Eternity - Live Blog #3

Whenever anyone speaks about sex and relationships from Scripture in a students context it can be difficult and challenging. Andrew Lim spoke brilliantly yesterday from 1 Thessalonians 4 - there were no punches pulled and grace was well taught. The call to sexual purity is inescapable - we SHOULD avoid all sexual compromise because we know God in grace. He wills that we should be like him in purity; having made us pure through the blood of the Lord Jesus.

"Men often speak to me and say, 'Pastor, it hit me like a freight train, it was so unexpected". I tell them to cut all that crap, a freight train takes a long time to gather enough momentum to hit anyone"

We face a myriad of small choices that build up. In a sexually obsessed age men and women who are called to exclusive sexual purity. The Devil wants to win our affections not for our love but for our destruction - he apes God's divinity, creation and provision. Any counterfeit will but lead to devastation rather than edification and life. Andrew Lim put it so well, "the offense of pornography is not that it is too erotic, but that it is not erotic enough" - it reduces sex to a genitalia obsessed activity, where as God's plan is to see sexuality within marriage as holy and highly erotic in a sharing of intimacy.

The challenge was clear and powerful. No less powerful was Dave Well's conclusion to his three talks - if we believe the gospel we are to live it as much as we preach it and how we live is the authentication of what we believe. He told a story (that he has recorded on his blog) which was moving and challenging - do we ACTUALLY believe that gospel, if we do it will impact how we conduct ourselves in relationships towards others.

the challenges of eternity are close at hand. The gospel speaks of grace, the grace of God, which challenges and transforms us - many students here are thinking this all through for the first time; seeing new connections of grace, being asked to be seriously joyful and joyfully serious about the call to follow and proclaim, to live and to live out the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

This is life itself. As I type I'm exhausted but I am fully alive in exhaustion: what else would I want to be doing, this is what God has called me to and equipped me for. I am profoundly grateful.

Eternity - Live Blog #2

Thursday was the interactive experience day - a series of games and activities which immersed the small groups in challenges and tasks. The subtitle of the exercises was 'living the challenge in one day'. They played a silent card game - where the rules changed without explanation; they faced life and death decisions as a team 'caring' for crash victims; they negotiated an obstacle course with communication challenges; they had to work on a linguistic challenge, a building challenge and answer questions on a quiz. The point was to obtain clues toward uncovering a treasure.

It was a full on day for all involved - Bible teaching in the morning and straight into the tasks of the day. In the middle of it all there was an extra challenge of lunch. 21 people out of the 140 who are here were sat at table with really nice food, and more food than they could answer. The rest of us were shoeless, seatless and crowded with a very small portion of rice and veg, with limited water supply. The atmosphere was hostile from the group at the outset. An unscheduled 'revolt' quickly arose - I (as the 'opressor') was locked out of the room.

I was really angry - like many of those who felt they were treated unfairly in being given too little to eat. I was angry that the students would revolt and not play my game. I was angry that the privileged would not enter into under-privileged circumstances even for a short time without thinking about what they had to learn. I was angry that my authority had been undermined. Jane Pelz, spoke later about the whole day and said something profoundly helpful. It's just a game but the emotions are real.

There were many real emotions through the day. As I reflected on why I got so angry I realised that it was mainly because of cultural assumptions - "I'm in a position of authority, therefore you should respect me and the things I initiate". It's not necessarily a shared value - in NZ it is more a case of 'the position you hold is about the thing you do, respect comes from the respectability of what you are doing or who you are, rather than the title or position you have'.

Lunchtime was unjust yesterday, it reflects the injustice that we live with daily. Recently in NZ a woman died when her electricity was cut off due to an unpaid bill, leaving the medical equipment she relied on without power. Medical help could have been called but the family did not know where to ask for help or how to get it. Poverty is real here - there are significant numbers of men and women who live without enough to get by. It is all too easy to ignore though - as it is around the world.

The realities of God's Sovereignty and the sufficiency of Scripture were two great themes which arose from the teaching at the morning and evening sessions. God rules - he rules this fallen and broken world, and his rule will be perfected in Jesus returning as King over all. Scripture teaches us the truth about the whole of the world - the gospel is not some reductionist religious truth only dabbling in the personal aspect of prayer and devotion, it is the Truth of cosmic proportions - encompassing every aspect of life, creation and existence. Scripture is sufficient because it is the Word of the Sovereign God, who has reconciled all things to Himself in Christ Jesus.

One particular thing that has brought all of this home to me in the last few days is the testimony of one of the students. Jenny is a final year education student, she is also one of a family who have had a big impact on TSCF and who have grown up in a missionary context. She spoke of her parent's commitment to world mission - of their sacrifices of the things that they treasured for the sake of their love for Jesus. She smiled as she said, 'that includes us, we went to boarding school from an early age - I so respect my parents for loving Jesus more than their kids'.

It's not fair that Jenny had to go to boarding school, she could be bitter about it, but her example of gratitude in adversity and seeing the sovereignty of God worked out in her life marks her as an extraordinary woman of God in her generation.

As Jenny spoke, as the games were played, as the Bible was taught (and even in the midst of getting angry) - the treasure that yesterday's clues pointed to became clear: eternity awaits and there will be no more injustice, no more guessing, no more sacrifices of things that we treasure. Eternity will be more and more of all that is good in the nature and character of God.

Eternity - live blog #1

Have discovered wireless internet at our national student conference. So decided to put it to good use.

There are around 120 students here, something we're profoundly encouraged by. Students from all over New Zealand drove, flew, cycled and even walked here yesterday (several members the Palmerston North Christian Fellowship walked the 90 kms over the two days before conference started). It's the depths of winter and we all braved adverse road and sea conditions to get here. Some were delayed because of high seas as the ferry couldn't leave port and others had to traverse snow bound, icy roads to get here. We all got here (in the end!) and are grateful for it.

The conference is focussing on eternity: the transforming hope at the heart of the promise of salvation. Val Goold spoke at the first meeting last night - leading us through Luke 12 and challenging us to look hard at our hearts under grace and to see the call to live in the light of eternity in the here and now.

The challenge is sharpened as a Christian student lost their life in a car accident last week. She was a friend to many in the Overseas Christian Fellowship at Otago uni, Dunedin. The sudden loss of life of a contemporary and a friend has caused many to think of the pressing realities of eternity. Her funeral is this Saturday, her body is far from her homeland of Malaysia but her faith in Christ proclaims that she is now at Home in eternity, where death is but a memory pale in comparison to the incomparable beauty of Jesus.

This morning we turned to 1 Thessalonians, with Andrew Lim, a pastor from Palmerston North opening the major themes of the letter to us. He spoke from Ch1-2 - looking at the marks of a true disciple and the marks of a genuine disciplemaker.

He took time to explore the nature of idolatry (from which all true disciples turn as they turn to God);

"We like idols because we love our own lives and want gods to serve us - messing with idols leads to the horror of not only receiving nothing but of losing that which we HAVE received from God."

I was deeply convicted - idolatry is never far from the human heart. The idols which my heart covets after are all foul; deceptively attractive, destructively poisonous. I cried out to God to move my heart afresh, to turn anew in joyous obedience that is free and full of gratitude. Thank goodness that grace is free and transforming because of the justice of the cross and the power of the resurrection. AMEN!

Andrew also took time to explore the outworking of the single-hearted life of the Disciplemaker - that the single-hearted are people of integrity fearing neither failure or favour in the world's eyes - but preaching the gospel, which belongs to God, to all who hear it so that they might believe and obey it, regardless of the consequences for the Christian.

In a day and age within NZ when the pressure to conform, cave in or become quiet is particularly intense it is great to hear the challenge and the call to exclusive love and devotion to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we prayed at the end of the meeting - seriousness marked the prayerful hum around the room; God had spoken, his people were responding and grace was at work in the affections and the minds of those praying. Several non-Christian students are with us - hearing the challenges and encouragements alongside those who love the Lord Jesus already.

Tonight Dave Wells, a lecturer at Bible College of New Zealand will start the evening series on what it means to live as True Witnesses on campuses today. Dave is a cool NZ surfer dude - dreadlocks and beard and all! He has a real passion to see the youth of NZ taught, trained and mobilised for the gospel. I'm looking forward to hearing his contribution...

Anyway the sun is shining and I'm off out to enjoy it's warmth, while it's there! laterz...

Righteous Ambition?

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18.9-14

I recently came to a terrible realisation: and it's all about ambition and direction. In reading the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector we all know that Jesus is contrasting the Pharisee's approach with that of the tax collector - the Pharisee is wrong and the tax collector is made right with God.

But as I read and thought about it recently I realised something which appalled me. I want to be like the Pharisee. Not pompous, overly self important and showy - but I want to be able to recount how good I am, to have measurable progress and to show that God has made a difference in my life. But in really reading the parable I see that Jesus told it against those or for those who trust in their own righteousness.

The tax collector knows that his only hope is the mercy and grace of the Sovereign LORD. His appeal is not on the basis of what he has to offer, but on the basis of God's nature and character: he doesn't recount what he has done he speaks to God of WHO God is and what He can do.

I came to Christ a 'tax collector' - the words of an old hymn put it so well:

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die.

But somewhere along the way my ambition changed - I want to have something to bring, something to hold, something to offer. I wouldn't have put it like that, wouldn't have been so crass to express it but as I read God's Word that's what I saw - plain and bald in my heart my ambition was to be like a Pharisee.

So what do I do? I realise my state: the very ambition to be like the Pharisee is something wretched and wrong - it leads to pride and self-centredness, sin in the heart and sin in relating to others.

In the same passage Jesus speaks of becomming like a child to gain God's kingdom, of losing all riches to be saved, of his death and resurrection and speaks to a man who cries out "Son of David have mercy on me" saying "your faith has made you well".

A broken hearted child, I run, crying and trusting to my Father.
An impoverished man, I call on the Lord to give me all I need.
As a man whose sight is restored, according to God's mercy, I know that throwing myself on the weight of his promises removes the weight of my sin and brings healing and cleansing.

Another hymn, that I've quoted before, comes to mind - it expresses the prayer of the tax collector well.

Sinful, sighing to be blessed;

bound, and longing to be free;

weary, waiting for my rest:

God be merciful to me.

-

Goodness I have none to plead,

sinfulness in all I see,

I can only bring my need:

God be merciful to me.

-

Broken heart and downcast eyes

dare not lift themselves to thee;

yet thou canst interpret sighs:

God be merciful to me.

-

From this sinful heart of mine

to thy bosom I would flee:

I am not mine own, but thine:

God be merciful to me.

-

There is One beside the throne,

and my only hope and plea

are in him and him alone:

God be merciful to me.

-

He my cause will undertake,

my interpreter will be;

he's my all; and for his sake,

God be merciful to me.

Amen. Ambition corrected. Sinner Humbled. Child Welcomed. Sight Restored. Hallelujah! Amen.

Friendship is the Forge of the Future

Back Row: Pete, Stevie, Andy, Jono

Front Row: Tom, Tim, Karen, Richard, Esther

"Oil and perfume make the heart glad,

and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel" Proverbs 27.9

MINTY training happened once again at Waitaha, Bythells Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound. It was a great week of talking, laughing, studying the Bible, flying in adverse winds in a very small aircraft, cooking, singing, eating lamb, ltraining in evangelism, losing paddles, almost catching fish, seeing Pilot Whales in the bay just outside the house and thinking about the future. In short - it was a week of gospel friendship.

Here's a few photographic highlights - thanks to Tim's giftedness in photography!

The view from here is breathtaking - morning and evening: we watched God's creative magnificence in awe and with thanksgiving.

Tom, Esther and I made sure that the lamb, which Tom's sheep-farming father had slaughtered just for us, did not go unappreciated or left wasted - not one little bit!

Peter playing while Jono works.

Richard and Stevie attempting an all-at-sea limbo, and I'm not sure if Karen is engrossed in email oR offering the help that one of the in-house cushions offers.

There were lots of reasons that our week together was great - the sweetest part of it all though was spending the week together. These friendships are building strength into us, the conversations, Bible studies and the laughter - they are leading us to the Lord Jesus.

We studied the book of Habakkuk and discovered what it is to live by faith - looking to the promise of God to act decisivelly in history, often in the face of days when the promise seems far off, and living in by what we know to be true rather than what we feel or can see with physical eyes.

The future is pressing in - my obedience then is being forged now: the friends that God has placed around me, around each of us, are those whose earnest counsel brings the sweetness of wisdom acutely applied. AND to think all of this is the most amazing of surrounds!

Praise the LORD!