Daybreak

 "He (the Lord) has sent me to bind up the broken hearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives - deliverance from the prison for those enslaved".

Isaiah 61: 1.

"Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead".

Dionysius.

Those of us who think we currently have a problem at present need to seriously consider the following...

Europe in the mid 14th century was not a healthy place to be. Between 1347 and 1351, it is estimated that the Black Death was responsible for killing around two thirds of Europe's entire population - around 200 million souls as it spread across from Africa and the East.

This wasn't the first horror of its kind.  From 165-180 AD, an outbreak of what may well have been smallpox or ebola caused a swathe of deaths (around 5,000 a day) in what is now termed the Plague of Cyprian and another outbreak came in the 7th century - the Justinian Plague, wiping out around 40% of the population.

In the year of 1527, the awful scourge of the Black Death spread horribly once more through Europe, and in August of that year, it arrived within the gates of the University town of Wittenburg in Germany.

It had only been a handful of years since this place had found itself at the centre of momentus events that would change the nature of Europe as deeply as any plague.

At the centre of what shifted the world was a man named after Saint Martin of Tours - a Roman soldier of the 4th century. Named so because he was baptised in Eisleben on the saint's day (November 10th, 1483), he, like his name-sake, would renounce his allegiance to higher authority to fulfil his work as a soldier of Christ.

As the deadly disease reached the doors of his own home, Martin Luther and his pregnant wife Kathrine proceeded to turn their residence into a ward for the sick and the dying, to care for their bodies but also to provide them with the eternal comfort of Jesus Christ, through God's word, and to those that believed, through the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood.

Death was no stranger to the beloved theologian. A year before the plague, He and Katherine lost their second child, Elizabeth, just months after her birth - something that was to be evidenced again in 1529 with the loss of their third child, Magdalene.

In his own family, Luther had been one of eight children, but only one of his brothers and three of his sisters survived into adulthood.

It would have been easy for the good doctor and his family, then, to leave the university in the face of such tragedy - to distance themselves from death. They were valued members of the community, after all, and no doubt could have simply expected the hospital and perhaps others to aid the sick, but Martin understood that when such tragedy strikes, the role of the Christian is to place his love for God first by seeking to do what is genuinely good for neighbour, and that meant bringing the only freedom which matters to the lost and the dying - the freedom that Christ gives us in His dying and rising for our sins.

This manner of bold affirmation of the Gospel is why Wittenburg became the centre of change in first Germany, and then across the rest of Europe.

In the years prior to 1521, the Roman Church's response to the general troubles of the people under its authority had been to fleece them of their wealth through either selling them 'rights' to numerous reductions of years in purgatory through a papal indulgence, or by their attending, for a fee, to the various collections of 'holy' relics across the empire. The church, in other words, sought to prey upon the fears taught in to people's religious affections concerning death by highlighting these to take their wealth. Religion became a way to dispel such anxieties, but only for the right price.

Luther knew, as the Apostles taught, that the only way to find true peace and freedom before God was through what had been freely made ours in the coming of Jesus Christ, and that life was the only means of salvation for each of us. This is what he diligently shared to the sick brought to his home.

It was amongst these very troubles that he also began to pen his famous hymn -

A safe stronghold our God is still, a trusty shield and weapon.

All fascinating stuff, someone might say, but what has it to do with today? Times have moved on, and there really isn't a need for the church to take such actions now... we can leave the matter in the hands of scientists, politicians and our health service.

And there, indeed, is the problem. If the church is now generally perceived as having no key role, what is it meant to be doing?

In a recent expose of the development of underground or micro churches, Brian Sanders has identified a key problem that is leading to the irrelevance and ossification of more mainline denominations. Taking  the example of what is termed a 'sunk cost bias' in the commercial world (projects which keep eating vast amounts of money and time, but will never become profitable or genuinely worthwhile), he speaks of how so much of what is currently occurring, especially in times of crisis, is unmasking the church as naked when it comes to providing an effective and sustainable responses to basic spiritual needs.

"We continue doing what we've always done because it would be too painful to shutter the operation, admit we are failing, and abandon the effort put into our endeavours... Some of this can most certainly be attributed to pride, because in such conditions, it becomes increasingly difficult to admit we made a mistake. Change becomes hard. Courage is needed to face what must be done" (Underground church).

What drove Luther and his beloved wife to total service wasn't a whim to try a church growth program or a method of displaying religious piety, but a burning desire to share the essential life, death and resurrection of the Son of God to those in desperate need. Through water, paper and ink, bread and wine, notes Mike Horton, God seeks to come to us, and Martin understood his role was to share such truth through the vital good news of the justification of the unjust purely by God's unearned grace through trust in the righteousness of Christ alone.

Reformation today, as then, is all about returning back to the this same vital life and message of Christ, and allowing this to nourish and prompt us towards doing not what is safe, but what is essential for the day in which we find ourselves.

The church shows itself to truly be church when it steps out in this fashion, because it comes to understand that seeking to work or construct on any other foundation, however popular in the moment, will fail.

The day came when Luther faced his own demise, his last words being as vital as all that the Gospel reveals.

"All men are beggars".

Let us lead others, like this man, to the living waters of Christ saving us.

Impaired?

"Yes I think I'm OK... I walked into the door again

If you ask that's what I'll say, 

And it's not your business anyway.

I guess I'd like to be alone, with nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don't ask me how I am..."

Luca by Susan Vega.

"For if someone were to come to you with another Jesus, or if you received a different spirit, or a different message from the one we brought, you would put up with it readily enough".

2 Corinthians 11:4.

"For God has not given us over to a spirit of fear, but to one of power and love and self control" 

2 Timothy 1:7.

Imagine the scene. 

Someone visits your church and in a special event meeting, proceeds to inform you that they have been visited by the Lord Himself, who has gifted them with a 'new' and astonishing translation of the scriptures, which will 'bypass your mind' and speak directly 'to your spirit', unlocking truths that have been hidden or neglected by Christians for centuries. 

What would you think? 

Would you rush to the back at the end of the meeting to eagerly buy your copy, or would you want to be more cautious, going home to learn more about this 'anointed' person and to seek a wider analysis of his 'revelation' from others who were qualified in the field of biblical scholarship?

Another consideration... what would it say about the church that allowed such behaviour freely and openly to occur among its congregation? Would this be something just to winsomely accept, or would it justifiably raise alarm bells about the nature of what was being accepted as good for your spiritual well-being?

This isn't a hypothetical situation for many. 2020 saw the release of something entitled the 'passion' translation (apparently, that was the name of the 'angel' that dictated it) by one Brian Simmons.

Simmons has spent much of the year visiting churches to speak on his revelation and to encourage Christians to use this book as the 'best' translation of scripture. The problem is that when it is placed alongside accurate and painstakingly produced translations provided by the formal equivalence process over decades of careful preparation, it fails miserably and provides numerous very dubious and dangerous statements which argue with the straightforward translation of the original Hebrew and Greek texts (see here for a few examples on the issue).

I touch on this because it's a good example of how we should be incredibly weary of someone seeking to bring something 'new' into the church that will detach us from Christ and the Gospel and lead us woefully astray... just like the impositions we have found ourselves placed under by our government this year. I know that many who read that last statement will no doubt want to argue or dispute it - it's for our safety, they'll cry, but before you settle on that, have a listen to this sermon from a minister in Ireland on the current situation - five brief points that need to be addressed by all of us. If you're happy that everything's fine in respect to what's happening in our churches after listening to this, then perhaps you need to consider afresh the verse from Paul in 2 Corinthians I've quoted above.

The sad truth, of course, is that everything is far from good as a consequence of the capitulation by church to state. Both Douglas Murray and Giles Fraser have written again this week of the continuing, nay escalating closures of churches across the country, a number of them permanently, as ministers continue to bow to the 'safety' demands not to fellowship in person and most certainly not to worship if you do. It is a blight upon us and the nation that we have so demeaned the life in which God wishes and requires us all to share. As Giles Fraser notes, God Himself has placed 'skin in this game' - even to the death on a cross, so can we really afford as His disciples to do less?

2021 is already shaping up to be an even more restrictive and miserable state of affairs than these past 9 months, whatever the 'virus' does, so we need to seriously ask ourselves are we merely going to continue to go with what's required (and then demanded), or are we going to begin to seek new and fresh ways of allowing church life to breathe again? Let's hope we can indeed become renewed in a spirit of power and love, and boldness (Acts 4:29) to do something effective for God's kingdom in the days to come.

I beg to differ...

 "We're busily going nowhere, Isn't it just a crime".

One of the outstanding court-room dramas of modern times is A Few Good Men, which involves two American marines being tried for the death of a third because they followed an illegal order, known as a code red, to discipline the soldier, and their efforts go badly wrong.

The main action involves the build-up to the final conflict when the defence requires the C O of the men to take the stand, but there's a great scene in the movie where the whole nature of this manner of order is examined by both councils in this beautifully crafted moment.

Note the arguments given here - is it in the manual? Is it essential to the nature of the operations of the unit. Clearly, as shown in the film, those in command believed it was, but the conclusion of their convictions is the death of a man at the hands of his comrades through procedures which were, in effect, illegal and far from good for those who were living under such a regime.

Sometimes, of course, as the scene shows, there are things that are part of life that may not be written down in the general rules, but it's when the actions we're required to fulfil effectively break or silence the vitality of the rules themselves that we're placing ourselves in trouble.

The UK has found itself operating under a huge "Code Red" in 2020 - executive orders implemented by a small group - an inner circle - in Government for the supposed good of us all. We're all too familiar with the general consequences of this in respects to the restrictions we continue to live under as the year ends, but amongst those requirements, Christians are especially aware of those that have been addressed towards them.

In his work, A Better Way, Dr Michael Horton seeks to open up the very form and purpose of our gathering together as church in respects to what this does and why this matters. In the section on Devine worship in a service he notes: "submitting to particular forms (in respect to liturgy and content) disciplines (structures) us not only as the congregation, but also reins in pastors or worship leaders at whose mercy we often find ourselves... If worship is truly to be Christ-centred, then we will not move beyond the types and forms God commands, whilst allowing liberty on the peripherals (i.e. the time and duration of our gathering)".

Worship, as Jesus shows us in the opening of the Lord's Prayer, is the manner whereby we come before the Father to see the connection between heaven and earth opened so that His will may become evident amongst us.

It is, then, a deep cause for concern when those in power require us to abstain from such actions (praise in singing, for example), because of the 'harm' this may cause to others.

This should certainly raise a critical question in us - is this right?

The reasoning here is that health standards require such a negation of particular expressions of worship - just as they also have negated having public bibles in pews, handshakes at doors or full communion in most services - but can this be something that should be sustained for continuing weeks, months... or even longer?

The book of Job tells us that as God formed, spread and furnished the cosmos, the 'stars' of heaven - the living creatures, angels and countless other 'sons of God', sang in sheer wonder at the Lord's great handiwork (Job 38:7). As the Apostle John observes the panoramic unfolding of tumultuous events amongst the nations of men upon the earth in the revelation the Lord gives to conclude scripture, his visions of this are paired to seeing into the throne room of the Almighty, where countless numbers of beings provide a throng of constant worship (Revelation 4,5,7,19). When the 'teachers' of Jesus' day sought to silence those who worshipped Him, He rebuked them by saying that if they did so, the very stones would cry out in praise (Luke 19:40).

Genuine and proper worship by the saints is therefore essential to the very fibre of our being those defined as church, and yet, this is the very foundational matter that has been extracted from our gathering together.

The consequences are clear.

Like the Israelites in captivity, we are muted in what we must be and do (Psalm 137).

Because of this, we are not seeking to uphold what we're commanded to do (1 Corinthians 14:26) and this clearly impresses upon our nature, practice and identity as church (Ephesians 5:19).

Some ten months ago, we were told such restrictions would be short lived, but as time has passed, we have succumbed to our Government's version of a code red for Christianity, and it has silenced much of what we have to say.

It is clearly time to repent (turn away) from where we now find ourselves and begin once again to rejoice in the Lord.

Let's see this as one of the key goals for the weeks and months ahead.

Ho, Ho, Ho....

 There, amongst the darkness, there's a cry, and an answer.

Take a listen.

As deep as it is wide...

If you haven't yet listened to this, then you really should.

Joy to the world! 

Pre-Christmas goodies...

 A gem from Mr Chad Bird.

And another from 1517.

Enjoy!

Vital...

 The Guys over at the White Horse Inn posted this on Facebook this week:

If only churches got the message!

Inside Out

This old house once knew my children, This old house once knew my wife, This old house was home and comfort, as we fought the storms of life, This old house once rang with laughter, This old house heard many shouts, Now it trembles in the darkness, When the lightning walks about.

I work in a modernist 'box' of a building, made of glass and steel - everything that is expected of modern utilitarian architecture. On the outside, it surely looks solid and built for purpose. It's only when you 'live' inside, that a different picture comes to the fore.

The flat roof leaks continually, leaving several open 'holes' in the ceilings of all 7 floors. The heating system was 'finished' in a manner that left much to be desired, meaning the interior is often too hot in summer and too cold in winter. There have been numerous other 'problems' related to the nature of the property (wiring, plumbing, cladding) in the years I've been there, so when the top half of the building became vacated by my department some years ago, it proved impossible to see it rented to anyone else... because of the troubles. What keeps it functioning as a workplace is that every year, just enough money is made available to repair the most serious issues.

In recent times, I've begun to face similar troubles with my own property, but there's one key difference. This year, I decided the time had arrived to expend income to seek to fully repair the key troubles. It's hard going in the current crisis, but nearly half of what I'm aiming for has now been done, and it's already making a real difference to the look and feel of the place.

Notice the difference?

Wisdom, Jesus tells us, is all about building what counts on a sure foundation that isn't going to crack and crumble when the storms arrive. The foundation, in other words, is firm enough to give the wiring, the beams, the insulation, and everything else, an integrity that won't buckle and fold, because the quality of what's being installed amidst secure walls is made to last and supply the needs of those who dwell within.

The storms building this year aren't just to do with distant troubles or matters that have no bearing upon us - they are seeking to erode what's within our homes and lives so that, whilst externally, things may appear just as sound, internally, they are being deliberately changed to a point where pluralism and post modernism can define our faith of "no major importance" (official language for Christianity this year).

Luther penned it right when he noted the industry of our enemy in respects to his opposition, both from the world and in terms of 'teaching' amongst us that, in effect, leaves us bereft of the full counsel of wisdom that God requires us to be furnished with, so that we can discern between the spirit of truth and of error (1 John 4:1-6):

"The ancient prince of hell, has risen with purpose fell, strong mail of craft and power, he weareth in this hour, on earth is not his equal".

The point of attack is always the same - to uproot the vital truth that Christ's incarnation alone facilitates full redemption and freedom for us - that is the vital residence which shelters Adam's benighted children - and to seek to trust in any other mode of sanctuary, whatever the source, is to indeed place ourselves on shifting, sinking sand, where anything can be adjusted to allow the appearance and progress of holes in the faith.

It's very rare for us to see our enemy in his true colours. The poison he seeks to administer is always introduced in a fashion that seems harmless, even beneficial, for those who receive it, but just like the fascinating creature standing outside the gates of Mansoul (John Bunyan's The Holy War), behind Apollyon, invisible but eager to subdue, are arrayed all the malignant hosts of the powers of darkness. The war between the Kingdom of God and the corruption of Babylon (Revelation 17 & 18) is at the very heart of what is unfolding amongst us today.

When Christ spoke to the churches in the opening of the book of revelation, He shows how one of the key problems was that they had become too comfortable and complacent concerning the encroachment of what had crept in and become commonplace amongst many (the majority) of them (Revelation 2:4, 14&15, 20, 3:2, 15&16). We cannot expect to see a healthy, growing vibrancy in our churches until the real issues of our time are faced with truth as well as with love, leading us to return to the 'old paths, wherein lies the good way' (Jeremiah 6:16).

The key reason somewhere like my workplace can remain open and useable is the dedicated team of behind the scene workers who spend their days employed making sure that none of the many hazards become troublesome enough to prevent the building from being used. Sometimes that's a straightforward as placing a hazard sign, other times it means full-on maintenance on a system to keep it doing what it should. Because of the nature of these roles, these people are generally not noticed as present by the staff of the office... at least until they're needed, but the truth is they're there all the time, and the warnings and corrections they provide are vital to the general upkeep of the working environment.

There have been several voices raised this year in respect to giving warnings of the growing hazards facing the church at this time. The window is still open just far enough for these to be heeded, but that opportunity will close fast now that it's been proved that controls can be implemented to restrain and curtail Christianity across the globe. Such power, particularly when excercised, is tellingly unhealthy. We must pay attention to what has unfolded and make it a matter of priority to implement ways and means to safeguard the future of our assemblies should this indeed become a condition that extends long into the future.

The fact is the world isn't going to be the same after 2020, and whatever you think as to the reasons for that, the church has already suffered greatly in this new regime, so we have to deal with the issue head on if we want to see things improve in the New Year.

The winter is broken when the light of the world is made evident amongst us. May that indeed be true for our world during this Christmas season, and into the times ahead.

Submerged

"Out of these depths, I cry out to you, O Lord"

Psalm 130:1.

Have you ever experienced what it's like, even if only briefly, to be drowning,

or finding yourself unable to breathe, gasping for air,

or waking up in the middle of the night, experiencing something happening to you that makes you feel as though you are close to death?

Perhaps, like me, you've experienced all three of these physically, and the awful realisation that you are not in control when these moments befall you.

How small your life suddenly becomes, and how readily you find yourself crying out for help and remedy.

Desperation of course, doesn't have to be brought on by something quite so immediately extreme. There is many circumstances that befall us in the more common experiences of life that can open a void of desperation in our fragile nature's and leave us thinking and feeling that we're abandoned to the fierce rages of whatever will befall us next. As one friend noted on Facebook this week, 'It's not always the 'giants' - the overwhelming enemies, the major battlefields, that prove the most exhausting and dangerous. It's often the ongoing, subtle, seductive, soul-gnawing smaller things in life that wear us down'.

Tragedy of one kind or another rains down hard upon our world every day.

There's very few of us who can look back on this year without having known some of the full measure of that.

Cruel times.

The Psalmist could write of a thousand, even ten times that, falling at his side, because he clearly often lived in peril - some of which was clearly of his own making - and none of us can truly steer clear continually of all manner of such troubles.

The truth is that we often may narrowly avoid one agony only to find ourselves confronting another.

Being someone in communion with the most high does not usually mean that such issues are avoided. David knew the sweetness of God's fellowship, but he also knew that such a union could also bring particular and targeted trails through others, and through his own miss-directed desires. The Lord is most certainly not 'tamed' in such circumstances, but genuine cries for aid and mercy do not go unheard.

Steadfast love towards us and plentiful (boy, do I need that!) redemption (Psalm 130:7) are the firm pillars upon which David knows he can depend in any crisis, even when it involves facing our very real end.

There is a need for another abandonment when we're in these deep waters, because the truth is there are depths we cannot escape, and those moments must be given over entirely to the faithfulness of another.

Amidst our dangerous days, God is given primarily to us in the tangible embodiment of His Son, and it is in that giving that we most evidently see, in our living and our dying, that His great intention is to ravish our whole eternal existence, including our terror and demise, in the depths of that extraordinary love.

To quote from a recent article on the deep nature of judgement and love:

"To describe God's love, C S Lewis invokes many analogies - love of pets, love of a Father for a child - but the most accurate analogy, he warns, is also 'full of danger'; that is, the love 'between the sexes'. The insanity, the out-of-control-ness of erotic love. This type of love (and here he quotes Dante) is 'a lord of terrible aspect':

"When Christianity says that God loves humanity, it means that God loves us: not that He has some 'disinterested', but in truth indifferent concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The 'great spirit' you so lightly invoked, the Lord of terrible aspect is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of guests, but a consuming fire that is the Lord Himself - the love that made and sustains worlds".

This type of love is not convenient or pragmatic or even always kind.

It may actually be unhealthy. It is possessive and unruly, bringing bad weather as often as good".

The author then goes on to speak of how such deep love is often passionate and can therefore be judged as unruly - turbulent and often unreadable until its full, burning itent becomes evident. Our faith is not tame, regimented or predictable - it inhabits the storm as much as the still waters, and yet, like David, in the midst of all our troubles, it is the love we cry for... the love we need.

As I considered these truths on my trip to work today, I was reminded that

God, in the Incarnation, has married Himself to us, body, bone and blood,

hence the vibrant, wholesome intimacy of that somewhat overwhelming resurrection breakfast on the beach, when men learn they must eat and drink of that essential union amidst the most trying of promised requirements and trials.

That is where the depths of love become foremost, and takes us beyond any staid or inadequate entwining with the depths of our Lord and Saviour.

Life drives us into all manner of agonies and ecstasies, because we are creatures with yearnings that can only be met, only be righteously fulfilled, in the One who has furnished us for such ends.

Let us drive hard to press in to His ways and His communion with us.

It will clothe our short days here with a genuine value, rich, endearing and eternal.