The Mustard Seed

Ern Baxter on Pentecost & Authority

When Christ ascended on high... what he shed forth, in the promise of the Father, in the gift of the Holy Ghost, was also the coronation oil with which he was crowned with glory and honour, given all authority in heaven and earth to become the King of kings and Lord of lords.

via matthewling.typepad.com

'A society which believes in a worthwhile future saves in the present so as to invest in the future.'

'It is difficult to find Europeans who have any belief in a significant future which is worth working for and investing in. A society which believes in a worthwhile future saves in the present so as to invest in the future. Contemporary Western society spends in the present and piles up debts for the future, ravages the environment, and leaves its grandchildren to cope with the results as best they can. On searches for contemporary European literature in vain for evidence of hope for the future; rather, in Jurgen Moltmann's words, it is characterised by cold despair, loss of vision,resignation, and cynicism.' Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 90-91.

 

The season of the Branch

We have entered into a new season of the Spirit. A new outpouring of the Spirit is already in the way. We are seeing signs of the dawn of a new day and a new season of the powerful moving of the Holy Spirit. This move of the Spirit will be centred on Christ, the Branch.

via erling.typepad.com

Bryn Jones on Theology

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I have been enjoying the resources of Bryn Jones' ministry made available at The Radical Church and The Restorer websites. Listening to one of Bryn's sermons available on The Radical Church site, I heard this fantastic quote about theology, a word and topic sadly much maligned:

'It's your concept of God that shapes everything else about you. Theology is not dry; people make it dry to try and discredit it. But theology is the seeking of the knowledge of God. It's not studying God in a textbook fashion; it's studying the Word of God to know God. And theology is also our effort to express our faith in meaningful terms, in ways that speak to people today.'

 

How To Think About Evangelism

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'With right thinking I will fulfil my covenant obligation, expecting not frustration but success. Somewhere a life is going to change for the better because of their encounter with me.' Andrew Owen, Go and Evangelise

 

Dostoevsky on Jesus

'I believe there is no one lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic and more perfect than Jesus. I say to myself, with jealous love, that not only is there no one else like him but there could never be anyone like him.'

Reflections on an Anglican week

The Church of England has had quite a week. It formally welcomed its new leader, Justin Welby, as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Its ruling body, the synod, stunned most observers by rejecting again the introduction of women bishops. I have had an interesting time observing all this as I have come to write this piece, because I am no fan of the CofE, or the whole Anglican Communion for that matter. I have major issues with it biblically and theologically, and struggle even to identify it as representative of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not to say there are not Christians within it, of course there are, but as an organisation it is so far removed from a biblical model of the Church as to be unregonisable as Church.

via rogeraubrey.typepad.com

The dream that keeps me going

I have been asked to try to describe what is motivating me and what keeps me going in the ministry. The simple answer is that I am sustained by the Word of God, compelled by the Love of God and empowered by the Spirit of God. The word of God is saying:

via erling.typepad.com

For Youcef Nadarkhani - 1,000 days in prison

Youcef Nadarkhani is a Christian pastor in Iran. For the past one thousand days he has been in prison awaiting trial and execution for 'crimes against national security'. He is actually in jail on trumped up charges because he is a Christian who refuses to recant his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and lives each day with the threat of death. If you are a Christian this man is your brother in Christ. Pray for him. Tweet about him; post a message on Facebook regarding him. Use the tools that God has put in your hands for this important purpose. Help Youcef.

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Worship & Revelation

I recently had the opportunity to share the gospel with a lady I work with, all thanks to a question her son had asked her that she couldn’t answer. Travelling home in the car together after football practice one day, the son had said, ‘Mum, I know that Jesus died on the cross a long time ago, but where is he now?’ It’s a great question – a question that perhaps only a child would think to ask. Not able to answer it herself, but knowing that, as a Christian, I might be able to, she saw me in work the next day and asked me.

It was the beginning of a great conversation, in which I was able to tell her that, yes, Jesus did die on a cross and that God had raised him from the dead and that he had subsequently ascended into heaven and had sat down on his throne from where he had sent the Holy Spirit as he had promised (you can read all this, of course, in the Gospels and first two chapters of Acts). And the conversation got me thinking – how many Christians really know where Jesus is now? How many stop to think about what he is doing now? How many, when they come together to worship him with the rest of the church on a Sunday morning, are conscious of the fact that their Lord and Saviour is alive, ruling and reigning in the heavens and seated at the right hand of his Father in glory and majesty! This is how the writer to the Hebrews put it: ‘after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Hebrews 1:3).

This has huge, practical implications for us in our worship. We do not worship a dead man – we worship a living God. We do not worship a fallen hero – we worship a risen conqueror. We do not worship a defeated leader – we worship a victorious King. Stop and think about that for a moment. When we come together as the church to worship our God, to sing praises to him, to pray to him, to give him thanks, to enjoy his presence, to listen to his voice and to encourage one another as we move in spiritual gifts, we are entering in to the presence of the most victorious, glorious, powerful, awesome person in the entire universe. We worship Jesus Christ and he is seated upon the throne of heaven.

The Holy Spirit is intent on showing us Jesus every time we meet together. The Holy Spirit loves to promote Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to show us Jesus. He loves to remind us that we are being made to be more and more and more like Jesus. He takes delight in reminding us that Christ is not only with us and for us but also that he lives in us. We see this portrayed beautifully in the Book of Revelation. In chapter 4, the apostle John is taken up into heaven in vision:

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. (Revelation 4:1-2)

I could go on quoting this amazing passage of Scripture, but I’ll stop there. (Although I will say, if you have a passion for worshipping God, spend some serious time reading the Book of Revelation – it’s full of song, it’s full of worship, it’s full of awesome descriptions of Jesus and the praise he inspires in heaven and on earth!) It’s clear from these two verses that the Holy Spirit only has one direction he wants us to look in – upwards, heavenwards, Christ-wards. He wants us, in our worship and devotion, to have eyes, hearts and minds focused completely on the Lord Jesus. ‘Come up here’, he says. It’s an invitation to look up, to go up, and to grow up. It’s an invitation to encounter and to be transformed. It’s an invitation to receive revelation and impartation. Why? Because ‘up’ is heavenwards and Christ-wards. ‘Up’ is where we belong because, as Paul tells the Ephesians, ‘up’, seated in the heavenly realms in Christ, is where we really live as Christians. Our worship of Jesus is not focused on us, centred on our problems or rooted in the earth. Our worship of Jesus is spiritual, heavenward and Christ-focused. Read the Book of Revelation and take note of the themes of its songs – they are unashamedly Christ-inspired and Christ-focused.

'Come up here,’ says the Spirit, ‘and I will show you’. I heard a great man of God some years ago say that revelation is the main repercussion in worshipping the Lord. It has stayed with me ever since: revelation is the main repercussion in worshipping the Lord. In worshipping Jesus, I see more of who he is; I see more of who I am; I see more of his purposes and plans. God is, after all, a God of revelation; if he wasn’t a God of revelation, none of us would exist! None of us know God by our own efforts or intellect; we know him because he has revealed himself to us. And he wants us to know him more. And we want to know him more, don’t we? That is why it’s key that we keep in our minds that when we worship Jesus we should expect greater and greater revelation of who he is and what he is doing. Worship is never about us; about our meetings, our agenda or our setlists. (Since when, by the way, did worship become something that needed a setlist?) Worship is all about Jesus.

And what does the Spirit show you? Well, it’s more who than what: he shows us a throne and, hallelujah, that throne is occupied. He shows us a throne in heaven and he shows us the one who sits on that throne. The phrase ‘to him who sits on the throne’ is repeated in Revelation 4 and 5 and is usually followed by ascriptions of worth to the one who sits on the throne: he is worthy to receive glory and honour and power and praise. Remember this: whenever you come to worship Jesus, whenever you determine that you’re going to worship him in spirit and in truth, the Holy Spirit wants to show you more of who Jesus is and that will always point you towards the throne in heaven. I’ve left the rest of the description in Revelation 4 and 5 for you to read for yourself. As you do so, be stirred afresh to worship Jesus, the one who sits on the throne of heaven.