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I go to church not for God but for humanity
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I love talking to certain old saints. They overflow with wisdom and experience. And so often have a gentle manner that combines godly patience with the willingness to remind me that, despite being in my 40s, I am still a young whippersnapper with much to learn about the Kingdom of God.
I think the thing I love most about chatting to people who have been walking with the Lord for many decades is the fact that so many of them call Scripture to mind with ease. A significant proportion of them grew up in an environment where memorising verses of the Bible was seen as part of the normal weekly routine. A phenomenon that is often missing in congregations today.... continue reading
Here are ten helpful lines from Tim Keller’s new expository guide, Galatians For You:
1. “If you say people are saved by being good, then only ‘the good’ can come into God’s feast. The gospel offer becomes exclusive, not inclusive.”
2. “The gospel gives us a pair of spectacles through which we can review our own lives and see God preparing us and shaping us, even through our own failures and sins, to become vessels of His grace in the world.”
3. “God does not love us because we are serviceable; He loves us simply because He loves us. This is the only kind of love we can ever be secure in, of course, since it is the only kind of love we cannot possibly lose.”
4. “Christ will do everything for you, or nothing. You cannot combine merit and grace. If justification is by the law in any way, Christ’s death is meaningless in history and meaningless to you personally.”
5. “Salvation means much more than forgiveness. We do not simply have our slate wiped clean; we also become perfect in God’s sight. And we stay perfect in God’s sight. We go on as we began, having our hearts melted and molded by knowing and trusting Christ crucified.”
6. “’God sent the Spirit’ as well as ‘God sent his Son’. The Son’s purpose was to secure for us the legal status of our sonship. The Spirit’s purpose is to secure the actual experience of it.”
7. “For a child of God, there is confidence and boldness every day. We don’t walk in fear of anyone or anything; our Father owns the place! We live with heads held high.”
8. “The gospel devours the very motivation you have for sin. It completely saps your very need and reason to live any way you want. Anyone who insists that the gospel encourages us to sin has simply not understood it yet, nor begun to feel its power.”
9. “The main problem in our heart is not so much desires for bad things, but our over-desires for good things. When a good thing becomes our ‘god’, it creates ‘over-desires’ that drive and control us.”
10. “We are saved by faith, not by growing fruit; but we are not saved by fruitless faith. A person saved by faith will be a person in whom the fruit of the Spirit grows.”
Until the end of next month, if you buy a copy of Galatians For You, we’ll give you a free copy of the accompanying group Bible-study Guide, Gospel Matters: The Good Book Guide to Galatians. You can also download Dr Keller’s personal study notes on Galatians through the Explore app.
What are you like when you get to church? Stressed? Excited? Tired? I’m usually glowing. I cycle to church, and have the brightest, most fluorescent, deeply reflective jacket you can imagine. The first time I wore it, my pastor told everyone my holiness was glowing! But this week that was a problem. They’ve been digging up the cycle path under the railway. Mud, soot and oil everywhere. I knew I’d arrive at church filthy. And all the more obvious because of my glowing jacket.
So I tried to cover it up. I wore an old black ski jacket instead. Surely that would do the trick. But I hadn’t reckoned on just how churned up that cycle path had become. Even black can’t disguise much when you’re covered in thick, sticky sludge. Even my hair was muddy. I slunk in at the back, feeling ashamed – but telling myself at least I was at a church where they’d welcome me anyway, no matter how filthy I was.... continue reading
1. Lent Is About Jesus: A Free Devotional Guide
A free devotional guide for the season of Lent.
2. Martin Luther Biography (Free eBook)
A free e-book from Desiring God about Martin Luther.
3. Social Media and Churches: an infographic
An infographic from Alan Witchalls about social media and how churches and/or ministries might engage with it.
4. How Can I Tell If I’m Called to Pastoral Ministry?
A helpful article from Kevin DeYoung.
5. Audio and Video from the 2013 Conference for Pastors
The audio and video from the Desiring God Pastors Conference 2013 is now available.
6. And finally…
Our video of the week, a video from Alan Witchalls, 'Jesus is alive':
Found something that you think should make it on to the On to a Good Thing round-up? Send it to: ontoagoodthing@thegoodbook.co.uk
We know the theory. The local church is designed to be a loving community where people of all ages get to know God better. At their best congregations are places where old and young alike spur one another on in their Christian life. But all too often congregational life looks very different with children hidden away in a hall, young people meeting at a completely different time and, other than in families, very little meaningful contact takes place.
At the Bible-centred youthworker conference in January, Dave Thornton gave his 10 top tips for integrating under 18s into the life of the church. And here they are:... continue reading
No news this morning.
My morning schedule has me waking at 6.30 to the sound of Radio 4's Today programme. But because of a strike by BBC journalists - nicely timed to make the most of the half-term holiday - the comforting tones of John Humphries were missing from my morning routine.
And I felt strangely free.
Because, it turns out, much of what is talked about and reported as "news" is not really news at all. There's an army of PR people out there who try to drive the public conversation about issues. That may involve the carefully timed release of research results, or surveys or government white papers. Controversially, it may also involve the carefully timed release of bad economic news to co-incide with "real" news, like a terrorist attack or the results of an election, so that the negative effect is diminished.... continue reading
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4 v 7-12
The only response to the immense love shown by Jesus’ death for us, must be to show love to everyone. One way God shows His love for people is through Christians. We can show God’s love to people around us. No one has seen God, but people can see what God is like when we show real love to them! And He’s given us the Holy Spirit to help us do this.
There's still time for you to pick up a copy (or two!) of Tim Keller's, Galatians For You at the great launch price of £8.49 - 15% off the retail price. PLUS you get a free Bible Study Guide too! Ideal for personal study - a great resource with which to encourage a friend. Simply click here to purchase.
It's good to have a variety of musical styles on a Sunday. Wesley wrote some great hymns - so do Sovereign Grace - to name but two stables that I love to go to for songs that inspire my mind and encourage my heart.
But while there is much more diversity in church music than there was 40 years ago, most congregations still work within relatively mainstream musical styles. Most but not all.
A recent article caught my eye. There's a church in London where the music is soley heavy metal - spiritual edification through Thrash (complete with an animal skull adorning the church venue).
There are certainly concerns that could be raised about the way that church operates. The lack of expositional Bible teaching strikes me as a worry at the very least. And one would hope that every mature Christian would be willing to acknowledge the need for a sacrificial attitude when it comes to personal preferences on musical matters rather than seeking to gather with like-minded people alone. But its existence does raise some interesting questions...... continue reading
