The anti-capitalists-on-the-steps-of-St-Paul’s saga rumbles on. Somewhere, in a parallel universe, a bunch of demonstrators recently turned up on the doorstep of a large church in central London. Here’s what happened next…
The people who worked for the church went out to chat to the protestors. They didn’t preach to them, they talked with them. They didn’t wear strange dresses, they wore normal clothes.
They pointed out to the protestors that other people wanted to get in to the church so that they could meet together and hear from God’s word together. They invited the protestors to join them, but asked if they would move their tents a little, to create a way of access into the building.
The protestors refused, so the church leaders hired a hall nearby to meet in, and closed the main building. The drawback of this was that tourists couldn’t look at the church (it was a famous one), but this didn’t matter much because (a) it wasn’t the main purpose of the building anyway and (b) the church leaders never charged anyone to look in the building anyway.
They continued to talk to the protestors. They made three main points:
The church showed its unity. And the church leaders made sure that whenever they spoke to the media, they mentioned in every sentence the name of Jesus, and what He had come to do—to rescue us not from material poverty, but from spiritual poverty.
Mind you, in this parallel universe:
Now back to the real world
At Sorted last year, Andrew Cowan from St Helen's, Bishopsgate, gave some great hints on how to write Christian songs. So helpful, in fact, we thought we’d share them on our blog! Andrew writes …
Colossians 3:16-17 tells us that our singing is meant to help the word of Christ dwell in us richly as we sing to each other as well as to God … so how do we write songs to help us do that? Here are four big principles and a few random bonus tips that I am finding helpful at the moment. Songs need to be:
Here are a few more tips in no particular order:
So let’s get writing, and don’t forget to pray… we need God’s help both to understand his word and express it clearly!
Being good reformed Christians, who always read a Bible text in its context, perhaps a bit of context will help us treat tonight's "celebrations" a little differently.
Yes, tonight is Halloween, when children dress up and go door to door in search of a free sugar rush. But it is also a night of enormous opportunity, because it is also:
Reformation night!
October 31st was the day that Luther posted his famous 95 theses to the door of Wittenburg cathedral. An act which sparked the reformation and a return to the centrality of the Bible to the life and thinking of the church. No doubt he did it on that day because it was the eve of All Hallows day (Nov 1) with All Soul's day hot on its heels (Nov 2). Both days in the Catholic calendar when prayers for the dead, and the worshipping of saints was at its height. It was a night of protest for the Bible over tradition.
Suggestion: Why not nail your own theses to the door tonight in celebration, so that you can have the chance to share the Gospel message to your nocturnal visitors. John 8 v 12 might be a good place to start. As you kindly welcome your visitors and offer them a gift, read out the text to them, and tell them that there is now no fear of death and evil - because our saviour has already won over all of them when he died and rose again.
Jesus said: I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4 v 4).... continue reading
The question in the office/at the schoolgate/in the pub comes: Do you really believe in a God who told Israel to wipe out the Canaanites?
ÂAnd you take a deep breath, offer up a silent and very heartfelt prayer, and open you mouth…
Welcome to a new Good Book Blog competition. Every quarter there'll be a winner, and the prize will be a year's free subscription to Explore, our daily Bible-reading notes.
How do you win? Just send us a picture of you with Explore in a wonderfully exotic or hilariously imaginative situation. The most farflung or funny entry will be announced on the blog as the winner, with the first victor being unveiled a couple of weeks before Christmas.
So, if you're heading somewhere on holiday soon, take a snap of yourself doing your Explore study and email it to: explorecompetition@thegoodbook.co.uk
And if you're going no further than your workplace or the school gate in the next couple of months, don't despair! Get your creative juices flowing and send in a picture of yourself reading Explore in a place no one has ever thought of reading it before…
And if you're not an Explore reader, but fancy taking part (and getting stuck into God's word each day to be encouraged and equipped to love and live for Him), you can grab the latest issue here.
PS By the way, if you use Engage Bible study notes, then you can take part in this comp in just the same way, using Engage instead of Explore.
Which “side” do you take over the Dale Farm evictions?
Is it Christian to insist that the law is applied, that people are treated fairly and so punished when they break it, that lawbreakers shouldn’t get ahead of lawkeepers? Or is it Christian to ask for compassion on the travellers, who are staying true to their own culture and way of life, and who have built their lives on that site and in that area?
Watching the struggle on the news, and the evictions that were inevitable once the bailiffs had moved in, brings to life the shock of the parable of the tenants (or maybe we should call it the parable of the eviction) Jesus told in Mark 12 v 1-12.
And it brings home the shock that the tenants facing eviction are us.
Ultimately, we’re all illegal squatters, living in a world that isn’t ours but refusing to pay our dues to the owner. And we’re all facing certain eviction.
So far, so “kick out the travellers”.
But there’s a greater shock in Jesus’ parable even than the forcible eviction and death of the tenants. “He will … give the vineyard to others” (v 9). Who are the “others” who are given the world to live in? Not the deserving, but the undeserving. Not those who never kicked out the landlord’s son, but those who realized their mistake and asked for forgiveness.
That’s grace. That’s like Essex Council winning all the legal battles, proving the land was theirs and the travellers had no right to be there, preparing the bailiffs to move in with overwhelming force… and then walking in with the deeds to the land and saying to those living there illegally: “Here you are. It’s yours”.
I’m torn between the impulse for the law to have its say and be applied, and for compassion to be extended to the travellers. And I think that’s probably the Christian way to look at it. God is a God of total, unremitting justice; He’s also a God of amazing, undeserving grace. It’s right for us to long for justice; it’s right for us to long for grace; it’s wonderful that in Jesus Christ, the Son who was evicted in our place, we find both justice and grace.
