Musings of The X1 Eldership

Refreshing Romans 14

2011-09-06T11:06:00.001+01:00

Just been reading the truly refreshing Romans 14 asset of my McCheyne reading plan provided brilliantly for me via the youversion app (try it it's excellent). I say "refreshing" as I received again from Paul the singular ethic of Christian living - Faith through love.
Our tendency to legalism is endemic within the church. We had Steve Goss of Freedom in Christ UK speak to us on Sunday morning at X1 and his message of grace drawn from the eternally significant parable of the Prodigal Son was a helpful dose of biblical truth against legalism's constant presence. Romans 14 obviously cuts across the inherent legalism of the apostle Paul's own time but, as is so often the case with God's divine word to us, an ever-fresh and powerful antidote to our own legalism.
I've encountered, and sadly embraced, more forms of legalism than I can remember in my 17 years as a born again believer and have been strongly advised to embrace and enforce others in my almost 3 years of Lead Eldership here at X1. Then I read these words, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit," and these, "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." (Vss. 17 & 14,15)
Love is the paradigm. All is clean but out of love I may need to refrain. Let's enforce righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit as our new 'legalism!' You must have joy in God, you must have the peace that surpasses understanding! That would be truly refreshing. Legalists are not happy and live without peace cause they can never be certain they've done enough or even whether their version of legalism is actually the one that's right.
Romans 14 - refreshing!
Simon

A second dose of Carson Brilliance

2011-08-27T21:28:00.001+01:00

Just have to add another point Carson makes. Love it!
"A second category of phenomena is in danger of displacing the primacy of the gospel. A litany of devices designed to make us more spiritual or mature or productive or emotionally whole threatens to relegate the gospel to irrelevance, or at least to the realm of the boring and the primitive. The gospel may introduce you to the church, as it were, but from that point on assorted counseling techniques and therapy sessions will change your life and make you happy and fruitful. The gospel may help you make some sort of decision for God, but ‘rebirthing’ techniques—in which in silent meditation you imagine Jesus catching you as you are born from your mother’s womb, imagine him hugging you and holding you—will generate a wonderful cathartic experience that will make you feel whole again, especially if you have been abused in the past. The gospel may enable you to be right with God, but if you really want to pursue spirituality you must find a spiritual director, or practise asceticism, or discipline yourself with journalling, or spend two weeks in silence in a Trappist monastery. These are not all of a piece. What they have in common, however, is the diminishing of the gospel in order to magnify the current device that is guaranteed to bring you toward wholeness. By contrast, the NT passionately insists that everything we need for life and godliness and a walk in the Spirit is secured for us in the gospel. It follows that if someone chooses to adopt some ascetic practice in order the better to focus on the Jesus of the Bible, the attention is still on Jesus. But if someone so ties asceticism to altered moods or to experiences of ‘spirituality’ that the gospel itself is virtually ignored or is implicitly dismissed as a sort of initial stage now to be improved by ascetic practice, the name of the game is idolatry. Again, if someone has experienced cathartic relief and emotional integration after an imaginative ‘rebirthing’ session, I am glad that the emotional integration has taken place. But we must insist that a better emotional integration could have been achieved by meditating on, say, the passion narratives, or on Ephesians 3:14–21. For then the emotional catharsis would have been tied to what God himself insists is the clearest and most complete demonstration of his love for us in Christ Jesus. In other words, the emotional integration would have been tied to the gospel instead of to something as ephemeral and diverting as manipulated imagination. This is a time for Christians to return to the basics, the comprehensive basics, and quietly affirm with Paul, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel [p. 85] because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith”’ (Romans 1:16–17)."

Carson's sheer brilliance on Centrality of The Gospel

2011-08-27T21:20:00.001+01:00

Here the brilliant theologian-pastor Don Carson hits one of the primary (as I see it) church 'problems' - everyone has an 'agenda' that we SHOULD be focusing on because, seemingly, preaching 'The Gospel' (and by this I mean the full counsel of God) is not enough:
"Many in the Western world have become single-issue people. The church is not immune from such influences. The result is that many Christians assume the gospel (often, regrettably, some form of the ‘simple gospel’) but are passionate about something on the relative periphery: abortion, poverty, forms of worship, cultural decay, ecology, overpopulation, pornography, family breakdown, and much more. By labelling these complex subjects ‘relatively peripheral’ I open myself to attack from as many quarters as there are subjects on the list. For example, some of those whose every thought is shaded green will not be convinced that the ecological problems we face are peripheral to human survival. But I remain quite unrepentant. From a biblical-theological perspective, these challenges, as serious as they are, are reflections of the still deeper problem—our odious alienation from God. If we tackle these problems without tackling what is central, we are merely playing around with symptoms. This is no excuse for Christians not to get involved in these and many other issues. But it is to insist that where we get involved in such issues, many of which are explicitly laid upon us in scripture, we do so from the centre out, ie beginning with full-orbed gospel proclamation and witness and passion, and then, while acknowledging that no one can do everything, doing our ‘significant something’ to address the wretched entailments of sin in our world. The good news of Jesus Christ will never allow us to be smug and other-worldly in the face of suffering and evil. But what does it profit us to save the world from smog and damn our own souls? There are lots of ways of getting rid of pornography. For instance, one does not find much smut in Saudi Arabia. But one doesn’t find much of the gospel there, either. The point is that in all our efforts to address painful and complex societal problems, we must do so from the centre, out of a profound passion for the gospel. This is for us both a creedal necessity and a strategic choice. It is a creedal necessity because this gospel alone prepares men and women for eternity, for meeting our Maker—and all problems are relativized in the contemplation of the cross, the final judgement, and eternity. It is a strategic choice because we are persuaded that the gospel, comprehensively preached in the power of the Spirit, will do more to transform men and women, not least their attitudes, than anything else in the world."
Amen and Amen.

Edwards on the Tragedy of the Fall & Redemption

2011-08-05T15:08:00.001+01:00

Check this out from JE on the fall and redemption:

"The ruin which the Fall brought upon the soul of man consists very much in that he lost his nobler and more extensive principles, and fell wholly under the government of self-love. He is debased in his nature and become little and ignoble. Immediately upon the Fall the mind of man shrunk from its primitive greatness and extensiveness into an exceeding diminution and confinedness. As in other respects, so in this, that whereas before his soul was under the government of that noble principle of divine love whereby it was, as it were, enlarged to a kind of comprehension of all his fellow creatures; and not only so, but was not confined within such strait limits as the bounds of the creation but was extended to the Creator, and dispersed itself abroad in that infinite ocean of good and was, as it were, swallowed up by it, and become one with it. But as soon as he had transgressed, those nobler principles were immediately lost and all this excellent enlargedness of his soul was gone and he thenceforward shrunk into a little point, circumscribed and closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of others. God was forsaken and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself and became wholly governed by narrow, selfish principles. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, the more noble and spiritual principles having taken warning and fled. But God hath in mercy to miserable man contrived in the work of redemption, and by the glorious gospel of his Son, to bring the soul of man out of its confinement, and again to infuse those noble and divine principles by which it was governed at first. And so Christianity restores an excellent enlargement and extensiveness to the soul. It again possesses it of divine love or that Christian charity of which we read in the text, whereby it again embraces its fellow creatures and is devoted to and swallowed up in the Creator."

Charity & Its Fruits (Yale Ed. Vol. 8) Pg. 252-4

Lloyd Jones on 'Little Faith'

2011-08-04T15:00:00.001+01:00

It would not take the brightest among you to note that I am reading Martyn Lloyd Jones as part of my summer reading. His Studies in the Sermon on the Mount is a classic, a stunning read. Today I cam across the idea of 'little faith as expressed by our Lord in Matt. 6: 30. Those who worry, to Christ at least, are those of 'little faith.' Here are the Doctor's insightful thoughts on exactly what that is, I think they're incisive:
"What then is this condition which is described by our Lord as being ‘little faith’? … We can say … in general that it is one which is confined to one sphere of life only. It is faith that is confined solely to the question of the salvation of our souls, and it does not go beyond that. It does not extend to the whole of life and to everything in life. This is a common complaint among us as Christian people. On the question of the salvation of our souls we are perfectly clear … We have seen … that the only way of deliverance is in the Lord Jesus Christ … And we believe on Him, and have that saving faith with regard to the present and to all eternity. That is saving faith, the thing that makes us Christians, and without which we are not Christian at all. Yes; but Christian people often stop at that, and they seem to think that faith is something that applies only to that question of salvation. The result is, of course, that in their daily lives they are often defeated; in their ordinary lives there is very little difference to be seen between them and people who are not Christian. They become worried and anxious, and they conform to the world in so many respects. Their faith is something that is reserved only for their ultimate salvation, and they do not seem to have any faith with regard to the everyday affairs of life and living in this world. Our Lord is concerned about that very thing. These people have come to know God as their heavenly Father, and yet they are worried about food and drink and clothing. Their faith is confined; it is a little faith in that way; its scope is so curtailed and limited."

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, p. 127

God or Mammon (MLJ)

2011-07-31T09:39:00.001+01:00

There are, sadly, not enough biblically saturated prophetic preachers around these days to deliver the messages we need to hear In the way we need to hear them. Thus we quote the men that would dare to do such. Martyn Lloyd Jones is one of those men. In one of a series of sermons on the Sermon on the Mount he preaches prophetically on the relationship between God and money as highlighted by Christ in this stunning message of 2000 years ago:

"We must remember that the way in which we look at these things ultimately determines our relationship to God. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” This is indeed a very solemn thing, and that is why it is dealt with so frequently in Scripture. The truth of this proposition is obvious. Both make a totalitarian demand upon us. Worldly things really do make a totalitarian demand as we have seen. How they tend to grip the entire personality and affect us everywhere! They demand our entire devotion; they want us to live for them absolutely. Yes, but so does God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” Not in a material sense necessarily, but in some sense or other He says to us all, “Go, sell all that thou hast, and come, follow me.” “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” It is a totalitarian demand. Notice it again in verse 24: “Either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” It is “either—or” compromise is completely impossible at this point. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

There is a perfect illustration of that in the Old Testament. Study carefully 2 Kings 17:24-41. H ere is what we are told. The Assyrians conquered some area; then they took their own people and settled them in that area. These Assyrians of course did not worship God. Then some lions came and destroyed their property. “This”, they said, “has happened to us because we do not worship the God of this particular land. We will get priestly instruction on this.” So they found a priest who instructed them generally in the religion of Israel. And then they thought that all would be well. But this is what Scripture said about them: they “feared the Lord, and served their graven images.” What a terrible thing that is. It alarms me. It is not what we say that matters. In the last day, many shall say, “Lord, Lord, have we not done this, that and the other?” But He will say unto them, “I never knew you.” “Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father.” Whom do you serve? That is the question, and it is either God or mammon. There is nothing in the last analysis that is so insulting to God as to take His name upon us and yet to show clearly that we are serving mammon in some shape or form. That is the most terrible thing of all. It is the greatest insult to God; and how easily and unconsciously we can all become guilty of this.

I remember once hearing a preacher tell a story which he assured us was simple, literal truth. It illustrates perfectly the point which we are considering. It is the story of a farmer who one day went happily and with great joy in his heart to report to his wife and family that their best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white. And he said, “You know I have suddenly had a feeling and impulse that we must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together, and when the time comes we will sell one and keep the proceeds, and we will sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lord’s work.” His wife asked him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord. “There is no need to bother about that now,” he replied, “we will treat them both in the same way, and when the time comes we will do as I say.” And off he went. In a few months, the man entered his kitchen looking very miserable and unhappy. When his wife asked him what was troubling him, he answered, “I have bad news to give you. The Lord’s calf is dead.” “But”, she said, “you had not decided which was to be the Lord’s calf.” “Oh yes,” he said; “I had always decided it was to be the white one, and it is the white one that has died. The Lord’s calf is dead. We may laugh at that story, but God forbid that we should be laughing at ourselves. It is always the Lord’s calf that dies. When money becomes difficult, the first thing we economize on is our contribution to God’s work. It is always the first thing to go. Perhaps we must not say “always,” for that would be unfair; but with so many it is the first thing, and the things we really like are the last to go. “We cannot serve God and mammon.” These things tend to come between us and God, and our attitude to them ultimately determines our relationship to God. The mere fact that we believe in God, and call Him, Lord, Lord, and likewise with Christ, is not proof in and of itself that we are serving Him, that we recognize His totalitarian demand, and have yielded ourselves gladly and readily to Him. “Let every man examine himself.”

Wonderful: Jonathan Edwards on the Privilege of Salvation

2011-07-21T14:53:00.001+01:00

Check this wonderful quote from Jonathan Edwards second Sermon I. Corinthians 13 on the surpassing value of 'grace in the heart' - salvation:

Great was the privilege which God bestowed on the blessed virgin Mary, in granting that of her should be born the Son of God; that a person who was infinitely more honorable than the angels, who was the Creator and King of heaven and earth and the great Savior of the world, should be conceived in her womb, born of her, and nursed at her breast, was a far greater privilege than to be the mother of the child of the greatest earthly prince that ever existed. But yet, surely that was not so great a privilege as it was to have the grace of God in the heart, to have Christ, as it were, born in the soul, as Christ himself does expressly teach us. (Luke 11:27–28). "And it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou has sucked. But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." And once when some told him that his mother and brethren stood without desiring to speak with him, he thence took occasion to let them know that there was a more blessed way of being related to him than that which consisted in being his mother and brethren according to the flesh, viz. in having grace in the heart, and bringing forth the fruits of it in the life. Matthew (12:47–50)

An Older Brother

2011-07-21T10:28:00.002+01:00

Kind of post title you think is going to refer to the offended legalistic brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 used as a platform to refer to someone like that in our fellowship isn't it? Well it's not actually, it's exactly the opposite idea.

I tell people that my theology - well my ecclesiology to be exact - changed somewhat once I actually got to leading a church. Before leading X1 I would have been the, "I only want the lost to join us, I don't want anyone that already has faith, only growth through salvation Lord," type. Not long into my leadership journey I began to pray earnestly for significant 'Kingdom Movers' to join us. Those whom God would move about within His kingdom to bless another area of what He is doing to advance His Kingdom.

3 months after our move into Vue Cinema an 'older brother' (someone matured, wise, and secure in the faith) and his wife visited us and 9 months later after significant prayer and a brilliant leaving of his church (tears, honor, love, blessing - o Gosh how few people leave a church like that!) they joined us.
Well it is hard to quite explain how much he is blessing this body of believers, blessing this Eldership in fact. We are transitioning to a far more effective, healthy system of administrative, structural existence and I am feeling certain that this will only aid our impact as a Holy Spirit people set on fulfilling our portion of the great commission!

Thanks Lord for an older brother! Bring more if you can, and bless other churches with men (and women) such as these.

Simon

A God Weekend

2011-07-18T10:56:00.001+01:00

One of those great weekends this one. A weekend where the preeminence of God as the centre of life was evident in the schedule. Saturday morning was spent at our second men of Watford event, now bearing the name ManUp at the Wellspring home of Watford Community Church. We had the first of these events in March with 30 men and three churches. This time? 55 men and 11 churches represented! I can honestly say that my heart was racing to be a part of something where the Kingdom men of Watford were gathered for inspiration and equipping to love and serve this town. Rev Tim Roberts shared a brilliant message on Kingdom Men: Lip service or Life service, well done guys.

Sunday was one of our X1:AM X1:PM Sundays where the people of X1 gathered morning and evening for corporate celebration of our glorious saving God. What a treasure to take our new young man to be immersed in the people of God. For him to take in the wonder of a worshiping people, for him to know he'll not be raised by individualistic parents but by a community of God's people. Struggled to get him back from all the loving , embracing arms but we managed. One of our young guys shared a brilliant gospel message on the "Living Hope" that is in Christ. Dear friends of ours whom we have enjoyed fellowship and closeness with over the last 2 1/2 years in Watford were with us, they do not know the Lord but have been on somewhat of a spiritual journey and just walked into the cinema as a family much to our delight. They loved it - heck yeah!

Our evening X1:PM was simply special. The Spirit of God was just having his way with his children and there was a lot of joy and fire in the room. Love these times together and again am so delighted to see the young men in our midst leading out in this and flexing their Godly leadership skills. Keep it up dudes. Preached on Daniel An Undiluted Worshiper and basically went all out to say to our young people that is okay to be accused of loving Jesus too much, to be known as a Jesus Freak, to be giving too much, to be at church too much, to be overly devoted to the Person and mission of Christ, to serve the church until their hands are bleeding cause NOW as young adults is the only time they may have time to give it their all.

Good weekend, God weekend. Enter in people of God give all you can to the mission of Christ you'll never regret it!

Super Delight to be Home but Will Miss TOAM'11 Thursday Night

2011-07-14T19:57:00.001+01:00

Cannot explain how grateful I am to the ever-faithful Father for the safe arrival of my third "arrow in the hand of a warrior" yesterday morning at 3:25am. It did involve a pretty hasty dash up from the south of England to Watford on the train but again God has lavished us with such blessings in the birth of our second boy. I am simply delighted to be here!

Yet I am conscious that if there's a night to be at the Newfrontiers TOAM conferences it's Thursday and I'll not be there this, the last, time. What I am delighted with is that 20 of the X1 massive will be there, almost half of whom for the first time, to experience a cacophony of praise, an ecstatic barrage of prayer, and joyful overflowing giving that they'll be forever marked by such. For it was this night (Thursday TOAM 2005) that left me astounded by the focus and devotion of Newfrontiers people to global mission and the planting of NT churches internationally.
My prayer for them, and for the X1ers who've not made it to a TOAM conference, as their pastor is that this ethos will mark them indelibly with a consciousness of the sheer joy it is to be invited into, to participate in, and to give to God's global redemptive mission!

Enjoy folks, and bring back some of the hunger that X1 may play our part in making disciples of all nations.

In Him
Simon

All In!

2011-07-12T07:55:00.001+01:00

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39 ESV)

It's amazing what gloss we put on the call of discipleship. Globally there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian leaders selling their version of the call to follow Jesus that typically is rather comfortable for us or, in fact, totally physically rewarding. I love Christ's 'sales pitch' here: LOSE YOUR LIFE, GIVE IT UP! That's my type of call man! Cut away the dross, strip away the false dressing and lay it out. That's exactly what our saviour does here.

There is stunning reward for following Jesus. In fact the cost, which if you read this verse again is ALL - there is no halves here, there is no comfort style option, Christianity with all the trimmings so to speak - is infinitely outweighed by the reward! He's the reward, it is relationship with Jesus that makes 'sense' of tossing aside all other 'valuable' things and joyously holding on to the great treasure, the pearl of great price, that is life in the Kingdom, living for, and following devotedly after Jesus Christ.

In Him
Simon

Church Unity

2011-07-11T07:12:00.004+01:00

First post in 11 months, what can I say? Nothing, you're right, just get on with it...

Great opportunity to gather with those who fellowship with the other churches across Watford yesterday. It was the annual 'Bandstand' Service here in our town. I deeply appreciate the efforts of Rev Tim Roberts and his Christians Across Watford team as, and this is sadly true, it is easier not to do this than to do it. I will be the first to admit that Ecumenism at one level equals impotence, but at another level it is as reflective of heaven as anything we will do as believers.
There were a good number of us there yesterday (Christians and more particularly X1ers) proclaiming with an obvious visibility that there are a number of people in this town that love the Lord Jesus. That alone is significant spiritually I feel. So it was good to be a part of that celebration.

There is so much that X1 still needs to do, still needs to become, and to set 'it all' aside for one Sunday could be seen as a distraction to our mission some may feel; but the mission of X1 - to Serve Watford, Transform Lives, Shape Culture - must be attained within the context of the Kingdom of God and what our great Saviour is doing through all the churches in this town.
My prayer is that our attendance, input, and active embracing of this event and all that God is doing through the churches in Watford will grow, not lessen, as the years pass.

Blessings all.
Simon

Heed These Words

2010-09-02T15:52:00.003+01:00

Listening to a stunning sermon by C.J. Mahaney in preparation for our Grace Series at X1 Watford and this is a quote he finishes with that is so very powerful. Hear this:

“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. . . This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ doesn’t cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest.”

- B. B. Warfield

Nothing I add, grace, grace, grace!

Simon

Wow, this is a call!

2010-09-01T13:27:00.000+01:00

Mohler - Spirituality in contrast to Christian Faith

2010-08-05T12:00:00.004+01:00

Our wonderful, and o so faithful Administrative Assistant here at X1 has the wonderful knack of purchasing books for me as gifts that often really speak to me significantly. She has done it again with a book I'm reading now, 'Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth' by R. Albert Mohler.
It is a short, extremely incisive Biblical, unadulteratedly Christian insight into current cultural issues.

I was struck this morning by these words written as part of a reflection of living in a post 9/11 Terrorist Attack world:

"We learn[ed] that spirituality is no substitute for Christian faith. Churches were filled to capacity in the weeks following September 11. Some observers predicted a period of national revival and openess to the gospel. That did not happen. Within just a few months, church attendance had fallen to pre 9/11 levels. The national trauma produces flutterings of spirituality but little evidence of renewed Christian conviction.
Spirituality is what is left when authentic Christianity is evacuated from the public square. It is the refuge of the faithless seeking the trappings of faith without the demands of revealed truth. Spirituality affirms us in our self-centeredness and soothingly tells us all is well. Authentic faith in Christ calls us out of ourselves, points us to the Cross, and summons us to follow Christ."

My o my, clear incisive insight to the way things actually are. It is demanding for me as a church leader because i can never rest content that the 'spiritual' are amongst us - they must be called to 'Authentic faith in Christ.'

Simon

Be Overflowing with Praise

2010-08-02T10:50:00.005+01:00

Umm mmm mmm, did we have a wonderful time as the gathered people of God at X1 yesterday morning or what? Certainly feeling God is shifting things in our very culture with respect to our sung out worship of the King together. As the Lead Elder I can only pray for more and more of the same.

As part of that desire for a shift to be pronounced and affecting in our minds, hearts, and actions I shared a message that had been on my heart as a pastor for over a year. I entitled it, "Be Overflowing with Praise." The simple thesis of the whole message being: Christians are empowered and filled with the Spirit of God in such a way as to overflow with expressive, exuberant praise for their God at all times - even in the dark, dark hours of the soul. (Not with fake outward adherence, or as a religious must, but from deep within a soul aware of all who God is and all HE's done.) Anyway enough of my thoughts, I wanted to re-share the thoughts of Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 103, the text I used for yesterday's sermon.

Here it is:

"As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavour such as no fruit ever bears unless it has been ripened in the full sunshine of mercy. It is man's reply to the benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer's Sermon on the Mount. [here] David awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living and true God."

Beautiful isn't it?
Bless you Lord for giving us the words and ministry of such a golden throated orator thoroughly consumed with love for you.

Simon

A Healthy dose of Piper

2010-07-28T12:38:00.004+01:00

I'm sorry this man has so richly blessed me in His absolute fascination with my, and his, God for so many years now, and in this sermon he does it again. I have to place some excerpts here for all of you to read and taste.

"When David says, 'I will magnify God with thanksgiving, he does not mean: 'I will make a small God look bigger than he is. He means: 'I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is.' We are not called to be microscopes, but telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor's product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God...

...We are called to be telescopes: people who make the greatness of God seem as great as it really is. This is what it means for a Christian to magnify God. But you can't magnify what you haven't seen or what you quickly forget. Therefore, our first task is to see and to remember the greatness and goodness of God. So we pray to God, "Open the eyes of my heart," and we preach to our souls, 'Soul, forget not all his benefits!'

...There are only two groups of people in the world whose differences from each other are of any eternal significance: those who love to magnify God and those who love to magnify themselves. At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one's own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest; we are cripples leaning on the cross shaped crutch of Jesus Christ; we are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God's mercy; we are children asleep in heaven's stroller. Natural man hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of all his glory by giving it all to God. Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel any genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God, but only himself."

On Psalm 69: 30 - 32. (See sermon here)

Let's be overflowing with praise - it gives glory to He who deserves it and it's truly missional!

Simon

Peter's denial

2010-07-28T10:45:00.005+01:00

I wonder if there has been a 'darker night' in the soul of any other man. Think of it, not only have you shot your mouth off about the mighty measure of your boldness, but you've told Jesus Christ that he does not know what he's talking about when he exposes your false bravado. Then you go ahead and deny your friendship with the man who actually defines all that friendship is and should be - in front of a servant girl no less. Could it get any worse, any darker, any more bleak? Answer: Yes!

As you deny your association with the incarnate God, the one who is on a predetermined mission to give His life for you to ensure eternal oneness with your creator and give the gift of abundant life which we all long for - he looks over at you and 'looks straight' at you!
What do you do? Where do you run? Do you ache with every ounce of your entirety that maybe just maybe this is all a dream? Do you fake a 'so what, I never really was in on all this discipleship following Christ stuff any way?'
No you do exactly what Peter did (yeah it's Peter I'm talking about, you're free to read all about it in the 22nd Chapter of Luke) - you "weep bitterly.' Looking up the understanding of these words in the original Greek you come to see that this was no passive, gentle, quit sob. No this was loud wailing: heart-broken, emotion-releasing, tragedy-realizing wailing.

Not sure about you, but may I tell you that this pastor has stood in those shoes, maybe not to anywhere near the same degree, and of course without the incarnate Christ there to look into my eyes and display to me His deep, loving sorrow. But, I've lived in such a way, thought in such a way, been silent in such a way that I've denied my Lord. So what now... what about Peter? Is this the end of the story.

No it isn't. You see God is incomprehensibly forgiving to those who turn to Him in Godly sorrow - maybe too forgiving for many as they are unable to forgive themselves. The story goes on. Peter's does. Look at the restoration in John 21; see his participation in the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 (he's not left out cause he 'failed'); see just a little later as he displays the inner transformation that takes place with repentance, reconciliation, and Holy Spirit endowment.

O the grace of God, "He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I Jn. 1: 9)
How can you not love this one?

Simon

Inter-church unity

2010-07-26T11:03:00.002+01:00

One brief glimpse at Christ's prayer for the 'future believers' in John 17 gives glorious credence to His great desire for unity among His people. Interspersed in almost all the epistles in the NT we see similar hopes, even pleas for unity.
Christ's promise over unity in His prayer of John 17 is majestic and one that I, as a local church leader, am jealous to receive. It's not easy though. Those on the fringes of church leadership, or with a naive view of all things pertaining to the complexity of leadership often can lay offense at 'church'for the disunity that appears to mark us. I will be the first to agree that it is in no way what it should be. Both within the family of a local church and again within the broader fellowship within a village, town or city.

At X1 we are going to make efforts to achieve some form of unity that would hopefully bring honor to our Lord, bring glory to Him, and also receive the rewards of that John 17 promise. I feel that it must be relational, and thus it is with great joy that I can reflect on a wonderful meal with the family called to lead another brilliant local church within Watford. There is so much that binds us and there is the growing foundation of a meaningful relationship that makes me hope and believe for some fruitful partnership in the future.

Bless this church Lord and draw us together to display something of what you prayed for those two millenia ago, and for which you still pray today.

Solo gloria

Simon

Michael Horton on our identity and calling

2010-07-20T13:35:00.004+01:00

As I said, I'm reading tons of books on grace and just started. "Putting Amazing back into Grace" by Michael Horton. Great start I assure you.
While introducing the book and after stating clearly, "Grace is the gospel." He wrote these words on our identity and calling as followers of Jesus Christ. I liked it a lot so I thought I'd share it.

"Our sense of purpose, as individuals and as a church, depends largely on how clearly we grasp certain truths about who God is, who we are, and what God's plan for history involves. Christians form a new humanity, a spiritual race. Just as a rib was taken from Adam's side to create Eve, God has taken people 'from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God (Rev. 5: 9 1- 10). This new race exists for a purpose, a definite reason. It exists to make God's glory felt in a dark and drab world; the new race is to be found in every imaginable ethnic, cultural, social, economic, and national grouping. It is seen dispersed throughout every stratum: In hospitals and schools, in homes and offices, from the coastal beaches to the city skyscrapers."

Blessings

Simon

Grace - what a ring in that word.

2010-07-19T11:59:00.002+01:00

As I tweeted earlier in the week I've got the great privilege as a teaching pastor here at X1 Watford to spend time studying the thoughts, arguments, and stunning expositions on God's word as I prepare to share with our people here. I mentioned that we are to enter into a series on 'Grace' as of Sept 19th and so I'm doing a lot of reading on that subject.
I hope to deposit several jewels from that reading over the next few weeks to enable others to enter into reading they may not have the time or motivation to do themselves. I'll start with something from Charles Spurgeon (not a bad place to start many would say) which is clear and concise on the beauty of God's grace:

"What a ring there is in that word grace. Why it does one good to speak it and to hear it; it is, indeed, a charming sound, harmonious to the ear. When one feels the power of it, it is enough to make the soul leap out of the body for joy.

Grace how good, how cheap, how free,
Grace, how easy to be found!
Only let your misery
In the Saviour's blood be drowned!

Grace, how it suits a sinner! How it cheers a poor forlorn wanderer from God!"

Sweet, and simple.

Simon

Wise words to preachers & bible teachers from Spurgeon

2010-07-17T15:25:00.003+01:00

We do appear to live in an age of Christendom in the West that is at the very least shy of doctrine but can often actually be averse to it. Again and again I am confronted by this in my ministry. Here, in a sermon almost 144 years old, the wonderful Charles Spurgeon highlights his thoughts on preaching doctrine, and it's great importance:

"If we would influence thoughtful persons it must be by solid arguments. Shallow minds may be wrought upon by mere warmth of emotion and force of excitement, but the more valuable part of the community must be dealt with in quite another manner. When the apostle Paul was desirous to influence his son in the faith, Timothy, who was a diligent and earnest student and a man of gifts as well as of grace, he did not attempt to affect him by mere appeals to his feelings, but felt that the most effectual way to act upon him was to remind him of solid doctrinal truth which he knew him to have believed.

This is a lesson for the ministry at large. Certain earnest preachers are incessantly exciting the people, and but seldom if ever instructing them; they carry much fire and very little light. God forbid that we should say a word against appealing to the feelings; this is most needful in its place, but then there is a due proportion to be observed in it. A religion which is based upon, sustained, and maintained simply by excitement, will necessarily be very flimsy and unsubstantial, and will yield very speedily to the crush of opposition or to the crumbling hand of time.

The preacher may touch the feelings by rousing appeals, as the harper touches the harpstrings; he will be very foolish if he should neglect so ready and admirable an instrument; but still as he is dealing with reasonable creatures, he must not forget to enlighten the intellect and instruct the understanding...
...I do not doubt but that a far greater power for usefulness lies concealed within the doctrines of grace than some men have ever dreamed of. It has been usual to look upon doctrinal truth as being nothing more than unpractical theory, and many have spoken of the precepts of God's Word as being more practical and more useful; the day may yet come when in clearer light we shall perceive that sound doctrine is the very root and vital energy of practical holiness, and that to teach the people the truth which God has revealed is the readiest and surest way of leading them to obedience and persevering holiness."

- Salvation Altogether by Grace, July 29th 1866.

Simon

The 'if' of Covenant

2010-07-12T10:56:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I preached my penultimate sermon in our Joshua series: Living Life Without the Fear. (See videos here) My focus was on Joshua's final words to the Israelite leadership in Joshua 23.

After stressing the importance of an individuals final words using the illustration of the scene of the frog king in Shrek 3 where he draws Shrek close to him to tell him essential words. I called the people of X1 to heed the emphasis of verse 11 in this chapter:

"So be very careful to love the LORD your God."

The words here talk of a 'cleaving' to God. The verse speaks of a steadfast, diligent and applied watching of our relationship with God in order not to fail in our fulfillment of our part in our covenant relationship with the Lord. I spoke of the many warnings and exhortations in the NT not to turn away, or fall away from God, or to entertain temptation by not resisting the devil written not to unbelievers but to believers.

Joshua speaks here of God being astonishingly faithful to His part of His covenant with the Israelites but also of the dire consequences that come from not ' being very careful to love God.' Tragically, and I feel the words I'll quote now are some of the saddest in all of scripture, the Israelites do not listen and intermingle with the destructive spirituality/immorality of the nations surrounding them with this result

"The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel...After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel." - Judges 2: 7, 10

This is so possible for us as the people of God in a generation virtually devoid of a God-consciousness saturated in consumerism and materialism and pluralism (all faiths are the same). He can have, and does have, such stunning promises and grace towards us to live life truly abundantly in the power of the Spirit, but we can forget to 'be very careful to love the Lord our God' and not enjoy any benefits of relationship with Him.
We will not lose the justification that comes from our being renewed by Him in new birth but we certainly can live out a life of mundane, legalistic, apathetic, guilt-ridden obedience earthed in human striving instead of Spirit-empowered joy filled loving obedience and we must be careful to heed the words of Joshua and the other biblical authors to ensure that does not happen.

Seek strength in His Spirit, as Jesus said, "If you love me you will obey what I command."

Simon

Personal Reflection on TOAM 2010

2010-07-12T10:26:00.003+01:00

Just back from a brilliant 4 days in Brighton at the Newfrontiers TOAM Conference. This is a yearly gathering of the leaders of Newfrontiers churches from all over the globe (38 nations represented this year). It is always a great time and so strengthening while often restoring a vision for God's heart for the nations - this year was no different. It was extra special this year to know that 19 people from X1 (only 5 of us last year) would be part of the week and taste the heart and ethos of Newfrontiers as a movement of churches.

In the very first session on Tuesday we were launched immediately into God's global mandate, His passion for the nations, and His calling upon us to plant healthy word & spirit churches for the sake of the redemption of mankind. Scott Marques now based in Nampula, Mozambique (literally in a mud/metal hut in the bushes) who is living this mandate out encouraged us to be radical, adventurous and wild in capturing God's heart for people. Other individuals echoed this throughout the 4 days, with Dave Stroud (Christ Church, Central London) fixating our attention particularly on God's 'demand' upon us to remember the poor in all we do. (Strongly echoing the themes in a book by Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road)

For me personally, the afternoon sessions with Terry Virgo were so enriching and uplifting in their effect that I am so pleased to have been able to hear them.

Terry expounded Ephesians 6: 10 - 20 with biblical accuracy, clarity, and much pastoral wisdom. On day 1 he highlighted that we are to be 'strong', that we are to see that we are soldiers in conflict as we follow Christ. In fact the whole book of Ephesians must be read with this mindset. But this strength is not stoic, or self-induced, it is 'being strengthened in the mighty strength of the Lord.' This means drawing on the promises and power of God regularly.
On the second day, Terry detailed the elements of the armour of God with real brilliance and then brought the exposition to a crescendo in highlighting the 'salvation' that is intimated by Paul as he writes 'helmet of salvation.' This is so much more than a one off personal-historical event but the transformation, restoration, reconciliation and renewal of all of creation. The day when 'darkness disappears and all of creation is brought into the light.'
The final day was truly apostolic in its application as he centred on Paul's exhortation to pray 1) with various prayers on different occasions, 2) empowered by the Spirit, & 3) with focus on the apostolic gospel mission to the nations.
Here Terry's heart for prayer was truly evident and the charge to be likewise in our leadership - to lead with prayer and in prayer - was certainly taken on board by this elder.

The Thursday night offering was as stunning and mind-blowing in it's fervor and passion as ever and affected each of the X1ers who were part of it.
Yip, we had a wonderful time and my hope is that we will bring back much that we learnt and absorbed and affect our church with it. O and of course I hope that next year we will have even more than 19!

Check out the videos as they get uploaded here.

Simon

'Christian' - noun or adjective

2010-07-05T10:52:00.004+01:00

I have been asked to have a close look at Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis as part of a discussion I'll be involved in over this week. It is a book I read several years ago and which I found brilliant, challenging, and refreshing, yet also unhelpful, dangerous, and volatile. (Read it with grace and maturity)

This blog post is not to divulge my reasons for such responses to the book but to just highlight a tiny section that is relevant to several discussions taking place within the life of X1 at this time. Again and again I interact with conversations exposing a secular/holy divide in people's thinking (even my own). This divide is one (created by us not God I feel) that marks so many believers today and can almost cause them to have a view of created reality that is unbiblical and certainly cramping of all the truth and goodness that is God's that does not wear the 'Christian' label.

Here is where Rob Bell's thoughts are insightful

“It is a dangerous thing to label things 'Christian.' The word Christian appears in the bible as a noun. The first followers of Jesus were called Christians because they had devoted themselves to living the way of the Messiah, who they believed was Jesus.

Noun. A person. A person who follows Jesus. A person living in tune with ultimate reality, God. A way of life centered around a person who lives.

The problem with turning the noun into an adjective and then tacking it on to words is that it can create categories that limit the truth...

Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective."

We as Christians must make things lovely - not Christian. Do them with passion and devotion that honours the Lord and exposes His glory to a watching world. Teach like that, design like that, dance like that, write songs like that, mother and father like that, account like that, pack boxes in a factory like that, run like that, play football like that and so on. That doesn't make them Christian necessarily but it should make them so beautiful, so reflective of the way those things were ultimately intended and created to be done that they are 'holy' bathed in God and His purpose for those things.

I hope I've somewhat got my point across with Mr. Bell's help.

Simon

Humble Gratitude

2010-07-05T10:36:00.003+01:00

Jacob (who is renamed Israel by the Lord) does not paint most of his life with glory. In fact several episodes in his life are down-right shameful. Stealing birthrights and blessings, lying and cheating - in fact he's a little too much like us in our failings and fallenness for our own liking.
Well guess what? At times even this man gets things so right it's startling, and today in the course of my bible reading I came across one of those times. Jacob is about to encounter his brother Esau who seems to be a bit of a heavy if biblical testimony is anything to go by (and yes it is the greatest testimony to go by). This is the same brother whom he cheated and stole from, bringing him to tears, so I think Jacob is quaking in his sandals.
In this moment, kind of how it works in our lives all-too-often, Jacob is deeply aware of his need of God and in this awareness says words that I feel should mark the life of every 21st century believer. Here they are

"I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant." - Gen 32: 10

Humble gratitude is a life transforming attitude that is a sweet aroma to all around us. Immersed in our consumer culture and pampered by therapeutically overdosed selfishness we far too often complain, moan, groan, and grumble and it is too unattractive to even articulate.
The attitude and mentality - humble gratitude - that inspired these words of jacob should constantly and consistently mark our lives today. I guarantee you it will be more evangelistically effective than you'd imagine.

Every blessing
Simon

Wanting to just 'play.'

2010-07-01T09:29:00.005+01:00

The people of X1 gathered last night for our regular Unite prayer meeting and it was a truly precious time for all of us. There is a dynamic when we get together and earnestly and humbly seek God's heart together like this in prayer that is different to every other setting. I encourage so many of you out there who see the prayer meeting as the 'cop out' moment of church life to really seek your hearts and allow God to convict you of any wrong attitude towards this part of a church's true spiritual identity.

Anyway, on to what I wanted to share briefly. Praying with charismatic people who still believe that God is real, alive and longing to personally communicate with His people is so exciting. So often the Spirit of God leads individuals to share what they feel is on God's heart for us as a family and then we are blessed, strengthened and encouraged as we follow that 'theme' in our prayers together.
Last night one of the wonderful themes was that of God expressing His desire for us to just 'play' with Him. To enjoy Him I guess. To be in on His team, not to feel like we'll be the last one chosen, waiting at the very end of the line (like the 'bad old days' at school if you were anything like me) but to be chosen first, and to just truly enjoy freedom, peace, exhilaration, fun, activity and joy with Him.

We felt that so many of us miss out on this vital element of our faith in Christ whether it be through sin, pre-occupation with self, distraction, apathy, just add to the list, but so many of us are not 'playing' with Jesus, our whole journey with Him is laborious and official. I am certain that is not God's heart for us - certainly the gospels portray a very different Jesus to that - and I ask our God and King to set many of us free (at X1 and wherever else) to know this lifestyle as we follow Christ.

Simon

The 's' word!

2010-06-28T12:08:00.003+01:00

About 25 minutes ago while making a juice for my gorgeous little girl (it is baking hot here in Watford) I heard the words that I hear far too often and which disgust me to put it mildly. Through our lounge windows which open on to the road to a kids' school a mother said to her little girl, "Well you're stupid..."

Parents, any of you, and my word even more so if you're believing parents, may I just make something overtly obvious to you: In the above equation there is only one person exposing their blatant stupidity and that is the parent.
To call a child stupid as part of the 'parenting package' exposes incivility, lack of grace, lack of wisdom, immaturity, impatience, and a form of barbaric nastiness.

It brings to my mind a marvelous little section of a superb book by C.S. Lewis called The Four Loves where I think Lewis expresses a similar incredulity at parenting of such a nature. Let him speak to us...

"We hear a great deal about the rudeness of the rising generation. I am an oldster myself and might be expected to take the oldsters' side, but in fact I have been far more impressed by the bad manners of parents to children than by those of children to parents. Who has not been the embarrassed guest at family meals where the father or mother treated their grown-up offspring with an incivility which, offered to any other young people, would simply have terminated the acquaintance? Dogmatic assertions on matters which the children understand and their elders don't, ruthless interruptions, flat contradictions, ridicule of things the young take seriously sometimes of their religion insulting references to their friends, all provide an easy answer to the question "Why are they always out? Why do they like every house better than their home?" Who does not prefer civility to barbarism?"

Let's love our little ones, and be so aware that 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words... break my heart."

Simon

Corporate Praise

2010-06-28T09:53:00.002+01:00

As a family we've been away from Christ First for a couple of weeks, missing two Sundays in the process. In that time we've been either traveling or a significant distance away from an evangelical church so have not had the opportunity to worship with the people of God. This Sunday was a return for us to our family within the body of Christ and it was truly sweet to worship within them once again.

We live at a time where there is a significant number of believers who are not at all 'bothered' about gathered worship (admittedly there are, of course, those who think that is all 'church' is). In fact even within X1 a typical attendance pattern for many would be 3 Sundays in every 5, and as the summer is upon us I see that figure shifting more to 2 in 5.

So many of us are so 'infected' with the rampant, prevailing individualism that makes capitalistic, consumerist culture exactly what it is that we can not detect in ourselves how our 'selfish' pursuit of Christ ("it's my faith", "it's about me and Jesus" mentality) is in exact opposition to God's intended pattern for us as members of God's body. Keeping that idea in mind, the idea of the body, to state, "Ah just kinda want it to be about me and Jesus this Sunday, I'll sneak in a little quiet time and then be still with Him," is like the toe saying to the knee, "Ah just going to take a break from the body today, you guys get on without me would you..."

There should be a hunger within us to be with the people of God, to gather to praise and worship the risen King. In that there is this astounding dynamic that as we lift up Yahweh, focus on Him, set our gaze upon Him, our affections are united, our emotions engaged and elevated, and, I hope in almost every case anyway, our faith reinvigorated and stoked for further mission fulfillment!

I think this is what we felt yesterday anyway, and it was good, very good, to be back with our 'family' knitting hearts and being blessed by the presence of the living God in our midst.

Simon

Home Comforts

2010-06-26T11:17:00.002+01:00

What is it about getting back home after you've been away. The words, "Ah it's great to be home," used to come off my folks' lips every time we returned from a holiday as I grew up and I can remember often thinking, "no it isn't I loved being on holiday in South Africa where you can get real sweets and awesome toys." Now I can fully identify with the root emotion that expressed those words all those years ago.

The LJ family have just returned from a simply lovely holiday in Brittany, France at a place called Moulin Begasse, near Meslan (click here for website). We were truly blessed to get the time away in a peaceful and idyllic setting encountering very little other than God's revelation of Himself both in nature and in personal communion (more on that in future blogs). But we're back and it is simply marvelous to be so. I don't fully get it but I felt it in a pronounced way as I prepared my morning cup of coffee.

As many know, and say, to my face actually, I am a rumoured 'coffee snob' - in other words I don't drink instant coffee and love to prepare filter coffee in a french press. Well I have a special and particular process of doing that which involves a particular mug, a defined amount of time heating that mug in the microwave prior to placing within the mug a certain number of sugar grains (I jest, but almost) and then after a well-worked-out-through-trial-and-error amount of time within my overused french press plunging the press and pouring the coffee. Yes, while doing this today I felt a surge of, "Ah it's great to be home."

I am sure there is something spiritual to it, and I would be the first to shout that I am a citizen of heaven and this is not my true home, but God seems to have instilled within us a longing for 'our place' where we know we are his definite 'under-shepherds' of that minimal, even minute, slice of His glorious creation.

Good to be back.

Simon

A commentator's insights on II Cor. 8 & 9

2010-06-08T16:27:00.002+01:00

On the Logos 4 bible program (as I've mentioned before) there is 2 really helpful commentaries on the books of Corinthians. Here is some thoughts from one of them relating to Sunday's message on giving and the ideas espoused in these two chapters of scripture:
In these chapters are
1. Paul’s overall argument concerning Christian giving
1. example of others (Macedonians) vv. 1–5
2. giving is an aspect of spiritual growth, vv. 7–8
3. example of Christ, v. 9; 9:15
4. their own start, vv. 6, 10
5. encouragement to put desire into action, v. 10
6. motive, not amount, is the key, v. 12
7. giving equals out, v. 14

2. New Testament guidelines for Christian giving based on the model of the churches of Macedonia
1. joyous and genuine, even amidst poverty, v. 2; 9:7
2. gave to utmost of ability, v. 3
3. gave sacrificially beyond ability, vv. 3, 12
4. gave freely, v. 3; 9:7
5. gave sincerely, v. 4
6. gave more than money, v. 5

Utley, R. J. D. (2002). Vol. Volume 6: Paul's Letters to a Troubled Church: I and II Corinthians. Study Guide Commentary Series (260). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.

Hope they are somewhat helpful.

Simon

On NOT speaking on 'Tithing.'

2010-06-08T15:30:00.003+01:00

This week at X1 I had the joy/challenge of speaking, or NOT, speaking on tithing to our people. The reason it is a challenge is twofold really, I feel.
Firstly, you are entering into a great emotionally charged/ 'do not invade' space of the western believer's psyche. This is one of those 'do not go there' areas of our walk. The personal area where it is hard to determine how a church leadership displays any God-given authority.
Secondly, as I mentioned to the people of X1 on Sunday, it is a definite Spiritual Warfare battleground because we are confronting a very significant idol in the Western world. As a preacher and leader entering into this territory it is a case of 'get locked and loaded,' put on that 'heavenly armor' and get ready for some attack. As I suggested to the congregation it is akin to confronting biblically people from my home country of Zimbabwe about Ancestral Worship (African Traditional Religion) and declaring that these idols are to be knocked off their perches by the only true, living God. Some of you may know how that goes - speaking about money here is engaging in similar combat but the enemy here appears to wear far more inconspicuous clothing and one wonders where he is actively gunning people down.

My preaching was out of Joshua 21 continuing on in our series in Joshua - 'Living Life without the Fear.' Here we see the Levites given their cities out of the inheritance of their fellow Israelites and the obvious point is that without the God-honoring, other-centered obedience of the Israelites there would be no Levite cities to speak of.
Without them giving 48 of their cities and giving of their grain, livestock and income there would be no places of Spiritual input and direction within the nation of Israel. These Levite cities were the Spiritual Communities offering TRUTH, JUSTICE & MERCY within the Israelite community - which like any other human society (as seen by the tragic and dreadful Cumbria shootings of last week) was/is fragile and fractured and prone to soul-atrophying, rebel-making distance from God.

We too as God's people have the great joy and privilege (According to Paul in II Cor. 8 & 9) to give generously as tasters of God's grace in Christ to the building of Levite cities within our own fractured and fragile communities. And nowhere is it meant to be 10% - the NT makes absolutely no obligation along the lines of a percentile of your income it is purely as an overflow of being transformed by the grace of God and wanting true 'equality' for all people and 'investing' in such through their local 'home of spiritual sustenance' and hub for God's mission - the local Church.

I can only hope the people of X1 will arise to give much to see X1 truly be a Spiritual Community offering refuge, hope and direction to the community in Watford. It should not be my compulsion but a resposiveness to their tasting of the abundant, lavish grace of God.

Blessings
SLJ

Keller on Alienation from God

2010-05-20T13:47:00.002+01:00

It's been... ages I know... sorry no excuses.
Well I'll jump straight back in then with the fantastic input of Tim Keller (Redeemer Presby New York) on our 'alienation from God' as humanity. Here goes:

"One way to understand our alienation from God is to consider the solar system. There is harmony between the planets because they all agree on the center - the sun. But if each planet were to have a different center for its orbit, there would be cataclysmic collisions. God's 'center' is His own glory; he does everything because it is consistent with his own righteous, holy perfect nature. We, however, 'center' on our own comfort and happiness; we live for our own glory. Therefore, there is an inevitable collision between God and man. Man is traumatized by and and is hostile to the holy presence of God. Yet we are built for fellowship with God. We cannot live with God and we cannot live without God. This is the essence of man's condition [without Christ; see Gen 3]."

Good stuff hey? Helpful way to explain it and think it all through.

Simon

Struck by a plague of insects - well one.

2010-04-26T15:20:00.003+01:00

Thought we were an accursed people this Sunday - thought the Lord had declared His final say upon us. I guess you probably need me to explain. IT APPEARS WE WERE STRUCK BY A PLAGUE OF INSECTS! Well not really - just one, and a little one at that, but he/she did enough to bring the morning service at X1 to a halt.

Humorously, the exact timing of us as a people needing to gather our things and rush to the nearest fire exit was dead in the middle of me leading us in a corporate prayer of confession using David's prayer in Psalm 51. There I was down at the front of Vue Screen 7 reading out this stunning prayer and one of our key coordinators for Sunday mornings comes running up to me (I have to say I just did not know what was going on) and says, "The fire alarm is going off they are evacuating the building. Well there you go - one of the down sides of meeting in 'public space' was that we had to respond, gosh we couldn't even pass it off as some form of desperate final attack by the enemy to stop us meeting and stand against with raised voices and vociferous faith, we just had to up and leave.

Back to the 'plague.' After a few moments standing outside with everyone from the other screens the fire crew checked the building, declared it safe for re-entry and we were back in. Turns out that our creche lights were the problem - to be more exact a bee roasting away in one of our creche lights (and as we know there's no burning bug without smoke - or is that smoke without fire, mmm...) which set the alarm off and brought all proceedings to a stand still.

Bit of a laugh really, and I am actually so proud of the people of X1 for there patience and togetherness. All part of 'worship' I guess.

Oh yes here's a pic of the unfortunate perpetrator of the pestilence

Simon

Joshua's Gilgal and Calvary

2010-04-21T11:31:00.004+01:00

A true joy of being called to 'feed' the flock God has enabled us to lead as an Eldership here at X1 is that of searching deeply multiple resources to provide the most beneficial sustenance possible. I love this, even when it is a chore (as it can be demanding spending 10 - 15 hours a week preparing a sermon) as the input it gives to me personally is great - I only pray it will have the same effect on those who hear the sermon weekly.
With that said I want to highlight a brilliant quote from one of the commentaries I am using for the "Living Life without the Fear" series here at X1 in relation to the camp of Gilgal as a 'Spiritual Home Base' for the Israelites. The quote is from the British Expositor Alan Redpath and it gives a 'fascinating parallel between Gilgal and Calvary:

"May I remind you of the great words of NT truth and salvation which have their roots deeply imbedded in Gilgal. Here they are; refresh your memory. It was a place of rememberance, where all of God's people together went down unto death; it was a place of resurrection, where together they came up with their leader into life. It was a place of renunciation, where they cast off the carnal existence of the wilderness; it was a place of restoration, where they came again into fellowship with the lord. It was a place of realization, where they began to taste of the strong food of the land; it was the place of revelation, where they met their captain with a drawn sword.
The Christian life has its own roots firmly imbedded in Calvary, the place where we died with Jesus and rose with Him, where we have deliberately renounced carnality and have entered into a living fellowship with our Lord, where we have begun to take the strong food of His Word and to realize every moment of our lives that the Captain of the Lord's hosts is with us."

Yes o Yes - the great victory of Calvary!

Simon

Moses deals a reality 'double-whammy.'

2010-04-19T10:43:00.003+01:00

Tucked away in 'my happy place,' yes half of you guessed it, Starbucks and taking time to look into God's word - good times! I try and dip into the Psalms as regularly as possible as part of daily devotional time and got into Psalm 90 a few moments ago. It is written by Moses and is laced with healthy 'anti-humanistic' reality.
We need that every so often you know? Do you know? We are locked into a man worshiping, self-exalting society that can lead to a desperately skewed view of reality which is basically upside down. God is a man-made creation to serve us and our agendas, whereas the biblical view (seen here in Psalm 90) is the antithesis of such a 'reality.' What am I saying? Well let me expose you to just two thoughts from Moses the great man of God (note men that does not mean perfect, he failed, but he still was great in God's eyes for he sought to lead his people faithfully - our calling) in this Psalm - a reality 'double whammy' so to speak:

"For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered." (vs. 4 - 6)

"The length of our days is seventy years -- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." (vs. 10)

* The maths - A 'day' to God is 12 1/2 times the lifetime of the 'man of strength.'
* The dawning - every day of our life takes effort and strain to 'fully live' and yet in His serene, glorious, self-existence God expends NO energy to survive!

As Calvin wonderfully states at the outset of his Institutes - seeing who we are really allows us to see who He is. In the immortal words of Wayne and Garth (Wayne's World 2) "You big, we small."

O and get this, He does love His children more than we could ever estimate! Wow.

Simon

'Saved' as a Whole - there's no other salvation

2010-04-17T09:15:00.003+01:00

I am currently taking a journey through the scriptures that I have wanted to for some time now. For upwards of two years I have wanted to do an in depth theological/devotional study through Paul's epistles to the Corinthian church. Thanks to the love and generosity of a dear member of X1 I am now the very delighted user of Logos 4 (WOW!) and this bible program is the wonderful vehicle through which I am partaking of this journey.

I read something today in relation to Paul's writing on Sexual Immorality within the church (cf. I Cor. 6) and found that this quote really stood out. Why? Well I fear too often we do not realize that we are 'saved'/made new/'born again' as a complete whole and this false understanding can lead to destructive practice and seriously jilted theology (some of which I encounter repeatedly as a pastor). Often, even today, we are affected/infected by a form of gnosticism that seems to elevate the activities of our 'spirit' as followers of Christ over and above the activities of our 'body.' This is not NT theology... okay enough of me, I hope this helps you:

Humans do not have a soul; they are a soul (cf. Gen. 2:7). Related to this is Paul’s understanding that believers do not have a body; they are a body. This is possibly a theological development from Genesis and against Greek thought that depreciated the physical body as evil. The OT and the NT affirm a physical resurrection which is a way of affirming the goodness and eternality of human corporal existence. Later gnostic libertine or antinomian teachers would separate the physical aspects from the mental aspects, thereby affirming salvation as knowledge instead of godliness or righteousness. Paul affirms that the gospel is
1. a person to welcome
2. a truth about that person to believe
3. a life of that person to emulate
These cannot be separated! Humans are a unity! Salvation is comprehensive. The kingdom has arrived. There is an unbreakable bond between faith and obedience. Initial sanctification must lead to progressive sanctification. Righteousness is both a gift (INDICATIVE) and a command (IMPERATIVE).

(Utley, R. J. D. (2002). Vol. Volume 6: Paul's Letters to a Troubled Church: I and II Corinthians. Study Guide Commentary Series (76). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.)

Blessings
Simon

Musings on Politics

2010-04-15T13:23:00.003+01:00

Let me assure you I am no expert on politics and tend to shy away from any significant comments regarding the political milieu of the UK or any other nation for that matter. But it is that season again here in England - it is Election year.

There is no form of media to which you can turn at this time without being confronted with political leaders and/or 'experts' giving their analysis on the ideas of various political parties. TV, Internet, Newspapers and more are displaying the presentations of the political promises of each party vying for the votes of the public. This year is marked by an undercurrent of dissatisfaction within the nation due to the effects of the 'recession' so the promises and the duels for our 'x in the appropriate box' are more vociferous then normal it appears.

I have caught myself wondering if I, as a preacher presenting promises etc, am tarred with the same brush as these men and women by some. I guess some individuals would feel free to do that - assuming that in the end it is only about the art of rhetoric and letting people hear my voice louder than others.

The truth though could not be any further from such an assessment. Typically their promises are rooted in secular-minded initiative whereas my promises are rooted in the revelation of the redeeming, restoring supernaturally-empowered person of the Trinitarian YAHWEH (even in how that sounds and looks there is a marked difference). Typically their approach is aimed at appealing to voters to give them more of the temporary pleasure that they think they crave; whereas my approach is to appeal to the eternal imprint of God upon the very soul of the human-being to give them a life more abundant than they could have imagined by looking past temporary craving and seeing eternal joy in the presence of creator God.
The list I'm sure is far greater than that, but I guess this goes someway to appease my own curiosity in regards to why I'm different to a politician and that my goal, my heart, my ambition is far, far more than polished rhetoric for more votes.
I've received the vote of the only One that counts, and as Paul the apostle states to the church in Galatia, 'if I were in this to please man I'd need to give in immediately!'
(Please allow me some generalization in this post - there are some wonderful Christ-centered politicians I know.)

Blessings
SLJ

Behaviour in Leadership

2010-04-06T12:09:00.003+01:00

Far too many people, sadly many of these are believers with an aspiration for leadership, seem to think that behaviour has no part to play in their leadership 'calling.' They seem to refer primarily to the role of motives (now in one sense this is true, but in another it is so far from the truth - as I said recently to our men, "DON'T BE GODLY DO GODLY!") in Christian leadership. Today I found these excellent, convicting, inspiring words from Andy Stanley in his brilliant book Visioneering.

"Every great leader, every successful father and mother, anybody who has ever received and followed through successfully with a God-given vision has possessed a form of authority that rests not on position or accomplishment, but on an inner conviction and the willingness to bring his or her life into alignment with that conviction. It is the alignment between a person's convictions and his behaviour that makes his life persuasive. Herein is the key to sustained influence.

The phrase that best captures this dynamic is moral authority... Moral authority is the critical, nonnegotiable, can't-be-without ingredient of sustained influence...
Moral authority is the credibility you earn by walking your talk. It is the relationship other people see between what you say and what you do, between what you claim to be and that you are. A person with moral authority is beyond reproach. That is when you look for a discrepancy between what he says he believes and what he does, you come up empty. There is alignment between conviction and action, belief and behaviour.

Nothing compensates for a lack of moral authority."

What does your life say about what you believe. How do your actions, your behaviour, portray your leadership 'calling.'

Simon

Eugene Peterson on 'Training a Pastor for the modern Christian Consumer'

2010-04-05T10:57:00.004+01:00

As mentioned in my last post, I am sharing a quote read by Matt Chandler in a sermon I have listened to this morning (the context of the quote was to rebuke modern pastors who tend to just pursue technique to try and grow church rather than pursuing substance and being like the heroes of Hebrews 11).
The challenge of this quote is laid squarely at us as Pastors - how easily we can mislead and 'grow' church in the wrong way - but also quite definitely at the feet of the modern Christian with their expectations of a leader - how low they can be with regards to the things that TRULY count rather than the often-overemphasis on minor things that really don't.

Here's the quote from a book entitled Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity

For a long time, I have been convinced that I could take a person with a high school education, give him or her a six-month trade school training, and provide a pastor who would be satisfactory to any discriminating American congregation. The curriculum would consist of four courses.

Course
I: Creative Plagiarism.
I would put you in touch with a wide range of excellent and inspirational talks, show you how to alter them just enough to obscure their origins, and get you a reputation for wit and wisdom.

Course
II: Voice Control for Prayer and Counseling.
We would develop your own distinct style of Holy Joe intonation, acquiring the skill in resonance and modulation that conveys and unmistakable aura of sanctity.

Course
III: Efficient Office Management.
There is nothing that parishioners admire more in their pastors than the capacity to run a tight ship administratively. If we return all phone calls within twenty-four hours, answer all the letters within a week, distributing enough carbons to key people so that they know we are on top of things, and have just the right amount of clutter on our desk—not too much, or we appear
inefficient, not too little or we appear underemployed—we quickly get the reputation for efficiency that is far more important than anything that we actually do.

Course
IV: Image Projection.
Here we would master the half-dozen well-known and easily implemented devices that that create the impression that we are terrifically busy and widely sought after for counsel by influential people in the community. A one-week refresher course each year would introduce new phrases that would convince our parishioners that we are bold innovators on the cutting edge of the megatrends and at the same time solidly rooted in all the traditional values of our sainted ancestors.

(I have been laughing for several years over this trade school training with which I plan to make my fortune. Recently, though, the joke has backfired on me. I keep seeing advertisements for institutes and workshops all over the country that invite pastors to sign up for this exact curriculum. The advertised course offerings are not quite as honestly labeled as mine, but the content appears to be identical—a curriculum that trains pastors to satisfy the current consumer
tastes in religion. I’m not laughing anymore.)

Let us pursue, and expect, ministry that pleases the Lord and is built off of character and devotion to the Lord and not that which pleases man built off of modern style-based initiatives.

In Him
Simon

A Wife's Blessing, a Pastor's Rebuke/Exhortation

2010-04-05T10:47:00.004+01:00

My beautiful wife has absolutely blessed my socks off this Sabbath morning by taking the kids out and leaving me to invest time devotionally with my Lord. What I chose to do was listen to a sermon by Matt Chandler, who hopefully, prayerfully, will be coming to share at our Newfrontiers Prayer and Fasting on May 11th. Matt Chandler is a special guy and a guy I met almost 8 years ago now on a youth summer camp in Galveston Texas - but whom God has used powerfully to lead a speedily growing church in Dallas Texas called The Village Church.

I looked in my 'theResurgence' rss feed in my Mac mail program and found a list of sermons based on the Acts29 media page. I chose to listen to this one: 'Ministry for the Long Haul & Ambition' (click here to listen yourself). I was not disappointed and was significantly rebuked and exhorted to search my own heart as a Leader of God's people.
What a joy to have a morning spent receiving a Wife's blessing and a Pastor's rebuke!

On my next entry I want to read a quote Matt read out from Eugene Peterson that may be a bit more challenging to the flock rather than the Shepherd.

Blessings
Simon

Revival Thoughts from Finney - Breaking the 'fallow ground' or confession of sin

2010-04-01T11:12:00.002+01:00

Ok now Finney is starting to get just a little inappropriate, highly un-PC should I say for our contemporary-Christian liking. O I'll just write what he states regarding confession of sin:

"You must honestly look at yourself, using your bible as your checkpoint. Do not expect God to miraculously break up your fallow ground [remove sin from your heart] for you. You must actively participate, and you must submit your will. If you look at yourself accurately, taking note of your sins, you will definitely feel something. You cannot see your sins for what they are without feeling something...

... Start your work now. Resolve that you will not stop until you find you can pray. You will never have access to the full power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you unless you completely confess your sins. Let there be this deep work of repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God.
Then YOU WILL HAVE AS MUCH OF THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER AS YOU CAN TOLERATE!"

My my my, Lord Jesus what has been my experience of 'the spirit of prayer' up till now as I feel I am barely tasting such?

Are we hungry for revival?

Simon

Revival Thoughts from Finney - The Role of the Church & it's 'Minister'

2010-04-01T10:09:00.002+01:00

Yesterday, one of the zealous young men that God has blessed X1 with recently came to my home for breakfast, giving a book to me that he noted was just 'burning him up.' I promised to read the copy he was giving me and set to it this morning. The book is 'Experiencing Revival' by Charles Finney (an updated, abridged version thus easier for us all to read). Finney was an alarmingly gifted evangelist but also a theologian and a man of the word, so a good read indeed.

On the early pages he states the demands upon the people of the church and the 'minister' of the church in expecting/allowing revival within the church. A taster:

"A revival is when Christians begin to confess their sins to one another. Usually they confess in a general, halfhearted manner. They may do it in eloquent language, but it means nothing. But when there is an honest breaking down and a pouring out of the heart in confession of sin, the floodgates will soon burst open, and salvation will flow everywhere [O please precious Lord!].

A revival can be expected when Christians are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to carry it on. They must be willing to sacrifice their feelings, business and time to help the work. Ministers must be willing to expend their energy. They must be willing to offend the impenitent [proud, self-righteous, 'sinless' members of your congregation] by plain and faithful speech and perhaps offend many members of the church who will not repent. They must take a stand regarding the revival, whatever the consequences. They must be prepared to go on with the work even though they risk losing the affection of the impenitent cold members of the church."

I know Terry Virgo has urged the leaders and people of Newfrontiers to start praying deliberately and passionately for revival. I guess I better get down to it, more importantly better prepare myself/us for what it may require!

Simon

Isaiah 53: 10

2010-03-26T13:15:00.004Z

In Isaiah 53: 10 we are confronted with these somewhat alarming words

"

But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief..."

The reference is obviously to Jesus Christ and His atoning death on the cross (although all the 'clever' people seek to disagree in our age of superior intelligence). Today in my reading I saw a wonderful 5 point summary of why God the Father was 'pleased' in this work of 'agreement/consensus/willful participation' in the crucifixion of Christ:

1) That He might execute His pleasant decrees
2) That He might fulfill His pleasant promises
3) That He might redeem the chosen objects of His love
4) That He might promote His Son to the highest honours
5) That He might exalt His own glory to the uttermost.

Hmmm, breathe that in.

Simon

It's about global redemption

2010-03-26T12:13:00.003Z

Last night I got caught up in a prayer for our weekend sponsored run event - the X1:1000. Let me explain. We are intending to run 1000 laps of our local running track in order to raise funds for a charity called Friends of Tariro (the pioneer of the charity attends X1) which seeks to bring hope and resource to the widows and orphans of rural villages in Zimbabwe. It's going to be a fun, but crazy afternoon cause not too many of us are, let's just say, able runners. But we're in and we want to be a part of this!

What struck me last night while praying was this: We are a part of something global in this silly afternoon of running. We are a part of investing in that one thing out of all other things we are a part of now that will last after time ends - The Kingdom of God. That's what this run is about, it's about bringing the Kingdom of God into those villages. The rule, the reign, the hope and purpose of God into those villages that are now only victims of drought, oppression, and hopelessness.
It's strikes you when you think that your small fellowship on the outskirts of London England is part of the Global Redemption, reconciliation, rescue plan of the mighty God of all. Then you can get excited about putting running shoes on that you've not worn for ages, then you can get up early Sunday by Sunday to serve the mission of the local church!

I'm running Saturday, why, cause I'm silly and will regret it for the next week, but also, and this is ultimately why, because I want the Kingdom of God to come to those widows, orphans, and churches in Kazingizi Zimbabwe - that's why!

Simon

My Role as the Preacher

2010-03-24T11:47:00.005Z

In a stunning sermon on Romans 5: 1 - 11 John Piper expounds the role of the Preacher when preaching if it is the role of the Holy Spirit (vs. 5) to reveal the essence of the love of God to us. (See here) What is the preacher useful for? What is it that I am called to do morning by morning before the people of X1? Here is Piper's thoughts

"The point is this; my message this morning cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit in your life. And the Holy Spirit will not do the work assigned to the Word of God. My calling is to describe the love of God to you. His calling is to pour it out in your hearts. My calling is to point you to what Christ did; his calling is to open your eyes to see it as glorious and personal. My calling is to make it plain; his is to make it precious. Mine is to make it clear; his is to make it dear. Mine is to take you on a tour around the deep and scenic lake of the love of God; his is to plunge you in and saturate your life with the love of God—to baptize you in it."

Lord help any person entrusted with the difficult yet glorious task of "making it plain," "making it clear" seek your strength in this. Lord cause your people to reevaluate what preaching is and not to put up with mere great talking! It is so much more than that!

Simon

Romans 8: 28

2010-03-23T12:40:00.002Z

Just started reading, today in fact, the puritan Thomas Watson's dissertation on the wonder of God's promise to us in Romans 8: 28 and the opening words alone accelerate the heart beat. A taster

"If the whole of scripture be the feast of the soul, as Ambrose said (Bishop of Milan in the 4th Century), then Romans 8 may be a dish at that feast, and with its sweet variety may very much refresh and animate the hearts of God's people. In the preceding verses the apostle had been wading through the great doctrines of justification and adoption, mysteries so arduous and profound, that without the help and the conduct of the Spirit, he might soon have waded beyond his depth. In this verse the apostle touches upon that pleasant string of consolation, 'We know that all things work together for Good to them that love God.' There is not one word that is not weighty; therefore I shall gather up every filing of this gold, that nothing be lost."

O the honour for scripture, the devotion to God's truth, the certainty of God's great affection for us.

We must trust that God is in all things lavishing grace upon us - it is who He is!

Simon

Isaiah 53

2010-03-17T14:23:00.003Z

Read this in my preparations for this week's sermon on Isaiah 53: 4 - 6, it is simply quite wonderful:

"As an artisan laying a mosaic of complicated pattern and diverse colours, has before him a working drawing, and carefully fits the minute pieces of precious stone and enamel according to it, till the perfection of the design is revealed to all, so do the evangelists and apostles, with the working-drawing of OT prophecy, and Old Testament types and shadows in the tabernacle services and ceremonies, in their hands fit together the details of Christ's life on earth, His atoning death and His resurrection and say, 'Behold, this can be none other than the long looked-for Messiah.' The central knop, or flower pattern, of the mosaic, from which all the other details of the design radiated, was the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah."

It is a truly beautiful prophetic message that draws us to the very cross of Calvary.

SImon

Sovereignty of God

2010-03-15T14:22:00.002Z

2 Weeks ago I had the pleasure of teaching at the Watford School of Leadership on the topic of Evangelism. I chose to speak on Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God for two reasons primarily:
1) My deep rooted belief in the stunning elements of reformed theology with regards to God's sovereign grace in the salvation of men,
2) The lasting impact of a book by J. I Packer I read in University with the same title (see here).

Packer's thesis is marvelous and rooted in the mysterious antinomy of God's sovereign grace in salvation coupled with the moral responsibility of man to propagate and respond to the gospel. Give it a read if you do get an opportunity. As an opener to the discussion though I shared an inspirational quote to alert us to this 'large' doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and I share it with you now:

“The Sovereignty of God. What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is "The Governor among the nations" (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the "Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.” – A.W. Pink

Feast on that, and may it lead you from Orthodoxy (right belief) to Orthopraxy (right living from right belief).

Simon

Pastoring is Labouring

2010-03-15T13:03:00.002Z

Again & again on this journey of growing in my understanding of the
calling of pastoring a body of God's people one thing I certainly am
aware of is it's demands! Today in some reading I am doing 2 authors confirmed such with these words

"The goal of presenting men and women perfect in Christ requires hard
work. To this end Paul worked hard, struggling with all Christ's energy, which so powerfully worked in Him (Colossians 1:29). The word used for struggling means literally to engage in a contest, and usually in the context of fighting with weapons. The only weapons adequate for this struggle with Satan and his influences are prayer and the word of God."

I commit to the war of seeing God's people reflect our Lord with ever increasing glory and commit to labour with His mighty energy and His sufficient weaponry.

Simon

Inspiration for Easter Series

2010-03-09T15:40:00.001Z

Hey if you've got about an hour do your very self a huge favour and watch this sermon from C.J Mahaney. It is the inspiration behind our Easter Series 'The Great Exchange' out of Isaiah 53.

The Cross: A Meditation on Jesus' Atoning Death from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Hope you're blessed as I was.

Simon

'Day-to-Day' Prompts

2010-03-09T15:27:00.002Z

Taken an unnecessary break from this Bloggage recently. Laziness probably, and maybe even an underestimation of it's role in anyone's life (hey I don't say that for an encouraging 'don't stop' (if you wanted to) that's what this particular blog's about). Just as I'd been carrying that, most of yesterday at least, as Mondays are days I like to update things, God brings a significant individual in your life to 'prompt.'

Today I met by chance with a couple that God has brought into our 'arena' as a church for reasons neither they or I know at this time. In the course of our instantaneously meaningful conversation (you got people in your life with whom that happens?) the gentleman mentioned how meaningful these blogs were for getting to taste the heart of his new pastor (sounds crazy that, good but crazy) from a distance. Well there you go, as you can see I am on the blogging trail again as the sole purpose of these words are that maybe just maybe they will be used of our glorious gracious King to be a benefit to your life in someway.

Thanks to that gentleman, yeah you know who you are, and hey thanks Lord for prompting us as you do in the very normal 'day-to-day' of life (it appears that is not enough for some people).

Simon

Changing Nappies, God & Us

2010-03-09T15:17:00.002Z

Just partaken (one of a huge number of times now) in the changing of my beautiful little girl's nappy. How do I expose the need that this had to take place for her good other than to say she was a bit of a 'stink-bug' to say the least.
What often happens when you are blessed to invest in this exercise is that the child in question, Madison in this case, wriggles like a crazy caterpillar in order to be released from your grip. The desired goal is that she will be brought to a place of more comfort, greater joy and 'release' for her but all she knows in the moment is the holding back, the strong 'resisting' grip of DAD and she wants 'freedom' as she knows it.

Makes me think of my Father that does. So, so often I am wriggling free of circumstances, confrontations, challenges that He is using to 'take me somewhere' freshen my 'aroma' as a living sacrifice. Why? Well cause I know best don't I; I want what ever Godliness is, whatever comfort is at my pace and probably, more often than not, in my way. Truth is - He does, and O how much more does He know what freedom and peace is for us that we do even for ourselves.

By the way, my beautiful one is singing, purring and smiling now - she'll wriggle again tho'!

Simon

Impact!

2010-02-22T16:13:00.002Z

Check out this stunning simple use of visual media to really drive a point home.

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Think...

Simon

You looking forward to church?

2010-02-22T10:47:00.003Z

My co-elder Andy said a beautiful thing during the welcome at X1 yesterday. He highlighted that several years ago when you went on holiday from the UK often you could not purchase many things that you enjoy in the UK and so you could not wait to get back to partake of those 'home-comforts.' That situation has changed he said; but this time while they were away in Austria skiing all he had missed and that which he longed to return to was the worship gathering at Christ First.

He is a man of integrity so I know he was not just people-pleasing. I have thought about it since yesterday and am prayerful and hopeful that many of us at X1 have that mindset about Sundays.

I know I have got to a place at some of the churches I have been serving at where I felt no desire whatsoever to go on Sundays. That is a tragic, probably consumerist, view of things but it was where I had got to. What about you? How much do you look forward to your worship gathering with your church? If you don't why not? Are you serving or just taking cause that can make a massive difference? Is God joining you by His Spirit? If not why not?

Pray for a heart change if so, also see if there is an opportunity for you to talk to your leadership about your waning affections and see what changes can take place.
As for our little gathering of folk, I pray that they will continue for many a year to ache for our gatherings together and to come prayerfully expectant!

Simon

Love versus Obedience

2010-02-22T10:30:00.003Z

Embroiled in one of those pastoral situations at the moment that you almost wish did not need to be a part of church life, but, I am not naive enough any longer to kid myself we will avoid. In my mind it is a 'Love versus Obedience' scenario which is a complete antithesis to the love lauded in the Scriptures. The situation is a simple one to expose, although of course extremely complex in the flesh.
An individual understanding of Christian love has been tragically divorced from the biblical mandate for such love. Christ has a very deliberate governing clause to the love toward Himself that He notes is commendable love. You find that thought in the fifteenth chapter of the gospel of John (and of course in John's Epistle) and the governing clause to the statement, "If you love me..." is this: "you will obey my commands." It is a strong but helpful governing clause. Love must be earthed. Love must be biblical.

The pastoral situation I am involved in entails someone who is unable to see (due to a multitude of things I am sure) that their 'love' is in opposition to Christ's demand for their obedience. Simple. But, of course not simple to negotiate and pastor appropriately.
I am alarmed at how easy it is for all of us to redefine Christ's concept of love for Him. We can read a gloriously true biblical statement and then never allow the bible to be the governing framework for the ongoing embrace of that statement as we live it out.
Mmm...

Simon

That's My King

2010-02-08T11:02:00.002Z

We had one of those special mornings as a people at X1 yesterday where God is so very tangibly present - in a heavy, "Here's who I am!" way. One of our young guys, entrusted with preaching responsibility on the morning finished with this remarkably powerful video which has the mind-blowing "That's My King" audio by Dr. S. M. Lockridge. You may have heard it before but I have placed it here if you haven't or if you want to again. It left us 'undone!'

That's My King! from Albert Martin on Vimeo.

Do you know Him?

Simon

Entrusted

2010-02-08T10:49:00.003Z

As an Eldership here at X1 we are trying desperately to discern God's heart on leadership and to reflect that in the whats, the whys, and the hows of our leading. One thing I think we have felt the need to do very early on is to multiply leadership. We see this pattern repeatedly in scripture: Jethro's approaching of Moses and telling him to hand on leadership to good men instead of carrying all the weight himself; Jesus, who would have been more capable than anyone to handle all leadership responsibilities himself, choosing 12 disciples fully aware of the power and future impact of leadership multiplication; and Paul who in his writings to Timothy and Titus displays this multiplying tendency. We're trying to do the same here at X1.

We're aware that the favour of God upon our leadership to allow for growth could easily be hindered were the two of us to demand ownership of every area of church life and to not 'entrust' leadership to those good people He has placed around us. We could easily go from being catalysts of growth to chokers of growth if we do not multiply our leadership. Paul in his second letter to Timothy charges him to 'entrust to faithful men' the things that he has learnt in his own ministry or from Paul as his mentor. We have taken this on and are trusting God to make great things come about.

On Friday morning at 7AM we had our first get together with some fantastic faithful guys hoping that within this context we could excite and equip the leadership and gifting already within these guys. It was a fantastic start and an arena that I pray will become a hotbed for cultivating mighty fruit-bearing oaks for X1 and the Kingdom of God.
God is good, and His eternal models of leadership are essential for the impact of the local church upon culture.

Simon

JT's Captaincy of England

2010-02-08T10:34:00.002Z

Delighted with the news on Friday that Fabio Capello (England's International Football Team Manager) has decided to strip John Terry of his captaincy of the national team. For those of you reading from another nation and not caught up in this headline catching story, our national team captain and a powerful symbol in English life has not been such a good boy in recent times. Over 2 weeks ago it was revealed that he had attempted to have a 'media silence' order placed over the revelations of some infidelity in his life. This was not granted and naturally the backlash of trying to silence these blood-sucking tabloid papers is that they have gone all out revealing his sexual frivolities (yes he is married) with the girlfriend of (believe this if you can) another member of the England national team! Oooh, yes I know what you're thinking.

Story aside (you can do further research if you choose) the revealing thing to me in these past weeks is the modern/postmodern anomaly that a man's immoral, totally unworthy-of-respect-lifestyle decisions can somehow be made to live apart from, or to one side of, his role as a national leader in the arena of sports. Again and again, pundits and others seem to say that what he has chosen to do in crushing his wife, lying to her and to others, taking the girlfriend of another man and having sex outside of marriage and choosing to violate your relationship with a fellow team mate can be totally disconnected from his role as captain of the national Football team.

This is quite absurd and sad testimony to the moral vacuum that we have somehow created in the West.
Our 'heroes' are able to lead without any character whatsoever, and we are to point a new generation (for example my son Malachi) to these men and women as role models for their life. We need to learn the vast distinction between celebrity and hero and we need to come to grips with the reality you cannot divide a person saying he/she is a great leader while placing infidelity, immorality and relational destruction to one side of him/her as if devoid of him/her in 'reality.'

Well done Capello.

Simon

Church Life - A life in process

2010-02-01T15:43:00.003Z

Back to Eugene Peterson with some thoughts now on our participation in church as not fully 'processed' followers of Christ and what that means for the church:

"The Christian Church is a Holy-Spirit-formed community where salvation is proclaimed and sins forgiven; men and women are redefined by baptism in the company of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; a life in Christ is formed; a eucharist-shaped worship of God is enacted; and a holy life is practiced in a world of suffering, injustice, war, despair, addictions, and sin, both blatant and covert - a world at odds with both neighbour and God. It seems like quite a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing - all these people getting a taste of new life, Real Life, "ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven," and finding themselves participating in the holy operations of the Trinity.
But it doesn't take long for those of us who are in on this to realize that this new life isn't a finished life but a life in process. Many of us are slow learners. Many of us hang on to selfish immaturities for as long as we can, unwilling to grow up. Others of us slip back into old habits of disobedience as we look for shortcuts to holiness. Still others experiment with ways in which we attempt to stay in control of our lives and manipulate God to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. Not a few of us keep trying to find a way to deal with God without having to pay attention to our neighbours. When we take a good long look at any congregation we see most of the spiritual sins, moral and emotional, and the social disorders rampant in the general population continue to make their way, sometimes even flourish, among the elect."

So often the church get's attacked due to an unacceptable level of expectation. Many believers approach it that way themselves choosing to somehow 'do church' without being part of the church. Thus damaging it even further. We must be realist but also the ultimate optimists for the church is Christ's great love - His Bride!

Simon

Over 'Pietized' Praying

2010-01-28T12:58:00.002Z

You can always trust Eugene Peterson (author of The Message version of the bible) to bring through a thought with clarity and insight that leaves you pondering. Currently reading his book 'The Word Made Flesh' focused primarily on the spirituality of 'everyday' language and he broaches with typical brilliance the fact that we as believers can do to prayer what Christ never did Himself - my own word here 'over-pietize' it.
I do not understand why when people begin to pray they have a whole new language that disconnects them with any normal real, gritty way of speaking to the Father. I will never for a moment exhort us to pray causally without respect, but I deeply respect my father and yet speak very personally to him. Anyway here is Mr. Peterson, enjoy

"Prayer may well be the single aspect of our language most in danger of losing touch with the sheer grittiness of our humanity. We lost touch with our humanity when we deprive God of his humanity. Children pray in spontaneous honesty. Catastrophe and crisis very often take us to the bedrock of our humanity, where our language is purged of pretense and piety and we pray from the gut. But apart from childhood and crisis, while we are on the road through the secular Samaritan ordinary, [Peterson is reflecting on Christ's words in Luke 11: 1 - 13] our prayers have a way of being abstracted from the homely and distinctive details that are part and parcel of our ordinary and everyday life. Prayer more often than not is practiced in religiously defined and protected settings. More often than not it is formulated in pious cliches picked up hanging around churches or borrowed from prayer books."

Seek Him with all the adoration of a perfect Father, but remember He is your Father, and the Son He sent to us was more 'human than any of us will ever be!

Simon

Crying out to Christ

2010-01-27T12:26:00.002Z

Reading a book called The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge. At the end of the 10th chapter where he has entreated people to turn to Christ he finishes with this prayer to be made by that one who would respond to his call to salvation. Found it real powerful and vastly different the prayer of repentance we use today to convince ourselves we are turning to Christ.' Here it is.

"Blessed Lord, it is enough! It is too much! Surely there needs not this variety of arguments this importunity of persuasion, to court me to be happy, to prevail on me to accept of pardon, of life, of eternal glory. Compassionate Savior, my soul is subdued; so that I trust the language of thy grief is become that of my penitence, and I may say, `my heart is melted like wax in the midst of my bowels.' (Psa. 22:14)
"O gracious Redeemer! I have already neglected thee too long. I have too often injured thee: have crucified thee afresh by my guilt and impenitence, as if I had taken pleasure in `putting thee to an open shame.' (Heb. 6:6) But my heart now bows itself before thee in humble, unfeigned submission. I desire to make no terms with thee but these--that I may be entirely thine. I cheerfully present thee with a blank, entreating thee that thou will do me the honor to signify upon it what is thy pleasure. Teach me, O Lord, what thou wouldst have me to do; for I desire to learn the lesson, and to learn it that I may practice it. If it be more than my feeble powers can answer, thou wilt, I hope, give me more strength; and in that strength I will serve thee. O receive a soul which thou hast made willing to be thine!
"No more, O blessed Jesus, no more is it necessary to beseech and entreat me. Permit me rather to address myself to thee with all the importunity of a perishing sinner, that at length sees and knows `there is salvation in no other' (Acts 4:12) Permit me now, Lord, to come and throw myself at thy feet like a helpless outcast that has no shelter but in thy gracious compassion! like one `pursued by the avenger of blood,' and seeking earnestly an admittance `into the city of refuge!' (Josh. 20:2,3)
"'I wait for the Lord; my soul doth wait; and in thy word do I hope,' (Psa. 130:5) that thou wilt `receive me graciously.' (Hos. 14:2) My soul confides in thy goodness, and adores it. I adore the patience which has borne with me so long; and the grace that now makes me heartily willing to be thine: to be thine on thine own terms, thine on any terms. O secure this treacherous heart to thyself! O unite me to thee in such inseparable bonds, that none of the allurements of flesh and blood, none of the vanities of an ensnaring world, none of the solicitations of sinful companions, may draw me back from thee, and plunge me into new guilt and ruin! `Be surety, O Lord, for thy servant for good,' (Psa. 119:122) that I may stilt keep my hold on thee, and so on eternal life; till at length I know more fully, by joyful and everlasting experience, how complete a Savior thou art. Amen."

Wow...
Simon

Seeing Angels

2010-01-25T17:25:00.004Z

Had a lovely young lady in our home yesterday while celebrating an 18th birthday party and she nonchalantly commented to another individual in our dining room, "I can see two angels behind you."
I regret to state that even as a pastor of a church that is not a phrase that I have ever heard in my home. Maybe it is that I surround myself with those of 'little faith' or that many people have actually seen angels in my home but have been a little shy to acknowledge the fact. Is seeing angels a regular facet of your life? Is it a faith thing, is it a purity of life = spectacular insight into heavenly realms and alas I am not one that has such a life?

As you can tell I found the comment intriguing and pursued it further during our enjoyment of a slice of lovely cake. She mentioned, along with a friend of hers that this was a simply normal and common experience for them and in fact they even knew the names of several of these celestial beings and one was almost always present, a 'guardian angel' of sorts.

I fear excessive conversation about angels, or such like, taking the exhortation of Colossians 2: 18 seriously, but it was a pretty dynamic Sunday afternoon conversation. One that has awoken me to a stereotypical weakness in our knowledge and understanding of Angelology. Mark Driscoll commenting on this in his recent Luke series alludes to an 'extremism' in our Angelology/Demonology: They are either everywhere affecting everything or simply do not existence (the latter he highlights is brilliant work by the demonic to convince you of their non-existence). For a helpful facebook entry of his thoughts on 'Spiritual Warfare' click here.

He quotes the brilliant C.S. Lewis as an intro:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” — C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

While I continue my journey of discovery and insight into a biblical theology and response to ongoing conversations about Angels, be sure to heed Lewis' words.

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 12

2010-01-18T17:11:00.003Z

Finally made our way back into the book of Joshua after a break for Advent and early January. We have got to chapter 4 after 12 weeks in the book, strangely although that may seem like slow progress there is much more content in those first 3 chapter we could have lingered over.
I took this week speak to our church quite personally as I saw this moment in the life of the Israelites and their Godly leader Joshua mirroring our situation currently.
Here is a break down of the sermon:

LIVING LIFE WITHOUT THE FEAR
I reminded us again that we live in a 'culture of fear', check this quote out as a reference to exactly that

“The culture of fear is not a spontaneous reaction by the public to a truly dangerous world. The worldwide anthrax panic sparked by a handful of anthrax-related deaths in America shortly after 9/11 was not caused by a genuine and widespread mortal danger facing US and European citizens. Our propensity to panic about everything from child abductions to mobile phones does not come from the fact that modern life contains more risks than ever before - on the level of everyday reality, the opposite is the case. . . . The culture of fear comes from the top down. It comes from society's leaders, and their inability to lead. . . .” – Jennie Bristow

If we allow fear to enter our faith relationship with Christ, if we are drawn into our fear culture and defined by such rather than being transformed into the likeness of Christ - we will not know the Spiritual blessings in Christ

Fear is a grave enemy of faith!

A MIRROR MOMENT
At this time I recognized that there is immense theological significance in this passage but that at this time I wanted to highlight how this moment mirrors our life as a church.
We as a church have set aside this year to seek Greater Health through Greater Impact and one of the core values we have as a church that needs to be embraced, owned, is this
“WE VALUE THE GIVING OF OUR LIVES, OUR TIME, AND OUR MONEY TO GOD’S MISSION”
If we become a serving people, caught up in the mission of X1 to fulfill the mandate of Christ in Matt. 28 then we will know joy, but as in this passage some things need to be in place -

LEADERS LED BY ‘THE’ LEADER
4: 1 – 3 “The Lord said to Joshua...” Here we see that Joshua is not the real, ultimate leader of the Israelites. And that is so true of X1 as a people. We, your elders are not the leaders of this church. We are a leadership that, like Joshua, are led by Jesus Christ who is actually the leader of ChristFirst.

ANONYMOUS, OBEDIENT & UNIFIED SERVANTS OF THE MISSION
4: 4 – 8 “So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them...”
Here the scripture expose a stunning truth about leadership – Any great Christian leader is surrounded by obedient, unified, co-warriors working together to fulfil the mission for the glory of God and the joy of the people. (Ps. 84: 10; I Cor. 12;Eph. 2: 14 – 22)
These 12 men were anonymous – they are never named – but get this they were absorbed into the building of a sign that would testify to the faithfulness, mercy and awesome power of God to future generations.

SELFLESS SERVANTHOOD
4: 10 – 13 “The men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites...”(1: 12 – 13; Deut. 3: 18)
These men who had already claimed their inheritance served the mission and joy of the other Israelites.
This has been true of the initial core group of people who came with us to VUe cinema but...
It is time now for us all to rise up and claim our inheritance: To live a life of joyous, obedient mission, realizing the stunning life there is to be had in giving our all to see a church that actually affects the culture of a whole town.

The call to serve the mission of X1 - GET IN!

Simon

Helpful Book - Master Leaders

2010-01-18T17:01:00.004Z

Over the Christmas season one of our friends visiting from the States mentioned a leadership book he was reading that he found really helpful. It is a book by George Barna who is not an author I read typically; but it was the idea of the book that initially caught my intention.
This book MASTER LEADERS is basically the gleanings of Barna in conversation with 30 excellent, Godly leaders all located in one fairly small book.
I am currently reading it, actually have just finished a fantastic chapter on Confrontation and Challenge, and would recommend it to people on a journey of leadership wanting some helpful insights. Unfortunately you will need to look quite a few Americanisms and the fact that American Christian authors seem to write in a style that us British folk would accuse of being far too corny - but the content is so helpful, and as stated earlier it is the insights and interactions of many gifted leaders on important topics in leadership in one location.

Give it a read if you'd like.

Blessings
Simon

Jealousy

2010-01-12T08:43:00.003Z

Reading Acts chapter 5 this morning. A passage which begins of course with that astonishing display of the continuity of the Holiness and splendor of God between Old & New Testament with the slaying of Ananais & Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit. But it was another verse (s) that grabbed my attention today.

What we see in the 16th verse referring to the Apostles are these words, "Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem..." Suddenly in the next verse we read (and this is the verse that got me), "Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy."

There it is that word that is not often referred to in the list of sins that are spoken against from the pulpit, but a powerful destructive sin all the same - JEALOUSY! And this jealousy was in the context of ministry, the place where it is most insidious and undermining. What has obviously happened here is the ministry of the apostles is the GLORY ministry of the time, it is the one drawing the crowds, the one receiving the air-time in the local papers, you know what I mean. This sends the high priest and the Sadducees into a spin as they feel outdone, old hat, forgotten, I'm sure you get the point. Their resulting actions are evil and conniving.

Confession time. I've felt this slip into my heart, into my attitude and it is sickening and destroys you inwardly. In this media age where great ministries from all over the world are brought right to your inbox or macbook screen there is endless opportunity to be drawn into the terrible grip of this sin.
In or out of ministry, where is your heart with regards to jealousy? What do you want that another has that causes you to speak bitterly of them, think wrong thoughts towards them?

We need to chop this weed at the root or it will cramp out the joy the Lord promises to us!

Simon

Guest Preacher

2010-01-11T09:51:00.003Z

Had a superb morning yesterday at X1. So conscious of the presence and the power of God. That is a prayer of mine again and again, "Lord please encounter us with your power and your presence."
Part of the reason for that was cause we had a guest preacher who came in and shared God's marvelous truth with us. I don't know if I'm saying that we need to have more guest speakers cause I'm no good, maybe... but what I am saying is that his being with us was a symbolism of the unity of the body of Christ. He is of another - very traditional - group of churches but our hearts are knitted much on the essential components of reformed, biblical faith.

His name is Greg and he is the principal of a new leadership college here in Watford, UK called the Watford School of Leadership. He is all over transformational leadership, the person and gospel of Christ, seriously embraces the missional concept and is a gifted evangelist - like I said we had a great morning. The whole thrust of his charge to us was that Discipleship is Apprenticeship: That means OBEY, BE HOLY, & BE LIKE the one you are following - Jesus Christ. His passage was the first 11 verses of Luke 5.

One thing he asked us as a church to do was stand and pray in unity the 'Covenant Prayer' of John Wesley. This we did, and then re-entered a time of worship - it was wonderful.
Here's that prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low by thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Willing to pray it?

SImon

Balance

2010-01-05T17:03:00.003Z

First week of a New Year so, like many, I am thinking about the year ahead and what that would hold for me as an individual. I don't think that we as Christians should be individuals that start each year with half-hearted resolutions that only last the first days of the year. But the dawning of a new year is certainly a time where we can take stock and decide upon the areas of our lives that need adaption in some way in order to be more Christ-like - that is the overarching goal of our Faith! To be so much more like Christ in every way in our closing days then in the beginning. If there is a change in the opposite direction we can be sure that there is an area of our life that is not under submission to His Lordship and not being led by the inner working of His Spirit.

In the early years of my faith I would focus on one of the key fruit of the Spirit or a spiritual habit as an underlying theme for my focus on the year. Prayer, Humility or others, sure you know what I mean. This year I have really just lingered on the concept of balanced living. My thoughts on this have always been governed by several things:

1) The impetus of the Wisdom literature towards this concept
2) An Edwardian awareness of the inherent link between our Spiritual health & our mental, physical, or 'soul' health.
3) Personal maturity as a man heading towards mid thirties.

I see that a balanced life submitted to the Lordship of life avoids so many unhelpful extremes - inferior, impure sub-standard Spirituality or the other superior, self-righteous, legalistic super spirituality. Extremism is a mark of spiritual immaturity (don't sit there saying, "Well what about extreme devotion, extreme love?" You know what I mean).
We must balance every area of life - I laugh as I recall a recent comment by a leader I truly respect. He said, "Sometimes an hour of body-refreshing nap is better for me than an hour of prayer, if you know what I mean." I know exactly what he means and have seen the detrimental overflow of many who would never admit this or even dare embody this.

balance, I'm going to give it a go...
Simon

Have a blessed Christmas

2009-12-18T15:03:00.003Z

Merry Christmas ANIMATION from Ascending Productions on Vimeo.

Not sure who may actually get to see this but I just want to thank each of you for taking time out on a regular basis to peer into the thoughts I've had over this past year.
I want to pray that each of you would have a blessed Christmas season that is saturated with the presence of Jesus our Saviour. Enjoy the break and let yourself truly cherish this season that is a beautiful reminder of God's stunning initiative to reconcile all of reality to ultimate beauty.

May 2010 bring glorious favour to you. May it be filled with the grace and peace of Jesus Christ.

In Him
Simon

Burn Out

2009-12-14T15:35:00.004Z

You know about it - if you don't you should - but it is that distinct 'weariness' that comes over you that cannot be rectified by any amount of sleep. It is that Spiritual Apathy that you can try dissect and conquer but which you have to take stock of and halt its destructive path immediately.
What am I talking about? BURN OUT! And it is something I have read about, heard about, and received strong instruction to be aware of and to halt with any Spiritual Aggression necessary.
I fear it is something that has recently started to knock on my door.

It has been a stunningly divine, yet seriously demanding year of ministry over here in Watford. There have been so many joys that it is difficult to recollect them all with clarity, but alongside of those, sometimes even within those, joys have been some heart wrenching difficulties. The magnitude of the emotional demands of a church replant - implanting and inspiring not only vision but NEW (different - 'O no not change!') vision has been remarkable to me. As has been confirmed by men far more appropriate to the task, and for greater than me - this is no calling for sissys! As a result of that I have noted a certain apathy in my desire for God, a certain inability to maintain fervency of any level in prayer, and a lack of FEAR for the Lord and His holiness.

Last Thursday this become so obvious to me and I realized that the axe had to be laid to the root of this 'slide.' Well at least the motion of bringing the axe up and placing the force within the strike to destroy the root had to be initiated. So that's what I did - I actually just rested and tried to pray only for me, my soul and the restoration of the desire, the hunger, the thirst for God and the resetting of my mind and affections. The process continues, but I hope the most important thing has taken place: the Recognition of this deadly enemy to passionate discipleship.

We must watch ourselves and guard our hearts.

Simon

Advocate or Witness

2009-12-14T15:25:00.002Z

Reading some simply stunning thoughts by Dr. Lloyd Jones at the moment. His most recent of which relate to the Baptism of the Spirit and the Filling of the Spirit. They have been helpful and provocative, a necessary mix for good theology I think. I sensed I needed to share these in particular as he discusses our effectiveness as beleivers bearing testimony to Christ without the filling of the Spirit:

"Let me put it like this: There is all the difference in the world between being a witness and being an advocate. Men and women can be advocates of these things without the Holy Spirit. I mean that they can have an understanding of the doctrine; they can receive the truth, and can present it, argue for it and defend it. Yes they are acting as advocates. But primarily, as Christians, we are called upon to be witnesses, to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as the Saviour of the world, as our own Saviour, as the Saviour of all who put their faith and trust in Him. And it is only the Holy Spirit who can enable us to do that. You can address people and act as advocates for the truth but you will not convince anybody. If, however, you are filled with the Spirit, and are witnessing to the truth, which is true in your life, by the Power of the Spirit that is made efficacious. So this filling is essential to all our Christian service."

More of You Holy Spirit, fill me for bold, dynamic, effective service!

Simon

Bonhoeffer on 'Truth'

2009-11-28T11:34:00.002Z

I'm studying in my little office at the bottom of the garden for an Advent series that I want to take the people of X1 through in this season. As part of that study I have been reading a little book called Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons.s Which is actually my first real induction into the writing's of Bonhoeffer. I have read many a quote by him in a multitude of other books I have read, but this has been truly affecting.
One of his sermons preached with the looming election of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 in mind is one about truth - God's Truth. It is preached from the text of John 8: 32 and is simply heart-opening. Here is one powerful section:

"The truth will make you free. It is not something we have to do, not our courage, our church, our people, our truth; but God's truth alone that makes us free. Why? Because to become free does not mean becoming great in the world, not becoming free from your brother, nor even free from God, but to become free from oneself, one's lie. It means to become free from thinking only of myself, from being the center of my world, from hate, by which I despise God's creation. It means to be free to be for the other: the person for others. Only God's truth can enable me to see the other as he really is. It tears out the twisted image that I have of the other within me and shows him to me in a new light. And insofar as God's truth does that, it bestows upon me the action, the love, the grace of God. It destroys our lies and creates the truth. It destroys hatred and creates love. God's truth is God's love and God's love makes us free from ourselves for others."

O to be truly freed by and for God's Truth - the one to whom Pilate posed the ironic question, "What is truth?"

Simon

Living Life Without the Fear Videos - Number 8 Thanks Vimeo

2009-11-14T14:33:00.001Z

8-11-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Part 1 #5 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Living Life Without the Fear Videos - Number 7 Thanks Vimeo

2009-11-14T14:32:00.000Z

01-11-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Part 1 #4 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Lloyd Jones on not being 'theological' about the cross

2009-11-14T14:22:00.003Z

Far too often we can dismiss theology and doctrine for the intellectual heavyweights of our faith while we focus only on emotion or feeling toward/from it. Lloyd Jones speaks heartily into this notion in this quote:

"Now I know that many people are not really concerned to know [what is meaning, the explanation of Christ's death] that. They say, 'No, I am not theological or doctrinal; all I know is that the cross is marvelous and wonderful and that the Lord died there.' And there are many who think that is the right attitude. They think that this is too sacred for anybody to examine, that you must never come to the cross with your mind but only with your heart, that the doctrine of the cross is something to be felt, not understood. But nothing is more terribly dangerous than that. If I understand the New testament aright, there is no place where we should be more careful to go with our minds fully operating as to the cross on Calvary's hill. And I will tell you why: it is because this is the central thing; there is not truth concerning which the adversary and the enemy of our souls is so anxious to muddle and confuse us as this particular truth."

How glorious. Love Him heart, soul & mind.

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 8

2009-11-09T13:03:00.002Z

An overview of this week's sermon at X1 Watford in our series, "Living Life without the Fear"

RAHAB: FREED THROUGH FEARLESS FAITH!
This week as we return to Joshua 2 we will turn our attention from the select missional men who encountered an ‘awakened seeker’ within the walls of Jericho and look at this woman RAHAB who hid them from the King’s army.

OUR CENTRAL FOCUS – HER FAITH
As we look at this woman, what stands out about her, what distinguishes her from the other people in Jericho?

• NOT HER NATIONALITY
• NOT HER RELIGIOSITY
• NOT HER SUPERIOR MORALITY

It is not our goodness; it is not our attendance, it is not our morality, our likeability, our nationality, our superiority, not even our good works or anything of ourselves that causes God to look upon us and say well you deserve all my lavish love, affection and grace here is eternal, abundant life. NO! It is one thing and one thing alone and we see it here in the life of Rahab – FAITH. The apostle James makes that clear (Ja. 2: 24)

With this in mind I want us to clarify 3 fundamental elements of faith seen in the life of Rahab...

FAITH RECEIVES
Rahab heard the messages that were being rumoured throughout the streets of Jericho, she listened in attentively to the fearful retelling of tales by the fear – bound soldiers frequenting her establishment. Upon that testimony, on hearing these facts Rahab states, “I KNOW...” “She heard, she believed, she acted upon that belief...”

FAITH RESCUES
I know we are told to never turn to the last page of a good story as it will spoil the whole thing, we all know there is nothing worse than ‘that guy’ who cannot help but tell you what is about to happen in a movie while you are watching it. But, turn with me to Jo. 6: 22 -3 and see the outworking of this amazing ‘deal’ between two ‘missional’ men and an Amorite harlot. She is rescued from the crumbling Jericho!

FAITH REVEALS
This is for those of us who have received this message (or maybe think we have) who have been rescued from a life without life and been made alive by the inner working of the Spirit of God who has given us abundant life. Make sure you know this: Faith reveals itself.

Read the words of the 15th century Italian reformer Benedetto –
“Faith imprints us with a certain violent love of good works.”
Here is another way of saying that,
“We are justified (declared right before God) by faith alone, but the faith which justifies is inevitably accompanied by works: which are the evidence of that faith!” – Peckham

The faith that saves the soul is the faith that gives that soul holy affections, spiritual energy to serve God for the coming of the Kingdom. It is visible, and active!

Blessings
Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 7

2009-11-09T12:46:00.003Z

Wow, seems silly how time passes by on occasion. I realize I have not updated this blog the last two times I have had the joy of preaching at X1 in our series: "Living Life without the Fear" from the book of Joshua. These past two times have been rooted in chapter 2 of the book and have been extremely helpful to us as a church. Here is an overview of week 7:

FEARLESS MISSIONAL IMMERSION – ‘GET IN!’
This passage of scripture catches us up in the Missio Dei - God's mission to restore, heal and redeem!

SELECT MISSIONAL MEN
These two were Joshua’s Special Forces providing essential Human INTEL.

These men are chosen to engage with a pagan culture, to live out their faith in the midst of a hostile, impure culture because -
OBEDIENT - Joshua would have known the character of these men.
PURE - Able to engage with non-faith culture but not get sucked into the seedy underworld driving it.
FAITH - FILLED - Unlike 10 of the spies sent 40 years earlier these men were full of faith even when encountering any opposition, they knew the power and delivering work of God. (Jo. 2: 14)

If we are to be 'missional', if we are to be those willing to engage with secular culture around us, we must be Obedient, Pure & full of Faith.

Will you be an anonymous missional warrior refusing all self-comforts, self-glory that this world seeks to force feed you for the great glory of the saving power of God to bring the lost and broken to new life?

THREE PEOPLE TYPES YOU WILL ENGAGE
If you are willing to take on the ‘Missional’ battle; if you are willing to let the power and work of the Holy Spirit to mould you then be aware of the ‘people types’ you will engage:
1) Aggravated authorities - 'King of Jericho'; the enemy Himself will conspire against you, authorities of mind and world-views ( Dawkins etc)
2) Spiritual Masses - ‘We have heard...” “For forty years God had been giving the people of Canaan an opportunity to turn to Him.” Now we can see that for 1900 years the story of Christ has been ‘out there.’ But people will reject and ignore it because they want life their way.
3) Awakened Seekers - And then the glorious marvellous truth that there will be those that our Powerful God is awakening: asking the deep questions, feeling new feelings, certain ‘there is more to this!’

GO! SECURE IN GOD’S SOVEREIGN SAVING GRACE
God’s infinite grace and power to restore the broken and the lost to himself cannot be thwarted. No matter how ‘impossible’ it appears for some to know Christ, we see here that God can change the heart and transform the life of anyone!

God can and will transform the lives of even the most ‘lost’ people that we will encounter if we are willing to faithfully, obediently, purely engage them missionally. If you think I am pushing a personal theology here, why don’t you turn with me to John 4 to see another missional warrior engaging a lost soul that God had freely, gracefully and mercifully wanted to know

GOD’S IRRESISTABLE LOVE & GRACE TO RESTORE THE UNCHURCHED – HIS PEOPLE
Why am I so certain that we should be engaging with those immersed in a secular culture with only a media-governed view of Christ? Simple because the immense love and grace of God is irresistible to those He awakens, and there are more than we can estimate outside the walls of the church.

Get into culture, be pure, be obedient, be bold, be fill of faith, God will change lives!

Simon

What is Scripture?

2009-10-26T12:14:00.002Z

This is one of the blogs I just received from my RSS feed of the Resurgence Blog. Assuring and inspiring I thought:

What is Scripture? The good news is that we are not the first to try to answer this question. In fact, 2,000 years of Christian history provide us a tradition of helpful answers.

Inerrant, Trustworthy, and Authoritative
The Bible is inspired by God, is without error, and does not misrepresent the facts. It is entirely trustworthy and is the final authority in everything it teaches. The Bible records the drama of redemption in both the history of Israel and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As Christians we acknowledge both Jesus (John 1:1-4) and Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17) as the “Word of God.” Christians should not focus solely on Christ and treat Scripture just like any other “classic text.” Nor should we focus so much on the Bible as God’s divine inerrant word and treat Jesus as simply a character in a small part of the texts.

Scripture Reveals Jesus

Jesus is the message—God participating in human life, coming near to us, bringing his good news, expressing God’s love for us, dying as our substitute, rising as the victor over death, and building his church as a community of grace. Jesus is not just the main person in one of many events in the story of God’s people. Jesus is the final revelation of God’s drama of redemption. Humanity sees God in full light in Jesus. Jesus is God’s ultimate word about human life and the Bible is God’s word about God’s self-revelation through human life. This is what Christian theologians have been saying in various ways for 2,000 years.

Simon

Here are the Joshua series Videos Part V - thanks Vimeo

2009-10-22T10:40:00.001+01:00

18th October - Living life without the fear- Joshua Week 5 - Simon LJ from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Here are the Joshua series Videos Part IV - thanks Vimeo

2009-10-22T10:38:00.000+01:00

11-10-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Part 1 #1 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

C.S. Lewis on what to read - Old or New?

2009-10-22T10:29:00.003+01:00

Here is C.S. Lewis writing in an introduction to a work by Athanasius about what he would urge others to read as practice.

"It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more
delightful to acquire. This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology.

Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even
myself. [To be replaced today with M. Driscoll or J. Osteen or J. Meyer] Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old."

Very few of us read what forces us to think preferring instead to have the thinking done for us often to the detriment of original depth and quality.

Oh yes, and please don't read what's not being written here! I'm just encouraging reading the ancients....

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 5

2009-10-19T17:35:00.003+01:00

So 5 weeks in, and I feel as if we are barely scraping the surface of this 'immense' book of Scripture.
This week was one of those weeks when a preacher is acutely aware of the challenging nature of what Spirit has given him to share. I felt certain not to rush on from the first nine verses of the first chapter as there was one more notable command from God to Joshua (and very much to us today) that seems to me a pivotal condition of him enjoying the fruit of the 4 promises noted last week.

I entitled the message: FEAST ON THIS FOOD FOR FAITH FOR FEARLESS LIVING

At a point where Joshua would surely be expecting some divine strategy or superior elemt of war with which to encouter the enemies within 'The Promised Land' God says only this:

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

God basically says to him

“THIS, THIS Joshua! (Scripture) If you want to be ‘prosperous & successful’, if you long to enjoy the stunning array of promises that I have just laid before you then READ THIS, STUDY THIS, LIVE THIS LOVE THIS EAT THIS!”
Joshua was to feed on (meditate) the words of the book of the Law that Moses had been entrusted and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write.
Within the verses ( 7 - 9) you can see there appears to be a four part 'way' by which to feast on Scripture, the food for fearless living:
1) ‘know God’s word’ – Be constantly looking at in order to fulfil command of having it as guide; Joshua would need to get it from ‘ark of covenant’ often
2) ‘talk about God’s word’– (Josh. 1: 8) Clearly Joshua was to be conversing about the bible in his normal day-by-day contacts with family, soldiers, friends.
3) ‘meditate on God’s Word’– Meditation implies reasoning about the Word & deducing things from it. Meditation has application as its goal.
4) ‘obey God’s Word’– The last element in this list of requirements is the most important... Not only know it, speak, obey it...he was also and chiefly to obey it. NOT TURNING TO LEFT OR RIGHT. Keep on Line determined by God’s word.

It is impossible to over-emphasize the need for us as 21st Century believers to apply this command and this process to our lives. I say this because, and I quote my words from Sunday:

"Feeding on God’s word is absent from so many of our lives, it is an afterthought after glutting ourselves on the lies of our culture through media over-saturation...People are more willing to believe the ‘fiction’ of Dan Brown, the quasi-biblical teachings of 80% of the Christian world over and above the profoundly glorious truth of scripture!
And it’s wreaking havoc! We become emaciated, withered followers of Jesus being kicked about by our enemies and unable to engage in the battle necessary for us to claim the glorious promises offered to us in Christ!"

Feast on the divine truth of God for faith for fearless living!

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 4 - Quotes

2009-10-12T11:32:00.002+01:00

Here are some quotes to help:

THE PRESENCE OF GOD:

“ It is wonderful that the same leader [The Captain of the army of the Lord] is with us...Must we struggle today in our own wisdom & puny strength? No – the power is there...Are we to know the power of this Leader? Well, then let us get our shoes off! Let us never forget the words of Paul: ‘I am the slave of Jesus Christ.’ If our shoes are not off before this leader, we will not know his power...[T]he Person at the burning bush, the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, the captain of the Lord’s host, Jesus Christ – this one is still with us.“

- Schaeffer

THE SUCCESS OF GOD:

“Our tendency is to decode this into narcissistic terms. But let’s trust God for more than that. God doesn’t function just in cosmetic terms. He’s not in the business of tummy tucks & nose jobs or of making life easy. He’s in the business of transforming us into His image. He’s in the business of helping us to serve Him, meeting the deepest needs of others who hurts, who are in pain, who need deliverance from sin, who need their bodies healed and their minds restored. God is in the business of helping us to lead people to a personal, vital relationship with Him, the Saviour Lord.”

– Huffman Jr.

PROMISES ARE TO A 'MISSIONAL' PEOPLE:

“Jesus said ‘Go’ to his disciples, and that word has resounded around the globe. It moves the heart and fires the soul. The commission comes from heaven. The Christ who left heaven’s glory and spent himself so utterly is in my heart urging me to go as he himself went. His presence with me responds to His mighty word to me – ‘Go!’ I am caught up in the eternal thrust of God. I cannot escape it, for I am part of it; the word lives to me & lives in me – ‘Go!’”

– Peckham

STRENGTH & COURAGE:

"We are living for something glorious. We are seeking to be radically different. Our mandate is to engage the destructive elements of society, to bring God’s presence, God’s love, and God’s truth where there is emptiness, hate and endless lies. The reality of ‘missional’ living is intense confrontation with the world the flesh and the devil and we will need inconceivable strength and courage.
But it is not a strength we work up or make happen, it is the faith in the promises of God and the person of God that give us the supernatural strength & courage of God. It is reciprocal."

- Leigh-Jones

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 4

2009-10-12T11:16:00.004+01:00

Ok, we finally entered the magnificent book of Joshua for real this week. We have spent 3 weeks trying to give a helpful background to this time in the life and history of the Israelite people, this man Joshua, and of course the stunning relevance to our own lives and situation.

I intended to preach one sermon from the first nine verses but of course on deeper investigation discovered that there was more than enough Spiritual Meat to chew on for 2 weeks.
So we entitled this weeks sermon

NOTE THIS: GOD'S PRECIOUS PROMISES FOR FEARLESS LIVING NOT DELIVERED WITHIN REALITY VACUUM

The major emphasis of the sermon was as follows

THE IMMENSITY OF GOD'S PROMISES:

Within these few verses God gives 4 Immense promises to Joshua in preparing to enter the promised land that are so real for us as New Covenant believers. Those 4 are -
BEING IN THE WILL OF GOD -right there, right then God had Joshua exactly where he wanted him. We too have this promises if we respond to the leading of the Spirit.
THE POWER OF GOD - Vs. 3 & 4 All the power made available to Moses in his leading the people is promised to Joshua. This power is promised to us, see Acts 1: 8; I Jn. 4: 4; II Cor. 10: 4; Col. 1: 11.
THE PRESENCE OF GOD - Vs. 5, 8 Far greater than the promise of Power was this glorious promise of the actual presence of the 'I Am', YAHWEH the living, redeeming, covenant keeping God. That promise is for us see Acts 2; Heb. 13: 5; MAt. 28: 20
THE SUCCESS OF GOD - Vs. 8 Not to be reduced to human, narcissistic terms. The success of God is the joy of living in such a way that our lives draw other to His glorious love.

Note: These promises are made to a people on mission.

THE INDISPENSABILITY OF STRENGTH & COURAGE

"...see here that Joshua receives promise and assurance one after the other and then suddenly he is told he needs to be STRONG & COURAGEOUS. In fact God is almost like a stuck record on this one see vs. 6, 7, 9 (x2), Deut. 31: 6, 7, 8, 23.
Why is this the case? Surely after these magnificent words spoken to him he could have sat back on his camel-skin couch, munching on some dates and catching up on his favourite episodes of ‘Survivor: Sinai Desert ’ on his Sky+ box.

The opposite is true. It is exactly because there were such promises to claim, so much to be possessed that Joshua would need all the strength and courage imaginable. To embrace all the joy and the fruits of this new place there would need to be constant conflict against and eradication of all that would deny that.
It is exactly the same today! Every great promise of Ephesians 1 and which are distributed on almost every page of scripture are not delivered to us devoid of living within the reality of a fallen, secular, fear-inducing culture."

So that was the gist of it. There are stunning promises available but as is promised in II Tim. 1: 7, the need for Faith-inspired Strength & Courage to posess the promises.

Simon

Here are the Joshua series Videos Part II - thanks Vimeo

2009-10-11T17:50:00.001+01:00

27-09-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Intro Pt 2 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Here are the Joshua series Videos - thanks Vimeo

2009-10-11T17:49:00.000+01:00

20-09-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Intro Pt 1 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Living Life Without the Fear Videos

2009-10-11T17:46:00.002+01:00

Yo yo people, starting to host our videos on the brilliant Vimeo.com.
Check out this url to have a look http://tiny.cc/0PI23

Be blessed

Simon

The Bible: "All Christ"

2009-10-05T11:30:00.002+01:00

So, so many people seem to remain distant from the Old Testament of the bible, seeing it as inferior to, or unnecessary now that we have the New Testament. (It's typically just laziness, but...)
I recently read a brilliant insight into the importance of reading the bible as a whole book (not as a library of different books) and that included the primary reason to read the OT: CHRIST!
Here it is

"... We call this book the Bible, and we divide it into two portions, the Old Testament and the New Testament. What does this mean? It means that the Old Testament and the New are both concerned about the same person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The OT is the preparation, the promise, the prophecy of His coming. There, back in Genesis 3, you have it; the whole thing is put so plainly. Who is the seed of the woman that is going to crush and bruise the serpent's head? It is none other than the Son of God, and He did it upon the cross on Calvary's hill. The Old testament from beginning to end points to Him.
Then what is the NT but the glorious fulfillment of every type and shadow? He is the substance of all the shadows. He is the great antitype of all the types. He is the fulfillment of everything that God had indicated He was going to be. So there is the bible - OT, NT - but it is all in Christ. The plan, the purpose, the way of redemption are always in Him." -Lloyd Jones

Don't just read it, eat it!

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 2 - Quotes

2009-09-28T09:12:00.003+01:00

Here are some quotes from several of the books studied in preparation for this series;

“ [In the defeat of the Amalekites] Joshua & Israel clearly understood that the victory was accomplished by God, not the strength of the army. Joshua’s military action in the valley was necessary but it was not sufficient in itself to defeat the enemy.” - Downey

“[Joshua] did not selfishly desire personal advantage. There was no lust for selfish gain. His life was characterized by obedient faith, dauntless courage, indomitable perseverance and a total dedication to God & his word. He revealed cheerful confidence in the face of difficulties. Others gave him high honour because of his unselfish disregard of his own personal interests...In every circumstance he displayed a supreme desire to know the will of God...”

“ Joshua was [acutely aware] of the seen and the unseen worlds. There is no vast chasm between them; the unseen world is right here. The unseen world is always immediately present, not far off. Above everything and overshadowing everything is the reality of God in His glory. It obviously stood Joshua in good stead many times for Him to understand that God was close at hand, that HE is the God who exists and who is ‘here.’” – Schaeffer

“He has seldom been given the full credit he deserves as perhaps the greatest man of faith ever to set foot on the stage of human history. In fact, his entire brilliant career was a straightforward story of simply setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God.” – Phillip Keller

Hope these help.

In Him
Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 2

2009-09-28T08:58:00.004+01:00

Week 2 of our Joshua series: "Living life without the fear!" Still in Joshua 1: 1 so we could be here for a while.
Whereas in the first week we noted some principles as to why the book Joshua was so important for us this week we sought to discern why Joshua was a

'3500 year old model for living life without the fear'

One thing I noted was this

"I think one definite reason so many of us get sucked into the culture of fear that surrounds us, a primary factor that draws us into living life according to the principles and fear-inducing beliefs of our time is the NEED to be someone and of course in a ‘celebrity-obsessed’ media-saturated culture that someone is better looking than us, more famous than us, more wealthy than us, more ‘happy’ than us."

Then I made this point -

WE ARE DESTINED TO INFERIORITY

Joshua to could have lived his life defined by inferiority, starting off as a slave and then living constantly in the shadow of Moses the great Jewish 'celebrity.' But he didn't he became a fearless leader who delivered the people of Israel into their promised land.

There are FIVE FACETS FOR FEARLESS LIVING that I believe we can glean from his life that will 'equip' us as followers of Jesus (or not) to live our lives without being sucked into the fear-culture in which we are immersed.
Here they are:

LIVED LIFE AGAINST THE FLOW – One of only 2 (Caleb) to actually survive the wilderness wanderings. (Nu. 13 & 14)
All 12 spies return with the same story. It is just that 10 spies “focused on the difficulties rather than on the promise of god...” See also Ex. 24 – 32 and the events detailed there.
While all Israel rebel & pursue idolatry again Joshua stands with Moses and for the Lord against the masses.

ENGAGED THE BATTLE– Ex. 17: 8 – 9 this is seen also in his report from Canaan.
In this he would have learnt that a life of following God is a lifestyle of warfare. (Eph 6: 10 – 18) “Victory is always possible but always depends on both faith in God & obedience to His commands.”

PRIORITIZED GOD’S AGENDA – His agenda, his comfort was not primary. Humble submission to the leading of God to undertake the mission of God was what marked him. It is the same for us, if our agenda or comfort is primary we will get sucked into and tainted by the ‘fear-culture’ that surrounds us.

OBEDIENT TO GOD– He learned the lesson of “the terribleness of sin” in the camp Ex. 32.
Resisting the temptations of living in a secular culture and standing against the pressure to live according to its agenda is far better than disobedience & the destructive consequences of that lifestyle.

PURSUED INTIMACY WITH GOD – He knew the ‘reality of God’ & the ‘glory of God.’ (Ex. 33: 11)
Joshua loved lingering in the presence of God.
There is simply no more effective way of counteracting ‘the fear’ than a deep, personal intimacy with Christ. See John 15.

Are you willing to be a Joshua in your generation?

Simon

'I hide myself in you.'

2009-09-28T08:47:00.002+01:00

Life is tumultuous of that there is no doubt. We may be living in the 'noisiest', 'busiest' generation ever, and resting or finding peace may be harder than at any time before.
Where do we go? How do we counteract the rush? Where does the rat go to get out of the rat race?
We are facing different difficulties than generations before us: we are devoid of war on our turf, health care and social structure has eradicated numerous problems that would have afflicted generations before us. Our difficulties are more about stress, overwhelming time demands, cultural pressure to conform at all costs, community fracture and internal conflicts. They are difficulties all the same.

Sometimes you cry out for an 'all-embracing' solution to all your problems, something that would maybe be your rescue. Well how about doing what David did 3000 years ago: HIDE YOURSELF IN GOD! Psalm 143 in the OT scriptures tell us that David did exactly that, he writes,

"Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in you."

Immerse yourself in the presence of God, revel in His love and compassion for you. Hear His well, dwell in His promises. I assure you there is no 'safer' empowering place.

HIDE YOURSELF IN GOD!

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 1 - Further Quote

2009-09-23T13:55:00.003+01:00

Here is another great quote which gives some background and insight to the strength of the book of Joshua to speak into our Christian lives:

"The book of Joshua has a very practical application to the believer today. The Promised Land cannot be a type of heaven since heaven is not a place of conflict & conquest. Heaven is received as a gift of the grace of God. Rather, the Promised Land represents the place to which believers are brought right here in this world today. The book of Joshua corresponds to the Epistle to the Ephesians in the NT where we see that the believer is blessed with all spiritual blessings. The practical possession and experience of them depends upon conflict and conquest. These are never attained through the energy of the flesh, but through the power of the Holy Spirit in the yielded life of the believer."

Simon

The Mars Hill Blog | Blog Archive » Luke’s Gospel: Where We’re Going

2009-09-21T11:18:00.002+01:00

Just found this as it came into my rss feed from The Resurgence Network. What a powerful confirmation to us that we are taking on a challenging but right thing as a church on this journey through Joshua.
Thank you Lord.

The Mars Hill Blog | Blog Archive » Luke’s Gospel: Where We’re Going

Posted using ShareThis

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 1 - Quotes

2009-09-21T11:00:00.002+01:00

I will share three quotes that I mentioned on Sunday morning (in fact one I did not get to share) as a help for all of us considering the book of Joshua and what it means for us today.

“Spiritual victory comes through obedient faith... [T]he believer who wants to defeat the enemies of his soul – the world, the flesh, and the devil – must believe God’s promises & obey God’s instructions.” - Paul Downey (click author's name for link)

“While wandering in the wilderness in fear & disobedience may characterize the lives of many believers, it is not normative Christian living.” – Paul Downey

“While in the wilderness, although they had been redeemed by blood, they were not in the place of their appointed inheritance... Because they did not believe that God could give them the land in the face of all the giants and walled cities they died in the wilderness... Like them, through unbelief and disobedience we too can miss the wonderful fullness and the blessed nearness of the Lord Jesus, indwelling and enthroned, possessing, controlling and motivating our lives. We too can die in the wilderness of blighted hopes and unfulfilled aspirations, of inward battles and outward failures, of sad defeats and wasted years... That weak, ineffective Christian life is most certainly not the inheritance which we have in Christ.” - Colin Peckham

Hope these help.

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 1

2009-09-21T10:48:00.003+01:00

Well we have kicked off what I believe will be a truly significant series for us as a church but hopefully for many individuals beyond the walls of screen 7 of Vue Cinema Watford. It is quite a landmark for me as a pastor as it will be the first time I have committed to take on a whole book of Scripture. It can be an ominous thing as you carry concern that people may see it as oncoming monotony - "What a whole Old Testament book of scripture?" - and their dread that they are destined for hours of sleep on Sunday mornings at X1. Also it is extremely demanding of the preaching & teaching elder(s) of a church to earnestly, faithfully, and effectively draw out of a book of scripture the life changing, transcendent truths that are most certainly within the text.

I hope we had a good start. We did not even complete Joshua 1: 1 as we introduced this series. Videos will start going up at Vimeo.com in the very near future and I will be sure to give relevant links if you have any desire to join us on this journey with this great OT man of God, Joshua, both an inspiration and provocation to living life without the fear that stains, and drains so many of us in our faith.

I am fully certain that Joshua's embracing of the challenges and the warfare necessary to delight in the fruits of the 'promised land'is a type and a picture of the faith-filled, obedient, conquering lifestyle essential for us as 21st century Followers of Jesus to live out our Faith without being overcome by 'The Fear' grasping the culture in which we are immersed.

Join us, if you'd like.

SImon

12 Marks of a Christ-like church.

2009-09-14T10:52:00.004+01:00

We have spent the last 2 weeks of our life as a church seeking God's heart for His vision for us as a people. We have been literally battered by Satan in the interim but have also sensed the Lord speak so powerfully into where this local church is heading.
I spent yesterday preaching into the truth that God has called Christ First as a local Christ Community into the stunning ongoing story of His Global Rehab project. We as a church are an essential section of the great tapestry that is God's Universal Redemptive initiative.

My thought is that as much as a church can seek to create a community that is a 'foretaste' of the CITY we see in Revelation chapter 21 the closer we are to being fully on board with the Missio Dei. It is a stunning thought! 70 people meeting in a cinema in Watford, England are spirit-empowered, spirit-gifted ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

A charge I set before us as a people (that which I hope God would say to us) was this:

"A body of believers most like Christ is the 'most healthy' church."

These are just 12 marks that I feel would reflect that:
*COMMITTED *HEALING
*SERVING *HUMBLE
*REDEEMING *MISSIONAL
*PURE *SELFLESS
*OBEDIENT *LOVING
*GRACEFUL *TRUTH SOURCE

I hope to maybe expand each of those marks in this week. But hope they will be helpful.

Simon

I said, "Teach them the fear of the Lord."

2009-09-14T10:47:00.003+01:00

I am pretty certain this is not what God meant when He called me to teach His people 'the fear of the Lord.' This didn't even scare my 2 year old munchkin.

Well thought I'd give it a go....

Simon

15th Century Thoughts on 'Confirming Faith with Experience'

2009-09-10T11:52:00.003+01:00

Juan De Valdes was a 15th century Italian reformer, coming to the revelation of Justification by faith through the grace of God in Christ alone without any knowledge of Luther and his ongoing revelations elsewhere in Europe. I am just getting caught up in some of his writings so share some here with you.

These regard the importance of confirming our faith with experience;

"Supposing someone asks me, 'How shall I, a believer, confirm my faith by experience?' I would reply with two things.
First of all, let him divest himself of all Christless modes of justification, both of those that are negative and those that are positive. Let him only embrace the justification that is in Christ, which consists in believing. Let him strive in prayer to God ans ask that He would cause him to feel peace of conscience, that He would mortify him, and that He would quicken him.
In the second place, let him keep the strictest reckoning with himself as to his works, words, and thoughts. He will know by these means what progress he has made in mortification and quickening. Let his purpose be to increase every day in his experience of mortification and quickening so that he strives to acquire that Christian experience by which faith is established."

Basically die to self daily and seek only to pursue all Christian works with your righteousness in Christ as the only basis. Not easy, but no one ever said truly living this faith was.

Simon

Doing Something Right?

2009-09-09T12:08:00.004+01:00

Oftentimes in our journey of faith, particularly in Christian Leadership we encounter seasons where we feel we are literally at war. This reflects the reality revealed to us by scripture that there is an enemy of those who follow Christ. He is the 'father of lies' he comes to 'steal, kill & destroy,' he is the 'accuser of the brothers [follower of Jesus' and he is constantly at work to distract us from the mission and to steal our joy and assurance in the great love of Christ!

Spurgeon alludes to this with fantastic words here:

"[if anything] makes me believe the work [fruitful ministry] is genuine is just this - that the enemies of Christ are exceedingly mad at it! When the devil roars at anything, you may rest assured there is some good in it. The devil is not like some dogs we know of; he never barks unless there is something to bark at. When Satan howls, we may rest assured he is afraid his kingdom is in danger."

We war against a conquered foe.

Simon

This is mum's 'sad face'

2009-09-02T15:49:00.002+01:00

The face Malachi pulls when symbolizing mum's sadness!

SImon