Grace

Yesterday three facebook friends all spontaneously and simultaneously wrote about God's amazing kindness to us.

Mandy wrote that she is

thankful that come judgement day, her life is hidden in Christ so she is confident of a verdict of 'Not Guilty.'

Sarah said she is

saved by grace - and so thankful for this great gift.

and Gordon said he is

thanking God for his grace

An old, old hymn came into my head on reading these three comments. I'm guessing it will be new to many.

1. Grace! 'Tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

2. Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man,
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.

3. Grace first inscribed my name
In God's eternal book;
'Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

4. Grace led my wandering feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet
While pressing on to God.

5. Grace taught my soul to pray
And made mine eyes o'erflow;
'Twas grace that kept me to this day
And will not let me go.

6. Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone
And well deserves the praise.

It was written by Philip Doddridge in 1755, but Augustus Toplady, writer of Rock of Ages, composed the 3rd and 5th stanzas in 1776. Love it.

Jim Elliot still speaks

It is exciting to be able to listen to Jim Elliot speak, via two sermons you can download at Sermon Audio. His talk on the resurrection of Jesus shows an excellent grasp of biblical theology and is well worth your time.

Jim Elliot was martyred on 8th January, 1956. He was the man who said

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Every Christian needs to know his inspiring story.

Dying To Live

Andrew and Carolyn's Double Usefulness Blog has terrific articles and is well worth your time. I like this story about people in South Korea trying to improve their lives through a new form of therapy:

In order to help people to deal with their problems, their past, and to face a better future, a firm is offering a service whereby clients/patients can go through the experience of having their own funeral. The 'therapy session' consists of individuals being placed in a coffin, and having the lid nailed down. Once safely enclosed within their caskets, earth is scattered on the lid, and they are left alone in their box. After fifteen minutes the lid is opened and as The Times says 'the nearly-departed are declared reborn'. The therapy technique has proven so successful that companies are sending hundreds of their employees for these sessions, in order that they might be liberated from their past problems, and face the future with hope.
Lee Hye-jung, a 23 year old woman studying engineering, emerged from her coffin saying 'I felt really, really scared. I'll live differently from now on, so as not to have any regrets about my life.
The Scriptures, of course, describe a better way - but it still entails dying to live. Paul writes to the Romans, and provides them with a wonderful survey of the Christian message. In dealing with the difference that the Gospel makes in the life of a believer, Paul states 'Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life' Romans 6:3-4.

This is teaching which really changes things. Having died in Christ to our old sinful ways and having come to life in Him, we truly know what it is to die before our death. Such a death, and such newness of life, makes literal physical death become not a conclusion, but a continuum in the presence and grace of God.

Now that really is dying to live.

Perseverance and Eternal Security

As a child I was taught that our salvation depends on us making a decision for Christ. On praying a prayer to God, we are guaranteed salvation, no matter how we live for the rest of our lives, we learnt.

As I grew older, I discovered that the Bible teaches that our salvation is God's doing, and is granted on the basis of Jesus' death, not on our good works. I still found people following on from this and saying that therefore it doesn't matter how we live, because our salvation is assured and is not based on our good works but on Jesus' death.

However, I also found the New Testament teaching the necessity of perseverance as well.

How can my persevering be essential, and how can I have assurance of salvation now, if it is necessary for me to persevere in holiness? What if I don't?

John Piper's dear father, recently ushered into the presence of Jesus, shares his perspective on this in the 4 minute video at the above link.

Where Egalitarianism arrives

Missionary Donna Carlaw wrote this in a post on the Yahoo Theology List:

When Christ is reduced to a relationship of mutual submission with
His church, then we are talking about a different Christ, a false
Christ, a Christ that is not the One of the Bible.

--------------

Donna C, in those few words you have so succinctly shown the error of evangelical feminism.

Every Christian must believe that human marriage is a picture of the relationship of the true marriage of Christ and the church.

Yet if we take the mutual submission view, this is where it must lead.
Rather, Ephesians 5:21-33 shows us how we are to submit, and to whom it is appropriate for Christians to submit.

Of course, Ephesians 5 also shows what a humble, gentle leader a husband must be, if he is to even remotely reflect Christ.

Sensible article on a biblical view of homosexuality

David Field's article is careful, thoughtful and logically argued. If you believe that the Bible is authoritative and that you must follow its teachings, even if you don't like them, you will get a lot out of David's article. If you don't really care what the Bible teaches, and/or have already made your mind up on this subject, it may still be worth reading, but I don't think you will find it convincing. However, sometimes the good Lord has a way of changing our minds.

And maybe by posting this, I may be able to find his article again when I want to refer to it.

The emptiness of Christmas without Christ

Christmas celebrations always bewilder me. You go to a community carols ceremony and the host commends the hundreds of people there for their belief in Santa Claus and Christmas. Very few people join in the singing, and when the minister of a local church gets up for a very brief talk, it appears everybody is politely waiting until the commercial is over. Or else not listening at all.

What are most people celebrating at Christmas? It doesn't seem to me that it is connected at all with the birth of Christ.

But without Jesus, Christmas seems pointless and empty to me. I know I'm not a little kid looking forward to presents, but even then, there was a strange empty feeling after opening your presents, and not only because the neighbours had just come over, played with them and broken them for you.

This year, however, I do have some thing to celebrate, because fifty years ago, on Christmas Day 1957 the message about God sending his Son into the world to be born as a baby and grow up as a boy and man and then die for my sins was explained to me by my mother, and by God's grace it became real to me that very night.

I would love to see Christmas have that special meaning for other people too this year.