So I started off with John Piper’s ‘A Sweet and Bitter Providence‘… “sex, race and the sovereignty of God in the book of Ruth”… If you’ve listened to Piper’s sermons on the book of Ruth it’s basically those in book form, but it’s a wonderful resource to have it as a book!

Piper’s main theme running through the book is how God is sovereign and while his providential plans are always for our good, sometimes they seem bitter and sometimes sweet, as Naomi knew too well. As he takes us through the story he picks out the themes of race, sex, interracial marriage, what it means to belong to God’s people, and His Sovereignty.

This book is great because it works on two levels and everywhere in between… it serves as a great devotional book, applying the story and truths from the story of Ruth to our own lives and experience… at the same time it also serves as a basic commentary on the book, while devotional in feel, Piper is still rigorous with the text, digging up hidden gems and showing the depth of the story. Well worth having a read.

The next book is slightly different. ‘The Breeze of the Centuries‘ is the second offering from UCCF theology guru Mike Reeves. I don’t usually bother with introductions, but it was interesting to read and find out the reason for the title… a quote from CS. Lewis, which translated basically says “we need to listen to and learn from people in the past, the breeze of the centuries…”

Reeves takes us through a short biography and the background to the works of some early Christian theologians, people like Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Athanasius, Augustine and more…

You get a real feel for the people and their situations, and it’s great to be introduced to authors writing so soon after Jesus. It’s really interesting to see how the early church fought against heresies and how actually there’s nothing new under the soon. Many of the controversies of the early church have seemingly been re-repeated under a different guise throughout church history. A great introduction to some giants of the early church… get it and read it!

As it happens, I didn’t read it then anyone… I filled my week up with other things… but I did finish it soon after! It’s a whilstle stop tour of the Reformation in Europe from the pre-reformation indulgences to the post-reformation Puritans and everything else in between.

Reeves keeps his good humour and slightly zany approach to historical theology. The main players and events are introduced in a novelistic kind of way, you feel a certain attachment and fondness for Luther as he drinks beer and Calvin as he’s hounded across Europe.

For me the best bit is the chapter on the English Reformation and the focus on William Tyndale. It’s the best because I live in England, it feels that much closer to home… this man died for the sake of the gospel and that I might be able to read the Bible in English!

“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.”

“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”

You can buy the book on Amazon, currently for just £5.64 – Bargain!!

Introduction

Psalms 120 – 134, The Songs of Ascent

Songs for the Pilgrimage – when the Jews journeyed on the way to the feasts; Passover, Tabernacles, Harvest, heading for Jerusalem

The Psalms come in triads (sets of 3), following the pattern of: 1)Distress 2) God’s protection 3) Safe Arrival

Psalm 123-beginning of the 2nd triad, a situation of distress. But even in this situation we find hope in our faithful God

Eyes that looks up to Heaven

The world says “look to yourself” – find the strength you need inside yourself

The Psalmist says… “Not chin up but eyes up!”

The eyes looking to Heaven are symbolic of praying to our God

Robert Murray-McChene-Every look at myself, take ten at Christ

The hand that acts

Looking shows our dependence on God – God our master

Hand of the LORD our God – Hand of provision

My dog Glennie…  his eyes fixed upon the dinner table – expectant that his master will provide

The mercy given?

The cry for mercy goes seemingly unheard… But remember to whom it is we cry-it’s the LORD!

I AM the LORD… who rescued you… this is the God who is in the business of giving mercy

We see his mercy in the past and we await the great day of mercy to come

The hardships of the journey

Contempt from the arrogant: Faith and prayer is just a sign of weakness

Ridicule from the proud: You don’t really believe that do you?  I’m a good person, it doesn’t matter what you say!

Eye of Hope - (called by ancient scholars)

Look to Heaven

Wait for His mercy

Remember the One who made The Journey… Jesus made a journey at the feast of the Passover… he journeyed away from the city, he endured much contempt and ridicule… so that you can now journey to the New Jerusalem

This year i’ll be following the two ‘Doctrine Matters’ seminar streams – sadly this means I’ll miss Vaughan Roberts on 1 Corinthians 1-7. The first session is by Mike Reeves, the UCCF theology guru, he’s looking at Martin Luther and the whole topic of Justification.

The next session will be all about engaging with culture – Dan Strange, a lecturer at Oak Hill college will be speaking. I’ll do some summary posts at the end of the series about these topics. Alright, cue Mike Reeves…

First night we kicked off with Terry Virgo speaking on God’s Grace from Romans 5. It was a great start to the week to be reminded of our status before God based on his Grace mediated through Christ’s work on the cross. At the same time some of us felt he didn’t really give a balanced picture, yes we are under grace, but what about disciple, how does sanctification work? Terry Virgo did mention these things but had no time to explain – a shame. Nevertheless it was great to glory at God’s lavish grace.

Don Carson spoke in the morning Bible readings from 1 John, and the next two evenings formed a two-part message from John Piper – Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer… these two features deserve separate posts.

What else was there to do… Chronological Bible overview with Jason Clarke, a guide to understanding, interpreting and applying the whole Bible (using Daniel) with Vaughan Roberts, Trinity with Mike Reeves (mind blowing as ever), Humanity and Creation, 3 studies with Mike Ovey… Giving a Bible talk with Richard Coekin, Good News to the poor with Tim Chester… and loads of other practical seminars with great speakers like; Graham Daniels, Mark Ashton, Wallace Benn, Dave Bish, Andrew Sach, Jim Paul, Melvin Tinker, Jon Hobbs, John Benton, Roger Carswell… and loads more!

And if that’s too much for you then there’s go karts, crazy golf, swimming, peddlos, and a nice beach to walk on. In fact that usually is too much, I went to the main meetings and Mike Reeves on the Triune God… that’s more than enough! The rest of the time it’s good to just chillax, enjoy people’s company, think about what we’re learning, and to enjoy the beauty of Wales (and Sarah), more thoughts to come…

Whosoever will be saved,
before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.
Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled,
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the Catholic Faith is this:
That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity,
neither confounding the Persons,
nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father,
another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.

The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.

And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated,
but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty,
and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three
Almighties, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God,
and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord,
and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.

For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge
every Person by himself to be both God and Lord,
So are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say,
There be three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son,
neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons;
one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other;
none is greater, or less than another; But the whole three Persons
are co-eternal together and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid,
the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved is must think thus of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also
believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess,
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds;
and Man of the substance of his Mother, born in the world;
Perfect God and perfect Man,
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.

Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the
Father, as touching his manhood; Who, although he be God and Man,
yet he is not two, but one Christ;
One, not by conversion of the Godhead
into flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God;
One altogether; not by confusion of Substance,
but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul
and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell,
rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth at the right hand of the Father,
God Almighty, from whence he will come
to judge the quick and the dead.
At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies
and shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life
everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully,
he cannot be saved.

Source: Anglicans Online

“Trinity isn’t an invention of some emotionally constipated monks”

“Trinity is Father, Son and Spirit loving each other”

Also picked up a few books from the local Christian bookshop today, thought I should use my book tokens there rather than getting everything off Amazon… picked up, quite cheaply, Incomparable by Andrew Wilson on the Character of God and a little gem, Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, my first Banner book!

I just realised Mike Reeves’ talks from the UCCF South-East Training weekend got lost in a deleted post, so I’ve added a new blogroll for good MP3 talks and Mike’s talks are linked there -thanks to Bish for those.

Anyway, so I went to these four sessions, which were quite hard going – firstly they were on about nap time, secondly there were lots of what to me seemed somewhat obscure old theologians and philosophers referred to (Aristotle??, Plato?? – joke, I’d heard of them), thirdly English isn’t my strong point so the addition of some Hebrew, Latin and Greek on top of that was tough, and fourthly and finally we were thinking about one triune God which is inevitably going to be mind boggling.

So we started off looking at how we define God, trying to move away from ideas of “divine being” or “substance”, but instead to look at Father, Son and Spirit. This had profound implications for speaking with people from other monotheistic faiths, especially Muslims. I guess could be tempting to find common ground, believing in ‘one’ God, but actually we believe in Father, Son and Spirit – and our Father, our God-head is profoundly different to Allah.

We then looked at how we can reconcile ‘oneness’ and trinity and different approaches in Christian theology throughout history – trying to fit the 3 into 1, and trying to understand how the 3 can be one. We learned that God is not simply 3 characters, 3 faces and that actually analogies like the Egg and H2O aren’t great ones. Rather God is three persons in loving relationship. This brings a whole new emphasis to 1 John 4:16 – “God is Love”. It’s not primarily saying that Love is an attribute or characteristic of God, no it goes much deeper to say that God is a relationship – Father, Son and Spirit are One God because of the loving relationship that joins them. God is Relationship, God is Love. So what does it mean to be in relationship with God? It means to be brought into this loving communion, to be loved by the Father as the Son is loved as the Spirit is loved – that was a Wow moment, where Mike starts to use bigger hand gestures. He then talked about “Hypostasis in Extasis” which I can’t quite remember what it means, but it was to do with the nature of who God is wanting to express his loving relationship into the world – hence creation, revelation of himself, and salvation to draw humanity back into relationship, so we went to the Scriptures to look at the Trinity in action within these themes…

Creation

Gen 1:2 – The Spirit of God moves of the water

Gen 1: 26 – Let us make man in our own image

Col 1: 16 – By Jesus all things were created

John 1: 3 – Through Jesus all things were made

Revelation

John 16 – It was great to be able to study the ‘upper room discourse’ at Sparkford 2 in the summer (and good to see at least one person from my dorm group in this seminar). The discourse is just packed with profound truths about the trinity – specifically on Revelation, from verse 13 it talks about the Spirit speaking, not on his own, but what he hears from the Son, and this not from the Son, because the Son got it from the Father in the first place.

Salvation

We didn’t look at Hebrews, but the stuff in Student Celebrations about Jesus the High Priest presenting himself as a sacrifice to the Father seems appropriate. We looked at John 17 – Jesus prays (presumably in the Spirit?) to his Father, he prays that through (the Cross?) the Son and the Father may be glorified. He prays for his disciples, for protection and unity. He prays for all who will believe (us?), praying that they may be one as we (Father and the Son) are one. The Son intercedes in prayer for his people with the Father, and ultimately on the Cross intercedes for his people by taking the Father’s punishment.

‘Cosmic Child Abuse’

One phrase used by Steve Chalke and others has been to liken the doctrine of PSA to ‘Cosmic Child Abuse’. The Father punishing the Son, can this be right in the light of what we’ve said about this loving communion of God? Firstly, there is the statement that Richard Cunningham raised, “God doesn’t forgive sin, he only punishes it” – I hope to blog on this later – if we reject this statement then we don’t have a problem, if we accept it, then we see Jesus being punished by the Father for our Sin… Love and Just Punishment are neither in conflict or contradiction, so the question is, is it more loving for the Father to punish the Son for Sin or to let the world face the punishment? I’m going with the former… but it comes back to “Hypostasis in Extasis”, the idea of God wanting to broadcast his loving relationship – redemption of humanity, through the atonement of Sin is the only way this can happen, the only way that humanity can be drawn back into the loving communion which is God.

Some people think theology is boring, or simply intellectual – actually (and Mike Reeves has helped me in moving away from any notion of those two ideas) Christian theology gives glory, fear and reverence to an awesome God!

Charles Price on Philippians

In the main morning Bible readings we were following the main Spring Harvest theme – One People. It was One God last year and One Hope next. Charles took a chapter of Philippians each day with the titles: One People, Holy People, Catholic People and Apostolic People. I missed the first one and didn’t take notes, so I can’t give you a summary of each one, but it was good. It wasn’t so much an exposition of taking verse-by-verse and explaining every detail, rather and in my opinion much better for the situation he’d pick out a few key themes in the passage and expand on them. He was thoroughly biblical, at the same time used humour and real life examples to explain and give context to the passages. Clear, helpful and encouraging. Apparently he preaches on sunday night on the UCB channel, just after the God channel.

Mike Reeves on The Triune God

I went to a series of 4 lectures from Mike Reeves on the Trinity – going to write separately about this, see upcoming post.

Student Celebrations on Hebrews

Jason Clarke spoke from Hebrews 1:1-2:4 and told us about the God who speaks and the Jesus who is God’s Word, king of the universe. Pay attention to the Living Word revealed in the written word.

Hebrews 3 called us (through Graham Daniels) to fix our eyes on Jesus, the God who is faithful. Encourage each other, don’t harden your hearts, enter God’s rest.

Nigel Styles spoke on the last two verses of chapter 4, encouraging us that because Jesus is our high priest, who went right into heaven to present a sacrifice to the Father, that we can now approach God with confidence.
In light of some of my previous posts something that Richard Cunningham said in his talk on Atonement (Hebrews 9) struck me… “God does not forgive sin, he only punishes it!” I think I may explore this in a later post… for now suffice to worship Jesus our great high priest who gave himself as a sacrifice for sins – once for all. It was great to share communion with two thousand students afterwards.

Wallace and Lindsay Benn took us through the ‘gallery of faith’ in chapter 11, a call to trust in God in all situations and confidence in God’s faithfulness to keep his promises to his people. It was nice to use the shiny new thinline ESV that Wallace sent me for my 21st, for which I believe Adam paid 20 quid for :-p

As ever I usually forget what Roger Carswell says, good though it is, I’m obviously thinking how cool it would be if he was my uncle. He spoke from chapter 12 and encouraged us to keep running!

New Word Alive

So after 14 years it’s back to Pwllheli, for the new Word Alive event. It’s no secret really of the differences between the 3 Word Alive co-organisers (UCCF, Keswick and Spring Harvest), exacerbated in the last few years by the old herecies brought back by Steve Chalke (re-hash of 19th century liberalism – as Richard Cunningham put it) and Spring Harvest’s refusal to distance themselves from that. In the midst of the debate though it was great to see such a strong emphasis of PSA put across through the Bible teaching and plugging the new book ‘Pierced for our Trangressions‘. So next year begins on the 7th April, and has a strong headline trio of Carson, Piper and Virgo… good, but they weren’t crucified for me. And more importantly, as Kath says – “God will be there”… New Word Alive