Went to a UCCF training day today, subtitled “Sharing the Love on the South coast”. Was really good to meet other CU leaders, praise God, pray together, plan, analyse what a CU is and what our CU is like, hear from God’s word about what our purpose is…

I can’t remember when it was, probably at a UCCF new leaders conference when it was said… “A CU is a mission team”, now it wasn’t actually till I went to Bulgaria as part of a UCCF mission team that I realised how radical that was. ‘A Mission Team’, that just changes the whole raison d’etre (yeh that’s French!), it changes why we meet, it changes the way in which we meet, it changes us from just another society or club to a team with an eternal, life-changing focus.

A mission team; meets to pray, to encourage one another, to share testimony, to plan, to get trained and equipped, to be encouraged by God’s word, to seek God and his ways, to help each other… when Driscoll talks about Reformission, he makes the point that just as you need to prepare for overseas mission, to study the culture we are entering, so we need to do the same for mission at home… CUs need to be prepared for the culture they enter, we need to know what people are into, where the average student places their hopes, what their ambitions are, why they believe what they do… CUs need to engage with the student culture, be part of it, befriend and build relationships, yet be distinctive and holy within that culture… CU isn’t about withdrawing into a ‘holy huddle’, a bubble, a safe place from the rest of campus… nor is CU another compartment in student life – do CU one night, go out and get wasted with my mates the next…

Ultimately CUs belong to Jesus, he’s in charge, they are his tools to win students for Christ through the proclamation of the gospel through many and varied means, but never less than simply speaking who Jesus is and what he did at the cross for us.

Anyway… we looked at Acts 17 this morning… I love this passage for a few reasons…

1) Paul contextualizes (Acts 17:16-28) - Paul goes to the Areopagus, he sees their culture, he speaks into that culture, he takes the things that they know, things that interest them and explains how the true God is actually what they are really seeking

2) God is Sovereign (Acts 17:26-25) - God chose exactly where everyone would live and when they’d be there, and his whole purpose in doing that is to give people an opportunity to hear the gospel

3) Proved by the resurrection (Acts 17:31) - Jesus is coming back to judge the world, we know he is because God raised him from the dead… only man who beat death, must be special

4) People respond (Acts 17:32-34) - when you tell people about Jesus, some sneer, they called Paul a babbler, others wanted to know more, and some believed and followed

Here’s a heresy I was hearing a few weeks ago, it sounds something like… ‘sickness is not God’s will for you’, ‘God promises good health here and now’, ‘if you don’t get healed it’s because you lack faith’, ‘if I pray for you then God will heal you’…

The question is asked, “Does God Heal?”… How do we answer that? Yes, He can. Yes, He does, sometimes. Will God heal, in heaven yes, on earth, well that’s up to Him.
There seems to be an addition to the gospel, coming from Isaiah 53:5 – Jesus died for our sins on the cross, and he suffered for our healing (hear and now) – “By his stripes we are healed”

I can’t see any reason to then say, because Jesus suffered in this way that he paid for our healing here and now… the “healed” is in the context (verse 5) of our sin being dealt with and of a relationship with God being healed (peace).

This is one of three legs of the prosperity gospel (health, wealth and prosperity), it’s a little more subtle than your average ‘Christian’ TV preacher who wants your money… cause Jesus will give you loads back! And it sounds reasonable… God can heal, Christians are his children, why would he not heal??

What does the Bible say on the matter…?

2 Cor 12:7-10

“…there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

We don’t know what exactly Paul’s thorn in the flesh was… but we do know the Paul asked God three times to take it away… God displays his power in our weakness

1 Tim 5:23

“Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

So Timothy had dodgy bowels and was frequently ill.

Gal 4:12-16

“…it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.”

God used Paul’s illness for good

John Piper had cancer last year and wrote an article called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer“, I can’t write everything he said but his main points are:

• illness is designed for you by God
• illness is a gift, not a curse
• God brings comfort
• Death is a reality for us all
• illness is a time to seek God and treasure Him

If God is sovereign… sorry, God is sovereign (by definition) which means illness is given by Him, of course sometimes he may use illness to show his power through miraculous healing, often he won’t!

There are two dangers I feel… first we claim our promises too early, one day we will be whole, healed, perfect, but that is not until heaven… Revelation 21 says of the new earth that “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain”, one assumes therefore there will be until then, we can’t claim the promises of God before he brings them to completion in his time. Second, we miss the point of illness… ultimately it’s appointed by God, we can use a time of illness/suffering to give glory to God, to seek him, to pray to him… or we can ignore him.

Providentially, Driscoll just started talking about this in his latest sermon (35 mins in)

Hear what JP thinks about the Prosperity gospel…

Wow. I didn’t think it was going to happen this soon, but suspected it would eventually… this summer is going to be a summer of weddings! There’s 4 weddings of good mates this summer, I think I’ll get to 3 of them, at one I get to be an usher, another best man, and I’m negotiating to be a page boy at the third (I never got to be a page boy).

Part of me likes being single… I have time, money, I can choose what I wear, and don’t have to make an effort for anyone. At the same time this verse is so true…

Genesis 2:18 – “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

It’s true, I need a helper. I have the Spirit, who is a helper, He’s great, but… he doesn’t make sure I wear (clean) clothes which go together, he doesn’t make sure I wash, he doesn’t stop me from living in the squalor that is my bedroom… I’m not too proud to say I need help!

Driscoll – “It is not good for a man to be alone – Why? Because men are weird…”

There’s going to be a few MD quotes cause I was listening to his sermon from 1 Cor 7 on Singleness…

Reasons not to get married:

• you’re a eunuch – Matt 19:12
• if it’s a really bad time – 1 Cor 7:25-28
• to serve the Kingdom

Just checked, I’m not a eunuch. I guess being in full time study probably means it’s a bad time… hoorah I only 9 months left! I don’t think I’m called to a service which would require me to be single…

Reasons to get married:

• not good for a man to be alone – Gen 2:18
• better than burning with passion – 1 Cor 7:9

“…if you cannot remain sexually pure you need to hustle up, grow up, get a job, get married, quick, today!”

“She’s hot… yes and if you touch her you will burn in hell, and hell is hotter than she is!”

I’m fairly convinced I don’t have what they call the ‘gift of singleness’…

“Do you have the gift of chastity? Chastity, who’s she?” Chastity is when you don’t need to be with a women… what that’s a gift?”

Final quote… a call to grow up

“marriage is for men not boys, women not girls”

Marriage, relationship, it feels like one of those things that I’m built for, which is of course what Genesis says… while I’d love to get married, and don’t want to be single forever, there’s always a danger that we can turn good gifts of God into idols. I think it’s right to pursue marriage, but at the same time we should never forget the words of Jesus in Matt 22 – “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage”. Ultimately, Christ is the Bridegroom and the church is the Bride, if there’s one wedding I want to be at it has got to be that one!

There is one small detail I’ve forgotten… I need to find someone who wants to marry me!!

I have loads of posts brewing, half-finished, but alas this blog seems abit neglected of late…

The last couple of weeks seem to have gone by uneventfully, feels like it just passed me by, but some things must have happened…

Bit of a new look for bhmc.org.uk, also the sermons are now being updated more regularly, here’s a beauty – Phil Moon speaking on the Holy Spirit, very clear and simple, and bashing a few heresies.

I chose my project for my course last week, a website system for storing church sermons… could come in handy methinks…

At Mars Hill Church, Driscoll is into the third week of a new series on Philippians, so far at the end of each sermon they finish looking at the conversion of a hymn writer and how one of their hymns relates to the theme… then the band make it a tad more contemporary… Robert Robinson – Come Thou Fount… also for January there is ‘Ask Anything‘… Driscoll is inviting the “critics, bloggers, weirdos, nutjobs” to ask questions, people vote for the ones they want answered, then he’ll preach on them… no.1 at the moment is about the “Regulative Principle”… could be interesting…

Led CU Bible study on how the cross reveals God’s character, there were 3 of us, and I wasn’t expecting to lead, so preparing was a last minute job, but I learned loads… we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” – wow!

Talked at Global Cafe on why there’s suffering in the world… I think I avoided the hard parts of the question really, but simply: God made everything perfect, suffering was a direct consequence of the Fall (Sin), God can identify with our sufferings in Jesus, God dealt with the consequences of Sin at the cross, for the Christian there is hope of a perfect world.

Listening to Michael Ots from Lansdowne Baptist was helpful in preparing – ‘What kind of God doesn’t stop suffering?‘

Have been sad recently… looks like we’re out of the European Championships, lost the rugby world cup final (although the pub round the corner now has Staropramen on tap, which made it more bearable!), and Lewis Hamilton had a mare.

On a more happier note; great to see and meet lots of new people at church and CU, great to see God at work, building his church, although you do wonder why he chooses all the weirdos (like me)…

Man (I’ve started saying that a lot… too much Driscoll podcasting methinks) I’m tired. I need to sleep, get up early and do some work…

Uncle Stevo, who was running the CB3 book stall this year was trying to get rid of his last few books… of course I snapped up a copy of Desiring God for £7 – bargain… and was also intrigued by the History Makers biography series; Luther, Calvin and The Cambridge Seven, there’s lots more too.

The main reason I got this book was because I wanted to read some more about C.T. Studd – one of the Cambridge Seven, missionary to China, Congo, maybe some other places, the founder WEC, and source of the quote “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” But if I’m honest, I was always more interested by the fact that he was the best all-round cricketer of his day, and gave up a promising international cricket career to serve God in an overseas mission field.

Anyway…the book was quite hard to read at first, loads of different names and random diary entries. But I love the background details, about the mothers and missionaries who were praying, about how the Seven came to faith – largely through the ministry of D.L. Moody, and of Hudson Taylor, his vision and prayer for workers to come to China. The book doesn’t talk about their work in China but is focused on the Seven, their conversions and their call to overseas gospel work.

What did the Seven achieve? Clearly they were called and used mightily by God, and their legacy can be seen today… despite oppression the church in China stands, around 70 million strong! China has the potential to become the largest missionary sending country with the ‘Back to Jerusalem‘ march. And their influence extends beyond China, the work and example of these 7 has led to the sending of may more missionaries, establishment of worldwide missionary organisations as well as the founding of student Christian movements… Norman Grubb, son-in-law of C.T. Studd started UCCF… so in fact the influence of C.T. Studd has contributed to the fact that I’m part of a Christian Union at Sussex University today!

I always thought that China is a closed country, the church is underground and no one really knows anything about it… that’s not true… John Piper recommended this website China Soul – under the heading “The Cross – Jesus in China” there’s 4 videos about the history and the present of the Chinese church. Hearing some Chinese Christians talking about their faith and the persecution they face is both a great encouragement and truly humbling.

“God does not deal with you until you are wholly given up to Him, and then He will tell you what He would have you do.”