INDEXing @ Carrubbers

Jesus: Your Life in His Gospel Story

2011-09-26T08:08:00.000Z

Here's my notes from the last 15 minutes of Index on Sunday night when we dealt with some incredibly important but very difficult concepts.

People everywhere live for and live out a story that describes the point of their life and motivates them in what they do:

e.g. the American dream: “work hard and no matter who you are and what background you come from you can make it big in America!”

e.g. the celebrity culture “the best life is one of fame and fortune” (often people who are known not because they have done something great but because they have drawn attention to themselves)

e.g. the fun culture “what matters most is having a good time and getting the most out of life”.

e.g. the success culture: "you need to be the best, with more promotions, more money and more prestige, then you'll have made it in life"

e.g. the beauty myth: "how you look is everything - your image makes you who you are"

People’s meaning and purpose in life is determined by the story they have for their lives => our choices in how we spend our time, what jobs we do, how we do our jobs, what friends we choose to make and how we cope with suffering, are all determined by the story we are living in and living out!

Q. What is the story of your life: What are you living for? What are your specific purposes and goals in life?

Q. Specifically with examples, how does Jesus fit into your purpose and goal of your life?

Q. How can you make sure your life matters?

The gospel of Jesus is the only TRUE story that describes what everything in life and history is really all about, since it is the story designed by God long before He made the universe. Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8): slain for people whom God loved and foreknew(Romans 8:28) before they were ever born or the universe even existed. That passage in Revelation talks about a book called “The Lamb’s Book of Life” where our names have been written by God before He made the world. You see the gospel story began back in eternity when God the Father and God the Son made a covenant together (the eternal covenant in Hebrews 13) deciding to save the world that they were about to create by Jesus dying for the sins of His people He had chosen for Himself.

Therefore, the foundation for our identity and value is in the fact that God has CHOSEN us long before we ever existed (shown by our names being in His book) and has a plan for us. Don’t built your identity and worth on: your grades, your talents, your looks, your money, your friends, your girlfriend or boyfriend. We’re not valuable because we have done anything or can do anything for God…we’re valuable simply because He has chosen to set His love upon us, even though He knew He was getting a bunch of messed up sinners – that love has to be the basis of our identity and value. God loves you…whatever else happens nothing can strip you of that if you are in Christ!

Making Your Life Matter:

We asked the question above: “How does Jesus FIT IN to your life?” Let me suggest we flip this way of thinking around: rather than talking of fitting Him into our lives, let’s focus on fitting into His story. The story of our lives as Christians is meant to be the living out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is meant to be the foundation of our lives as before the foundations of the world He had planned the gospel story and all of history - INCLUDING our lives - is meant to be the working out of that story – history is His Story.

All things were created through and for Jesus: all of creation and all of History is about Him! Before creation, God had already planned all of history around and to culminate in the Redemptive and Reconciling work of Jesus Christ. The Cross is the great height of God’s wisdom and glory, as His Son suffers for our sins and saves us from them so that we can be made God’s people who RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE...then at the end of history Jesus will come to establish His kingdom on Earth by bringing heaven down on earth in a New Creation. This work of Jesus planned from before the foundation of the world is the central purpose of the entire universe...

It’s all meant to be about Him and our lives were meant to reflect that: we would worship Him and serve Him with all our hearts, and we would be completely satisfied in His goodness towards us. Is everything about you living and going for Jesus?

BUT NOTICE where your life is meant to fit into all of this on the diagram

… we are part of Jesus’ story that goes back a long time before us (even before the universe ever existed) and is much larger than our individual lives (God bringing heaven upon earth through Christ]…yet God wants us to participate in bringing about His great universe altering purposes through being living and loving testimonies about the story of Jesus! We can really be involved in changing the world one life at a time by bringing people to Jesus and the Cross; and bringing the Cross and Jesus to people who have never heard of Him! We can find true significance for our lives in us imbedding ourselves in the most significant story that changes everything, and making that story the driving force in whatever career you embark on, whatever sport you play, whatever relationships you have.

Does that mean that exams, deadlines, sports matches, games and fun don’t matter? Not wrong or unimportant, but just not as important as Jesus in our lives => It means that the things we are doing here, the worries we have are small/short compared with eternity, which gives us perspective when dealing with the crushing problems of life and struggles. GOD’S STORY CANNOT FAIL, SO WHATEVER FEARS OF FAILURE YOU HAVE, IF YOU ARE A PART OF GOD’S STORY THEN IT CANNOT FAIL.

Conclusion:

So we need to go back to that question: What story are you living by? There’s only one true story and that’s the true story of Jesus Christ, God’s eternal Son, whose gospel changes all of life and all of eternity.

Are you living yourself; are you living for your job and career advancement; are you living for your professors and their opinions of you; are you living to please your family; are you living to hold onto your boy/girlfriend? Life is short and very small in this world…make it count and live for Jesus!

ONLY ONE LIFE TWILL SOON BE PAST

ONLY WHAT’S DONE FOR CHRIST WILL LAST

Welcome Weekend 2011:

2011-09-02T14:44:00.000Z

Whether you are new to Index or a returning student, we want to welcome you and celebrate the start of a new year together as the student and young adults community at Carrubbers. This year we’ve dedicated a special weekend for this: Saturday 24^th and Sunday 25^th September.

Let me tell you some of the exciting and fun activities we have organised that we would love you to participate in:

Saturday afternoon:

In good weather: Meeting at the Royal Commonwealth Pool (by Pollock Halls) and going for a picnic, games and catch-up at the lakes behind Arthurs Seat in Holyrood Park.
In bad weather: Meeting at Carrubbers for an indoor version of the above. Giant Jenga, Sardines, and many other games will happen!

Saturday evening:

Ceilidh: the annual Carrubbers student ceilidh is open to all and is held down in the Lower Hall. Come at 7.30pm for an 8pm kick-off to dancing the night away!

Sunday:

Second Service at 11.30am: Special student welcome and focus service
Free Student Lunch at 1pm: after the service please join us up in the Oak Hall for an incredible feed and fellowship
Index at 8.15pm: after the evening service join us up in the Oak Hall for the beginning of our new programme “Knowing Jesus”. We have food, fellowship, worship and then interactive Bible studies and learning together at our tables.

PLEASE JOIN US AND DON’T MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME MORE OF A PART OF THE INDEX COMMUNITY

New Term @ Index: Knowing Jesus

2011-09-02T14:29:00.000Z

It's time for a new year of INDEX. Each Sunday evening up until Christmas we’re going to study the life and work of Jesus Christ.

I’m increasingly convinced that our lives and the whole world makes far more sense when we understand the life of Jesus better and can relate Him to our experiences. His life changed human history completely and forever. His life was the fulfilment of all that God had been doing for millennia and set the course of the world for the culmination of all things when Christ Returns.

Join us as we learn the significance of Jesus’ life and the gospel for our daily lives. Come ready to discuss, ask your questions, and interact as we study the Scriptures together.

It will change how you live your life, look at the world and understand the gospel.

As you learn to become more Christ-centred, then you’ll also develop a closer relationship with Jesus to know Him better in a real way in your life and grow in your love for Him.

This term could really be life-changing and life-shaping for years to come for you!

Dates	KNOWING JESUS: Doctrine of Christ
18-Sep	WORSHIP AND WELCOME BACK NIGHT
25-Sep	Jesus: Our Basis For Reality and Meaning [1]
02-Oct	Jesus: His Full Human Experience [2]
09-Oct	Jesus: Facing Temptation with Him [3]
16-Oct	Jesus: The Many False Jesus’s [4]
23-Oct	Creationism: Battle for the Beginning
30-Oct	NO INDEX (Missions Prayer Night)
06-Nov	Jesus: His Missionary Ministry [5]
13-Nov	Jesus: His Message [6]
20-Nov	Jesus: His Passion For Us on the Cross [7]
27-Nov	Jesus: His Victory For Us Over the Grave [8]
04-Dec	Jesus: Where is He today & is He Coming tomorrow? [9]
11-Dec	CHRISTMAS PARTY

The Spiritual Life: Mercy, Prayer & Fasting

2011-02-22T17:11:00.005Z

The purpose of the passage (Mt 6:1-18) is to teach us how to please God in our acts and how to avoid the very real and ever present snare of hypocrisy.

Giving – I think we all know the importance of sacrificial giving we just don’t do it enough. (See Randy Alcorn’s Treasure Principle.)

Fasting – See Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. (Pg 390)

In the Bible (Old and New Testament) fasting accompanied prayer in:

· Intensive Intercession

· Repentance

· Worship

· Seeking of Guidance

Why?

1. Fasting increases our sense of humility and dependence on God

2. Fasting allows us to give more time and attention to prayer

3. Reminder that as we sacrifice some personal comfort to the Lord by not eating, so we must continually sacrifice all of ourselves to Him

4. Moreover, fasting is a good exercise in self-discipline and strengthens our ability to say no to sin. (Heb 5:8, 1 Pet 4:1-2)

5. Fasting heightens spiritual and mental alertness and a sense of God’s presence

6. Fasting expresses earnestness and urgency in our prayers (Joel 2:12-13a)

How do we avoid the danger of hypocrisy?

The Remedy:

Hopefully you covered some of these ideas at your tables:

· We fall prey to sin’s deceitfulness (Heb 3:13)

· Take the Bible and it’s teaching seriously

(Rom 8:13 – “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”)

· Take seriously God’s promise to reward us in full and not seek men’s praise

· Trust in God as your heavenly Father and be secure in Him

· Seek to live lives of Integrity and Real Humility

· Be Honest in self-evaluation and how you interact with others

· Don’t be judgemental - See yourself and others in the light of the Gospel

· What kind of reward are we looking for?

(Matt 6:4b, 6b, 18b – “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you”)

***If we want to see growth in our lives, the lives of our friends, in our CU’s, in Index, in Carrubbers, in Edinburgh – We need to take God’s Word seriously!***

It’s no coincidence that the Lord’s prayer is bang in the middle of a passage warning against hypocrisy exhorting us to have the right motives for our ‘righteous acts.’

The purpose of the Lord’s prayer (Ferguson):

· Provides a model prayer – easily memorised outline that shows us how to approach and talk to God

· Underlines life’s priorities and helps us get them in focus

Ferguson focuses on 5 concepts that we should strive to emulate:

1. Worship of the Father – Intimacy, adoration, fellowship

2. Kingdom of the Father – Rom 8:23 – Waiting with groaning

· Bowing to God’s sovereign purposes

· Seeking the Spread of the Gospel

· Searching out God’s will in Scripture

· Praying for Christ’s return

3. The Sustenance of the Father – Daily Bread

4. The Grace of the Father – Keep short accounts with God

5. The Protection of the Father – Armour of God (Eph 6:10-20)

Iain

Weekend Away: Talks available to download

2011-02-02T21:26:00.002Z

If you'd like to listen again (or perhaps you missed the weekend away like me!), Wayne's talks are now ready to download as MP3s!

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Erlend

Update: We think we've probably lost a session from the weekend (the third one), so only 3 out of the 4 are available. Still worth the listen though!

Weekend Away: 10 lessons from the Psalms

2011-01-31T23:19:00.000Z

Last weekend was our weekend away.

We delved into Psalm 27, 73 and 51 and had an amazing time of seeking the Lord
together.

Here are the top 10 (I think!) things God made clear to me last weekend:

1. Worship means an acknowledgment of the worthiness of God that involves our
entire being - it is all consuming!

2. Our lives shouldn't contain acts of worship; our lives should be acts of worship!

3. Glorifying God in your body means expressing how great he is through who we
are.

4. We need to live like we believe what we say - the last thing the world wants is a
phoney follower of Christ.

5. Rather than approaching worship with a mindset of “what can I get from God”,
think, “what can I bring him”

6. Some of God’s greatest work in our lives happens by pruning, refining and
chiselling – not by dramatic events and not when things are going great.

7. Communion with God is what he desires for us, so if we’re not doing it and he’s
committed to it, he will take us to a place where we are desperate for him. He loves
us too much to leave us where we are.

8. Things always turn out badly when we play with sin. Look what happened to
David, “a man after God’s own heart”

9. Who you are when no one is looking is who you are!

10. Pray for God’s help and be resolved to worship whatever the circumstances may
be.

Nathan

SOTM - Seeing God’s Kingdom In All the Scriptures

2011-01-18T13:55:00.000Z

Seeing God’s Kingdom In All the Scriptures:

The theme of God’s kingdom runs all the way through the Bible’s narrative. Drawing from Graeme Goldsworthy and Adrian Holdsworth, let me try to take you briefly through the scripture tracing this theme, following the diagram below:

Kingdom Patterned (Eden):

God's kingdom can be defined as "God's PEOPLE in God's PLACE under God's RULE". The pattern for this kingdom was the paradise where God and mankind were in direct relationship in the Garden of Eden. It is a pattern for the fulfilled kingdom when we see the descriptions in Isaiah 65-66 and Revelation 21-22 echoing much the description of the garden - other than that all the nations reside in a city.

It is an interesting study to see how Eden is a bit like a Temple and Adam a priest - have a look if you have time!

Kingdom Polluted (The Fall and the Flood):

The kingdom was polluted by man's rebellion against God's rule. Suddenly God's people were expelled from the garden. The problem of sinful rebellion spread throughout the whole human race, who while advancing technologically also descended into the depths of sin. Murder, pride about murder, violence, destruction, unnatural behaviour. All these things resulted in God's judgement on the world in the Flood. God still loved His people though and sought to rescue them. He had made a promise to Adam and Eve that He would provide a saviour who would crush the kingdom of Satan in the world, and He gave a foreshadowing of Jesus by killing an animal to cover their nakedness (the sign of their fallen sinful state).

Kingdom Promised (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses):

God's work of bringing His kingdom narrowed in focus to one man: Abraham. God made a covenant and unconditional promise to Abraham that he would have a people, who would become a nation in a certain place and bless all the world - the king of this theocratic nation would be God Himself as their God. This promise is passed down to Abraham's sons, who were elected by God to be the people through whom the promise of the kingdom would come.

Kingdom Pictured (Moses, Judges, Saul, David, Solomon):

God used His servant Moses to rescue His people, Israel, out of captivity in Egypt. Their deliverance is a picture of the salvation in God's grace that is made possible by Jesus (look at the Passover lamb for instance). God gives His people the law at Sinai to constitute them as His nation before leading them into the Promised Land.

God eventually brings the people into the land. One of the problems they faced was that they lacked a clear leader after Moses and Joshua, so a cycle of apostasy set in. God raised up judges who would rescue the people from their enemies and restore thir worship of God. However, they needed a king. There was nothing wrong with having a king - what was wrong was that they wanted a king to be like the pagan nations and because they did not want God to rule. They chose Saul, a king after their own hearts. Saul was used to establish the people as a nation and bring the 12 tribes together - beginning to establish a picture of the kingdom. However, Saul fell and God raised up a king after His own heart, David. David was a picture of the promised King to come, but David was not perfect. David's son, Solomon, built the Temple in Jerusalem where God was worshipped and brought Israel into a time of great prosperity and territorial expansion and trade. However, this picture of God's kingdom was not to last due to the presence of sin.

Kingdom Prophesied (700 years of prophets):

Israel split in two after Solomon and there was a gradual decline in both nations as they left God. All this time it seemed like the kingdom had failed to come. However, God spoke through His prophets to tell the people that His plan for the kingdom to come was still going to happen. It was going to come as a spiritual reality in the form of a new covenant with the people (written on their changed hearts) after they had experienced a new captivity (in Babylon) and a new exodus (the return from Exile). They would be in a new Jerusalem with a new Temple, and most importantly in a New Creation on earth where God reigned with His people.

The prophets also spoke of how God's promised one was coming who would bring about this kingdom and free the people from their sins.

Kingdom Personified (The Promised Christ comes):

When Jesus came the kingdom was established initially. At the Cross, God's people were saved from their sins and made a part of His holy kingdom. The kingdom was within them as they became part of Christ's body and were filled with the Holy Spirit. However, this was not the final reality of the kingdom.

Kingdom Proclaimed (The Church spreads the Gospel):

Jesus sent the church out to proclaim to the world of their need to repent in order to enter into God's kingdom as His people, by submitting to His rule and receiving the forgiveness of their sins. Christ has ascended at this time and reigns at the right hand of the Father, so the kingdom reigns spiritually over the current age on earth - what we call "the overlap of the ages". Many of the blessings of the kingdom have come, but it has not fully come as a physical reality in a restored creation. There is this tension between the "now" fulfillment of the kingdom and the "not yet".

Kingdom Perfected (Christ returns):

When Jesus returns at the end of history one day soon, then He will establish His kingdom physically in a New Jerusalem in a New Creation. We will be God's people in His place and under His rule - and we will no longer sin against Him.

This is a very brief overview of the idea of the kingdom throughout the Bible's narrative. For more please read:
- Vaughn Roberts: God's Big Picture
- Graeme Goldsworthy: Gospel and Kingdom
I do not fully agree with either of these authors, since they have an overly spiritualised view of many of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel and the future kingdom ('Amillennialism'), however they are valuable to read with this caveat.

SOTM - The Beatitudes

2011-01-17T18:21:00.000Z

The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes (which means the Happy Ones). The Beatitudes begin and end with “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” – it’s a set of book ends to say that the Christian in this world is someone belonging to a different kingdom, the kingdom of heaven and are the blessed happy ones for it.

The Beatitudes deliberately come at the start to describe the character of a Christian because the rest of the sermon can only be practised by a Christian who has Jesus in their life and have become a citizen of His kingdom. They teach us about Christian character, before we hear about Christian conduct (because the rest of the sermon is not about doing things with our own natural abilities and temperaments, rather is about living out a new character). “Every one of us, whatever we may be by birth and nature, is meant as a Christian to be like this”. Indeed Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote: “It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus”.

The Beatitudes also are set in a deliberate order by Jesus to illustrate a person’s journey to salvation and then afterwards their life in the kingdom.

Road to the Kingdom (the gospel):

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit	Recognise they have nothing good that will get them into Heaven
Blessed are the Mourners	See the evil of their sin, how it has wronged God and the impending judgement
Blessed are the Meek	They have no pride in believing they can do anything to contribute to their salvation
Blessed are the Hungry and Thirsty for Righteousness	They flee to God and His gracious mercy to be made right with Him

Life in the kingdom: (Builds on what has come before as the Christian life builds on the gospel):

Blessed are the Merciful	Having been forgiven of so much more, we can forgive and love even the worst people
Blessed are the Pure in Heart	No longer blinded by sin, we are given clean hearts and can see and know God intimately
Blessed are the Peacemakers	Having peace with God now, we bring the “gospel of peace” to others calling them to surrender to God. We are united in Christ, whatever our race, gender or wealth
Blessed are the Persecuted	Are glad to suffer the loss of all things (even life itself) because to have Jesus means we have all things and to be with Him is better!

SOTM - The Kingdom Concept

2011-01-17T18:17:00.000Z

The Sermon on the Mount

Introduction to the “Kingdom” Concept.

Matthew’s gospel has the most references to the Kingdom: “the kingdom of God”, “the kingdom of Heaven”, and “the gospel of the kingdom”. It introduces the beginning of Jesus’ three year preaching ministry as: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). It is only a few verses later that we are given the account of the famous “Sermon on the Mount”.

A helpful definition of the kingdom is “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule” (Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom). Revelation 21-22 describes the kingdom of God coming physically into a restored creation and Jesus reigning physically among His people. This is a future reality. However, it is interesting to read what Jesus says about the kingdom in the gospels, as it is too simple to say that the kingdom is totally awaiting future fulfillment.

Looking at these texts Jesus indicates:

o Matthew 4:17 (is near)– the kingdom is at hand/near to coming imminently

o Luke 17:20-21 (has come) - Jesus deals with the wrong assumptions of the Jews about a material kingdom saying the kingdom is in their midst, presumably referring to His presence among them.

o Luke 22:15-18 (will come) – then at the Passover feast Jesus looks ahead to when it will be celebrated again in the kingdom with His people in the future.

o Acts 1:6-7 and 10-11 (will come but ambiguous as to when) – finally the disciples ask Jesus prior to His ascension, when will the kingdom come? Jesus does not tell them when it will yet come in the future (He does not tell them they are wrong to ask this question because the kingdom has already come in its fullness) rather they are told He will return in same way to the Mount of Olives, presumably to establish the kingdom in all its fullness described in Revelation 21-22.

Furthermore, numerous scriptures describe Jesus now, having ascended back into Heaven, as reigning at the right hand of authority of the Father on the throne in the kingdom (Acts 7:55; Eph 1:20; 1 Peter 3:22).

How can we put this altogether to get a coherent picture of Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom?

A helpful phrase is that God’s kingdom is “Now and Not Yet, but Will Be”. The Kingdom has come now for those who place their faith in Jesus (Colossians 1:13) in a spiritual sense. We are seated with Christ and in Christ NOW (Ephesians 2). We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. However, we do NOT YET experience the fullness of the kingdom promises of a glorified body and life in a restored New Heaven and New Earth where the Lord reigns physically. When Jesus returns He will bring in the fullness of His kingdom in this way, described at the end of Isaiah and Revelation, and so the Kingdom WILL BE. Until this happens we are in the “Overlap of the Ages” when Christ reigns spiritually but before He returns to reign physically, having put away all sin and rebellion on the Earth.

So much more can be said and written on this, but for now let me leave this summary.

Next post will deal with the theme of God’s kingdom traced throughout all the scriptures.

The Sermon on the Mount - New Series

2011-01-17T18:15:00.001Z

09-Jan	*The Sermon on the Mount:* *KINGDOM LIFE*
16-Jan	The Beatitudes	(Matthew 5:1-13)	David Nixon
23-Jan	Life Under Persecution	(Matthew 5:11-13)	Stephen Schleen
30-Jan	*Weekend Away*		Wayne Sutton
06-Feb	Salt of the Earth; Light of the World	(Matthew 5:13-16)	Jonah Fransson
13-Feb	Christ's Righteousness; Our Example	(Matthew 5:17-48)	Alasdair Peterson
20-Feb	The Spiritual Life: Mercy, Prayer & Fasting	(Matthew 6:1-18)	Iain Hamill
27-Feb	Humility: Battling Spiritual Pride	(Matthew 6:1; 5; 16; 18)	Erlend Scott
06-Mar	Treasures: Danger of Worldliness	(Matthew 6:19-24)	Andrew Adamson
13-Mar	Pastor Q&A		Wayne, David, Andrew
20-Mar	Special Evening		London City Mission
27-Mar	Treasures: Danger of Anxiety	(Matthew 6:25-34)	Nathan McCavery
03-Apr	Film Discussion and Lunch Afternoon
10-Apr	NO INDEX
17-Apr	NO INDEX
24-Apr	EASTER RESURRECTION EVENT
01-May	Judging and Discerning the Truth	( Matthew 7)	Joel Woodier
08-May	End of Term Party

Index Challenge: Memory Moleskin

2011-01-10T20:43:00.002Z

Memorising a whole book of the Bible sounds pretty much impossible, but it doesn’t have to be. The Resurgence have produced a ‘Memory Moleskine” to help us memorise the entire book of Philippians in 16 weeks.

What a New Year’s resolution! Can you do this with a group of friends or other people at Index? This would be amazing if we embarked on this challenge together! I hope you'll consider it as we seek to remember God’s word in our heads that it might be more deeply treasured in our hearts and verses would spring to mind just when we need them.

You can read more about it and download the pages to cut out and stick in a notebook from the link below. Nathan McCavery is doing it and some encouragement and help would be great - he'll probably need it by the middle of this week! Check it out:

http://theresurgence.com/2010/12/20/partnering-to-remember

Night 7: Discipline of Walking by Faith

2010-11-08T00:10:00.000Z

The Discipline of Walking By Faith

Joel this evening took us through this discipline, giving us some helpful things to think through, particularly these two:

1) Faith in What?:- God’s control, power, promises, and saving-power

2) How to practice Faith?:- Gifted from God; Knowledge from the scriptures and belief they are true; Relationship of walking daily with God through life in faith; Experience of growing in confidence in faith from having seen God work; and finally Testing, as God does put us through situations to cause our faith to grow and become more steadfast.

Charles Finney, a 19^th century evangelist says the following about what characterises a life living by faith in Jesus Christ:

exempt from worries because faith brings rest in God who has overcome all things
peace with God, because of faith in the work of Christ
a joyous and useful life
a humble life, as emptied of pride and self-reliance
a cheerful life that is faithfully satisfied with God and His providence
a self-denying life as the soul is safe with God, so all other comforts of this life are petty
a spiritual life in communion with God the Father, in the God the Son, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart by faith
a prayerful life which is expectant and confident in God
a hopeful life that is not easily discouraged for our confidence is in mighty God
an active and useful life, knowing the terrible peril of sinners
a gospel liberated life, which does the spiritual disciplines not out of obligation but because we love and trust God

“These results constitute real life”

(You can read all he said in this article: http://www.gospeltruth.net/1854OE/540607_living_by_faith.htm)

These things don’t make you someone who lives by faith, as if it’s a qualification you get if you tick the right boxes. No! Instead, if you live by faith these things will increasingly become a reality in your life, and what a life it is.

What situations are you currently going through that need you to walk by faith:

financial strains?
exam and assignment deadlines competing with church and Christian involvement (even your quiet times!)?
illness in family or friends?
difficult emotions ranging from homesickness to depression?
success at work and studies? (for we need to walk by faith extra carefully when things seem to be going well!)

Take a few minutes to pray for the Lord’s help to walk by faith through the things in your life where you are at right now.

Let me let scripture have the last word: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Now, the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

God bless

David Nixon

Night 6 - The Discipline of Worship

2010-11-01T14:31:00.002Z

Last night we were thinking about the Discipline of Worship.

We defined this as "the attitude and activity of consistently declaring God's worth and majesty".

We learned that Biblical worship is always a RESPONSE to the REVELATION of God to us and thanksgiving for His RESCUING of us. This worship is something we can give Him through every activity we do each day, if we will purposefully turn it to glorifying God. We also learned that we can worship God through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in: from the depths of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, all the way up to the heights of the Mount of Transfiguration where we see and meet with the glorified Jesus.

A very helpful video about worship to watch and think about is what John Piper says about a lesson that changed his way of worshipping God forever:

John Piper - "Why Does God Command Us To Worship Himself?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43yC_JwSsIU

Some things to think about if you're wanting to apply this further:
1) If you're struggling to worship God, then seek out a fuller and greater understanding of His revelation of Himself in the Scriptures and utlimately the Person of Jesus Christ

2) If you're in the middle of a hard and dry situation, when it hurts to even think about praising God, be like the Psalmist and bear your heart to God. Tell Him exactly how you feel, even if you're angry or you're feeling abandoned. Tell Him! And then express your worshipful dependence to Him as you ask Him to rescue you, and worship Him that because He is good and faithful that you can trust in His salvation and His good purposes in your life (Romans 8:29)

3) If you're expressing real blessing and good things at the moment, rejoice and be thankful to God. Don't sin by stealing the worship God deserves by enjoying the good things at the expense of giving Him all the glory, honour and praise. Thank the Lord Jesus for His grace to you.

God bless you
David Nixon

Night 1: The Gospel - Key for Godliness

2010-09-21T09:46:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

We had a great Welcome Weekend - it was good to welcome back so many of you and meet new people too! We're going to try to keep this blog updated with some additional things to be thinking about or looking at after each night's teaching.

WHAT WE LOOKED AT ON SUNDAY:
- We considered what the gospel message is and its scope
- We also considered what real difference the gospel makes in our lives.

James 1:22-25 says:
²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

We need to be hearers, knowers and doers of the gospel. How can we be doers of the gospel?

WHAT WE CAN NOW DO:
Let me suggest what I have to do - ask yourself questions each day and pray to God for help to live the gospel:
a) Even though I feel rubbish, will I choose to believe what the gospel says about my position with Christ rather than what my circumstances tell me? [Gospel: Our being united to Christ and having new life in Him]
b) When I am doing my work or serving in church, will I remember that I cannot do anything to make God love me any more or impress Him, rather I can only express my thankful love to Him? [Gospel: God's grace and justification by faith alone]
c) When I am worried, will I choose to trust and rely on my Heavenly Father who in giving us His Son will surely provide all that we need for day-to-day living? [Gospel: God's love and provision in Christ]
d) When I sin and fail, will I choose not to despair or pretend it's ok but instead realise that I have been set free from slavery to sin and through the help of the Holy Spirit can resist temptation through Him [Gospel: grace and the sealing of the Holy Spirit for sanctification]

The possible list goes on. Maybe read one of the gospel's this week and try to read Ephesians or Colossians to think about the implications of the love of Jesus revealed in the gospel for your life.

Also the following link may be useful reading "The Centrality of the Gospel in Healthy Christianity": http://nathanmccavery.tumblr.com/post/1157487524/the-centrality-of-the-gospel-in-healthy-christianity

May the Lord bless you as you are believers in the gospel and doers of the gospel!

Welcome Weekend 2010

2010-09-10T15:03:00.000Z

It's going to be a great weekend.

Join us for a social night on Sunday 12th and then on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th to begin a new year at INDEX

Summer Index #11 1 Thes 1:1-10

2010-08-15T22:18:00.000Z

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – “The Spread of the Gospel”

This letter follows on from the hurried flight recorded in Acts 17:1-11 and shows Paul’s great concern for this first church plant in Europe.

1) The Process of Salvation in Lives:
i) God the Father has chosen us (v.4),
ii) The Word of God concerning the work of Christ for us is presented (v.5a),
iii) The Holy Spirit works in His power to bring about conviction of the truth of the Word and the reality of sin in our lives, so we are born again (v.5b) => reality of our election is demonstrated by this occurring (v.4)
iv) We turn in faith from dead idols of sin to the living and true God (v.9) => shows the other aspect of election that it is not fatalism or determinism
v) We become imitators of Christ and mature Christians as we walk in the Christian life (v.6),
vi) This progression through the doctrine of salvation culminates as we await the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection from the dead in our eternal, incorruptible bodies (v.10).

You will notice the different persons of the Godhead are referred to a great deal in these few verses, which emphasises that the spread of the Gospel and salvation is God’s work which we participate in spreading by being living ambassadors of its reality.

2) The Reality of the Gospel:
- v.3 Our working out of faith, labouring in love and endurance/steadfast of hope all flows out of the reality of the gospel in our lives. Real faith produces fruits of good works (it is not dead!); real participation in the love of Christ and a desire to love others in Jesus’ name will produce incredible labours of pain and tears in us as we seek to share it with others; real steadfastness in the face of trouble, attacks, doubts comes from the reality that we have received Christ’s sustaining grace to help us perseverance to the end with the great hope of the resurrection and eternal life with Him. *Also notice this early formulation of Paul’s extolling the three spiritual virtues of faith, hope and love

- v.5 The Gospel comes not only as words or ideas, but in power as dead sinners are born again and made alive to God in Jesus Christ – conversion of souls is something you cannot argue against when you see it! In this sense the Gospel is self-authenticating (but that is to say nothing against the importance of apologetics).

- v.6 There is true joy found through the gospel as the Holy Spirit ministers to us in the midst of opposition and affliction, as we are counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. This suffering also serves to fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ (Colossians 1:24) – namely that proximately most of the world did not witness His death, but we bring His sufferings to them and show them the glory of the gospel as we share in the fellowship of His sufferings for His sake.

- v.8 the reality of their faith is seen in all the areas around as the gospel breaks new ground in Europe (“Macedonia and Achaia…has gone forth everywhere” v.8) so that the apostles “need not say anything”. People can see that these people have received the gospel and been changed by it in such a dramatic way – they don’t need to be told that something has happened. HOWEVER, they will still need to be told how and what the gospel means for these people in Thessalonica because the gospel needs to be proclaimed and explained.

- v.9 to abandon your idols in this culture was to make yourself a loner in society and an oddity. It would threaten family relationships, friendships, social positions, jobs. To take such a step would take a real belief in some glorious reality, which we do indeed find in the Lord Jesus!

3) Application:
There are three aspects to the Christian life that we all live (Saints, Sufferers and Sinners):

A) We are Saints: new born-again creations in Christ Jesus. We should seek to share the gospel and live out its reality to show the world that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We also should await with anticipation His coming again (v.10)

B) We are Sufferers: we are still in a broken and cursed world. We should seek to experience the true joy that is unspeakable in Jesus, ministered through the Holy Spirit. We should seek to be abiding in Him and walking obediently with Him so our joy may be full (John 15) even in the midst of unspeakable pain. We should also ask for the Lord’s help and comfort and fellowship as we suffer for Him.

C) We are Sinners: there is still the inward battle between our sinful flesh and our new hearts. We should be continuing to repent of sinful idols, by turning from them to the living God. We need to pursue Him and Him alone. All the gifts He gives us should always end in praise and worship of Him – never in the gift themselves. We need to ask Him to help us see our heart aright, and come alongside others who can help us to see what we cannot see ourselves, for our hearts are deceitful.

Summer Index #10 Eph 6:10-24

2010-08-09T06:16:00.003Z

Ephesians 6:10-24 "Life as a Gospel Warrior"

We finish Ephesians today looking at the issue of spiritual warfare.

1) The War
- The spiritual battle we find ourselves involved in is done by "being strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might" (v.10), and putting on the "whole armour of God" (v.13) that He provides us with for protection.

- The Ephesian church faced a great deal of opposition from the Cult of Artemis and the pagans of the city (indeed Pastor Timothy would be martyred by them for preaching the gospel during one of their pagan processions), but Paul calls people to recognise that the real battle is a spiritual one: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood..." (v.12). Whatever men and women do in opposition to the gospel, we should remember that they are themselves deceived, blinded and being destroyed by the enemy, Satan who merely uses them for his own purposes.

- "rulers...authorities...cosmic powers over this present darkness...spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (v.12) is a description of Satan's kingdom on earth, which Christ has come to liberate captives from and to destroy at His coming, for He has decisively won the victory at Calvary - Satan's power is now broken.

2) The Armour
- Purpose of the armour: "to stand against the schemes of the devil" (v.11); "withstand in the evil day" (v.13)

- Sometimes we think that the gospel and the church are being marginalised in society, that we are on the retreat...but the truth is that not even the gates of Hell can prevail against the gospel as we press on (gates are a defensive measure, so it is really Satan's kingdom that is under siege). The Church stands its ground and advances through the work and power of the Lord Jesus Christ

- The pieces of armour are all coming from the gospel that God gives us to equip us for our gospel ministry in this world => we are to ACTIVELY "PUT ON" (v.11)
a) The belt of truth => God gives us the truth through revealing to us His Son, who is the truth and giving us the Spirit of truth, and His word which is the truth. This allows us to run into battle easily without being tripped up over confusion of what is actually true.

b) breastplate of rigtheousness => We have received Christ's righteousness, which has been creditted to our accounts and which changes our hearts. We receive this armour to protect our hearts from Satan's attacks, for he hates Christ's righteousness in us

c) shoes of the gospel of peace => Remarkable that our feet are to be a blessing of peace in this battle, for Paul elsewhere talks from the OT about "blessed are the feet which bring good news". Everywhere we walk we can bring good and a blessing, because we are bringing the gospel of peace and offering men and women an invitation to be reconciled to the King.

d) shield of faith => this is our defense against the fast and unsuspecting arrows of Satan who fires doubts, pains, troubles our way from out of sight. We must be prepared to choose to walk in faith and to apply our faith to many situations, because the shield of faith is no use if we do not direct it at the direction of attack.

e) sword of the Spirit => the Word of God is our great weapon for taking on the attacks of Satan, with it the Lord Jesus also fought Satan in the wilderness and was able to properly use the scriptures to disarm Satan's temptations.

f) helmet of salvation => we have been gifted to protect our minds this helmet, which guards our thoughts when it comes to the doubts and attacks of the enemy so we might have assurance (for we cannot fight at all if we doubt we are even saved by the gospel and doubt its truth)

- With all these pieces of armour, it's not just an once off thing putting them on, rather we should be "praying at all times in the Spirit" (v.18) about being equipped with this armour as we seek to serve the Lord in this hostile world, as we never cease to be His "ambassadors" (v.20).
=> given this armour we should pray for one another that we can "open [our] mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel" (v.20)

3) A Balanced Perspective
- "Peace be to you...from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (v.23) => after spending a study thinking about warfare, here is quite the conclusion talking about peace. We often in the West seem to forget about the spiritual aspect of the war we are in for the gospel. However, we must avoid the other extreme of being terrified about the schemes and threat of the enemy. We can have peace even though we face the kingdom of Satan, because we are on the side of God, who is the victor and has secured the victory. That peace comes from Him, firstly for the forgiveness of sins, and also in giving us His spiritual power of protection so we might stand.

4) Applications:
- We need to be asking God consciously in prayer each day to be clothed in this armour
- We should remember that Satan is scheming against us and seeking to discredit the gospel - when we are tempted let's remember what's going on!
- We need to take up and use the shield of faith, by choosing each day to walk in faith and apply it to whatever troubles and situations we face. Faith is lived out!
- We should be praying for all the saints and our brothers and sisters in relation to this warfare we all face
- We need to ask God to help us to be bold ambassadors of the gospel, because even Paul indicates that is not easy!
- We need perserverance from God in order to press on through this life and to reach the end of the course - that perserverance will be given to us (as we cannot lose our salvation) but we should never let that fact dull the fact that we must keep pressing on in the strength and power of God!

Summer Index #9 Eph 5:21-6:9

2010-07-25T22:33:00.001Z

Ephesians 5:21-6:9 “The Gospel Lived Out: Marriage, Families and Work”

The last three weeks have considered how the gospel affects how we live the gospel in this world, with a particular focus on living in a way that pleases God in that vertical relationship we have. The focus this week is primarily horizontally focused on our relationships in the home and workplace. V.21 sets out the general principle for the Christian life which is that we are to submit to one another, that is to look to each other’s good and interests, rather than ourselves, in reverence to Jesus. He has set us free from our selfish old self, and given us a new self which is self-sacrificial in love as we seek to be incarnational in our gospel living.

1) The Gospel Shaped Marriage (v.22-33)
*It is crucial to see that every time Paul says that a husband or wife should do something in such a way, it is always followed up by saying: “as to the Lord” (v.22), “even as Christ” (v.23), “submits to Christ, so also…” (v.24), “as Christ” (v.25), “in the same way” (v.28), “just as Christ” (v.29), “refers to Christ and the church” (v.32). It is as John Piper says in his book “This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence” the purpose of the marriage relationship in this life is not to stay in love; rather it is to put on display God’s love and covenant faithfulness to the world. This has always been the purpose of marriage, but it was something hidden in the Old Testament only to be fully revealed in the New, thus why Paul says (quoting Genesis) the one flesh union of man and wife is a “mystery” (v.31-32).

A) Picture for wives:
• submits to her husband as a picture of how the church submits to Christ. The church lovingly and willingly submits to Christ, because of the incredible love and care He has shown her in His self-sacrificial offering of His life so she might have life. Likewise a wife is to love her husband and willingly submit to him as he seeks to care for her and lead.
• Submitting also involves submitting to authority, because Jesus has authority over His church. The husband’s authority comes from Christ and is “in everything” (v.24) [in fuller context of scripture and pastorally-minded, provided it is not contrary to scripture, violating her God-given conscience, or leading to sin]. The husband is given a God-given responsibility as her “head” – just as Christ is the head of the church (v.23). This does not mean a dictatorship, but rather than he has the primary responsibility to protect, provide and lead the relationship according to God’s will – just as Adam did in the original creation *this is a principle of creation, not a matter of culture! (See 1 Corinthians 14 for more on this)
• Stott’s commentary says: “whenever the husband’s headship mirrors the headship of Christ, then the wife’s submission to the protection and provision of his love, far from detracting from her womanhood, will positively enrich it”.

B)Picture for husbands:
• is to self-sacrificially love his wife as Christ has given up Himself for the church (a very high calling and demanding responsibility men!) (v.25).
• this works out as having initiative (not necessarily doing everything all the time though), as the head has the initiative that causes and leads the rest of the body to respond and act.
• This also works out as leading spiritually so that he is involved in his wife’s sanctification by seeking to lead them both before the Lord in prayer, scripture study (v.26) and serving in the church. Husbands are stewards of their wives; who ultimately are the bride of Christ. Husbands are part of Christ’s means of working through the Holy Spirit, so that He might present the church and wives to His father as holy and blameless (v.27).
• Another call against ill treatment, dictatorship or despising his wife is the saying that we are to nourish and cherish (v.29) our wives as we do our own bodies (v.28), for this is a very practical illustration to us to show us the very minimum of what our self-sacrificial loving authority is to be like
*A really helpful observation shared in the group was that this picture of marriage makes the temptation to go out with a non-Christian fade away, because this picture is only possible between two followers of Jesus.

*It was also remarked that given the seriousness of marriage and relationships, it is not something to worry about being single and not being in a relationship as that gives time for undivided service of the Lord

So these two pictures are reciprocal, the husband initiates the sacrificial love and the wife responds in love and submission.

2) The Gospel Shaped Family (v.1-4)
There is another reciprocal picture here: children have the duty to obey their parents (v.1), which means the parents have the right to expect obedience. But parents have the responsibility not to provoke their children to wrath (v.4), which gives the children a right to be well treated.

It is said bluntly and simply: “for this is right” (v.1), which then is expanded by saying it is one of the Ten Commandments (v.2-3)– since these are given by God as His intended order for life in this world then it can be simply stated as being right, for God is perfectly righteous and so is His law.

The gospel motivation here is that Jesus was entirely obedient to the will of His Father in going to the Cross, even when it was hardest in Gethsemane he said: “Not my will, but thine be done”. So we are to be obedient like Jesus. Also in His earthly life He was obedient and honoured His parents in all times – even when He ran off to the Temple at the age of 12 He honoured and respected His parents when they found Him and were annoyed at Him for scaring them. Even though He was right to be in His Father’s house, He did address His parents with respect and obeyed them by going home at that time. Likewise the gospel motivation for parents is the patient, forbearing love of the Father who overlooked the past sins in patience waiting to deal with them on the Cross – His grace is immense when we consider that we all deserved to perish with Adam and Eve without ever being born.

How this works out in a non-Christian context is more difficult, because this teaching is to Christians who are called to live according to the gospel. Do we have to always obey our parents if they command us not to attend church? Not to read our Bibles or pray? Again this is a situation where our allegiance is always to be to God first. However, how that allegiance works out depends on factors of age and circumstances we concluded. So as John Stott suggests a young child ordered not to go to church might need to obey that command until they reach the age of majority, but they cannot accept an order not to pray or read their Bible. *Although as stated this is not the final word and each situation must be approached individually.

Also we concluded that age does not change the fact that we are to always honour our parents, as the commandment says. This involves more than obedience, it involves including them in our decision processes, looking for their input, caring for them in old age, supporting them financially, giving them love and encouragement as they have given so much to us. Also in unbelieving families it means loving them so much that we battle through the difficulties to share with them the gospel so their souls may be saved.

3) The Gospel Shaped Workplace (v.5-9)
Finally another reciprocal relationship is to be found in the workplace: the worker (slave here or servant, although not the doulos, as here is pictured slaves who have limited rights and some pay, and also the hope of being released from their slavery) is under a duty to serve their master, but the master has the duty to treat their workers properly and kindly (v.5, 9)

The worker is not just to perform when being watched by their master or just to please people half-hearted. The master is not to be cruel imagining that their special position of authority and wealth gives them any right or power to do what they wish with their servants. The gospel motivation for both is that the worker is to remember they are under the watchful eye of Christ in their work, and that they are to remember they are rendering their services to Him. So they ought to seek to please Him from their hearts by doing their best. This also will potentially have the effect that people will see the hardwork and dedication of Christians in their work, and think well of Christ and the gospel as they think that there is more to faith than they imagined if we are just as conscientious in our studies and serving for the gospel. *Our workplaces are incredible places for living out the gospel.
The master also has to remember that while they are in control now, they ultimately must face the king of kings and answer for all they have done, and He will show no partiality.

So our whole working lives should not be seen as inferior to church or gospel ministry, rather our workplaces are a place for gospel ministry (not just in our conversations but in our very work itself, for we will be but hypocrites if the standard of our work does not measure up to our talk).

In application, we concluded that most of us are not in Christian workplaces, but even though we cannot control others or make them live up to these ideals we can do our bit, according to the purpose and plan of God trusting He will bless it, and it will make some difference and bring in the gospel’s salt and light.

Room65 Podcast Available

2010-07-25T12:23:00.002Z

Just a little update to say that the official Room65 Podcast with interviews, features and information on our upcoming month of mission in Carrubbers is now available for free subscription on Itunes HERE

Summer Index #8 Eph 5:1-21

2010-07-18T22:33:00.001Z

Ephesians 5:1-21 “The Motivation for the Gospel New Life”

This was a hard study this week, but by God’s grace may He still bless this to us all.

1) What we are called to be:
We noticed that there is a big focus on how we are to be active in seeking to live out the new people that we have been made in Christ, rather than sitting back expecting it to happen magically.

- imitators of God (v.1a)
- beloved children (v.1b)
- walking in love like Christ loved us in dying for us (v.2)
- thankful (v.4b)
- children of light, producing the fruit of light (v.8-9)

2) What we are called not to do:
- defiling ourselves in sexual immorality, which includes all sorts of impurity or lust (v.3) – why this great focus? Probably because as Jesus says when we are made a new man, when we are sexually impure it is like we are joining Christ to what is sexually impure.
- defiling our speech with foolish or filthy talk (v.4)
- not to be partners with the “sons of disobedience” who incur God’s wrath in their rebellion against Him (v.6)
- taking no part whatsoever in the unfruitful works of darkness (v.11)

3) The Motivations to live this new life:
We read of four motivations to practically live out the new life in our Christian experience:

a) We are recipients of God’s love, as demonstrated through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (v.2), so want to live in a way that is pleasing to Him in thanksgiving (v.10)

b) We have been made God’s light in a dark world (v.7-14): Jesus said that we are the light of the world and we should let that light shine. We are called not to take part in the acts of darkness instead we are to expose and bring to light sin with God’s truth through our lives in that truth (v.11). The sin of people can be made visible by the contrast of our lives in God. But that is not the only function of our light, because Paul also says that “anything that becomes visible is light”. John Stott suggests this: ‘this may mean that Christians who lead a righteous life thereby restrain and reform evildoers, yes, and even convert them…for it may bring people as they see the ugliness of evil to conviction of their sin and so to penitent faith in Jesus.’ (J. Stott, The Message of Ephesians pp.200-201) => the quote introduced as “therefore” in v.14 while appearing close to Isaiah 60v1 is suggested to be an early church hymn sung at baptisms (which is a picture of the death of the old self with Christ on the Cross, and the new self raised into new life with Christ in His resurrection) which is fitting if it is the culmination of this idea of our light also leading to people being saved.

c) We have God’s wisdom so should make the most of our time to make a difference for the gospel in a dark age (v.15-17). Walking in wisdom means conducting ourselves as the new creation in Christ Jesus in a proper way before the world, because if we act unwisely in sin then we will only be seen as hypocrites and will never lead the lost to Christ. But wisdom also involves understanding “what the will of the Lord is”, which comes from our relationship with God, for as we grow closer to Him and are changed more into the likeness of Christ (with the renewing of our minds) we will better know and live out wisely the will of God.

d) We are filled with the Spirit (v.17-21). God doesn’t expect us to do the new life on our own, He offers us His Holy Spirit in incredible measure. We read: “be filled with the Holy Spirit”, which should literally be read: “continually let yourself be filled with the Holy Spirit”. All what comes after that (the thanksgiving, singing, encouraging one another in psalms) filling is simply the overflow of what happens when we live a life that is constantly letting God fill us to overflowing with Himself. The new life is in Christ and having Christ in us and having Christ overspill out of us into this world. Rather than being drunk with wine (which Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones says is a depressive substance that reduces our higher mental functions of man reducing us to animalistic functions), we are to be filled with the Spirit (which creates and conforms us more into the likeness of the true and perfect man, Jesus Christ).

Summer Index #7: Eph.4:17-32

2010-07-11T22:03:00.003Z

Ephesians 4:17-32 – “The Gospel Brings New Life"
Last week we looked the unity of the new gospel community, this week the focus is purity.

1) The Old Life
- v.17 “this I testify in the Lord” => Paul speaks and issues commands in the name and authority of Jesus the King

- .17-19 => unbelievers have a hardness of heart due to their sin nature, which as they choose to ignore God and rebel against Him then they grow in darkness of their minds, ignorance, futility and are alienated from the life of God => this also hard heart and mind against God then translates into sinful acts of them choosing to give themselves over as slaves to all kinds of sin and impurity.
=> parallel text to see this development of hardness and rebellion in the old sinful nature self is Romans 1:18-28.

2) The New Life
-v.20 “BUT this is not the way you learned Christ!” => there has been a break with this former way of sin, ignorance, hardness of heart and impurity by Christ having liberated us from our slavery under the dominion of sin.

- v.21-24 the way that we have learned Christ in the past is altogether different (Paul is not telling non-believers these things, rather they are Christians who need a reminder and call to purity, so this applies to all of us today. Paul is calling the Christians to have behaviour consistent with the new life and identity they have Christ – he is not being moralistic, rather is calling us to live holy lives because we have been and are being made holy by God)
=> in contrast to the unbelievers futility of mind, Christians are renewed through their minds to see and know God and worship Him; our conduct then in daily life needs to be examined with this new mind from Christ so we live consistently with who we are
=> we are to be involved in co-operation with the Holy Spirit in “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self.

v.24 the new self is in true righteousness and holiness => so essentially the new life is not just about the things we do differently from when we were unsaved, the new life is about putting on Christ, abiding in Christ, growing in Christ, being made more like Christ through sanctification as He alone is true righteousness and holiness and He alone can bring that to be a reality in our lives. The fact He gives us this new life and all these new things in true righteousness and holiness is all of grace!

-v.25-32 Paul then goes from the lofty theology of how we have been made a new person in Christ to practically show us 5 examples of what that looks like (all of this is application of the theology – see next section).

- v.30 the Holy Spirit can be “grieved” – He is a person (not just a force, energy or thing) with emotions and a gentle character. He can be grieved by our sin and living inconsistently with our new life in Christ, as a Temple of the Holy Spirit (which means are lives are called to be set apart from sin and all that defiles that holy place).
=> remarked how when Jesus was baptised the Holy Spirit came and “rested upon Him” like a dove. The Spirit rested on Jesus who lived a perfect life, never grieving Him. However, we don’t! The Spirit is promised never to leave us, but we still can hinder His work and grieve Him.

3) Application
Based on our understanding of God has saved us through the Cross of Christ and the grace we have received, being made new people in His new holy community we are to live changed lives. We will never be able to perfectly achieve these things and this is not about us trying to live in such a way to impress God or make Him love us more (nor does He loves us less when we fail), because we live by grace and not by law – but that grace we have received and our new identity should spur us on to want to live pleasing obedient lives to His honour, praise and glory:

    a) speak the truth (put on) and do not lie (put off)
Why don’t we tell the truth? Sometimes because we want to protect ourselves, sometimes to protect others…but the real heart of the matter is (as Tim Keller says) that we love something or ourselves more than we love Jesus! *Our new life in Jesus as His bride means we need to battle our tendency to spiritual adultery and loving other things more than we love Him! His grace for our evil idol-factory hearts is no license to continue with our sin!

    b) be angry and do not sin
There are things which it is good to have righteous anger (false teaching, sin, injustice, etc.) but we are not to judge, for that alone is for God. Often our anger is sinful because we judge and condemn the person, forgetting that we ourselves are no better and are only recipients of God’s grace and have received pardon of our sins, which God offers for this life to that other person too. Sometimes we have totally selfish reasons for our anger (simply people have inconvenienced our agenda), which shows that something is not right with our anger.

    c) no longer steal (put off), rather work to give (put on)
Our new life in Christ means we must have integrity in all parts of our lives and do honestly to receive earthly blessings, and the focus of those earthly blessings must always not be to accumulate treasures for ourselves, but to bless others and take care of the needy as part of the compassionate work of Christ.

    d) no more evil talk (put off) only that which builds up and gives grace (put on)
This is a very hard and challenging calling, but if we are to be ambassadors of Christ and the reality of this transformed new life in the gospel, then it is crucial that we speak only in a way that reflects His perfections and beauty; rather than speaking sinfully and corruptly. Our tongues are dangerous, as James 3 warns us!

    e) no more bitter and divisive attitudes (put off) but rather be kind and forgiving (put on)
Paul’s words cover a lot of attitudes here: quarrelling, sour spirit, passionate rage, speaking evil of people, and wishing ill on people. We need God’s help to deal with these wicked heart attitudes of the former self. But we are called to strive as much as we can to be kind (the Greek word is Chrestos, which is a worldplay on Christ – so we are to be kind like Christ was kind even to His enemies) and forgiving (literally in the Greek: giving grace to one another) since we have already been forgiven infinitely more by Christ in His giving grace to us!

CHALLENGE: What If His People Prayed?

2010-07-07T13:52:00.000Z

This summer Carrubbers is running 27 days + nights of prayer in preparation for our Summer Festival Outreach: Room65.

As our Students and Young Workers, we would appreciate your prayers for this mission work for the Lord's glory. You can sign-up on the Carrubbers website to receive the daily prayer points e-mail "Praying Together - R65 'What If His People Prayed?' " or you can follow along on the Carrubbers blog each day.

But also you can benefit because we are also taking the whole month of July to GROW and MATURE in our understanding and practice of prayer. Also this coming year we will have a look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer with Wayne Sutton. We would really commend to you the daily prayer e-mails and reading/listening along in the daily devotion book: "With Christ in the School of Prayer" by Andrew Murray!

What if INDEX prayed?...Let's Find Out!

INDEX

Summer Index #6: Eph 4:1-16

2010-07-05T07:14:00.005Z

Ephesians 4:1-16 – “The Unity and Diversity of Gospel Community Gifts"
We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.

1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:

in humility
in gentleness
with patience
bearing with one another in love
eagering seeking unity

While this is how we ought to be working, this is one of those cases in scripture where there is a tension between the fact that it is both God working in us and us needing to submit/obey Him to allow this working. But Paul reminds us that our unity is based on the the unity of God and the unified purposes of all He has done in the gospel:

there is one hope
one Lord
one faith
one baptism
one God and Father of all

2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.

-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.

v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)

v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:

Apostles => the foundational period of the church had these men who were called by the risen Jesus
Prophets => again the foundational period had prophets who wrote inspired scripture. We agreed any gift of prophecy still continuing is something a bit different, because it is not on-par with scripture and is always having to submit to its higher authority for testing.
Evangelists => interesting that this is an office, but we are all called to in some part do the work of an evangelist (so we can't use this as an escape clause from evangelising!)
Shepherds and Teachers

3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.

"equip the saints for the work of ministry" => the ministry in focus here is the widest possible one (not just restricted to a clerical class or institutional church) we are all ministers as believers, we all have a work of ministry towards one another, to serving in the church community, to witnessing to others about the gospel. We are a priesthood of all believers.
"the knowledge of the Son of God" => how important it is that our gifts are not meant to be the focus themselves, but rather are meant to be there to cause us to grow in our knowledge and relationship with the Lord Jesus
"to mature manhood" => the standard for Christian maturity is not other Christians, instead it is the "stature of the fullness of Christ" => so we've all got a long way to go. But thanks be to God, that it is His work and not our own!
"no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" => we need to be equipped with the truth so we know what is right and wrong about the CHristian faith and the world in which we live.
in contrast to the "crafty and deceitful schemes" of the world; we are to "speak the truth in love". We cannot just tell people the truth (we will only be a clashing gong as in 1 Cor.13) but we must always speak that truth in love. Truth is a person (not an abstract concept), the Lord Jesus and His Spirit and His Word (He is the Word incarnate); and that person is full of love. So if we are to speak of Him we must speak of His whole person of truth and love!

Paul finishes saying that God causes these things to happen in our lives through these gifts He has given to His church, but also see how he says this "makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love". When these things are happening in the gospel community then excitingly we start to be united by nature and to love each other properly by nature - because the unity and love of God is renewing our hearts and minds and making us more like Christ, so we His body better reflect and grow up into that.

Summer Index #5: Eph 3:1-21

2010-06-28T07:09:00.004Z

Ephesians 3:1-21 – “The Mystery and Ministry of the Gospel”

Paul suffers imprisonment for the sake of the ministry of the mystery of God’s gospel.

1) The Mystery (v.1-6)
- “Mystery” here refers to something which was veiled in the Old Testament but which has now been made known; namely, that the Gentiles would be grafted into the tree of Israel and become dominant in the church, while many Jews fell into unbelief for a time. For Jews, who hated Gentiles, this message was of great offence and so they sought to have Paul imprisoned (as seen the in latter portion of Acts).

2) The Ministry (v.7-13)
- “Minister according to the gift of God’s grace” (v.7) is an interesting way to describe evangelism. We see it more as a duty or responsibility (sometimes an unpleasant burden), but here we see Paul imprisoned because of his evangelistic activities describing it as a gift of God’s grace. This is perspective shaping.

- This ministry is done through the power and strength of God (v.7b) and we are not just left on our own to accomplish it, rather we have “boldness and access with confidence through our faith” to the reigning King Jesus to help, comfort and carry us throughout the many hardships and rejections that must necessarily come as gospel ministers.

- Purpose is to “preach” and “bring light to everyone” what is God’s plan and purpose in the gospel

- The theatre for the gospel is i) this-worldly with bringing the gospel to unbelievers who have previously been in ignorance of God’s plans (like the Gentiles), and also ii) other-worldly since now God’s wisdom is being “made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (v.10) so that all the angelic creation might marvel at God’s plan of redemption in His loving grace (something they do not participate in, as those who have fallen have no hope of salvation)

- The focus of this ministry is God’s “eternal purpose” (v.11), not just to save us individually for our own purposes but rather that we might fit into His eternal and cosmic purposes. Let’s not make the gospel so small that it’s just about us!

3) The Ministers (v.14-21)
- Paul prays a long, complex, one-sentence prayer for the individual ministers of the gospel.

- In summary, He prays for their growth in the Christian life (their sanctification) which is made up of being strengthened in their inmost parts by Christ taking up His dwelling/residence within and as they yield to Him daily that He will more and more fill them with His fullness (perfections) and know the incredible, inescapable, incomprehensible, unconquerable love of God. Jesus in our hearts is renovating our being, His dwelling, for Heaven by making us more like Himself through His great power that works within us.

- All the stages that Paul prays for is fuelled and accomplished by an attribute of God’s character and being – we don’t need to make ourselves better by our efforts, we need Him to come and work in us.

- A great reminder in v.20 of God’s incredible power to do more than we can ask or imagine – what a great God we have!

4) Application:
- Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to the Gentiles is still relevant today with many still to hear, but now also there is the need to call to unbelieving Israel to be saved. - -

- What a challenge also to be outward focused and selfless no matter what the cost and consequences to ourselves, just as Paul was in his ministry and imprisonment for the gospel!

- Paul while in chains prays for the Ephesian church that they would grow as Christian believers, which is a challenge for what our prayer life should be like for others and the priorities for prayer!

- We need to be letting Christ dwell in our hearts and be daily surrendering to Him in every area. This also means to cease the many areas of rebellion in our lives which hinder and quench His work through His Spirit, like sin and complacency.

- We need to be heavenly focused on God’s eternal purposes which are the most important, that we might be saved and sanctified. We so easily spend most of our time and energies on things which are far from these purposes.

- A constant reminder of the majesty and awesome love and character of God which is revealed throughout the passage, of His incredible love, strength, grace, abundance, wisdom, purposes, power.

Summer Index #4 - Eph 2:11-22

2010-06-19T15:40:00.003Z

Ephesians 2:11-22 "The Gospel of Reconciliation"

1) What we once were, when alienated from God as Gentiles (v.11-12):
- separated from Christ
- alienated
- strangers to the promises of God
- having no hope
- without God in the world

2) How Christ has made peace and reconciled us (v.13-18):
- through His blood
- through His flesh (death on the Cross) which has:
*broken down the wall of hostility between God and us; and between Jews (God’s covenant community) and Gentiles => likewise all worldly barriers of inequality class, race, gender have been broken down and overcome in Christ – He is the only way for unity
*abolished the condemnation coming from the Law by fulfilling the moral law, and becoming the one and only sacrifice necessary for atonement, thus abolishing the cermonial law (v.14-15a)
*made a new man and new humanity united to Him (v.15b)
*reconciled us to God in His body (v.16)
- granted us access to the Father through His Spirit (v.18)

3) What Christ's new community looks like (v.19-22):
We are given three pictures of what the church is to look like:
- fellow citizens (v.19a) => members of God's kingdom, with all its attendant rights, privileges, protections and status
- members of God's household (v.19b) => members of God's family as children
- a Temple built on the foundation of Christ for => we ARE the place where God receives praise and worship in Spirit and in Truth. We are living stones of His temple, we are indwelt by His Spirit who fills His temple; and we are built up upon the key foundation stone of Himself.

4) Application:
- The church as God’s new community should be a place of unity amongst diversity. Instead of seeking to make everyone the same, the church should be a place where unbelievers see an incredible unity among people who otherwise should never be able to get on by worldly understanding. The truth of the gospel reconciling work of Christ can be displayed by the local church in this way.

- Citizens have many rights, but they also have responsibilities for participation in kingdom life – let us seek to be active servants and workers in God’s kingdom, since we are His workmanship created for good works and to represent His kingdom wherever we go, and whatever we do.

- Citizenship so often in the world has come out of a struggle for equality of status between unequals (think of Rome's struggle of the Plebians for recognition as citizens equal with the wealthy and powerful Patrician class); in a similar way we are equal with all the saints, even the greatest of Christian examples who we look up to we have the same basic spiritual equality in God's economy and the same potential to be used by God through the working of His mighty power in us.

- We should be moved and broken for the lost who are spiritually destitute, alienated and having no hope in this world. There is hope available through the work of Christ!

- We should be pursuing holiness in this new community and as this new humanity in Christ, since we are to be Christ’s holy temple

- Instead of focusing on the failings of the local church and its many problems, we should see the vision for what God wants this new community to be like and playing our part in asking God to use us in building up His temple established upon Jesus. The fuller context of this text is the incredible grace of God which infuses His church and covers our many failings to live up to the 3 pictures of God's community in this fallen world.

Summer Index #3 - Eph 2:1-10

2010-06-19T15:20:00.001Z

Ephesians 2:1-10 “The Gospel of Grace and The Old Life”

1) Characteristics of The Old Life (v.1-3)
- dead (v.1)
- in trespasses and sins (v.1)
- lacking purpose, blindly following the crowds of the world, which are ultimately led by Satan (v.2)
- disobedient (v.2)
- lived indulging the passions and desires of the flesh (v.3)
- by nature children of wrath (v.3)

2) Christ’s Rescue (v.4-7)
- God’s kindness, rich mercy and great love has motivated Him to save us (v.4) => what incredible grace it is to save and love those who are enemies and unlovely
- in contrast to the death of the old life, has made us alive with Christ in a new life (v.5)
- raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (v.7) => our position and standing in Christ is in glory. As Christ sits and rests for His redemptive work which was completed on the Cross; likewise our endeavours to earn favour with God can cease since we sit and rest on the completed work of Christ on our behalf which has been given to us in His grace (v.6)

3) The New Life of Grace (v.8-10)
- The new life begins and continues in faith of what Christ has done for us
- The new life is a gift, which we need to live in thankfulness for having received it
- Instead of being children of wrath prepared for destruction, we are made God’s workmanship, we are His masterpiece
- We have a purpose: to walk in good works that He has prepared for us

4) Application
- We begin the Christian life in faith and we must continue to walk in faith. Never is the Christian life about our works, our earning greater favour with God, or us needing to impress Him by doing things ourselves. He does the work to save us, He prepares the work for us to walk in, and He gives us the power and enabling to do His work.

- We need to consciously seek to live and apply grace to our lives and ways of thinking; rooting out any of the spiritual pride and self-righteousness that so easily creeps in to detract from God’s work of grace in saving us.

- We need to turn from following the crowds of this world, recognising that that is the way of destruction led by Satan and instead seek to live as God’s workmanship going the other direction

- We need to remember this new life is in Christ, was given by Him and is secured by Him who sits on the throne in Heaven today. We must seek to live holy lives fit and glorifying Him for the grace He has given us; not to say “I owe you” (which is moralism and legalism) but that says “Thank you, I love you” (which is obedience in the face of God’s glorious grace).

Summer Index #2 - Eph 1:13-23

2010-06-19T15:05:00.001Z

Ephesians 1:13-23 “A Gospel-Driven Life of Praise”

1) In light of the incredible spiritual blessings we have received, which are for “the praise of His glory” (v.14), Paul prays:
- In thanksgiving for the faith of the Ephesians and how it works out in their love for one another in God’s community and Paul’s work (v.15-16)
- Asks they may have a spirit of “wisdom and revelation” so they can
*know Christ better having their hearts enlightened (v.17-18a)
*know the great hope of the gospel (v.18b)
*know the riches of their glorious inheritance (v.18 referring to v.13)
*know God’s immeasurable power working on their behalf, by Christ who has died, risen and reigns at the right hand of the Father with all power, authority and dominion over all things (v.19-21)

2) Application:
- Receipt of the gospel is to work out in our lives as praise to God and love towards others
- After having received the gospel, we still must press on and pray to know God all the better and have our hearts enlightened in the knowledge of Christ
- Need to set our minds on the great future hope and Spirit guaranteed inheritance we have in Christ as we run the race
- Remember in the midst of trouble that God’s great power and authority is on our side, and it cannot be defeated by all the works of the enemy
- We as the church (the new gospel community) as Christ’s body are to seek to be filled with Him and be His fullness in this world to bring Him praise and declare His praises (v.22-23)

Summer Index #1: Eph1:1-12

2010-06-19T15:03:00.001Z

Ephesians 1:1-12 “An Overview of the Gospel’s Blessings”

1) We have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (v.3):-
- chosen to be made holy and blameless (v.4)
- lovingly predestined for adoption as God’s children (v.5)
- blessed us with His grace and with the same love the Father has for the Son (v.6)
- redemption from our slavery to sin and alienation from God (v.7)
- forgiveness of our sinful rebellion against God (v.8)
- an inheritance in Christ Jesus

2) What is the purpose of these spiritual blessings?
- so that we would be made a new people, holy and blameless for God (v.4)
- according to the purpose of God’s will (v.5); the mystery of His will (v.9); to work all things together according to the council of His will (v.11)
- to praise and glorify the riches of His grace (v.7) and His glory (v.12)
- to make known God’s wisdom and His richness in lavishing them on us (v.8)
- to achieve God’s purposes of uniting all things in Himself (v.10)

3) Application:
- These blessings form our new identity in Christ, we should live according to who we are now in Christ
- We should seek to live in awe and wonder at what God has done
- We should be praising God’s grace, glory, wisdom and purposes in the Gospel
- To be involved in God’s work of uniting all things to Himself by making known these wonderful blessings in the world

Summer Index 2010 Overview

2010-06-19T14:55:00.002Z

Over the summer Index continues to meet every Sunday evening for a Bible Study downstairs in the Cafe. This year we are studying the books of Ephesians and 1st Thessalonians.

"The Gospel - New Life in a New Community"

I will try to update this blog regularly to give you a summary of the passages and what we are learning each week, so that even if you are away you can still benefit from God's Word at Index.

Every blessing
David

Summer Prayer Requests

2009-08-04T09:02:00.002Z

AUGUST 09

Louise Bennett
August 7-15th : Louise is helping to lead a Scripture Union camp in Arran.
It is a big camp with around 100 kids, aged 12-18.
Prayer that relationships with both kids and other team leaders would be good.
That kids who don’t yet know Christ would come to know him and that those who already know Him will grow in their faith.

Louise Bell
Presbyterian Summer Team in Kilkenny (August 8th – 15th)
That lives would be saved through the street work that will be done over the week
Future plans to become clear; uni, job etc

Joel Woodier
Doing a Christian camp in Wales – 18-25th Aug

Colin Walker
2 week outreach team in NI at the start of August
God would provide good team units
Effective outreach and witness

Laura Combe
Resit in august – this needs to be passed before Laura can stay on the course and do her elective in the Netherlands

David Nixon
That David would be a good witness to his work colleagues.
For energy as dealing with stressed people… patience and grace also!
David is doing an internship at Carrubbers over the summer:
That he would be a blessing as he serves God in the church
That this would provide experience, guidance and wisdom as David looks towards ministry opportunities in the future.

Kirsty McDonald
Going back to uni in July and August – that Kirsty would be able to get back into the swing of things without too much difficulty.
For renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Ruth Acheson
May be back in Edinburgh for some of Room65 – that God would open this door if that’s where He wants Ruth to be.

Emma Forbes
Emma is helping at a Scripture Union camp/holiday club in Peebles in August
Prayer that it would be a fun week!
That the kids would hear the Good news and respond to it!

Jo Hutton
Keep in contact with uni friends and keep conversations going that have been started.

Jason Barrington
Working with a church in Peru
Encouraging the church body
Speaking at churches
Helping at street kids’ breakfast club
Doing some street preaching and evangelism.

Kirsten Strain
That while she is back home she will get the chance to go to church regularly and become part of the church community.

David Meyer
That God would help him decide whether or not to do his honour year.
Guidance about what to do after finishing uni.
Help with staying in touch with friends, both Christian and non-Christian.
Keep encouraging friends.

David Warden
Prayer for wisdom and guidance about David and Claire’s future!
For willingness that God would use them both for His purposes

Calum Johnston
For help in making and keeping non-Christian friends.

Jonathan Murnane
Involvement in Room65.

Hazel Cochrane
She is involved in some kids’ camps in NI in August

Steph Speers
Possibility of other summer teams happening in NI in August.
Exam resit at the start of august – for help, and motivation to study over summer months.
Being thankful for home and all the opportunities God is providing her with at the moment.

Iain Hamill
Good witness to friends/family and work colleagues
Consistency and discipline with quiet times etc.

Christine Staight
A plan/guidance from September onwards
Provisions to carry out the plan God provides for the future!

Anna Lambert
Patience
Endurance and consistency in bible study and prayer

Leanne Briggs
Pray the café will glorify God’s name and fulfil its purpose in its evangelism and caring capacity.
For friendships to be build on Jesus!
For involvement in Room65 - Overall Catering director

Rachel Meadows
That God would provide a good full time job as a nursery nurse if she is not accepted into uni

Erlend Scott
Room65 involvement
PRAISE: I’ve found a job for after the summer!

Tim Canning
Working in Edinburgh
Girlfriend in Germany

Mikey and Emily Leuhrmann
Adjusting to parenting 3 children
Our future – pray for wisdom about churches we’re pursuing

July 09

2009-06-30T23:39:00.002Z

Summer Prayer Requests

Aaron Johnston
Aaron is working at a Christian outdoor camp: 5th June – 30th July.
Age group is 13-16 and many kids are not saved!
That God would prepare Aaron to be the best vessel he can be, that God would use him for whatever He wants.
Team bonding
That the camps would result in kids’ lives being changed for eternity.

Jason Barrington
11th July – Best man at Dave Dickson’s wedding.
14th July – fly to Peru
Working with a church in Peru
Encouraging the church body
Speaking at churches
Helping at street kids’ breakfast club
Doing some street preaching and evangelism.

Colin Walker
Remain accountable to Christian friends as I spend time away from them.

Jayne Woodrow
Mission trip to Czech Republic in July.
Team of 13 going out from home church – team unity
That team would be prayerful in all they do
That the student’s hearts would be softened to hear God’s word!

David Nixon
That David would be a good witness to his work colleagues.
For energy as dealing with stressed people… patience and grace also!
David is doing an internship at Carrubbers over the summer:
That he would be a blessing as he serves God in the church
That this would provide experience, guidance and wisdom as David looks towards ministry opportunities in the future.

Kirsty McDonald
Going back to uni in July and August – that Kirsty would be able to get back into the swing of things without too much difficulty.
For renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Ronald Ssimbwa
His family back in Uganda
His friends in Edinburgh, England and back home in Uganda.

Ruth Acheson
Spark 09: Ruth was also involved in this over the past couple of years.

Kirsten Strain
Kirsten is travelling in July – knows that there will not be much opportunity for Christian fellowship and would like prayer to remain strong in her faith.

David Meyer
Help with staying in touch with friends, both Christian and non-Christian.
Keep encouraging friends.

Calum Johnston
Lots of prayer for the Mission trip Calum is going on to Burkina Faso.
For help in making and keeping non-Christian friends.

Jonathan Murnane
That he might be able to be a good and effective witness in his workplace.
There is the possibility of doing some Scripture Union camps over the summer, depending on Jonathan’s availability…

Joel Woodier
Plans to do Beach Mission at some point

Hazel Cochrane
Hazel is going to South Africa in July – safety while there

Steph Speers
Russia: Possibility of doing Russia team in July.
Help in fundraising for this, as it is very expensive.
Ability to build relationships with non-Christians whilst over there.
That God keep the team safe as they travel and live out there!

Iain Hamill
Enthusiasm for work
Good witness to friends/family and work colleagues
Consistency and discipline with quiet times etc.

Anna Lambert
Patience
Endurance and consistency in bible study and prayer

Leanne Briggs
For direction for future plans … and life in general.
For friendships to be build on Jesus!

Mikey and Emily Leuhrmann
Adjusting to parenting 3 children
Our future – pray for wisdom about churches we’re pursuing

Summer Prayer Requests

2009-06-19T20:32:00.003Z

JUNE 09

Kirsty McDonald
Doing on a 3 week mission trip to Nigeria in June to do HIV/Aids work
Moving house in June.

Aaron Johnston
Aaron is working at a Christian outdoor camp: 5th June – 30th July.
Age group is 13-16 and many kids are not saved!
That God would prepare Aaron to be the best vessel he can be, that God would use him for whatever He wants.
Team bonding
That the camps would result in kids’ lives being changed for eternity.

Samuel Scott
Finding a job for the summer
Building relationships with work colleagues, and sharing faith with them.

Colin Walker
Guidance as to how to spend time as God wants this summer.
Continue to be in God’s Word

David Nixon
That David would be a good witness to his work colleagues.
For energy as dealing with stressed people… patience and grace also!
David is doing an internship at Carrubbers over the summer:
That he would be a blessing as he serves God in the church
That this would provide experience, guidance and wisdom as David looks towards ministry opportunities in the future.

Claire Warden
Christianity Explored course which is being run in the North Leith Parish Church over May and June.

Ronald Ssimbwa
Prayer for remaining time with Bethany.
Prayer for the job Ronald has recently applied for

Ruth Acheson
Not sure what summer is going to hold at this stage – and is finding this rather frustrating – that God would provide patience and guidance.
Still searching for a placement in NI or Edinburgh – that God would provide something soon!
A family member and a friend are getting married – for these to be enjoyable occasions.

Jo Hutton
Keep in contact with uni friends and keep conversations going that have been started.

Andrew McClean
Trip to Africa with students from Queen Margaret.

Kirsten Strain
That the various summer Guide camps she will be helping at will bring opportunities to witness.
That while she is back home she will get the chance to go to church regularly and become part of the church community.

Craig McKellar
Wants to be working as a trainee accountant this summer – that God would provide a job opportunity.

David Meyer
That God would help him decide whether or not to do his honour year.
Guidance about what to do after finishing uni.
Keeping up conversation with friends who have shown interest in getting to know God!

David Warden
Prayer for wisdom and guidance about David and Claire’s future!
For willingness that God would use them both for His purposes

Calum Johnston
Lots of prayer for the Mission trip Calum is going on to Burkina Faso.

Jonathan Murnane
That God would help him find a good way to spend his time this summer.
That he might be able to be a good and effective witness in his workplace.

Steph Speers
Being thankful for home and all the opportunities God is providing her with at the moment.

Iain Hamill
An enjoyable and refreshing summer
Enthusiasm for work
Good witness to friends/family and work colleagues
Consistency and discipline with quiet times etc.

Christine Staight
A plan/guidance from September onwards
Provisions to carry out the plan God provides for the future!

Anna Lambert
Praise for God’s provision – Anna has a permanent post at her job!
Patience
Endurance and consistency in bible study and prayer

Leanne Briggs
Pray the café will glorify God’s name and fulfil its purpose in its evangelism and caring capacity.
For direction for future plans … and life in general.
For friendships to be build on Jesus!

Louise Bell
Future plans to become clear; uni, job etc

Lois Cameron-Mackintosh
Moving into new flat would go ok
She’ll find a job for the summer

Rachel Meadows
That God would provide a good full time job as a nursery nurse if she is not accepted into uni

Erlend Scott
For wisdom in how to spend his free time this summer
For a good time catching up with old friends.

Tim Canning
Working in Edinburgh
Girlfriend in Germany

Mikey and Emily Leuhrmann
Adjusting to parenting 3 children
Our future – pray for wisdom about churches we’re pursuing
Mikey’s thesis – pray it gets completed soon

INDEX, this past year.

2009-04-17T23:59:00.004Z

A few pictures of what we've been up to...

In September, we had a welcome weekend to welcome new students to Edinburgh, and welcome back people who had been away for the summer. It's also just a good opportunity to meet new people and have fun together. We had a Saturday afternoon of sledging down a hill on bin bags, then a ceilidh in the evening, as well as Sunday Lunch after the service the next day.

On a fairly regular basis, as well as meeting for our food, worship and teaching on Sunday evenings, we met on Saturday evenings to chill out, chat and play games which have included sardines, mafia and dutch blitz. :)

In January, we had our annual weekend away. We went to Compass Christian Centre for the weekend and had quality teaching from the book of Mark, times to chill, chat and get to know one another better and game times as well as free time and times of praise.

Other moments have included a pot luck lunch before a baptism service...

... and an impromptu snowball fight on the Royal Mile with one another and passers by when snow fell heavily during the evening service and our Index meeting.

It would be great to have you join us Sunday evenings from 8.30pm, at Carrubbers, in the Oak Hall (up stairs) if you are between the ages of 17 and 30. We meet for food, worship and a time of teaching/discussion.
Join our facebook group (search "carrubbers index") to keep up to date with things going on.

Let Us Enter 2008 With Our Eyes Fixed On Christ

2008-01-05T12:01:00.000Z

The title of this post is only part of a quote I wrote down in one of Wayne's last sermon of 2007. It really hit me when he said "Let us leave 2007 and enter 2008 with our eyes fixed on Christ." Happy New Year to you all. I hope each of us grows to a deeper understanding of God, His ways and His love, but most of all, that we grow in our relationship with Him, and in our love for Him.

Over the past three weeks, like most of you, I have been on holiday, and as it turns out, I've had very little to do with myself. This, as it often does, has caused me to think forwards to the future. All the more just now, as I've just spent 3 days with my brother and his wife-to-be in just 6 weeks. It has been an interesting time of thought and I just wanted to share a few things that have come up in reading, and in chats with people.

One blog I enjoy reading regularly is Girl Talk, written by Carolyn Mahaney and her three daughters. I often recommends good books, has good insights, and is generally an enjoyable read too. It's aimed at women (as you can probably tell from the title) but I'm sure men could get something out of it too? If not, The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a good place for both men and women.

On New Year's Eve, Jen told me about a website run by Focus on the Family called Boundless, which has some good articles on it. Have a look around. There's lots on there!

Crosswalk also has alot of interesting articles on it, some I've agreed with, others not, but isn't that same with everything?

Also, I would totally recommend listening to John Piper's sermons online or reading some of his articles. He puts all his sermons on a podcast so that's simple to listen to.

I addition to John Piper, I've been listening to the sermons given at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB - a church in London where Alpha was born). They too put their sermons on podcast. They also have this thing called the Relationship Pod which is worth a listen. They cover everything from divorce and bereavement, to what makes a good friend, to a discussion on whether speed dating is biblical!

I hope this will wet your appetite to think through issues and topics deeper. It may even spark conversations in addition to the ones the Index series is bringing up on Sunday nights!

Being A Christian Student/Young Worker, Part 2: Demands of the church - Demands of the individual

2007-11-14T17:47:00.000Z

Following up on the previous post, this is an article written thirty years ago by a minister I had the priviledge of hearing this past week, Geoff Thomas of Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth. What he writes should, I think, be a challenge to all of us who worship at Carrubbers - both students and non students. Again, it raises issues of church and CU involvement which I feel are very relevant to our current time and place, and which I'll be posting on soon. Moreover, it has challenged me and perhaps will challenge you. One question, certainly, resounds in my mind - are we praying for our church?

Being A Christian Student/Young Worker, Part 1: Preparation

2007-11-13T17:39:00.000Z

It's never too late to learn! And it's never too late to start firing up things on the blog again, IMHO at least. This is an article I've recently read on making ourselves 'spiritually prepared' for university, although I'm sure it can be applied to all our immediate situations. Do you think the author is right in what he says? What about the stuff he says regarding the Church and CUs? Or regarding socialising and choosing friends? All I'll say is that I wish I'd read this before my first year at uni.

There will be at least a couple of follow-up posts on topics raised in this article shortly.

Learn something useful at Napier? (shurely shome mishtake)

2007-10-18T21:00:00.000Z

Yes folks it's true. For the next two months at least, this leading Napier alumni can confirm that you will be able to learn something useful down at Napier's Merchiston Campus. For from October 14 to December 14, there's going to be an exhibition called 'Bound For Glory', and the blurb states 'The exhibition will celebrate the printing, publication and distribution of the Bible in Scotland in recognition of the significant role that the it played in the development of the country’s printing and publishing industries'. I think the next bit was written solely for our own chief of staff, Mikey Luehrmann: 'One of the exhibits on display will be the Bassandyne Bible, the first to be produced in Scotland'.

So get yourselves down there. If you want more blurb, or are just really interested in the printing industry, it's all here: http://www.500yearsofprinting.org/activities.php

And I can speak from personal experience and say that the typo in the date for this year's event should not come as a surprise for something related to the aforementioned industry.

Meet the ‘Team’ at the ‘Core’ of INDEX, Part 2: Anna

2007-10-01T21:41:00.001Z

Name: Anna Joy Lambert
Aka: Banana, AJ, Anna Spanner, Banane, The Nature Laydee

Born: April 5th 1985 in London

Favourite Scripture: Galatians 2:20; My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Favourite Places: Edinburgh is where I love to live my normal life, Paris is where I enjoy family holidays, and Camp Wonderland, Massachusetts is my happy summer place.

Favorite books: Appart from the Bible and Shakespeare, Blue Like Jazz (Don Miller), Redeeming Love (Francine Rivers), Disciplines of a godly woman (Barbara Hughes) News of a kidnapping (Gabrièl Garcia Màrquez), and Lonely Planet guides.

Things I like: Chocolate, photography, music, brushing my teeth, dreaming, laughing, chilling with friends, children, writing, travelling, meeting new people, my bed.

Pet hates: The smell of wet dog, a messy kitchen, exams and getting up early (my definition of early.)

Favorite films: Amelie, Finding Neverland, Stage Beauty, Mean Girls, Raising Helen, Walk The Line, A Beautiful Mind, Miss Congeniality, L'Auberge Espagnole.

Interesting facts:
~ I moved to France when I was 5 and lived there for 13 years.
~ I once saw Ludacris in Paris.
~ I'm the only lefty in my whole extended family.

Here come the hotsteppers

2007-09-28T21:46:00.000Z

Meet the ‘Team’ at the ‘Core’ of INDEX, Part 1: DCW

2007-09-26T21:48:00.000Z

OK folks, it’s that time again. What time? INDEX time. More specifically, blog time. More specifically still, INDEX blog time. Note the capitals in INDEX - this is important. Lying somewhere between Occam’s Razor and Crabtree’s Bludgeon (look it up ignorami - ignorami being plural for ignoramuses, cf hippopotami being plural for hippopotamuses), this is your plenty of nonsense, utterly dispensable guide to all things INDEX. But who be we harbingers o’lore, piffle-paffle and Church-sanctioned general risk-assessed youth-focused activities?

I be David C Warden, known to my friends as plain old, down-to-earth David Warden. You can keep the C however until at least casual acquaintance stage. Part of the ‘core’ ‘team’ at INDEX for the past two years now (this be my third), my role, more specifically, is to host a lovely little prayer meeting ere a Sunday morn service, and to communicate in the language o’ yore at every opportunity (hence all this nonsense). Before I continue, it is a truth universally acknowledged that 96% of folks reading my blog spraff (that’s everyone except my mother and, occasionally, sweet lady wife) move on to less wordy spraff somewhere else on the superhighway d’informatique by the end of the second paragraph, so to those of you leaving us now I bid a less than fond adieu.

Hi there mum, and Claire too, if you’re still reading. How are things? Don’t mention it, anytime – it was my pleasure. Yes I am a nice boy, I know. Anyway, as you can gather I ridiculously have an ‘other half’, or 'significant other' if you will, she being called Claire. She’s far friendlier and more amiable than me, which comes in really handy at social gatherings and when you have people round at your house who you don’t dislike, but at the same time don’t really have a ‘connection’ with, as it means I can look at my hands or fumble with the coasters or something and not be too disconcerting for the guests in question. It also means that when INDEX looks at the old ‘relationships’ chestnut the the spring, I’ll be able to bask in the comforting glow that can only come from knowing everything there is to know about the subject at hand. Great stuff.

Otherwise, I work for a publishing company as an editor, which always provokes the immediate, yet paradoxically final question from people, ‘What do you edit?’ You needn't have asked. The answer’s diaries and other business-related, time plan products, btw. I live in Leith and you are all lukewarmly invited to come and visit us (best to make sure Claire will be in first, though, or it could be a little awkward). Seriously it will be awkward so do make sure you ask.

Anyway, my name’s David, I’m 25, I am a Christian who believes everything in the Bible is true/infallible etc and then tries to work it all out from that basis but isn’t too worried if he can’t. I enjoy music (Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, Hair metal, 80s sell-out supergroups etc); films (all sorts, Terrence Malick if I’m out to impress, pretentious Barry Levinson Robin Williams vehicle ‘Toys’ if I’m out to bemuse, anything with Cary Grant in it if I’m out for a laugh); television (Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace - I better mention it since I've 'borrowed' from it royally in this post - anything by Chris Morris) and reading books and pointless stuff on the internet. The best sermon I’ve ever heard was delivered in a church in Derbyshire when I was about 15, but I believe the man responsible went a bit crazy and got booted out from his church (for being a bit crazy) so I’ve tried not to get too obsessive about preachers. I do like guys who tell it straight though, and don’t leave out the sometimes gory details.

Anyway (again), that's me. Feel free to sift through some of the wreckage that is the old blog archives (it's not really wreckage but you can't say 'sift through' without adding the word 'wreckage' now can you?), cos there be plenty of other wordy piffle by me to have a gander at. Bye!

Elijah's first trip to a used bookshop

2007-07-10T15:53:00.000Z

Looks like he found one his size:)

Welcome...

2007-06-08T09:44:00.000Z

Well, the little Luehrmann has finally arrived. The Lord is abundantly good! Mom and baby are both doing well, and for all you who are wondering (all 2 of you) here are the details:

Name: Elijah M'Cheyne Luehrmann
Date: 6/6/07
Time: 8.01am
Weight: 7lbs 8oz
Height: 56cm

So, that means we have a few winners. Erlend guessed the day correctly and though Warden didn't go with the surname, he was right on with the historical figure that we choose for the middle name. Barnes was close on the weight (and if your guess of Murray was from M'Cheyne let me know and I'm sure we can have a prize for you too), but Elijah fell short of 5kgs.

As for our clues, if you want to shorten his first and middle name you can call him emac (thus the apple product). Rich Mullins has a song by the name of Elijah.

That is all for now, we'll try to keep things current here over the summer.

Clues, clues, and more clues...

2007-05-31T11:00:00.000Z

In regards to the said competition below we thought we'd offer some help. So here are the clues thus far:
1. One name is biblical and the other historical
2. A song can be found with the title of one of the names
3. The biblical name is found in both the OT and the NT
4. The historical name is a surname
5. A particular Apple Macintosh product gives some help

Don't forget you can also guess date of birth, height, weight, and such. Happy guessing!

Your guess is as good as mine

2007-05-16T13:06:00.000Z

Greetings Indexers,

You've heard it whispered since last Sunday so to put all rumors to rest hear it from the horse's mouth here, the baby Luey name pool is officially open.

What is this you ask? Well, it is the opportunity for you to guess the first and middle name of the wee man that will be arriving, Lord willing, in the next 3-4 weeks. You can email me or simply reply to the post here with your guesses.

Clues: one is biblical, one is historical (which really they both are historical, but only one is found in the bible) and a song has the title of one of them.

Why should I do this? There are numerous reasons. The first is that, should you be correct, you would have bragging rights for a good long while. Secondly, there will be various prizes given to the winners. These will include books, of course, meal vouchers and maybe other things as well. Third, there is no purchase necessary to enter. It doesn't get any better than this folks.

One last thing. In addition to name guessing you may also do your best at guessing the height, weight, and date of the little Luehrmann.

We look forward to announcing the results in the weeks ahead.

SUMMER MISSIONS

2007-04-18T13:04:00.000Z

Can we ask a favour from our plethora of readers? If you are going on or will be involved in summer missions work could you please answer the following:

Name:
Destination/Dates:
Brief Summary of Trip:
Prayer Requests:
Profile Picture

and send them to: missions@teams.carrubbers.org? Many thanks.

Abhorring Henry Martyn

2007-03-26T13:41:00.000Z

Last Sunday night we looked at 3 lessons from the life of Henry Martyn.

1. Being satisfied in God alone.
2. Concern for the souls of people.
3. Critical self-examination in a pursuit of holiness.

In light of the third lesson, here is a brief quote from Martyn:

Men frequently admire me, and I am pleased; but I abhor the pleasure I feel; Oh! did they but know that my root is rottenness!

I don't think Martyn was overly pious or had some low view of himself, rather, I think we generally have too high a view of ourselves. And again, this is all tied to having a clear view of who God is. Martyn's pursuit of holiness was intricately tied to his view of and satisfaction in God.

And finally, I still have the biography of Henry Martyn by George Smith for anyone who is interested. Smith was a prolific missions writer having biographies on William Carey, Alexander Duff (most famous Scottish missionary), Henry Martyn, as well as a brief history of missions. For anyone who would be interested in learning more about Martyn this would be a fantastic place to start, and, I might add, it is quite a rare.

A God-centred God?

2007-03-15T10:13:00.000Z

Last week we looked a bit at The End for Which God Created the World - by Jonathan Edwards (for more on Edwards look here and here). What I want to do here is merely relay some of the info from our study together. We’ll consider first Edward’s philosophical reasons and then look at his scriptural argument. This post may seem a bit choppy and necessarily short (compared to the whole) and is no substitute for reading the real thing (you may need to register). There is an entire section on ultimate ends, final ends, etc., which is very helpful in the reading of the entire work. OK, one we go...

Philosophical Reasons [brackets are my words, otherwise it is Edward’s words]:

- If the creature gets its ALL from the Creator (entirely and perfectly), how is it possible that it should add anything God -- does God now become dependent upon his creation.

- God has respect to things according to their nature and proportions, he must necessarily have the greatest respect to himself. The moral rectitude of the disposition [to approve of what/who is best], inclination, or affection of God chiefly consists in a regard to himself, infinitely above his regard to all other beings; or, in other words, his holiness consists in this.

- If it be an infinitely amiable thing in God, that he should have a supreme regard to himself, then it is an amiable thing that he should act as having a chief regard to himself.

[If God regarded someone (their interests, needs, desires) more highly than himself, then he would not be God, that thing or person would be.]

- That a disposition in God, as an original property of his nature, to an emanation of his own infinite fulness, was what excited him to create the world; and so, that the emanation itself was aimed at by him as a last end of the creation.

- God did not love angels in the strictest sense, but in consequence of his intending to create them, and so having an idea of future existing angels. Therefore his love to them was not properly what excited him to intend to create them.

[Doesn’t this make him selfish?]
But if God be indeed so great, and so excellent, that all other beings are as nothing to him, and all other excellency be as nothing, and less than noting and vanity, in comparison to his; and God be omniscient and infallible, and perfectly knows that he is infinitely the most valuable being; then it is fit that his heart should be agreeable to this--which is indeed the true nature and proportion of things, and agreeable to this infallible and all-comprehending understanding which he has of them, and that perfectly clear light in which he views them--and that he should value himself infinitely more than his creatures.

[In short, part of God’s moral goodness is that he approves/esteems what is best. God, being God, is the best there is, so he must esteem himself above everything else.]

Scriptural Reasons:
God is the first and the last - the beginning and the end (Is 44.6, 48.12, Rev 1.8, 11, 17, 21.6, 22.13)
When God is so often spoken of as the last as well as the first, the end as well as the beginning, it is implied, that as he is the first, efficient cause and fountain, from whence all things originate; so, he is the last, final cause for which they are made; the final term to which they all tend in their ultimate issue.
See Rom 11.36, Col 1.16, Heb 2.10, Pro 16.4

God’s glory is an ultimate end in creation

1. The way in which God makes himself his end is in making his glory his end. - Is 48.11, Rom 11.36

2. The glory of God is spoken of as the end for which those parts of the moral world that are good were made - Is 60.21, 61.3; Is 43.1-7; eph 1.5

3. Goodness of the moral part of creation [previous one focused on the creation, this focuses on the works of that moral creation] - Phil 1.10-11; 1 Pet 4.11; faith - Rom 4.20; repentance - Josh 6.19; charity - 2 Cor 8.19; praise and thanksgiving - Luke 7.18, Ps 50.23 - the end of all religion is to glorify God. - 1 Cor 6.20

4. Men and women are required to seek God’s glory - 1 Cor 10.30, 1 Pet 4.11

5. The glory of God is the earnest desire and delight of God’s moral creation when they are rightly related to God. [ie - people in scripture expressing or asking that God be glorified] - Rom 11.36, 16.27; Gal 1.4-5; 2 Tim 4.18; 2 Pet 3.18; Jude 25; 1 Chron 16.28-29; Ps 115.1

6. Christ sought God’s glory as the highest end - John 7.18, 12.27-28, 17.1

7. God’s glory is the end of the work of redemption - [Christ’s prayer in John 12 shows that when he seeks his own glory and the glory of the Father, he seeks it as the end of the great work that he has come to do (see vs. 12.4-5)] - John 13.31-32 [just after Judas had left to go betray him] - Luke 2.14, [this song of the angels had to be based on what they knew of the purpose of Christ’s arrival on earth] - Phil 2.6-11; Eph 1.3ff; 2 Cor 4.14-15

8. The glory of God is the last end of his moral government -

God created the world for his name, to make his perfections known, and that he made it for his praise

God’s name is the object of his regard - 1 Sam 12.22; Ezk 20.9, 14, 22; Ezk 36.21-23; Is 48.9-10; the judgments God executes on the wicked are spoken of as being for his name’s sake - Ex 9.16; Neh 9.10

[He then goes on to explain how ‘the glory of God’, ‘the name of God’, and numerous other terms and phrases are all pointing to the same thing. So in concluding his work he says...]

The ultimate end of creation is not manifold, but one.

It may be looking at this one object from different angles or in a different light, but it is all bound up in the phrase - the glory of God.

The emanation and true external expression of God’s internal glory and fulness.
It is described in a variety of ways because of the difficulty we as humans have in understanding all that it means in merely one word or one phrase. It includes the exercise of his perfections, the manifestation of his internal glory, the communication of his fulness to the creature

The fulness of the Godhead is the fulness of his understanding, consisting in his knowledge; and the fulness of his will consisting in his virtue and happiness. And therefore, the external glory of God consists i the communication of these. The communication of his knowledge is chiefly in giving the knowledge of himself: for this is the knowledge in which the fulness of God’s understanding chiefly consists. And thus we see how the manifestation of God’s glory to created understandings, and their seeing and knowing it, is not distinct from an emanation or communication of God’s fulness, but clearly implied in it. Again, the communication of God’s virtue or holiness, is principally in communicating the love of himself. And thus we see how, not only the creature’s seeing and knowing God’s excellence, but also supremely esteeming and loving him, belongs to the communication of God’s fulness. And the communication of God’s joy and happiness, consists chiefly in communicating to the creature that happiness and joy which consists in rejoicing in God, and in his glorious excellency; for in such joy God’s own happiness does principally consist. And in these things, knowing God’s excellency, loving God for it, and rejoicing in it, and in the exercise and expression of these, consists God’s honour and praise.

[Because God’s joy is found in himself and pursuing his happiness, when we find our joy in him and his happiness that is supremely glorifying to him.

The focus in our salvation was and is God, not man. This answers many of the questions that may have been raised over the last weeks. The challenge is for us to be as God-centred as God is. Much more could be said, but I'll leave that to you to chat it over with your friends.]

The Fountain of our Faith: God or Man? (Part 6)

2007-03-13T09:09:00.000Z

Well, certainly not the last word on the subject, but the last in this series (see previous posts: 1, 2, & 3, & 4 & 5).

Here all I really want to do is think about a few questions.

The first has to do with the will of God. This is simply to ask, if God wills or desires that everyone be saved then why isn’t everyone saved if God is choosing those who will be saved?The short answer is that a distinction must be made in the will of God so much so that we can rightly talk about two wills. One is God’s prescriptive will where he tells us what he desires. I know that God’s will for me is to be a faithful husband, father, and pastor. He does not want me to lie, steal, etc.

God also has a decretive will which is his will and purpose that will bring all to pass. This is also called his secret will. This is the will of God that we cannot know until it comes to pass. This is something of what James is getting at when he writes about how we should view the future and our intentions saying ‘If the Lord wills...’

So what does this mean for salvation and people being chosen for salvation? John Frame writes, ‘God’s will is sometimes thwarted because he wills it to be, because he has given one of his desires precedence over another...God does not intend to bring about everything he values, but he never fails to bring about what he intends.’ To say it another way, God is often pleased to ordain his own displeasure. A quick example can be seen in the death of Christ. God does not desire people to murder and betray, yet he purposed and willed that Christ would be betrayed and killed so that he would provide salvation.

If you want to read more on this (and before you ask any questions), I highly recommend John Piper’s article Are There Two Wills in God?

The second thing I want to consider as we close deals with the issue of prayer and evangelism.

Many will say that if God chooses who will be saved then it doesn’t matter what we do because it won’t change or have any effect on the outcome of things. Well, for one, that is ludicrous. To say that what I do doesn’t have any effect is to deny the obvious and contradict reality. Also, to say that I don’t need to evangelise because of election is to neglect clear instructions of scripture. That is to sin. To say that the doctrine of election encourages me to sin is silly. Nor I am told anywhere in scripture that I am to base my actions on the secret will of God, which I do not know. John Pipers writes, ‘The unknown purposes (or decrees) of God are not the rule of our conduct nor the grounds upon which we act, so the inscrutable operations of God are not the rule our ground of our action, but his revealed (prescriptive) will is. The rule for us in every case is the revealed will presented to our consciousness.’

One author reflects that if one says that election would keep us from evangelism, it would also keep us from eating:
If God has eternally decreed that you should live, what is the use of your breathing? If God has eternally decreed that you should talk, what is the use of your opening your mouth? If God has eternally decreed that you should reap a crop, what is the use of you sowing the seed? If God has eternally decreed that your stomach should contain food, what is the use of your eating?...In order to educate us, [God] demands that we should use the means, or go without the ends which depend upon them. There are plenty of fools who make the transcendental nature of eternity and of the relation of the eternal life of God to the time-life of man an excuse for neglecting prayer. But of all the many fools in the United States, there is not one absurd enough to make the same eternal decree an excuse for not chewing his food or for not voluntarily inflating his lungs.

J.I. Packer writes - So far from making evangelism pointless the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility--indeed, the certainty--that evangelism will be fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel.

The doctrine of God’s sovereign grace is the only thing that gives up hope in our evangelism that people will indeed be saved.

On the side of prayer, if one does not believe in election then if he or she is to be consistent there should never be any prayers offered to God that people would be saved for this would be praying to God to do something that he is incapable of doing if it lies merely within the will of man to accept God. So, if you do not believe in election I would suggest that you stop praying for God to save people, but rather pray to people that they might accept God.

Here is one last link if you want to think about another question this might raise.

I hope this has been helpful and biblical. Let’s rejoice in the amazing grace of our great God!

The Fountain of our Faith: God or Man? (Part 5)

2007-03-09T11:09:00.000Z

Why and how does anyone get saved if they are unable to exercise faith in their fallen condition? [see parts 1, 2, & 3, & 4] This post may be a bit longer than the others, but I trust it will be worth the time.

The answer that the bible gives is that people are saved by grace through faith, which is a gift given by God and rooted in election.

Here is the experience of some in the book of Acts:
Acts 13.48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

From this we see that believing is a consequence and not the cause of God’s election/choosing/appointing. It is also clear that it is a limited number who are ordained to life, otherwise the words ‘as many as’ would be pointless and meaningless. And, finally, we can see that everyone who was appointed will certainly believe as ALL who were appointed DID believe.

In Acts again we see that the heart of Lydia was opened by God so that she believed the message of the gospel Paul brought ( 16.14).

In John’s first epistle in chapter 5 verse 1 he writes, ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.’ John uses a present tense verb meaning continuous ongoing action when he speaks of believing in Christ. He then uses what is called a perfect tense verb referring to being born of God. This means an action that took place in the past with present and ongoing effects. That’s to say they were born previous to believing, but the effect is sustained. So again we see that belief is an effect and not the cause of the new birth.

The apostle Peter speaks of those who are saved as being foreknown by God (1 Peter 1.1-2). This word does not speak merely of knowledge, but of a relationship. ‘To know’ in the scriptures means more than having information in your head. Adam knew Eve and a baby boy was the result! Some would say that ‘forelove’ would be a fair and adequate translation. To say that God foreknowing people means he looks down the corridor of time and sees who will choose him and he THEN elects them cannot be what this means. For one thing, this goes against all that we have looked at concerning the condition of man and his will. Also, this same word is used to refer to Christ in 1 Peter 1.20. This is just 18 verses away from Peter’s use of it in reference to Christians. If we are to be constant in our interpretation, if it means God looks ahead in time and sees who will choose him, then it would also mean that he looks ahead in time and realises that Christ is going to be the Messiah, though he hadn’t necessarily planned or intended that. Serious issues there friends.

We get the clearest picture from the apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus. First, we’ll consider some passages from the letters of Paul.

2Th. 2.13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

Paul gives thanks for the Thessalonians because God chose them to be saved.

2Tim. 1.9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

This is, perhaps, one of the most explicit. It is according to God’s purpose and grace (not influenced by any outside source, determined only by himself) that salvation comes. Here we get a good picture into the extreme God-focus of God. God is the centre of everything, not man. Salvation is to be God-focused, not man-focused.

Again in 2 Timothy:
2Tim. 2.24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Repentance is something that God must grant, otherwise it will not happen.

And, lastly from Paul, Eph 1.3-5 -
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Here again we see the purpose of God’s will being the driving force in salvation.

A few passages from the life of Christ.

First, Matthew 11.20 and following. Here Christ denounces the cities that have rejected him. One would think this would be cause for sorrow and despair that no one is receiving Christ, yet his response is one of thanks to the Father because of his purpose in election and choosing who will be saved (vs. 25ff). And then, in the very next verse (28) he invites everyone to come to him for salvation. In these few verses we have a clear statement on election coupled with a free offer of the gospel to all people.

A second passage is from John 6. 37-65 (esp. 37-40, 44, 65). Christ speaks of three impossibilities here. It is impossible to come unless the Father draws (44, 65). It is impossible for someone who the Father calls not to come (37). It is impossible to be cast out or lost if you do come (37).

A few thoughts to close (this lengthy post). Does this mean that God shows favouritism? If by that you mean that some are chosen and others are not, yes. If by that you mean God chooses because of something in or about us, thus showing favouritism towards certain people, no.

Grace is sovereign. That is to say, it is optional in its exercise and extent. Although God is gracious in his eternal being, he need not be gracious toward or shower his grace upon anyone. If grace were at any time an obligation of God, it would cease to be grace. God’s grace, therefore, is distinguishing. He graciously saves some but not all, not based on anything present in the creature either possible or actual, foreseen or foreordained, but wholly according to his sovereign good pleasure.

It is only here that the glory of God’s grace is preserved. Listen (actually read) to the words of Berkouwer contrasting synergism and monergism.

[monergism - a divine blessing purchased by Christ for those the Father has given him. A grace working independently of any human cooperation. It is in contrast to synergism, the view that there is a cooperation between the efforts of the human and the divine in regards to the regenerating process.]

Remember our goal in preserving the glory of God’s grace:
Berkouwer - in no form of synergism is it possible to escape the conclusion that man owes his salvation not solely to God but also to himself. Still more accurately, he may thank himself--by virtue of his decision to believe--that salvation actually and effetively becomes his in time and eternity. To be sure, synergism is constantly seeking to avoid this conclusion, and it is seldom expressed in so many words that salvation really depends partly on man. Nevertheless, this conclusion cannot in the long run be avoided and it is clear that we actually are confronted here with the real problem of synergism as it results in a certain amount of humon self-conceit.

R.C. Sproul says - loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds his holy love in our hearts, unless he stoops in his grace to change our hearts we will not love him. To love a holy God requires grace. Grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and to awaken our moribund (approaching death or a final end) souls.

I will leave you with the words of William Guthrie, a Scottish Covenanter who in reference to his book The Christian’s Great Interest (from which this quote is taken) John Owen (the leading theologian in Britain in the 17th century, his works fill 23 500 page volumes) said ‘I have written several folios, but there is more divinity in this little book than in them all.’ He writes:

although none at all do cordially close with God in Christ Jesus, and acquiesce in that ransom found out by God, except only such as are elected and whose hearts the Lord sovereignly determines to that blessed choice; yet the Lord has left it as a duty upon people who hear this gospel, to close with His offer of salvation through Christ Jesus, as if it were in their power to do it; and the Lord, through these commands and exhortations conveys life and strength to the elect, and therein conveys the new heart unto them, which points kindly towards this new device of saving sinner, and towards Christ in His covenant relations; for it is the Lord’s mind, in these commands and invitations, to put people on some duty, with which He uses to concur for accomplishing that business between Him and them; so then, it is a coming on our part, and yet a drawing on His part; it is a drawing on His part and a running on our part; it is an approaching on our part, and yet a choosing and causing to approach on His part; it is a believing or receiving on our part and yet it is given us to believe.

One more post to go.

The Fountain of our Faith: God or Man? (Part 4)

2007-03-08T16:54:00.000Z

The freedom of man’s will is our next topic following on from the previous posts (1, 2, & 3).

Here is the best definition that I have found on this subject - man’s free will means that all have the ability to choose as one pleases.

I think most everyone would be happy with that definition. It affirms choice and decision-making capabilities as well as the liberty to do what we like.

So why do we make the choices we do? It is the influence of our heart, desires, motives, as well as external circumstances that inform and persuade the will to choose as it does. To say it another way, the will chooses based upon the strongest motive at the moment - the strongest inclination of the heart or mind at the moment. Consequentially it is not entirely free, but rather serves the mind or heart, our desires. It is not, and cannot be, neutral. A neutral will would involve choice without desire which is like having an effect without any cause.

In one sense then, to say the will is free is not entirely accurate because it is always subservient to something else. But to define it as the ability to choose as one please, I think, takes those other things into account.

[If you would like to read a short more philosophical explanation you can look here]

Would a sinful human being ever be pleased, or his or her own accord, in and of him/herself to choose Christ? Would someone be happy to renounce their own self dependence in favour of surrendering everything they are to Christ and desiring the he increase and they decrease?

I think scripture clearly informs us that this would not be the case. Man left to himself will not, yea, cannot, indeed, does not wish, verily, would never be able to choose Christ, but he would be absolutely free in this decision.

A few quotes to close this post.

First, Martin Luther -
[T]hat is, a man void of the Spirit of God, does not evil against his will as by violence, or as if he were taken by the neck and forced to it, in the same way as a thief or cut-throat is dragged to punishment against his will; but he does it spontaneously, and with a desirous willingness. And this willingness and desire of doing evil he cannot, by his own power, leave off, restrain, or change; but it goes on still desiring and craving. And even if he should be compelled by force to do any thing outwardly to the contrary, yet the craving will within remains averse to, and rises in indignation against that which forces or resists it.

Second, Sam Storms - author of this most helpful book -
But doesn’t God give each of us the opportunity to believe? Doesn’t he confront us with the gospel and say, “Believe in order that you may have life”? Yes, he does. But mankind always, invariably, inevitably, without pause, but no less willingly and voluntarily, says no. Note well. I am not saying that, when confronted with the gospel, a person cannot exercise his or her will. All of us have a will and we are all capable of exercising it in the making of choices. What I am saying is that, when confronted with the gospel, we cannot will well. We are not kept from believing against our wills.

The next question this raises? If man is so dead-set against God and would never choose him in and of himself, how in the world do people get saved?

I’m glad you asked...

The Fountain of our Faith: God or Man? (Part 3)

2007-03-08T16:35:00.000Z

Picking up where we left off (part 1, part 2), what do the scriptures say about the condition of man? Is he able to choose Christ? Indeed, would he ever desire to choose Christ?

Let’s see...what does the bible say about man’s natural condition?

Man is blind - 2 Cor 4.1-6
Man is a slave - Rom 6.20, John 8.32-34
Man is immobile in coming to Christ - John 6.44
Man is dead - Eph 2.1
Man’s will is impotent - John 1.13, Rom 9.16
Man does not seek God - Rom 3.11
Man is an enemy of God - 5.10
Man’s mind is death - Rom 8.6
Man is at enmity with God - Rom 8.7
Man cannot please God - Rom 8.8
Man is not able to understand the things of God - 1 Cor 2.14

Again, for our purposes here I don’t think comment is necessary on these verses. They are explicit. What does the bible say about man’s ability to come to Christ? He cannot and will not come.

BUT, does not man have free will? Does this make humans robots? Why does it matter what anyone does then? Why are any held accountable for not doing something that they are unable to do? [Paul answers that last question in Romans 9.19-23]

YES, man does have free will, BUT we must define what we mean by free will. I trust with the passages above that we will agree that it cannot mean ‘the ability to choose Christ.’

More on free will next time.

The Fountain of our Faith: God or Man? (Part 2)

2007-03-08T11:45:00.000Z

Last post we looked at Paul’s comparison of coming to Christ for salvation with the creative acts of God ‘in the beginning.’

In this post I want to answer 1 question and leave you with 1 question.

A brief preface to this post, perhaps to give a secondary reason for doing these posts (the first was to magnify the grace of God if you have forgotten already). I want us to think less highly about mankind (in many ways this is one of the biggest problems in talking with people, both Christian and non-Christian, they have too high of an opinion of man), and I want us to think more highly about God. For, indeed, we can never think too highly of God.

Now, the question to answer: Do commands in scripture imply the ability to fulfill them?

An initial human instinct may be to say, ‘Well, of course they do, otherwise why would God give them. It wouldn’t be fair for him to ask us to do something we can’t do, would it?” [footnote: this is perhaps the BIG question at the end of the day. I’m not going to deal with it here, but to think briefly about it: God did not sit around thinking ‘What can I command them to do that they are unable to do?’ Rather, he is supremely holy and cannot dwell with or tolerate sin. God’s holiness demands our perfection, irregardless if we have the ability to obtain it either through works or through faith borne out of ourselves. In his grace God provided a Redeemer in Jesus Christ and the question wasn’t ‘What is mankind capable of?’ but rather ‘What does mankind need?’ - end footnote]

That [a command implies ability] may seem logical, but is it biblical. If we think merely about the 10 commandments. Did God expect his people, indeed all people, to keep these. Absolutely. Has anyone been able to keep them? Has anyone even been close? Is there the possibility that someone down the road might keep them (these are rhetorical questions)?

Paul says that the law was added because of transgressions (Gal 3.19). So God adds a law demanding perfection to a people full of transgressions?

What about some other commands in scripture? Here are a few:

Deut. 10.16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

Jer. 4.4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.”

Ezek. 18.31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?

Matt. 14.16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

1Pet. 1.16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Luke 7.13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

John 11.43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

And you can add to that literally all of the commands of Christ to lame people to get up and walk, etc.

I don’t think anything really needs to be added to the reading of these passages. Clearly there are things asked here that cannot be done by the hearers.

To logically deduce that a command implies ability is to be unbiblical. Though I won’t do it here, it could probably be argued that the commands listed above, with all of the others given to us, at one level, are to help us see that we can’t do anything.

Now, we are thinking specifically related to the command to believe in Christ Jesus for salvation.

So, I leave you with this question. If we can’t affirm that a command implies ability, do the scriptures teach that man has the ability to choose Christ?

More to come...

The Fountain of our Faith: God or Man? (Part 1)

2007-03-07T16:26:00.000Z

This is the first of what will be 4-6 posts on the issue of God’s grace in salvation. My goal, to magnify the grace of God, to make much of the glory of God’s grace which we can see in the dignity and excellency of the gift it bestows: salvation in Jesus; the degree of horror from which it delivers us: eternal punishment; the immeasurable unworthiness of those on whom it is lavished; the manner by which it was given: through the incarnation, humiliation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. It is this grace, that in salvation leaves us with no room for boasting. We can not bring anything to the table or add anything to the salvation that God provides (Eph 2.8-9).

To begin, I want to consider Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4.

2Cor. 4.1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants* for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul here strikingly compares what happens in salvation with the creation of the world. Seeing the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is just as easily done as creating light when there was only darkness. To see the beauty of Christ and desire Christ is to have something (faith) where there was once nothing. Or, in other words, something is created that was not there before. This begs the question of who possesses this creative power.

John Piper writes - This means that in the dark and troubled heart of unbelief, God does what he did in the dark and unformed creation at the beginning of our world. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. So he says to the blind and dark heart, “Let there be light,” and there is light in the heart of the sinner. In this light we see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

This creative act, just as creation itself, is something that is beyond the ability of man. For me to create light such that I see Christ’s beauty and desire to come to him for salvation is just as likely as me creating a new universe or world in the lounge this evening.

Listen to Paul’s explanation of how he got saved in Galatians 1.

Gal. 1.13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles...

It was the revealing of the Son. It was sight where there was blindness, light where darkness.

Well, more to come on this. Here are some questions we’ll look at in the coming posts:
- Does the command to believe upon Christ imply the ability?
- Does scripture teach that humans have the ability to, in and of themselves, to believe upon Christ?
- Does man have free will? If so, what does that mean?
- Why are people saved? How do people get saved?
- and many more, which if I listed them here would give too much away (as if any of it is really a secret, it’s all in the bible for any to see).

Anything he hits... he destroys!

2007-03-06T00:46:00.000Z

Yep, more Rocky. I make no apologies though. If you're anything like me, then the discovery (finally!) of this wonderful, maximum-bombast version of the motivational classic 'Hearts On Fire' by Springsteen rip-off legend John Cafferty will be greeted with utter, unbridled delight. Forget the faded-out versions you already have on repeat down at the gym, this one takes you along the icy path, out of the reach of the hapless KGB minders, and straight up to the top of the mountain. Get this on your mp3 player and you'll have to literally tie yourself to your chair, such will be your desire to work out. Altogether now... DRAGOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh, and by the way folks, if you happen to be either specifically looking for old posts (you know who you are), or rather unspecifically at the loosest of ends, then just click on the 'archives' down the right hand column of this page. You'll find all the old posts there; and let me just say this is one rainbow that does have a pot of gold at the end.

Help, for those who care...

2007-03-05T14:46:00.000Z

Before we get into the series of posts on 'The Fountain of Our Faith: God or Man?' I want to give some help to those who are still pursuing and hunting down the answers to the last competition, which carries the prize of a first American edition of William Taylor's 'The Scottish Pulpit.' The question had to do with the exegetical society of which Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a part. I was looking for the two books that had a copy or picture of their original charter document. There were a few attempts, but I feel that no one will be able to answer it (does that make it a legitimate offer? more on this in the coming posts).

So...here are your two EXTREMELY helpful clues.

1. One book is about Andrew Bonar and the other book is about M'Cheyne.

2. The Bonar book was published in the late 1800s and the M'Cheyne book in the last 5 years.

If you look up titles online and just throw them all at me until you get it right I may not look favourably upon that.

And one last thing, this will only go until this next Sunday, and I've been offered quite a nice prize myself in exchange for the book. So if no winner by Sunday, I'll take the current offer that is on the table. I'm not like God in that I can and do show favoritism:) More on that in the coming posts as well. Cheerio.

A phd in foosbol? You better believe it

2007-03-02T14:11:00.000Z

They're handing out phds for pretty much anything these days, so I'm told. Matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see them offered on the back of my Ricicles box sometime soon (no purchase necessary, of course. Btw, does anyone know why this rule is always enforced? Does it mean I could insist upon a chance in the lottery without actually buying a ticket?). Don't believe me? (I'm now referring to the statement made pre-bracket). How's about these apples - the University of Birmingham is now seeking applications from any academically-minded charlatans who fancy doing a (fully funded, of course) thesis on the science of table football. 'Manipulate the competitive environment?' I could do that - just stick one of my socks in the goals. Or cut a big hole in the pitch, that'd do it. 'Enhance our understanding of the physiological correlates of winning and losing?' Done: winning = good, losing = bad. 'Determine the relationship between psychophysiological reactivity to competition and individual differences in dispositional competitiveness'. Easy - it's problematic, and demanding of further inquiry. Result.
It's a funny old game.

Tempus Fugit - Bitesize!

2007-02-14T00:57:00.000Z

Talk about causing a stir - I'd dare to say that there hasn't been as much stirring (or whisking) going on since the Angel Delight (or Instant Whip if your parents were cheapskates)-obsessed days of the early to mid 80s. I'm talking, of course, about the Tempus Fugit restaurant reviews. And I don't just mean from official 'friend of the blog', Dr Timothy 'Dr Hilary' Bennett, either. Well actually I do. Anyway, to save a bit of grafting on my part, and, more importantly, to give me an excuse to use this cool photo, I thought I'd give you a few more of my guaranteed-to-be-amazing eatery suggestions, dans small size. There may well be a full-blown Tempus update soon, so watch out for that.

Tres expensif - Gleneagles Hotel & General Country Fancy Place, Gleneagles, Perthshire www.gleneagles.com

Watch out on those cycle paths! No, seriously, do watch out because I hear they can be treacherous, especially with diplomats around. Otherwise, fill your boots with great grub in this palatial Scottish paradise (as 'Graham' from Blind Date may well have said). Afternoon tea is up there with the Old Course Hotel, St Andrews and a few other less well-known but far better places as amongst the best in Scotland. It’s bloomin’ top notch nosh, but at around £20 quid (price varies depending on where in the hotel you take it) you will definitely want to take an empty stomach, and to fill up your belly with at least a week’s supply of sandwiches and cakes. Otherwise, Andrew Fairlie’s reputation precedes him but someone else will have to be paying, The Strathearn seems at first to be as stuffy as a morgue in a heatwave but actually isn’t that bad (there are too many Americans for them to get away with that) and the Club is great fun but maybe not special enough for a day trip. Actually, forget that – the village of Gleneagles and its surrounding countryside is so picturesque that it would be worth coming here just to get a double whopper meal (maybe not a single whopper meal… it’s immaterial though as there isn’t a Burger King around for miles). Anyway, just get yourself up here and enjoy the lovely part of Scotland, any further up the A9/M90 and everything just gets a bit too barren (sorry cheuchters).

Tres tres reasonable - Yen Rotunda, Glasgow www.yenrotunda.com

Ok, let's be realistic. You’re not going to traipse across to the recorded birthplace of 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper just to visit this place. Indifferent grief, you wouldn't even do it if it actually was Rowdy Roddy's place of birth (shattering illusions is Indexing's business, I'm afraid - 'Hot Rod' was born in Saskatoon and raised in Winnipeg. His actual name was Roderick George Toombs as well). However, should you ever be attending something at the SECC (Journey are there early in March FYI, with Michael Bolton stealing hearts later the same month), then I'd beseech you to give it a shot. From the outside, it doesn't look all that great (it actually says 'Casino' in neon lights, although why I have not a clue), although the actual history of the building is really interesting. Inside, though, the place is as smart as a parrot in a tuxedo. Downstairs and it's teppanyaki (lots of fun in a big group, not really pre-show fare) but upstairs it's a really nice oriental dining hall with a great menu, and typically lightening-fast oriental service, albeit a bit classier than you may be expecting (dress code is no problem though - when I go there's always lots of people in Yes or Pink Floyd T-shirts, depending on the occasion. Sometimes 'Scottish Job Fair’ shirts too, more depressingly).

Best thing about this place? The menu has a Japanese section, a Cantonese section, and a Thai section. So you have the option to look cool and sophisticated should the situation require it (early date etc). Or you can just get sweet and sour chicken balls and chips. The decision... is yours (for those who pay attention to what they're reading).

Tres fair enough - Crab Sandwich, Holy Island, Lindisfarne (no website - it's just some woman in her kitchen)

Is there anything more middle class than a day trip to Lindisfarne? Well, if there is, let me know, because although I don’t often use the word ‘rather’ in casual conversation, I do have a travel rug and a Volkswagen golf umbrella ready and waiting. All I know is, despite not actually having a soul, or even a personality of any kind, the Passat intuitively felt right at home as it crossed over to the island, kind of like D.A.R.Y.L did even though he wasn’t technically a real boy. It really is a great place to visit though. History literally seeps out of every pore (insert appropriate simile here, I was thinking fast food restaurant staff but you can maybe come up with better), and there's so much to see that the normally tortuous act of walking actually becomes almost pleasant, albeit fleetingly. It's also a bit of a rip-off merchant's paradise, especially when it comes to grub (I’m not paying Jersey prices for a poncy tidal island), so keep up with the Jones' and bring a thermos and fancy lunch box (I suppose your old yellow He-Man lunchbox would do, but you'll be surprised at just how small it looks now), and then head over in the direction of the castle. Before you reach the harbour, the last house on your left will have an open back door. Make an exclamation of some kind. With any luck, a little old lady will come out, and in exchange for about a pound, give you a sandwich positively filled to bursting with fresh crab meat. Now, I'll be honest here - I haven't eaten one of these in my life because I find the mere thought of them repugnant, and because I generally stick to the rule that if it isn't battered or smoked, it should be thrown back into the sea. However, far be it from me to let me own prejudices influence Tempus. If you like seafood at all, I am certain you will absolutely love these things, and in terms of value for money it's surely the best deal in Britain.

Mentions honorables (honourable mentions)

The Rocks, Dunbar, East Lothian http://experiencetherocks.co.uk

Dunbar is another great place for a day trip, (especially as it's only £2 return on the aforementioned Megatrain - all you 'I don't have a car' bleaters really have no excuse). It's a real old coastal town, and the influence of Oliver Cromwell - now there's a man worthy of his own blog post - can still be keenly felt (ie a lot of the place is in ruins). It has a couple of golf courses which are, unusually, great for strolls (especially the West course which forms part of the cliff-top walkway) and, appropriately, being home to John Muir, has a fantastic country park too. The best thing is, it has some great places to munch, with one of them being this place. It maybe isn't quite as 'homely' as the Open Arms at Dirleton (that figures I suppose) but it has its own atmos and also features some great grub, albeit without the great deals of some other places. A guy at my work who lives in Dunbar also highly recommends one of the town's chippies, and I have no reason to doubt him on that, although I know not of which one he refers to. I’m sure you could have great fun trying to work it out though.

Ye Olde Peacock Inn, Newhaven, Edinburgh (no website, silly - what part of 'Ye Olde' do you not understand?)

This place is already something of an institution at Carrubbers, a status owed in no small part to the far-reaching influence of the wider Warden clan. Basically, this place is one of a kind, a trip back in time via the number 11 bus. Well, at least a trip to a time where massive fishes were caught and immediately battered and served to hungry patrons like us, probably not actually a time any of our ancestry ever lived through. Mind you, it would explain why our fishing stocks are supposedly in such crisis. Anyway, I hear that their other dishes are pretty good, but in my mind to ask for anything other than fish de massive dans batter avec rubbish frozen chips in a bowl cause le fish fills le plate is utter madness bordering on blasphemy (not really, touchy). Not to worry, though, the elderly clientele who fill this place every single day (so, as I've said before, you know it's good) know the score and stick to their fish tea - actually, I sometimes wonder whether half the things on the menu even actually exist, or whether the requesting of, say, cajun chicken, requires a hasty dash to the local Scotmid. Anyway, the fish is just amazing, and call me an old fashioned dinosaur if you want, but the fact that there still exists a 'ladies portion' warms the cockles no end. Don't worry Germaine Greer - the ladies portion is still absolutely humongous, just a little smaller than the large portion. Of course, you folks being the discerning connoisseurs of fine cuisine that you are, will without hesitation plump for the 'whale', which is significantly more sizeable than both (but hilariously still comes with only one lemon segment with which to garnish - which, to put into some sort of perspective, is like being given one crayola crayon to re-paint the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel).

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Compo Time - My Turn

2007-02-08T08:17:00.000Z

Ok folks, it's competition time again, though the prize is far different than anything before offered. It is certainly in character, just as DC's were. As an aside, I'd probably be quite happy to write on any subject that you may offer, without demanding that someone answer a question that is known by only a few Hyper-Bruford fans. Anyhow, this competition is for a book, yes this is Mikey posting here, called "The Scottish Pulpit."

It was written by William Taylor in 1887. What of this book? It covers the period from the Reformation up to the end of the 19th century. The material is fantastic and insightful. I know of at least one Doctor of Ministry programme in the US that requires this for their course. Much more could be said, but hopefully that will wet your appetite. It has recently been reprinted in paperback, but to find a first edition is almost impossible. But, believe it or not, here we have to offer an American first edition of Taylor's work published in 1887. So, you may wonder, what question could possibly merit such a prize? Well, I'm glad you wondered that, becuase here it is:

In 1838 Robert Murray M'Cheyne was part of a group of students at Edinburgh University that started the Exegetical Society. There were 9 members in all (at the time of it's inception). If you google from the information I've given you, you will quickly find the list of names and a picture of a copy of the original document with their names. What books contain a copy or picture of this document? There are 2 that I am aware of, perhaps more. Happy hunting.

Join on the choo-choo

2007-02-07T00:51:00.000Z

I know what you're going to say, so you needn't bother - you come to Indexing to get away from all the crass, rampant commercialism which so blights the World Wide Web, and even (perhaps especially) blogs. You take solace in a world free of banners, 'buy here' links and (whisper it) pop-up adds, and you are reduced to a quivering wreck at the mere thought of this last bastion of the Marxist dream (without the enforced atheism) selling out to the moguls. Hear me out, though - this is a money-saving tale worth telling.

Maybe you've already heard of it, but I doubt it - the marketing policy is a strange one it seems, strange as in 'let's not tell anyone about this, or we'll go bust'. I hadn't until the other day, and no one I know had either, but that's all about to change. I'm talking about Megatrain. You'll have heard of Megabus probably - the company which allows you to sit on horrible old buses for ages so you can get somewhere cheap - well this is its sister company, and it works by exactly the same principles, except excitingly (albeit somewhat predictably) it uses trains. And not just crummy horrible megatrain trains, oh no - crummy horrible proper Virgin trains. Have a look for yourself: Edinburgh to Manchester return? That'll be £2 please, if you book at least a couple of days in advance (£25 tops). There's no Edinburgh-Glasgow or Edinburgh-London admittedly, but who cares when the home of our very own Barnesy Boy Kwant (Carlisle) is within reach for the price of a Whopper Junior (that's right, not even a real one)? Anyway, we'd better exploit this lunacy as soon as possible, cause someone's bound to try and get it shut down sooner or later, and my (metaphorical, of course) bet is on sooner.

Thompo Wins The Compo 29/1/07

2007-01-29T13:09:00.000Z

May I pass on my heartfelt congratulations to Mr A Thompson of Fountainbridge for answering the question (see below) correctly and winning the prize, which he is free to claim at any time - unless I die (in case of which I've already discussed a contingency plan with Anna Luehrmann and she's kindly agreed to write it) or for some other reason lose my blog-posting privileges in the meantime. The drummer was indeed Bill Bruford, sometime Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and Earthworks stickman, pictured playing actually with 2 Simmons SDX drum kits (that's SIXTEEN pads in all folks) on 1989's Yes-spinoff Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe tour. If you look closely, you may also see, amongst other things, a 24-inch Paiste gong and an acoustic Tama snare drum for emergencies (asides from being brilliantly designed and light years ahead of their time, Simmons kits were notoriously unreliable), such as occurred on the 15th July 1991 at, of all places, Madison Square Garden on the behemoth of a tour that was the Yes 'Union'. On said occasion, both kits simultaneously failed and and poor old Bill was left to fend off Alan 'Lightning' White in a drum battle with only said snare and the cymbals. Alas the lot of the electric percussionist. Acoustic drum fans can laugh at poor Bill's expense here, although I must warn you the picture quality is useless. To see the SDX's in all their glory, though, click here.

Oh, and by the way Andrew, if you'd like to suggest a further blog post on the rise and fall and rise again (the last rise being somewhat metaphorical, applying as it does only to that in my estimations) of the hapless, financially suicidal geniuses of Simmons, then you need only ask.

Did somebody say... montage?

2007-01-19T11:20:00.000Z

It's Competition Time! ANSWERED - 28/01/2007

2007-01-17T13:05:00.000Z

Good grief this is exciting. Since time immemorial, man has sought to attain but one accolade - that is, to become a winner of an Index blog competition. Many have battled in vain for such an award. Naomi Davidson won (amidst some controversy) the last and is now all the richer for having seen the mighty Asia dans concerto. But now, as if it were possible, the stakes have been raised even higher (I'd say the stakes are now at least eight feet in height). For, friends, the prize metaphorically dangling in front of your eyes now is the chance to rewrite a little bit of history (the history of the future, looking back to now). If, and I mean if, you can correctly answer the following question, then you will win the right to propose a topic about which I must write in a future blog post. That's right, whatever you'd like to be featured in this blog (bearing in mind this is a blog representing Index - which means, as far as I'm aware, that it can have a tittle but not too much tattle), will be, albeit in the DC style. So it may be something of an 'irreverent' look, depending on the subject - that will be up to me, you only get to choose the subject. Goodness I didn't think it would be this complicated. Anyway, maybe it's a serious topic you think folks (and me) need to know about. Maybe it's something you'd like to know more about but can't be bothered to research yourself. Whatever, I'll do all the work. Sounds good? Here's that all important question.

What kind of magnificent drumkit is featured in this photograph, and who is behind (and in front) of it?

No one who can view the script of this blog is allowed to enter (that means you Mikey). Otherwise, happy hunting. Oh, and to any drumming buffs out there, I know that, technically, this picture shows two kits, but you know what I mean.