To go along with our Open up the Bible campaign we're doing an amazing 50% off current or first issues of our daily Bible reading notes. This great offer comes to an end on the 31st of January so don't miss out!!
We have also launched the Explore App. It's already been downloaded by thousands of users and it's only be out 10 days. To read reviews and download it for yourself visit iTunes or the Android Market.
This week was our tenth Bible-Centred Youthwork Conference for (mainly) full-time children’s and youth workers. For those on the team it’s four days – long hours – draining – challenging – humbling – inspiring. And a joy and privilege…
A joy:
A privilege:
I always come back exhausted – but also thrilled by seeing God at work, and being with so many of His workers in the harvest field. Forgive me if it sounds overly pious, but it genuinely is a joy and privilege every year.
Tim Challies has posted a helpful PDF listing some of God's attributes, including:
Would make a great basis for prayer.
Get the Hi Res version or the PDF
If your youth and children's worker has gone missing this week, there's a good chance they may be in Hertfordshire. No - they're not on holiday. Nor have they been kidnapped. They've probably joined the 162 leaders who work with under 18s meeting together at High Leigh for the 2012 Bible-centred youthworker conference. A great chance for them to get inspired and equipped for the ministry that lies ahead of them this year!
Throughout this week we'll be blogging on what's going on at High Leigh. But first, a quick reminder of what went on last year:
If you’re a smartphone person, have you got the Explore app yet?
It’s been encouraging to see the reviews for the app, launched this week, from users. We were hoping that delivering Bible-study notes straight to people’s phones would make reading God’s word easier, quicker and more flexible—and it’s looking like it has:
“What your iPhone has been waiting for: This is a GREAT development—the iPhone is an ideal medium for getting hold of Bible-reading notes, and these are great notes. What’s not to like?”
“Explore was always great but to now have it at all times is great! No internet connection needed once downloaded and Bible passage included. Thanks team.”
It’s dead easy to get—just go here to start accessing Explore wherever you are, whenever you want!
A couple of people have asked us why, in the UK, the monthly rate for Explore on the app (ÂŁ1.49) is a bit more than it is when you buy the paper version (ÂŁ1.33). Which is a great question! Essentially, there are three reasons:
And as ever, any profit we do make on the app, as with the paper version, will be ploughed straight back in to developing resources for the future; with getting to you Bible-centered products which make a loss but which are vital for ministry, such as children’s Bible-study notes; and with providing virtually-free resources for to Bible teachers in the developing world who otherwise couldn’t afford them.
Your £1.49 goes quite a long way—and it’s only half the cost of a large Starbucks coffee!
If you’ve got the app already, as many of you have, do let us know what you think of it on Apple’s app store or Android’s Market.
1 Peter is a book we’re covering in Explore later this year, and so it’s been much in my mind recently. And it strikes me that it’s written to Christians in a culture very similar to the UK in 2012—and perhaps one the US is increasingly moving towards, too.
It’s a book written to a church who were a tiny minority in a sea of other religions. Who faced not only apathy but outright hostility to the way they lived their lives. Who faced sustained, trenchant and unfair criticism for being Christ’s followers.
And right in the middle of this wonderful book comes one of the more “famous” bits:
“In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3 v 15-16).
We often look at just the first two sentences, which are a great encouragement to live for Christ and then answering people who are intrigued by our life.
But that doesn’t really seem to be what Peter’s talking about. He’s talking about people speaking maliciously against our behaving as our King commands. About people who see someone living as a Christian, and have a go at them for it, asking how on earth they would think it a good idea to follow Jesus, how on earth they can hold the beliefs that they do.
These verses are about how to deal Christianly with criticism of our life, our beliefs, our Lord. And Peter says if we let Christ, rather than ourselves, be Lord in our hearts, we’ll respond in two ways:
Christianity is not about keeping quiet when criticised. But equally, it’s not about biting back, either. We’re not trying to win an argument and look good—we’re trying to win people to considering Christ, so that He might look good.
And if that’s the standard for how we deal with aggressive criticism from outsiders, then presumably that’s also the minimum standard for when Christians call each other to account (whether it seems unfair or not).
And it just seems that this week, 1 Peter 3 v 15-16 might be particularly relevant. The Christian internet world and twittersphere has been more than usually full of criticism, and responses to criticism, from high-profile Christians, and it’s really helpful to have 1 Peter 3 v 15-16 to help us think both about the manner of the criticism, and the way it’s been dealt with.
You can see the exchanges here:
What's the Christian response to technological disasters such as the tragic sinking of the Italian cruise liner over the weekend?
The first thing is to pray—to pray for those unaccounted for, to pray for the families of those who've died, to pray for those who have to wrestle with their part in the tragedy. At these moments, it's wonderful to know there is a God who can bring good out of the worst situations (Genesis 50 v 20).
But the comparisons in the media all weekend between the Costa Concordia and the Titanic—not least the chaos and fighting for the limited places on the lifeboats—points us to another right reaction; one which takes us back long before Leonardo and Kate stood on the prow to the warbling strains of Celine Dion.
Titanic was built at the height of the optimism about man's future, following a century of technological progress, and the civilising of the world. It's "unsinkability" was hailed as part of the optimistic triumph of technology and science to solve the world's problems. It's sinking, and the start of the first world war less than two years later heralded the end of that optimism, and a bleaker view of humanity's chances for the future.
The response of Christians to the sinking at the time dwelled upon these themes. Pulpits thundered with sermons recalling the Tower of Babel, and how God had crushed the hubris of men to reach for the skies. The same message was rehearsed in the haunting classic Blues Song by Blind WIllie Johnson that proclaimed: "God moves on the waters".
It is a message we need to hear again and again. The response of pundits to the Costa Concordia tragedy has been to ask: "How could this possibly happen to a ship equipped with all the modern safety features we can think of". The inevitable response of the enquiries into the sinking will be to recommend further technological developments that will "prevent the same thing happening again".
Who knows. The incredible God-given ingenuity of man may one day give us a world of ships and planes and cars and trains that are completely safe. But our eternal destiny will be completely unsafe if we continue thinking that "we did it". For our God "has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (Luke 1 v 51-52).
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. (Revelation 21 v 22-26)
