community

Christians don't always agree.

Life might be an awful lot simpler if we did agree. But we don't. At least, not always.

There are issues on which, in any church, the leaders are called to pronounce. Where do they stand? What line will they take?

Leaders have to put their heads above the parapet and provide a lead. Not all will understand, no doubt. Not all will agree, for sure.

And the question arises when it's in regard to big, contentious issues that a stance is being adopted - Where does that leave folk who take a different view?

Well, here's what I say in response.

I hope it leaves them no less welcome, appreciated and respected than (I trust) they’ve always been in a congregation which is both submitted in our discipleship to the authority of God’s Word and at the same time committed as believers in Christ to the expression of genuine community, where such community lies, as Bill Hybels is fond of saying, not so much in the absence of conflict as in the presence of a reconciling spirit.

I hope it leaves them no less able to exercise their gifts and participate in the life of the congregation, humbly willing to accept and respect the lead being given by those called so to do, and at the same time, through that gracious submissiveness, ministering in a fruitful and fulfilling way by the power of the Spirit of God and for the enrichment of the people of God.

And I hope it leaves them no less grateful for a body of leaders who won’t duck difficult questions but who, conscious always of their fallibility, will seek humbly, prayerfully and boldly to address them in accordance with the Word of God, and to provide a faithful, godly leadership with an over-riding desire for the honour and glory of the Lord.

We're called to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Which cuts right across the grain of modern life.

And submitting to one another only when we agree with what's being said is not submission at all.

A life of genuine submissiveness is a costly thing. But it's the key in some ways to a fruitful manner of living.

It's something we're having to learn.

hotting up

This week is always a full and busy one. Always. This year is no exception.

I'm in at 7 to start my day. And by 8 I've started on the soups there'll be today. The oven's on, the rings are hot. And if you can't stand the heat then you shouldn't be there in the kitchen.

Our Reception Area will be closed for the regular teas and coffees and lunches through the coming month and a bit - so this is the last week that they're on for a while. We want to ensure that we end in style and aren't going out with a whimper. There are a couple of soups again to be made - but once they're up and running, of course, they pretty much cook themselves!

I've a man to meet mid morning. He's the pastor of a nearby congregation who use our premises a lot. They don't have their own facilities (they meet in a school on Sundays), so they're glad to have this close association with ourselves. They share the same passion to let people know about Jesus. We're in this work together.

He and his folk are quite involved in a thing called Healing on the streets. And some of our people have got involved in this sort of ministry, too. He's here this morning to see if there might be mileage in encouraging more to be getting involved.

I tell him (mainly, but maybe not quite entirely, in jest) that the way things are presently going, we may all be out on the streets anyway, so the sooner we learn how to minister there the better!

It's a powerful sphere of ministry, this Healing on the streets: a whole load of churches, up and down the country, are more and more involved in it. And the Lord is working through it.

He's barely away before I'm getting things ready for another lunch-time get-together of pastors and leaders from right across the city. The need to be meeting together is hugely important. When brothers dwell together in unity .. there the blessing falls: life.

I've been trying to ensure we get into the way of meeting and talking and praying like this on a thoroughly regular basis. The days in which we live are marked by growing urgency. There's a darkness falling across the land. A moral and spiritual darkness. And we're getting together to cry to the Lord - shine, Jesus, shine!

There's a letter I have to write, as well. 'Fire-fighting' stuff. The land is becoming a bit of a spiritual desert. There's not been much in the way of the 'rain' of the Spirit of God (and little if any acknowledgement of the reign of the Son of God).

The land and the landscape is parched, dry, barren. These 'fires' can easily break out.

There have been a few of them in recent days. Accidental fires, in contexts where no harm has been intended, erupting out of the frazzled ground of faithlessness on which we presently find ourselves.

I'll be trying to see the person involved, but a letter will help as well. Getting things down in black and white. Making things clear, correcting some misunderstandings I'm sensing have lain at the heart of it all.

Letters like that take some time. I can make things worse and aggravate the fires if I get it wrong.

And then I'm off to call on some folk whom I really must try and see.

I'm back to the house and then out again by 6pm. It's the Primary 7's Leavers' Dance and I've said I'll go along. At least to be there at the start.

The children are hardly recognisable, dressed in all their finery (and arriving as well, as they all seem to do these days, by limousine). In one fell swoop they've shifted out of childhood into an embryonic adulthood. It's frightening how quickly they've all grown up.

A lot of the Mums are barely recognisable also. In their case it's because of the way their mascara's been spread by the flow of their tears. It's a weepy sort of occasion. A rite of passage. And I'm glad to be there to be part of it all once again. Occasions like this are special.

That's one of the countless privileges I always have. I get to share in the special occasions in all sorts of people's lives. It's striking to find that the first of the miracles Jesus performed was, yes, at a special occasion. A wedding.

I work on the basis that he's glad to pitch up to occasions like this tonight. He maybe stays longer than I do, though. I've a meeting I need to attend.

A long meeting, which goes on until after 9pm.

I'm quick to leave at its close as I want to call by and see the person to whom I wrote the letter before it's getting too late.

When I arrive I begin to see that maybe the Lord prolonged the meeting to delay my time of arrival. My ring of the bell is timely, I think. Circumstances are such that it works out well it's later rather than sooner that I've managed along. The Lord, the great fire-fighter, is already at work.

Prevention is better than cure, of course. And our greatest need in this land today is for 'rain' from on high, a fresh and large outpouring from the heavens of the mighty Spirit of God. Drenching the land once again. Bathing the land in the grace of the gospel of Christ.

Things are certainly hotting up!

continue

Last night in our evening worship (which we held outside, it was such a lovely night), we took a look at the exhortation to "continue in what you have learned and become convinced of."

Its a powerful little passage (2 Tim.3.10-17) in which Paul is on about the Bible. He gives some pretty good reasons for sticking with it and persisting in grounding our lives in the teaching the Scriptures afford.

Why? Three good reasons. The Scriptures make you strong for struggles, wise for salvation, and fit for service.

We need that strength from the Lord which enables us to endure the struggles which come our way, in the confidence that he will indeed rescue us from (or at least through) them all.

Because there will be struggles of one sort or another. Trials and troubles which will sometimes seem quite huge and overwhelming.

I've been aware of that today in the folk I've been with. There are troubles I'm having to handle and cope with myself. Troubles which often have me crying out -Roll on heaven! Troubles for which I don't have ready answers.

And there are all sorts of troubles that people I'm seeing are facing.

I'm a pastor. And people encountering troubles are what most of my life is about.

Troubles will come. We have that on good authority. No less than Jesus himself.

You don't get an exemption certificate following him. Troubles will come and it's going to be hard and at times you'll wonder if really you're going to survive.

Sometimes it seems a whole load easier simply to give up on the Lord.

Today's been a day for which yesterday's word was quite timely. Continue. Stick in there.

One situation after another, where at times it seems the whole thing is a nightmare and all hell has been let loose.

And maybe that's not all that far from being in fact the truth.

"Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted..."

Persecuted. Hounded. By hell. The very kitchen sink of hell itself being flung at us.

You want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus? You've got to expect this, then.

And you've got to learn to 'continue'. To stick in there in the face of the storm that rages.

And you'll need to fall back on the Scriptures. Because they point you back to the Lord. And the Lord is strong and loving. And rescues us. Every time.

Fall back on the Scriptures and all that they teach you of God.

His strength. His love. His commitment. His care. His mercy. His grace.

His death. His resurrection. His salvation.

Jesus saves. Always.

recovering the lost

I've been expecting a package for quite a while.

A few weeks back I checked with the folk from whom the thing was being sent to see what the state of play was. It was something I'd sent for repair, and the promise they'd made was the thing would be done in three weeks. Since more than the three weeks had passed, it seemed like a good ting to do to start following all of this up.

Like - where is the thing?!

They'd checked their files. They'd sent if off in May. They told me the name of the carrier, and assured me I should have received it the following day.

I assured them I hadn't.

So they did some more of their checking, contacted the carriers they use, got back to me saying the carriers had tried to deliver but no one was there - and since there'd been no reply to their card, they'd sent the thing back to the firm who'd been doing the repair.

Who in turn had been asked to send it out again.

I told them that there hadn't been a card put through my door. Which would explain, of course, why there'd not been any reply to the card.

Well, I've been trying in vain to suss it all out and to get my hands on this package. And I've finally found out the root of the problem there's been.

Two tiny mistakes. One with my name. The other with my address.

Somewhere down the line the 'M' at the start of my name has been read by a scribe as an 'H'. The package was addressed, it seems to a hitherto unknown 'Mr Hiddleton'.

And somewhere down the line as well, perhaps through an over-worked scribe who's suffering from double vision, the '1' which is my street number has become an '11'.

Two tiny mistakes. But enough to ensure the package was utterly lost.

Today I finally tracked it down. A clear 'sighting'. It was back again in the carrier's Edinburgh base.

Leave it right there, I cried. I'm coming to get it myself.

I fear it might have been a life-long vigil I'd have had if I'd kept waiting for the thing to be delivered. The only way I'd be sure of getting it back was by going for the thing myself.

This is 'shepherd' ministry. I'd a hundred and one other things to be doing. But I dropped them all there and then and went off in search of this one little 'sheep' (in the shape of my package) that was lost.

And, oh, what rejoicing there was in the heart of this 'shepherd' today when the package I'd lost was now found!

Most of the work that we do is along those lines. Recovering the lost, one by one.

Waiting around in the hope that the 'sheep' that are lost will pitch up is a pretty vain hope. We have to take steps ourselves to recover them one by one.

I've spent weeks hunting down this package that somehow got lost. Weeks of relentless, single-minded pursuit, 'til I'd managed to get the thing back.

I had to make all the calls. I had to make all the running. I had to go to the place where the package was stuck.

That's what shepherds do: they leave the hundred and one little things they could and should be doing - and they chase down the one 'sheep' that's lost.

One by one 'til the flock are all found in the fold.

The thing that was broken is mended. The package once lost is now found.

It's a graphic little cameo of what my life is like!

where are you

Today saw the last of the midweek lunch-time services for a while.

The folk who come will miss it, I know. It's become for many a kind of oasis in what can sometimes be a desert. A chance to meet for an act of worship, and then to have lunch together. And, of course, there's a bus we lease which goes round and collects a crowd of them - and they all enjoy that, too.

So I feel for them now when there's not going to be that chance of a Wednesday break for a couple of months and more. But we're trying, across the board, to balance our idealism with realism: our passion with patience: our seizing the opportunities with avoiding an early grave.

It's the 'sabbath' principle, I suppose, being applied to our busy weekly diary.

We take a break. In part that affords us the chance to draw breath. Simply to rest. Our bodies and minds need it.

But it also affords us the chance to stand back and do some reflecting. Which is just as important and needed.

In one way and another there has been a lot of that going on today. Pausing with others to reflect and review.

Not simply busily bashing on regardless. Which, then there's loads to do, is always quite a temptation.

I had a long and helpful session along those lines with a couple of folk this afternoon. In relation to some of the things that we've sought to do these past few weeks. Standing back and assessing and seeing how it's all best progressed.

I was in seeing a couple as well today where there's a need these days to be spending some time in seeing what course their lives should now be taking. Not a situation where decisions can be taken overnight. There's a need for some time and some thought and the input of others not quite so involved as they are in it all themselves.

Review. Asking the question, where are we now, and where do we go from here?

The very first words we have from the Lord once it all started going so horribly wrong at the start are that question - "Where are you?" he asked the man in the Garden of Eden.

It remains the primary question we're always needing to ask. Where are we?

I was asking it later this evening as well in meeting with folk who've been thinking a bit about joining the church, professing their faith in Jesus. Where are you?

A 'sabbath' time can put us on the spot. Resting, yes. Reflecting, yes. But the task of responding as well. Where are we, and where do we go from here?

Later still, and an entirely different context, but the same essential process. Folk who've faced bereavement and its aftermath. The need to take stock, to work things through. To stand back just a bit, to reflect on it all.

And the same simple question again. Where are you?

It won't go away, that question!

Where are we? Well, I like the way Luke closes his gospel account. The picture of Jesus, his arms raised aloft as he blesses his people in love. As if the whole thing 'freezes' at that point, so that becomes, for all of time, the great defining feature of the place in which we find ourselves.

Enveloped by the covenantal blessing of the Lord. For good.

open doors

Open doors are great. But they have their down sides, too.

Adversaries abound on the other side.

"A great door for effective work has opened to me .... and there are many who oppose me."

That was Paul's experience. Opposition didn't trouble him. It went with the territory. He stayed.

This morning I met with a man who ministers here in the city. I'd suggested we meet for a coffee since we hadn't touched base for a while.

His circumstances were pretty much like this. A clear sense of call from the Lord to the place where he's at. Signs of the Lord being at work as he preaches the gospel and points people there to the Lord.

A great door for effective work has opened to him.

And ... yes, there are many 'adversaries'.

They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Pressures and problems, being hastled and hustled, and coping with lies, deception and flak. There are those who want him out.

It goes with the territory. When the Lord opens doors of opportunity and opens them wide, hell goes wild. It's a standard, predictable pattern, writ large through the story of those who have honoured the Lord.

And the devil's not choosy what form the adversaries take.

The man found it helpful to talk and to share. He sensed the Lord speaking, I think, and underlining to him at this time that he was to stay meanwhile. Whatever it cost.

He hadn't really seen it in this light before. A great door for effective work has opened to you and there are many who oppose you. So you stay.

We prayed. He meets with a colleague involved in the same work there each week on a Wednesday morning. I suggested I'd join them one week in the month, and share with them both as they prayed.

We're all in this together.

Most of today has been spent like that. One person after another.

And in some ways the theme has remained the same throughout the day. A great door for effective work being opened by the Lord. And many adversaries.

Late on in the afternoon I was seeing someone else. Another situation where a door has been opened by the Lord for effective work: and, yes, again there are the adversaries. It's not plain sailing at all.

We chatted for long enough, without (it seemed to me) getting down to what our meeting like this was really all about. I thought the person was finished, and I was getting ready to leave: but then we suddenly moved on to a rather different tack.

And then the point of our meeting and speaking become crystal clear.

Early on in the day, the Lord had laid on my heart a simple word - "one thing I do." As if this was the word that someone would need to hear.

I'd wondered to start with if maybe it was in fact a word the Lord was speaking to me. But it soon became clear that this was a word I was given from him for another.

And here, late on in the afternoon - here was the person for whom that word was intended. I gave the person this word that the Lord had laid so forcibly on my heart. It was humbling to see how astonishingly apt this word from the Lord proved to be.

The person confessed to being not clear at all as to why we were meeting at all. There had just been the sense that we needed to meet.

This was why. The Lord had a word that he needed to speak, that the person needed to hear. Clear, directive, liberating.

It's thrilling to see the Lord working like that and speaking with such patent clarity.

That one thing. Concentrate on that. Run with that and stay there.

Adversaries or not, there's a wide open door for effective work.

And that's the case here as well. A great door for effective work, opened by the One who holds the key. And when he opens no one can close. Not even hell itself, despite throwing all that it's got.

what is the gospel

Barely a day goes by but in the course of conversation I'm left feeling there's a lot of confusion in people's thinking about what the gospel actually is.

And if there's a fair degree of confusion with that - which is plainly fairly foundational - then little wonder there's an awful lot more confused thinking in regard to a lot of the issues we're constantly having to face and address.

So let me recommend a short little book by Greg Gilbert, called with simple clarity What is the Gospel?

It's not long (about 120 pages), it's simple to read (without being simplistic), and it sets out in a very straightforward manner the essence of the message we're called to embrace and proclaim.

I notice from the commendations that more than one pastor wishes they could get a boxful of the books and hand them out to every single member of their congregations. It's that good!

Here's how Greg Gilbert begins -

"What is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

You'd think that would be an easy question to answer, especially for Christians. In fact, you'd think that writing a book like this one - one asking Christians to think carefully about the question, 'What is the gospel of Jesus?' - would be completely unnecessary. It's like asking carpenters to sit around and ponder the question, 'What is a hammer?'"

You'd have thought.

But, of course, it's not like that. There's a lot of confusion around.

And this little book grabs the question, like some tangled bit of metal, and hammers the answer out. It's not long before the guy has put the thing in a nutshell (well, a paragraph).

"Contexts change, words change, and approaches change, but somehow and in some ways the earliest Christians always seem to get at these four issues: We are accountable to God who created us. We have sinned against that God and will be judged. But God has acted in Jesus Christ to save us, and we take hold of that salvation by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus.

"God. Man. Christ. Response."

Simple without being simplistic.

The rest of the book takes a look at each of these headings in turn. Uncomplicated. Warm-blooded. Sometimes amusing. Sometimes hard-hitting. But always clear and to the point.

And he finishes off by asking the so what question - "... a few things .. about how the good news of Jesus should affect our lives."

First, repent and believe. Like I said, he pulls no punches.

Rest and rejoice. "If you are a Christian, then the cross of Jesus stands like a mountain of granite across your life, immovably testifying to God's love for you and his determination to bring you safely into his presence."

Love Christ's people. It's wonderful knowing that we're included in God's promises solely through what Jesus has done and our being united by faith to him. But, as he quaintly puts it, "here's the kicker. Do you realise that the same thing is true of that brother or sister in your church who annoys you?"

Speak the Gospel to the World. We hold in our hands "the only true message of salvation the world will ever hear." A sobering thought, maybe. But a privileged position, too. "Take a deep breath, pray for God's Spirit to work, and open your mouth and speak."

Long for him. There's a whole new future awaiting us, still to come. If anyone should be forward-looking and future-oriented, then it's certainly the person who's come to embrace this gospel.

D A Carson is no fool. He's a highly-regarded professor whose works are voluminous. He wrote the short preface to this book. And I can think of no better advice than that with which he ends.

"Read it, then buy a box of them for generous distribution."