On Faith & Science - The Heavens declare the Glory of God

Have you ever looked around you and considered how amazingly beautiful the world is? Just for a moment, take a look around. Even with man’s influence, nature is extraordinary.

I came across this video taken from the International Space Station. It made my jaw drop.

There is a reason for all of this.

In the Bible, Psalm 19 says this:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other
nothing is deprived of its warmth.

God designed everything, and set it in its place.

Everything that is seen, or unseen, or which science tells us happens, is there for the glory of God.

People say that science and faith cannot co-exist.

I say they can. Not only that, but that must. Science does not tell us why. Faith doesn’t tell us how. By working together, they harmonise beautifully in a way that brings God glory.

If God created a perfect universe, what else did he do?

If we continue Psalm 19, we see more:

The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.

By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can discern their own errors?

God created everything perfectly. If one thing was out of place, it would be chaos. We live in a world controlled by the laws of Physics.

I worship a God who created Physics.

I hope that more people can realise the truth – God is in control, and he loves us. We mess up, constantly. The world is in dire straits because we decided to make ourselves God. That was never the plan. We were meant to live in harmony with God.

Forgive us, Father, for messing up.

Psalm 19 finishes with a great prayer:

Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from wilful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

AMEN.

I try and make this my prayer every day. I hope that you do too.

On the Church

Google defines the word ‘church’ in the following order of priority:

• A building used for public Christian worship.
• A particular Christian organisation, usually with clergy and buildings.
• Institutionalised religion as a political or social force.
• The body of all Christians.

This is sad, because when we look at how the original language describes the church, we see that the true meaning of church is the last one.

Although things have rather got lost in translation along the way, when we look back at the New Testament, most of the time the word used for church is Ekklesia, which roughly translates as a “gathering of those summoned”.

In other words, the church is a community of believers who meet together.

This is how the church is described in the Bible, as God’s people living in community.

We need to see that it is God’s people who make up the church, and that is it.

If we think about church as made up of buildings or organizations or denominations, then we miss the point, and are not talking about the same thing that the New Testament authors were referring to.

So, lets ask two age old questions:

How we should behave in church?

               

God’s people seek Christ.  We should be looking for Christ, not only with our eyes, but with our hearts. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, so that’s where we need to look to find him.

If we turn up to church and expect to find Jesus confined to a building, then we are going to be disappointed. Similarly, if we come into a building thinking that it holds all the answers to life’s problems, we are going to be equally disappointed.

Being part of the church is not about the music, the seats, the heating, the tea and coffee, or even the speaker, but it is about setting our hearts on Jesus. He is the only one who can answer our questions, and though all the earthly things that we do in church may find that opening our hearts to Jesus becomes easier, and it definitely does when you are part of a group of likeminded people, those things should not distract us from our goal:

The church sets its heart on Jesus.

God’s people reject their earthly nature. Why is it, as a church, we find it OK to live one life outside church, and another as soon as we get through the door? Are we afraid of what the Vicar is going to say? Are we saving face in front of other Christians?

What happens to God? Does he only see what we are doing on a Sunday morning?

Of course not – he sees us all the time, and sees right through our deceptions. Thankfully, rather than having to live a life where we are constantly looking over our shoulder to see if someone is watching, we can rest assured that Jesus is changing us from the inside.

There was only one perfect human, and that was Jesus. And that’s our encouragement. Our new clothes we put on are spotless because Jesus has made them so. He says that everyone can have these new clothes because of his sacrifice. All we need to do is believe in him and allow him complete control of our lives.

If we do that, then we will soon find him working in our lives, making them better from the inside out.

And so to the second question:

What does the church actually do?

What the church does as a community is more important than sitting in pews on a Sunday morning. People watch the church. They expect us to be whiter than white. People expect us to model good moral behaviour. And so when they see us bickering and arguing with each other, all too soon our message becomes meaningless.

I don’t know why, because we are just a group of sinners in a confined space – surely we are going to have issues!

God’s people model themselves on Christ. We are Christ’s representatives on earth, so we need to be showing him off to the best of our ability. People are very quick to pick up on hypocrisy, you only have to watch 5 minutes of a political debate to see that much. If we say one thing and act another, people will pick it up.

Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Gentleness, Patience, Forgiveness and Love are all virtues of Christian living.

Why?

Because God is in the binding business. Love is the most important thing a Christian can possess, because it unites everyone together in perfect unity. Love draws people together.

But its more than just loving other people, its recognising our need to be loved too. Jesus recognised that he needed the love of his Father, and so we too, need to recognise that we need love.

God’s people do everything in the name of Jesus. Have you ever considered the strength of the name of Jesus Christ? Philippians 2:9-11 says this:

“God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus’ name is so powerful, yet we often misuse and abuse it. The apostles in the early church would drive out demons and perform miracles using the name of Jesus. Praying in the name of Jesus makes things happen. Why? Because nothing can prevail against it.

There will come a day when everyone will bow down before Jesus whether they have believed in him or not.

So what does that mean?

Well, first of all it means that we should be asking the Holy Spirit to lead our lives, and through learning scripture we can teach and encourage one another. Secondly, we should be joyfully worshipping and praying to our God. And most of all, we should be doing the same thing in the church building as we do everywhere else.

We should do everything in the name of Christ, as Christ would have done it.

On Faith that Keeps Clinging On!

A few weeks ago I started a study on Ruth. I was looking at the first chapter and realised that there is so much to take from such a small book. I would encourage everyone to read it.

What struck me was how everything was significant. Even down to the names of the people.

But what struck me most was where people turn to in times of need.

4 key characters present themselves in this chapter, and they have different ways of dealing with loss and uncertainty.

Elimelech, Master of the Household

Elimelech and his family lived in Bethlehem, when a famine occurred. Instead of trusting God to get them through, he decided to move into a land where there was food.

So what, you may ask.

Elimelech means “my God is King”. Effectively, by moving away from God into another country, he is forgetting his name sake and trusting in himself to get by. And what ends up happening? Not only does he die, but his two sons die as well.

When in need, Elimelech turns his back on God and looks somewhere else for survival.

Naomi, Widow

Naomi follows her husband in a time of trouble, and loses everything. A tough time, certainly. To be reduced from husband and mother to penniless widow is a devastating blow. It takes its toll on her. Naomi, meaning “pleasantness”, wants to be known as Mara (“bitterness”). She has no joy left. All she has left is her faith.

When all else is lost, Naomi returns to God for help.

Orpah, Daughter-in-law, Widow

Orpah, who married one of Naomi’s sons, decides that she will leave the uncertain future of life with Naomi and return to her homeland. She rejects God completely so she can have what she considers to be a better life.

When faced with an uncertain future, Orpah returns to what she has known all her life.

Ruth, Daughter-in-law, Widow

Ruth is a remarkable character. She could have gone home with Orpah, but instead decides to stay with Naomi, effectively turning her back on her old life and remaining true to God. On their return to Bethlehem they find hope – there is food once again, there is a man who is willing to look after her. God looks after those who keep their faith in him.

Amidst the struggles, Ruth holds firm to God.

Do you have faith that just keeps clinging on?

God doesn’t want us to be in a place where that is all our faith is for, but it has to be strong enough to weather any storm that we face. He doesn’t want us to give up either. He wants us to see that there is always hope/

There have been times when my faith is all that has got me through. There are other times when I’ve had such an easy ride my faith has not been tested at all.

Wherever you find yourself, have faith in God. If all else fails, just keep clinging on! 

On Mission & Evangelism

Sometimes I wonder how effective mission is. 3 weeks ago I was at Marjons Christian Union speaking on mission, and it challenged me to rethink what mission is all about.

At times we probably feel it would be so much easier if we could be like Lucy in the old Peanuts cartoon: Lucy says to Charlie Brown, "I would have made a great evangelist." Charlie Brown answers, "Is that so?" She says, "Yes, I convinced that boy in front of me in school that my religion is better than his religion." Charlie Brown asked, "Well, how did you do that?" And Lucy answers, "I hit him over the head with my lunch box."

Wouldn’t it be great if evangelism was that easy?

I know sometimes I feel like doing that with some people who just don’t seem to understand the point! Thankfully though, sharing the good news of Christ is not about beating up people into the kingdom, but sharing good news.

Who is our role model for mission?

Well, a good place to start would be Philip - the Model Missionary. He identifies 3 key points of evangelism:

Evangelism starts with GOING

Evangelism requires the GOSPEL

Evangelism ends with JOY

Evangelism starts with going.

Philip is told to go on his own, south of Jerusalem, into the desert. No questions asked. Even though God hadn’t told him what was going to happen, or what the plan was, he simply says GO. And Philip, trusting God, GOES.

For Philip – God reveals STEP 1 – Go south on the desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza.  And when he gets there, God will let him in on STEP 2.

Don’t we always just want more information? If we were Philip we would by now have filled in 5 risk assessments – packed our stuff, made sure we had enough water?

Yet God says GO and Philip GOES.

Even though Philip doesn't know why God has called him away, or what his purpose is, he goes willingly.

We must go where God asks us to go, and go enthusiastically.

Evangelism requires the Gospel.

This is often the most overlooked, misunderstood and mishandled part of evangelism. Sometimes we are too keen to get stuck in – fire stuff all guns blazing and completely dazzle the person we are talking to. On the other hand, sometimes we can be so timid and afraid of the gospel that we simply glaze over it and talk about football, or something interesting that happened recently.

Clearly, an explanation of the gospel is the point of evangelism.

What is the point in mission if we are not out to share Jesus Christ with the world? And thankfully, Philip helps us out by modelling some key values of evangelism. First and foremost, Philip takes time to listen to the man. How often do we miss out this step, or glaze over when someone is talking to us.

Philip doesn’t just run into it. He first surveys the situation by listening to what is going on. He works out that the man is reading from Isaiah. Having identified what the man is doing, he can engage him in conversation, and ask him questions on his understanding.

And it’s here that we find the core value of evangelism – the person has to be searching for an answer. We can shove the gospel down people’s throats until we are blue in the face and they are really annoyed, but if they are not open to hearing the response, we aren’t really doing anyone any favours.

Philip waits for the invitation to answer his questions, and by doing so opens up a relationship with the man and engages with them at his request.

Evangelism ends with JOY.

We are proclaiming that nothing stops us from coming to God through Jesus Christ, and if we can get that across then people will find a new joy found in commitment to him.

And this is the point of mission. We don't want people to just hear the word; we want them to commit, to give their lives to Christ. That's what the Ethiopian does - and baptism is a sign of his commitment. He's so keen he wants to get it done straight away!

Some people will reject God’s word, but others, like the Ethiopian will just lap it up.

Our role is to be obedient like Philip. And it's good to remember that this leads to joy! We can get so caught up in our fears that we forget that it's a joyful thing.

Who knows the consequence of this encounter?

It’s only speculation of course, but was this man the first ever African Christian, in a continent that now boasts more Christian per capita than any other? And who knows the consequences of your mission field. Perhaps God is lining up people specifically for you to meet in order that more people will come to know him better.

Remember the great commission Jesus gave to us all:

“go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

God calls us to share the gospel, even if it’s to unexpected places or with unexpected people. We should take time to listen and ask questions before opening up the Bible. And we should be praying that there will be commitments to Jesus and joy as a result!

On The Servant Revealed

This week I had the privilege of speaking to Plymouth Christian Union about The Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. They are going through a series on how the Old Testament reveals Jesus.

You get three common reactions to the Old Testament

1. Some are really inspired
2. Some get confused by the difference to the New Testament
3. Some can’t see the relevance

And that’s really sad, because for Christians, the Bible is our most important tool for understanding our faith. Its all to easy to ignore the Old Testament, calling it irrelevant. But we should take the Old Testament seriously

In it we find the reason why Jesus is so important.

Isaiah was writing to the Jews about eight hundred years before Jesus appeared on the scene. Just before Isaiah we see Israel doing quite well, but now things are slipping, and God’s people have decided to reject him.

Though its worth starting 8 centuries later on a desert road.

The story of an Ethiopian and a Hitch-hiking evangelist.

In the story, we find an important man struggling to understand this very passage. And he ends up asking Philip, the evangelist, a key question, and it may well be the question you are asking yourself:

Who is this passage really about?

The amazing truth of this scripture in Isaiah is that it is written to describe Jesus, centuries before he even appeared.

The first thing to notice is how the passage is laid out. In some Bibles it might be more obvious than in others, but this passage is very deliberately structured. It is poetry. It is the last of a series of four songs which talk about a suffering servant. It is broken down into 5 sections of 3 verses.

Hebrew poetry is very different to ours.

Rhyme is shown in similar or contrasting ideas and themes, rather than words. Verses will often carry a theme throughout in varying degrees of metaphorical language.

The themes for each section of this passage are:

The servant’s significance, status, suffering, silence and sacrifice.

Jesus was significant, though to human eyes had no status.

Most people saw nothing important. There was certainly nothing that would get him to the next level of the x factor. People wrote him off as something you walk past and never give a second glance. He was a nobody. But it is in this that we see the importance of his status.

If the people who sentenced Jesus thought he was God, they would never have sent him to the cross.

Jesus suffered at the cross for us.

It’s not his sin that hangs him there, it is ours.

Everybody’s. Yours. Mine.

That’s why it was so horrendous.

That’s why this is so enormous. That’s why the sky turned black and the earth trembled. That’s why Jesus shouted: “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Because God laid on him the iniquity of US ALL.

If you read this passage and are not moved by what it says, then you are missing the point.

Jesus suffered for us in complete silence.

Isaiah says that he even though was oppressed and afflicted (verse 7), he remained silent. Just like a sheep before a shearer is silent.

When he is standing in the courtyard facing judgement – nothing. When he is beaten, when the soldiers spit on him, when he is flogged and mocked – nothing. When they force a crown of thorns onto his head – nothing. When they lead him away up through the city streets, and when the soldiers nail him through his hands and feet onto a piece of wood and erect him high for all to see – he just lets them do it.

Anyone in their right mind would have to ask why.

It is in the answer to this question we see the wonders of God’s love.

Jesus came to be a willing sacrifice for us.

He was a guilt offering for all. A guilt offering was the way that sinners were able to come back into the presence of a holy God. You can read all about it in Leviticus. And what you find is that there isn’t any level of sin, with a more expensive sacrifice earning you any extra points – but that all sin carries the equal weight of death.

Anything impure keeps you out of God’s presence and needs to be taken away in order for you to come back in. And so there was a sacrificial system. The person who brought an animal to be sacrificed put their hands on it, and the guilt was symbolically transferred to the animal, which was then sacrificed.

The people who were listening to Isaiah, not only when he first wrote the letter, but centuries later, would have understood the significance of the sacrifice.

They didn’t know who or what. But they would have known that God was using the servant’s sacrificial death to bring people back to himself. That’s why it says he bore the sins of the many.

The sacrificial death of Jesus was used to bring you home.

On that dusty desert road, eight centuries later, the Ethiopian got it.

Have you got it?

Is this just a nice way of thinking about scripture, and linking it all together, or is it real?

 “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”