But the thing I loved most was this. In a day when I have heard famous Christians (evangelicals apparently) scoff at the idea that people will meet Jesus in his word as students give it out and study it, when the mood of evangelicalism in Britain has (as we have seen this summer) been so obsessed with the so-called miraculous at the expense of simply testifying about Jesus, when the world and his mother seems to either think there must be some magic technique for winning people to Christ, or that we are due a wave of blessing to make it happen, I loved seeing a world renowned evangelical stand up and say well done to all the students who will be risking much to open the Scriptures with non Christians this year. “It will be better and harder than you ever thought!”

Thank you JP [John Piper] for travelling round the world to affirm that to all the small struggling CUs of 3 and 4, all the CUs who are scoffed at by uber-trendy servant evangelists and sophisticated chaplains, all the CUs where a couple of people and a Gospel of Mark is all that they have. Sometimes, its just good to know that someone you have heard of is with you.

Mo McCracken - reflecting on Forum

Also, Dave Bish… all you need to know about UCCF Forum 2008, John Piper on Ruth, Missions and lots more!

Final day interview with Hugh Palmer, Richard Cunningham and Don Carson talking about New Word Alive and the future…

Click here to download as an MP3

Currently going up online are a series of video interviews between Adrian Warnock, and Don Carson, John Piper and presumably Terry Virgo. You can see them on the Youtube UCCFMedia page. Here’s my favourite little bit, last part of Piper, there’s a question in here that I submitted to Adrian, all about longevity in ministry…

So this morning (at 8am) we start the long journey from Brighton to Pwllheli. It’s going to be great, NWA that is, I doubt the journey will be fun, I reckon it’s at least a 7-hour drive in our minibus… Don’t think I’ll be live blogging but I’ll certainly have some thoughts and feedback to share afterwards, maybe a few little extras too… I’m excited, as is Si-Fi…

The good people at the Good Book Company sent me a copy of this little new book produced by the Christianity Explored guys. It’s designed to be an accompaniment to the course but can stand alone. Until now I’d only skimmed through it, we ordered 25 copies for the events week at Sussex - 5 lunchbars, 5 people each day interested enough to read a book, seemed reasonable… they were all gone by the Wednesday, I think because they look interesting and contemporary, and they cover a broad range of questions.

The book goes through 13 common questions, that seekers, and for that matter Christians will ask about the Christian faith. It’s a small book, about 100 pages, so there’s not a huge amount of detail to the answers - the authors have suggested further reading of a more technical nature.

First thing I guess to say is that this book is not a ‘Reason for God’, ‘Mere Christianity’ kindof book, it doesn’t deal with the big philosophical questions about God, nor does it deal with the complex Science and Evolution questions, and the questions it does deal with, well it only has 10 pages for each, but to go deeper there is the further reading list already mentioned. I suppose also it’s not really apologetics in the ‘be-thinking’ style, although the style of the questions might give that impression. The methodology of the book is more like simply pointing people to the Scriptures and using stories and illustrations to explain the words of Jesus - a good approach!

So who is the book for? Well, it’s aimed at anyone who’s already interested in thinking about God, someone who has genuine questions (so it’s the perfect accompaniment to a Christianity Explored course), and the questions it deals with are more of the moral and spiritual questions about God. I guess it’s fair to say that just in the style of writing and illustrations used that it’s aimed at a younger generation, well under 40, not that young then!

Here are the 13 questions:

1. If you’re really there, God, why on earth don’t you prove it?
2. Isn’t the Bible just a bunch of made up stories?
3. All good people go to heaven, right?
4. If you’re a God of love, why send anyone to Hell?
5. If Jesus really was your Son, how come He got killed?
6. If I can be forgiven everything, doesn’t that mean I can do whatever I like?
7. How can anyone be sure there’s life after death?
8. What about followers of other religions?
9. Isn’t faith just a psychological crutch?
10. Why do you allow suffering?
11. Why do you hate sex?
12. Why don’t you just do a miracle?
13. So, God, if You could ask me one question, what would it be?

I very much enjoyed the laid back style of the book, there’s lots of good, contemporary illustrations that are both funny and personal which I think helps the reader to warm to the book and to what the author has to say. It’s also very Biblical, which I guess may not be great if that’s the reader’s big obstacle to faith, but it’s good that the question about the reliability of the Bible is addressed at the start, and of course I thoroughly believe in Biblical Evangelism - after all the book is about asking God questions, so God’s word must be where we look for the answers!

One part I particularly enjoyed was from question 3, author Paul Williams recounts his time working at the Bedfordshire Times, a newspaper I have read on at least one occasion. He explains the time when he got an opportunity to sit at the bosses desk… great little story, amusing, and a great illustration of Sin, our dethronement of God. It’s also good that the book ends by directly addressing the reader, what would God ask us? We are taken to the parable of the rich farmer… what good is it if we gain the world, but forfeit our soul?!

You can get this book from the Good Book Company for the bargain price of £5, yep you worked it out, that’s £3.75 if you are the proud owner of a UCCF Student Card! Consider getting some copies especially if you’re running lunchbar talks or hosting a Christianity Explored course.

So anyway, a few updates on Tim Keller’s new book, ‘The Reason for God’…

Firstly, TK is on a book tour and he got to speak at Google… they run an event called Authors@Google where authors come in and plug their books… this was supposed to be the best attended ever, with around 150 Google employees coming to listen to TK and do a Q&A. A guy called Justin Buzzard was also there and blogged about it…

Secondly, you can now buy the book in the UK, possibly this is the only, or at least one of the few places that you can get it… and that is from the Good Book Company. It’s the bargain price of £12, or if you have a UCCF Student Card, that’ll be £9! I’m going to get a copy, although I’m secretly hoping this plug along with a little business proposition will persuade GBC to send me a free copy - hey if you don’t ask you don’t get, right?

UPDATE

…also, Tim Challies, ‘The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment‘ is available, same price.

…and Bish thinks I should get a free copy of the book, review copies for bloggers - a good idea!

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

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.”

Two conferences happened recently, I would have loved to have been at both… sadly on was several thousand miles away, and the other, well I had to resit some exams instead

Anyway the audio and video is now available…

Forum 2007 Talks - I’m told Kath Arnold is worth listening to…

Desiring God 2007 - my sister is a Dr. Helen groupie

At Word Alive this year, in his talk on Atonement (from Hebrews 9), Richard Cunningham (Director of UCCF) said: “God does not forgive sin, he only punishes it”. He also went on to concur with my thoughts on sin and sinners. This is a bold statement to make, but if true, I believe it cuts to the heart of lots of issues I’ve been blogging on recently; PSA, hell, depravity etc. This post has been sitting uncompleted in the Wordpress system since coming back from Word Alive, unfortunately delayed due to more pressing things. In that time it’s been discussed elsewhere; by Cat and by a less supportive “Speaker of Truth” who accuses RC of heresy (now retracted).

Now the obvious thing to say is that this statement is clearly false, after all the Bible and creeds clearly state that God forgives sin. But is it that simple? What does Joshua 24:19 mean “..he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins”? What about those who advocate a PS (thoroughly Biblical) view of atonement - have we got it wrong? So what is forgiveness? I think part of the problem is that we may have a wrong view of what forgiveness actually is… generally the view seems to be of God ‘forgetting’ sin or simply saying it ‘doesn’t matter’ anymore. These are nice ideas, they make God sound like a big dad in the sky who really wants us to come and say sorry so he can simply ‘forgive’. Biblical forgiveness is not some kind of ‘cosmic insomnia’ but is administered through sacrifice, through blood. Not very popular, makes us sound ‘pre-Christian’! Whatever we think, the Bible states two truths - God forgives sin (1John 1:9) and God punishes sin (Gen 3).

Firstly (in response to Joshua 24), we know that God does punish the sin of the non-Christian, “the wages of sin is death…” Rom 6:23, sin has to be paid for, if all sin is forgiven then there is no punishment to face, no penalty to be paid - no hell - sounds nice, but that belief leads to Universalism, a heresy, the Bible teaches against that belief. But how is the sin of the believer dealt with? Yes, it’s forgiven, but what does that mean??

Biblical forgiveness is the diversion of God’s wrath, propitiation - it’s what we see at the Passover, the temple sacrifices and at the cross. Not diversion into some spiritual void, or diversion that just eventually fizzles out, but diversion in the full force of God’s wrath, his holy anger against sin being placed upon a substitute - a perfect lamb (Exodus 12). The overviews of the passages in ‘Pierced for our transgressions’ (Ex 12, Lev 16 and Isa 53) superbly present the case for God’s wrath being taken on the lamb (not hard as it’s a simple reading of the text) - Jesus our substitute.

And what about Hebrews 9, the text for this talk in question, what does this text have to say?

v.1-10 There’s a problem, despite all the ritual of the OT temple sacrifices, they “…were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.” , these ceremonies were a picture, waiting for the “new order”, for Jesus and his cross.

v.11-28 The blood of the goats is a picture of the blood of Christ, but Christ achieved far more than animal sacrifices ever could. He cleanses believers from sins and secures the eternal inheritance.

There are two key verse which help to answer our questions:

“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Heb 9:22

“so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people..” Heb 9:28 - it is the sacrifice that takes away (forgives) sin

So what?

How can sinful people come into relationship with a holy God? - our sins need to be dealt with, by God

How are our sins dealt with? - at the cross

What happened at the cross? - Jesus, the Lamb, took up the sins of his people and bore the punishment for them, he was our sacrifice and our substitute

Why did it have to happen like this? - God’s holiness and justice demands that sin is punished, Jesus was fulfilling the OT law, God did it so it was the best way

What does this mean for me?

1. Sin is serious, it invokes a death sentence
2. God is big, sometimes we misunderstand him when we try to fit him into our mould of what and who we want him to be
3. Forgiving sin isn’t an easy thing, it required the blood of Christ - be overflowing with thankfulness to God for his gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ