Hymn of the day

I enjoy reading hymns and often flick through my copy of 'Christian Hymns' for some encouragement.

Try this while you read on: 'I Hear Thy Welcome Voice' sung by the Morriston tabernacle Choir, Swansea.

A good hymn lies not in the tune, chorus or the gusto with which it can be belted out in the shower... but rather in its theology and wording. I'd argue that the hymns which touch our soul are the ones that correctly convey Christian doctrines and the true message of the gospel.

Sure some hymns and choruses can be catchy, emotive and exciting, but worship is not about the 'I'. Any worship which is 'I' centred is defamatory and self absorbed, rather like the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18: 9 - 14.

There is a huge and ongoing argument about praise in Churches all over the world - what is seemly? What is respectful and 'good ordered'? The instruments used or unused, the contrivances of 'performance', the starchy stiffness of older hymns, the loose casualness of new choruses, what is contemporary... what is acceptable?

It isn't an argument I am fully persuaded about by any camp to be honest. I know this - I scrutinise carefully the words of any Christian music I listen to and consider its motivation. If it is theologically sound and worshipful of God, not man... then it goes on the ipod.

After that its a matter of weeding out the ones which make me sound like I'm in pain when I sing them!
I am currently reading 'Grace, grit and Gumption' by Geriant Fielder which is an account of John Pugh's hand in the South Wales revival of the late 1800's. Helped in no small way by two of my home town's favourite sons Seth and Frank Joshua. It is an excellent and challenging read - though be warned you may feel the urge to start preaching outside pubs!

Seth Joshua wrote an article on congregational singing and it is quoted in part in the book. It makes some comments on worship which I hadn't considered before. He compared the congregation's singing with that of a choir or soloist. Here are a few quotes.

" 'And they ministered... with singing' (1 Chronicles 6:32). Thus the families of the Levites served. They minsitered with singing. We must go back to the Old Testament times to find a true conception of congregational singing. The preacher ministers to the congregation in his preaching, and is often dismissed for careless preparation, but the congregation ministers in singing to the Lord and often deserves dismissal for the same reason. Here is the root weakness of much of our congregational singing. It is so thin and heartless just in proportion as it lacks the Old testament conception."

"Singing will be transformed from a mere item in the programme of a service into a sacrifice of praise..."

"This did not happen if a choir took precedence. Choirs and their conductors could rule the roost then as music groups and their worship leaders can do today. ' There is a possibility of a trained choir being more of a curse than a blessing. Preparation, choice, selection is made out of regard to the capabilities and tastes of the choir, rather than the ability of the congregation."

"As a rule there is better theology in the hymn than in the sermon. At any rate our Welsh hymnology is the theological backbone of the nation. It is to the Church what colour is to the cheek. It indicates health or weakness. Our Lord is worthy of our best. Let us all minister to the Lord in singing."

Some good thoughts there. My tuppence worth is that any song or hymn of worship should at first be theologically sound. Any instrumentation must be used in support of the worship in a church service, not used as a performance. Once the performance and selection of praise leans primarily toward the abilities and preferences of the instrumentalists the true motivation of worship is lost.

As I commented to a family member some while ago "You can praise God any way you want during the week, but come Sunday it should be done in the Lord's way." I said it rather flippantly at the time, but maybe there's some truth in it?.. that doesn't however answer the question 'what is the Lord's way?'

Monday... :(

I had that feeling this morning... and it proved right. A horrendously testing day at work, but now I'm home in my cwtch, tea on the go, belly rumbling and I have a stack of books to read.

I just can't decide which. Will it be Tozer, Buyan or Pink? Or will I plump for a biography? 'The Cross and the Switchblade'? Maybe 'Grace, Grit and Gumption'? Or perhaps even a trawl through the extensive notes in my ESV study bible. Alternitively if I'm feeling brave I might try 'Basic Greek and exegesis' or 'elements of New Testament Greek'. I've barely scratched the surface of my Systematic Theology.

We are blessed are we not? To have such an array of literature available? There are many things to worry us in the UK today... but we still have a favourable position over many of our brothers and sisters around the world.

The Chinese who would give their right arm for just a page of scripture. Those in Communist or Islamic countries who worship in constant, mortal peril. Those slaughtered for their Christian beliefs in Nigeria. What life must be life for a bible believing Christian in a country like North Korea I cannot imagine.

I think before I choose my reading material from my growing library I'll say a prayer for my brothers and sisters in Christ who are not so spoiled for choice and then also thank the Lord that I am so very, very blessed.

Holiness

I have been reading again. This inevitably means there are quotes coming, but rest assured they are worthwhile. I am currently beavering through 'A Faith to Live By' written by Donald McLoed. He has what I find quite an unusual style of writing... and to quote someone with whom I was discussing - "he has a brain like 2 of Einstein's".

Anyway, I haven't necessarily agreed with everything I have read thus far but that hasn't stopped me finding the book enormously encouraging. I was particularly taken with his chapter on Holiness (or more specifically definitive and progressive sanctification).

In writing about 'union with Christ' he says this:

"Today we here much about self-image. In sport and industry and public life, so much depends on personal confidence. Even preaching the gospel is, to some extent, a question of confidence: confidence that we have something worth saying and that by God's grace we can say it, even though at the same time we tremble. If I begin to doubt what I am saying is worth saying, or to doubt that God will help me to say it, then I get tied up in knots and can't do it. That is equally true in the whole area of the Christian life. Many of us are defeated before we start because we have an unbiblically low self-esteem. It is not a matter of natural egotism. It is a matter of taking God at His word. He says we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5: 13,14). And of course we say 'Who? Me, Lord? You mean US?" Yes! He means us! We are new in Christ Jesus and if He tells us to climb that mountain or carry this load or bear this temptation, then we can do it. 'We are more than conquerors through him who loved us' (Romans 8: 37). There is nothing that God demands of us which the Christ in us cannot do."

There is nothing that God demands of us which the Christ in us cannot do.

I think that is worth reading again.

There is nothing that God demands of us which the Christ in us cannot do.

Later in the same chapter Mr McLoed again made me look inward and consider my Christian service and once again he words it beautifully:

"So much of my Christianity is only a pale reflection of the real thing. The real thing was the Man who was willing to be crucified between two thieves on the garbage heap outside the city walls. The pilgrimage I am called to is not along a road lined with acclaim or power or influence or ease or comfort. It is routed along the Via Dolorosa, where nothing is easy and nothing is comfortable, because we have no right to use our divine sonship to claim favours."

Our deaths as Christians can bring no salvation to others and could in no way mirror Jesus' sacrifice on that tree. But in human terms, could you willingly place yourself in such a position? Humanly speaking was Jesus any more able to tolerate the physical sufferings and the anxiety of what was to come when he gave himself up?

God owes us nothing, we owe Him everything. every bit of ourselves, every fibre of our being. Should we not 'love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'. My question to myself and to you is this:

When, Christian, was the last time you managed this?

Was it for a few minutes? A day? A week (on and off).

It should, of course, be a lifetime... that's quite some benchmark.

Lost in the Labyrinth

Last Lord's Day morning at Fole Chapel the preacher delivered a sermon on Exodus 15: 23-27, you can listen to it here. The verses in question tell of the arrival of the Israelites at Marah, where they found water (after 3 days without), but it was bitter. God directed Moses to cast a tree into the waters and they were 'made sweet'.


Only 3 days had passed since the Israelites had been delivered miraculously from the hands of Pharaoh. The waters had been parted and the Israelites saved. Despite this murmurings were heard after the 3 days without water. This was to set something of a pattern for the wilderness journey and persistent griping, moaning and backsliding were heard and seen. It appears the Israelites were rather an ungrateful lot... or so it seems to us.

They had God with them (in the pillar of cloud and smoke), they had been delivered, they were witness to many signs and wonders... yet they persisted in turning back to Egypt in mind and spirit so often. They moaned at Moses, worshiped idols and generally behaved like... well... like sinners.

It is so easy for us to tut and shake our heads at their ignorance, but we so often do the same don't we? Blind to our folly at the time, ignorant of our offences to God - but then later, looking back through the wilderness we cringe and wince at our own sinfulness and ungodliness.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I'm sure there were many Israelites who frequently chastised themselves and each other for their unbelief and lack of faith, just as we do from day to day.

During that sermon an image came to mind. It was of a scene in the film Labyrinth. For those of you fortunate enough to have not seen it the basic premise is a young girl who has to find her way through a mystical (and large) Labyrinth to rescue her baby brother from some evil king type played depressingly by David Bowie. She suffers many trials and difficulties on her quest and befriends all types of strange creatures and characters (I'm sure we can all relate to that!) I digress, the image that was in my mind was a scene where as she nears the end of her journey the entire labyrinth is sprawled out behind her.

As I said hindsight is a wonderful thing. Certainly looking back on my life over the last year I can see some of the dead ends I have come to, the pitfalls and the traps. But I can also see how God has guided me safely through to where I am now. I can look back over the labyrinth of my life and see where I took wrong turns and even headed in the wrong direction. But I can also see many of the learning experiences this afforded me. God guided me clearly so many times, but I was often blind to it. In recent times I have enjoyed the feeling of my hand in His and the assurance of being guided clearly and safely through perilous times.

As we look back over that maze of life and see our errors and sins surely we should be thankful. We should praise God for being there watching over us, offering us reassurance, providing the help and support we need when we need it, letting us 'go it alone' when we have to but never leaving us abandoned.
We aren't very good are we when it comes to a new trial or tribulation? We are excellent at reviewing such times with great hindsight and understanding but really we should have foresight enough to know that God will guide us in all things. James 1:2 in the ESV puts it well:

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,"

And we should, should we not, also remember that Romans 8:28 tells us:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

I hope that you and I both recall our past experiences and God's provision next time we meet a dead end or obstacle. We should learn from looking back at the labyrinth, granted, but we'd be better served in recalling the journey while looking onward and upward at the route through the maze of life to the hill top where the cross stands and Glory awaits.

Discipline and backsliding

One of my interests... or former obsessions... was/is MMA or mixed martial arts. As well as being a keen viewer I was also a participant (and to some extent still am). Within my MMA experience there were several disciplines that needed attention. Principally these were Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (or submission wrestling), Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) and Wrestling. There were elements of Boxing and Judo thrown in also. So there were quite a range of skills to master.

To compete even at an amateur level requires a huge amount of time, attention discipline and fitness. I was fortunate enough to be able to compete professionally... I say fortunate as many people train for years and years and despite wanting to do so, never fulfil that desire. I fought 6 times between July 2007 and March 2009. In that time I was fully immersed in the sport. Everything took a back seat to MMA. I deified it in fact. MMA was my God I’m sad to say.

Diet, fitness, lifestyle... everything was committed to my MMA idol. It was clearly (in hindsight) the idol I needed to fill large gaps in my life as I didn’t have the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God to fulfil... well... everything.

This is not to say MMA didn’t teach me lots. It taught me an immense amount of self discipline and how to set and maintain high standards and also an appreciation of commitment. It also stopped me from indulging in even more ‘damaging’ or unhealthy idolatry (though that sounds somewhat contradictory).This is also rather ironic to say when one considers the object of the exercise is to punch, kick, knee, twist, choke and hyperextend anything your opponent will allow you to. I was good at it too. There are many aspects of that disciplined life I can apply in my Christian life, but I am also very mindful of how easy it would be to be drawn back into deifying MMA once again, or to substitute it for something else.

As it stands my body won’t let me. My back is injured, but not damaged. It’s like God has fitted a choker chain on my life of training and exercise. If I strain too hard at the leash, it tightens, as does my back and hip preventing me from doing too much. It is, thank the Lord, a limiter. As I’ve written this I’ve realised that maybe God is saying to me ‘you’re not as disciplined as you think’ – if I was so ultra disciplined I wouldn’t need to worry about backsliding would I?

This was intended to be a short post as it was prompted by reading a quote by a famous wrestling coach, Dan Gable. It made me wonder that if someone of this mindset could apply the attitude to the most important aspects of their Christian life (in love and obedience), how blessed they would be.

“I’m a big believer in starting with high standards and raising them. We make progress only when we push ourselves to the highest level. If we don’t progress, we backslide into bad habits, laziness and poor attitude."

Finally read this quote and substitute the ‘top priorities’ for a Christian’s priorities of prayer, studies, worship and preaching (or hearing) and ultimately and pre-eminently of course, glorification of our Lord.

“When you finally decide how successful you really want to be, you’ve got to set priorities. Then, each and every day, you’ve got to take care of the top ones. The lower ones may fall behind, but you can’t let the top ones slip. You don’t forget about the lower ones though because they can add up to hurt you. Just take care of the top ones first. In 25 years as a head coach and assistant, I think I might have missed one practice. Why? Because practice is my top priority. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t accomplish something in my family life or my profession because those two things are my top priorities."

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Analogies are a bit like...

I like Mr Herman Hoeksema. I like him a lot. He has a knack of using analogies that I understand. Now I use them a lot as you may have noticed but I am always conscious that in giving an analogy it is hard to appreciate how it will be received. I mean, I know what I’m talking about and in my own mind the analogical image is crystal clear... but does anyone else get it? Not always.


Mr Hoeksema doesn’t have this problem I don’t think, nor does Peter Jeffery. Each time I have read or heard an analogy by either of them I have re-wound or re-read it a few times, enjoying the laser beam accurate image I believe they intended to portray.

Most recently I liked Mr Jeffery’s example of our sin being like a big strong, nasty Rottweiler (it may have been a Doberman, but it hardly affects the analogy). We need to keep that vicious dog on a short lead and well under control. If we were to let out too much lead or to release it, it would cause untold damage and pain. So the danger needs to be disciplined and kept reined in tightly and under our control and command.

Mr Hoeksema provided another analogy for me this morning as I continued my reading of 'Wonder of Grace'. I shan’t paraphrase him though, this is what he wrote. The chapter was entitled ‘Believing through Grace’ and the particular section was referring to our faith in Christ.

“The difference between a believer and an unbeliever is not unlike that between a living young tree and a dead fence post. You can plant that fence post deep into the ground, but you do not expect that it will show signs of life and develop branches and fruit. On the contrary, it will rot in the soil in which it is planted. But plant a young sapling in the same soil, and it will strike its roots into the ground and draw nourishment from it, grow and bear fruit.”

This reflects something that I mentioned in my last blog about Mr Jeffery’s ‘Whitewash’ sermon. Someone can outwardly be gleaming white, a Doctor who has attended church for 40 years and does many good works... but he can be as dead as that fence post despite being buried deep in the ground of a church if he is an unbeliever. He may even frequently study the bible or expound its contents from a pulpit. But he’s still dead in his unbelief.

Take a believer however, an uneducated labourer who is that young sapling. He has no knowledge of the bible, little understanding of the nuances and details of scripture, he doesn't even think he is doing so... but that sapling starts to bear fruit. The love and grace in his life shines through and bears fruit. Burying his roots deep into Christ, the gospel and His church the sapling grows into a mighty solid oak, rock solid in faith in Christ.

To use Mr Hoeksema’s example (which I semi plagiarised in the last 2 paragraphs) the same said doctor and labourer are fed a meal. The doctor understands the nutritional value of the food, he is aware that the proteins, carbohydrates,  vitamins and minerals are essential for all manner of reasons. He knows the value of the food. But he has a terminal illness which sees him struggle to eat. The food will make him sick and nauseous. He can tell you the value of the food, but rejects the chance to eat it.

The labourer knows none of this. He knows he is hungry, he knows his appetite needs sating and he eats and eats and eats until his plate is as clean as a whistle. He is ignorant of the nutritional benefits of the food other than it makes him satisfied, but he still benefits from the content of what he has taken in - each meal making him stronger.

Oh to be a doctor who can labour during the mornings uprooting fence posts and planting saplings in their place, then spend the afternoons collecting and distributing the fruit collected from the mature, fully grown trees planted years before.

You can’t fault a good analogy can you? (That last one was mine... I do hope it made sense!!!!)

Being vague...

I listened to a Peter Jeffery sermon on my way to and from work today about 'Whitewashing' and Ezekiel 13. Effectively it was about false prophets and their perversion of the gospel. The whitewash reference being to how if a building is whitewashed it can camouflage the true state of the crumbling, damaged and weakened walls. The veneer of the church goer who isn’t saved – they whitewash their life in good works and regular church attendance, but inside are rotten and decaying.

Rather like the comparison made about (I can’t recall, or find, where it says so  ) the sepulchre being white and clean and well kept on the outside and rotten and dead inside.


Anyway, in Mr Jeffery’s sermon he said something which struck me as blindingly obvious, yet not always altogether clear to see. He said (here I paraphrase as best I can, hoping I can do justice to his words... and wincing at the thought of getting it wrong) that - if one is vague or ‘loose’ in one’s understanding of scripture, then so too will be one’s grasp and appreciation of what sin is and where it occurs in one’s life.

I certainly have experienced that feeling of realisation several times in the last year where I have been studying my bible only to come across a verse that allows aspects of my sin to drop firmly and clearly into focus. It was perhaps something which up to that point I hadn’t even realised was necessarily wrong.

I find it increasingly difficult to understand how Christians cannot spend more time trying to seek out and destroy sin in their lives. I realise I am ‘young’ and enthusiastic about the gospel, but its all there in His Word. All we have to do is read it! The task of ridding oneself of sin is never a finished task, until He does the job for us in Glory. But one feeds the other.


The more we know of the gospel = the more readily we can recognise and are equipped to kill sin in our lives.

The more we know of our sin = the less hypocritical we can be in living out our Christian lives and the greater our appreciation can be of the Grace God has afforded us in saving such wretches.