But here’s the point, and why it’s a very relevant question. What if you’re deaf?

My instinct would be to say the deafness is a disability, there’s a sense in which being deaf is to be incomplete – ie. you can’t hear! Then of course this ability will be restored in the New Creation, in our perfect bodies. Now this happened to come up recently, preaching recently at a local church of which around 10% of the members are deaf. I was given Isaiah 35 as the text, which talks about the deaf being healed… awkward!

After having the debate about when we should expect this healing that is promised to happen, another discussion came about. You see, some in the Christian deaf community, don’t believe that they are ‘physically incomplete’ or ‘disabled’, they believe that this is how God has created them to be. Which I think we would want to concur with, to a point. The issue is that some go on to say… therefore I will be deaf in heaven too… so presumably will speak BSL in heaven?

I’d always have thought it an irrelevant question, but it’s actually massively practical and pastoral if you work with deaf people. You can appreciate the point that some in the Christian deaf community are making, but I think scripture is clear that we will be made complete and healed in the New Creation. We will receive perfected, resurrection bodies, deafness is surely only one symptom of a fallen, broken body. One that nonetheless will be healed and restored.

There’s lots of interesting questions surrounding the New Creation. I think the idea of knowing one another, and communicating with one another, seems very plausible and could probably find implicit warrant for in the Bible. I’m struggling to think of specific verses to justify this view. Thoughts?

It’s a shame really. They’re model believers – Luke 1:6 tells us that they’re ‘upright in God’s sight’ and ‘observe all God’s laws blamelessly’. On top of that they’ve been waiting and praying patiently, praying for a child and for the child who will come to save (Luke 1:13), in the end their prayers are answered, and both come, one after the other.

In Luke 1 we see three characters who are silent. First we see God. Silent for 400 years, no words, no prophets, no miracles, and no messiah! Second Zechariah, who despite word from an angel, declaring his prayers to be answered, is silenced for his unbelief. Thirdly Elizabeth, who secludes herself for 5 months waiting to see if the news has come true. But when she does speak, her words are gold.

Luke 1:25 - “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

We know that this baby John is a forerunner for Jesus, he comes as the Elijah figure (Malachi 4:5-6) who proceeds the coming of the Lord. But Elizabeth’s words too are prophetic of what is to come…

• A Miraculous Birth
• God showing his Grace
• God ridding us of our Disgrace

Now I’m not sure that’s a wrong approach. The New Testament often uses pictures from the Old Testament to point to Jesus… and Jesus is indeed in ALL the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). Take Deuteronomy for example… Jesus is…

• A better Moses
• Like Joshua… leading the people into the land
• The True Passover and Jubilee
• Faithful in the wilderness
• The fulfilment of the Law

These things are undoubtedly true and are all captured by the gospel writers. But I wonder if Deuteronomy is less trying to give little hints at Christ… like Wallys dotted throughout… and more trying to present a framework for Christ.

Deuteronomy is full of Covenantal language… blessings and curses… while life and blessings are offered to the people (30), the truth is that God’s people won’t keep the law, they can’t keep the law, and they don’t want to keep it either (31)!

So it’s not just little pictures of Jesus… but a whole stage set… a dilemma posed… who will step forward? Who can obey this law? How can we ever hope to receive God’s blessing? Jesus is not just in the details, the fulfilment of types portrayed… he is the answer to the question, the completion of the promise, and the hope of God’s people.

I love looking for Jesus in the details, but I must remember that he’s the big picture too!

“As @hughbo taught us this morning, harvest is more than baked beans..”

I hope the message was a little more profound than that, but it does contain elements of truth. It was Harvest Sunday this week, at least it was in our church. Due to staff shortages I ended up preaching on Psalm 65. I’ve never done Harvest before, not since I was a kid. It brought back memories of Harvest suppers, produce auctions and competitions to see who had the biggest marrow.

I guess in short, my attitude to Harvest is fairly flippant. Especially in Hove, it doesn’t really seem all that relevant. But God’s word was so relevant… Psalm 65 is an awesome song of praise at the Harvest festival. We saw:

• God’s Grace
• God’s Greatness
• God’s Goodness

We called the night ‘The Grace of Law’, a title pinched off Tim Keller, although unusually none of the content was. We didn’t have time to go through all the commandments, and think exactly how we apply them today. We just wanted to do one thing… to see the God’s Law is good!

Here’s three reasons that we looked at why God’s Law is good:

1. It’s Giver is good – the God who gives these laws is the God of covenant relationship (v.2), the God who speaks to his people (v.4), and the God who rescues his people (v.6) – God is presented as fundamentally good!
2. It’s Purpose is good – one of the refrains throughout the law given here is it’s purpose for good, so that “it may go well with you in the land” (v.16), and “so that you may live and prosper” (v.33).
3. It Protects what is good – the 10 Commandments acts like a fence, seeking to protect the good things that God gives – eg. the law against adultery is designed to protect the gift of marriage, and the law against idols is designed to protect the gift of God himself.

The second church we experienced in Malawi was a more modern, independent church with a Pentecostal feel, where our hosts and a number of other ex-pats were members. Sadly we couldn’t join them on the Sunday, but were pleased to accept an invitation to a home group meeting.

In contrast to Area 50 Baptist Church, the ex-pat community have more than they need – so it was great to see the Christians being so generous with what they had. The South African family I stayed with were part of this church, they taught me 3 key lessons about the Christian faith:

Firstly, they live out their faith, their faith moves them to action, not just to principles for life, or a theory, what they believe they actually do, and really seek to put into practise. To me, the God Channel, which they often had on sounds just like “how to live the good life”… but if you actually live out some of these principles it is powerful!

Secondly, and this is an outworking of the first, they showed me what generosity and hospitality look like in practise. They put up 3 strangers for 10 days, they welcomed us into their home, they said “Don’t feel at home. Be at home.” The reason they welcomed us so well was because though they didn’t know the details, they knew it was gospel work that had brought us there. Their generosity could be seen in lots of practical ways: tithing, adoption, hospitality, offering employment, serving their church, taking in extended family, supporting their workers and those in need around. Theirs is a faith very practically lived out.

Thirdly, they have a strong sense of Spiritual Warfare. While I would be cautious about attributing events “to the devil” they very much embraced this idea, not in an unhelpful way, but in a way which sought to do good to others and to serve the gospel as a way of “fighting back”. While not all their beliefs I’d agree with, you couldn’t fault the way they actually put them into action!

Last time I went, I penned some thoughts about the Christian scene in Malawi, here they are:

In my time in Malawi I was able to experience 2 very different types of Christianity. Firstly was the Baptist Church of Area 50, the place where we had come to minister, what seemed like quite a traditional church by Malawian standards, made up from local people.

When we joined the Baptist church on Sunday morning there were some very unusual things I was not used to – for a start the service was in Chichewa, the local language. The time together began with Sunday school (for everyone), children’s groups, and Bible study for young adults and new Christians, alongside a teaching session for everyone else. As I sat and listened to one of the elders teach I realised that there was certainly some truth in the saying that Christianity in Africa is a mile wide, but only an inch deep – great passion to teach and be taught, but little understanding of how to teach and rightly handle the Bible.

There was a certain relaxedness about the meeting, people would arrive ‘late’, walk in and out to look after children. There was no printed service order, and apparently no structure. There seemed to be a slightly odd mix between old and new – the church would sing a few hymns from the Baptist hymn book, which seemed to be poorly translated and a little dirge-like. In contrast there were times of spontaneous worship, 2 or 3 would leap to the front and lead us in a song, the women’s choir would perform – no instruments, just voices singing and hands clapping were more than enough to raise the roof!

“Up, up Jesus… down, down Satan”

One of the key aspects of Malawian Christianity which was evident was their contentfulness. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the members of the Baptist church were not well off, their church building is basic, the homes in the area are pretty rustic, and the jobs of most are not well regarded. But there is a basic contentfulness. While the lure of money and power is a temptation in every culture, and clear also in Malawi, among the Christians there does seem to be a genuine feel of being content: the church building is basic, work is hard, in fact life generally in Malawi is very tough (just look at the mortality rates), but in spite of these things the Christians seem very content, even joyful. How Christians in the West could learn, as the ones with so little seem to have all they need!

The thing you have to know is that God’s wrath is being poured out against students (Rom 1:18). Woooh, hang on, I thought this was going to be a little pep talk about how fun evangelism is… Well, maybe, but first you’ve gotta see God’s wrath… It’s all there in Romans 1-2 where we meet our 3 types of student:

First we see the Idealists. They thought it better to ignore God, something in them cries out for God, their concern for justice betrays their Atheism. They suppress the truth of the goodness of God and exchange it for the lie of the goodness of community, the omnipotence of society. Look at Romans 1:18-23, Paul speaks of those who deep down know about God, but choose to replace him with their own ideals.

Second we meet the Hedonists. Look at Romans 1:24-32, we see God gave them over to all kinds of desires. People who do what they want, live for their own pleasure, be it greed, sex, lust, gossip… they seek after these things, because that’s what their depraved minds tell them to do!

Finally we meet the Legalists. Romans 2:1-11, Paul is speaking of those who pass judgement on others, who look to their own good and hard work for their justification. Their work will be marked, but not their degrees and career performance, no they will be judged on how they responded to God, how they responded to his work.

The truth is that God’s wrath is being poured out against all these kind of students. In fact against all kinds of people. God is giving students over to their desires of secular community, of life lived for self pleasure, of days worked for self glory. Yet, in the face of God’s Judgement, see Paul’s stand, Rom 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation”.

So Christian student, in the face of students living for self, in the light of Gods judgement… Don’t be ashamed of the gospel! Don’t be ashamed to name yourself a Christian during those first meetings, don’t be ashamed to befriend the somewhat uncool Christian hallmate, don’t be ashamed to be known to be at the CU meeting and going to church, don’t be ashamed to standout from the Hedonists at the pub crawl, the Idealists at the SU and the Legalists in the library… be prepared to give an answer for your hope, live and speak for Jesus.

You may look around at your new hall mates, your class mates… perhaps with envy at the ‘fun’ they have… perhaps in disdain at their godlessness… rather look on them with compassion with the knowledge that only the Gospel, only the righteousness of God, revealed in Jesus Christ is the power for Salvation in their lives.

But what of this search for love, where does it lead? If life is made up of these two great quests for love then where do we find it?

For some it may be success, money, career progression, the perfect home, the kind of material things that suggest we have found acceptance, even love from society. Victor Hugo said “Life’s greatest happiness is to be convinced we’re loved”, and we tend to use these markers of success to convince ourselves that we are indeed loved by society.

Or it may be that the search for romantic love is more pressing for us. We crave the attention and affection of another, we yearn for the intimacy of sex, of sharing life together.

Yet we live in a world where success is temporary, where money is insecure, where the perfect home is a myth. A world where beauty is fleeting, and faithfulness is passée. A world where depression leaves us feeling empty and divorce leaves us broken.

When we think of the reality of society, the reality of our own hearts, there is no way that our deepest desires, that our search for love in this world will ever find true consummation. Augustine, who himself battled with this quest came to this conclusion - Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.

We spend our lives searching around with that U2 feeling… we sigh and say “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”… as Bono recounts the highs of this quest, he’s still left with an inevitable feeling of emptiness as true love is not found. But where is that true love, where does our quest find it’s end?

Well let me suggest we need God to show us, we need revelation, at least a pointer or idea that we can find it! Douglas Coupland knows he needs some revelation when he said “My secret is that I need God, that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God… to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.”

In the Bible, Romans 5:8, it says that “God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us”. This is something of an answer to our question, it tells us loads about love, what it is and where we can find it… more on that to come…

Barry Webb – Five Festal Garments

It’s a real shame Webb’s book is relatively short, only 20 pages on the Song. It’s especially helpful for seeing how the Song fits together and what it’s purpose is. He really focuses on the structural and thematic issues drawn out in the Song, but really it’s too short to be persuaded by his arguments alone, but I guess it points to further reading.

Tom Gledhill – The Message of the SofS (BST)

Gledhill is fairly thorough with the text, drawing out most of the details and discussing the issues. He takes a naturalistic approach and focuses on the human details, but I don’t think really helps to point us to Christ, or really to be that relevant in pointing us to application.

Tremper Longman III – SofS (NICOT)

Longman is technical, but concise, he doesn’t faff around. He opts for a dual approach, but doesn’t really focus any time to showing us Christ. I think his interpretations are a little off in places. But it’s strength is making the technical accessible.

G. Lloyd Carr – The SofS (Tyndale)

Carr gives good discussion to interpretation and opts for the natural/literal approach. I like Carr’s simple word by word approach, which breaks the text down, making it easy to deal with. I found he sets things out plainly without being too dogmatic on issues. Again, fails really to point us to Christ.

C.H. Spurgeon – The Most Holy Place

Not a commentary, rather a collection of sermons. Spurgeon goes heavily on the Typological approach, seeing Christ in everything. But he doesn’t crowbar it, he takes us from Human love to Christ’s love and there is his focus. It’s wordy and poetic, and perhaps doesn’t really engage the text thoroughly, but certainly draws loads out to feed the soul!

Gary Brady – Heavenly Love

Simple, non-technical. Goes for a dual approach of human love pointing to heavenly love. Doesn’t really help to solve textual questions, but goes with a clear meaning and is packed with loads of good illustrations. Helpful at a devotional level to any reader and gives great ideas to the preacher to illustrate and apply.

I guess my big frustration in reading on the Song of Solomon is that nobody seems to interpret it in the way I think it should be! Most commentators seem to opt for a naturalistic approach, which has recently been popularised by Mark Driscoll. While a lot of the old greats like Spurgeon, and folk like Daniel Newman and Mike Reeves seem to opt for a Typological / Allegorical approach.

Personally, the best stuff I’ve found on the Song, wasn’t Driscoll’s series (as he claims!), but Pete Woodcock’s series from Cornerstone Kingston, which genuinely takes a dual approach. I think the way it’s supposed to be taught…