More Love to Thee

Regular readers of this blog will know that I've been blessed for a number of years by the Robert Murray M'Cheyne calendar of daily Bible readings. I've tried different 'read through the Bible' materials over the years, but there is just something special about the layout and arrangement of the readings in this scheme. If you're thinking of trying to read right through the Bible in the New Year, I can recommend no more helpful way to start than getting your hands on this scheme (it can be downloaded here, or a glossy published version is available from Banner of Truth here).

One enriching feature of the M'Cheyne plan is that it brings the reader right through the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation in the month of December. Christ incarnate and Christ exalted are relentlessly portrayed day after day, and I can think of no finer way to end one year and move into another.

Today's reading from John 21 always makes me cast my eye back over the year that has passed, as Jesus restores Simon Peter to ministry after his period of departure and backsliding. Christ applies one criteria to assess Peter's position as a follower and as His servant. John 21:15-19 show that of all the things Jesus wishes to see at work in Peter, love  for Him is the key, the principle, the priority. Jesus doesn't probe the outskirts of Peter's motivational and psychological constitution but goes directly to the heart of the matter - whether Peter loves the Lord as he ought to. Peter's affirmation of, and eventual irritation with, this thrice repeated question betray his desire to make his love for the Lord implicit and foundational to all of his future life and service.

As 2012 dawns at midnight I have so many aspirations for what this incoming year might bring in the Lord's will. I have hopes and burdens for my family, for the fellowship of which I am Pastor, and for my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. But behind all of this must be this basic love for Jesus, this simple predominant affection for my risen Saviour. This love for the Lord is the base rate against which all else I seek to do for Him will be index linked. I might speak with the tongues of angels, I might lay down my life in service for Christ - but if I don't love Him, I won't please Him.

I'm not going to make a New Year's resolution this year. Rather I want to sit at at my Saviour's feet and ask that He might deepen my love for Him, and that all of my affection might be set on His glory and fame. Knowing the weakness of my frame I'm aware that I will need to offer this prayer every day, not just on 31st December.

Elizabeth Prentiss' famous hymn articulates this burden, and might serve well as an anthem for 2012:

More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Let sorrow do its work, come grief or pain;
Sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
When they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;
This be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Thank you for reading along with Double Usefulness in 2011 and may you know God's peace, blessing and presence in this New Year - and may your love for Jesus increase day by day as you look upon His glory and grace.

Book Review: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan

John Bunyan is, perhaps, best known for his highly influential Pilgrim's Progress. Such has been the potency and popularity of this text over the centuries that it has all but eclipsed his other literary output. Last year I bought the Banner of Truth 3 volume set of Bunyan's works and have been dipping in and out of some texts, and ploughing through others. Bunyan is consistently helpful, his mix of depth and clarity, profundity and simplicity, make him at once readable and mind stretching.

My most recent foray into the world of Bunyan has been to read his autobiographical Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. It is to this text that many turn to get an idea of the man behind 'Pilgrim' and to get some sense of the life which led to the production of such a high volume of solid Christian texts. Grace Abounding has also been of interest to the world of literary studies, capturing as it does something of the evangelical experience of conversion.The brief synopsis at the beginning of Grace Abounding nicely captures the preoccupations which dominate the rest of the text. This is a book,

"wherein is particularly showed the manner of his conversion, his sight and trouble for sin, his dreadful temptations, also how he despaired of God's mercy, and how the Lord at length through Christ did deliver him from all the guilt and terror that lay upon him"

This, then, will be much less, and simultaneously much more, than a straightforward autobiography. The text will recount some events from Bunyan's life, but it will also (chiefly?) be a psychological treatment, probing the inner motivations, thoughts, aspirations and despair of its subject. Bunyan's great skill is to lay bare to the reader, not merely the events that befell him, but the emotions and inner responses he felt as his journey to faith unfolded.

This is not always an easy road to walk with the author. His journey to Christ was not direct from the profanity of his unsaved life into the fullness of faith. Rather by circuitous and at times torturous trails Bunyan travels from outright rebellion, through self-righteous hypocrisy, to faltering belief, before finally receiving assurance of sins forgiven. Bunyan's mind is of a particular type, and even as he recounts his experiences one gets a sense that this man may at times have bordered on obsessive compulsion. His description of fearing the fury of God, and moving away from below the bell in his local Bedford parish church lest it and the tower in which it was held should fall on him, is one example of many where Bunyan's conscience caused him tremendous concern. On another occasion he dismisses Christ from his thinking, only to come to the belief that Christ has finally cast him off forever; the mental anguish endured by the author at this point is painful to read. Should Bunyan have lived in the 21st century one can imagine that many counselors would have been queued at his door to 'fix' him.

The net results of Bunyan's account of struggle are, however, very beneficial. They on one hand warn us about the dangers of intensive spiritual introspection and the manner in which Satan can use a good thing (a tender conscience) for impure ends. The lessons from Bunyan's experience are informative, but not always exemplary, his torment of soul should not be sought as a measure of spiritual maturity.  But they also provide us with a helpful contrast to our modern ability to dismiss our sin lightly, and to readily presume upon the grace of God. At times, as I read Bunyan's account of his struggles, I felt intense guilt that I have so often minimised my own failures, rushing to grace rather than grappling with how exactly I have offended God. I also can see numerous pastoral uses for Bunyan's account, imagining that it might minister effectively to individuals who find themselves locked in a struggle with guilt and acceptance with God.

Bunyan writes powerfully, beautifully and with breathtaking candour about how grace impacted this 'chief of sinners' so wondrously. Grace Abounding conveys the sincere heart of a humble sinner in search of a great Saviour. It is a work invested with emotional honesty, but which chiefly speaks of God's great grace a great sinner and, by extension, to us all.

An Open Letter to the Right Honourable David Cameron, Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

Warmest Christian greetings at this Advent season. I write to offer my most sincere thanks for your recent statements regarding the place of Christianity within the United Kingdom. Now seems a particularly appropriate time to express this, coming as it does at the end of a year in which the influence of God's Word in our nation has found helpful expression, in the final countdown to Christmas, and in the same week as one of the strongest opponents of Christianity in recent years passed from this life to the next.

As is the case with most citizens, the contents of your recent speech regarding the Christian faith has been initially mediated to me via the BBC. As I read the highlights of your speech at the Number 10 website, I found myself at once thrilled by some of your sentiments, and burdened for you personally, and for your position politically as our head of state.

I am glad to hear your assertion that historic Christianity has been a source of good, and that God must not be kept out of public discourse. I am relieved to hear that the faith to which I and many others adhere is not the public pariah that it is often portrayed to be, even in mainstream media outlets. I am glad to hear you give voice to sentiments which seldom reach the ears of the general public, where caricatured Christians are often the order of the day, and fair representation seems far from possible. I am also moved by your humility in confessing that you have an affection for the Christian faith which is hemmed with doubts. As someone to whom many look for solid answers, and in a role which must at times seem to demand omniscience, I am gratified that you recognise that there are areas in which you don't have all of the answers.

Parallel to these sentiments, however, is a concern to see you follow through fully on some of your assertions regarding Christianity. While I don't expect you to share my creed as a Baptist Pastor in Northern Ireland, I do feel that your recent comments place a burden of responsibility on your shoulders to assure the rights and freedoms of all Christian believers in the United Kingdom.

Recent sounds emerging from Westminster and other centres of political discussion in our nation are suggestive of legislative decisions regarding important moral questions which will impact the life and witness of local churches across the UK. Issues regarding human sexuality, bio-ethics, and the right-to-life are at the forefront of these concerns, and I would urge and implore you, Prime Minister, to listen to the voices of those whom you claim to appreciate within the Christian faith.

There is a danger in the current media climate to believe the lie that Christians are chiefly concerned to hammer home their thoughts on human sexuality and other issues to the exclusion of all others. I can assure you that, for the majority of people within evangelicalism, this is not the case.

The object of our faith, and our great preoccupation, is much grander than that.

We worship the risen Lord Jesus Christ, declaring His authority, majesty and glory, living in the expectation of His return.  Our submission to His Lordship impacts every other area of our lives, including sexual ethics and moral choices, and it is from this position that we uphold what God's Word says on issues of our day, recognising our own helpless but for God's grace, and the efficacy of that very grace to transform lives. Such a necessity to express Christian values still stands, even if those moral claims clash with the current sexual or ethical zeitgeist within Western Europe. The freedom to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, and the demands that His authority places upon human beings, ought to be a basic right for subjects living in what you have described as a 'Christian country'. Such proclamation should, of course, be undertaken in the spirit of true tolerance. A tolerance which allows the believer to assert the tenets of their faith as exclusive and absolute truth, with due respect given to the freedom of those from other faiths to likewise express theirs. Anything short of this minimises the reach of the sentiments you have expressed in your speech.

I have deep respect for your position within society, and believe it to be a basic Christian duty to both pray for you and others in government (1Timothy 2:1-6) and to submit to the authority given to civil government by God, insofar as it does not impinge on what God requires of me as a Christian (Romans 13:1-7). As I pray for you, I will be asking that God will give you the resolve to now act on the sentiments expressed on 16th December particularly with regard to the Bible's role in shaping the moral future of Britain. I also pray that the doubts you feel in your heart regarding faith might, like the Apostle Thomas, melt into fervent and effective belief before the unavoidable reality of the risen King Jesus. I have no doubt that should He so reveal Himself to you, then the moral future of our great nation will have a firmer footing.

Once again, thank you for the implicit pledge in your speech to honour our Christian past by facilitating a Christian future for the United Kingdom. May God in His grace enable you so to do.

In the name of Christ Jesus,
Andrew Roycroft

Friday Fun: you know you were born in the seventies if...

I've read other, better, examples of this in the past but thought I'd have a go at writing one myself.

You know you were born in the seventies if:

*Your first memory of a 'mobile' was sitting in a freezing cold outdoor classroom

*Wireless was what your Dad called the radio

*The words 'Beta-max' and Celnet mean anything to you

*You can remember computer games taking twenty minutes to load

*Swingball was your main summer sport

*You ever built or rode on a guider

*You remember health frame glasses

*An iPad (eye-pad) was something worn by the kid with health frame glasses

*You were ever cognizant of how many pleats your trousers had

*The words FINDUS, CRISPY and PANCAKES mean anything to you when combined

*The Hi-Fi was a major part of how your living room was furnished

*You ever rode a Grifter or knew someone who did

*Your first memories of learning to cross the road are dominated by 'Tufty'

*You remember Ted Rogers and 'Dusty-Bin'

*Shell suits were ever socially acceptable to you

Please feel free to add to this in the comments!

Real Issues from Rail Issues

In the world of YouTube and Facebook, facts quickly become fables and normal events can readily go viral. One such story which rose to the surface of mainstream media this week was that of a university student who allegedly hadn't paid his fare on a Scotrail service. The conductor, having stopped the train at a halt, demanded that the young man disembark before the service would resume. He was met with a barrage of F-bombs and abusive responses. Having reasoned with the young man, and having asked him repeatedly to curtail his language, the conductor seemed somewhat relieved when a well-built male offered to dispatch the abusive passenger from the train. What followed was a minor episode of man-handling, during which the student tried to resist the irresistible strength of his superior opponent. His attempts to re-board the train concluded with him hitting the concrete platform, before the physical enforcer took to his seat amidst the applause of gratitude of other passengers. Video footage of the altercation has been viewed by over 1.5 million people (I haven't embedded it or linked to it as I'm not a big fan of broadcasting the F-word from my blog!).

The media storm which continues around this incident, is by turns petty and important. On the petty side the rail evictee has made  multiple protests in mainstream media of his innocence and his experience of being a victim of assault. The individual who videoed events had a slot on BBC breakfast, and a collective 15 minutes of fame has followed for the main protagonists. The man who evicted the youth from the train, Alan Pollock, has not courted the media attention, but then again he may endure media attention in court, should calls for his prosecution for assault find a good hearing.

Media moguls, former police officers and Scotrail spokesmen have raised their individual voices, either in protest or approbation at what befell the ticket dodger. There is a sense in which people have grasped the parabolic nature of the video's transmission, speaking as it does to some of the bigger issues which we face as a society. What does this event say about social disaffection, approaches to authority, and legitimate force? When is it right for members of the public to intervene, or to take the law into their own hands? What does all of this say about social media and publication of what twenty years ago would have been isolated and unrecorded incidents? All of these are valid and complex questions.

For me the most fascinating facet of the whole affray has been the promotion of the evicted student from perpetrator to victim. Here is a young, educated person who shows willful defiance to an official on a train - a man well advanced in years. He feels justified in raining abusive words down on the conductor, clearly in the presence of young families and children. He feels no sense of responsibility that he is delaying everyone else's journey or causing difficulties for others. In true toddler fashion he wants to have his tantrum, and cares little for a single consequence.

In short he is an icon of the golden age of the victim, the offended against offender who will defend his rights vocally and treat his responsibility shabbily. In this YouTube parable, he holds up before us the face of a society which shirks its sense of duty, which asserts its sense of entitlement, and will flex the muscles of state to keep its steady state defiance. He falls in with the line up from the summer riots, concerned to do what they want and incredulous when that most rare of things follows - an unpleasant consequence.

Such features do not bode well for Britain. What do we do with now multiple generations who demote authentic authority and promote their pretended authority? What happens to a society where rights are on the rampage and responsibility is in retreat? What does this say about how we bring the Gospel into these circumstances? If the authority of a visible, physically present teacher/conductor/riot squad serves as no deterrent to willful rebellion, how can we hope to so teach about God's authority over all people, when he cannot be physically seen or sensed?

To me the answer lies in a couple of areas, one which we can control and one which is in the control of Another. On the side of activism, we can teach our children about the nature of authority, and how that we  all must submit ourselves to it. Romans 13 gives me a tremendous framework from which to teach my children about the nature of authority as instituted by God, or rulers who rightly hold terror for the troublemaker, of even secular and sinful governments serving God's purpose of ensuring law and order.

My three year old and I had a fascinating conversation about this recently. She felt the car slowing down as we approached a 30mph zone and asked me what would happen if I didn't obey the law. I told her that the police would have the right to stop me, to scold me and to punish me. The sense of disbelief on her face that one of the two main authority figures in her life might be subject to another, external authority spoke volumes.

The other answer lies in the optimistic realism that the Bible affords us. We can look at our world and lament the traits of human behaviour which we see in ourselves and others. We can take an honest look at our morally moribund Western culture, and with candour confess that things are a mess. But we also believe that this is the tinder which God can still set alight in His grace, by His Spirit, for His glory. Arnold Dallimore's two volume biography of George Whitefield is full of the good news of what God did through His servant in 18th century England - but all of that was set against the bad news of a culture adrift from God, from His Word, and from the behaviours which it proscribes. God can move in the darkness of our age with the brightness of His grace, and we bear the privilege and responsibility of humbling ourselves and beseeching God to restore us and our world.

The fable of the freeloading student is packed with powerful reflective points for us all. But a belief in a God who intersects our society with His sufficiency gives us grounds for hope and motivation for prayer.

Book Review: The World Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips

The World Tilting Gospel: Embracing a Biblical Worldview and Hanging on Tight

Dan Phillips

Grand Rapids: Kregel

315 pages, paperback, £11.99

ISBN: 978-0-8254-3908-7

Dan Phillips is best known as a Christian blogger, contributing both to his own site, and the world renowned Pyromaniacs. His posts at either location are always articulate, often provocative and are consistently God-centred. Many have come to appreciate his writing style and his theological stance, and so the news that he had earned a publishing contract for two books in 2011 was welcome indeed. Along with an extended treatment of Proverbs, Dan has authored The World Tilting Gospel, and it is on this title that the following review will focus.

The World Tilting Gospel is a book about us, God, salvation, holiness and basic Christian living. Over the course of 300+ pages, Dan Phillips skilfully steers his reader through what the Gospel is, what it means for us, how we can come to appropriate it, and the difference it makes in our lives. The basic contention behind the book is that the Gospel as first preached by the Apostles turned the world upside down (hence the 'world-tilting' part of the title) and that when properly understood, it can do exactly the same today. Behind the book is a burden that,

'The greatest need of the church today is a strategic, full-orbed, robust, biblical grasp of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its transformative implications. We don't need more glitz or glamour, better marketing or more programmes, snazzier decor or entertainment. We do need a whole-Bible grasp of the Gospel' (p.19) 

The World Tilting Gospel goes back to basics and back to the beginning, taking the reader on a tour of biblical doctrine starting with God's work in creation, through man's fall, and God's plan of redemption. Part one of the book deals with our identity as sinners, part two God's plan of salvation, part three the means of becoming a Christian, and part four the realities of Christian discipleship and growth.These issues are handled in astonishing detail for a popular book, but the truths are expressed in terms that are at once orthodox and freshly phrased. Phillips is all too aware that the Gospel can easily be diluted or polluted by popular misconceptions, and he creatively sets out how people can misunderstand and misappropriate the Gospel in subtle ways. In slightly Bunyan-esque tones the author paints a picture of Bud Goodheart who simply wants God to rubber stamp his self efforts; Lodowick Legup who complements what God has done in the Gospel with his all important 'decision'; and Misty Call who is caught up with self-surrender as a means of spiritual fulfillment. These cameos nicely frame the need for a book of this kind, making the plain Gospel plain, in a world (and a Church!) which has a tendency to airbrush it or reduce it to manageable proportions.

The soteriology of The World Tilting Gospel is soundly Reformed, putting God at the centre and presenting Man in his utter depravity and deadness to God. Through extended argument and extensive quotation from both the Old and New Testaments Phillips paints a chilling and faithful picture of where sin took us, stating that 'we cannot understand what God has done for us, or wants for us, until we come to grips with where Adam put us, what sin has made us' (p.71). 

One of the pleasing features of the book is that it often takes the reader along an unexpected road to reach a familiar destination. The plan of salvation presented in the chapters begins, not with the process by which we come to Christ, but the person who deigned and designed to save us: God Himself. Phillips takes God's holiness as his starting point and from there builds a coherent picture of what God's love and wisdom in salvation truly mean in the light of His hatred of sin. This refreshing route planning is also witnessed in the outline presented of God's salvation plan, where there is a refusal to jump into New Testament teaching without laying the important ground work of Old Testament promise and foreshadowing. This allows readers who might be familiar with the doctrines of grace to find themselves surprised afresh by the audacity of God's saving work, and allows new converts to get a thorough biblical grounding in what it means to be saved.

Chapters 7-8 of the book are central (physically and theologically) setting out as they do the grand truths of justification and regeneration. These are extended treatments, which achieve that most difficult of things - deep truth presented with lightness of touch. I am so grateful that these chapters appear in a book of this kind, as they teach rich theology in a popular way - opening up to the reader the enormity of God's miracle of grace in bringing us to Himself.

The closing chapters of the book (Part Four) handle the complex and convoluted area of Christian growth. Phillips portrays a number of misunderstandings about how we can come to know holiness in our lives. Gutless Gracers, Crisis Upgraders and Muzzy Mysticism are the terms used to describe antinomianism, second-blessing doctrine, and Keswick style surrender teaching respectively. The author effectively dismantles these approaches to holiness but in so doing provides a positive picture of what santification is. Chapter 13, which deals with the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us into the likeness of Christ is nothing short of exhilarating, showing the dynamic resources the believer already has for living the Christian life. The final chapter of the book forms the overall teaching from doctrine to practical living into an organic whole, showing the difference that an appreciation and appropriation of the true Gospel will bring. When understood and applied the Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is 'world-tilting'.

My one criticism of the book is the absence of an in-built study guide. As a Pastor I am keen to start working through The World Tilting Gospel with some folks by way of discipleship and questions/discussion starters would have made an excellent book into a highly usable resource. A study guide is currently under construction, and it is to be hoped that it will become available soon so that the riches contained in the book might be mined by many, and discussed in a disciple-making way among God's people.

I highly recommend this book. It is a readable and reliable guide to how God saves sinners, and makes Christians holy. My abiding impression as a reader is that these are issues that have marinaded in the mind of the author over many years, and which now find mature, biblically nuanced, expression. Phillip's grasp of doctrine, biblical languages, and how to communicate in energetic prose make this a book which anyone will find easy and challenging to read. 

The Gospel was always designed to be world-tilting - Dan Phillips shows us why, and how we can know its transforming power in our lives and churches once again.

For those seeking to purchase The World Tilting Gospel in the UK the Book Depository appear to be the only supplier. They offer a discount on the cover price and free delivery (see here).

Adventures in the NIV2011 Pt.4: Cutting Circumcision?

Over the past weeks I've been engaging at length with Romans 2:17-29 in preparation for our current sermon series through the epistle on Sunday mornings in Millisle Baptist. When dealing with Paul's arguments about the value and function of the Law and circumcision I turned to the NIV2011 to see what kind of wording there is on these issues. I'm conscious that this is the second 'negative' post in a row on this translation (and there are many positives to come DV!), but here again gender-neutral language causes a few issues for the reader and expositor. It is, perhaps, most simple to lay out the NIV1984 and NIV2011 translations together and then to probe a little of what is problematic. I'm looking specifically at Romans 2:28-29:

 "²⁸ A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. ²⁹ No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God." NIV1984

^"28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. ²⁹ No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God." NIV2011

It can be immediately noted that the NIV2011 has replaced 'a man' with 'a person' throughout these two verses, in an effort to make the application and implication of what Paul is saying here more universal. The motive here is to be appreciated, even applauded: it is complimentary to Paul's purpose in proving that all of humanity is sinful and stands condemned before God to spread the net on that notion as widely as possible. This is not the same kind of issue as experienced in Psalm 8 in my last post, what is at stake here is not theology but simply clarity: clarity of concept and clarity of expression.

The point in Paul's argument at which these verses appear is his crucial handling of how devout Jews stand equally condemned before God. Their two great sources of reliance and assurance - the Law and circumcision - are proven to be ineffective if they are not accompanied by faith. Paul, then, is dealing singularly and definitively with circumcision of Jews - an issue which is by its very nature male-centric. Males in Judaism are circumcised, and so it is most helpful and natural that Romans 2:28 would say 'a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physically'. This is not a point which straddles gender - the circumcision of males in Judaism has no spiritual effect Paul is saying, the national sign only has effect if it is reflective of an inner change 'circumcision of the heart'.

Any preaching on this passage will of course apply this truth to all people, and in our contemporary context we might think of sources of physical false assurance such as baptism or unthinking decisionism. But our application and translation of Scripture are two separate things, and it would seem most logical, readable and appropriate to retain the translation here offered by the NIV1984.

 

The Enjoyment of Employment: some thoughts from John Flavel

I'm currently reading through Voices from the Past as part of my daily devotions. It is an excellent book, consisting of samples from the Puritans broken down into easily digested daily pieces. The reading on Monday past, by John Flavel, provides a helpful corrective to many of the ways in which we might be tempted to speak of our places of employment. There's an Americanism which describes Wednesday as 'Hump-Day' - hopefully this perspective from a wise Puritan might help you through yours:

The ways of God's providence direct us into the calling and employment that is ordered for us in this world.  To have an honest, lawful employment in which you do not dishonour God is no small mercy.  If it is suited also to your genius and strength, this is a double mercy.  If you have less toil than others and more time for heavenly exercises, ascribe this benefit to the special care of providence for you.  How strangely are things wheeled about by providence!  David followed the sheep and likely never raised his thoughts to higher things, but God made him the royal shepherd.  Some have work, but not enough strength. Others have strength, but no employment.  If God blesses your labour and gives you and yours necessary support and comfort in the world, it is a choice providence and should be acknowledged with all thankfulness.  If you find yourself scarcely able to provide for the necessities of life, consider: though you have a small portion of the world, if you are godly, he has promised never to forsake you (Heb. 13:5).  Providence has ordered the condition that is really best for your eternal good.  If you had more of the world you might not be able to mnage it to your advantage.  We are directed to be content with food and clothing, and the little that the righteous has is better than the riches of many wicked (Psa. 37:16).  If providence has so disposed you that you cannot only eat your own bread but have enough for works of mercy upon others, and all this is brought to pass in a way you did not expect, let God be honoured in this providence.  Remember that the success of your callings and earthly employments is by divine blessing and not human diligence alone.  Be well satisfied in the station and employment where you have been placed.  God is wise and seeks your eternal good.

John Flavel, Works, IV:387-391

Past Post Paste: Joy in the Prospect of Improvement

I have been blogging on and off since 2006, and have recently returned to writing regularly on my Double Usefulness site. I'm conscious that a few folks have begun to read along for whom trawling through the archives would be a tedious task, and so over the next while I'm going to paste some past posts from a while back which might be worth a read again. I've reread them and in places revised them to bring them up to date, but by and the large the content and sentiment remains the same. The first is a post from 2007 which reflects on the joy of realising I haven't arrived, but need God's grace to grow personally and pastorally. Five years on I feel more than ever that I need God's help to be and become who He would have me to be in His service:

I firmly believe that preaching and teaching God's Word is the highest privilege in the world, without exception. To be charged by God Himself to preach His gospel, and to teach His people, never ceases to terrify and enthrall me. The man-hours required to study the Scriptures are no drudgery, but a delight; meeting with God in His word day by day. At 34 years old I feel so blessed to be called to this work.

While being in Christian ministry can carry its own difficulties, (perhaps I'll write about those in the future) to me one of the real benefits of being called so early in life is the joy I find in the prospect of improvement. I know that in coming into the work of ministry I have so much to learn, so much to improve, so much to change -and I find that hugely exciting. For me there is something special about being in the company of other more seasoned Pastors, listening to their experiences, learning from their encouragements and discouragements, taking heart from their perseverance in the service of God. I'm blessed to have contact with other local Pastors, and those times of fellowship mean a great deal. I have fellow elders in my own fellowship and colleagues from others who enrich my ministry in so many ways - and I thank God for them. It is amazing to serve day by day in the prospect and knowledge that God is changing me, God is developing me; showing me my hopelessness and weakness, and His divine sufficiency. One of my prayers is that this sense of wonder will never cease.

Then there is the experience of living with the prospect of reading so many great books. Many good friends have inspired me, not only by their libraries, but by the depth to which they have read. Speaking with them is at once an inspiration to read, and an education from their reading. Book reviews and recommendations give me a flutter in the stomach as I look at all of the great things which God can use to engage my mind for however much longer I live (or the Lord tarries).

I think the bottom line is: I'm grateful to God for His mercy and grace in calling me. I'm thankful for the prospect of improvement privately, and in my preaching; I'm glad that God has put me into His service not to stagnate, but to grow and develop. I'm also richly blessed to serve in a church which has been patient with my shortcomings, and which has given me space to learn and make mistakes. God really is so gracious!

Adventures in the NIV2011 Pt.3 - Man O Man!

In my last post I alluded to the fact that the gender neutral language in the NIV2011 had presented me with few problems - with one notable exception: Psalm 8. Whereas there is little to wrestle with when Psalm 1:1 is translated as 'Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked', the gender language located in Psalm 8 is much more complex and doctrinally charged.

Psalm 8:4-5 in the NIV1984 (and most other translations) carries some gender specific language 'what is man that you are mindful of him...the son of man that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour'. The NIV2011 re-translates this verse, carefully taking a gender-neutral line with it, and phrasing it in strikingly different terms:

'What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour'.

At first glance, one might tempted to ask 'well what's the big deal?', or 'how does this carry any more significance than the translation of Psalm 1?'. The answer lies in one key passage of the New Testament which uses Psalm 8 to speak of Christ, or at the very least uses it as an introduction to speaking of Christ. I am referring here to Hebrews 2:5-9. In translations such as the NIV1984 a certain ambiguity resides in the employment of this verse. Does the writer to the Hebrews speak of man in general in verses 6-8, before turning his attention to Jesus specifically in v9 'but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels' etc, or does the whole section, including the quotation from Psalm 8 refer to Christ? Answers to this question are divided, with consensus lying with the fact that from verse 9 onward Jesus is the subject.

The problem with what the NIV2011 does with Psalm 8, with its quotation in Hebrews 2, and with the verses which follow ('in putting everything under them God left nothing that is not subject to them') is that the suggestiveness of the text is utterly reduced and flattened. A breathtaking interpretative decision is taken for the reader, which leaves no room for the alternative opinion that all of Hebrews 2:5-9 refers to Jesus. In other words any preacher who might attempt to preach on this passage in the belief that it is all about Jesus would have to un-translate the NIV2011's rendering, reconstruct it, and then preach it.

But an arguably more serious issue lies in the gender-neutral language here itself. Even if the quotation of Psalm 8:3-5 is referring to mankind rather than Christ, a vital, subtle link is lost. In using 'man', 'him' etc there is a direct comparison being drawn between man under Adam and the man Christ. There are rich allusions here to some of the federal headship which Paul so carefully delineates in Romans 5, which the NIV2011 utterly demolishes.

This is a disappointing feature in the NIV2011, and presents a serious problem for me in its use for preaching or teaching. Perhaps other features will make up for this as I make my way through, but this is the first real point of contention I have come across so far.

The adventure continues...