Visiting yet another great church

I visited Longton Community Church on holiday recently. I had a great time worshiping to some familiar songs. I think they must have been Hillsongs or Jesus Culture or David Crowder because I recognized them from my iTunes worship collections but had not had the chance before to worship publicly with them. Brilliant.

The Preach was on Holy Moments, looking at the blind man and the mud (John 9:6), and Moses and the burning bush (Ex 3). The main points that I took home were that holy moments are:

1) hard at the front end (having mud smeared on your eyes, being asked to challenge Pharaoh).

2) involve a call to go (go to the pool and wash off the mud, go to Pharaoh and say...).

3) require trust ie knowing God in a way that allows us to walk into the unknown.

I want to approach the next difficulty that comes my way with an expectation of it being a holy moment. Not with the feeling of walking into a mine field but exploring a diamond mine.  

The people were very friendly and  made us feel very welcome plus the youth had just been at a great event were they had obviously had lots of fun. The meeting ended with well over 30 of them doing a fun dance. Then back home to relatives house for Sunday lunch. mmmm 

Timelines for Dummies

When I go on holiday I like to take a number of books with me but usually end up focusing on only one. I never know which that is going to be when I'm packing, it all depends on how I feel when I get there, so 5 or 6 books end up being transported around the country or across the world without ever being opened. On my last holiday I took Bruce Ware's "God's Greater Glory", "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan, "Supernatural Lifestyle" by Kris Vallotton, "The Dancing Hand of God" by James Maloney and "The Bible for Dummies". Which do you think turned out to be "the one"? It was the last one, "The Bible for Dummies". I actually really like this book. Reading it gives away that I don't know as much as I should. I may swallow my pride and recommend it to the students at the UEA CU in a couple of months time when I talk about "How to read the bible". It may just be me but I find it gives a really helpful overview of the whole bible in a way that is clear, interesting and informative. I'll share here my notes from what I read.

The first things that captured my attention was the chapter about the major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. (They are called major prophets simply because their books are bigger than the minor prophets in the Bible).

Isaiah prophesies to the southern kingdom between 742 BC and 700 BC during which time the Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 BC. In 701 BC Hezekiah was persuaded by Isaiah to repent and an angel of the Lord killed 185,000 of Sennacherib's soldiers who were besieging Jerusalem.

Jeremiah prophesied between 626 BC and 580 BC during which time the southern kingdom was carried off into exile by the Babylonians (first wave in 605BC) and the temple and Jerusalem was destroyed (586 BC). Ezekiel was carried off to Babylon in the first wave 10 years before the destruction of Jerusalem and was the prophet to the exiles there. After 25 years in exile he sees an elaborate vision of the temple being rebuilt and the nation of Israel reunited (573BC). 

The second chapter I read was about was the events surrounding the rebuilding of Jerusalem. In 538 BC, after almost 70 years of exile, Cyrus, the great Persian King, overthrew the Babylonians and encouraged people to return to their own homelands. In Ezra 1:24 he says that "the LORD, the God of heaven...has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem..whoever is among you of all his people...let him go to Jerusalem.. and rebuild the house of the LORD." Some Israelites go but many choose to stay (the Babylonian Jews later wrote the Babylonian Talmud, a important collection of Jewish laws and stories, in the 3rd-5th century BC).

Sheshbazzar leads the first wave of Jews back to Jerusalem and they start rebuilding the foundations of what is termed "the second temple". For some reason they don't complete it and 18 years later, in 520 BC, Zerubbabel leads another band of Israelites in finishing the alter and then the foundations. Some are happy, while others weep as it's not a big as Solomon's first glorious temple.

The Samaritans get the hump because they aren't allowed to help rebuild the temple and persuade the local Persian authorities that the Jews will rebel. After looking into it and confirming that the Jews do in fact have a habit of doing just that, they order the work to stop.

God sends Zachariah and Haggai to encourage the Jews to start again. Zachariah takes the role of "good cop" giving encouraging prophecies of the future while Haggai takes the role of "bad cop" telling the people off for sorting out their own homes while neglecting God's house.

When the Israelites start building again, the local authorities check the situation with Darius, the new Persian king, who upholds Cyrus' decree and provides money to make it happen.

In 515 BC the temple is completed and the Passover is celebrated with sacrifices for the first time in 70 years. 

In 458BC Another Persian king Artaxerxes (According to the Rose Book of Bible and Christian History Time Lines, the order of Kings is Cyrus the great 559-530, Cambysees 529-522, Darius I 522-486, Pericles 500-429, Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) 485-465), Artaxerxes I 464-424, Darius II 423-405, Artaxerxes II 404-359, Artaxerxes III 358-337) sends an expert in Jewish law, called Ezra, with money to see how things are progressing in Jerusalem and help them along. Ezra leads the people, ushering in a long period of priestly rule that was still in place in Jesus' day. Ezra gets the Israelites to divorce their foreign wives.

In 445 BC Nehemiah, the cupbearer (the royal official in charge of food preparation) to the Persian king Artaxerxes learns that the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins. The King grants him permission to go to Jerusalem and sends him off with protection and resources to rebuild the walls. (These Persian kings seem really determined to rebuild Jerusalem. I am reminded of Proverb 21:1: The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.).     

Nehemiah organizes people to work on the walls near their own homes. The Samaritans are out to cause trouble again but the Jews finish the wall with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other in 52 days (Neh 6:15).

Ezra then reads the law to the people while others walk about helping them to understand it. The next day they discover its the holiday of Booths or Sukkot so they pitch tents and celebrate the desert wanderings.  

So if I can summaries all that on a short time line:

742 BC            Isaiah start to prophecy to Judah

721BC             Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians

701 BC            Hezekiah repents and Angel wipes out Assyrians besieging Jerusalem

700 BC            Isaiah stops prophesying BC.

626 BC            Jeremiah starts prophesying

605BC             First wave of Jews carried off into Babylonians exile inc. Ezekiel

586 BC            Temple and Jerusalem destroyed

580 BC            Jeremiah stops prophesying

573BC             Ezekiel's vision of the temple being rebuilt and nation reunited. 

538 BC            Cyrus overthrows the Babylonians and decrees Jews can return home and rebuild. Sheshbazzar leads the first wave of Jews back to Jerusalem to start

520 BC            Zerubbable leads another band of Israelites back and finish the altar and then the foundations. It's a bitter sweet time.  

The Samaritans get the hump and persuade the local Persian authorities to stop building.

Zachariah and Haggai encourage Jews to start again.

Persian King Darius who upholds Cyrus' decree and provides more money

515 BC            Temple completed and Passover celebrated with sacrifices

458BC             Artaxerxes sends Ezra, with money to continue rebuilding homeland.

                        Ezra gets the Israelites to divorce their foreign wives.

445 BC            Nehemiah sent by Artaxerxes to rebuild the walls who takes 52 days to do it.

Ezra the reads the law and they celebrate Booths.


And my first attempt at it in picture form:

All in all a very informative holiday.

"We all end up in diapers"

In the holiday cottage we stayed at recently there was a DVD collection so we took the opportunity to watch a couple of films. The first was The Strange Case of Benjamin Button. The film starts and ends in a residential home for old people, a place where time is marked by the passing away of one person after another. One night a newborn baby is left at the door step to the home. Its father left him there because although he is the size of a normal baby his body is that of a 90 year old man. A care worker in the home nurses the baby who gets younger as it grows bigger.

It’s a great concept to highlight the issues of life and ageing and death. As the baby gets younger through the movie the fact that everyone else gets older is accentuated. It's like two trains passing each other from opposite directions create the illusion of twice the speed. It also allows you to see the symmetry of the ageing process. A great quote from the film is “We all end up in diapers!”. How true. In all likelihood I will end up being cared for by others - totally reliant on those around me. I’m around the half way mark now which really puts things into perspective!

I was talking with friends the other day about how when you are young you feel like you will live forever. Death can be obscured by all the living there is to do. Now I’m older I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (and thanks to Jesus it is a light and not utter darkness!). There must be lots of people facing the same situation but without knowing what to expect on the other side of death. I wonder what that feels like.

I want to give my strength to God now even as I feel it ebbing away. I want to get to know him now so when my strength fails I’ll still have a rich and rewarding relationship with my father, and my saviour and my helper. 

Eccles. 12:1 (NIV) 

    Remember your Creator

        in the days of your youth,

    before the days of trouble come

        and the years approach when you will say,

        "I find no pleasure in them"

Craft, craft and more craft

We had a great holiday recently. We did some walking, visited various attractions and made lots of craft type things. Plays, books, games, playgrounds etc etc. Here is a book we did (ok I did). It's very informative I think you'll agree.

And here is some of the girls' stuff. We filmed a play and made lots more books: 

We also made some top trump flower card:

"The Gist" - A brand new bible translation

Just read a guardian article http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/22/bible-twitter-makeover

that put me on to some great bible twitterers. @biblesummary, @FakeBible and

@janariess (Twible).

Biblesummary is summarising the bible one tweet per chapter per day. So far it has got to Gen 15 (a little ahead of where I am in my bible blog http://marcusbible.blogspot.com/).

Gen15: The Lord promised Abram an heir and many descendants. Abram believed. He was told that they would be enslaved but would then return.

Gen14: The kings went to war and took Lot captive. Abram rescued Lot. Melchizedek blessed Abram and Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Gen13: Abram journeyed with his nephew Lot. Their servants argued, so Lot went to Sodom, Abram to Canaan. The LORD promised Abram the land.

Gen12: God told Abram, "Go. I will make you a great nation. You will be a blessing." In Egypt Abram lied about Sarai and Pharaoh was cursed.

Gen11: They began building a great tower for themselves, but the Lord confused their language. Shem's line included Abram who married Sarai.

Gen10: Japheth's line lived in the coastlands; Ham's included Nimrod and the Canaanites; Shem's lived in the East. These formed the nations.

Gen9: God blessed Noah and set the rainbow as a sign that he would never flood the earth again. Noah got drunk and cursed Ham's son Canaan.

Gen8: The flood abated. Noah sent out a raven and two doves. When the earth was dry God called them all out of the ark. Noah built an altar.

Gen7: Noah and his family went into the ark with two of each creature. It rained for forty days and forty nights and the earth was covered.

Gen6: Humankind corrupted the earth with evil. God decided to destroy them. He told Noah to build an ark to be saved from the flood.

Gen5: Adam's line was: Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah. Noah's sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Gen4: Eve's sons made offerings to God. Only Abel's was acceptable, so Cain killed him. Abel's blood cried out and God sent Cain away.

Gen3: The serpent deceived the woman; she and Adam ate from the tree. The earth became cursed, and God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden.

Gen2: God formed a man and gave him the garden in Eden, except for the tree of knowledge. Adam was alone so God made a woman as his partner.

Gen1: God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth.

FakeBible are doing each verse as a tweet in an informal twitter style:

  

Ex10:29 "Okay, you won't ever s-see me again," said Moses. And it was true, except for in a lifetime of Pharaoh's nightmares.

Ex10:28 "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! IF YOU SEE ME AGAIN I'LL FLIPPIN' KILL YOU!" It was a strange threat to make after the plague of darkness.

Ex10:27 Pharaoh: "FFS! DO YOU THINK I'M AN IDIOT? YOU DON'T WANT THREE DAYS, YOU WANT TO GO AND NEVER COME BACK!" What a hard-hearted bigot.

Ex10:25-26 Moses: "We all have to make sac-sacrifices! I.e., sacrifice our cattle. To G-God. B-better take ALL the cattle, just in c-case."

 

Ex10:24 Pharaoh summoned Moses. "Go. Take your women and children. But leave your cattle as collateral. Fair? Fair. Good talk."

Twible paraphrased the whole of the Book of Leviticus in one tweet: "Don't eat this. Don't screw that. Don't touch this. Don't DO that. Thus saith the Lord.". Actually it usually does a couple of tweets per chapter and a couple of tweets per day.

1 Kgs 22: Great Jehoshaphat! Kings of S & N join forces to fight Syrians. 1 Kgs ends on happy note of unity & peace. Won’t last.

1 Kgs 22: Great Jehoshaphat! Kings of S & N join forces to fight Syrians. 1 Kgs

1 Kgs 21: Queen Jezebel uses eminent domain to seize Naboth’s vineyard; has the guy stoned. (Don’t worry. She’ll soon be Pupperoni.) 

1 Kgs 21: Queen Jezebel uses eminent domain to seize Naboth’s vineyard; has the guy stoned. (Don’t worry. She’ll soon be Pupperoni.)

1 Kgs 20: Gleeful Syrians threaten to take Israel’s gold, wives, & kids. Like a country music song! Isr trounces em . . . this time.

1 Kgs 19: Elij crashes from theo high; now in deep funk sans Celexa. Wants to die, but G won’t hear of it. Bakes him a cake instead. 

1 Kgs 19: Elij crashes from theo high; now in deep funk sans Celexa. Wants to die, but G won’t hear of it. Bakes him a cake instead.

1 Kgs 18: Theology throwdown; Elij dares 850 pagan prophets to duel. Elij: “Ha! Is that all you’ve got? LMAO @ your girly-man gods.” 

 

If you didn't like "the message" then you'll not get along with these "versions" but I think they are a great resource. I view the bible as inspired at all levels, from an individual word to "the gist". If that wasn't the case then at what point does a translation stop being a helpful bible? The English versions we have are already a long way from reading the original manuscripts in their original language. Missing the gist can be as bad as missing the detail. Those that emphasise the importance of each word would be quick no doubt to emphasise context, and context is just another word for the gist. So we have had "the message", now it's time for a new groundbreaking  bible version called "The Gist". I'm actually quite serious. The book would contain several versions of the bible at different levels of detail. In recognition that a summary necessarily needs to be done from a particular perspective with certain presuppositions and aims in mind (just like any bible translation) each level would be done in a number of "takes". Anyone want to be the new Eugene Peterson?

  

Fighting Cancer

Just read Hitchen's Vanity Fair article in which he describes his first raw reactions to being "stricken" with cancer. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009

Even though he is still stoically anti-anything-God, it's hard not to warm to him. He is an amazing thinker and writer and speaks with an openness and frankness that serves up some tasty food for thought. He is also very quotable:

"I have been ....knowingly burning the candle at both ends and finding that it often gives a lovely light."

"In whatever kind of a “race” life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist."

"I love the imagery of struggle....Allow me to inform you, though, that when you sit in a room with a set of other finalists, and kindly people bring a huge transparent bag of poison and plug it into your arm, and you either read or don’t read a book while the venom sack gradually empties itself into your system, the image of the ardent soldier or revolutionary is the very last one that will occur to you. You feel swamped with passivity and impotence: dissolving in powerlessness like a sugar lump in water."

Great writing but a terribly sad situation. It brings home to me again the importance of fighting against sickness, not just with drugs but with supernatural power. Those like myself who are relatively well need to take up the fight for those who are sick. It's unthinkable to me that, according to Christopher, some people are actually praying for him to stay ill. Jesus never did that! Encouragingly though, most of the correspondence he has got is from people who are praying for him to make a full and swift recovery. While people in Christopher's situation battle though the side effects of powerful drugs we need to call upon God to release power from heaven to heal the sick.

I am currently half way through a year-long series on healing (it's actually not as long as it sounds as I've only done 5 preaches so far) and I am thinking about what to speak on this term. Do I continue in Matthews gospel chapters 7-10 and talk about Jesus sending out the disciples to heal the sick or do I start the second half of the series in Acts? I think I need to finish the Matthew series well but there is a lot of overlap. Acts is really the outworking of the instructions Jesus gives his disciples in Matthew 10.

I am determined to believe for break through in healing despite all the other commitments and responsibilities I have. In the next couple of months I am going to two conferences where the guys from Bethel will be speaking. It will mean several days away from home and getting back in the early hours of Sunday morning to preach at church but I cannot let this go. I can't let life's busyness deflect me from launching a strategic attack on sickness. If I have to burn the candle at both ends for a couple of months then so be it! I want the "lovely light" of healing in Jesus name to shine brightly from the church. I want to break the tape at the end of my race having drawn on heavens recourses and exhausted my own. I want to be bent double before Jesus gasping for breath, having given it 100%. I'll have all eternity to recover so what's a few late nights.

It's been great the last few week praying for people and seeing small improvements. Back aches instantly going and headaches being lifted in Jesus name. I rejoice over these things and they are spurring me on but I long to see cancer go and people freed from the clutched of MS. LORD please stretch out your hand to heal in the name of Jesus.  

Cheese drills, rugby scrums and faith

A friend came round recently to drill a hole in the outside wall of my house to get a cable through. The drill looked like a gun from some sci-fi movie - the drill bit was almost 2 feet long! He had been prompted to come over and help me with a bit of DIY after I preached on drill bits at our morning meeting.

I had asked people to imagine a drill bit that could only cut through soft things like butter or, with the wind behind it, a piece of cheese. Although this "butter bit" looks sharp and strong it would go blunt and bend the minute it's pressed onto something hard. The reason why B&Q do not sell such a thing is that it would be totally useless. You don't need a drill bit to cut through soft dairy products! Anything can do that.

There is an apparent faith that is nothing more than wishful thinking, or going along with the crowd, or being naturally persuaded by how things currently look. It can look like the real thing, all hard and shiny, but when it hits resistance it goes blunt and bends. True faith is like a steel diamond tipped drill bit. It will stay straight and keeps it's point even when pressed into granite. True faith says "this will change!, we will go through".   

By coincidence I read this, this morning

Prov 24:10  If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

That's saying the same thing. What is the point of strength that fails when something is hard?

            Prov 24:16  the righteous falls seven times and rises again,

Or in the words of the Tubthumping song:

            I get knocked down, but I get up again
            You never gonna keep me down

That's what faith is like.

I used to be play rugby a long time ago. I was on the edge of the scrum. Again, how ridiculous it would be to give up and walk away from the scrum the minute you experienced resistance. The whole point of the scrum is meeting resistance and pushing through. A scrum stands still for a while or perhaps moves sideways a bit as the two powers lock together. But then there is a moment when your side moves forward a fraction and senses the other side flagging. That's the moment to roar and press through your advantage. That's like faith when it hears testimonies of what God has done. True faith doesn't give up when nothing happens, but it grows through testimonies of what God is doing. The rugby scrum analogy is also helpful as it's a team thing. When one might be tempted to flag or give up they are locked together with others around them. Even if your will or body weakens for a bit you can re-engage and push as the others move forward.  

The psalms are full of testimonies, the gospel is a testimony, in fact the bible is one big testimony. Hearing and reading about people getting healed builds faith.

God give me a diamond tipped drill bit of faith, a huge stubborn deep heat smelling faith, locked in with others, that doesn't give up when it meets resistance but roars and pushes home the advantage when it sees you at work.