to us a second time. We do not need a reconversion, as some assert. If the Lord has kept us steadfast in His fear, we are already possessors of what some call the higher life. This we are privileged to enjoy from the first hour of our spiritual life. We do not need to be converted again, but we do need the windows of heaven to be opened again and again over our heads. We need the Holy Spirit to be given again as at Pentecost and that we should renew our youth like the eagles, to run without weariness and walk without fainting. May the Lord fulfill to His people His blessing upon Solomon! 'That the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.'"

- C.H. Spurgeon, Essential Points in Prayer, The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life ed. Robert Hall, Emerald Books.

First Ever adrianwarnock.com Reader Survey

2009-10-05T18:20:00.003+01:00

I would like to invite you to take a survey to help me get to know you more and plan for the future. We are actually hoping to get a redesign up very shortly (possibly even this week), so this will give us a good baseline to look at what people think of the new site after they have had a chance to get used to it. So, please take just a few moments of your time and click here to take the survey.

Conflict Resolution Requires Spirit-Filling

2009-10-05T00:34:00.002+01:00

Today's quote from the Doctor is on the subject of conflict resolution. Writing about Ephesians 5, Lloyd-Jones stresses the source of the only true solution for human conflicts:

The world is characterized by divisions, by clashes, everybody wanting to be first, everybody wanting to be important. That is, of course, the main cause of all the problems and the difficulties that are confronting the world at this present time. Now the Apostle’s statement asserts that there is really only one solution to that problem, and that is, that men and women be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. It is only as they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God that they can and will submit themselves one to another in the fear of God.

Then he goes on to another great problem, the problem of husbands and wives. Here is a major modern problem. Try to estimate the misery and the unhappiness in the world today because of conflict between husbands and wives. What unhappiness is caused to men and women and children by this! Think of it all over the whole world as it affects all nations—the most advanced as well as the backward. How can that problem be solved? How can it be dealt with? The Apostle’s answer is that there is only one way, and that is, that men and women be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is only husbands and wives who are filled with the Spirit who will have a true view of what a husband should be, and what a wife should be, and what the relationship between them should be. It is the only way to get peace and unity and concord instead of disunity and quarrelling and separation and all that results from these evils.

David Martyn. Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Sarriage, Home & Work : An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18 to 6:9 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, c1973), 26.

Christ Himself – The Gospel Coalition Blog

2009-10-03T23:21:00.003+01:00

From Christ Himself – The Gospel Coalition Blog:

"Our faith is a person; the gospel that we have to preach is a person; and go wherever we may, we have something solid and tangible to preach, for our gospel is a person. If you had asked the twelve Apostles in their day, ‘What do you believe in?’ they would not have stopped to go round about with a long sermon, but they would have pointed to their Master and they would have said, ‘We believe him.’ ‘But what are your doctrines?’ ‘There they stand incarnate.’ ‘But what is your practice?’ ‘There stands our practice. He is our example.’ ‘What then do you believe?’ Hear the glorious answer of the Apostle Paul, ‘We preach Christ crucified.’ Our creed, our body of divinity, our whole theology is summed up in the person of Christ Jesus."

C. H. Spurgeon, “De Propaganda Fide,” in Lectures Delivered before the Young Men’s Christian Association in Exeter Hall 1858-1859, 159-160."

JOLLYBLOGGER: Health Update - Tumours Not Growing

2009-10-03T08:39:00.001+01:00

Long-time blog readers will know that David Wayne and I struck up a close blogging friendship some years ago despite the fact he is on the opposite side of the Atlantic and is in a very different kind of church to me. Just before Christmas the Christian blogosphere was rocked to hear that he was suffering from bowel cancer which had already spread to the lungs and liver. An operation and some gruelling chemotherapy later, and David has been able to share the following update this week:

". . . the tumors they are watching and measuring all seem to be about the same or maybe slightly smaller. I have two nodules they are watching in my lungs which are less than a centimeter. Our biggest concern is that I have two tumors in my liver. The largest one measured 2.5 cm last time and 2.4 cm this time. The smaller one was 1.5 cm last time and 1.4 cm this time. Since the last one was at a different facility the doctor didn't seem to want to say that the tumors are definitely shrinking because the difference is so small, but it seems very apparent that they are at least stable." JOLLYBLOGGER: Health Update 10-2-09

I was glad to be able to speak with David on iChat about a week ago, even before he had the results, and he seemed in good form and reported feeling well. I tried to persuade him to take a break from work and come and visit me here in London with his family, but we shall see if that is possible.

Raised With Christ - Two More Endorsements

2009-10-02T22:40:00.007+01:00

I thought I would share comments from the UK's equivalent of InterVaristy Fellowship and from the pastor of one of Newfrontiers' largest churches and leader of the NewDay Conference. I have been sick with a flu bug most of the week, and this evening finally feel like I am on the mend, so in my silence, those of you who are following the story of my book may be interested to read the following--such comments genuinely surprise me, not least because it was never in my plans to write a book:

“Packed with gems and clear, heart-affecting theology, this is a plum pudding of a book that the Church badly needs.”

- Michael Reeves, Theological Advisor, University and Colleges Christian Fellowship, UK

“Adrian has helpfully drawn the spotlight back to a strangely under-emphasised element of evangelical faith. He writes winsomely and with fitting enthusiasm. I hope many will find their way to a fuller grasp of the gospel through this highly accessible book.”

-Joel Virgo, Lead Pastor, Church of Christ the King, Brighton

What Would The Doctor Have Thought Of Sex Education?

2009-09-28T17:33:00.003+01:00

The Doctor makes a strong point below, but I wonder if he might think differently in this society where our kids will learn about sex at school, and unless we are eternally vigilant, on TV. I do want my children to learn about these things form me and Andree, but at the same time I want to talk about it in a way that they are neither encouraged to sin, nor given the idea that sex is dirty and sinful. For more about sex and marriage, see Tope's recent sermon series which is ongoing. The Doctor's point here is that legalism doesn't contain sin:

As a Christian I have never believed in morality teaching. Nor have I ever agreed with those who argue, ‘Tell people of the evil effects of that sin, and it will keep them from it,’ because it will not. It will inflame their desire for that very thing that you are telling them not to do. And that is why people quite often delude and defile themselves by reading books about such things. They say that what they want to do is to see the evil of the thing. What is actually happening is that they are enjoying it. They are sinning in their minds and in their imaginations. That is what is meant by concupiscence; this passion, this flame, this fire, that can even misuse the law of God, and turn it into a kind of bellows that makes the flame worse. Tell a man not to and it may drive him to do it — indeed, you are introducing him to it. So it is a dangerous thing for fallen man to think like that and to imagine that moral instruction about sex and such things is going to control the moral problem. It is having exactly the opposite effect; and to believe in that kind of teaching is to misunderstand the essential biblical teaching about sin. No, our fathers were right. They did not tell their children about sex and morality, and there was less immorality than there is now. It is a dangerous thing to talk about these things; it is like pouring petrol on the fire. Concupiscence — that is the great argument of the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans.
David Martyn. Lloyd-Jones, The Assurance of Our Salvation : Exploring the Depth of Jesus' Prayer for His Own : Studies in John 17 (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2000), 454.

God of Compassion - What the Lazarus Story Shows Us

2009-09-25T18:57:00.001+01:00

The following paragraph is one of the last things I have written to be inserted in my book Raised With Christ at this last major round of edits. It was inspired by a fantastic song on the fantastic new CCK album:

One of the most emotive events in the whole Bible takes place when a friend of Jesus dies. The pain of Lazarus’ sister is tangible. In a sense everything the Bible has shown us about the problem of death climaxes at this moment. Suddenly we see the compassion of Jesus and the strength of his emotional response to the devastating impact of death. Jesus’ heart melts and he shares the pain we all feel at losing people to this unwelcome intruder into God’s perfect universe. Jesus is the God who knows every pain, who understands, who weeps. He is the God who has come to us, the comforter. Jesus is about to demonstrate for all to see his mastery over death in raising his friend from the dead. But, first, he weeps. Simon Brading has written a song that beautifully portrays this perspective on the Lazarus account called “God of Compassion” available on the album Have You Heard (see haveyouheard.cck.org.uk)

Matt Chandler's Walk With God

2009-09-23T18:30:00.003+01:00

This little video is a great window into the heart of this man of God. I find quotes like this personally challenging. May God help all of us to truly pursue him in prayer. One interesting question this raises is this: does getting up early help your spiritual health?

First Glimpse Of Raised With Christ - How The Resurrection Changes Everything

2009-09-21T21:37:00.004+01:00

Crossway have shared a brief extract of my forthcoming book over on their blog. Somehow it seems strange to see these words I have spent more than two years working on available for others to read. I guess I better get used to it! So, here it is, your first sight of what is coming:

Jesus’ resurrection really did change everything. It changed the cross from a tragedy into a triumph, and it changed the Roman Empire into a Christian state. This was the most powerful divine event in the history of creation, and it ushered in a new age of the Holy Spirit’s activity and power in saving and transforming lives.
When considering if Christianity is true, it all boils down to whether Jesus rose from the dead. The lives of Christians today demonstrate that the resurrection is still changing people… (Raised With Christ, pp 15)

While on the subject of the book, this is the final week for me to get my edits done. So it really is almost the end of the long but rewarding job writing it has been. Don't expect much blogging from me, however!

When I started I don't think I realised how difficult it really is. I am so thankful for the help I have had from so many people. Book writing is totally different from blogging, though I am sure that having had several years of blogging has helped me a lot. I do look forward to unleashing the whole thing on the world very soon, but I suspect it will only be when I am holding a copy of the finished book in my hand that it will finally seem "real". I genuinely never imagined I would ever write a book, but sometimes what God has in store for us does surprise us.

In the meantime, it has been such a blessing to receive kind endorsements like the ones I have previously shared from Liam Golligher, Eliot Grudem, Terry Virgo and Tope Koleoso. Here are two more:

“This book faithfully expounds the Bible's teaching on Christ's resurrection and ours and applies the power of Christ's resurrection to our lives here and now. Read it and know better the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe.”
Bobby Jamieson, Assistant Editor, 9Marks, Washington DC

“Congenital heretics, in every generation, take a fiendish delight in warping the Gospel. The Gospel is centred upon two great facts – Christ’s crucifixion and stand-in death for us to expunge our guilt, and Christ’s return from the grave in his body to secure our salvation and the renewal of all things. The latter is criminally neglected in much preaching and writing. Few books exist that can inspire and excite both preachers and general readers alike concerning the importance of the Resurrection as this one does. Warnock’s bang-up-to-date, big-picture approach is a goldmine of glittering insights, designed to shatter our dulled over-familiarity and rekindle an awed sense of wonder.”
Greg Haslam, Senior Minister, Westminster Chapel, London

Justin Taylor Gives Up His Blog

2009-09-21T07:06:00.003+01:00

OK, so that title got your attention! In fact, Justin Taylor's blog Between Two Worlds will no longer be updated at its old address. But Justin has not, thankfully given up blogging. Instead his wonderful blog has moved to be hosted at The Gospel Coalition. I cannot commend his posts enough, he provides the Christian world with a fantastic service. So, add his new feed to your feed reader or follow him on twitter. You can also read Justin Taylor's blog on the kindle, and as I for some reason only discovered today adrianwarnock.com is also available that way.

Incidently, the Gospel Coalition has also started its own official blog today. Like Justin, I am very supportive of the aims of the Coalition, and happy to be a member of it. Their blog has started very well and as a result I have given it a warnie award today. This means that from now own, headlines from the Gospel Coalition posts will join Justin's and others in my sidebar, as well as in the Warnies Twitter feed which is an easy way of keeping up to date with some great Christian blogs.

What Can YOU Do To Help An Author?

2009-09-17T18:30:00.003+01:00

As I near the end of the long process or writing and editing "Raised With Christ - How The Resurrection Changes Everything" my thoughts are beginning to turn towards the subject of how to make sure anybody actually reads the thing! I will be letting readers know soon how you can pre-order it. It has been amazing to me to see how some very kind endorsements have been coming in. I already shared two with you before, here are a couple more:

“Adrian Warnock has a passion to put the resurrection back in the centre of our proclamation. He understands that without a risen Savior there is no credibility to Jesus claims, no salvation through his death, no reason for Christian living, no explanation of the Church’s existence, and no hope of eternal life. This book challenged me to re-examine my own preaching to see whether there was enough of Christ risen in it.” Liam Goligher, Senior Minister, Duke Street Church, London

“An important reminder–for members and leaders in Christ's Church–that the celebration of Jesus' resurrection isn't just for Easter. It's for every day of our lives. Since Jesus rose from the dead, everything he said and did is not only true, it has a profound impact on how we are to live. This book not only reminds of that, it also points us toward meaningful application of this life-changing event.” Elliot Grudem, Senior Minister Christ the King Presbyterian Church (Raleigh, NC)

I am very grateful and surprised for endorsements such as this. In thinking about all this, however, it has also made me realise just how much ordinary people like you and me can do to help the success of any given book.

Here are a few thoughts of what you could do to help any author. If you feel like doing any of these things for Raised With Christ, that would be much appreciated, but I offer this list to help you think about how you can help other books too. We all have an influence, and especially in the Internet age can use it wisely for the sake of getting the gospel out.

So here are the ideas, if you can think of anything else do let me know as well:

1. The obvious one–buy or pre-order a copy for yourself!

2. Tweet, blog or facebook about the fact that you have just ordered the book (or just "retweet" someone else's comment)

3. Tell both your offline and online friends about the book while you are waiting for it to arrive, and then again when you have read it. Don't assume that everyone you know will have heard of whatever book, since not everyone reads blogs like you, and in any case, even those who do read blogs may not have read about whichever book you are thinking of.

4. Better yet, buy your friends or family a copy as a present.

5. If you know someone well who has previously endorsed books (ie written the "blurb" that goes on the back of books), speak to them about the book and ask them if they have heard of it, and offer to speak to the author on their behalf about getting them a review copy.

5. If you know someone who has decision-making power about stocking books in a bookstall, bookshop, or at a Christian event, again, speak to them about the book and tell them why you think they should stock it.

6. If you know someone who is responsible for reviewing books in Christian magazines, again speak to them about the book and suggest that they may like to write about it.

7. As you read it, think carefully about the book, and come up with your own comments or review of it. Whether you like it or hate it, write those thoughts out and let the author know by email or post (you can write to the publishers if you don't have a work address for them). Many authors crave feedback and even successful ones get surprisingly little. Even if they don't have time to reply in detail, I suspect that most authors would read and appreciate any and every email or letter they get about their book.

8. Post your thoughts about the book on amazon.com, your own blog if you have one, facebook, or twitter. Don't think that your readership is too small to make a difference, that is not true. Also, increasingly authors will link to such reviews from their own sites so this will be a way of getting yourself more traffic. Negative reviews also actually help sales, bizarrely, so write truthfully, and if you really want to hurt a book, the best way is just to ignore it altogether!

9. If you have the influence with the right people, speak to them about possibly inviting the author to an event to speak about their book or do a book signing. Of course there are many challenges here, and many authors are very busy, but you never know, the idea might just work for them and for you.

Shh Don't Tell 'Em Who Said This:

2009-09-16T00:01:00.003+01:00

"A PROMISE from God may very instructively be compared to a cheque payable to order. It is given to the believer with the view of bestowing upon him some good thing. It is not meant that he should read it over comfortably, and then have done with it. No, he is to treat the promise as a reality, as a man treats a cheque."

So begins a little book I have been reading. I wonder what you think of such words. If you know who it was who wrote them, please don't let anyone know–I will reveal all soon. But for now, allow the words themselves to startle you and draw your attention as they have mine. Does this very idea seem strange to you because, like me, you have rejected the so-called "word of faith" teaching? Or, is it possible that we have gone and thrown the baby out with the bathwater? If it gets under your skin and you decide to blog or tweet about it yourself, let me know and I will share your link here.

The little book continues:

He is to take the promise, and endorse it with his own name by personally receiving it as true. He is by faith to accept it as his own. He sets to his seal that God is true, and true as to this particular word of promise. He goes further, and believes that he has the blessing in having the sure promise of it, and therefore he puts his name to it to testify to the receipt of the blessing.

This done, he must believingly present the promise to the Lord, as a man presents a cheque at the counter of the Bank. He must plead it by prayer, expecting to have it fulfilled. If he has come to heaven's bank at the right date, he will receive the promised amount at once. If the date should happen to be further on, he must patiently wait till its arrival; but meanwhile he may count the promise as money, for the Bank is sure to pay when the due time arrives.

Some fail to place the endorsement of faith upon the cheque, and so they get nothing; and others are slack in presenting it, and these also receive nothing. This is not the fault of the promise, but of those who do not act with it in a common-sense, business-like manner.

God has given no pledge which he will not redeem, and encouraged no hope which he will not fulfil. To help my brethren to believe this, I have prepared this little volume. The sight of the promises themselves is good for the eyes of faith: the more we study the words of grace, the more grace shall we derive from the words. To the cheering Scriptures I have added testimonies of my own, the fruit of trial and experience. I believe all the promises of God, but many of them I have personally tried and proved. I have seen that they are true, for they have been fulfilled to me. This, I trust, may be cheering to the young; and not without solace to the older sort. One man's experience may be of the utmost use to another; and this is why the man of God of old wrote, " I sought the Lord, and he heard me," and again, "this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him."

Rebuilding Marriages - Following the Manual

2009-09-15T00:03:00.003+01:00

This sermon is a real treat to watch. So much Christian teaching on marriage is based purely on human wisdom, and amounts to repacked psychological insights. Actually, I have no problem with us learning from such thoughts--since after all if Proverbs tells us to learn from the ants, we can with discernment learn from anywhere. BUT, we must first get our foundations right before we learn the superficial principles. As such, I commend this sermon from my friend and pastor, Tope Koleoso. In it he begins a new series on marriage. Here he brings us right back to the makers manual for marriage.

I encourage you to get your spouse, make them a cup of coffee or tea, tell them you want to put some work into making your marriage better than it is. I am sure that however good (or bad) your marriage is, you won't regret it. I won't be posting all the sermons here, but you can follow each week at http://jubilee-church.org/video. You can also submit totally anonymous questions on marriage for our Q and A sessions.

By Tope Koleoso
13 September
download video or download audio

Top 40 Christian Blogs Referring Here

2009-09-14T00:20:00.001+01:00

Twice a year I like to share by way of a thank-you a list of the top blogs and websites that have referred the most traffic here. I have always excluded search engines (and hence all google sites such as google reader) which are of course incredibly important in sending traffic here.

I realised that I had not done this over the summer. So, here is a list that covers 2009 to date. You will note that the major gainers this year are facebook (previously 4th, now 1st) and twitter (previously 18th, now 3rd).

These two social networking sites are both growing and playing a vital role on the internet. I find that there is something of a divide between the two. Some people love twitter and hate facebook, others are the other way around. As a busy guy I am very glad that thanks to twitterfeed.com I can automatically post headlines of all my blog posts onto twitter, and that these posts together with the tweets I send from time to time can be all sent direct (and again automatically) to the facebook status line by another application.

I find that people say things like "I saw something you wrote on facebook" even when they must have had to click through to actually read it. I also find that facebook and twitter conversation about blogs is much more friendly than comments used to be. So, in my view these are both a great asset and I seem to reach different groups of people on each.

The high place of owly seems largely due to a single tweet sent by John Piper which mentioned a sermon by Terry Virgo on prayer and led to thousands visiting to view the sermon. Twitter will continue its evolution into many things, one of which is a place to find interesting weblinks to visit.

But, as always, it is the other bloggers who have linked here that I really want to thank. Those thanks go to all of you--I don't just mean the ones listed here, there are many, many more that I couldn't list who between them probably sent more than any one blog. The single most helpful thing that any blogger can do for a blog they reads and indeed for their own readers, is to post a link to help the traffic keep flowing between us all. It also of course helps google know which sites to rate highly. Never underestimate the power of the link! I wonder who will be in this list come Christmas?

Top 40 Referrers to adrianwarnock.com
1. facebook.com (4)
2. theologica.blogspot.com (1)
3. twitter.com (18)
4. challies.com (2)
5. ow.ly (-)
6. newfrontiersbloggers.blogspot.com (12)
7. en.wikipedia.org (7)
8. stevenjcamp.blogspot.com (9)
9. thebluefish.org (5)
10. newwordalive.org (11)

11. teampyro.blogspot.com (8)

12. desiringgod.org (3)

13. hughhewitt.townhall.com (10)
14. stevekmccoy.com

15. stumbleupon.com

16. albertmohler.com

17. lashawnbarber.com

18. janga.biz/terryvirgoblog

19. faithbyhearing.wordpress.com

20. blogs.warnock.me.uk

21. timkeller.info

22. benwitherington.blogspot.com

23. psalm305.blogspot.com

24. newfrontiers.xtn.org

25. bibchr.blogspot.com

26. fotidzo.blogspot.com

27. blogger.com

28. churchrelevance.com

29. unashamedworkman.wordpress.com

30. jollyblogger.typepad.com

31. purgatorio1.com

32. asermonaday.com
33. theopedia.com

34. prolifeblogs.com

35. blog.9marks.org

36. monergism.com

37. firstimportance.org

38. ukcommentators.blogspot.com

39. mychristianblogs.com

4o. cookiesdays.blogspot.com

Prayer Praise and Persistance - A Sermon

2009-09-12T11:49:00.007+01:00

Well, actually due to time constraints this mainly focused on prayer. Prayer is VITAL, and I am realising that my own prayer life is only scraping the surface.

Last Sunday Tope Koleoso, the pastor of Jubilee Church London, preached this, his first sermon back after a four week break over the summer. He didn't totally rest over the summer, having gone to Zimbabwe on a preaching trip. He was provoked by that trip, and really let rip in his preaching to us as a result. If you have ever watched one of Tope's sermons, watch this one. If you have never watched one of Tope's sermons, then you don't know what you are missing so watch this one too! I dare you to watch this challenging sermon. I dare you more to live life differently as a result.

You can also download video or download audio

911 Eight Years Ago

2009-09-11T20:00:00.002+01:00

I wrote the following article, originally titled "911 THREE YEARS ON" Now we can add five more years and nothing much has changed. I have therefore lightly edited the article but republish it today more or less as I originally published it:

The world will never forget 911. A year ago I said it felt like yesterday, and it still does. I am not American, and until early 2003 I had never been to New York. On 9/11, I didn't lose a loved one or a friend. But I remember seeing the second plane hit the building live on TV and, just as promised, it was a day that changed history.

It was a day that marked the expansion of the global village. Somehow the world seemed to immediately know something had happened- it was as though a sharp intake of breath occurred simultaneously around the globe. Work was forgotten. Holidays cancelled. Business trips prolonged or postponed. We all remember where we were that day and how we headed for our homes just as quickly as we were able to.

It was a day when family and friends were suddenly more valued. In a moment security could never again be taken for granted. Five years ago, when I first wrote this article in the UK we were awaiting the attack me felt in that moment to be imminent, and our leaders were telling us was inevitable. In the end, we were spared by something of a miracle the same extent loss of life when Islamic extremists attacked our underground system. If their devices had been more potent, everyone on each of those subway trains would have died. Just in the last few days through the conviction of those responsible for the liquid explosives plot to destroy multiple planes over the Atlantic we have been reminded that the risk has not gone away.

It was a day when a war was declared that by our own admission can never be won. It was a day that we all pray will never be surpassed in the sheer scale of its cruelty, although the same evil displayed has been amply displayed since in various attacks.

It was a call to fight, but also a call to reach out. It led immediately to many unanswered questions- How could people act in this way? Why was anyone willing to be sympathetic to the views of such men? Why was condemnation not forthcoming from every member of the world? Why did some people hate Americans?

What really saddens me to this day is that even such an act, or acts such as torturing and murdering schoolchildren is not enough to make every single person throughout the world state "this is evil and we renounce it totally" I hope that today brings shame to those who in the past have toyed with terrorism- the Irish Terrorists and those who funded them, for example. For Irish terrorism and other groups around the globe helped to lay the foundations and show the way for small groups of people to hold the entire world to ransom. I may not have been in New York before this year, but I have felt the blast wave of two IRA bombs in London.

In the end 911 was, however, a single day. A very important day, but it was nonetheless just a day. Part of history that can never be erased but just one day. We have had evil days before and we will have them again. Without minimising the pain of this day, or for a moment suggesting that we should turn back the clock or stop commemorating it, it was just a day. Somehow such days must be integrated and life must continue, as indeed it has.

I am glad that for my family this date in the year we also have positive connotations to remember it by in the future. Today (five years ago) my brother got married. I am glad that this was on 9/11 because why should we let the terrorists totally occupy the territory of one of our 365 days? Do they also now own another one after 3/11 in Spain? What about 7/7 when they attacked London? Can nothing good ever happen again on 9/11?

I thank God today, a few hours before Americans will realise its 911 for all the marriages that have taken place on 9/11, for all the babies that have been born, for all the human achievements that have been completed, and in short for all the lives that continue this 9/11.

Our very resilience and determination shows that terrorism will never beat the human spirit. Sadly, one of the costs of living in freedom is that evil men will always have the opportunity to strike again. I am glad that I am not the leaders responsible for trying to minimise our risks. It is easy to criticise, but today of all days lets pray for wisdom for Obama, for Brown and for all other world leaders.

Don't Believe Your Own Publicity

2009-09-11T00:11:00.005+01:00

One of the things that concerns me most about having a blog is that it allows me to paint to the world a picture of myself. Most of the time, I will admit, I don't really think about that. I just get on and write. But, for a variety of reasons, there is a tendency to write things that portray me in a favorable way. It would not be wise, of course, to tell you about every sin and temptation I struggle with. And to be fair, it is not as though I am actually deliberately trying to make you think I am better than I am. I just want to help myself think things through, and in the process help a few of my readers. Reading of my failures would not help anyone. The biggest danger, however, would be if I start to think of myself in such a positive light.

But the truth is that it's not just blogging. Every time we open our mouths, or write anything, we are portraying something to those watching. Of course we need to be wise about what we say. It is foolish to simply vomit up every sin and failure we comitt. I am not a great fan of the wallowing in the gutter of some of the "confessional" type of posts or talks you sometimes see. There is a fine line however between such wisdom and making ourselves look better than we really are.

The truth is that we even con ourselves, sometimes. Every now and then God plans a situation that provides an open window into our heart and we suddenly realise how wicked and decietful our own selves remain. Even after years of God working on them. Even after all our study of his word. Even after prayer. Even after repentance.

I am not of course talking about our identity, since we have been MADE righteous in God. But I am talking about the persistant battle we all face against sin. The more I have been thinking about sin recently the more I think that at its root is independence, pride and selfishness. Those are the very things our society teaches us are important to our wellbeing!

We sin because we think we know better than God. We sin because we like our own comfort. We sin because we want something and don't get it. We sin because we elevate our personal preferances into absolutes, and fail to recognise that others perspectives are held just as dearly as our own, and dare I say it they may even be right and us wrong.

For me one such opening of a window happened over the summer. Oh, I can make excuses for myself, and say that I was emotionally exhausted. For sure, I was. But that exhaustion was caused itself by a sinful belief that I can do more than I should, and a wilful refusal to factor in proper breaks and rest times into my daily and weekly schedule. And, in any case, such an exhaustion does not give me the excuse to sin.

For wisdom's sake I am not going to go into all the details of what transpired. Suffice it to say that whilst it wasn't pretty, it was not what I would in my pride normally view as a 'major' sin. More important than the actual sin, however, has been the effect on my own opinion of myself. I think I had begun to relax a little in my fight against my own sin. This has caused me to wake up. I need to be much more aware of my own weakness, and sinful tendencies that whilst improving over the years, have not done so as quickly as I would like. My self-centeredness sometimes leads to irritability. Or, as the Bible would put it my pride leads to anger.

The whole experience reminded me once again of my own weakness. I am not as strong as I sometimes think I am. I cannot do everything I would like to do. I cannot even do everything that it would be helpful for me to do. I will have to choose who to let down. I have to say "enough!" more often. I have to watch my heart and keep it in check. I have to watch for things that make my self control more difficult. I have to pray more.

But most of all, I have to keep coming back to the God who delights in taking weak people like you and me and using us for his great purposes. He is not interested in using those who think they are strong or wise.

Don't ever believe your own publicity. Don't even fully believe the publicity of others. Every single so-called "great man of God" has their own struggles. The fact that they do not share them in detail with us all is in most cases not because they want to look better than they are. We are foolish if we forget that there are secret struggles that it is entirely appropriate should stay secret. It takes great wisdom to know how much of those struggles to share with others. A forum like this is not the place for me to bear my soul fully. I thank God that I have just such a place in the man I love to call my pastor, Tope Koleoso and in others on the leadership team of Jubilee Church.

Trust me when I say that every Christian faces their own challenges at times, and that every Christian needs a place to receive wisdom from others and help. Don't put your full confidence in any blogger, preacher or author. Put your confidence in God. And pray for those who are in prominent positions in your church, and/or in the wider Christian community. Every Christian needs your prayers more than you could ever imagine. If I understood that better, I am sure that I would pray more than I do. The conclusion of this summers reflection is really simply this- Lord teach ME to pray. Prayer really is where this battle is won. For in prayer I acknowledge that I am dependent on God and need his help, I acknowledge that he is God and that I am not, and that therefore I have no right to be proud since I have nothing that did not come from him, and I focus on the needs not just of myself but of others.

I enjoy very much following my pastor's tweets. He wrote a very interesting one over the summer. He began "Augustus Ceaser met Rome a city of wood & left it a city of marble." I thought he would continue by speaking of building the church or something similar. But rather than numbers, or even "spiritual maturity" Tope chose to end the tweet by stressing the vital role of a pastor in teaching his people to pray: "Great is the pastor who changes his people from being prayerless to prayerful."

Final Post On Wisdom

2009-09-10T00:21:00.008+01:00

This concludes my miniseries on wisdom. There is much benefit to meditating carefully on these Bible verses.

13. It is sometimes wise to say nothing!

Prov 17:28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
Prov 29:11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

14. Even The Wisest Man Can Act Like a Fool
Solomon turned after many foreign women and did not serve his God faithfully, and in his despair and repentance wrote Ecclesiastes.

15. Wisdom is found in Jesus

Isaiah 11:1-2 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord

Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man

Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

16. Human Wisdom is a Hindrance to Salvation

Matthew 11:25 “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children”

Romans 1:22 “Claiming to be wise, they became fools”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

17. We should pray for Wisdom

Col 1:9 “we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

BUT, if we pray, we must be open to God answering that prayer thru us reading the Bible or listening to others!

CONCLUSION
Ephesians 5:15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom
James 3:13-16 “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. . . the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere”

More On Wisdom

2009-09-09T00:09:00.009+01:00

I continue today sharing some notes on wisdom.

7. God's Word Imparts Wisdom

Prayer for wisdom and the anointing some have does not remove the need for us to seek God's wisdom in the Bible:

Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

2 Tim 3:15 “…the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

8. Wisdom DOES consist of pithy sound-bites
Proverbs HAS to become one of your favorite books if you want to be wise.

The reading plan (ESV Every Day In The Word) I use gives me a verse or two per day all year which is one of the main reasons I chose it!

But some of these are not universally applicable, and wisdom consists of knowing which principle to apply when eg:

Proverbs 26:4-5 Answer not a fool according to his folly,lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,lest he be wise in his own eyes.

9. Wisdom must be sought

Read Prov 1:1-7 “1:1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

2 To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Prov 2:20-25 20
Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you turn at my reproof, [1]
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25 because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you,

10. The truly wise do not believe they are
Prov 3:7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Its a bit like humility. As soon as someone says to you "I am humble" you know they are not. The same applies here--we are ALL learning.

11. Wisdom can be learnt from creation

Prov 6:6 “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise”

If from the ants, surely at times even from unbelieverseg management techniques, CBT, etc

12. Wisdom is Learnt Through Rebukes

Proverbs 9:7-9 Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Prov 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 27:5-6 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Prov 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another

Who have you given permission to speak into your life to?

Lessons From A Brief History of Wisdom

2009-09-08T23:56:00.004+01:00

I have been doing some thinking about wisdom before I began this blog break. I want to share some notes with you over the next few days that I made that basically do a whistlestop tour of what the Bible has to say on this subject.

1. Wisdom in the Bible Seems to Get off to A Bad Start

Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

She could have got wisdom from her husband and from the Lord
The husband was foolishly silent, which should not be confused with the silence of wisdom

So-called “wisdom” tells us we can be independent. Godly wisdom is dependent on others and especially God.

2. The Mark of God's Favour: Joseph

Gen 41, Pharaoh's dream interpreted,

Gen 41:39 “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.”

Another example of this is found in Daniel, especially chapter 1.

3. There Are Clear Capacities of Wisdom

Deut 1: 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes

They were to judge, but cases they found too hard to go to Moses.

God gives wisdom in unequal packages deliberately to make us depend on each other!

4. Leadership Wisdom is a Gift From God

Deut 34:9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Wisdom was imparted through laying on of hands, and because it was there they followed him. Like them, we would do well to follow wisdom when we see it in others!

5. A Wise Person Can Sometimes Even Negate the Actions of a Fool

Abigail and Nabal 1 Samuel 25

6. Wisdom should be desired more than wealth or power

Solomon asked God for the best gift of all and God blessed him.

1 Kings 4:29 God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, . . he was wiser than all other men
Prov 8:11 “for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.”

Are You Allergic To Strategy? Guest Post By Matt Sweetman

2009-09-07T00:49:00.002+01:00

Its the turn of a church planter in Chicago today to guest blog for me:

In Newfroniters we talk a lot about church planting. It's a core value. We spend a lot of money on it. We give away our best people to it. Family members move hundreds and thousands of miles away from each other to make it happen. It is a one of the hardest things we do but one of the most important.

I am convinced that every reference in scripture to the mission of God finds its practical fulfillment in the process of starting a new church. If Jesus is of ultimate value, if all things end with him being worshiped in eternity, then developing worshipers of Jesus is the key to success. Simply winning people to Jesus is a good start but not enough. A redemptive community must be established in order to fulfill the cosmic plans of Christ.

I thought I was ready to start a church. It had been on my heart for many years. But I wasn't as ready as I thought I was. I had undertaken theological training and fulfilled various leadership roles but I was ignorant to much of the essential knowledge and skills required to launch a church. I've heard some refer to church planting as an enigma, but I've come to realize that is faulty thinking. Without clear and intentional preparation the chances of success are greatly diminished.

After passing a comprehensive church planter assessment and then completed an intensive year of church planting training, I moved my family to Chicago, the 3rd largest city in the US with a metro population of 9.5 million people. I've read 20 books on church planting, interviewed about 8 planters and even assisted in a new church start. And now we are right at the start of establishing Destination Church, one of the newest churches in Chicago. I cannot imagine doing this without the careful preparation provided for me by Newfrontiers-USA which brings me to my main point.

Developing a launch strategy is essential to starting a church. Right now Destination Church has a core group of about 20 people. I'd really like to publicly launch the church in February of 2010 but in order to do that we need to add at least 20 more people. A total of 75 would actually be a great core group size. Launching with just a handful of people makes it almost impossible to grow beyond 250 and 3 times more likely to fail. If we don't add enough members by February we'll delay our launch. Failure is not an option.

It works like this. My wife and I used to drive by a restaurant in St. Louis that never had any cars parked outside. Do you ever go into a restaurant where the parking lot is empty? No! If something good is happening people are present.

In a new church it takes at least 3 people to run the children's work, maybe 4 to run worship, maybe 3 to greet and usher, which means if you have 20 people when you launch, you only have 10 people available for a crowd. If people do come they wont stay -- it's just too weird! We live in an anonymous culture, so people will want to be anonymous to begin with, and of course we must help them take steps into the community and not remain unknown.

In addition the idea of preview services has greatly impressed me. A preview service is like a dress rehearsal. It lowers the level of expectation for attendees and the core group because it's a practice. It gives you more time to adjust mistakes. People are more forgiving if the sound isn't right or the song words don't work. Previews work well every 2 weeks or every week. It is not a good idea to do monthly previews as the gap in between is too long and momentum is lost. People are more likely to attend a couple of previews, not just because they are a lower commitment, but because of their schedule. Give people more chances to attend and they will. It's a real limitation to put all your eggs into one grand opening launch day.

In addition there are 2 optimal times during the year to launch. The best is probably at the end of February and second best is mid September. The biggest reason is to avoid the summer lull and to give yourself enough time to build momentum before you hit it. The summer can kill an unprepared church plant. It is also important to catch people when they are more likely to try something new, like at the beginning of the year, or when they are getting back into a routine and are more likely to stick it out.

Encouraging Community Presentation from Destination Church on Vimeo.

On July 11, 2009 Matt Sweetman presented the Encouraging Community Project. The event focused on the need for community, the breakdown of trust in society, the solutions to rebuild it and the vision of the new church.

We all need to be in a community. This presentation will broaden your understanding of the world we live in and the value of human connectivity. If you are interested in checking out the new church, please watch this video.

We'll try various attractional forms of church planting; mailers, phone surveys, online ads, etc ... But the key growth element will be each member inviting 3-4 people to the previews/launch. If 50 people invite 3-4 people each and 1-2 of them actually show up, plus the mass marketing, we could gather 100 to 150 brand new people by our launch day. Even if 50% of them don't return we've grown by 50-75 people in just a few weeks and have a legitimate crowd to attract more. Launching a small group system shortly afterwards will then allow us to more effectively make disciples.

Don't be afraid of strategy.

Strategy is just a fancy way of having a plan. Read Psalm 139:16 and tell me if you think God has a detailed plan of your life or not?

Another critical aspect of strategy is financial planning. Working out detailed expense categories and amounts ahead of time allows you to know how much money you will need. Otherwise it really is an enigma! I've had many people ask me recently how I am funded. I am bi-vocational right now and my personal income is split 3 ways. We have a very generous core group, Heather and I also have a number of individuals who give to us directly. Lastly, I do a lot of online marketing to make up the difference in our income. Here is an example of an Atlanta Lawyer I have done work for. My plan is to phase this kind of work out over the next year. So, please pray for financial provision.

Jesus has a great plan to build his church and he will build it!

Matt Sweetman
http://destinationchurch.org

GLOBAL ALPHA TRAINING – ZIMBABWE – Guest Post By Jo Soda

2009-09-06T00:36:00.001+01:00

RE-EVANGELISING THE NATIONS. TRANSFORMING SOCIETY. My friend Jo Soda is todays guest blogger:

This September I’ll be leading a small team to Zimbabwe to train 100 church leaders how to run Alpha and help them to form an action plan to spur the growth of Alpha throughout the nation. The National Alpha Office in Zimbabwe have a vision to see Alpha grow to 3000 Alpha courses in the next five years and this will be the first of fifteen national training events to serve that goal. Alpha Zimbabwe has a good relationship with a number of New Frontiers churches in and around Harare and they will also be a part of this vision.

At the end of the training we’ll be visiting Mashambanzou Palliative Care Unit to visit to AIDS patients, followed by a visit to Jairos Jiri School for disabled children in Rusape as a social outreach which I’m sure will bless us more than we are able to bless them.

For those who don’t know – Alpha is ten-week course which gives non-Christians or new Christians an opportunity to explore the Christian faith. Each session usually involves a meal/social time, a talk and a time for discussion where guests can ask questions and share opinions and listen to what others think. Alpha is a journey and for many leads to a profession of faith in Jesus and for others – an opportunity to meet some great friends and gain a new understanding of the Christian faith. Alpha is an evangelistic tool to help churches of any denomination to evangelise their local community by inviting local people to a course to hear a simple presentation of the gospel message in a non-confrontational way.

Alpha is also a missional tool the aim of which is to re-evangelise the nations and transform society.

The Alpha course is now in 163 countries worldwide and is translated into between over 70 languages. There are more than 35000 courses running worldwide and it is estimated that more than 13 Million people have now done Alpha. The goal is to accelerate the vision to see 100 Million having done Alpha in the next 10 years.

What I’ll be doing is part of the missional vision Alpha to see the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed to the nations. I’ll be training key contacts and church leaders how to run Alpha and to help them strategise how the course can rebuilt and developed in their local context and culture after recent years of devastation and persecution.

Over the first three days the team will present the principalities and practicalities of Alpha as well as to take the delegates through sample sessions of the Alpha course where they will role play taking part as small group hosts, helpers and guests to get a feel for being on an Alpha course. We will be working alongside the local team and insuring that any talks that are culturally specific are given by the local team. We will also work with a local worship team to ensure that the course is fully set in the context of Zimbabwean culture. The fourth day of the event will be specific to Youth Alpha. We are raising funds to cover the costs of the event to the effect of £4000 and hope to offer a gift of £1000 to Alpha Zimbabwe to help churches set up and run Alpha courses as soon as possible.

I would love to invite you to pray for the event. As you know, Zimbabwe has been and is still going through a time of hardship and spiritual warfare. The Alpha team in Zimbabwe have faced great difficulties and many churches have had to close.

God has opened a door for this event to take place – but we need lots prayer for protection, fundraising and for the whole event to be a success. Nothing can be taken for granted.

So the dates for your diary are from the 6th – 15th September and I would greatly appreciate your prayers during this time. If you would like to make a donation to support the event you can donate online at, www.justgiving.com/zimgat or email joannesoda@gmail.com for more information.

For more information about the Alpha course visit, www.alphafriends.org

BACKGROUND TO ALPHA IN ZIMBABWE

Reverend Nick Crawley, Rector of Avondale Anglican Church in Harare, introduced Alpha to his congregation following his attendance at the HTB Alpha Conference. The Zimbabwe NAO opened an office in the Avondale Anglican Church in 1996, was initially formed as a company, but became a registered Trust on 13 May 2002. In the early days, conferences were run in all the main centres leading to the start of courses, but only Avondale Anglican Church has continuously ran Alpha in two languages for adults and youth, usually twice a year, with only a few breaks. More recently, the alpha has been running in a private home and at a local school.

In 2008, Executive Director of Alpha International, Tricia Neill confirmed the appointment of Anderson Mudhara as the first National Director of Alpha Zimbabwe. Due to recent events in the country running training events has been difficult and there has been a lot of emigration of competent Alpha supporters, hosts, advisers and speakers. So although they have had some extremely successful Alpha programmes running in churches, schools, offices, hospitals, universities, workplaces, farms, mines and forestry enterprises around the country with even one course on the forecourt of a city office block, Alpha Zimbabwe are effectively rebuilding and developing their Alpha network. Over the next five years Alpha Zimbabwe plans to run fifteen Global Alpha Training events in all the main centres around the country.

Nigel Ring on How He Serves Terry Virgo

2009-09-05T00:28:00.001+01:00

Every leader needs a Nigel. I first met him and his wife many years ago as he will mention in todays guest post about how he has helped in the work of Newfrontiers:

At the recent Newfrontiers TOAM Conference I felt God prompt me to testify at the end of Joel Virgo’s talk about being armour bearers to leaders. Several have generously said this was helpful so I will fill in a bit of the history Terry and I have had together.

We first met in 1968. My wife and I wanted to start a Bible Study group in our village with another young couple and this couple knew of a good visiting speaker to open our first meeting – a certain Terry Virgo! Subsequently we asked him about the Baptism of the Spirit (a ‘new discovery’ in those days) and what the Bible taught about healing.

In May 1973 Terry became a regular visitor to our group, visiting us every two weeks. Janita and I invited him to arrive early for a meal recognising the hand of God on him and that we would probably only have this close access to him for a short period – but God had other plans!

In 1977 Terry planted our house group as a church – the first church plant he made. From small beginnings (including a young Adrian Warnock in my wife’s Sunday School class) this church in Haywards Heath has since sent out several groups to plant into the surrounding towns and villages.

At the age of 9 yrs and again in 1974 I felt God call me to full time ministry – but I did not know when that would come about. In 1978 I mentioned this to Terry. So, when he first formed an apostolic team in September 1980 he asked me if I still felt this call. If so, would I become his administrator – he didn’t know what an administrator did but knew he needed one. My response was that I did not know either – but ‘yes’! (By then I had in fact helped organise the Downs Bible Week for several thousand so I guess he felt I had at least something to offer.)

What does the Bible say about administration? There is much I have learnt and am regularly sharing on my blog (www.nigelring.org). But one of the key passages for me is Acts 6:1-7. A welfare-dispute among the widows threatened to distract the apostles from their main calling – prayer and ministry of the word. I felt that God was saying to me that my calling was to relieve Terry of all that might distract him. In Acts 6 the immediate effect was rapid growth of the church. My heart was for us to see the same as an emerging family of churches.

In the last 3 decades it has been my joy and privilege to work closely with Terry as a friend. I have learnt much from him – his tenacity to the word, his wisdom, his commitment to prayer, his humility and so on. Personally, I have developed the philosophy for administration that once spiritual leadership has set the direction my role is to implement it and to ensure that the administration is inconspicuous. Like the oil in a vehicle, it will not be noticed if it is fulfilling its function to make the vehicle run smoothly. Administration in the Kingdom is about providing contexts for people to meet God – if they are distracted by poor administration it has failed.

God has been very gracious to us since the early days. Newfrontiers is now a family of over 700 churches in nearly 60 nations. Most of these churches have been planted from within Newfrontiers, founded on an apostolic and prophetic foundation. The administration has, of course, grown and Newfrontiers now has many skilled and gifted people working on a substantially church-based decentralised model. But my personal commitment to Terry remains. We both believe that it is a ‘till death us do part’ relationship and look forward to further years of service together.

The Rise of Islamic Christianity. Guest Post By Sam Allberry

2009-09-04T00:08:00.000+01:00

What happens when we forgetting the Trinity at Church? Sam Allberry who like me is releasing a book on the Resurrection soon takes todays guest blogging slot by talking about the consequences of neglecting the doctrine of the trinity:

When Jesus called his first followers to make disciples of all nations, he instructed them to baptise new followers in the ‘name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. In doing so Jesus reminds us that the God whose name we now bear, and whose nature is to define and shape us, is Trinity: one God in three persons.

As Christians we affirm this, and yet so often the Trinitarian nature of God is something we tend to park to one side. It is possible to be confessionally Trinitarian, but functionally Unitarian: to say we believe in the doctrine of the trinity, but not really to be shaped by it.

If this is the case it will play itself out in all sorts of ways, not least in where we want to see our Christian communities going. Our view of God determines our vision for humanity. So if we take the doctrine of the trinity, put a big tick next to it, and then just stick it in a drawer somewhere and ignore it, where will we end up?

At least two things will follow.

1. Our view of church will become functional and not relational.
We will only meet to “do” things, and will not really see the point of meeting for merely social reasons. Our gatherings will become a matter of utility and not family. Such a tendency, when combined with the more reserved sections of English culture, can produce a relational desert.
In churches like this there will not be much life-sharing. The minister will see his congregation as ‘clients’; his ministry as one of shunting people through the right programs. He will see himself as a professional ‘Bible teacher’. His people will feel handled rather than loved. The church will be the place to grow for a while in understanding, or at least in Bible knowledge, but will not be the place to find authentic Christian community.

2. Our aim for church will be uniformity and not diversity.
The Trinity shows us a God who is unity in diversity rather than unity in sameness. The Father, Son and Spirit are not interchangeable. They share an ontological unity, but function differently within the purposes of God. This lies behind Paul's teaching on the variety of gifts found in the church in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6:

4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

‘Spirit’, ‘Lord’ and ‘God’ describe the persons of the Trinity; ‘gifts’, ‘kinds of service’ and ‘kinds of working’ describe the functional diversity of the local church. Our unity-in-diversity reflects God's unity-in-diversity.

A Unitarian view of God will therefore lead to a monochrome view of the church. Maturity will be understood in terms of trying to make everyone a certain kind of Christian. Christians will look the same and sound the same. They'll be encouraged into the same kind of ministry. A particular gifting will be the hallmark of the spiritually advanced. In Corinth (reading between the lines) it was evidently the gift of tongues. Today, in many reformed churches, it is the gift of teaching. Those who are really committed to the gospel will become ‘Bible-teachers’ (there they are again). There will be cultural and vocational flatness.

Christianity it may well be, but a form of Christianity unwittingly more akin to Islamic, not evangelical, theology.

Love Truth and Power. Guest Post From Andrew Fountain

2009-09-03T00:40:00.003+01:00

Andrew is a dear friend of mine and leads Newlife Church Toronto. He blogs at In Christ. Andrew has an interesting story in that he was principal of Toronto Baptist Seminary when the "Toronto blessing" hit. Circumstances seemed to conspire to force him into making a choice between his reformed heritage and a charismatic experience. He refused to make that choice and in this guest post explains his passion for building a different kind of church:

I was once visiting a church and the pastor announced, “We’re not going to have a sermon today because we want to just hand the whole meeting over to the Holy Spirit and see his power”. This immediately felt wrong to me, and I started trying to think through why.

For one thing, if the preaching is from the Scriptures, then it is “Holy Spirit” truth. So it is not a choice between “Word” and “Spirit” but “Spirit” and “Spirit”.

But then I read Acts 14:3, “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”

The miracles came, not instead of the preaching, but because of the preaching! So if you want to see signs and wonders, then preach a message that God will want to bear witness to, with a supernatural “Amen!”

So it looks like we have two operations of the Spirit: the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of power. I wondered whether it would be possible to go through the Bible and divide the references to the Spirit into to those two categories. As I started on the project I found plenty of truth verses, such as:

“However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth;” (John 16:13)

And power verses, such as:

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;” (Acts 1:8)

But then a third category emerged. He is the Spirit of love:

“the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom 5:5)

I began to get excited when I found several verses that combined two of the three and some that combined all three, such as “For God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7) It seems I was onto something. (The complete list of references can be found at loveintruth.com)

I see an unfortunate tendency for churches to zero in on one, or maybe two, of these three aspects of the Spirit. Charismatic churches want to see the Spirit move in power. Reformed churches love the way the Spirit leads us into truth. New churches are emerging whose main focus is strong relationship.

But what does the Spirit think of this? Does he want us to take one aspect of his ministry to the exclusion of the others? How would a girl react if a man said to her, “I like your beauty, but I’m really not interested in your mind!”

So what does it mean for churches that want to see more of God’s power? Instead of cancelling the sermon, I suggest we need to ask the Spirit to lead us into such an excellent understanding of truth that the Lord will bear witness to it in power, as in Act 14. And then we need to be radical in our love: “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22)

But I don’t want to be part of a church that merely balances these three. I want us to be extreme in our love, excelling in truth and walking daily in the mighty power of God.

Guinness and Church Planting. A Guest Post From David Capener

2009-09-02T00:01:00.003+01:00

Today its the turn of a friend of mine who is a church planter in Northern Ireland:

So there was I, sitting in my favorite bar in Belfast observing the pure loveliness that is an untouched pint of Guinness, thinking about the last six months of my life. Six months that have seen me, my wife and three girls move to Belfast, watch as God has gathering an amazing team of people and see the beginnings of Redeemer Central Church in Belfast, a new church in the heart of this great city. Its been an amazing time, not like anything we could ever really imagine. Heres a little film that will tell you a bit more about about Redeemer Central it was shot by our good friends at the amazing design firm Box Head www.weareboxhead.com.

David Capener. Belfast. from Box-head* on Vimeo.

What is Your Favorite Quote? Guest Post From Lex Loizides

2009-09-01T00:01:00.003+01:00

Today's quest blogger is my friend Lex who blogs short, inspirational stories and illustrations from church history over at
http://lexloiz.wordpress.com/

Lex is an elder at Jubilee Community Church, Cape Town and travels throughout the world as an evangelist.
http://www.jubilee.org.za/

I recently completed an article for a Christian magazine. As part of the ‘get to know the author’ section, I had to answer several questions including ‘What is your favourite quote?’

I must admit that I’m not certain I have a favourite quote as such, although several zingers from Winston Churchill immediately come to mind.

In the end I settled for something that impacted me when I first read it, and which I have quoted so often I probably know it by heart, but which is surely too long to be added in the magazine’s ‘get to know the author’ column. So I thought you, Warnie’s faithful readers, might like it. It is actually two statements by George Whitefield describing the same incident.

Why do I love these words so much? Because they describe the heroism of the Evangelist, the compassion of a merciful Saviour, the power of the Holy Spirit to turn the hearts of those outside the Christian faith to Him, and the appeal of the gospel to ordinary people when it is presented simply and honestly.

Whitefield describes his fourth visit to the coal-miners of Kingswood in Bristol in 1739. His first visit, and his first attempt at preaching in a field, was attended by around 200. Over the next few days the crowds grew steadily until eight days after his first visit Whitefield could write:

‘At four I hastened to Kingswood. At a moderate computation there were about ten thousand people.

‘The trees and hedges were full. All was hush when I began; the sun shone bright, and God enabled me to preach for an hour with great power, and so loudly that all, I was told, could hear me.’

‘Having no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were glad to hear of a Jesus who was a friend of publicans and sinners, and came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

‘The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by their tears which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, as they came out of their coal pits. Hundreds and hundreds of them were soon brought under deep convictions, which, as the event proved, happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion.’

(From George Whitefield’s Journals, Banner of Truth edition, p.223 and ‘Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend George Whitefield, MA’, John Gillies, 1772 edition, p.28)

As we seek to bring the message of God’s grace to our generation my hope is that, whilst being eager to learn all we can from the various methods that are accompanying church growth at the moment, we would never forget our dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit through the simple, humble, Christ-centred preaching of the gospel to reach those who don’t yet know Jesus Christ.

Lex Loizides

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Redeemed For More - Guest Post From Tim Virgo

2009-08-31T00:57:00.002+01:00

As I continue my blogging break, here is a post from my friend Tim Virgo:

At my church- CCK in Brighton, UK one of the things we are currently working towards is starting a ministry that explains and proclaims the redemption of the Gospel of Jesus. We want to help people to take hold of the freedom that’s been given to them. I am so excited to be involved in this. I have begun some study and have already been hit hard by things that I have come across.

I have been a Christian for 20 years now and have often had the feeling that there must be more. I still feel guilt and shame about things I am supposed to be free from. We see people saved at our church almost every week but I often ask myself of new Christians, ‘have they really understood?’ In fact I ask that about all Christians, about myself.

Disciples not converts

Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples of the entire world. Disciples are committed learners. A disciple surely includes relationship, trust and action. Even in our evangelical circles we may think the term, ‘saved and added’ covers all the bases. Looking at redemption lately I have recognised more and more that Sunday services are the front door of our church. People respond to the gospel and get converted but have yet to understand the full weight of redemption. In Philippians 2:11-13 we are told, ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you’. I hope you are able to understand what I am saying here. We are called to be and make disciples, we are not called to join a club, take up a hobby or give Jesus a go.

After 20 years as a Christian I am only now realising that the power of the gospel is greater than I’ve ever dared to believe. I am so excited that I will have the opportunity to help reveal the power of redemption to people who need it. We want our church to have a massive front door and a small back door where people don’t slip through unchanged. But more importantly we need a massive living room where we can be hospitable, let iron sharpen iron, counsel and see people really meet Jesus and be redeemed by him and for him.

The articles and books I am studying in preparation say that the best picture of redemption in the bible is the story of the exodus. The Israelites were under terrible oppression, they needed a saviour and by the power and grace of God they were saved. They saw awesome power on display that bought them freedom. They were liberated from their past and separated from their enemy when the Red sea waters came crashing down. It was done! It was over, finished!

But the Israelites walked in the desert for 40 years after being freed and totally liberated, they didn’t live in the goodness but walked in circles. A 40 day journey took 40 years and the death of a generation because they didn’t live in the good of their redemption.

What about us? Will we live post salvation walking in circles, wasting our salvation by not living IN it and moving forward? Or will we recognise new life, the old gone, the new birth, the liberating and empowering promises of God. As I’ve heard Louie Giglio say, Paul refers to all of the churches in his epistles as ‘saints’ even when his message to them is ’STOP SINNING!’ He still knows their identity is saint not sinner.

Forgiven, new life, in Christ, new creation, saved, liberated, won, saint, redeemed. Walk in that!

Real Help - Guest Post From Matt Kottman

2009-08-30T11:09:00.003+01:00

It's the turn of Matt Kottman, the pastor of Calvery Chapel Leatherhead, UK who is both charismatic and judging from his sermon on Ephesians 1:3-6 is reformed as well, to guest blog during my break:

I was reading this morning in Acts 16, and I thought I'd share something that stood out to me in the text.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:9-10)
What does it mean to help someone? There are many ways in which we can offer help (or even things that we perceive as helpful that are actually unhelpful). What caught my eye here was a view into the biblical theology of real help. To really help someone is to tend to their 'realest' need. For example, we can help someone who has a headache by giving them paracetamol. But whether that actually is helping them is not immediately clear. If their headache is simply a symptom of a much greater problem, and the paracetamol only relieves the symptom but ignores the true need so that the person being helped can ignore the urgency of their real need, and thus we haven't actually helped them. In fact, we have given them a drug with which to escape the reality of a pressing need.

I'm not implying paracetamol is bad, but I say this to illustrate a point. Sometimes we think people's greatest needs are comfort, health, or some social or emotional need.. If we make our primary occupation meeting these needs in an effort to be helpful, we can miss the great need.

The great need is the gospel, and the realest help for that need is for the gospel to be preached to them. The Apostle Paul understood this. The man appeared in the vision and said 'help us'. Paul and his companions concluded that the best help was to preach the gospel to them. The gospel addresses the core of every problem that people face. If we are consumed with medicating, then we never come around to the healing that only the gospel can bring (Isaiah 53:5).

I do not discount the reality that the preaching of the gospel is often partnered with meeting needs socially/physically. However, if we think we are helping anyone with what we do, and what we are doing does not involve the gospel, then at best we have given the one we are trying to help a false security. Should we help people socially/physically? Absolutely, however the core must be the cross of Jesus and the message must be the cross of Jesus and our 'help' is then only a shadow of the real help that only Jesus can give.

Introducing Guest Posts And Raised With Christ Update

2009-08-29T00:59:00.003+01:00

I believe strongly that whatever we are committed to doing it is important to disengage with it totally for a period at least once a year. This is especially true for me of blogging. What began as a great hobby has become like a monster in my basement demanding to be fed at regular intervals.

As much as I love blogging, regular breaks from it help me a lot. This next break begins tomorrow and is for two reasons - one to cover my family holiday (though in fact I have already gone and this was set on autopilot) The second is for when I return so that I can focus on editing the proofs of my book. This is the last opportunity for me and those who kindly help me to pick up any mistakes and make any changes. Pray that it goes well since each edit makes the book a little bit better. It is strange to think that my work on writing the book will be over soon. Crossway have been wonderful to work with.

I have a number of guest posts for you over the next week and a bit. I don't think you will be disappointed.

See you in a few days.

Spurgeon Atonement Illustration

2009-08-28T19:13:00.000+01:00

This would win the wrath of many neo-liberals but I am sure that Piper would be glad to make room this Friday for the following quote I found on the pyromaniacs site from C.H. Spurgeon:

Suppose," said I, "you had killed some one. You were a murderer; you were condemned to die, and you deserved it."

"Faith," said he, "yes I should deserve it."

"Well, her Majesty is very desirous of saving your life, and yet at the same time universal justice demands that someone should die on account of the deed that is done. Now, how is she to manage?"

Said he, "That is the question. I cannot see how she can be inflexibly just, and yet suffer me to escape."

"Well," said I, "suppose, Pat, I should go to her and say, "Here is this poor Irishman, he deserves to be hanged, your Majesty. I don't want to quarrel with the sentence, because I think it just, but, if you please, I so love him that if you were to hang me instead of him should be very willing.

"Pat, suppose she should agree to it, and hang me instead of you, what then? would she be just in letting you go?"

"Ay" said he, "I should think she would. Would she hang two for one thing? I should say not I'd walk away, and there isn't a policeman that would touch me for it."

"Ah!" said I, "that is how Jesus saves. 'Father,' he said, 'I love these poor sinners, let me suffer instead of them!' 'Yes,' said God, 'thou shalt' and on the tree he died, and suffered the punishment which all his elect people ought to have suffered, so that now all who believe on him, thus proving themselves to be his chosen, may conclude that he was punished for them, and that therefore they never can be punished."

"Well," said he, looking me in the face once more, "I understand what you mean; but how is it, if Christ died for all men, that notwithstanding, some men are punished again? For that is unjust."

"Ah!" said I, "I never told you that. I say to you that he has died for all that believe on him, and all who repent, and that was punished for their sins so absolutely and so really, that none of them shall ever be punished again."

"Faith," said the man, clapping his hands, "that's the gospel, if it isn't, then I don't know anything, for no man could have made that up, it is so wonderful. Ah!" he said, as he went down the stairs, "Pat's safe now, with all his sins about him he'll trust in the man that died for him, and so he shall be saved."

Dear hearer, Christ is mighty to save, because God did not turn away the sword, but he sheathed it in his own Son's heart; he did not remit the debt, for it was paid in drops of precious blood, and now the great receipt is nailed to the cross, and our sins with it, so that we may go free if we are believers in him. For this reason he is "mighty to save," in the true sense of the word.

The Main Message Of The Rich Man And Lazarus:

2009-08-27T19:47:00.003+01:00

We are such wretches that even a resurrected preacher would not be enough to guarantee our salvation!

BUT

Although unmentioned, this points to the coming savior – Jesus paints the problem to make us ready to hear the solution:

There is a Jesus who stooped to do what the Rich Man wouldn’t!

Jesus came to the lowly to lift them from the ash heap.

Matthew 1:21 “you shall call his name Jesus(=God saves), for he will save his people from their sins.”

Autistic boy's mom: When I scraped my son's faeces off the wall, God said, "Your sin was more repulsive and I cleaned you."

By Adrian Warnock
23 August 2009
download video or download audio

2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Not only does he have to have died and raised again, he has to do something to us!

Mark 10:23-27 “And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus • said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter • the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

>>>surely “nothing is impossible for the power that can bring a crucified corpse back to life!”

James 2:5 “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”

Ephesians 2 says that God made us alive!

This then leads to a change in us to a selfless life. It is only as we despair of defeating our selfishness and come dependent on God to save us that we can ever change.

JESUS does not call for a cheap response, but desperately seeking God TRULLY seeking,…

Are we all on the right side of this divide? Have we all recognized we are by nature wretches? That we deserve nothing but wrath, that we can do nothing to save ourselves?

Are we following this Christ with all our heart? Are we sharing him with others? Are we living a selfish or a selfless life?

John Piper: “When Jesus says that a selfish spirit keeps us out of heaven, he does not mean that God watches to see if we show ourselves to be generous before he accepts us into his everlasting favor. Before we can be generous, God receives us into his favor through faith in Jesus (John 3:16). He takes us into his family as his children (John 1:12). He counts us righteous (Luke 18:14); he forgives our sins (Matt. 26:28); he gives us eternal life (John 5:24). None of these is obtained in this life by first overcoming our selfish spirit. It is the other way around. We recognize our selfish spirit and despair of overcoming it on our own and turn to Jesus as our only hope. In this turning to Jesus, we are justified, forgiven, adopted, secured in his care forever (John 10:28–30). On that basis we now make progress in overcoming our selfish spirit.”^[i]

^[i]Piper, J. (2006). What Jesus demands from the world (277). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

The Rich Man's Desperate Pleas And The Morals And Mysteries

2009-08-26T19:39:00.005+01:00

The poor man is in bliss while the Rich Man is in agony

Even in hell hasn’t repented – come and serve me…..not in a good place!

Selfishness of the rich man persists – make poor man his servant or his messenger and only for his brothers…what of the rest of mankind?

Do we only pray for our families?

Heaven and hell are absolute and nothing can go between –

In heaven people know God’s perfect presence, in hell they don’t. In heaven people know joy and no pain, in hell they know pain and no joy.

By Adrian Warnock
23 August 2009
download video or download audio

Fixed forever no second chance…ie no purgatory

Only in hell should people imagine that praying to a man could help them, and even there it doesnt!

“two reasons the request cannot be honored: to grant it would be (a) improper and (b) impossible.”^[i]

Even temporary relief of the rich man’s suffering not allowed.

Its DESPERATE, and its CONVICTING

The MORALS of the Parable

1. There is no mercy in hell but bliss in heaven

2. There is no answered prayer in hell

3. There is no experience of the presence of God in hell.

4. Miracles alone will not save anyone:

When other Lazarus came to life leaders didn’t believe but wanted to kill him John 12:10

When Jesus came back to life authorities plotted a lie to conceal it!

5. The afterlife is REAL, We will have memories, and recognize each other.

6. Outward appearances don’t always represent inward reality

7. Make sure you are spiritually rich

8. Care for both the physically and spiritually poor

9. Share God’s word with others as it is able to make us wise to salvation “they have Moses and the prophets”

10. Don’t be surprised if some others reject the gospel you bring

11. Realize how important your influence on others can be for good or evil:

C.S. Lewis: “Remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would strongly be tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.[ii]

12. The child of God, like Lazarus can be content in every circumstance if he knows heaven is coming

The MYSTERIES of this Story =Unanswered questions in this parable

1. If rich wont be saved necessarily, WHO would!?

2. What is it that makes Lazarus acceptable to God?

3. How can we tell if anyone will be saved?

4. If all we deserve is hell then how can we get to heaven?

5. Why should anyone be saved? = scandal of the gospel

6. What is it that can persuade us if a resurrection won’t?

^[i]Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 11: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. New Testament Commentary (786). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[ii] C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperOne, 20001). 14-15.

The Great Reversal - Rich Man Beware!

2009-08-25T19:10:00.004+01:00

We must understand that God will not be mocked. He wants us to care for the needy, understanding the grace we have received should make us gracious to others. These study notes continue the background to my recent sermon.

The video is now available:

By Adrian Warnock
23 August 2009
download video or download audio

Jesus says that since we have Freely received, we should freely give (Matthew 10:8)

John Piper: “The more sacrificially generous you are on earth, the greater will be your enjoyment of heaven. Therefore, since Jesus loves us and summons us to maximize our eternal joy in heaven, he demands radical freedom from the love of money and radical generosity, especially toward the poor . . . The reason money is so crucial for Jesus is that across all cultures and all ages it represents the alternative to God as the treasure of our hearts, and therefore the object of our worship. . .There are two things being said here. One is that a selfish spirit will keep us out of heaven. And the other is that there are degrees of reward, or degrees of joy, in heaven, depending on how sacrificially generous we were on earth.”^[i]

The truth is that Jesus warns us elsewhere that if we do not help others we cannot go to heaven.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21; Luke 12:34)

“The selfish indifference of the rich has landed him in hell.^[ii]

This is a “reversal” parable—there are other ancient parallels.

Jesus said: “And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30)

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

We see here “the terrible result of the wicked handling of people and wealth” ^[iii]

The Last Shall Be First—The Great Reversal “A strong theological emphasis that continually appears in Luke-Acts involves God’s concern for the downtrodden and outcasts:⁶⁶ the poor,⁶⁷ tax collectors,⁶⁸ sinners,⁶⁹ Samaritans,⁷⁰ Gentiles,⁷¹ and women.⁷² The Gospel opens with a hymn of praise, for God was about to lift up the humble (1:52) and fill the hungry with good things (1:53). It was to the barren (1:7) and humble (1:48) that God would manifest himself. It was to those reckoned last (13:30) that the kingdom would come. In the Gospel’s opening thematic sermon (4:16–30) Jesus announced that the Spirit had anointed him to bring the gospel to the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, and release for the oppressed (4:18). Thus Jesus’ ministry to the hated tax collectors was not simply an accident but intentional.”^[iv]

^[i]Piper, J. (2006). What Jesus demands from the world (269-273). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

^[ii]Piper, J. (2006). What Jesus demands from the world (276). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

^[iii]Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 11: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. New Testament Commentary (782). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

⁶⁶See R. F. O’Toole, The Unity of Luke’s Theology: An Analysis of Luke-Acts, GNS (Wilmington: Glazier, 1984), 109–48.

⁶⁷Luke 1:48, 51–53; 2:7–14; 4:18; 6:20, 24–26; 7:22; 14:13, 21; 16:19–31; 18:22; 19:8. Cf. Acts 3:1–10; 4:34–35; 6:1.

⁶⁸Luke 3:12–13; 5:27–32; 7:29, 34; 15:1–32; 18:9–14; 19:1–10.

⁶⁹Luke 5:29–32; 7:34–50; 15:1–32; 19:1–10; 23:40–43.

⁷⁰Luke 9:52–55; 10:25–37; 17:11–19. Cf. Acts 1:8; 8:1, 4–25; 9:31; 15:3.

⁷¹Luke 2:32; 7:1–10; 24:47. Cf. Acts 1:8; 2:5; 8:26–40; 10:1–2.

⁷²Luke 1:7, 25, 27; 4:38–39; 7:11–17, 36–50; 8:1–3, 40–56; 10:38–42; 13:10–17; 18:1–8; 21:1–4; 23:55–56; 24:1–11. Cf. Acts 1:14; 6:1–2.

^[iv]Stein, R. H. (2001, c1992). Vol. 24: Luke (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (49). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Logos Bible Software and Snow Leopard Beware!

2009-08-25T08:02:00.008+01:00

If you are a Mac and Logos user, you might want to delay installing the Snow Leopard update of Mac Os X by hopefully just a few days or so. Apple's publicity for this version of its operating system over the last few months can't seem to decide whether to describe this almost as a minor update or as a whole new operating system. The truth seems to be that while there are not very many new features on this upgrade, the whole code has been rewritten [UPDATE: this is actually not correct, tho the system has been updated significantly to take advantage of 64bit processing]. PC users are used to being very anxious about installing upgrades. Mac users tend to be eager to do it ideally on the first day it is released. 7GB extra hard disk space and a faster leaner operating system with even better video handling and video iChat that will leave PC web chatting even further behind in the dust (full 640x480 video chat without stuttering over even quite a modest broadband speed is what we are being told!). A Mac is worth the purchase for its ability to video chat over the internet alone.

There has however been some reports from the developer community of incompatibilities between Logos Bible software and Snow Leopard. Some have spoken about books causing crashes, and of font problems.

A Logos spokesman said, "The release code for Snow Leopard isn’t available to anyone outside of Apple yet, so we have no way to test it to make sure Logos for Mac will work without incident. However, we have been testing it on beta builds, and it seems that there is one issue with the Charis SIL Italic font that will probably require a version 1.2.1 to fix. Before we fix it, we want to make sure that it’s still a problem in the release code--it is possible Apple may have changed the code that was causing ours to misbehave--and for that matter, that nothing else surfaces. Once we’ve been able to test it on the release version of Snow Leopard, we’ll get a new version out ASAP. The fix should be pretty simple, so we will probably be able to have the update out very shortly after release."

I am shocked that Mac don't let developers like Logos have access to the release code early. I would have thought that it would be a no-brainer to help prevent compatibility problems. It does make you wonder about any possible issues with other software, and there is a line on the Snow Leopard website that as part of the install process "Snow Leopard checks your applications to make sure they’re compatible and sets aside any programs known to be incompatible."

So, speaking personally, you bet I have bought the family pack version of the upgrade and am eagerly awaiting that shiny disk and beautifully designed package. You bet I will be installing it on my wife's machine immediately. But, I will wait just a little while before doing so on my logos machine. If you do decide to be brave and get access to the release code, sounds like Logos will be eager to receive any bug information. Visit the Logos Bible Software and Snow Leopard thread in their community forum and let them know.

What Was The Rich Man's Sin?

2009-08-24T19:15:00.001+01:00

I am continuing to share my own study notes that helped me to prepare for my sermon on the Rich Man and Lazarus. We move today to ask what it was that the rich man did wrong.

Jesus’ teaching, and much of the NT is so pro-poor and anti-rich we have to ask ourselves the question, was the problem just that he was rich? Which are we? Important question as the truth is we are unbelievably rich in world terms. We all like to think of ourselves as spiritually rich but physically poor, maybe the opposite is the case

Does Jesus teach that if we endure poverty, we are blessed, and if we possess riches, we are cursed? On the one hand, we answer this question in the affirmative. If we set our heart on earthly riches, our desires cause us to promote our ruin and destruction (I Tim. 6:9). Luke stresses poverty instead of earthly riches. In the song of Mary we read that God “has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:53). Jesus teaches a beatitude on the poor and, by contrast, a curse on the rich (Luke 6:20, 24). And he portrays poor Lazarus at the side of Abraham in heaven and the rich man agonizing in hell (Luke 16:19–31).

On the other hand, the gospel is for all people: the rich and the poor alike. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both prosperous, were among Jesus’ followers. Well-to-do tax collectors, Matthew and Zaccheus, were converted (Luke 5:27–29; 19:1–9), for Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. With the parable of the two debtors, he characterized Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman as being indebted to God (Luke 7:36–50). Both the rich and the poor must accept Jesus Christ in repentance and faith and submit themselves to him in lifelong obedience.^[i]

Fortunately, 1 Corinthians 1 tells us not many were from the rich classes.

So, the real problem was that the rich man failed to be Christ-like, he was the opposite of the Samaritan, he had no compassion.

By Adrian Warnock
23 August 2009
download video or download audio

Living with this parable for a few weeks now has made me realize how selfish I still am and how much work God still has to do on my heart:

Toilet unblocking story - I tried to pretend I hadn't noticed, hoping my wife would resolve the problem, shame on me!

Self-centered life vs other-centered life

So,“The rich man and Lazarus do not stand as examples of all rich and poor, but those rich who have a selfish attitude concerning their wealth and those poor who have an obedient relationship with God.” ^[ii]

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” Proverbs 19:17

“Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered”. Proverbs 21:13

Be careful if you don’t care for the poor…thank God that we do send money, but the parables seem to be less about what we do corporately for the poor and more about what I do. Is my life self-absorbed or am I pre-occupied with loving and serving others?

The biggest sin of the Rich man is he has forgotten that it is only because of God’s favor he is what he is:

1 Samuel 2:6-8 The Lord kills and brings to life;

he brings down to Sheol (OR the Grave) and raises up.

7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.

8 He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap

to make them sit with princes

Understanding the grace we have received should make us gracious to others

Jesus says that since we have Freely received, we should freely give (Matthew 10:8)

^[i]Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 19: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. New Testament Commentary (283). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

^[ii]Review and Expositor. (1997; 2004). Review and Expositor Volume 94 (vnp.94.2.277). Review and Expositor.

Tope Tweets From Africa

2009-08-24T18:24:00.001+01:00

My pastor has been on a ministry trip, here is his report, sent from the airport lounge and posted on the Jubilee Church news page.:

The Zim conference was a success I believe. I am grateful and humbled. I preached 8 sermons in 3 days to A.O.G leaders.

I preached Jesus again and again and again until they could see that - it's all about Jesus. It always was. It always will be. I challenged them to stop playing games with Gods Word when preaching. If it's not about Jesus, it's your gospel not His and it won't save

For me, I come back home thinking how much we have. Books, mp3's, gifted thinkers. To whom much is given much is expected. We have much.

I also think about what we are missing in the west. True Holy Spirit filled Worship and presence of God that leaves you joyful and fearful. Whatever happened to AWE? Act 2:43 "And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles."

Awe is not emotionalism. It is not mere exuberance. It is sensing the presence of the only one to whom the word "ASEITY" truely belongs. AWE makes you say depart from me a SINNER (Lk 5:8) - But when he says- FORGIVEN, GRACE makes you say- My Lord and my God.

The Shocking Parable of The Rich Man And Lazarus - Luke 16

2009-08-23T21:43:00.004+01:00

The video of the sermon I preached this morning is available here:

By Adrian Warnock
23 August 2009
download video or download audio

These notes are the first part of a set of full study notes that I used during the preparation of this sermon. They contain more material than I could actually preach, particularly in terms of the quotes. But, it demonstrates how helpful I find my Logos Bible Software in preparing. Every quote except one was found using that program, and you will see how some specific ideas either actually came from my reading, or were supported by my reading.

Intro - I had little to say by way of introduction, except to say that this little story we are going to look at together should come with a warning attached. It has the ability to get deep beneath your skin and really bother you! Matthew Henry said it had been designed to wake us up. In it we have the coming together of two of our least favorite subjects, but also Jesus’ favorite subjects – Money or the rich and the afterlife ie heaven and hell. Jesus has so much to say about those subjects and in embryonic form it is all right here in this story. So prepare to hear Jesus at his most offensive to the pride of this age:

Luke 16:19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers —so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

1. The Characters

a. The Rich Man

This has been called, “The Parable of The Show-off . . . and The Beggar”^[i]

Purple was expensive made from shellfish ^[ii]

He loved himself and wanted everyone to know how important and rich he was.

Life was one long party!

Rich were assumed to be blessed (eg Job)

Today--we wear fashionable clothes, carry iPhone 3G-S

The Rich man knew almost all the privileges a man could have- but there’s always a bigger fish…

b. The beggar

The Poor Man was as destitute as a human being could be^[iii]

Repulsive but loved by God.
Only parable where someone is named: Lazarus from Hebrew “God has helped.”^[iv] The essence of the Christian is one who makes themselves dependent on God and relies on HIS help.

God knew the poor man’s name, the rich man was inconsequential.

Does God know your name in the sense of it being in his book?

“God helps but apparently no one else does.”^[v]

“Judaism of that period would likely conclude that the miserable condition of Lazarus was the result of God’s punishment for sin, and wealth, such as enjoyed by the rich man, indicated God’s blessings.”^[vi]

It turns out that the Rich man is abjectly poor spiritually and the poor man is rich spiritually.

It is as though God could have said the words of Revelation 3:17 to him “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

How can we avoid being like that rich man? What was the problem with him? We will see more in the next post.

^[i]Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 11: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. New Testament Commentary (782). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

^[ii]Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 11: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. New Testament Commentary (782). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

^[iii]Simeon, C. (1832-63). Horae Homileticae Vol. 12: Mark-Luke (560). London.

^[iv]Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 11: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. New Testament Commentary (783). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

^[v]Review and Expositor. (1997; 2004). Review and Expositor Volume 94 (vnp.94.2.279). Review and Expositor.

^[vi]Review and Expositor. (1997; 2004). Review and Expositor Volume 94 (vnp.94.2.279). Review and Expositor.

Learning About Prayer From The Persistent Widow

2009-08-22T00:39:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday Dave Pask spoke about The Persistent Widow - Luke 18:1-8 as part of our August series on the parables.. With all the recent interest stirred up online about prayer thanks to John Piper's response to Terry Virgo's recent sermon on Elijah I thought it would be good to share this very helpful talk here. You can watch it here or download it from the Jubilee site or subscribe to the Jubilee vodcast or podcast in iTunes or on your iPhone.

Its Time We Hungered For Jesus More - John Piper

2009-08-21T09:14:00.005+01:00

Piper Friday restarts this week, and I want to share this quote on fasting which I encourage you to allow to get under you skin and provoke you deeply. It has me:

Fasting poses the question: do we miss him? How hungry are we for him to come? The almost universal absence of regular fasting for the Lord’s return is a witness to our satisfaction with the presence of the world and the absence of the Lord. This is not the way it should be. In Luke 18:7–8 Jesus says, “Shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”

. . .This is what is missing in the comfortable Christian Church of the modern world. Where in the West do Christians cry to Christ day and night that he would come and bring about justice for his elect? Where is there that kind of longing and aching for the consummation of the kingdom? It is no surprise then, that the question of fasting for the coming of the Bridegroom is scarcely asked. If the cry itself is not there, why would one even think of expressing it with fasting?

Piper, J. (1997). A hunger for God: Desiring God through fasting and prayer (84). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

Religious Persecution Is Alive And Well In Nigeria And India

2009-08-20T07:14:00.007+01:00

The age of martyrdom is far from over. Living in the West we may feel relatively insulated from such things but our brothers and sisters around the world wake up this morning to the knowledge that their lives are at risk because of their faith. We can feel powerless to help. But help we can, if nothing else by our prayers, by being informed, and by supporting the work of organizations set up to help the oppressed.

As a child I remember being inspired by the work of Open Doors with Brother Andrew behind the iron curtain. So much more than a Bible smuggling group, their website today continues to keep us up to date with persecution happening right now around the world. You can also follow them on twitter.

There is also a secular American government mandated organization - United States Commission on international Religious Freedom that tracks and reports all types of religious persecution. Their reports make difficult reading. So for example, they say in their report on Nigeria which is for the first time this year one of 13 countries listed as of particular concern.:

The response of the government of Nigeria to persistent religious freedom violations and violent sectarian and communal conflicts along religious lines has been inadequate and ineffectual. Years of inaction by Nigeria‘s federal, state and local governments has created a climate of impunity, resulting in thousands of deaths.

In March-April 2009, the Commission traveled to Nigeria to assess religious freedom conditions in the country. Concerns include an ongoing series of violent communal and sectarian conflicts along religious lines; the expansion of sharia (Islamic law) into the criminal codes of several northern Nigerian states; and discrimination against minority communities of Christians and Muslims. Therefore, the Commission, for the first time, is recommending that Nigeria be designated as a country of particular concern, or CPC, for tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.* manipulating voting results during campaigning for local government councils. The report found, among other things, that that the state government failed to act on intelligence from the state security services about violence being planned . . .

In November 2008, the city of Jos, Plateau state, experienced several days of intense sectarian and communal violence. At least several hundred Muslims and Christians were killed, with some independent groups estimating the death toll closer to 3,000 . . .

In February 2009, Muslim-Christian clashes in Bauchi state resulted in at least 11 deaths, although some reports indicated as many as 20 people were killed, with 1,500 individuals displaced. In addition, fourteen churches, eight parsonages, one mosque and approximately 150 homes and businesses were burned and/or destroyed . . .

Indeed, since 1999, a disturbingly large number of Nigerians—12,000, if not more—have been killed in sectarian and communal attacks and reprisals between Muslims and Christians . . .

The government of Nigeria has done little, if anything, to address sectarian and communal violence. There have been no serious efforts to investigate or prosecute the perpetrators of the numerous killings and other crimes that have occurred in Bauchi, Jos, and the other incidents noted above. There are reports of specific instances of failures to heed warning signs of violence on the part of various government leaders, and failures on the part of federal police to respond effectively and appropriately—at times, if at all—to violence once it has erupted . . .

Put simply, the Nigerian Government has permitted religious violence and other severe violations of the freedom of religion to occur with impunity . . . READ MORE

There are a further 12 countries on a "watch list" where concerns about religious freedom are thought to be less severe. For the first time this year India was placed on that list. Here is some extracts which explain why:

The Commission views India as a critically important country in terms of religious freedom, given its experience with democracy following its colonial past. India is the world’s largest democracy, is home to a multitude of religious communities that have historically coexisted peacefully, occupies a key geopolitical position, and enjoys increasing stature on the global stage even as it faces violent acts of terrorism on its soil. Nonetheless, several incidents of communal violence have occurred in various parts of the country, resulting in many deaths and mass displacements, particularly of members of the Christian and Muslim minorities, including major incidents against Christian communities within the 2008-2009 reporting period.

Because the government’s response at the state and local levels has been found to be largely inadequate and the national government has failed to take effective measures to ensure the rights of religious minorities in several states, the Commission decided to place India on its Watch List for 2009 . . .

The murder of an influential Hindu leader in August 2008 sparked a prolonged and violent campaign targeting Christians in the state of Orissa. Over several weeks, at least 40 individuals were killed, the vast majority of whom were Christians, church properties and thousands of homes were destroyed, and an estimated 60,000 or more Christians fled their homes, seeking refuge in the jungle or in government relief camps. The inadequate police response failed to quell the violence, and early central government intervention had little impact. Mass arrests following the Orissa violence did not translate into the actual filing of cases . . .

By March 2009, several state and central police units remained in Kandhamal, and at least 3,000 individuals were still in government camps, reportedly because of their inability to return to their homes unless they “reconvert” to Hinduism. Numerous press and NCM reports document widespread forced conversions of Christians to Hinduism in villages and relief camps in Orissa, following the Fall 2008 attacks. The Orissa state VHP chief declared on September 12 that the death of Swami Saraswati was an impetus to halt Christian conversions in Orissa. About two weeks later, a month-long series of so-called “reconversion” ceremonies and processions of the Swami’s ashes throughout Kandhamal was announced. There was no immediate police or state government reaction. Insecurity and the threat of harassment, property destruction, and/or additional violence allegedly have caused many Christians to partake in “reconversion” ceremonies. According to the NCM report, even retired high-ranking officials were “threatened with every sort of retaliation if they did not forthwith change their religion and embrace Hinduism.” READ MORE

How Churches Can Help The Poor

2009-08-18T00:01:00.000+01:00

Nigel Ring conducted an interview with Steve Oliver who heads a task force that explores how the 600+ churches of Newfrontiers can serve the poor in the more than 50 nations in which we are based.

Steve believes it is vital to provide temporary relief for suffering - eg feeding the hungry. But, he also believes we must see that only the gospel can bring permanent transformation. Our goal is to see poor people saved, lifted from the bottom of the pile, and enabled to join us on mission.

Steve says your work with the poor is on track when there are people you have helped who can look you in the eye without feeling inferior and then become leaders themselves, enabled to help others.

Its an inspiring interview, and much good is being done in this area by many Newfrontiers churches.

Go visit nigelring.org to read more about the work with the poor and administration.

How A Prayer Meeting Changed Britain

2009-08-17T00:55:00.000+01:00

My Friend, Lex quotes Wesley as follows:

‘Mon. Jan. 1, 1739 – Mr. Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother Charles, were present at out love-feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of our brethren.

‘About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried our for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground.

‘As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his Majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.’ (John Wesley Journal, Baker edition, p.170)

Whitefield, writing of the same occasion, said, ‘O that our despisers were partakers of our joys!’ (GW Journal, p.196) And looking back on that brief season after returning from America, as friends gathered in London to pray, he wrote:

New wine!

‘Sometimes whole nights were spent in prayer. Often have we been filled as with new wine. And often have we seen them overwhelmed with the divine presence and crying out, ‘Will God indeed dwell with men upon earth? How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven!’ (John Gillies, Memoirs of the Life of George Whitefield, Dilly, p.34)

This amazing season of prayer, and this company of sixty, mainly young men would usher in a new day for the British Isles.

READ MORE

FREE Finally Alive by John Piper For Logos

2009-08-16T00:01:00.001+01:00

Logos Bible software is fantastic software. It might not be cheap, but thats because the number of resources it includes would stress your bookshelves if they were in print. I have had a special offer of 25% off base packages for readers of my blog. Logos are kind enough to give me a referral fee which goes some way to offset my costs in running this blog.

Now, Logos have a special offer for one month only of a FREE download of John Piper's latest book, Finally Alive. I described this book in my review as Piper's most important book yet.

Follow this link for instructions on how to claim your copy. Note that you do not have to order the Bible Study Magazine in order to do so.

Revival On The Isle Of Lewis

2009-08-15T00:18:00.003+01:00

I have quoted this before, but feel stirred today to quote it again. Listening to this recording of a man who ministered during the last significant revival in the British Isles stirred me when I first heard it a couple of years ago. It is guaranteed to stir you too. Wake us up O Lord!

"One evening, an old woman 84 years of age and blind, had a vision. Now don't ask me to explain this vision because I cannot, but strange things happen when God begins to move. This dear old lady in the vision saw the church of her fathers crowded with young people, and she saw a strange minister in the pulpit. She was so impressed by this revelation, because a revelation it was, she sent for the minister and told her story. The parish minister was a God-fearing man, a man who longed to see God working. Oh, he had tried ever so many things to get the youth of the parish interested, but not one single teenager attended the church. That was the situation. Well, what did the old lady have to say to him? I'll tell you what she said: "I am sure, Mr. McKay, that you are longing to see God working. What about calling your office bearers together and suggesting to them that you spend two nights a week waiting upon God? You have tried missions, you have tried special evangelists, Mr. Mckay, have you tried God?" Oh, I tell you this is a wonderful old woman. So he meekly obeyed and said, "Yes, I'll call the session together and I will suggest that we meet on Tuesday night and Friday night, and we'll spend the whole night in prayer." I tell you, dear people, here were men who meant business. The dear old lady said, "Well, if you do that, my sister and I will get on our knees at ten o'clock on Tuesday and ten o'clock on Friday and pray until 4 a.m. . . ." And in the prayers, according to the minister, they would say again and again, "God, you are a covenant-keeping God and you must be true to your engagements . . ." One night a very remarkable thing happened. They were kneeliing amongst straw, the straw of a barn house. Suddenly one young man rose and read part of Psalm 24: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord” (vv.3-5a). And then that young man closed his Bible. And looking down at the minister and the elders, he spoke these crude words (but perhaps not so crude in our Gaelic language): “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.” And then he lifted his two hands and prayed, “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” That dear man got no further, he fell on his knees and then on his face on the straw. In a matter of minutes three of the elders fell into a trance . . . when that happened in the barn . . . a power was let loosed . . . that shook the whole of Lewis. God stepped down. The Holy Spirit began to move among the people . . . God seemed to be everywhere . . . "

— Duncan Campbell

Don't Try And Marry The Church, She's Already Taken.

2009-08-13T18:12:00.003+01:00

This is a note especially to all you pastors out there, but also to many keen church members. Are you married to your ministry job? Are you married to your church? Well, if you are, do you realize that Jesus is your rival? The church is pledged to be married to him. And you have probably already been married to another woman yourself, in any case.

Have you ever considered that it is possible to commit spiritual adultery by neglecting your bride in favor of Christ's? You are not so foolish as to think you could please your friend by stealing his wife. Why would you think Jesus would view your zealous over-commitment any differently? Sadly many devote themselves too much to the church precisely because they want to escape a difficult home situation. It sounds much nicer to say that your wife is something of a widow to your service to God than it would to say I am having an affair with the wife of the ruler of the universe.

STOP! Reconsider. Your wife is your responsibility. You are her pastor before you are anybody else's. When was the last time you really spoke with her? She needs you more than you realize. If she is like my wife, what she needs most is a period of your undivided attention without distractions. Five minutes over a quick coffee while reading email won't cut it. When did you last take her out on a proper date?

I wish I could say that I always succeed in this with my own wife. She says I do talk with her a lot, but too often it seems like my mind is on other things. For that I am sorry. I have a renewed determination to make pursuing my own wife my top priority. Family responsibility truly should come before our church commitments.

If you are reading this and you know me in real life, any chance you could babysit for us one evening? If you live on the other side of the world, what busy husband could you help in the same way?

Newday Report From Adrian's Daughter

2009-08-12T08:35:00.004+01:00

Tamasin attended the Newday Youth event for the first time this year. It seemed strange to see my grown up baby go off for the week, but given how important Bible weeks have been in my own Christian life I was also thrilled. She has kindly allowed me to use her notes and our chats as a basis for a report of the event.

Our church took 36 young people with them. They had to leave on a coach at 08-30 for an hour-long drive. They were lucky as when they arrived the tents had already been set up for them (thanks Steve, Andy and Guy!) The site was massive with several thousand people camping.

The first evening talk was from Stef who spoke on forgiveness. He explained that people's greatest need was to know God. He read from Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 3:1-6. He said that sin was anything that was unlike God. He went through the ten commandments. God is not like us. Psalm 50:21-22. We need forgiveness for our sins and our sinfulness. Its the blood of Jesus that cleanses us (1 John 1:8-9). Jesus crushed sin on the cross. (Colossians 2:15). 1 John 3:8. We need conviction, recognition of our sin, and to name it.

On the first morning, Tamasin tried the "lets wake up at 5am so we get a hot shower then go back to sleep till 7am trick" and it worked well for her.

She described her morning 12-14 meeting as "very random and interactive" I am told that the word random in this context is a positive one! Andrew Wilson spoke on "How did we get here?" he went through three possible answers: luck, a "multi-verse" and that God created us. Then there was a talk called "ready set go." Dave Rogers spoke about running the race from Hebrews 6. He said you needed the right kit to run in - not jeans - and that our kit is knowing we are forgiven. Repentance is like taking off your jeans, faith is like putting on your new kit. Jesus started his race by being baptized. For us baptism is the way we show we have been cleansed from our sins.

In the afternoon on Sunday Jubilee had entered 2 teams in the football and lost in both.

That evening Stef spoke on forgiving other people. He began with the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6:9) and Matthew 18. Steff said that the cost of unforgiveness is big. It can destroy us, leading to torment. Forgiveness is not saying its ok. To forgive leads to great belief. Forgiveness needs to be from your heart. It is a decision. (Psalm 92:7, 51:6, 22:1, Ephesians 4:15)

After the meeting Tamasin and her friends hit the doughnut stall. She bought 4 but could only manage 1!

On the Monday they did not get up early for the shower. The morning meeting was "Who was Jesus"? by Andrew Wilson. He went through 3 possible answers - Loony, villain or telling the truth. Her seminar was by Andrew Robinson on "Sin - Its not my fault is it?" He spoke of sins of commission - when we do things we shouldn't, including actions, attitudes, thoughts and motives. We have a sinful nature (Ephesians 2:3). We were sinners by nature and by choice. Romans 5:12 tells us mankind needs a saviour. Can we overcome sin? Romans 5:18-19. Justified means "just as if I'd never sinned." Later on, Tamasin was disappointed that the pink Newday tops had run out so she bought a blue one instead.

In the afternoon, volleyball was played with the church, and this time Tamasin's team won. That evening Mike Pilavachi (who runs Soul Survivor) preached. Tamasin found him funny. The talk was about comparing OT characters and Jesus - Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David.

Tuesday morning meant bacon sandwiches for breakfast. Andrew Wilson asked "Why was the tomb empty?" and gave 5 explanations - 1. Maybe it wasn't 2. The disciples hid the body 3. Jesus didn't die 4. The authorities stole Jesus 5. Jesus rose from the dead. Tamasin later enjoyed a seminar by Simon Brading on the trinity. The afternoon meant 5 teams from Jubilee had been entered for a game of dodge ball. Surely at least one of them would win? In fact, one was won but only by forfeit as the other team didn't show up!

That afternoon Tamasin tried one of my own favorite tricks at such events - the "lets have a shower in the afternoon so no one else is" strategy. It meant a cold but not unbearable shower. That evening was Mike Pilavachi again, he challenged them to give control of their whole life to God.

By Wednesday Tamasin was beginning to feel quite tired, though not as tired as some of our other Jubilee youth who were putting in only 3 hours of sleep each night. The morning talk from Andrew Wilson asked the question "Will we follow him?" and challenged them not to be a school dinner Christian.

On Thursday morning, the talk was "What does a Spirit-filled life look like?" Tamasin and her group won the "tent of the week" which filled me with joy. As a Father I was so proud to hear that she had behaved well and enjoyed her first Christian conference away without us! Thankfully, I heard from the Jubilee youth leaders that all our kids did behave really well. They did have a massive water-fight between North London and Sound London that afternoon which was vigorous enough to lead to the zone host putting a stop to it!

Why Do I Love Rick Warren?

2009-08-10T09:02:00.005+01:00

Rick Warren loves Jesus. He also loves the Church. So I love him. I know this might offend some of you. He is not popular in some Reformed circles. But, I don't care.

Recently Rick Warren has followed John Piper onto twitter. In an email sent to supporters, Rick credits John with inspiring him to connect directly with people via this incredible telegraph system for the web. I am not embarrassed to say that Rick's twitter feed is fast becoming one of my favorites.

It's always much easier to criticize than it is to listen to the voice that God has given someone and learn from that voice whatever we can. One of my core values, and one of the reasons that this blog exists is expressed in the phrase "I want it all" If you have never read that article of mine, I do urge you to do so. I don't think that I can improve upon that post.

Wanting it all means simply this, I want to learn everything I can from everyone I can. This blog is supposed to help you do the same. I want it to be a crossroads pointing out the good in many sources, and yes, sometimes where necessary warning against the bad.

But, how could I not love someone who describes the advantages of the church in the way that follows?

1. The Church provides for the largest participation.
2. The Church provides for the widest distribution
3. The Church provides the longest continuation
4. The Church provides the fastest expansion.
5. The Church provides the highest motivation.
6. The Church provides the strongest authorization.
7. The Church provides the simplest administration
8. The Church provides for God’s conclusion.

READ MORE

It's All About Jesus

2009-08-08T12:47:00.002+01:00

To our delight at Jubilee a few years ago a few different people who were visiting commented about our church, that it seemed to them to be "all about Jesus" rather than some other things church could be about. There is a song we have sung many times over the years that expresses the same idea "It's All About You, Jesus". So, when the leadership team couldn't seem to find a fancy "mission statement" for the church, it was decided we would simply use the phrase "It's all about Jesus" wherever such a statement would usually be. Somehow it seems appropriate, and Jesus is surely what every church should be all about.

I understand Mars Hill Church have been using the same catchphrase for quite a while, also. This summer they are taking it further, and having a series simply called "It's All About Jesus" and why this concept defines them as a church. Looks interesting. Here is a video preview:

Why Do We Have So Many Teachers And So Few Fathers?

2009-08-07T18:27:00.002+01:00

So asked TallSkinnyKiwi in a twitter post yesterday. My conclusion? Its that God designed it that way. It seems that the scarcity of true fathers in the church was described by Paul, rather than complained about by him. He writes

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent [2] you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, [3] as I teach them everywhere in every church. (1 Corinthians 4:14-16)

True fathers in the church are like precious gold-dust. We need them. But notice in this passage we also benefit from their sons or disciples spreading the message of the gospel and demonstrating their way of life to others.

I think that sometimes in the Church today we aim too much for independence. Out of fear of becoming those who follow men inappropriately, we shy away from the call to find a true father we can imitate. As Paul said "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Even most church leaders still need a father figure they can look up to. Most congregations will be more secure knowing that their pastor is also a follower. It is not a merely modern phenomena that God is raising up a few godly men as leaders of his global church. It has always been that way. For those who rail against the idea of us following these great modern day leaders, I simply say, look back at Church history. What about Spurgeon, Wesley, Whitefield, Luther, Calvin, Lloyd-Jones and the many others who in their day towered over their contemporaries who were then inspired by them to great exploits?

The truth is that the Church has always developed and grown directly as a result of a few unlikely leaders that God raises up who then inspire an army of followers who themselves then plant churches, preach the gospel and take their derivative message throughout the world.

We are not meant to be originals. And in fact, even the fathers that we are all meant to copy, are themselves merely reinterpreting the old old message for a new generation. When a man of God makes the message sound fresh and new, you better hope that in reality he is merely retranslating it for a new generation.

Who is your father in the Lord? Or do you think you can make it all on your own?

Newday A Pumping Christian Youth Conference

2009-08-06T18:30:00.002+01:00

This is just one of several videos available on the Newday Blog, along with pictures and written reports of what several thousand young people, including my own Tamasin have been up to. It feels strange that my daughter is away, but great that she is being immersed in a group of thousands of passionate youngsters running after God. Pray for them today that many more will be saved, filled with the Spirit and healed. There are some great reports coming out of this event already. The CCK liveblog is also well worth a read.