What hast thou done...?

This is something I read in Simon Guillebaud’s book ‘For What It’s Worth’...that a year or two ago awoke me to the seriousness of our task on earth –the task of being Christ’s ambassadors, proclaiming the message of reconciliation, the Gospel.

You can read a little more about her here or here.

I have her autobiography to read eventually. You can borrow it if you so wish. Drop me a line...
So, this is the vision she had, and wrote down in the following description, which is quite hard hitting, so be warned... :

The tom toms thumped on all night, and the darkness shuddered around me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, and it seemed like this:

I stood on a grassy sward [meadow], and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. I drew back, dizzy at the depth. Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step . . . it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh, the cry as they went over!

Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks, as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.

Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simply agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could not call. Though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come.

Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of Hell.

Then I saw, like the pictures of peace, a group of people under some trees, their backs turned to the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes, when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it rather a vulgar noise. And if one of their members started up and wanted to go do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. “Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite ‘call’ to go. You haven’t finished your daisy chains. It would be really selfish,” they said, “to leave us to finish the work alone.”

There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get some more sentries out; but they found very few wanted to go, and sometimes there were no sentries for miles and miles at the edge.

One girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her mother and the other relatives called, and reminded her furlong was due; she must not break the ‘rules’. And, being tired and needed a change, had to go and rest awhile; but no one was sent to guard her gap; and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.

One a child caught a tuft of grass that grew on the very brink of the cliff; the child clung convulsively, and it called but nobody seemed to hear. And the little girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little cry, sprang up and wanted to go; at which her relatives reproved her, reminding her no one is necessary anywhere – the gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And they sang a hymn.

Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was – the Cry of the Blood.

Then thundered a voice, the voice of the Lord. And he thundered, “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth out to me from the ground.”

The tom toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shivered and shuddered around me; I heard the yell of the devil-dancers and the weird wild shrieks of the demon-possessed just outside the gate.

Amy Carmichael

John Piper on Twitter...

Found this a week or so back, John Piper, of all people, is now on Twitter. I find this quite amusing! Amusing enough to warrent a short blog post that is...

I can't just imagine him doing it...then again, they are pretty serious ones!

Check it out:

http://twitter.com/JohnPiper

The grass withers, the flower fades...

...but the Word of our God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:8

Saw today in the "Weird & Wonderful" section of the BBC News website, that "about 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet", under the headline "Historic Bible pages put online".

Now, initially, I was just going to point this out to readers just for something interesting. However, I spotted a link named "What is missing from the Codex Sinaiticus?" by a guy named Roger Bolton. Written in 2008. He writes this:

"For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible."

The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection"

This has led me on a little late night journey investigating the views and responses. I will not hide what I read has made me think.

I then though maybe I wouldn't blog upon this topic any more!

However, upon reflection, (and as WLC mentions later in the blog post) I know from my personal experience Jesus Christ is living, and the Holy Spirt lives within me. I followed this through, looking for answers. As Michael Ots said in our Events Week (2009) recently, he/we/I have no desire to believe and follow something that is not true. I am -and was sure that there was more to it than this. I couldn't turn a blind eye and write them off as rubbish. I am ans was sure that what we read in the Bible is true. That Jesus rose from the dead, and the glorious rest of it.

So, here is my brief search to find out if there is any truth in Bolton's claims. Many of my thoughts as this has taken place have now escaped me, for it is hard to put momentary thoughts down here fast enough. So give me credit for any jumps in reasoning, questioning, or whatever. Remember that thinking in the moment is easier and more extensive than I am able to convey here over an hour later. So here goes...

Firstly in response to Bolton's claims that "the Codex - and other early manuscripts - omit[s] some mentions of ascension of Jesus into heaven, and key references to the Resurrection". I opened up www.codexsinaiticus.org and went to the end of Luke. Just because I like Luke, and it seemed a good place to start.

Luke 24:1-9 -according to the Codex Sinaiticus, says thus:

24:1 But on the first of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulcher, bringing the spices that they had prepared.

2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher;

3 but entering, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 And it came to pass as they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in bright clothing

5 and the women being afraid and bowing their faces to the earth the angels said to them: Why see among the dead for him that lives?

6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was yet in Galilee,

7 saying of the Son of man that he must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and rise on the third day.

8 And they remembered his words,

9 and returned from the sepulcher and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Ressurection? It seems the Codex Sinaiticus would agree... (notably pretty similar the Bible I have in front of me, if you'll excuse the changing of the word 'sepulcher'...) If it was not 12:47 then I would continue to find more references (I am now tempted to go find another...yes 2 Corinthians 5:21, and all the wonderful rest of it either side, is there! Haha! Christ is Lord! He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God! See left picture to prove it!)

There are more questions Proffeser Erhman raises (who is cited by Bolton), which do indeed need answering, relating to why anti-sematic books such as the Epistle of Barnabas is found collated alongside the rest (which initially makes me think how by the time it was produced, more such 'Epistles' could well have been written. But see the later point* for more on the) but my next step was looking up a bit about who Bart Ehrman is (Via his Wikipedia page!), and found there a debate transcript between William Lane Craig. And here I find that I can rest assured there are answers to Bolton/Erhman's comments.

http://www.holycross.edu/departments/crec/website/resurrection-debate-transcript.pdf

As mentioned earlier, Craig speaks:

"As a result of my studies, I became even more convinced of the historical credibility of that event. Of course, ever since my conversion, I believed in the resurrection of Jesus on the basis of my personal experience, and I still think this experiential approach to the resurrection is a perfectly valid way to knowing that Christ has risen. It’s the way that most Christians today know that Jesus is risen and alive. But as a result of my studies, I came to see that a remarkably good case can be made for Jesus’ resurrection historically as well"

This quote fills me with confidence, it rings so true of the thoughts in my head and heart.

And reading on, he says this about Erhman and his arguments:

"I was stunned to discover that the philosophical argument he gives for this claim is an old argument against the identification of miracles which I had studied during my doctoral research and which is regarded by most philosophers today as demonstrably fallacious. So as not to steal Dr. Ehrman’s thunder, I’ll wait until he’s presented his argument before I show where the fallacy lies."

I look forward to reading the rest of the debate. As I skim through, I see that again Erhman has some good points. Though some pretty shocking ones too. I encourage you to have a read to.

*On second read, while Bolton does argue that this is a big problem for us, see this quote from him later on in the article:

"But the picture is complicated. Some argue that another early Bible, the Codex Vaticanus, is in fact older. And there are other earlier texts of almost all the books in the bible, though none pulled together into a single volume."

This is not exactly 'the oldest manuscript' but the 'largest AND oldest' manuscript. Not exactly what he made out at the start -"probably the oldest Bible we have". There are older copies, just not all together as this seems to be. This is not therefore, the 'be-all and end-all' as it is made out to be.

So, after this search, I -and hopefully you- have increased in my confidence in Hebrews 4:12, that the word of God is living and active, it is trustworthy, and we can pray with confidence, as I feel compelled to now...

Thank you Father, that you loved us so much that you gave your Son, so that we might be reconciled to you. Thank you that You live -you came and died and rose again- and that I can be so sure of that, through the Bible and your Holy Spirit. Thank you... :D

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die...

“The ultimate answer to the question, Who crucified Jesus? is: God did.”

Whilst browsing the internet when I should be in bed, I discovered a great opportunity for you (few) readers...

Instead of browsing Facebook for an hour a day, you can now download for FREE John Piper's short(ish) book on 50 reasons why Jesus came to die. Why not read one each day for the next 50 days?!

That sounds like a good idea for a blog...check back sometime soon to see if I've been able to follow through this idea I have as I write which is not et fully thought through....

Anyway! Head here to download this great resource to feast on the truth of the Cross.

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Colossians 2:13-15

...an example that really stirs me to realise the awesomeness of the cross -not a defeat, but a victory! Death has lost its sting! We are now more than conquerors! He has triumphed over sin in the cross....

Blurb:
"The death of Jesus is of foremost importance for the world. And the central issue of Jesus’ death is not the cause, but the meaning—God’s meaning.

In this book, revised and updated from the previously published The Passion of Jesus Christ, John Piper has gathered from the New Testament fifty reasons behind the crucifixion of the Christ. Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes—in answer to the most important question facing us in the twenty-first century: Why did Jesus suffer and die? "
www.desiringgod.org

A Response to IK...

Ian! Great to hear from you...

A few initial thoughts that pop into my head as I read:

Firstly: This is no prosperity gospel!!! I can assure you of that. The same man who wrote the above blog also preached this:



(or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s&feature=related if the video is not working, which it isn't at the moment)

...which is pretty hard hitting, but makes it very clear John Piper does not preach a prosperity Gospel!

I see your point though, but if you read my earlier blog, which this post is a response to, my initial direction was that we should not be pre-occupied with the blessing/reward. I highlighted a bit of the above writings of JP which said it much better than I did! I think if our sole motivation is the reward, then we should start worrying...but I’m sure this is not what JP is saying, and neither I.

As Lewis (see earlier post which inspired these last few blogs) also writes, God is to be obey on the basis of simply who He is. He goes onto say how:

“God is such that if (per impossibile) his power could vanish and His other attributes remain, so that the supreme right were forever robbed of the supreme might, we should still owe Him precisely the same kind and degree of allegiance as we do right now”
Pg 185, Surprised by Joy

C.S. Lewis

So (not wanting to get too caught up in Lewis’ quote) what comes first in all this is God’s glory.
It is not a case of needing/wanting to be happy and stumbling upon that in Christianity. We are however, built to be happy, and as Piper says, “obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness”. Piper writes more extensively in his well-known and read book ‘Desiring God’ that “The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever”. I strongly encourage you Ian (and everyone else!) to get hold of a copy of this book and have a read.

In fact, I have a spare copy, and will give it to someone who promises to read it! But yes, our purpose in life is not to be happy and have great comfort –that’s not the picture we get from the Bible, or indeed the verse I’ve put below! I was also blogging about Hebrews (the book) a few weeks back, and especially Chapter 11, where these great examples of the faith “did not receive what had been promised”.
One other thought:

40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Acts 5:40-42

Nothing much to say, it just popped into my head!

I’m not sure if I’ve answered any of your points, or put my thoughts across well, but what I would strongly suggest is to put the blog from Piper needs to be taken in context, and read his book ‘Desiring God’. It’s probably worth noting he’s no crazy American randomer with some controversial thing to say, but a man searching after God with his whole heart, committed to Biblical truth, and has a reputation for being ‘solid’!

Ps. I hope you don't mind me making a post out of this! It just seemed easier... :) Let me know your thoughts.

Also check out Will Eley's post http://sirkeiserwillhelm.blogspot.com/2009/05/idol-chatter.html for more on Idols and Satisfaction in God....

Joy & John Piper...

This is in response to my earlier post, in which I seem to have waded too deep into the theology of Christian Hedonism without realising! But here is a good little post from John Piper about the subject, and arguing against the view that Joy/etc is not to be sought.

He says it much better and with a much clearer structure than I have. Basically, a part of what I was thinking is this > *

I would really like to see JP and CSL have a discussion about this.

I have put a few things I find interesting in Italics...

We Want You to Be a Christian Hedonist!
By John Piper August 31, 2006

What Is Christian Hedonism?
My shortest summary of Christian Hedonism is: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in. Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure—pleasure in him.

By Christian Hedonism, we do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. We mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. We should pursue this happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God.

The Difference Between Worldly and Christian Hedonism
Some people are inclined to believe that Christians are supposed to seek God’s will as opposed to pursuing their own pleasure. But what makes Biblical morality different than worldly hedonism is not that Biblical morality is disinterested and duty-driven, *but that it is interested in vastly greater and purer things. Christian Hedonism is Biblical morality because it recognizes that obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness*. Here are some examples of this from the Bible:

Luke 6:35 says, "Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great." It is clear when Jesus says “expect nothing in return” that we should not be motivated by worldly aggrandizement, but we are given strength to suffer loss by the promise of a future reward.

Again, in Luke 14:12-14: "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor . . . and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." That is, don't do good deeds for worldly advantage; rather, do them for spiritual, heavenly benefits.

Should Duty Be Our Main Motivation?
But some will say, "No, no. These texts only describe what reward will result if you act disinterestedly. They do not teach us to actually seek the reward."

Two answers to this objection:

1) It would be foolish to say, "If you take this pill, I’ll give you a nickel," if you expect the desire for the nickel to ruin the pill. But Jesus was not foolish. He would not offer blessing to those who obey him and then hold it against us if these blessings motivated our obedience.

2) Even more importantly, there are texts that not only commend that we do good in the hope of future blessing, but command it.

Luke 12:33 says, "Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail." The connection here between alms and having eternal treasure in heaven is not a chance result—it is the explicit purpose: "Make it your aim to have treasure in heaven, and the way to do this is to sell your possessions and give alms."

And again, Luke 16:9 says, "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal habitations." Luke does not say that the result of using possessions properly is to receive eternal habitations. He says, "Make it your aim to secure an eternal habitation by the way you use your possessions."

Therefore, a resounding NO to the belief that morality should be inspired more by duty than delight.

Don’t Be Too Easily Satisfied
Hebrews 11:6 teaches, "Without faith it is impossible to please [God]. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” You cannot please God if you do not come to him looking for reward. Therefore, faith that pleases God is the hedonistic pursuit of God.

As Christian Hedonists we know that everyone longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. It is never a problem to want to be satisfied. The problem is being satisfied too easily. We believe that everyone who longs for satisfaction should no longer seek it from money or power or lust, but should come glut their soul-hunger on the grace of God. We will bend all our effort, by the Holy Spirit, to persuade people that they can be happier in giving than receiving (Acts 20:35); that they should count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus their Lord (Philippians 3:8); that the aim of all of Jesus' commandments is that their joy be full (John 15:11); that if they delight themselves in the Lord he will give them the desire of their heart (Psalm 37:4); that there is great gain in godliness with contentment (1 Timothy 6:6); and that the joy of the Lord is their strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

We will not try to motivate anyone with appeals to mere duty. We will tell them that in God’s presence is full and lasting joy (Psalm 16:11) and our only duty is to come to him, seeking this pleasure.

(Adapted from John Piper’s article, Christian Hedonism: Forgive the Label, but Don't Miss the Truth.)

Surprised By Joy...

What I picked up for some light reading has in fact turned out to be something far deeper and thoughtful than your everyday testimony. In this autobiography, Lewis talks you through his early life and later his philospoical thoughts in his typically clear and descriptive way, leading to the point where:

"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

Surprised By Joy

It is not hard to see from his account of his life in the early chapters, how Lewis was able to have such a clear grasp of Philosophy/Theology to come to this point, and reading this book makes me mourn the lost of the culture Lewis grew up in, when reading books -in particular what we ignorantly now call 'the classics' without any idea what they are (I speak for non-English Lit students!)-, learning Greek and Latin, reading and knowing Plato, Homer and a whole trail of ancient writers, not only in English, but the original, as Lewis did with the 'Great Knock' around chapter 9. Surely we have lost a great deal in this day and age with such learning replaced with Gameboys and televisions.

The main theme, or to be more accurate -'thread'- throughout the book is his 'experience' and search -that is "enjoyment" & "contemplation" (Pg 174)- of 'Joy'. Instead of reviewing it any further though -you may aswell go and buy it on the cheap from Amazon or somewhere like I did. Instead there a few things I wish to comment upon after reading this and having my mindset turning...

One relates closely to what Lewis' purpose is in writing this: Joy, and how it is found.Lewis throughout the story (please do read it for yourselves to fully understand what he means by 'Joy') discovers that:

"Only when your whole attention and desire are fixed on something else -whether a distant mountain, or the past, or the gods of Asgard -does this 'thrill' arise. It is a by-product. Its very existance presupposes that you desire not it but something other and outer"

Pg 136

Joy is a 'by-product' of seeking something else. It will not come if we seek the thing itself. We won't find it if is the very thing we pursue. When you are completely unaware or unconcerned by attaining it, focusing instead upon "something other and outer".

Now, again, Lewis describes the siginificance of this further in the book. But what strikes me about this point, this observation of pursuit of a thing, is that it seems (as far as I can tell, while also being aware of the over-simplicity of such analogies) that this is very similar to our own relationship with God and our experience of Him. We so often search for an 'experience' of God, going to church, praying and worshipping through music/singing, and want to 'feel' God's presence, or somehow 'experience' Him. I struggle to find the words to describe what we look for, but maybe you know know what I mean. This experience of God is not a bad thing -God in his gracious nature does give us this, gives us the Holy Spirit. I won't go into examples now, but again I'm sure you get my side-point. But in my own past, and through talking with and observing others, this is what happens. We want to get this feeling from interaction with God and church, and without realising this becomes our aim each week or even day, and when -unsurprisingly- we don't find it often, and increasingly less so, we find ourselves struggling with our faith. People I have recently talked this through with seriously doubt their faith, and worry they have completely backslidden. There are of course many reasons and other helpful advice that comes with this, but Lewis gives us a extremely helpful insight into how we can avoid this -one I myself have unconciously taken at some point in my last four years of seriously persuing God.

The only ways we will 'experience' God are firstly- by God's grace, unconditional on our spiritual condition. Secondly, which comes from Lewis' observations, if we persue God himself, and not any experience of our own or benefit for ourselves.

"I have never seen how a preoccupation with that subject at the outset could fail to corrupt the whole thing. I have been brought up to believe that goodness was goodness only if it were disinterested, and that any hope of reward or fear of punishment contaminated the will"

Pg 185

Lewis laments the fact that so often a faith is shipwrecked by a preoccupation with a reward, namely that of Heaven, or 'experience'. If we want an 'experience' of God, then we shouldn't go looking for that, in the same way that Lewis writes we cannot find Joy if that is what we are seeking -it is merely a sign post to something better. We need to focus ourselves entirely on God's glory, not our pleasure. We need to worship Him in church not with the thought in our mind we might feel good if we do. We need to read our Bible cover to cover, not just looking for verses that talk about about experiencing God, looking to pursue holiness in all areas. If you are struggling with a lack of 'experience' of God, then leave this worry behind and seek to glorify Him more and more in your worship of Him, and don't worry about yourself. He will take of that.

It's kind of like this...

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Matthew 6:33

Jesus says it best as always. If we seek Him first, His glory, His way in our life without regard for ourselves, then He of course will pour out blessings upon us. If we want closeness with Him, we must seek Him entirely, not anything for ourselves. We know that He is gracious, so surely we can do this with confidence!

Thats what the Bible does tell us, God is gracious, longing to bless us and to gloryfy himself, and point to and admire our great Heavenly Father.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23