Good Christian Tunes?????

Aimee and I love listening to music. But we cannot find music we like. Aimee got a free cd on the weekend, I wont mention what cd, but it was whiny and boring. It wasnt good music. We both cant find good Christian music. That is good tunes with sound message.

After reading this post from Dave Miers i thought i would pose the question to anyone, are there any good Christian musicians????

Any suggestions????

Knowing God???

On Sunday I gave a talk on Psalm 19. I have done this talk twice now at two different churches and it is a great passage that i wanted to share with you. I know it is long, but it is brief. If you have the time read through this as well as the passage, if you dont have the time then read the passage and think!!!!!

Knowing God?
In our society, which is pluralist (we accept more than one idea), how can we say we know the one true God?

With Dawkins and science how can we say there is a God? Aren’t we being stupid and irrational believing in a God who has no logical explanation and no proof for existence? These views attack the Christians ability and claim to know the truth.

But the Christian faith is held up in truth. The truth that there is one God, creator, law-giver and saviour. Psalm 19 describes some of the reasons for the Christian to claim they know the one true God.

Psalm 19 is David’s Psalm declaring how he knows God and how his knowledge of God has impacted his life.

God revealed in Creation
In Psalm 19:1-6 David describes creation revealing God. These verses remind me of a song ‘Indescribable’ by Chris Tomlin. I think these verses inspired the song. Both David and the song look at creation, it’s fine detail, it’s complexities, it’s magnificence and they come to the conclusion that there must be something behind it all. Something that is greater than us that could create it all. This something must be God, a powerful being. Powerful to control the sun, powerful to control the lightning, powerful to create everything. Creation reveals God.

Why can’t people understand this?

Romans 1:20-23.

Our sinful minds distort the truth. We cannot see God being revealed in creation.

God revealed in the Law.
Psalm 19:7-11 is another revelation of God. David describes the Law (Old Testament Law, which he also names: statutes, precepts, commands) as being of the LORD. They are of God or from God. they reveal God’s requirements on his creation. As he describes his requirements on creation he also describes his holiness and perfection. As God asks us to live a life that he lives.
David finds benefit from the Law. He compares the Law to pure gold. The Law for David is very valuable. Most people wouldn’t agree with David. They would say the Law is a killjoy, that it stops us from enjoying life. But the law is not a downgrading, punishment on people. It is not designed to suck the fun out of life. But it is to guide us to enjoy life to the full. The Law revives the soul, makes us wise, brings joy to our heart and enlightens our eyes. These are great things. Something that will always last as it endures forever, compare this to the options of this world that will not last (alcohol, sex, drugs, shopping, money, etc.). There is no comparison, God’s Law is awesome and valuable.

God our Rock and Redeemer
But we cannot do it ☹. David realises this. Psalm 19:12-14 is David reflecting on God revealed in creation and the Law and realising he not even close to God’s requirement for his world. David, like us all, sins. Knowing this he also understands this wont make him acceptable to God. Knowing God he understands that the almighty creator and Lawgiver can be his rock and redeemer. That God can help David to be acceptable.

This is where Christians find great comfort and joy. This is where the truth is greatly seen and experienced. God sent his son to be the Rock and Redeemer, so that through him we are acceptable to God (cf. Acts 4:8-12). Through Jesus our words and our meditations will be pleasing to God.

We can know God
Christians are confident that they know the truth. God has made it clear to them. He has revealed himself in creation and the Law. Most importantly and explicitly through his son, Jesus Christ.

What I mean by preaching

I stumbled across this blog on desiring God. It is interesting what he thinks about preaching.

What do you mean by preaching?

Books and Covers?!

Who judges a book by the pages during the first impression?

Sometimes I will look inside a book to see if it is good, but most of the time I gravitate to a good looking cover. (This is not a metaphor)

But it makes me wonder about first impressions at Church and ministers. Do looks come into play for the visitor of a Church? And is it bad if a minister looks unhealthy?

To me if a minister looks unhealthy I associate with that: lethargic, sloppy, bad manager of their life, uninterested, and uncaring. If a visitor thinks like this than they wont come back. But they will go to a Church where they like the look of the minister.

It is a human characteristic that we flock to people that we want to be like. We gravitate towards them. I noticed this especially when I was a personal trainer. People who wanted to gain muscle flocked to the more muscular trainers, women flocked toward the prettiest female trainer. Usually the more charismatic, content and confident you were the more people would be likely to want to train under you.

I want to put forward that ministers looking after their physical appearance will attract more people to church, and/or keep more visitors coming back.

Change

Do you have some change?

I am currently preparing a talk for this sunday on Colossians 1:1-23
Great passage, but very hard to preach. Why? Good question, I am glad you asked.
It is hard to preach because there is so much in there. I could probably spend hours unpacking this passage. But for the sake of the listeners on Sunday I wont.

Even though this passage is so chunky (lots of good bits to chew over) there is a clear message of 'Change'.

For the past few hours i haven't been able to get the segway song of 'Change' out of my head (it is a song by Black Eyed Peas aka. BEP, in between the second last and the last song on their Monkey Business album). Thinking about it the BEP ask serious questions on making the world a better place. They reason the world would be a better place if we changed. Thinking about this I couldn't help but notice that this is what God will do. As you read Colossians 1 you realise God is bringing change to make the world better.

Starting at verses 3-8 Paul comments that the gospel changes people. It gives them hope of eternal life free from pain, death and fear. It gives them faith in Jesus Christ which is in response to the hope. And it gives them love for one another. The faith, hope and love change the Colossians to be unified and at peace with one another. This is exactly what the BEP want to see.

Verses 9-11 Paul comments that the Colossians will be continually changed to harmonize with God's will. This is in thankfulness of the salvation they have received (v12-23). But these qualities and ways of life provide great change and continual peace with one another, making the world a better place, which is what the BEP ask for in track 15 on the album.

This is all tied together as we see everything changing in verses 12-23. Paul tells the Colossians of the change God has made to reconcille them to himself. And then he tells them of Jesus being the one who will reconcille everything to himself. Both heaven and earth. All things will be either reconcilled (the one's coming under Jesus' rule) through Jesus or destroyed (those who do not come under Jesus' rule) by Jesus. This will bring a change to the world. There will be peace.

This chapter is amazing and I have done little justice to the vast meaning in these verses. But to the BEP change is coming and is happening. God is changing the world and those in the world.

Take home question: Have you been changed?

Church Planting

Picture from: http://www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/

I went to a ministry seminar this afternoon on Church planting. We had a few guys from Church Army come in and share some things with us on how they have approached church planting in dark areas of the world. It was great to hear the wisdom from these guys. These guys were strongly encouraging going into the community to get to know people, not to evangelize straight up. They were pushing us to think about adopting a block, doing a community bbq, getting involved in local sporting teams, etc.

This is something I am trying to do at Hornsby. But it also raised some questions. Are we (ie. Sydney Anglicans, not specifying clergy) to focused on Church evangelism that we dont go out into the community to get to know people? Are we to focused on telling people the gospel (which is an awesome idea and great to do) and not loving people and getting to know people first?

This is all in the thought of getting to know people, caring for them, which leads to the gospel being shared and God willing accepted.

So what are we going to do? Are we going to invite our friends to another church event? Or are you going to take the Church to the community?

Wright vs Piper Final Round

Well it was a fun filled bout. Many ups and downs for both. For me the highlight was reading to objective views and seeing good in both. I think many object to a lot of Wright's views (Piper included) because he doesn't say things the way we would like. But his breakdown of the gospel, covenant, and the place of works in justification has yet to be fully challenged by Piper.

THE GOSPEL
I think there is a lot of emphasis on covenant in Wright. This leads to a skewed view of justification and the implications of his view. But i think his view of the gospel as the pronouncement of the Lordship of Jesus is great besides the lack of acceptance of salvation within the gospel. Piper doesn't like it because of that reason. I think the lordship of Jesus leads us to salvation, Wright says this but also denies its importance.

THE COVENANT
I do see the covenant as an important part of the doctrine of justification. God did give Abraham the covenant that would deal with sin and evil. This is met with the death and resurrection of Jesus. But it should not define God's righteousness. God's righteousness i believe is seen through the law. I think it logically stupid for God to give a law that he doesn't fulfill. He proves that he can meet the requirements of the law through Jesus (Romans 2). I think this leads to Jesus becoming our righteousness as his fulfillment of the law is imputed (put on us) because we are judged as unrighteous before God unless we have this righteousness. It doesn't make sense that God would judge us righteous/just because he has called us into a covenant (Wright's view). But we need to be forgiven of our sins, have the slate wiped clean, and be given a status righteous by Christ's righteousness. We are in Christ and therefore we share in his righteousness. Through Jesus' death and resurrection we are included as heirs to the covenant promises in union with Jesus. Therefore we are covenant members by Christ.

WORKS
As a result of being in Christ. We are marked with the Holy Spirit which helps us to do the requirements of the law, not that we need to, but with a changed heart we look to submit to our king (Christ Jesus) and our works by the Spirit are a sign of the justification and covenant relationship we have. This is not to say that our works make us right with God, or add merit to us. This would deny the work of God.

So in if you have been following the battle so far I would not say that the round by round description would count towards a winner. But i would recommend reading the three books i have read and come to your own conclusion. For me the winner is God and his word. In terms of argument style in the books i give it to Wright. But as Michael commented earlier in the first blog of this series, "it doesn't mean he is right."

The future of Justification is still decided by God and we are still working out what it means. The battle continues on many fronts. If you are joining in feel free to read, think and critique.