Saturday Blog-sweep

Lavish generosity -(love this!)

Tim Keller on a 'A Biblical Theology of Revival', Church planting and Forgive us these faults (he suggests each of us go down the list and work out which one or two most describe ourselves)

5 Reasons for planting churches

Reflections on the/a gay marriage debate

Michael Horton has a reflection on the Pope Francis's thoughts on salvation

Exec's in the church

Why M.Hyatt uses Scrivener for all his writing.

Every church plant needs a Karen

McKnight on 'Meticulous sovereignty'

HTB Leadership Talks

Here are all the talks which are well worth working through- Lencione on teams, Chris Hyman and both Archbishops are excellent.

As my pal Si notes, Cardinal Schonborn was the runaway surprise of the conference.

Bill Hybels talk made me cry twice and Ellie Mumford's talk is spectacular on the Spirit.

Furtick blew our doors off. Some pals thought him 'a bit shouty and American' (I as readers know love the good of US of A)). I found him to be full of passion and power. See what you think but perhaps it's one that you actually had to be there for.

Suffice it to say this is rich material for life and leadership and I am looking forward to listening to Daniel Ho who's seminar I didn't make. Also, do check out Pete Greig's excellent talk on prayer.

For the pod: Revival and a call to the nations

Too long we have been waiting on one another to begin. The time for waiting has passed. The hour of God has struck. War is declared. In God’s holy name let us arise and build. The God of heaven will fight for us.  We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of  Christ, and the gates and minions of Hell shall not prevail against us.  Should men such as us fear?

Before the whole world, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God. We will venture our all for Him. We will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man, and when we come to our position we realize the battle is already won and the end of the glorious campaign is in sight because we will have the real holiness of God. Not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts, we will have a masculine holiness. One of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.

~C.T. Studd

A revival is a revival when individuals get gripped by the great commission. This happened with the birth of the Victorian missionary movement and nutty men and women in frocks and tweed suits set off to share the gospel with the world taking their coffins with them.

I spoke to a group of Christian's this week and told them I think everyone should have a favourite missionary. If you don't have one here are 62 to choose from. One of the first books I read after my conversion was a little book by John Pollock called 'On fire for God' which tells a different missionary story in every chapter.

My favourite missionary is C T Studd not least because he uses excellent expressions like 'namby-pamby'.

If you get the chance listen to this talk called 'Why the great commission is great' and at the start you will hear that stirring C T quote. The man was bonkers but was used mightily by the Lord. May there be more like him in our day and if they arise we can then start speaking about revival. It will take us more than our flashing lights, trendy musicians and catchy choruses to complete the great commission. It will actually require some of us to go.

As it stands, six thousand people groups remain unreached.

Wise words

I while back someone wrote me this quote in a card:

'The gift came from heaven, let it go to heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sung over it, let devotion consecrate it'

Spurgeon

Recovering fundamentalist

via Ron Edmondson

Revivals and cultures

My neighbouring Vicar and pal Simon Downham told a story in his Pentecost sermon of a time several hundred church leaders gathered to hear Gordon Fee teach on the Spirit from Galatians. They had, so they believed and 'felt',  a wonderful time of worship and as Fee was about speak the leader of the meeting announced that the Holy Spirit "was powerfully present". Fee paused and then responded by saying: "He might be here, but given you are all white and middle class and all from one nation I cannot be sure"

Fee's point was that when a move of the Spirit occurs the nations are gathered in as happened at Pentecost. Recently, I read this report of conversions in Manchuria in China in 1908. As I aside, I enjoyed the cultural awareness and engagement of Scottish missionaries indicated by their use of the descriptor 'John Chinaman':

‘A power has come into the church that we cannot control if we would. It is a miracle for stolid, self-righteous John Chinaman to go out of his way to confess to sins that no torture of the Yamen could force from him, for a Chinaman to demean himself to crave, weeping, the prayers of his fellow-believers is beyond all human explanation

Perhaps you will say it ‘s a sort of religious hysteria. So did some of us.....But here we are, about sixty Scottish and Irish Presbyterians who have seen it- all shades of temperament –and, much as many of us shrank from it at first, every one who has seen and heard what we have, everyday last week, is certain there is only one explanation- that it is God’s Holy Spirit manifesting himself…..One clause of the Creed that lives before us now in all its inevitable, awful solemnity is, “I believe in the Holy Ghost!’

from Keep in step with the Spirit

The expression ..'..inevitable, awful solemnity..' has stayed with me.

Revivals and Conversions

As readers will know I am still following the events in Cwmbran with interest. Here is a latest update that reports that over 300 have given their lives to Christ and 60 of these were recently baptised.

One of the marks of revival is of course people coming to believe in and follow Jesus. This has various names to describe it -conversion, regeneration, the new birth (this is a good talk called 'What happen's in the New Birth' that explains what it is), salvation, 'being saved' and so on but they all denote a sense of both an event and an experience. In other words, in response to the proclamation of Christ people repent and believe on him.

For my Pentecost sermon I revisited the conversion story of C T Studd as told in Norman Grubb's book Cricketer and pioneer which puts words to one such conversion event:

“ But my friend exclaimed, ‘ Oh my child if anyone has had a warning from God, you have;  Give him your heart and nothing will ever disturb the peace of mind he will give you’ I was not conscious of wanting any such thing, but unlike my usual self, instead of mocking at such words but myself kneeling and saying ‘ I have never decided for God but I will tonight’ Then I realized I knew the devil as a person, as he actually seemed to come to my side, torturing me by bringing to remembrance all the times I had mocked and scoffed and said I would never love nor yield my allegiance to overshadow me and a voice, oh so different, asked ‘ Child, what do you want?’ To get to God but I can’t’ for their seemed a vertitable great gulf fixed, and I like Bunyan, with so great a load on me that I could not move.  Suddenly close to me was raised the cross with Jesus Christ nailed upon it, and with riven-side, and I saw blood flow.  Quickly the words came to me….’Why wast though there? And immediately a voice replied,  ‘ With my stripes you are healed.  The vision of the cross disappeared, my burden too, and I arose.  My friend greeted my with’ well what is it to be?’ I said ‘ I have seen Calvary and henceforth he shall be my Lord and my God” Page 73

Tim Challies has a timely piece on the great Welsh hymn Guide me O thou Great Jehovah' . Do sing it this new day and do pray for the people of Cwmbran, for Richard Taylor and all God is doing in that place.

Real power

A friend sent me this AW Tozer quote this morning: 

'We are turning out from the Bible schools of this country year after year young men and women who know the theory of the Spirit-filled life but do not enjoy the experience. These go out into the churches to create in turn a generation of Christians who have never felt the power of the Spirit and who know nothing personally about the inner fire....The only power God recognizes in His church is the power of His Spirit whereas the only power actually recognized today by the majority of evangelicals is the power of man...’ 

The Root of the Righteous, 1955, p.88

For the pod: Jesus is better than anything else

There is something better than the things you most desire.

There is joy in not having that thing you think you most desire.

If the thing you most desire isn't Jesus it won't bring you lasting joy.

Piper continues to preach and of these messages I commend to you Jesus is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

It may very well change the way you see everything.

You would be much blessed to listen to it twice- one of them with a pen and paper in hand.

Saturday blog-sweep

Talked off a Bridge

You too can write a blog

Why reading books matters

What  can Karl Barth teach us about the gospel?

What day changed the course of Christian history?

God's provision

The legacy of Keith Green

Four reasons to trust what the Bible says

What do we mean when we say 'the gospel' ?

Set some goals

Fascinating and beautiful Gaelic singing

via Tim Challies

Spend 20 minutes listening to this

via Ann VosKamp