Category Archives: Repentance

Discipleship, Forgiveness, Osiander, Repentance, Spiritual Discipline, The call of God, The Christian Life, The church

The path of humiliation

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The way of humiliation

No human affirmation needed

No human discouragement nurtured

Listen to one voice only

Welcoming being overlooked

Serve with joy

Innocence with motives

Honour Gods anointed representatives

Divine motives – for his own purposes

Human motives – the unfair treatment

Do what you are able to do

Greater sanctification is my aim, not greater usefulness

If you will follow my direction I will ensure you are encouraged. Do it for me.

The bread is first – to show brokenness

The wine comes second – to bring healing

All I can see is my failure. God is greater than my failure

Am I prepared for the testing that trains me to run with horses?

He has lifted me from the ash heap

Teach me to hear the voice of Jesus in the mess of the church

Augustine, City of God, Discipleship, Judgement, Knowledge of God, Providence, Purity, Repentance, The Christian Life, The Second Coming

Day of days

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All of us at one time or another have raged at the injustice in the world. Indeed, social inequality is one of the most pressing issues of our day. We see power imbalances everywhere, corporate greed ruining the planet, governments suppressing their citizens – and our hearts break.

Into this strife Augustine writes. He takes these challenges head on as he addresses the final judgment of the world in Book 20 of the City of God. The last judgment is the day when life as we know it will stop and the veil that has kept us from perceiving the presence and reality of God will be forever ripped in two. We will face our maker, our master, our martyr – but this time the lamb will become a lion and every single person who has ever lived will give account for their life.

While in this life the relative benefit of those who seek to be godly is obscure:

It will then be made clear that true and complete happiness belongs to all the good, and only to them, while all the wicked, are destined for deserved and supreme unhappiness.

XX.1

Unfortunately how this will all work out is not clear to us, or possible for us to discover. Why God sometimes visits judgements on people who deserve it, and sometimes they seem to get away with it. Why those who seek to love God are often buffeted by the winds of adversity, and others who love only themselves are left alone – only God knows the reasons for these things. The important thing is that at the last judgment:

It will become plain that God’s judgements are perfectly just, not only all the judgements that will then be passed, but also all the judgements passed from the beginning, and all which are to be pronounced hereafter until the day of judgment.

XX.1

The duty of the believer is not to watch the wind, seeking to discern the whys and wherefores of individual circumstances and connecting them back to individual behaviour. No our duty is to trust in the loving kindness of our Heavenly Father, for:

At that day, it will become evident by what just decision of God it comes about that at this present time so many, in fact almost all, of the just judgements of God are hidden from mortal perception and understanding. However, in this matter one thing is not hidden from the faith of the devout; and that is, that what is hidden is just.

XX.1

Are we waiting patiently? Are we trusting implicitly? We who cannot predict with any certainty the path of a single starling as it swoops in the evening sky, let alone the dizzying murmuration of several hundred can certainly not predict the hidden course of perfect justice in the hand of the loving God in the life of one person.

Our response should be to ensure we are sowing seeds of righteousness that will bear a rich fruit on that final day, building our lives with solid gold and precious gems, plucking up the weeds and cleaning out the barn. The rest we humbly leave to the maker, master, martyr God.

Forgiveness, Knowledge of ourselves, Leadership, Repentance, Understanding Ourselves, Work, Worship

Are you sure you want to be a Level 5 leader?

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If you are into your business gurus then you will probably be familiar with Jim Collins’ book Good to Great which seeks to determine what it takes to make a great company. While some of the companies in this classic are now struggling or gone, the principles Collins draws out are as they helpful now as they were back then. 

At the heart of his book is a challenge to all leaders to aspire to something he calls Level 5 leadership – the leader who is simultaneously authentically humble and resolutely determined. He challenges us to walk in the path of someone like Martin Luther King Jr. who embodied these two leadership qualities magnificantly. Collins has coached hundreds of leadership teams on this model and he finds it resonates with people – we want to be led by fair, transparent, accountable leaders.

As I have observed many leaders first hand over the years I am left asking myself this question; Do I really aspire to be a Level 5 leader? Do I want to be this type of person? If the answer is yes and I/we do aspire to this level of leadership, here are five questions I need to ask myself before I commit to this path:

  1. Am I ready to be overlooked and treated unfairly? We work in a dog eat dog world, are you someone who will fight for every inch of respect, compensation and opportunity possible? Let’s get real, when we are not invited to a key meeting how do we react? When we find out we are not equally compensated alongside our peers do we hit the roof? When we are the last person to receive recognition are we still ok? What will be our response to these situations? The difference in our approach will show itself as the difference between fighting for equality and meritocracy in an organisation verses fighting for personal standing, compensation and profile. Are we prepared to suck it up more often than we stand up for an issue?
  2. Are you willing to not defend yourself? We live in the cut and thrust world where you will probably have enemies at some point. How will you react when it gets personal? In a conflict situation how will you respond when the arrows start flying? In positions of power we have the opportunity to seek to right personal wrongs and to push our version of events through our organisation. Will we go on the offensive when we are criticised? Beyond Broken challenges us not to throw the javelin when others attack, and by doing so we are absorbing the human cost of the offence. Will we become bitter or better leaders? To become Level 5 we should expect criticism as part of the job, expect to be misunderstood and misrepresented. Decide now that although your motives will be questioned you will always act with integrity. 
  3. Are you willing to forgive? Following on from this if you accept this path you will need to learn how to forgive people who are not level 5 leaders and are not seeking to follow the same path. When others directly oppose what you are trying to do, especially when they resort to underhand techniques to try and undermine your position what will be the story you leave in your heart? What will you do when the dust settles and you are now their boss? Will you get your own back for their treatment of you, or will you breath out, forgive, move on and start again? 
  4. Are you ready to leave alone? If we are one of those leaders seeking to take the organisation into unchartered territory, for its own benefit and survival, then we will sometimes end up in a culture war against the establishment. At those moments the temptation is to take our allies and start a competing organisation in the next door office or church building. At that moment we must decide who we will be. Will we be the disgruntled leader who seeks to destroy what they once worked so hard to build, or will we seek to begin a new story in uncontested water where our services or ministry is really needed? Level 5 leaders take the personal loss of starting from scratch rather than rip an organisation in two through splitting the leadership.
  5. Are you willing to fail? Finally, we must face up to our own failure. A couple of times in my life I have failed at things I have passionately believed where the right thing to do. At these times we are tempted to wallow in self-pity or rage against the machine. The Level 5 leader will take stock, dress their wounds, and slowly but surely get up to fight another day. This may well be the defining characteristic of the humble resolute leader, and I wonder if those two character traits can really flourish in a world where we have never known personal loss and failure. If we embrace the lessons failure would teach us we can ultimately move beyond seeking our own personal prestige to the calling beyond ourselves.

If you want to explore what it means to be this kind of leader we would love you to join us at the Thrive Conference next month in Aberdeen where we will look at this type of distinctive leadership: https://thebusinessconnection.org/thrive/

Apologetics, Free will, Repentance, The Fall

The Enigma of Evil

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AR-AE960_LEGO_P_20140130112656It is the age old problem – “How can a good God allow evil?” It is answered normally in two ways – either he is loving but unable to do anything to stop it (making him a benevolent but impotent being), or he is able to do something, but is unwilling to act (making him a malevolent dictator). This conundrum is not easily solved…if God really is as loving as he claims to be, then surely he would do more to stop the evil we see everywhere. If he is really as powerful as he claims to be then he could stop so much suffering instantly. We put ourselves in his shoes and see things so differently – we imagine what we would do if we were him.

Imagine for a moment you are the CEO of a large company. There are things in your company that are not good – people fighting, people getting emotionally hurt, people leaving in frustration. The situation really hurts the CEO because he or she cares about people and about their company. So what does he do? Does he have the power to sort things out? Obviously, he’s the boss. But is getting stuck in the best course of action? If he does nothing people will question whether he really cares about the hurt and pain they are experiencing. But if he intervenes in every case his employees will treat him as the police enforcement or judge to arbitrate even the smallest disagreements. They may also resent the fact that he is always interfering in things that are not his responsibility. Surely this is not the wisest thing for him to do either?

So, he comes up with a compromise – he decides to constantly lead by example and be the kind of leader he is looking for; he teaches his most senior leaders what it takes to be a good leader; he makes an example of some of the more serious grievances and he coaches people in private about how they should act in a given situation. There are some things that were set by his predecessor and he cannot change them easily (think of long term rental agreements) that are causing institutional pain, but eventually he will deal with these too.

Through these methods he slowly sees the company change, people becoming more what they could be, less what they shouldn’t be. All the time he has patiently waited and instructed, but not dictated the behaviours he expects from his staff. This is a good analogy of how God deals with the problem of evil….

1) He experiences our pain – rather than being a distant God, untouched by evil, he comes to earth to face it head on and feel the full force of corruption, jealousy, betrayal, greed, hatred, contempt and murder. In the life of Jesus God shows us how we should overcome evil with good, and learn how to not retaliate when we are reviled. Jesus was heartbroken by the death that took away his friend Lazarus, he is not immune to the pain caused by evil in this world.

2) He gives examples of a better way – the lives of the apostles and prophets give us ample examples of how to live in the midst of suffering and evil without succumbing to it. In the life of Job we learn how to suffer patiently and accept trial from God as well as blessing; in the life of Joseph we learn that what our brothers meant for evil God uses for good.

3) He shows us how seriously he takes evil – in the punishment dealt out to the rebellious Israelites in the Old Testament we have a vivid picture of how seriously God takes evil. Interestingly, these are the passages that people today use to try and argue that God is not loving – and yet it is his loving judgement on evil that shows us that he really does care enough about evil to do something about it.

4) He allows us room to learn – he does not intervene to stop every mistake we make. We do things that hurt ourselves and each other, we act selfishly and destructively, and he allows us to do it. Why? Because he wants us to grow in godliness through making our own choices, rather than restraining our freedom to act independently. We might wish he would stop people doing bad things, but would that apply to us as well when we act selfishly or self-centered or are proud?

5) He gives us his Spirit to teach us – if we are willing we can learn how to change the only evil we can control, the evil within our own hearts. We look at the world outside as the problem, but this problem is really inside of us. It is in our hearts where the darkness lies, and as we allow him into our lives he extinguishes the darkness with his light.

6) He is active to restrain it now and will ultimately remove it – just like the CEO, there are some things that are more structural than social. Unfortunately evil is a fundamental part of a corrupt and fallen world. While we may wish he would act now against evil, we should not take his patience for complacency. One day he will purge the world of evil, but if we would not be part of the problem on that day, we must come and submit to his rule in our lives in today. However, it is a mistake to think that he is distant from his creation and just waiting for the end, he acts in multitude of unseen ways to restrain evil everyday in the lives of his creation.

Maybe being a CEO isn’t that easy after all!

Bible study, Culture, Forgiveness, Original sin, Preaching, Repentance, Sermons, The call of God, The church, The cross

Total Forgiveness

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Amish-women-mournLast Sunday I spoke on the subject of biblical forgiveness from Matthew 18. The message is available to download here or listen online here.

The main theme for the sermon was how can God ask us to forgive everyone and yet, he requires reconciliation before restoring relationship, i.e. why do we have to say sorry before we can become part of God’s family? I also used the Amish shootings to try and understand what happens when someone doesn’t ask for forgiveness? Should we still forgive? The article I refer to at the end that was written about the incident can be found here.

We also touched on some of the practicalities of how this works in the church in the midst of our messy lives and unfinished characters. How can we live in unity whilst not overlooking areas of sin in the church family? It was a tough subject and worthy of much deeper study, but ultimately a vital issue to understand as forgiveness is one of the chief characteristics of a genuine faith. It is the litmus test of the reality of God’s grace in our lives. I pray it will be a blessing to you.

Apologetics, Carnoustie, Faith, Preaching, Psalms, Repentance

Indestructible Faith

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This has been a crazy week…if there was ever a time when my message impacted my life and my life spoke into my message this is it.

My faith has been severely tested and yet I have been blessed because of the free gift that God has given me. And he offers it to each of us. If you don’t have faith, can I encourage you to listen to this message? It’s just 34 minutes of your life…what harm could it do? God gave me the blessing of Psalm 46 for this time and I share it with you as a gift. For those at Carnoustie Community Church on Sunday thank you for a special day.

So, the fourth message in my series of Characteristics of A Genuine Faith: #4 “Indestructible Faith” from Psalm 46. You can download the mp3 file here.

faith

Persecution, Postcards from the Prophets, Preaching, Providence, Repentance, Sermons, The Prophets

Running on Empty

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Yesterday I spoke at my home church, Central Baptist Church, Dundee in my series of Postcards from the Prophets on Elijah at Mount Horeb from 1 Kings 19 titled “Running on Empty”. In it I sought to outline Elijah’s external persecution and internal despair along with his encounter with the whispering God. Through it all I sought to understand what Elijah’s experience can teach us in our trials and challenges in the UK today.

The slides are available here and sermon online here or to download here. During the service I also read out an article I wrote last year called “We need the tears of the prophets for a broken nation” – available here.

Bible study, Keith Green, Repentance, Revelation

Sleepy Church

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Revelation Study 5) Sardis – Sleepy Church (Chapter 3.1-6) word doc available here

This is the 5th church to receive a letter from Jesus. To their credit the church at Sardis had not given in to false teaching or sinful living as some of the other churches had, but Jesus still has a tough message for them – there were things that needed to be put right, and quickly.

  1. How would you describe the church in Sardis in your own words to someone who was a new Christian? What does the reference to chapter 1.16 at the start of the letter signify?
  2. Sardis had a reputation for being alive, but in reality was dead. If a reputation can be so misleading, should we strive to have a good reputation (compare 1 Timothy 3.7)? What are the danger signs that we are relying on our reputation rather than the Spirit?
  3. If being asleep is characterised by a lack of alertness and zeal for the things of God, do you think this a particular danger in our day? How can we guard against slowly drifting off to sleep and becoming comfortably numb?
  4. In v3 Jesus tells Sardis to remember, obey and repent. What things were they to remember? Compare chapter 2.5, 16 & 22. Why do you think repentance is so important to Jesus in these letters? Why is this spiritual discipline so unfashionable?
  5. In times of revival, history shows that they were preceded by steadfast prayer and spontaneous repentance. Is a lack of repentance hindering the movement of God’s reviving Spirit? Are we willing to take the pain of being woken up by God? Do you pray for revival in our day?
  6. V4 tells us that not all of Sardis was asleep – there were some who were awake. What things are promised to the obedient in verses 4 and 5? What is the significance of the white robes (compare Revelation 4.4, 6.11, 7.9 & 13-14, 19.14)?
  7. Read Revelation 14.14-20. How do you think Sardis and Thyatira would respond to such visions of judgement? Why do you think Jesus complements his warnings and admonitions with visions of the future?

The point of Jesus’ message to the church in Sardis is this – watch out and wake up! The application for us is not to take the place of Jesus, sitting in judgement of others we believe are sleeping, but rather to make sure this can never be said of us. We must avoid pride and a judgemental spirit, as much as spiritual apathy. May God grant that we would combine faithfulness with fervency, passion and purity, in the work of the Lord, and may He give us a heart that is burdened for the needs of the lost, the purity of the church and the glory of His name.

“Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord”, you know it’s all I ever hear, no aches, no one bleeds, no one even sheds one tear, but he cries, he weeps, he bleeds and he cares for your needs, but you just lay back and keep soaking it in…The world is sleeping in the dark, that the church just can’t fight cause it’s asleep in the light. How can you be so dead when you’ve been so well fed? Jesus rose from the grave, and you, you can’t even get out of bed. Keith Green “Asleep in the Light”

Bible study, Repentance, Revelation

The Too Tolerant Church

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Revelation Study 4) Thyatira: The Too Tolerant Church (Chapter 2.18-29) – word doc available here.

The church in Thyatira had become corrupted with false teaching. An influential leader, calling herself aprophetess, had led many of the church into sexual immorality and idolatry. In a powerful and scathingcritique of her true motivations and methods, Jesus calls back his wayward church to repentance and a deep-hearted commitment to his authority alone.

1. In Jim’s sermon he summarised Jesus’ message to this church as “hold on and look up” – what had they been given to hold onto? Why did they need to look up? How similar is our situation in 21st century Dundee to theirs?

2. What are the physical metaphors that Jesus uses to describe himself in v18? How does this compare with the description in chapter 1.14-15? Why do you think his eyes and feet are specifically mentioned? How does the fact that Jesus sees and knows all things make you feel?

3. What five characteristics does Jesus use to describe his examination of this church in v19? What does this say about how Jesus assesses the spiritual condition of a church and individual believer? Which of these five areas do we need to strengthen and how?

4. In v20 Jesus compares one of their false prophets to Jezebel. What were the sins of Jezebel? (1Kings 16.29-32, 18.4, 21.7-10)? How was she able to exert such an influence over Israel (1 Kings 21.25)? How is the “prophetess” in Thyatira similar to Jezebel?

5. What does v22 teach about the connection between sin and suffering? How does this verse compare with John 9.1-3 and 1 Corinthians 11.29-32? Given these verses, how do we avoid the false extremes of attributing all or none of our suffering to the consequences of our sin?

6. Jim reminded us that at the heart of the immorality at Thyatira was a misplaced allegiance. They were listening to the words of a false prophetess over Jesus’ words. What or who strives for our allegiance today? Who would Jesus name “Jezebel” in our day?

7. Not all the church had been deceived by the prophetess – what task is given to these believers? Why would what Jesus says in v26-28 encourage them to remain faithful?

The church is given a stark choice, repent and return or receive the punishment. It is a final warning to a wayward church. If this is how Jesus responded to a single corrupt church, how his heart must break when he looks at the state of the church in the UK today. Surely great judgement is awaiting many of our churches that have abandoned the truths they were given to hold on to. May we be found diligently defending and declaring the gospel that was handed down to us by our forefathers.

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2.2

Book III, Calvin's Institutes, Institutes of Religion, John Calvin, Justification by faith, Repentance

“We must have complete transparency”

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Book 3 Chapter 12 Section 1-8

For those of us in the UK the last few months have been dominated by one news story – the MP’s expenses scandal. A number of MPs have now stood down from office and some are potentially even facing charges for abusing the expenses system. While it seems that the rules allowed a certain degree of flexibility, when viewed in the cold light of day many of the legally-claimed expenses appear ridiculous.  So, after much finger-pointing and public displays of contrition, there is to be a full review of the expenses process. The man leading this review, Sir Christopher Kelly, stated that “we must have complete transparency” in a recent interview, so that MPs can be held accountable for what they claim.

Transparency is a funny thing, its great when you are the detective investigating a crime, but not so great when the alleged criminal turns the tables and claims an illegitimate arrest. This happened last weekwhen the BBC had to respond to a Freedom of Information request asking for its expenses, as a publicly funded body. No doubt enjoying the irony (and the view from the moral high ground), Conservative MPs say the BBC should publish details of all salaries on the grounds of “transparency”.

Calvin is all for complete transparency. In fact he believes that if we are truly transparent with our own hearts we will be forced to see the futility of trying to be justified by works. In this chapter Calvin challenges us to “look to ourselves without flattery or blind self-love.” He believes that if we can see the heavenly tribunal that is awaiting all of us we will not be tempted to measure ourselves by human standards of perfection. “For if the stars which shine most brightly by night lose their brightness on the appearance of the sun, what think we will be the case with the highest purity of man when contrasted with the purity of God?”

A true understanding of our condition forces us to give up any hope of our own righteousness before our Creator. Outward appearances will count for nothing, the only thing that will count will be “the true intent of the will”. This is a greater level of righteousness than outward observance of the law, it has to do with the inner man – our thoughts, desires and intentions.  External comparisons will count for nothing as each of us stands alone, our every thought exposed to the penetrating eye of our judge. Which of us then will have the nerve to claim we are not deserving of the just punishment of a holy God?

What is Calvin’s solution to this predicament? Therefore “if we would make way for the call of Christ, we must put far from us all arrogance and confidence.” For “when we have entirely discarded all self-confidence and trust solely in the certainty of his goodness, we are fit to apprehend and obtain the grace of God.”

Response

Everybody loves a scandal, its sells papers and writes headlines. But in the hysteria that followed the recent expenses revelations we would do well to remember that one day all our secrets will be revealed and all our thoughts laid bare. It’s good to want transparency,  but we need to be prepared for what it will reveal. Every action, thought and intention of every day of our lives will be completely transparent for all to see. Not just where we may have bent the rules a bit, but where we outright broke them, thought about breaking them, and lived in rebellion to God’s kindness.

But before we despair of hope we must remember that there is a solution. For our greatest danger is not that we are stand before our Maker exposed, shamed and guilty – our greatest danger is that we enter the dock before we recognise there is a remedy. For at that point it will be too late. There is a Saviour for sinners, may we run to Him for forgiveness while we still can.

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” 1 Timothy 1.15