The Chief Aim Of Man...

...is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.

Never a truer word spoken i hear myself thinking. Dont quote me on this because John Piper said it before me!

When i give something to my girlfriend and she is happy - i am over the moon, if she is all excited and goes and tells her friends about it - i feel on top of the world! When God gives us new life in Christ and we enjoy it... if we are so excited we go and tell our friends about it...

God is not selfish to tell us to live for him 100% he knows that by living for him we will get the best out of the gift he has given us, is there anything strange about that? I think it's natural.

In fact all the things God tells us to do are for our joy/happiness, because nothing glorifies him more than us enjoying his gift! The Bible says 'without faith it is impossible to please God' because God knows that our relationship with him (and that is based on faith) is the most important thing in our lives. In fact there is nothing that brings greater happiness in life than knowing Christ. Therefore we continue to do God's will in every situation because we know that our relationship with Christ will, at the end of the day, bring us the greatest joy of all.

I am unashamedly a Christian hedonist, because i know that glorifies God the most anyway!

"Jesus FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM endured the cross"

The Best Christian Ever...

Dont quote me on this: but Martin Luther was the best Christian ever.

I'm sure that statement begs an explaination...

A common teaching going around in the 16th Century was the picture of a father offering an apple to a baby boy and then letting him reach it by giving him a helping hand being analogous to God's offer of salvation to us. Not a bad illustration? Martin Luther devoted his life to showing that this is absolute rubbish.

We speak about salvation by grace, but do we really believe it? What is grace? a free gift of God: he purchases it for us, he gives it to us, he shows us how to live in it, and he lives in us as part of that gift. What is our job in all this? Nothing!

The Bible shows us that before we become Christians we are slaves to a sinful nature, that we are essentially dead because we can't even decide that we want to follow God by ourselves! The question at the center of the Reformation was whether man can save himself with God's help, or whether the saving is done completely by God. You say 'have faith' and the Bible says even that is a gift of God!

Luther's teaching and work have brought many people to the realisation that they can do nothing to add to their salvation and nothing to detract from it! It is a gift from God. Once we realise that we are free from this burden (and a wearisome one it would be) we are able to worship God and live for him, not for any selfish motives, but simply for his glory!!

This is a fantastic privilege and one that God wants us to enjoy to the full... Luther may not be the 'best' Christian ever, but God used him and his writings to release millions of people to worship. An understanding of grace, which is coming to me slowly, has changed my life completely. Seeing my intrinsic value as being independent of what I do has awesome repercussions!

The Ontological Root of Christianity

(Dont quote me on this: its mostly Michael Ramsden's thoughts)

As we analyse all different worldviews we see that they are either rooted pragmatically (in doing), epistemologically (in thinking), or existentially (in feeling). Many are based in a combination of the above, but we have no way of perfecting our thinking, or our actions, much less our feelings. No religion offers that... or so one could think.

Christianity is not rooted pragmatically, although knowing Christ should make our actions more like him.

Christianity is not rooted epistemologically although there is nothing more profound than knowing Christ.

Christianity is not rooted existentially although there is nothing more life-changing than meeting Christ.

Christianity is rooted ontologically! (that is in being)

It is rooted in the ontology of Christ: the New Testament says that Jesus is Truth, Life, the Way to God, the 'Bread of Life', and the Good Shepherd. Because it is rooted in this way, it is completed in Christ, and can never change unless Christ does (hence the importance of Heb 13:8!)

It is rooted in the ontology of people: we are made for relationship with God; we are not in this relationship; Jesus makes us Children of God so we are in his family! We cannot grow into or inherit this, it is a specific thing that Jesus does in everyone's life (for all those who call out to him).

It is because of our human ontology that we can act, think or even feel. It is because of our spiritual ontology that we can know God, feel God and live for God.