At the moment he’s talking about how awesome God is. He quoted these verses…

Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed Him as His counselor?

Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way?

Who was it that taught Him knowledge, or showed Him the path of understanding?

- Isaiah 40:13-14

He points out how amazing things are that God has done. Look at the incredible things He has made. Could we have helped God out as a consultant? Could we have given advice on how to make things better?

Duh, no!

Yet we continually want to give God advice on the providential working of things.

I guess we would never actually say it, but we seem to think God could use a bit of our wisdom to better plan things that are going wrong in our lives.

Those thoughts woke me up. It’s so easy to think about how things could be better managed.  But to think we could run things better than God is the dumbest idea going.

He is wise and loving. And we can trust in that.

Sometimes it’s a scary thought that our love for God is measured by how we relate to other people.

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

“And this command we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

1 John 4:20-21

I recently finished reading Humility by Andrew Murray. Not that I needed to, I’ve already got humble.

(Just kidding.)

The thing about humility, as the author points out, is that it’s not so hard to assume a posture of humility before God, the hard thing is keeping an attitude of humility with all the people. Humility isn’t just a train of thought, it’s part of your nature. Or not, as the case may be.

The Example

He starts out the book talking about our greatest example, Jesus Christ, and how He came to earth in humility. If anyone didn’t need to be humble, it was the God Man.

And yet He acted and spoke with humility. I find that pretty damning. I’ve got nothing to be proud of, and I struggle with this. Jesus was the King and Creator of everything, and He was always humble.

It was not His will, it was not His words. It was the will and the words of the Father. Even to the point of death…

“He humbled Himself and became obedient to death.”

Philippians 2:8

God Exulted

You want to be exalted by God? Then get humble.

“He who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 14:11

And…

“Whoever humbles himself… is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:4

Why is humility such a big deal? Because it’s about ascribing the praise to God. He actually deserves it, unlike us who were given everything we have.

“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”

1 Corinthians 4:7

It goes against everything in our fleshly bodies to give the praise away, instead of heaping it up for ourselves. But like all God’s commands, what He says to do is really the best thing for us.

“But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

James 4:6

May God get all the glory!

Time To Be Men

I’ve done an audio recording (above) of the post so you can listen instead of reading it. It’s just a trial I thought I’d do as I’ve been making a lot of audio for my business lately. Let me know if it’s something you like or if you’d just rather read it. Cheers.

This post is about manning up. Us young guys need to get serious about becoming the men God expects us to be, and the men our future lives will require. If you’re a girl it doesn’t all apply to you, but us guys around you need all the encouragement you can give to help us reject the world’s plan (because really, the odds are stacked against us).

The Village

Imagine we live in a village, 700 years ago. You know the kind of place… quaint houses, thatched roofs, a stone bridge over the river, livestock in wooden pens, and a friendly market. A lovely peaceful place.

The problem is the barbarians. They attack the village to pillage and plunder. It’s always unpredictable and out of the blue. At first the attacks weren’t so bad, but over the last few years they’ve gotten less frequent, but more severe. And there are murmurs that a huge horde is planning to come and overrun the countryside.

To defend themselves the village raises their own militia. The king of the country has an army, but that is far away and would never arrive at this little village in time to defend it from a raid.

The young men in the village are required to train to fight. This has worked well in previous generations. The young men grew up able to fight for their families, and could spend most of their lives going about their peaceful business.

But this current generation is different. For the most part they don’t take training seriously. They don’t see the fight with the barbarians as a big deal. And as for the rumours of a large attack, they’re just too distant for them to worry about.

Most of the guys do the bare minimum of training that the leaders require. While they are there, they sit in the back and goof off. They hardly listen, they skive off and they don’t practice.

As a result, they’re useless at fighting. When the barbarians come, these louts, and anyone depending on them, are going to be in serious trouble.

Battle Raging

Of course our fight is a little different. We’re not threatened with physical violence. The violence against us is spiritual.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

- Ephesians 6:12

Like the young men in the village we have a threat against ourselves and our future families. There is a force who will come to pillage and plunder and even to annihilate. If we are not prepared to stand up and fight it, then both ourselves and those we are supposed to protect will be destroyed.

There Aren’t Many Men

I often think about how right Elrond (the old elf in Lord Of The Rings) was when he summed up his thoughts on the ability of men to defend Middle Earth with,

“Men are weak.”

It’s true. There are so few good men. There are so few who commit to fight.

And it’s true there is a war out there. The world hates God. It hates His institutions, the church and family. It hates marriage, it hates good parenting. Everywhere God’s plan is under attack from the devil.

As the old quote goes, evil flourishes as good men do nothing.

A Higher Calling

We have a high calling.

Primarily we are to glorify God and love Him with all of our being. Beyond that it’s our family we have to serve first (and by serving them we serve God). We’re likely to marry and have children (some are called to singleness 1 Cor 7, but obviously most of us aren’t). At that point loving and sanctifying our wife and raising our children to fear God become our most important responsibilities.

The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) was the most important commands to Israel. Jesus backed it up and also said it was the most important. Both immediately before and after it was the command to teach your children to fear God, and to teach these commands to your children.

Why so important? Because this has everything to do with God’s kingdom. This is when the majority of the next generation is won or lost. The battle for the future is right here.

In Ephesians 5:25-33 it tells us that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. The standard of love is perfection. They are to love their wife as much as their own bodies. They have to sanctify their wife by washing her with the Word.

The point is, your future family is going to be your number one priority. And the biggest part of that priority is helping them be more like Christ.

The problem is it’s too late to learn how to fight when the barbarians get here. If you’re going to love and protect your family as well as is possible, then you’re going to train for it in your youth and early adult life. (I’m not saying that a guy who only wakes up later in life can’t do a good job. With God’s grace he can, but he’s always going to be at a big disadvantage, and that’s if he ever does wake up.)

Difference

In JC Ryle’s classic Thoughts For Young Men, he spends the first chapter talking about how young men have the worst reputation of any group in society. They are the most likely to be drunk, in criminal trouble, causing car accidents, reviling God and so on.

If your life is going to be God pleasing it’s going to be completely different than the lives of other young men. You’re going to be in God’s Word when they’re into something else. You’re going to be the guy who hasn’t seen that movie. You’ll be the one who looks away when a skimpy girl walks past. You’ll be the one who doesn’t put playing or watching sport as a life priority. Yeah, of course you can have fun and some pleasure time, but that pleasure will never come before the things that are important.

Let me put it simply… you’re not going to be cool.

It ends up, the cool people are losers.

Missing In Action

The average guy in the world is growing up to go to hell. Obviously our lives shouldn’t look like his.

Well what about the “average Christian guy?” (And by average Christian guy I’m talking about what statistics tell us about a normal church going guy who claims to be a Christian.)

The average Christian guy will have a youth and early adult life that is the beginning of a train wreck. He will waste most of his discretionary (free) time doing things that are worthless or harmful. His major life decisions (education, career, marriage) will be based around what will give him pleasure. He will do a number of immoral things that will mar his entire life; most likely sex before marriage and probably with someone who does not become his wife.

Most of his life will be damaged by pornography and lust. He is most likely to eventually find a girl he likes enough to marry and have a few kids. He will make a poor choice of who to marry, based mostly on looks and personality with no thought about godliness. His children will grow up with no real relationship with God and no Bible training at home. Instead he will send them to be trained by people with beliefs which are completely opposed to the Bible and hostile towards God. The children will be rebellious and uncontrollable and will be involved with drugs and immorality and end up with children outside of marriage. He will most likely be divorced at least once.

By the end of his life he will either have realised he was never a Christian and completely reject God. Or, he will still believe in God in his pitifully uncommitted way and be in a state of denial about his responsibility. Or, he will look back with bitter regret at the mess he’s made of his life and the lives of everyone he loves; his only consolation will be that God’s grace is able to cover his sins, but that doesn’t say anything about the children who were never raised for God or the wife he never helped to sanctify.

That is what is normal. That is what your life can look like when you want to fit in with the crowd… mangled wreckage.

The saddest part is that those twisted, burnt out, and bent up carriages aren’t just your life, they’re also your wives and children’s.

Hell In A Hand Basket

I read the other day that a gaming addiction is the number one cause of 15% of divorces. 3 out of 20 guys destroy their family by playing computer games too much. It’s called being a loser. That’s prime evidence that what we do in our youth echoes through the rest of our lives.

Have you seen the statistics for children who grow up fatherless (usually because of divorce)? I won’t throw all the numbers at you, but basically they are…

The vast majority of those in poverty (in the Western world).

The vast majority of violent criminals.

The vast majority of those expelled from schools.

And so on.

And don’t forget the huge number of divorces (even for “Christians”).

Every time I see these kind of things I have a voice in my head tell me… (I know it’s not cool to talk to yourself, but we’ve already busted that one) Luke, don’t you dare add to that mess. Don’t you even think about getting married and having kids if you’re not going to raise them for the Lord. You never get to walk away from it all. Not raising your family in the Lord is for blaggards. This IS the battle. Nothing else will ever matter more.

Training

I’ve had this quote on my wall for years…

“Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.”

It starts now.

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.”

-Psalm 119:9

You. Have. To. Know. The. Bible.

That’s your training. You have to know what the Bible says.

And you need a firm commitment to do whatever the Bible tells you to do. It’s not head knowledge, it’s a battle plan.

It’s not a game when you get up and study the Bible every day, it’s life and death.

The fact that this is how you glorify God and love Him should be enough of a motivation to get into the Bible. But if that’s not enough, you have to get into it because you’re going to be a man. You’re going to be ready to fight. You’re not going to add to the wreckage. You’re going to be a good and faithful servant. You’re going to defend your wife and children even if it costs you all of your youth and young adulthood and everything else.

Get Real

No matter how intentional you are, you will most likely end up with a wife and children.

The barbarians are coming. Will you have already put in the training so you are ready to defend that future family? Or will your lousy skills leave you unable to fight when those you love are dragged away, and ravaged, and slaughtered, while you watch powerlessly on?

At the Impact Bible Conference.

I’m so deeply blessed.

Last weekend was the Impact Bible conference. The theme was eternity. It was great to get the focus off all our short term goals and think about the real stuff… God’s Kingdom and glorifying Him forever.

A Trip To Hell

One sermon was called A Trip To Hell, and it was horrifying. It was preached with you imagining that you died and found out you’d been deceived, that you weren’t actually saved. The description was vivid and shocking. Hell fire burning you, and then going before the throne of judgement, and then being cast screaming into the lake of fire… FOREVER.

It made me think you would do absolutely anything to not go to hell. Of course there is nothing you can do. Only the blood of Jesus can stop you spending forever in that place.

Heaven an Unspeakable Reward

Then there was a message titled Heaven an Unspeakable Reward, which was off the other end of the scale. We know we don’t deserve any good, or anything, from the Saviour. But the reward that we will get is so far beyond what you could possibly even imagine we should get, even if we were perfect little angels!

“The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)

We will spend forever doing the greatest thing you could imagine… being with Jesus. (Plus all the glorified saints, too!)

Blessings

Eating at Impact!

There were dozens of things that really impacted me, to do with eternity, plus the discipleship seminars I went to. However, the biggest takeaway for me was to simply be more pleasing to God.

It’s an obvious thing, but a crucial one. It’s easy for it to drift out of focus. I was especially convicted to have pleasing God as my number one priority, all the time. When no one else knows, when I don’t feel like it, when it seems to get in the way of (silly) short term goals.

Bible study and stuff like that can easily become routine. I was reminded how it’s so much more. It’s treasure in heaven. It’s for the One I care most about.

The Impact messages will be available for free download in a few days. I highly recommend them!

Photos by Dale Thorne.

Ceilidh Dancing

Earlier in the year we put on a medieval themed party. During the evening we had Ceilidh dancing. This is a Celtic style of dancing which is a lot of raucous fun. Think stomping, clapping and Celtic music.

Friends taught it to us a few years ago. At first I was sceptical. Dancing seems like a worldly mine field (and for the most part it probably is). However Ceilidh turned out to be good, clean, family fun.  There’s nothing sensual about this dancing. The most intimate contact you get is holding hands.

But you do have partners. Usually a guy and a girl. So who will you dance with?

Couples

Once you go to words like couples and partners it sounds romantically charged. Even if only a little. We like to avoid any complications by sticking to partners within families (and then the leftovers can dance with other leftovers from the same gender).

Is this necessary? Is there a danger for singles to dance as a couple with someone outside your family?

Crushes

We all have crushes. (Umm, don’t we?) Liking someone or being attracted is only normal. It’s what we do about it that makes all the difference.

As we approach relationships from a Biblical perspective we see there’s really only two states for how singles relate to the opposite sex. The first is brothers and sisters in the Lord, basically normal friendship. The second is a guy pursuing a girl for marriage. There isn’t a third area between those two.

We want to keep romantic relationships limited strictly to marriage and finding the person you will marry. I’ve written before about the top five reasons why I don’t have a girlfriend, and those reasons apply to this.

I realise I’m arguing for a high standard here. But sexual sin really is the big black hole for young people. Greats in the Bible, David, Solomon, Samson, all fell into this area of sin. Add to that how messed up marriage is in our culture, and you know we need to do something radically different than the world around us.

Getting Serious

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Guard your heart with all diligence. What your heart focuses on is the key issue. Getting entangled romantically and emotionally before the proper time and place is a terrible idea, fraught with danger.

I’m convinced flirting is a bad idea. If you’re a guy going to pursue a girl, don’t be a wimp, get on with it properly. If you’re not serious then don’t mess with her heart and emotions like a cad. If you’re a girl, I’m sorry, you don’t get to start things. Using flirting to send messages is not going to identify you with the virtuous woman.

Can’t flirting just be a good time? Yeah a good time like tossing burning coals around is a good time until someone gets burnt. I like to have fun and play around, teasing my friends and all of that, but crossing the line into flirting with one person is a really bad idea.

You’re the Prettiest

If you’re single you don’t get to go around telling the opposite sex what you think of their looks (apart from giving your sisters some encouragement).

At the medieval party.

But then of course, if you’re married you don’t get to go around doing that either, you save it all for one person. If a married guy was telling other women about how attractive they are, there would be serious problems (not the least being when his wife finds out and kills him).

Singles doing this are practicing what not to do, which is never a good idea. It doesn’t do anyone any good, either in the future or right now. We’re all far too obsessed with looks. Those girls you know don’t need more encouragement from you to focus on physical appearance.

We all need more encouragement to focus on the spiritual. So I think it’s okay to compliment individuals for character, godliness, and even skills. But for guys complimenting girls, we still need to be careful with this.

Facebook Photos

There is a problem with how some Christian young people comment on Facebook photos. Because it’s not to a person’s face, any sense of proprietary gets tossed out the window by some people. But praising the opposite sex’s appearance in a photo is really no different than in person. (Except maybe you don’t get the benefit of an awkward silence or blushing from someone who doesn’t want those attentions outside of the proper time.)

I want to call out one particular word here…

Hot

If you’re a Christian, then ‘hot’ is not a compliment, it’s an indictment. In this context the word is sexualised. It’s about attraction to someone’s body. Modesty is about making sure people don’t get on a sexual thought path when they look at you. Telling someone they’re hot is pointing out exactly the wrong thing.

This stuff is just buying into the culture that shuns purity and glorifies anything sexual. We’re different than they are. Our goals are basically the opposite.

If someone has a problem with how they’re presenting themselves, don’t write ‘looking hot’ under the profile picture. Instead address the person privately or ask someone more appropriate to deal with it.

Running With a Knife

Running with a knife sticking up may be okay most of the time, but the danger of what could happen is so severe, you just don’t do it.

Jousting at the party.

It’s not really that telling a girl she’s cute or dancing with her is so terrible in itself. It’s that we’re so likely to stuff it up. And if we do stuff up it can lead to a meltdown sized disaster; immorality, messed up lives, divorce, destruction of families and more. And that results in God’s name being blasphemed, and a Christian testimony which is useless because it’s exactly the same as the worlds.

I can’t wait to have someone to shower in compliments. But I will wait. And when, Lord willing, I have a wife, my adoration of her will mean so much more than it does for the guys who went around telling any number of girls how pretty they are. Plus by God’s grace I hope to avoid the pitfalls of a relationship that ends in dishonour or the messing up of other girls along the way.

Dying Well

At our Bible study a friend was talking about the idea of dying well. We want to do that. We want to live lives that are focused on the end goal.

Being carefree, ‘living in the moment’ and an endless pursuit of short term pleasure are for the people who don’t have a splendid eternity to look forward to.

Yes, I do plan or hope to have a lot of fun and excitement romantically for me and one girl. But that is secondary to the grand plan of glorifying God and achieving His purposes.

We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to study, what we’re going to do to make a living, what church we’re going to go to, who we’re going to marry, where we will live and so many more decisions.

While we get wisdom and counsel to help us make the decisions, I’d be scared silly if that’s all I got before I had to make my mind up.

See I’ve been known to make the occasional very dumb decision. And in between the really dumb decisions I make plenty that aren’t exactly dazzling. I just don’t want the whole course of my life being determined by thought sequences that happen inside my head.

Fortunately it doesn’t have to be. The Good Shepherd has promised to lead me.

“He leadeth me beside the still waters.” (Psalm 23:2)

That is such a comforting thought. It may not always seem like the path God chooses is the best one, but any time I reflect back I know God’s leading is best. How much better to be lead by God than by my own silly, sinful self! Even as I write this I’m convicted to lean more on God and less on my own grand plans.

Still Waters

Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you…for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30)

There is a battle out there. There is much toil in the fallen world. However, Jesus promises to give you the rest you need. Submit to His leading and you’ll have the loveliest Master anyone can have.

And the promises for the future just keep getting better…

“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelations 7:17)

New Chums Beach, Coromandel, NZ, selected in the world's 20 most beautiful beaches.

Beaches are my favourite places on this planet.

I’m lucky to live in a country with an inordinate amount of coastline. You can’t get more than a couple of hours from a beach if you try.

The problem with beaches is lots of people don’t wear many clothes on them.

Our nearest beach is a place we can’t even visit over the summer holidays and weekends. Even in the shoulder season we have to travel away from the city to find a patch of sand without a parade of flesh walking past.

Not going to the beach over the Christmas season is a crying shame, but it’s just the reality of living in a sin sick world.

Purity Is A Big Deal

Sexual sin is the area young people most often fall in. And they fall hard. I don’t want that to be us, no matter how unlikely it may seem for goody-goodies like ourselves.

When Jesus tell us lust is the same as adultery in the heart, we need to pay serious attention.

Surfing Girls

I’m posting this now because  the movie Soul Surfer just came out. It’s been heavily promoted to Christians because it’s the story of Bethany Hamilton, a competition surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack when she was young, but carried on competing and shared her faith and the gospel with many (good for her!).

A movie about girls surfing immediately sounded like something I wouldn’t be able to watch, and a quick check on Plugged In confirmed that there was far too much skin on display.

What Are We Thinking!

Since when was it a good idea to market a movie with bikinis to Christians?

We’ve fallen a long way for this to make any sense.

Maybe it’s because much of the ‘Christian’ community goes happily to films with major immodesty problems, so that when a movie with a Christian message plus bikinis comes along, it’s a good fit .

I suspect so.

(After outlining this post I was shown a couple of great posts on the issue by Stacey MacDonald, here and here. Well worth reading!)

Mount Maunganui Beach, on a quiet day! ;o)

Going Crazy

Paul Washer says if what many Christians wear to the beach was worn by someone 50  years ago (I think more like 80), they would have either been thrown into prison or carted off to a mental institution.

What happened to us?

We’re just not separated enough from the world.

Outside our doors is a world hellbent on pursuing pleasure, especially anything sexual.

In polls, nearly as many ‘Christians’ look at porn as heathens. The divorce statistics are basically the same. The scandals, the sin, is as rampant in the so-called church as in the world.

On Boundless, a large blog for Christian young people (which I really like), they had a discussion about porn where most the Christian commentors thought it was inevitable that everyone would fall to the temptation and look. In fact, when a guy put his hand up and said he’d never looked at porn the reaction from the others was disbelief. They thought the temptation to look at porn was too strong for anyone to be able to say they’d never looked.

Well of course it’s possible. With every temptation there is a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). I’ve never looked at porn. And it’s not because my flesh wouldn’t enjoy it. It’s because it’s possible, by the grace of God, to flee from sin.

Conformed

The reason the Christian community has such bad statistics is because we’ve conformed. We have gone crazy. We think it’s okay to go and watch a movie with girls surfing in bikinis if it’s got a Christian message.

We think we can live like the world and not have the same consequences. The reality is the statistics aren’t any different because we don’t live any different.

“And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”  (Romans 12:2)

(Here’s another good post on modesty by Scott Brown.)

The Slow Descent Into Madness

It happens a little bit at a time.

The Bible tells us to not conform to the world. Don’t fit into the same mold.

To keep from the serious sins we have to fight the ones that might seem smaller. And with sexual sins, it starts with modesty and lust.

Where Exactly Is The Standard?

While modesty is obviously a big issue, the Bible doesn’t give us exact guidelines for how much clothing to wear. Like everything, it’s a heart issue first.

Paul Washer say his wife’s advice is that if your clothing is a frame for your face, it glorifies God, and if it’s a frame for your body it is dishonorable. Seems like a handy rule to me.

Guys And Girls

While I’m told lust works both ways, it’s clearly more of a problem for guys looking and girls showing.

Responsibility is on both genders. Guys are responsible for what they look at and what they lust after. Girls are responsible for not causing a guy to stumble. And responsibility doesn’t stop just because someone else drops the ball. That’s how responsibility works – someone else might sin, but it’s still your fault if that causes you to sin. It’s not that the blame is shared, half each. Everyone who sins takes the full blame.

More New Chums

I’m so thankful for the girls I know who put effort into dressing modestly. They of course honour God in doing that, and they also make it much easier for us guys to do the right thing.

So what is modest? Well I’m not going to delve into details right here. Obviously skin and tight are the main things that affect us. Realise that different areas are an issue to different guys. On The Rebelution’s Modesty Survey, I found some of the answers I read to be too low a standard and some to be too high, as far as what affects me. Your mileage will vary.

And I don’t think girls have to dress in such a shapeless way that guys would never notice their body (it’s not practical, realistic or required). I’ve seen it put, if a guy wants to jump of a roof, the railing isn’t going to stop him. But the railing should still be there (it clears the building owner of any guilt). Without a black and white line from the Bible, we have to conclude for ourselves what is reasonable and what is not.

But for any girls wondering how much difference it makes when they dress modestly, well it makes a HUGE difference.

Stay Away

For us guys the solution to modesty is pretty simple.

“Flee youthful lusts.” (2 Timothy 2:22)

As I’ve heard preachers say, we’re told to resist the devil and to combat enemy forces, but when it comes to lust, just get the heck out of there.

There’s places where you know you’re going to see people or pictures that you shouldn’t. Don’t be there.

And then when you do see something that is immodest, stop looking! Turn away and focus on things that are noble.

There are of course a number of things you can do to protect yourself from lust (and I highly recommend Joshua Harris’ Sex Isn’t The Problem (Lust Is) ) but the main one for me is to keep out of harm’s way.

Better Things

The devil tries to sell us the line that these things are fun and exciting. I’m sorry to say sometimes I believe the lie and wish that I could get away with looking at what I shouldn’t. Sin seems to be attractive. It’s hard to look away when the immodesty doesn’t seem terribly bad, just a little gratifying.

But when I step back from the heat of the battle, I know that God’s plan is much more rewarding. God obviously created sexual pleasure for a reason, and I have to trust that doing things His way, leaving it all for marriage, will be the most rewarding.

And even beyond that, I trust that it will be ultimately more pleasing to please God, than to please the flesh.

There was however a disturbing theme, mostly promoted by the commentators.

They basically said that while Charles and Dianna’s marriage was a foolish affair, this one was much more sensible because William and Kate have been living together for years, so their relationship is serious. The fact they’re not virgins is touted as a very good and wise thing.

Aren’t We Missing The Point A Bit?

I was at a secular wedding where I overhead people saying the marriage there was a meaningful one because the couple had lived together for years. It supposedly wasn’t silly like when people get married without a long history of immorality first.

In a culture where the majority of marriages will end in a divorce the world thinks it’s much better to put marriage off… till it becomes almost pointless and a mockery of itself. What would have been scandalous in the past is touted as wisdom – worldly wisdom.

Of course as Christians we stand against such thinking.

For Christian Young People

As Christian young people we need to have a serious and high view of marriage. We need a plan for how we’re going to get there and Biblical understanding of what it’s about.

There is of course much written for us on how to get there via courtship or dating. I just take a bit of an issue with the angle it’s usually approached from.

Your average talk or book on courtship tends to say… So you’ve got a crush or you like this girl or you want a relationship, what’s the next step? Well you need to intentionally pursue marriage… and so on.

I can see why they often start from that viewpoint. That’s where the motivation usually starts.

However I think we can do better if we start by focusing on the end.

We can start by saying lets understand what God wants from marriage; it’s a high goal for us, it’s from God. And then we take that end goal and say how do we get there in a God glorifying way?

I suppose the difference could be subtle. But I think it will make a big difference to what we do. Instead of being primarily about getting what we want, it’s going to be primarily about what God wants. That’s always a good thing.

I challenge us to approach relationships from the point of having a God honouring marriage. As always we want to try and see things how He sees them.

What does the word ‘church’ even refer to?

I know some people who whenever possible take ‘church’ to mean the little local fellowship (distinct from all the other local fellowships). I know others who take ‘church’ to mean all the saints, whenever possible.

Total Church

I’ve just finished reading Total Church, A radical reshaping of gospel and community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. Emphasis on radical (although I was kind of expecting it to be a bit more off the wall). The authors are elders in England who are trying to do church in a different way.

It’s a book that makes you ask a lot of questions about how you view the church. I was already reviewing how I saw the church so the book gave me a view of a totally different model.

Gospel And Community

The authors see the church as having two key principles.  The first is gospel, which they break into two part; the Word centred truth of the gospel and the mission centred part of proclaiming the gospel. The second part is community, sharing life together.

They talk about how conservatives tend be good at the gospel side but bad at the community part, while the other extreme of Christianity, which they slap with the ‘emergent’ label, tend to be the other way around.

The Church Is Not A Building

We all know the church is the people. These guys argue that the church is not about a couple of meetings each week (which is exactly what most of our churches basically are). Rather it’s about all of life. Church every day of the week. Sometimes a gathering to hear the Word spoken, but more frequently to help each other, and especially to help each other to walk with the Lord.

They also want church to be a comfortable place for unbelievers. This is how they do community missions, by bringing in unbelievers and slowly winning them over to the gospel.

They quote John Stott…

If our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world, it is a heretical structure.

Which raises a question; should the church be primarily for believers, who can then go out and witness to the world, or should it be a place to reach the lost with the gospel? Is it one or the other or both?

Things I Liked

• This is a living, breathing church.
• It’s much more real in the lives of the congregation than a meeting based approach.
• Their evangelism is not about getting decisions, it’s about making disciples.
• It’s harder to slip in and out of the building and not be involved.
• There’s more accountability in the fellowship.

Things I Didn’t Like

• Families are not autonomous and can’t made decisions on their own.
• Examples of church life had them looking too like the world without a separation of standards.
• Sometimes their worship gatherings sounded just far too casual.
• They think it’s more important to evangelise the poor than the rich (weirdest bit of the book).
• They knocked evangelism methods other than the relationship approach.

Total Church on Amazon.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.”

The Good Shepherd is kind. He gives us rest. He pours out so much love and grace on us.

When you think of what we deserve versus what we get, you marvel at how kind He is. We were His enemies. And yet He takes us to the best of His pastures.

“The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice!” (Psalm 97:1)

The best news is that God is in charge. There is no better scenario than having God in control. You couldn’t nominate a being who would be better at reigning than God. You couldn’t even imagine a being who would be better.

That’s what we mean when we say God is good. God has His attributes in perfection. So He defines good. He is ‘the goodest.’

He is the most loving, the most gracious, the most merciful.

The whole earth ought to rejoice that God is reigning, there’s no better news.

He gives us rest, He gives us food, He gives us everything we could need.

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103:11)