oakleys.org.uk

I’m off today to the annual Fellowship of Word and Spirit conference, to meet up with prayer buddies and to learn about making disciples of Christ.

I’ll blog my notes when I get back.

A higher throne

This is an extract from David Field’s lecture at the Oak Hill School of Theology 2008, A Higher Throne, Evangelicals and Public Theology. In this paper, Samuel Rutherford and the confessionally Christian state, we find good biblical reasons not to be defeatist.

Evangelical defeatism is a failure of Biblical perspective. After all, the risen Lord Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and has been made head over all things for the Church; he is the ruler of the kings of the earth and he is currently putting his enemies beneath his feet; he has presumably asked the Father for the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession – and so he will receive them. All nations will bow to Jesus and all kings will serve him and his kingdom will grow to become the largest plant in the garden with the nation-birds finding rest in its branches.

As well as the sovereign Lordship of Christ, there’s the failure of liberal democracy as it demolishes the house that Christ built.

Objection 14: Pluralistic liberal democracy works fine.
It will be shown below that liberal democracy is intrinsically tyrannical but it is a fact that some people living under liberal democracies have enjoyed relatively stable and comfortable social and political experiences. We need to note, however, that any good to be found under such arrangements of the state exists simply because God in his mercy keeps unbelievers and unbelieving ways of arranging human life from the full consistency which would be as horrible and disastrous as life could be this side of hell.

We have actually never seen the political house which liberal democracy builds. Liberal democracy in the post-Enlightenment West has constructed nothing but simply squatted in the house which Christianity built. Imagine arriving at a person’s house and finding it in reasonable shape although it does have some roof tiles off and there’s a large hole in one wall. You see a man – “Liberal Democracy” standing there with bricks in his hands and tools and machines all around him. You are arriving at the arrangement of the state in the United Kingdom in 2007. But you would be badly mistaken if you were to say, “this is a fine house that “Liberal Democracy” has built for you,” because the fact is that the house was built some generations ago by “Christian” and what is really happening is that “Liberal Democracy” is dismantling it as fast as he can even while claiming the credit for the safety and comfort still to be had in the house. Liberal democracy, as has often been observed, is parasitical and destructive, simultaneously living off the benefits of the influence of the gospel in previous generations and working hard to remove them and claiming credit for putting them in place.

I believe a Christian state is essential for the well being of society and can see the disastrous effect big liberal secular government has on the inner city first hand.  When people are discouraged by the state to organise themselves into local churches but instead to depend on the state to provide everything from child care to housing and social education , the local community breaks down.  I want a government which will say “our job is to enact laws, your duty as individuals is to take responsibility for yourself and your community by looking to Christ and being with his people.”  As long as the state says “don’t worry, we’ll look after you” the church will flounder.

Do we have to wait until liberal democracy ruins every good thing that Christendom built or will someone stand up for election before then with a biblical world-view and on Christian platform?  Should church leaders and theological colleges be training politicians?  Yes of course.

In a previous post on two structures required for church growth I commented on the need for both a formal church structure and an expansive network of evangelists, pastors and teachers. I’ve just seen this review of Tony Payne & Colin Marshall’s The Trellis and the Vine which was recommended to me at our Oak Hill College 5-year reunion in which Mark Dever raves about the book and tells us why it is so good.

It’s available from the Good Book co website.  I’ve ordered a copy.

The death of Kristian Digby has shocked the media world as yet another shining young TV star apparently dies from hedonistic behaviour. The Daily Telegraph quoted a friend of Mr Digby’s:

Alistair Appleton, a fellow BBC presenter who is also openly gay, said: “Kristian was a fine, charming, complex, rather dazzling man. TV is duller and straighter and drearier without him.”

I find the use of the term “openly gay” fascinating. It stems from the days when active same sex partnerships were culturally oppressed and suppressed. Those who were willing to stand up against the culture were defiantly described as “openly gay.” It seems unnecessary in today’s climate of openness and tolerance to describe anyone as openly gay. Why not just “gay”?

The recent cultural oppression of practising Christians, on the other hand, from nurses who prayed with patients to cross-wearing airline staff and conversational hoteliers, makes standing up as a Christian very difficult, perhaps as difficult as being “openly gay” a decade ago. It is becoming harder to be openly Christian when cultural norms are so anti-Christian. Might the day come when the media coins the term “openly Christian” to describe someone who is a member of a new defiant minority.

What would happen if there was an “openly Christian” candidate in the general election? Is there anyone bold enough to be open about his faith? It’s hard to imagine a prospective MP mentioning God, Jesus or the bible in public for fear of media oppression. Given the failure of the secular experiment is must be time for believers to be openly Christian in defiance of secular rule.

Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He rules in grace and sovereign power. His law is good and commandments right. His mercy and steadfast love are everlasting to those who love him and keep his commandments. I would love to see an openly Christian candidate, even a political party. Who will be bold enough to stand against the prevailing culture?

I used the following Venn diagram in Sunday’s sermon to illustrate 1 Peter 1:13 to 2:11 and what happens to churches when they let go of one of the three functions of church, to be holy, catholic and apostolic.

Holy – like God in his excellencies and purity
1 Peter 1:15-16 as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Catholic – generously loving because of Christ
1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth (humbly submitting to the death of Christ that ransoms sinners v18 and repenting of sin) for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Apostolic – sent to proclaim
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Holy, catholic and apostolic?

Here’s what happens when one function is missing.

The warm holy huddle – holy (relative to the world) and catholic
In this church everyone loves each other and is easy to love because they have taken to heart the call to be holy. There is no mess, no difficult relationships, no desire for changing the status quo because everyone likes things just the way they are. With no vision for the world outside (the lost, the hopeless, the despairing, the evil, people under wrath) the church fails to be apostolic.

The warring holy warriors – holy and apostolic.
Watch out here come the holy warriors. On the war path against sin and evil, they seek to transform the world through conquest but lack love for anyone who differs from their vision of holiness. When the cross is absent catholicity is absent. The weak, the struggling, the new and the young feel left out and lost because they are not able to keep up with the standards of holiness set by this church.

The worldly love club – catholic and apostolic.
Everyone at this church is loved and the church seeks to reach out into the community. The love of this church family overlooks every sin and evil. The church moto is “Join us, you don’t have to change because we are just like you.” The church members really are just like the people around them. There is no distinction between world and church because the holiness of God is overlooked and so people are not called to a life of holiness in Christ.

Winning ways of God church – holy, catholic and apostolic.
Every member is confident in Christ, knowing that they have purified themselves by trusting in his death for their sins. They love one another with catholic generosity, nurturing the weak, the young and the struggling because all are equally redeemed and purified by Christ. And the church sees its purpose as apostolic, not keeping the gospel under wraps but making it known in the culture around the church.

From the vicarage March 2010

By the time this edition of the parish magazine is published we might know the date of the next general election. So what sort of person do we want as our local MP? What sort of people should MPs be? In other words, who should I vote for? What sort of government do we want?

To answer that question we need to know what government is for. Every society makes rules and laws which its citizens are obliged to follow. The government’s role is to enact laws and punish people when they step over the line. Punishments for acts like burglary, murder and grievous bodily harm are obvious and most people agree these acts deserve punishment. Other things people do, such as choosing which colour toothbrush to use or what breakfast cereal to eat are matters for liberty and tolerance. The government needs to decide which acts should be punished and which can be tolerated.

The question is, how do we decide which acts can be tolerated and which must be punished? Our political parties once stood for various ideologies but today politicians are largely reactionary. Government bends and sways with the times and with public opinion. The BNP is rising in popularity because it is making up laws which suit what some people want and the other political parties are no different, going where the wind blows. The Labour government’s slogan for most of Tony Blair’s reign was “we’re listening”.

The practice of making up the law as we go along can be done a number of ways, either:

• according to public opinion (manifestos and referendums)
• or by having competitions to see who shouts the loudest outside parliament (protests and pressure groups)
• or simply according to the personal preferences of the leaders of the nation and the number of people they have supporting them in parliament (dictatorship)

But there is a true and proper way to make laws. God has crowned Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords. He rules the world with truth and grace. His law is perfect and all his ways are just. All those who love Christ will obey his commandments. Our parliament should apply its mind to the bible and make laws which reflect the law of God for our times. God has said that he will punish everyone who breaks his law. It is only the grace and mercy of God, shown to us on the cross, as Jesus took the punishment we deserve, that anyone be saved from their just deserts.

So who should I vote for? This is what I look for in a candidate. I do not begin by looking at the political party, there is too little to choose between them. So I want to ask my candidates three questions. First, what is your faith? Then, what do you believe life is for? And, what do you believe government is for?

Any MP who can demonstrate open, active, thoughtful, wise and biblical faith in Jesus Christ as King of kings will get my vote. If the MP knows that the purpose of life is to glorify God in all that we do and that government is God’s agent for the maintenance of law and order then I’ll vote for him irrespective of which political party he stands for.

I want my MP to be positive about the difference the good news of Jesus Christ makes to the lives of people and communities. For too long, the secular politicians and media have said “faith is a private matter”. But this keeps God out of government. Jesus said “if you are not for me you are against me” and so our government at present is not pro-Christ but anti-Christ. I am for openly faithful Christian MPs. If a candidate is not a believer then we need to look for someone with openness and fairness toward the work of the church.

During this election campaign, let’s ask our candidates those three questions, listen to their answers and vote according to their faith in Christ, the good shepherd who pastors his flock with gentleness, wisdom, grace and by his good and perfect law.

With love

Neil

This is one way I help people grasp the wonder of the gospel:

When you stand before God on the great day of judgement and God says to you:

“This is my holy law. Now look at your life. How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?”

What will you say?

With your head down and with a heavy heart, “Guilty, my Lord”

“Now” says the Lord, “what is your plea?”

With your head up and with a faithful, joyful heart, “My plea is Jesus Christ. I know he loved me and gave his life for me. He died so that I might be forgiven.”

Here’s the gospel in three words:

Love.
God loves his creation, everything and everyone he made.

Psalm 33:5-6 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Hate.
God hates sin and so he hates sinners for turning away from him and trashing the world he made. As all have sinned, God hates everyone.

Psalm 5:5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

Psalm 21:8-9 Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.

Romans 3:10-12
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

Love.
Yet, God loves sinners enough to give his life for them. In the person of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God died to rescue and redeem sinners who otherwise deserve to die.

1 John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The love of God for repentant, faithful sinners differs from the love of God for all people in his creation. The latter are loved as creatures the former are loved as adopted children. The former will be consumed the latter will inherit the new creation.

Adoption

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations

Broken Britain - from Birmingham University Conservative Future (BUCF)

In a survey conducted for the The Times last week 42% of Brits said they would emigrate if they could. The results of the survey also included other startling headline statistics:

• Over 60% of voters do not recognise the nation they once knew.
• 70% believe society is broken
• 68% say that if you play by the rules you get a raw deal.
• 82% said it is time for a change
• 64% think that Britain is going in the wrong direction

A year ago, Durham University carried out a different survey which found that:

• 2% of people surveyed could name all ten commandments.
• 62% did not know the parable of the prodigal son.
• 60% could not give any detail in the story of the good Samaritan.
• People under the age of 45 were the most biblically ignorant.

There is a correlation between the two surveys: the health of society is directly proportional to its knowledge of God.  Britain is broken because its people have collectively forgotten who God is.

Judges 2:10-12 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD

Politicians cannot mend broken Britain. How long will it take for our MPs to realise that social engineering does not and cannot work.

The heart of the problem in Britain is the hearts of its people. People are made by God to worship God with all their heart.  When we forget God we don’t stop worshipping but worship instead the things God has made: celebrities, film stars, football players, page 3 girls, Olympians, our families,  cars, houses, bank balances, our own image (narcissism is the worship of self).

These acts of worship are destructive because they are self serving. But the good news of Jesus Christ, who died for the sins for his people, turns people to serve the true and living God. The faith, hope and love produced by the gospel turn people inside out. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the baby Thessalonian church:

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1 Thess 1:9-10

At this general election, what the nation needs is not more socio-political tweaking and meddling but a political movement which is positive about the gospel, encouraging British citizens to find and join joyful, cross-centred, Holy Spirit filled, biblical churches and schools. Secularism has failed. The secular law makers of this land have undermined the gospel (although some might say that the church did a good job of undermining the gospel itself – John T Robinson and John Hick beng two archdeacons of the cult of liberalism) long enough and things must change. The change of direction we need is towards God though faith in Christ. Jesus said “if you are not for me you are against me.” There is no neutral ground. As unbelieving MPs will not stand for Christ they must be against him. By claiming “neutral” ground in the name of multi-culturalism, MPs deny Christ.

So I want my local MP to be an openly believing and practising Christian who applies godly wisdom and understanding to his decisions. I want my local MP to take the bible as the authoritative word of God and then to apply his mind to the task of forming policy according to God’s revealed wisdom and law. I want this because I know that if my MP follows the King of kings and Lord of lords then the rest will eventually fall into place.

This post follows my earlier posts on sermon preparation for dyslexics and exegesis for dyslexics. Once I have done my exegesis, theme sentence, aim sentence and sermon structure I am ready to start writing my talk. To do this, I use Mindmanager (2002) and a full talk looks like this:

Each branch of the mind map is a main point and the twigs on each branch a sub argument, illustration or application.

Once I can see the structure of the talk, I copy the text onto the clipboard and paste it into my word-processor. Mindmanager exports the text from the mindmap clockwise from the top which produces proper script.

To edit the talk I listen to what I’ve written on text to speech software (I use Dragon Naturally Speaking). I then colour the text to help me read, using read, blue and black text. I pray the talk in and am then ready to preach.

This is my introduction to yesterday’s Valentine’s Day talk, “What is love?” The world’s greatest romance.

If you are a visitor with us today, you might curious about Christianity, and ask “Is there anything romantic about being a Christian?” After all, it seems to dull and lifeless. Well, I want to show you how romance lies at the very heart of God and of the Christian life.

If you have been a Christian for a while and the romance of the gospel has ebbed away that romance needs to kept alive. So if you are a follower of Jesus and have lost your first love, I pray that this morning you will recover it.

At the heart of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, there is the greatest romance of all time. This is how the gospel goes:

The eternal Son of God left the company of his loving Father to go in search of a bride. The Son of God became a human being, with two natures, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem.

He grew up and drew great crowds after him. Lots of people loved him, they were fascinated by his wisdom and righteousness, grace and peace.

His bride to be was not a beautiful princess, at least not yet. The bride of Christ was a down and out. She was all messed up, dysfunctional, broken by sin, hurt and filthy, but Jesus loved her and would give his life for her.

And that’s what he did, Jesus died on a cross is for his bride.

He died for her because he couldn’t marry her as long as a death sentence hung over her head. She had rebelled against her loving God and deserved to die. The penalty for her rebellion and sin was death. And so the eternal Son of God could not marry her until she could live with him forever. He had to die for her if he was to marry her.

His death and resurrection were his engagement gifts to her. He returned to his father to prepare the wedding feast and sealed his love with His Holy Spirit.

The bride is the church and with the help of her lover’s Spirit, she now prepares herself for her wedding day.

Every follower of Jesus is a part of the bride.

If you are a Christian, your goal in life is to be ready for your wedding day. Today’s talk is on how to prepare for that day.

Revelation 19:6-9
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Christ and his bride

Here’s a great prayer for Valentine’s Day which takes us to the heart of the ultimate romance. The glorious and eternal Son of God came to earth to find himself a bride. He loved her, redeemed her, giving her value and dignity in spite of her shame. O the deep, deep love of Jesus.

Lord Jesus,

If I love thee my soul shall seek thee,
but can I seek thee
unless my love to thee is kept alive to this end?
Do I love thee because thou art good,
and canst alone do me good?
It is fitting thou shouldest not regard me,
for I am vile and selfish;
yet I seek thee,
and when I find thee
there is no wrath to devour me,
but only sweet love.

Thou dost stand as a rock
between the scorching sun and my soul,
and I live under the cool lee-side as one elect.
When my mind acts without thee
it spins nothing but deceit and delusion;
When my affections act without thee
nothing is seen but dead works.
O how I need thee to abide in me,
for I have no natural eyes to see thee,
but I live by faith in one whose face to me
is brighter than a thousand suns!

When I see that all sin is in me,
all shame belongs to me;
let me know that all good is in thee,
all glory is thine.
Keep me from the error of thinking
thou dost appear gloriously
when some strange light fills my heart,
as if that were the glorious activity of grace,
but let me see that the truest revelation of thyself
is when thou dost eclipse all my personal glory
and all the honour, pleasure and good of this world.

The Son breaks out in glory
when he shows himself as one who outshines all creation,
makes men poor in spirit,
and helps them to find their good in him.
Grant that I may distrust myself,
to see my all in thee.

From The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers.

I recently posted about the extra stages I go through as a dyslexic thinker when preparing a sermon. Someone asked about text flow diagrams and colour, so here’s an example of how breaking the text down and using colour helps me to understand a passage and structure a talk. As well as the image below, I’ve uploaded a clearer pdf copy of the text flow diagram. When I have time and the inclination, I start with the Greek.

Text from of John 14:15-26

This way of doing exegesis involves breaking the passage into is logical flow, using conjunctions as line breaks. Where flow of the text is one continuous argument, the passage is tabbed across the page. When the argument starts again, as in verse 22, the text returns to the left margin.

The colour is used to identify repetition, in this case pink for “if you love me”, orange for “you’ll obey me”, purple “my Father and I will be with you” and green for “the Helper”. In this case, the repetition gives me four clear headers.

What is love?
- love has an object – the Lord Jesus
- the love of Christ leads to obedience
- to love Christ is to belong to God
- to love Christ requires supernatural strength

Grasping God's Word

I learned this method of exegesis at Oak Hill College from the vice-principle, Chris Green. The text book we used was “Grasping God’s Word“.

If you struggle to work with the text of the bible it might be because you do not think verbally but pictorially or conceptually. If you want to get an idea of whether or not you might be dyslexic, try this dyslexia test.

Here’s the 9th abridged extract from Ebenezer Erskine’s 10 point sermon on 10 ways in which God in Christ is a God of love:

Ebenezer Erskine

9. God in Christ is an inciting God, an entreating God, to sinners: and does not this say, that he is a God of love? He invites us to come to him for all needful grace : Is. Iv. 1. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and lie that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” He is an entreating God in Christ : 2 Cor. v. 20. ” We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

C.H. Spurgeon

When Jesus said “repent and believe” it was not merely a call to stop running away from God and to run to him, but that repentance is as much the mark of the ongoing Christian life as faith. Repentance is not just something the unbeliever does when he turns from sin, but an ongoing self-humbling and self-searching of every true believer. This extract from C.H. Spurgeon’s sermon on Song of Solomon 1:6 makes the point crystal clear.

A man who fears not God, will break all his laws with an easy conscience, but one who is the favourite of heaven, who has been indulged to sit at royal banquets, who knows the eternal love of God to him, cannot bear that there should be any evil way in him that might grieve the Spirit and bring dishonour to the name of Christ. A very little sin, as the world calls it, is a very great sin to a truly awakened Christian.

I will ask you now, dear hearers (most of whom are members of this or of other churches), do you know what it is to fret because you have spoken an unadvised word? Do you know what it is to smite upon your breast, because you were angry?—justly provoked, perhaps, but still, being angry, you spoke unadvisedly. Have you ever gone to a sleepless couch, because in business you have let fall a word, or have done an action which, upon mature deliberation, you could not justify? Does the tear never come from your eye because you are not like your Lord, and have failed where you hoped to succeed? I would give little for your godliness, if you know nothing of this. Repentance is as much a mark of a Christian as faith itself. Do not think we have done with repenting when we come to Christ and receive the remission of our sins by the blood that did once atone. No; we shall repent as long as we sin, and as long as we need the precious blood for cleansing. While there is sin, or a proneness to any kind of sin, lurking in us, the grace of God will make us loathe the sin and humble ourselves before the Most High on account of it.

If you’ve seen the lady who won Ukraine’s got talent by doing a live animation of the history of the Ukraine in sand then you’ll enjoy this live animation explaining what a missional church looks like.   I posted similar diagrams to the ones in this video after reading Mark Driscoll’s Radical Reformission, but the youtube clip is much better, even though it needs cultural translation for us Brits.

The main point is that we either make the church the place where the needs of the community are met, in the name of Christ, or we make it the place where people are trained, equipped, resourced and motivated to live as representatives of Christ in the world.

Yesterday’s blog post outlined a way of checking against a slide from a biblical worldview to a liberal or non-biblical one. To help see how the check works I thought I’d do a worked example.

The diagram below shows basic tenets of liberalism and how each tenet falls into place one after the other.

A route I might take if backsliding

Let’s say I start as holding to the 39 articles or UCCF doctrinal basis of faith or The Westminster Confession as a summary of what God says in the bible and my attitude is that the bible shapes my worldview.  In other words, an evangelical, biblical worldview holds against each of the “liberal” tenets shown in the diagram above.

My Achilles heal is catholicity as in wanting everyone to be friends. The view that humanity should be united by just being friends, regardless of creed, leads to toleration. I will put up with what others say, in the name of Jesus, even when it is against his word, because I want to remain friends with them. I am not saying I should deliberately and ungraciously go out to make enemies by being dogmatic but there is a point where I should graciously and gently stand up for Jesus when someone is consistently against his teaching and in doing so risk the friendship.

However, once toleration has set in, I must become anti-dogmatic. I no longer believe anything strongly enough to risk friendships. And so, anti-voluntarism follows:  it’s okay to do what you want, even if it’s against the good and pleasing will of God, because I no longer believe the dogma which says God cares about what we do.

After that, the dominoes fall in quick succession.  I lose enthusiasm and start to see the good in people. I forget that all have sinned and have had their mouths stopped before the judgement seat of God because no one can save themselves by what they do.  I start to explain things empirically or inductively; we evolved, we’re still evolving, sin is not sin but only needs counselling. I’m now into natural religion, the bible’s gone as authoritative revelation. So God is not sovereign after all and my human reason tells me this is system of thought works. Ta-da, I’ve drifted to liberalism.

That’s why I do this check once a year. Do I still hold the the basic tenets of evangelical, biblical, scriptural, reformed theology and worldview? Am I still reading my bible as the final word of God on all matters relating to salvation, law and wisdom or has something else begun to take its place?

My emotional entry point is catholocity.  Find your emotional entry point and do the same exercise, then be on your guard.

Like all other belief systems, reformed, evangelical, scriptural thinking is done within a system of basic tenets. There’s a set of interlinked biblical doctrines and attitudes which underlie it all and these are listed below.

About once a year I go back to this list as a really helpful way of identifying drift from reformed thinking to liberal theology. This exercise is taken from a lecture given by David Field at Oak Hill in 2005.

When liberal, non-reformed theology developed out of reformed theology during the enlightenment, a number of basic tenets were gradually eroded. Once eroded, these behave like a stack of dominoes, when one falls the rest follow. The key to avoiding theological drift is to identify our own Achilles heal. Mine is probably catholicity, wanting to be friends with everyone.

To do the exercise, read the following definitions of the tenets, find your emotional point of entry (the first domino to fall) and then work out which domino falls next. It helps to print off the diagram and draw lines from circle to circle.

Reformed theology to liberalism

Empiricism and inductivism: the belief that science trumps revelation. In this scheme, no human behaviour is inherently sinful, God is not offended by sin. Rather, all behaviour may be explained and changed using a pseudo-scientific method and counselling. And, of course, miracles are not miracles, they can be explained away. The incarnation of God and his resurrection from the dead are myths to the empiricist or inductivist.

Anti-voluntarism: Voluntarism states that God is good and so God’s will dictates what I do. If I think I know better than God, that’s anti-voluntarism.

Anti-determinism: if you don’t think God knows the beginning from the end and that all things work according to the sovereign will of God, that’s anti-determinism.

Anti-enthusiasm: Jeremy Paxman wrote “the English like their religion in moderation.” Instead of intensity, certainty and confidence you display a cool, arm’s length detachment to Christian truth.

(some) People are good (anti-total inability, anti-total depravity): When people only see the image of God in others, and overlook indwelling sin, they conclude “Surely God won’t condemn the good people”. Instead of admitting that people are unable to save themselves from sin and judgement, liberals conclude that God will let the “good” people in.

Reason verses revelation: For a reformed theologian the command to love the Lord your God with all your mind means; think as hard as you can about God revealed in scripture. For a liberal it means think independently as if human reason alone can fathom all mysteries.

Toleration: The bible teaches that God is not tolerant, he is patient. Patience expects change, tolerance doesn’t. The reformed pastor is patient with people but the liberal is tolerant of bad behaviour and/or sloppy theology.

Natural religion: liberals believe that God reveals himself only in creation and all religions sense this. Religion is an attempt by finite humans to put God into a system of words, codes and morals, therefore, all religions are equally inadequate attempts to grasp the ungraspable.

Catholicity and friendliness: the primary goal is for everyone to be friends, regardless of creed.

Anti-dogmatism: this is the belief that doctrine is bad because doctrine divides people. Best not to belief anything to strongly for fear of upsetting someone.

Hebrews 3:7-12 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

The 20th of February marks the 1st anniversary of the arrival of the Robbie family in West Bromwich. Looking back over the year there have been lots of good moments as we’ve achieved many things together for God in a fairly short period of time. We have a new ministry for youth in the area. At TNG we aim to have godly fun together and teach the next generation about the wonder and glory of God. I’ve been really encouraged by the batch of new volunteer leaders, without whom TNG would not exist. Our ministry trainee Tommy Merry has been a great blessing, especially now that he has settled into vicarage and parish life and he sets about various aspects of ministry with great enthusiasm and energy. There’s cake and chat on Thursday morning which continues to attract a faithful group of mums, and some dads, from the church school community. We have a new church vision statement which lays the foundation for our purpose and direction as we think about new ways of giving our all for God’s glory. The is plenty to thank God for in church life over the past year.

Yet, as we approach the start of the second year of my ministry at Holy Trinity I expect a hard year ahead. After a year in post trying to get a feel for church life and how things work we face a task of tweaking and structuring church life to match God’s vision. I can see two urgent needs for our church. The first is to pray. As a church we face many challenges and obstacles in the work of the gospel in West Bromwich but we know that God works with us and for us as we pray. We need prayer for a greater grasp of the knowledge, love, wisdom and glory of God. One of the great things about being a Christian is that we can always grow in our grasp of God. We also need prayer for many eyes in our community to to be opened to the wonder, goodness and love of God in Christ Jesus.

The second urgent need is to make effective disciples. We need to create pathways for people to become believers and then become effective disciples. These pathways need already effective disciples to help teach and train the next generation. The principle is simple: we listen to God by studying all of God’s word together in the light, power and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. However, finding an effective way of doing this, which is right for our culture, is a little more challenging and will need thought and prayer. It is essential that we help new believers to pray and read the bible for themselves.

In the short term, we have a mini mission during Lent.
- Sunday March 7th Memorial Service (6:30pm)
- Sunday March 14th Colin Buchanan at Edgebaston School for girls
- Sat & Sun March 20th & 21st Holy Trinity Passion for Life Mini Mission weekend
- Fri-Sun March 26th – 28th A Passion for Life at Birmingham Town Hall
- Fri-Sun April 2nd – 4th Good Friday and Easter Sunday

Watch out for more details at church.

This year’s lent course is called “Lost for Words: sharing your faith naturally”. The Lent course starts this year with an Ash Wednesday (17th Feb) service and talk. We then move to Thursdays in the hall from 7:30pm to 8:45pm and we end with a Maunday Thursday (1st April) service. In Lost for words we will explain what being a missional church looks like. We’ll find your mission style, develop courage and give you some simple mission tools for your spiritual arsenal.

It is my prayer that, more than ever, we’ll be focused as a whole church on living for the glory of God together in this place.

Can anyone help? I need songs or hymns which remind the church to teach kids about God and Christ. Can anyone suggest any songs or hymns that I could use over the next few weeks?

I was preaching Psalm 78 and found a metrical version, but struggled to find anything else.

Psalm 78 – Metre 77 77 77

1. Listen, all to what I teach,
Pay heed to what I shall say.
I will speak in parables
And tell myst’ries from the past.
Things that we have heard made known,
That our parents told to us.

2. We won’t hide them from our young,
We will tell those yet to come,
All the mighty deeds of God,
All the wonders he has done.
He gave laws to Israel,
And commandments to Jacob.

3. God instructed our forebears
To teach these laws to our young,
So those yet unborn will know,
Passing them on to their young,
So that they should hope in God,
Not forget, but keep his laws.