Saturday blog-sweep

Three ways evangelism can be more believable 

14 ways to teach kids to be grateful

5 Quotes from G K Chesterton on Gratitude

The Rob Bell Show

Rick Warren on Unity with Catholics

Our secular salvation myth distances us from reality

This atheist is thankful for the clergy

Cathedral conundrum

Wilderness, Depression and Stars in the Night

5 ways to refresh your Bible reading

How do Jesus and Paul fit together?

5 mistakes people make when reading the Bible

Why not same-sex marriage?

Ten things for a Friday

1. J John's coming for Christmas Carols on Dec 7th @ 10am. Invite friends. 'Found people Find people.'

2. We are going to start 2015 with a sermon series called 'Simplify' inspired by Bill Hybels newest book.

3. We are then diving into the Psalms with a bit of help from Eugene.

4. I gave a friend a book and she texted me 'I just want to says thanks for Lysa's book 'The best yes'- it blessed me and my home group hugely!!!!!'

5. I can't stop listening to the song 'Love'

6. I have been working through James MacDonald's 'Weekend features' on repentance and strongholds. A much needed listen for my, at times, hard heart and mind. This sentence lingered with me 'God sometimes lets us feel the full weight of our choices'

7. As you know, I love a books of the year list and the new biographies of Hannah More and Whitfield look interesting.

8. Mrs C tells me her Ma is being mightily blessed by the book Prayer.

9. I do enjoy a leadership book and this one looks interesting which also contains this TK quote from this set of sermons.

'My dear friends, most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus' costly grace. The number one leaders in every church ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses, because you don't need any now; the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and the most joyfully. They know their standing isn't based on their performance.'

10. Did you know Amazon prime allows you to lend and borrow books? I haven't quite yet worked out how it all works.

Lavish

Some friends have written an album of worship songs called 'Lavish' that I heartily commend to you.

My pal Ellie guests singing her own song 'Joy comes in the morning' and it's a real joy to listen to her amazing voice. Connor Patterson and his brother Johnny's song 'Love' is also wonderful. It has a moving voice-over of some words from Augustine that made me cry when I listened to them 2 minutes into the song.

I spent five Soul Survivor's in the rain with Johnny and Connor and this worship album is worth all the mud and leaky tents as I listen to the fire for Jesus that now burns in their heart. Here is a request. Please give them some support by downloading it and spreading the word across Social Media. It's time for a new song writer on the British worship scene and at 17 years old Connor is quite possibly just what it needs.

Saturday blog-sweep

How immigration impacts the mission of the church

What does it mean to be gospel-centred and Have no fear of them

No, you are not running late- you are rude and selfish

Don't miss the cross

I am second

Dressed for the moment

Peter Ould's Review of 'More perfect Union?'

10 keys to building strong healthy teams

Death cafes

Time assets vs Time debts via Dash House

A few thoughts on mission and disciple making movements

An Accurate Parody: On Andrew Wilson and Matthew Vines

Does God have a purpose for my life and Three ways the gospel changes our generosity

My secrets may hurt more people than me

N T Wright on 'Marriage as a Signpost'

35 Things we'd better tell our sons about Harassment, Assault and 'Boys will be boys'

So many words for £1.83

10 things I wish everyone knew about evangelicals

Thank you for the blood

'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery'

Galatians 5 v 1

The four views…on the subject of the sacrament: 1. The Romish doctrine, or transubstantiation. This maintains the absolute change of the elements into the actual body and blood of Christ; so that though the elements of bread and wine remain present to the senses, they are no longer what they seem, being changed into the body, blood and divinity of Christ. 2. The Lutheran view, called consubstantiation. This maintains that after consecration the body and blood of Christ are substantially present, but nevertheless that the bread and wine are present, unchanged. 3. The Anglican view – that Christ is present in the sacrament only after the spiritual manner, and that His body and blood are eaten by the faithful after a spiritual, and not after a carnal manner, to the maintenance of their spiritual life and their growth in grace. 4. The Zwinglian, which declares the sacrament to be no channel of grace, but only a commemorative feast, admitting only a figurative presence of Christ’s body and blood.

John Foxe

The title of the song written by Matt Redman 'Thank you for the blood ' is a matter of crucial significance for the Christian, not least when it comes to our understanding of communion. We are immersed as a church in the letter to Galatians and yesterday, in our staff bible study, we had a lengthy and very interesting discussion about law and grace, legalism and what happens at communion.

This is how this issue came up. Galatians is about freedom from the law and Paul's assertion that we are not bound by the worship regulations of the old covenant. Hence, there is no need for men to be circumcised and former Jewish Christians kids in Galatia can now have pork pies in their school lunch boxes. The 'priesthood' of the temple has been replaced by the 'priesthood of all believers' and freedom abounds and should abound in the church. The religious traditions and ceremonial law of Judaism have been swept aside and grace set in its place. From this grace flows obedience [which comes from the Spirit -Gal 5- do listen to 'How to change'] and with this obedience joy follows.

Why then, says someone, do we still have so many religious hoopla's and do and don'ts in most churches with a special person in a funny costume to do the 'holy stuff' at communion? Surely all that went out at Calvary and wouldn't Paul be as incensed by the 'religiosity' and law-keeping of most churches as he was by the Judaisers of AD 50? We then embarked on a long discussion about what it is I do as a priest and had a debate about transubstantiation. As I was about to embark on a thorough overview of Reformation history which would have been fascinating, together with a potted history of the C of E, sadly time was up (much to the team's relief) but the thoughts have lingered.

"Imagine early Christians talking to their neighbours in the Roman Empire. 'Ah', the neighbour says, 'I hear you are religious! Great! Religion is a good thing. Where is your temple or holy place?' 'We don't have a temple,' replies the Christian. 'Jesus is our temple,' replies the Christian, 'No temple?' But where do your priests work and do their rituals?' 'We don't have priests to mediate the presence of God,' replies the Christian. 'Jesus is our priest.' 'No priests?' But where do you offer your sacrifices to acquire the favour of your God?' 'We don't need a sacrifice', replies the Christian. 'Jesus is our sacrifice.' 'What kind of religion IS this?' sputters the pagan neighbour. And the answer is, the Christian faith is so utterly different than how every other religion works that it doesn't really deserve to be called a 'religion"

Dick Lucas quoted in 'The Gospel in Life' 

As providence would have it, I read later in the day '5 Reasons I reject the Doctrine of Transubstantiation' the contents of which fed into my already churning mind.

Our walk through Galatians continues on Sunday and please do feel free to join us and bring friends. We endeavour to not be too religious so come and see how we're doing.

The best book on parenting ever written

I have been working on a rather tricky passage in Galatians 4 (one of the most difficult in the NT apparently according to Tom Schreiner's commentary) and as part of my prep was listening to this sermon on Romans 7 to yet again try to get my head around the distinction between law and gospel. That's actually not the point of this post which is simply to share a quote that hit me (19 mins 18 sec in) that I have transposed for you if you are a parent:

' .....if you are a parent and you want to know how the gospel should shape the way you raise your kids- seriously buy Elise Fitzpatrick's book 'Give them grace: dazzling your kids with the love of Jesus'- it is mind-blowing, unbelievable and it's the best parenting book that has ever been written...that's no exaggeration, in my humble opinion.'

Feel free to listen to the whole talk on Romans 7-8 or probably better still spend the time reading the book. As ever, feel free to disagree and if you have found your 'best parenting book' already then do share it.

Persevering in prayer

'I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers'

Ephesians 1: 16

I have been reading 'Prayer ' by Keller and there is a section on Ephesians 1 that I have been mulling at the same time as coming across 'Prayermate'.  Tonight on 'The Prayer Course', in rather timely fashion, we are looking at the subject of 'Persevering in prayer'.

Here is a primer on how to set up Prayermate and do feel free to include me on one of your lists!

For the pod: Louie Giglio @ Worship Central

Our worship team went to listen to Louie Giglio speaking at the Worship Central Conference and returned preaching his sermon to us. When a message gets 'preached forwards' I often think it's worth sitting up for. I included the 'what to do if you think you've got a bad conversion story' in my last sermon.

Praying and other things

I enjoyed this post about Prayer Mate as I am always trying to be more intentional about how I pray for others.

An BBC post entitled 'What the Bible says about women'

The latest C of E attendance figures by Diocese.

I have always tried to cultivate being a lifelong learner .

I am grateful to Darryl Dash for linking to this post and have been pondering how I am doing on the four things.

We enjoyed watching 'Argo.'

Tim Keller has some new preaching lectures and a book on preaching called 'How to preach' is coming out in 2015.

These five things are worth including when preparing a talk for youth.

I've been reading Mike Breen's 'Covenant and Kingdom' in preparation for a sermon on Galatians 4.

The unimaginable things

'Prayer is the only entryway into genuine self-knowledge. It is also the main way we experience deep change-the reordering of our loves. Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life. 

We must learn to pray. We have to.'

Tim Keller in 'Prayer: experiencing awe and intimacy with God', p.18. 

For the pod: Why we all need the gospel

This sermon by Francis Chan is one I return to periodically to shake myself from spiritual slumber. A challenging, awakening and vital word to the lukewarm.

Saturday blog-sweep

Angry man

Following God can end badly

The church needs to discover its heart

Jesus and the modern man

The Zimzum of Rob Bell

Ordering your private world

Andrew Wilson has a satirical take on idols

Healthy leader healthy church

Thank heavens for Justin Welby

The answer to 'why' is 'who' (compelling story about an Iranian pastor in captivity)

Six reasons established churches should plant churches

Thomas Creedy on links to the controversial

Encountering God in prayer

4 dangers for complementarians

You've got to love a country song about baptism via Preachersmith

Commentary deals

Thanks to this link I discovered lots of cheap NIV Application commentaries.

I also enjoyed Tim Challies post called 'Taming the email beast' in the excellent 'How to get things' done series.

Who doesn't need some help and wisdom on dealing with email?

Monday musing

Here is Billy Graham's new film on heaven which is worth half an hour. One for Facebook.

A friend sent me a great song and it led me to this one which has now got stuck in my head.

Anne Lamott on the true gift of friendship

I am mulling on this ditty on holiness from my BiOY this morning and loved the CS Lewis quote.

I love a list and leadership and productivity guru Michael Hyatt has shared his top ten books of all time.

I have revisited his post on Evernote which I am now using more and is fast becoming where I store everything. Don't buy a scanner (as Hyatt suggests and will cost you £350) just download scan drop and you can scan from a standard HP scanner.

I have taken delivery of Prayer by TK and I am just finishing Miracles which I have really enjoyed.

My friend's life verse is Acts 9:17

David Keen has the latest C of E stats.

The Natural Evangelism Course looks like good stuff and might help C of E numbers a tad. I am going on this in January to 'sharpen my saw' as Covey would say.

We are running the Prayer Course with a group. I sent them a couple of talks on prayer last week called Pray First by Chris Hodges and everyone listened to them. I was much encouraged. They are good stuff.

A pal is using Precept Ministry study material in her home group which were new to me. She says it's brilliant.

We've finished watching 'Suits' which is a box set worth asking Santa for.

So far on our lists for Christmas Mrs C and I have a cling film cutter which my Ma is going to give us. We'll be made up and it's £5.99. Christmas is cheap in our house :)

The Meaning of Marriage

Without the help of the Spirit, without a continual refilling of your soul’s tank with the glory and love of the Lord, such submission to the interests of the other is virtually impossible to accomplish for any length of time without becoming resentful. I call this “love economics.” You can only afford to be generous if you actually have some money in the bank to give. In the same way, if your only source of love and meaning is your spouse, then anytime he or she fails you, it will not just cause grief but a psychological cataclysm.

If, however, you know something of the work of the Spirit in your life, you have enough love “in the bank” to be generous to your spouse even when you are not getting much affection or kindness at the moment.

To have a marriage that sings requires a Spirit-created ability to serve, to take yourself out of the center, to put the needs of others ahead of your own. The Spirit’s work of making the gospel real to the heart weakens the self-centeredness in the soul. It is impossible for us to make major headway against self-centeredness and move into a stance of service without some kind of supernatural help.

The deep happiness that marriage can bring, then, lies on the far side of sacrificial service in the power of the Spirit. That is, you only discover your own happiness after each of you has put the happiness of your spouse ahead of your own, in a sustained way, in response to what Jesus has done for you.

– from The Meaning of Marriage

Tim and Kathy Keller

H/T Trevin Wax

Saturday blog-sweep

The Blessing of Russell Brand

Here's where your neighbours are theologically (US context but interesting)

H/T Challies

Why I don't go by 'Pastor Mark' via Dash House

The bowling ball and the feather

If you can't lead a church don't lead a church

Karen Prior on her new biography of Hannah More via David Murray

Remembering atheists

How a mega-church melts down

Cranmer on feminist theology via Jesus Creed

Ten mistakes parents make with teens

H/T J D Grear

What's a miracle?

‘The Greek word for miracles is “simaios” which means sign. Miracles are signs, and like all signs, they are never about themselves; they’re about whatever they are pointing towards. Miracles point beyond themselves. But to what? To God himself. That’s the point of miracles- to point us beyond our world to another world. They are clues that the other world is not in our imaginations but is actually out there, wherever “out there” actually is.  Peggy Noonan once wrote that she thought miracles existed “in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see” If miracles exist at all, they exist not for their own sake but for us, to point us toward something beyond. To someone beyond’

Miracles, Eric Metaxas, Page 16

I am really enjoying reading this and it's a book sceptical friends and interested seekers might find compelling. 

Saturday blog-sweep

What books do for the human soul

The tragic tie between abortion and down syndrome and UK Abortion Chief 'Abortion should be as easily available as contraception'

What is my purpose

Mars Hill dissolving into local churches

One more reason to get a good nights sleep

WWJD

Extraverts and Introverts

Brittany Maynard and God

Tim Cook speaks up

An easy or Awesome life. Choose wisely via Dash House

Why are so many middle-aged men falling into sexual sin? via David Murray

Confessions of a rich pastor

Christianity is getting hard to control in China

6 Nuggets of wisdom for leaders

10 questions on prayer with Tim Keller

The metric of a prophet

7 marks of a deeply deadly sin

The both/ands and 175 Free Theological and Puritan ebooks via Mark Meynell

Luther's 95 Theses