Easter keeps going!

I love these two brilliant paragraphs below I wish I'd spotted them sooner so I might have celebrated this Easter, with the passion shared below. (Copied from here)

"My friends, we are Easter people! We stand on resurrection ground. Easter is not only our greatest party (much greater by the way than Christmas—whatever you do on Christmas you ought to do ten times as much at Easter); Easter is the only reason we are here at all! St. Paul says in 1Corinthians, “If Christ is not raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” Without Easter, Jesus of Nazareth would be a curious historical footnote. Without Easter, the world would still be divided into waiting Jews and puzzled pagans...

We should make Easter a forty-day celebration. If Lent is that long, Easter should be at least that long, all the way to Ascension. We should meet regularly for Easter parties. We should drink champagne at breakfast. We should renew baptismal vows with splashing water all over the place. And we should sing and dance and blow trumpets and put out banners in the streets. And we should invite the homeless people to parties and we should go around town doing random acts of generosity and celebration. We should be doing things which would make our sober and serious neighbors say, “What is the meaning of this outrageous party?”

Go... continue to celebrate! He is risen!"

Brenton



*the above two paragraphs are from Lent for Everyone by NT Wright.


- published via Blogpress

Does it matter?

At various time different people have said to me, "theology doesn't really matter, all that matters is that you love....God ...Jesus etc." To which my answer is, of course, it's great to hear that, my Mormon friends who say they love Jesus will be delighted.

To which I tend to get a response along the lines of either, "stop it, you know what I mean, I meant be a Christian and love Jesus" or "I meant be a disciple and love Jesus", their frustration grows if I then point out that Mormons and JW's call themselves Christians and disciples as do Roman Catholics and Unitarians.

Those people brave (argumentative?) enough to press on, usually go on to qualify, their meaning of "loving Jesus, Christian, discipleship" even more to help explain what they mean - if I'm in a mood to tease my friends, I continue the process of saying like ...? (People from another faith or religion.), but more often than not, I now draw the conversation to a conclusion by saying something like ...thanks for the clarification...but wasn't what we just did the very theology you said doesn't matter?

We don't need bad theology
I have some sympathy for those folks who think negatively about theology, my earliest memories of anyone talking about theology are of senior figures in the Church saying they didn't believe in this or that aspect of Christianity. Consequently I had no time for theology or theologians, considering them a waste of time or even a threat to my faith, completely missing the point that the Christian writers and speakers that fed my faith were Christians and theologians like CS Lewis and David Watson.

Loving God, mind and all
Many years later I'm now convinced that theologians are a vital part of God's plan for building His Church, drawing us closer into our relationship with Him and a deeper grasp of His plans and ways. A church without theology is in constant danger of drifting away from God's plan and ultimately from God, scripture tells us that the work of Holy Spirit includes his vital role revealed by Jesus in John 16:3 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. "All truth", carries with it the implication of all theological truth, all we need to know about God, His plans, His ways.

Theology is what you do
This doesn't mean we all need to become academic theologians, but it does mean that all Christians are theologians, every time we read scripture, teach, preach, witness, prophecy, or worship we are doing theology by default. The choice we have is whether we make the effort to do it wisely and well, or to pretend it doesn't matter and neglect to grow in our understanding of God.

To neglect or to set a better example is the question
Just because some people do theology badly is not a reason to write off theology, I've been in meetings when the worship was lifeless to the point of being dire, yet rarely do I heard anyone saying worship isn't important so let's ignore it, so let's not neglect the privilege of getting to know God, His Word and His ways just because some do it badly. If we are truly to love God as Jesus commands ".....with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind..." (Luke 10:27) then we need to embrace theology as an important facet of knowing and loving God.

Questions That Stick

Questions I'm carrying in my head.

From time to time life throws up questions that stick in my mind, sometimes I work our or find the answer, at others they hover there unanswered.

I've decided to post some of them, partly to invite answers, and partly for fun as some questions are probably more rhetorical than actual..some are even opportunities to vent about the  fickle nature of people, life and at times my own thinking process! (As this post develops and gets added to I'll leave it to you to choose what is rhetorical,what needs an answer and what is just me letting off steam.

Learning to listen and respond

Recently we've begun experimenting with stepping out using Spiritual Gifts outside of the church meeting, as it's plain they are meant for the whole of life not just church gatherings. People are excited about this...as well as nervous and slightly daunted. This process of stepping out experimenting and learning to hear God throws up all kinds of interesting questions, some of which I'll hopefully remember to post here.

To count or not to count, that is the question?

One that has stuck with me is around how we decide what is a valid prophetic word and what is not.

It appears that some folks accept words like 'I believe God wants me to look for and speak to a chap with a green hat', but reject words like, 'Father wants us to grow to plant 2 more congregations of 100 people in each'. The latter being rejected (in part) because it emphasises specific numbers, which "might put people under pressure"!

The pressure of being specific

Surely looking for a man with a green hat does exactly the same thing? What about the pressure of feeling you have to keep looking till you find green hatted man? Or the pressure to speak to the man with the aforementioned hat, if you spot him? What about if you spot 2 men with green hats at the same time...is there not a pressure to choose whether to speak to one or both of them, or to reject both of them and keep looking for a singular man with a green hat

Are specific numbers wrong, bad...or encouraging? Do we need to acknowledge that God often puts s under pressure, when we have free will but He commands us to do things like, forgive others 7 x 70..0r love our neighbours, what about loving our enemies? Is feeling under pressure to do something always 'religious' or simply something we feel when our (sin corrupted) free will wants to go one way and The Holy Spirit indicates another (better) way?

Do 12, 72 or 100 count?

Was Jesus wrong for choosing 12 disciples because a number was involved...was he wrong to send out the 72? Is the incident with the shepherd spotting sheep number 100 was AWOL, purely symbolic, or does it tell us that numbers are a useful tool in the Kingdom? What about the fact that there is a whole book in the Bible that is called 'Numbers'?

Is there a lesson I need to learn...or am I doing OK?

Does the rejection of the use of specific numbers in a prophecy or in seeking how we should respond to and work with God in response to a specific prophetic word have a scriptural basis? I'm happy to learn and adapt if it does... (Nb I'm talking about numbers as facts, not as numerology or abstract symbols here...that raises whole different set of questions...perhaps for a further post!

How can we know when there are different oppinions?

While leading a bible study at cell recently, we touched on a couple of topics where there is more than one opinion on what the passage means. In discussion of these points I commented that some scholars think 'x' whilst others think 'y', this in turn led to the question, how can we know what scripture means if there are different opinions?

 I guess this is a question that many of us might ask, hoping for someone to give us a simple definitive answer, yet scripture sometimes does not afford us that luxury.

Rightly Handle the Word.

As Christians we are exhorted to 'rightly handle the word of truth' (2 Timothy 2:15), by doing so diligently we will clarify what we believe, and why we believe it, this in turn helps us recognize how Christianity is different from other worldviews and religions. 

As adherents to a 'faith' we need to acknowledge what we believe about scripture shapes who we are and how we act, so it's important that we study and develop those beliefs rightly. God has not presented scripture as a computer programme for us to upload in order  to run our lives like automatons. God's plan is for a relationship, built around an ongoing and developing dialogue. Scripture facilitates and informs this dialogue, true understanding and right interpretation of scripture is in turn revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. 

Iron Sharpens Iron

The opinions and interpretations of theologians

have a role to play in helping us develop a broad view of scripture but the final arbiter of truth is God. Theologians help us 'as iron sharpens iron', they challenge our thinking in order to sharpen it, but ultimately we need to allow God to speak to our hearts through his Spirit and his word to reveal the truth contained within. There is no substitute for our ongoing relationship with God, theology as an academic pursute must never replace this relationship, however pursued properly theology is used by God to enhance and deepen our relationship.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

It is important that we understand where in scripture different views exist, we need then to turn again to scripture to seek to allow it to reveal and interpret the contentious passage wherever possible. We also need to learn to meditate on and to pray through the scriptures and to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth the passage contains. Sometimes this is simple, at other times we are drawn into deep and complex areas where scriptures do not easily give up an answer, where the matter remains mystery for us to wrestle with.  

A Deeper Relationship

Allowing scripture to interpret scripture is a remarkably effective method, which often brings complex passages into clear focus. Many of those scriptures with apparently conflicting passages are resolved and made clear by this one method. Whether the answers are simple or complex the one thing we can remain assured of is that God intends for them to do us good and to draw us into a deeper relationship with Him.

Love for the lost,whose love?

Often we wonder why we find it hard to summon the motivation and courage to share the gospel with others. This in turn can result in us asking God to give us that motivation, which is kind of weird, because if He just 'gives' us the motivation it's not our motivation is it? 

So where does true motivation to see the lost saved come from?

Well the paradox is that it does come from God, but it comes from our love for Him, which is an understanding and reflection of His love for us.

Genuine motivation for sharing the gospel flows from our response to being loved by Father. Until we understand and value the depth and breadth of God's love for us, we can't comprehend what those who do not yet know God's love are missing out on. When we do understand and truly value Father's love and how it changes our own lives, then we can understand and value what it is that others are missing out on. - that in turn will lead us to offer the gospel to them so they can know His love to.

The desire to see others saved will never come from berating ourselves for falling short. We can't 'psych' ourselves to summon up more love, we need to go the source, He who is love. Loving others is an act of will, but not one of personal willpower, our act of will needs to be one that moves us closer to Father. As we spend time in Father's presence we will come to understand more about His love for us as individuals and humankind as a whole. If you truly want to see others saved it starts with you regularly meeting with Father in prayer and His word. Bottom line we always need to move in His strength, not our, we need to move in  His love, not our own.

Why church is not perfect and why that should matter to you.

Hypocrites go to church

The truth is that the church is far from perfect. One of the most common reasons for not being interested in church is just that - It's full of hypocrites, who say one thing and then do another  - and you know what, it's spot on.

Full of flawed people

Church is not full of perfect flawless people, it's full of imperfect flawed people. 

The point is that church isn't about how perfect the people who are in it are, it's about how imperfect we are. At the heart of church is this very simple concept - we are all imperfect. Church is not an exhibition of the perfect, it's a community of the openly flawed, working together to try and deal with that imperfection.

The hypocrite label rightly sticks

Don't bother going to church if you are perfect and flawless, church is for people, real people with all our strengths and weaknesses. It's a place for working through our imperfection to learn how to deal with it. To put it in church language, church is for sinners and that includes us hypocrites. So don't expect perfection from church, the perfect church simply does not exist, but church can be a doorway to meeting and walking with someone who is perfect, someone who even his enemies failed to find guilty of any crime or sin - Jesus.

Jesus is who we can expect perfection from, the church is just a gathering of people who know that and who are committed to following Him. Sometimes we fail and the hypocrite label quite rightly sticks, but on other days we do better and reflect a little bit of His glory.

If you are not good enough to go, you are!

Bottom line, if you are not good enough to go to church, church is the perfect place for you ....and imperfect me. Why not visit and see for yourself?

Great article on prayer from "explore God"

How Do I Pray

http://www.exploregod.com/how-do-i-pray

Prayer, enjoy it.

For some people seems hard, they can't find the right words, they feel foolish like it's talking to the ceiling, they are too sinful and grubby to talk to God.

The crazy thing is it could not be simpler;

There is no quicker way to stop feeling sinful and unclean than to tell God about it. He already knows, He is listening for you to admit it to yourself and before Him, it's the first step in dealing with sin. Asking Him to help you stay clean is the next and the final step is walking with a Him daily to try and avoid messing up again.

As for feeling foolish, who will feel foolish in the end whaen He asks I was right there with you why didn't you talk to me about it? Oh yes I knew, but you acknowledging me and talking to me is an important step of faith. Didn't I promise to be with you? Have ever lied? Why then trust your own unreliable imagination and wonky thinking over my promise?

As for finding the right words, we are told when we run out of words and can only and groan, the Holy Spirit translates our groans. Who decides the wrong words? It's a barrier only in your wonky thinking (all us us suffer from wonky thinking at times). Just speak it out, if you can't say it you can pray silently. God is able to understand. If you can speak it out then those with you can hear and agree which adds something to the whole process. (If they can't understand don't fret, bottom line it's between you and Jesus, He does understand.

So let's keep it simple, yes there are lots of nuances and subtleties and deep theological things going on, but you don't need to start there, you don't need to know how your digestive system works to enjoy food....you just know it does you good. Prayer is the same, enjoy it, let it do you good.

3 Common Misconceptions About Theology

1) All theology is bad!

Some Christians are somewhat anti theology, which might seem odd at first, but is understandable when you are perhaps an evangelical Christian reading what has been written by Liberal theologians. Therein lies the clue, actually Christians should not be against theology, the issue is some theologians and the practice they follow. To know God starts with a right response to the basics of the gospel.

Theology is at it's heart the knowledge of God, or about God, which is right at the heart of the gospels and all the rest of scripture supports this. Knowing about God and getting to know God is indisputably a good thing which all Christian believers can agree on. Therefore at its heart theology is good.

2) All theology is hard to comprehend.

As with all misconceptions there is a kernel of truth here, but the issue is humans trying to understand God (who is way above our intellectual pay grade) and then to explain what they have learned to other people. However at its most basis day to day level theology is not complex, Christians have the Bible and above all Holy Spirit to help us understand what we need to know and do. Too many people are scared of looking deeper into their faith, saying I'm not clever enough to understand, completely discounting the fact that they have the supreme intellect at work within them...we often focus too much on our IQ and don't listen enought to 'The Helper'. 

Theology can be intellectually challenging the deeper you get. God wants us to learn to ride a bike, he does not want us to compare ourselves to the unicyclist juggling whilst on a tightrope, He wants us to learn to cycle for use in day to day life first and foremost. Getting to know God is a day to day life skill, not just an ethereal academic pastime.

3) Theology will weaken you faith.

Bad theology might, but actually living the Christian life without getting to understand God as revealed by scripture is a pretty good way of undermining faith too, as it inevitably leads to problems which quickly erodes or worse builds faith on errors, with inevitable problems arising as a result.

Theology will challenge what you believe, it will winnow your ideas, and some chaff will have to go. But pursued properly studying God and scriptures will see the pruning of your ideas lead to newer stronger growth. In the short term your faith might feel a little wobbly as the dross is removed, but what will remain will be purer and eternally enduring.

The key to all of this is spending time with God regularly, studying His word and listening to His Spirit. Ask Father to show you how to study, which authors to read, seek council on where to study if you are going to pursue it at that level.

We have nothing to fear from theology done properly and a great deal to gain from doing it well.

Let us learn to embrace theology at its heart as we press on to learning more about our wonderful God.

Vision keeping the BIG picture in mind.

Prov 29:18 If people can't see what God is doing, they trip all over themselves; But when they do to what he reveals, they are blessed.


It's great that we have lots of specific prayer requests for individual situations, KEEP THEM COMING! 


It's equally important that we pursue the vision God has set before us, our work in moving forward together starts with our battling for the vision to be fulfilled in the heavenly place.


Father has set before us a great work, we need to keep this big picture in mind as we pray, or we can easily become bogged down in details. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, not the problems and trials of life.


Please focus on praying for all aspect of our corporate vision in prayer on Tuesday.


Expect great things from a GREAT GOD! 

Where are your disciples

More PowerPoint presentations from IanHoward