Zechariah 7

I had a fantastic weekend with a group of friend from uni and one of the main things we did was to do a few studies on Zechariah. The study i was leading was on chapter 7. The Message heads the chapter: God says 'You care about religion, I care about people' and I think that is a very apt summary of the chapter. I thought i'd record an analogy I used to describe the importance of what we call 'religion' in the life of a believer.

When you are about to participate in a sports event (eg football match, marathon) It is really important to warm up. If you dont then your performance will be worse, and as the going gets tougher you are likely to injure yourself in a way which puts you out of the event. The warm-up is critical, yet no-one is watching - and it is of no use if you then dont participate in the event!

I think Religion is like the warm-up to life. Reading the Bible. Praying. Going to church. Worshipping with others. Fasting. It's all just the warm-up to life - critical but pointless without the event.

So what is the parallel to the match? I think Zechariah makes it quite clear: "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one-another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In you hearts do not think evil of your brother."

The game of life is LOVE. The royal law found in scripture 'Love you neighbour as yourself'... James the Apostle's words not mine! God tells us to love one-another. But he says to love out of love for him - and that is where the religion comes in. When we're loving God we will actively love people.

Lets keep doing the religious stuff - but remembering that it is the warm up to the real game which is living lives of love. As Uncle L.T. put it: 'there is no holiness without relationallity.'

Why are more women in church than men?

Surely because God likes women more than men and therefore choses to save more of them?!!?!

I dont believe that for one moment, but an interesting question was written in response to my post: 'A Male God' by Rev. Leaney.

"Do women relate to God differently to men because he is primarily spoken of as male? I read an article recently which suggested that the reason the number of men in churches is declining is because of the 'feminine' way they're expected to relate to Jesus (singing about love etc). I'm not sure how far I'd go along with that, but it's interesting"

Fundementally I dont believe that women relate to God differently because he is spoken of as Male. I do however, as a Christian man, understand a few reasons why men do not want to become part of the Christian Church. I think a little look at these might reveal why there are more women in the Church than men.

I have no desire to 'feel' contented. I have no desire to 'feel' loved. I have no desire to FEEL anything... I desire to be contented, i desire to be loved - I want my peace to come primarily from a knowledge that i am in a peaceful situation not from an emotion of peace. I believe that other men think in a similar way. If i am in debt i want to get out of debt, if i have a problem i want to solve it. No amount of emotional gymnastics will satisfy me until i can deal with the reality.

I worry that much of the teaching of the Church goes along these lines: 'Come to Jesus and he will give you a feeling of peace', 'Get saved and get a feeling of the love of God'. Do we not major on such verses as 'Come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden and i will give you rest' 'They will soar on wings like eagles' 'If God is for us who can be against us' and the like? Of course they are true - but i claim that we're turning a lot of people esp. blokes away from Jesus by making him out to be about emotional fulfilment. That emotional buzz we're supposed to thrive on in times of worship; that feeling of being loved we're supposed get when we're prayed for during a difficult time in our lives.

The gospel gives us emotional stability. But isn't it far more than that? I know a lot of non- Christians who are perfectly emotionally stable and the offer of emotional stability or even exuberence is quite positively a turn-off. The Gospel speaks of a battle won for our lives, a solution to a very real problem of sin and seperation, it speaks of love yes, but love in action. Love that causes God to die for his beloved.

However i think it's more than this. I am goal-driven, i love to meet targets, i have ambitions and desire to complete them. I am certainly not motivated by what i feel - or even by what you feel. Is this not at least a bit characteristic of the differences between men and women? While the church insists on being motivated by the feelings of it's congregation it will continue to be filled with people who are motivated by feelings (their own and other peoples'). I believe more women operate in this way than men. It's not 100%, but i think its at least a majority.

So what's the solution? We need to move towards a situation in which our feelings are at the bottom of the agenda, and where other peoples' feelings are significantly below evangelisation. We need to see that God cares more about his fame and glory than whether i feel lonely or something. The solution is that we need to start to care more about God than about us. We need to centre our lives on him.

So where does that leave us on the men and women thing? I've been in a CU where the focus was very strongly on evangelism, mission, and projects at the expense of the feelings of its members. Guess what? It was male dominated... I've been at a church where the focus was on the family atmosphere and ministry to its members. Guess what? It was female dominated...

We dont need or want either of these extremes, but if you are wondering why there are no blokes in your church i will suggest that you need to give them something to get their teeth into! It's not as if Jesus has left us with nothing to be working on: go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them and teaching them all i have commanded you.


PS. Young Christian blokes need this most. If you want to keep blokes in your youth group then give them projects to do, teaching opportunities, and something to get stuck into or they'll get bored and look elsewhere.

My King...

The Bible says my King is a seven-way King:
He's the King of the Jews - that's a racial King.
He's the King of Israel - that's a national King.
He's the King of Righteousness.
He's the King of the Ages.
He's the King of Heaven.
He's the King of Glory.
He's the King of kings and He's the Lord of lords.
That's my King.
Well, I wonder do you know Him?

David said, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork."
My King is a sovereign King - no means of measure can define His limitless love.
No farseeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shoreless supply.
No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings.
He's enduringly strong.
He's entirely sincere.
He's eternally steadfast.
He's immortally graceful.
He's imperially powerful.
He's impartially merciful.
Do you know Him?

He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
He's God's Son.
He's the sinner's Saviour.
He's the centrepiece of civilisation.
He stands in the solitude of himself.
He's august and He's unique.
He's unparalleled, He's unprecedented.
He is the loftiest idea in literature.
He's the highest personality in philosophy.
He is the supreme problem in higher criticism.
He's the fundamental doctrine of true theology.
He is the core and the necessity for spiritual religion.
He's the miracle of the age, He's... yes He is.
He's the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him.
He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient Saviour.
I wonder if you know him today?

He supplies strength for the weak.
He's available for the tempted and the tried.
He sympathises and He saves.
He strengthens and sustains.
He guards and He guides.
He heals the sick.
He cleansed the lepers.
He forgives sinners.
He discharges debtors.
He delivers the captive.
He defends the feeble.
He blesses the young.
He serves the unfortunate.
He regards the aged.
He rewards the diligent.
And He beautifies the meek.
I wonder if you know Him?

Well, my King---He is the key, He's the key to knowledge.
He's the wellspring of wisdom.
He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace.
He's the roadway of righteousness.
He's the highway of holiness.
He's the gateway of glory.
Do you know Him?

Well, His office is manifold.
His promise is sure.
His life is matchless.
His goodness is limitless.
His mercy is everlasting.
His love never changes.
His Word is enough.
His grace is sufficient.
His reign is righteous.
His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
I wish I could describe Him to you!

But He's indes... Wooah, yeaaah! yeaahh,
He's indescribable - yes He is ! He's God.
He's, He's indescribable, yes, He's indescribable.
He's incomprehensible.
He's invincible.
He's irresistible.
Well, you can't get Him out of your mind,
You get Him off of your hand,
You can't outlive Him, and you can't live without Him.
Well, the Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but they found out they couldn't stop Him.
Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him.
The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree.
Herod couldn't kill Him.
Death couldn't handle Him and
the grave couldn't hold Him.
Yeah !THAT'S MY KING !
THAT'S MY KING !
YEAH !

And Thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever
and ever and ever.
How long is that ?
And ever and ever.
And when you get through all the forevers, then Amen !
GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY ! AMEN ! AMEN !

Piper on Missions

I've had the most mundane data-entry job in the world for the past week... so i thought i'd put my new phone/mp3 player to some use. I've downloaded a few of Piper's sermons and i've been listening to them whilst copying people's credit details from one file to another.

I listened to an exposition of Romans 15 today - majoring on verses 20-23 (which I'd previously never understood) where Paul says

"It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that i would not be building on someone elses foundation. Rather as it is written: 'Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard about him will understand.' This is why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

"But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions..."

What the dickens is the Evangelist Paul saying ... there is no more work for him between italy and jerusalem?? There have to have been thousands of people who hadn't heard the gospel in that corner of the world.

Maybe Paul is making a distinction between evangelism and missions? Maybe the idea of planting a church in a culture which has no evangelical church is fundementally different from telling your friends about Jesus? What would happen to a culture if there is no Christian presence located within it?

Piper believes, and i concur, that God is calling hundreds of young Christians from our comfortable churches to preach Christ where he is not known. Of course there are non-Christians in our society. That's blindingly obvious... Timothy's job in Ephasus was to do evangelism in a society which already had a church - of course that's a valid job. BUT. But it is not the same as taking the gospel to a society which has never heard it.

If God promts you to go thousands of miles to be the first person to speak about Jesus in a sub-culture in Iran, do not listen to the people who say that there is work to be done here first! For my part, i don't feel called overseas right now. I feel called to cross cultural barriers with the gospel in England, i know i am called of God to encourage the believers with my life and my teaching.

What is your holy ambition? Is it to see God glorified in mission in southern Russia? Is it to see a professing church in Algeria? Is it to see shed loads of Indians praising God? Every church has people whom God would set aside for Missions (with a capital M) ...is that you?

I'm back

After a 6 month break to get my degree move house and get a job I'm back... expect some more controversy and the occasional interesting bit of theology.

In Christ,
Dan