The danger of Christian faith

"When I'm leading the campaign against Sharia law, for the abolition of the blasphemy law, speaking for the oppressed and marginalised, persecuted Christian and other minorities, these Taliban threaten me.

"But I want to share that I believe in Jesus Christ, who has given his own life for us. I know what is the meaning of the cross, and I'm following the cross. I'm ready to die for a cause, I'm living for minority community and suffering people, and I will die to defend their rights. So these threats and these warnings cannot change my opinions and principles. I prefer to die for my principles and for the justice of my community rather than to compromise on these threats."

Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistani Minorities Minister, shot dead today, speaking in January. Video interview.

 Some would say that religious belief is dangerous. It makes people fanatical. Ready to kill others for a cause. But anyone who has truly put their trust in the cross - the death - of Jesus Christ, becomes fanatical and dangerous in another way. He is ready to live for suffering people, and to die to defend them. This is a Christian, a 'little Christ'. A servant is not greater than his Master. 

Quote of the day: in his steps

From In Christ Alone, Sinclair Ferguson:

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. [1 Peter 2.18-21] 

'The word "example" here (hupogrammos) is very evocative. It was used of the copper-plate handwriting of the teacher that was to be imitated by the pupil. Jesus has written out the vocabulary of Christian living for us; we are to copy it on the pages of the autobiography we are writing. Some words are not easy to learn - especially these ones: p-e-r-s-e-c-u-t-i-o-n and s-u-f-f-e-r-i-n-g. But they are key words if the name of Jesus is to be legible in our lives. ...

'Jesus was crucified by this world. To become a Christian by definition means to follow a cross-bearing Saviour and Lord. It means to be identified with him in such a way that opposition to him will inevitably touch us.'

 

Having a bad day?

Despondent about the election? Family strife? Everything go wrong in work? Car knock you off your bike on the way home?

What to you do with a bad day?

Take it out on others? Drink to forget? Moan to friends? Comfort eat? Bish has some better Seven things to do with a Bad Day.

Sin allergy

This past few weeks, hayfever has been rather a pain. A constant irritant, disrupting my life. Interrupting social situations, stopping me from enjoying the lovely weather, depriving me of sleep, impeding my sight.

So it is for many, I'm sure - enough of the catalogue of moans! So I thought, how can I not waste my hayfever? It's such a small thing, in the scale of things: such a very small part of the frustration to which this world is subject. But if the irritation of hayfever is such a very small part of the curse on our sinfulness, and yet disrupts my life so much, how is it that the sin itself which is at root, affects me so little?

So my hayfever prayer is that the Holy Spirit would give me a sin-allergy.
That every morning as I wake I would be aware of the suffocating nature of sin, so that rather than trying to breathe its air...
That I would turn to Christ as quickly as I down an antihistamine, and meditate on his word more automatically than I reach for the tissue-box.
That I would constantly be irritated by my sin, that it would be painful to me.
That I would go out of my way to avoid sin being stirred up in me.
That I would be aware of how sin spoils relationships far more than hayfever interrupts social engagement.
That my sight would not be blearied or blinkered by sin, but by the light of God's word I'd see the world truly.

In other words, that as my Father is so pure he can't look passively on evil, so I would be allergic to sin. As I look forward to my Father recreating the world no longer subject to frustration, so I look to him to purify me from the roots of that frustration - my refusal of his way.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. [1 John 3.1-3]

Pray that I wouldn't waste my hayfever, but that it would be a reminder of the sinfulness of sin, and the righteousness of Christ, accomplished for us and still to be applied to all creation. That I would be allergic to sin.

The truth will set you free

Often universities and places of education misquote Jesus: "The truth will set you free." Jesus actually said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." The universities show the inadequacy of their view of freedom when students actually do want to follow Jesus, as IFES reports:

Firstly in March, students in Eurasia who were threatened with expulsion from their college if they did not give up meeting together to pray and study God's Word.

Now in April, 'the difficult situation in the university continues. Three students have been dealing with lots of psychological pressure. Dorm officials are watching them closely and their teachers have become much stricter when grading them. They have also been forced to see school psychologists and members of the school administration who think they have been brainwashed. The city mayor, officials and TV reporters are coming to talk to all students about the danger of strange religious groups. After a public meeting, the three students had private meetings with the police. The mother of one student is quite upset and has threatened to ask the college to separate her child from another student who she thinks might be influencing her child's decisions on faith. The students are exhausted and scared.

'In another incident, a student who is very active in our Christian group has been told by the dean of the department that it will be hard to get a grant to pursue her Master's Degree because of her new-found faith. This student had a dream of joining the faculty and letting God change the faculty and campus through her influence there.'

Please keep praying for these students, giving thanks to God for their faith. They are all encouraged to know that believers worldwide are lifting them up to the throne of grace.

"No mud, no glory."

I only commented briefly on Forum, UCCF's CU leaders' training conference. It's hard to encapsulate a whole conference in a few posts. But one must-read is from the Clarks in Athens: No mud, no glory. Dawn picks up on just why it was so moving to see so many students respond to the call to cross-cultural mission: they had been clearly told that suffering is not a possible by-product of involvement in mission, but is actually God's strategy for the spread of his gospel, the growing of his church and the glory of Christ. The Clarks know sacrifice - living in Athens for ministry there, having had to learn the language, raising a young family away from family and friends - it's not easy. But the glory of Christ is displayed in suffering, as we make up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ - making it known to the nations.

The Call to Joy and Pain

I've thought a lot recently about the call to suffer. Pondering treasuring Christ in the call to suffer. Chewing over the fact that it is in sharing in Christ's sufferings that Paul expects to know God's resurrection power at work in him - not in his times of exciting ministry (though they're not mutually exclusive).

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. [Philippians 3.8-11]

Ajith Fernando teaches very helpfully on the call to joy and pain in the book of that title by IVP. It confirmed for me much of what I've been chewing over, especially in combining those calls: it seems paradoxical! A while ago Mo raised a query with Piper's "Christian hedonism", with which I sympathised:

"Experientially there is sometimes joy in obeying God. But sometimes not. Jesus
expressed loud groans to God when facing death. Particularly, I don’t know how
the command often expressed by Christian Hedonists to pursue one’s own joy as
hard as you can fits in with the command to deny yourself, which is key to
repentance. Denying yourself is sometimes not joyful, and surely actually means
that the heart of Christian discipleship is NOT doing what will bring you most
joy but denying yourself that."

And Fernando speaks of dying - how often graduates look for ministry in which to be successful, as they're not prepared to die. Not that we're not prepared to be martyred: but are we prepared to die to self, to comfort, to security, to affirmation, to appreciation, to fruit in service, to... take up our cross and follow Christ? This reminded me of a biography of Amy Carmichael, by Elizabeth Elliot: A Chance to Die (very much worth reading). Ajith helpfully speaks of this call to pain together with the call to joy, in a way which reminded me not of Piper's books so much as his sermons on Hebrews, to which I listened while in Belgium, which kept reminding me to keep with Christ and die to self. I'm not entirely sure that we should pursue joy any more than we should pursue pain, yet in pursuing Christ both are inevitable gifts and not to be resented, as we treasure Christ.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

“Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. [Heb. 10.32-39]

I recommend both books.

Quote of the day: Preaching as Worship

Marcus Honeysett is blogging at Digital H2O, and has posted his talks from the Biblical Evangelism Conference 2003. I heard these given, and recommend reading them!

Preaching as Worship - Preaching (or, as he said, any Bible handling in whatever situation - think evangelistic Bible study, small group talk, CU meeting,...) is, in the words of Cotton Mather, "restoring the throne and dominion of God in the hearts of men."

Preaching that Speaks to Suffering and Evil - let "our preaching combine heart-wrenching weeping with unbreakable confidence in the sovereignty of God" (Piper)

Preaching the Cross -

"Lots of people would like you to not preach the cross. Non-Christians find it offensive. Some Christians think it is dull, or the basics that they have gone on from and grown out of. Some think that its just an old message with little contemporary excitement because they’ve heard it all before.

But I tell you that there is no glory in Christianity without the cross. There is no glorious message for us to proclaim without the cross. There is no power to save those who believe, no grace, no work of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 3 says that you grow as a Christian having the Holy Spirit and knowing him working miracles among you because you believe the message of Christ crucified. And without the message of the cross the gentiles are nor brought as a fragrant offering to God for his praise."

Treasuring Christ in the call to suffer

Listen to John Piper's two-part talk on Romans 8 from New Word Alive last week:
Treasuring Christ in the call to suffer (part 1)
Treasuring Christ in the call to suffer (part 2)