The Manifest Glory of God's Grace

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Romans 5:8

The above verse is my favourite verse of all time. I believe it speaks abundantly of the His just, good and gracious attributes and it paints the perfect backdrop for knowing who we are in comparison that God should die for sinners like us. This is His own love that can’t be duplicated in any way! Paul gets to the end of Romans 8 and writes this amazing piece of literature that expresses the sheer nature of God’s love, captivating and inseparable love!

For I am persuaded that not even death or life,
angels or rulers,
things present or things to come, hostile powers,
³⁹ height or depth, or any other created thing
will have the power to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Romans 8:38-39

I could just imagine that Paul had tears of joy when reciting this to his friend Tertius who penned the Romans epistle! And who wouldn’t? What Christian would not be captivated by the grace and love of our Lord? That He should die for sinners like us and hold us ever so close in the sovereignty of His care? That He should keep us pure and blameless so that we will have the greatest confidence approaching the holy throne of God, knowing that our lives have been secured in what Christ has done?

There is nothing that can separate us! Not a single solitary thing in the physical and the spiritual realms! Even our sin has no power to keep us away from the love of God, but in that we sin, we cling back to Him praying for his mercy! And so when we reflect the living God who manifest perfectly the greatest act of love this world has ever known, we can only ask “why me Lord? Why would you save someone like me?” And the only answer we know is that He is good to save, and we know from Paul’s example that God’s grace knows no boundaries! (1Timothy 1:15-17) He is the magnificent holy God, righteous, just and He is good. That God would still be loving had He not saved any one of us, but since our cups are overflowing with the grace of God. Let us cling back to Him each day, remembering that there was nothing in us deserving of His grace and mercy. Let us never forget these precious things, but instead we should increasingly devote our lives and our time in sharing the gospel in hope that others may know these glorious attributes of our lord and saviour. Amen!

For Matthew Schuthof - Brother in Christ, called home by our Lord

This morning I woke up to distressing news that my brother in Christ Matthew Schuthof was called home by the Lord. What makes this distressing is that Matt was married at such a young age, his wife Zoe is only 21 years of age. And so when I saw the posts on Matt’s Facebook of the many caring friends, my heart stopped. I didn’t know Matt that well, even though at one stage I was planning to start a band with him. We never really knew each other that well, but he was a brother in the Lord. And his calling home, his death made me think very real and very hard about this topic.

Death stops everything, it stops the enjoyment of life, it stops the planning of things be they either an investment, or buying a house, planning a family. Whatever it is, death stops these things! It is a great victor over our lives and we have no control over death. But in the words of one of my favourite preachers Dr John Piper he is right to say “don’t waste your life!” If our lives are not eternally grounded in Christ, then everything we do would be a tragedy. And so I dedicate this note to Matt and his family, and I believe he would want people to know Christ, to be eternally changed, to be radically shaken and woken up to the true reality of the magnified power that Christ is the only way and our saviour.

No Christian fears death, for we have died with Christ, our old selves have died long ago on that cross with Christ. But instead we rejoice like Paul “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” Philippians 1:21. So for Matt he has gained EVERYTHING because he put his EVERYTHING in Christ! So we should not waste our lives, but instead run the race and fight the good fight. Do no walk the race, but strive on! We have this one life to make a difference for Christ who gave His everything so He could redeem a people for the Lord, we owe Him our everything! My prayer is that people would take notice of the seriousness of their lives and not waste it on worldly trivialities.

John Piper and the Prosperity Gospel

A strong message against prosperity gospel by Dr John Piper. Is God your treasure? Is He your everything that exceeds the wealth of this age?

Repentance - Have you Died?

Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again,^[a] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

I’ve heard so many Christians throw around this saying “I’m a born again Christian!” I’ve even heard atheists use this terminology but do we really know what this means? If the message of true conversion is founded upon those who will repent and believe, then a new birth arises out of the midst by the ordination of God. That word repentance isn’t simply a turning away, a 180 degree turn that we often hear in church. It is that, but there’s more to it than simply making a 180 degree turn back to God.

Repentance is dying! It is the declaration of death over your old self, your old habits, your old conditions to lust, anger, coverting, adultery, carelessness. It is a death to us and it is a declaration never to return back to our old selves. Consider Paul, moments after Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:9 we read; He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink. Just imagine what was happening in this man’s mind. “I was wrong…about everything I’ve done, I slaughtered those who are the true saints, and I persecuted the true holy church.” Paul was under sheer conviction of the almighty God and he died to his old self. We can see the fruit of his conversion in most of the New Testament!

Paul died his old self casted away like he cared nothing for it. He knew more scripture then any of us combined! He knew the law better than us and he was at the foot of Gamaliel. His life was set, a real celebrity of the ancient times! But he died and so by his death being founded and made anew in Christ, it is right that he should say “I consider this all garbage” Philippians 3:8.

Have you died? Do you consider your old self, your old ways your old habits like garbage? Or do you wear the title ‘born again’ without having died? If there’s no repentance no death in you, how can you possibly be made anew? That is why the message is “repent and believe” (Mark 1:15) and not “Ask Jesus to come into your heart.” If you haven’t died to your old self, pray that God would convict you. Pray that He would reveal the sin in your life and show you the depth of its offence. Then come to Christ, knowing that He is good to save!

A Call to Anguish by David Wilkerson

I was largely convicted by this sermon! Praise God for men like David Wilkerson, he will be truely missed but his fruit shall continue on.

Confessions of a false convert part 2

This is my sequal and more detailed explaination of confessions of a false convert

Confessions of a False Convert

I traced the steps back, every one of them in my mind asking myself “where did it all go wrong?” I searched intently for answers, but what I found was only more confusion. These are the confessions of a false convert, the truth of my real conversion and the life I once led, covering myself in nothing but lies. In understanding any of what has already been said, this story starts back in 1998 where my false conversion began to take its toll.

Sometime during 1998, a good friend of mine invited me to a youth group where I would play games, listen to a talk and confess myself a Christian. I hated the games; I really thought they were irritating in many ways. I enjoyed listening to the biblical talks and stories that were shared. Unfortunately for me, most of these talks only went for about twenty minutes. My first night was when I decided I wanted to be a Christian, but this was after a response question, something that was on my mind during the talk that one of the youth ministers had said. “What are you living for?” it was a question that rang over again and again in my mind. I tried answering this question I found there was nothing I was really living for, at least nothing that was eternally glorious!

After my profession to be a Christian, I was given a bible and I settled down in an Anglican church for a while, not far from where I lived. I still didn’t get Christianity, I attended church and I went along to bible studies, youth groups and even became a youth leader at one stage. But I was different, O, how the cup looked clean on the outside but the inside was filled with dirt to the brim!

My lust was a growing endemic. I was never really convicted of my sin, never really repented of my sin either. I was happy to play church, to fool people that I was a Christian and by fooling people I myself became so good at lying that I mislead myself! No one ever brought a bible to me and said “I think you’re in sin brother!” No one ever convicted me with a hard word, and most certainly no one ever thought of removing me from the church since I was happy to dwell in this sin (1 Corinthians 5:11).

So life as a Christian was pretty good, I was myself and people accepted me which was a problem for me since I never had many friends in school. But like a stone thrown in a glass panel, during 2009 everything changed. This was the hardest year I’ve ever faced in my life, and this was the year God revealed Himself to me.

At the beginning of the year I lost my job, my parents lost their jobs and I had lost both my grandparents whom I loved very much. My life was spiralling out of control! I went back to finding pleasure in computer games and my lust grew even worse. I had no money, I sold my DVD’s on Ebay just to put petrol in the car. I had to drop my carpentry course, I faced the worse depression that even to just simply get out of bed was too much an effort for me.

But I remember when it all changed, I cried out to God in tears. At the time I was looking for work on the computer but it was like something powerful just told me to pray. And I did, and I prayed like I never have before. I said “God, I have nothing! I have absolutely nothing and my life is nothing unless you are in me!” The second I said amen, I received a phone call asking if I was still looking for work. I was so nervous about this interview, that I forgot to take my resume with me! Two hours later I got the job and I praised God with all my heart! I wanted to give to God everything He’d given to me! I devoted so much of my money to a short term mission trip to East Timor and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life!

I was a false convert for twelve years, conditioned to a Christianised culture whereby I could attend church, youth groups and meetings and have everyone fooled that I was a believer. I had very little desire to pick up my bible; I just went along with the flow. It’s devastating that this happens in the church! God’s church, God’s holy bride! I am one example of many out there who think they’re Christian but may very well be conditioned to a culture instead of having God interrupt their life.

My prayer is that someone would read this note with great intent. That someone would stop and ask the question “are we doing things right?” My prayer is that this testimony would be a wakeup call to churches out there that run big youth group events. My life is not the same; God has impacted my life now and continues to do so. I can’t go a day without reading God’s word! I can’t go a day without spending time with my Lord.

What is Equality?

What is equality within society? How do we measure equality and what do we use to measure it?

Sin is Sin!

Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. James 1:15

I’ve been part of a number of Christian circles where I’ve been told to explain sin during a gospel presentation to non-Christians. And being young and trusting the teachers I went along with it “well sin is like ‘bad stuff’…” “Sin is like breaking God’s law…” I went on to say sin is like this and that, but realising the truth of sin and its depth, my own explanation could never unfold the true nature of what sin really is.

So I asked myself a question “how come we never explain the holiness of God?” Surely God’s holiness needs explaining. But in trying to explaining God’s holiness it would leave us dumbfounded “God’s holiness is like…” and there’s nothing! Nothing to compare it to, nothing to recognise its equality with anything else in existence!

Measuring sin against the holiness of God with any kind of comparison in all of our language would only seem vastly short of the mark! Isaiah 64:6 describes sin like ‘filthy menstrual rags’. In Ezekiel 4:12 the prophet Ezekiel was told by God to eat dried human excrements as a demonstration of the sin that Israel had relished in.

We do NOT know the offence that sin is before a holy God! It is as incomparable as His holiness is to us! We have been entrusted with such words that describe the awesomeness of God; sovereign, holy, everlasting, Lord of Lords. Why do we see a need to describe what sin is? When we ourselves cannot explain the sheer supremacy of God?!

Friends we’re not making disciples if we have to lower what sin is by virtue of our own explanation to our own humanistic understandings of sin. We need not lose hope in the power of the gospel; it is God who gives understanding, God who opens the ears, God who opens the eyes of the unbeliever! It doesn’t  matter if our presentation of the gospel is not filled with such detail, what matters is that we have faith that God saves people through hearing His word.

And so yes His word is precious to us! That’s why we treasure it, making sure that we do preach the gospel not just out of love but also with accuracy in a holistic sense. So let us not get bogged down on words like sin, but in that let us preach with accuracy the true saving power that is the gospel.

But With Truth and Action

Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action. 1 John 3:18

I want to pause for a moment, in a kind of moment of reflection from all the reformed theological chit chat and just to focus in on this verse. As a reformer myself, it’s so easy to get caught up in our research and studies of the guys who have inspired us in some way. And that’s not a bad thing at all! We know this is not a bad thing because Paul himself says in 1 Corinthians 11:1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

But I was really humbled this morning by this verse. Firstly the beginning of this verse addresses Christians as ‘little children’, and that’s what we are, small little children of Christ, regardless of our knowledge of reformed theology, regardless of who we read or what debate we encounter. We are the Lord’s little children by virtue of our adoption by the order of the Lord Himself.

Our love is far more greatly appreciated by truth and action, so that anyone who does a good deed should do so as one who knows the living Christ! This verse is not simply saying “we must love with action.” No! The response is “…but with TRUTH and action!” So if Christ Himself says “I am the way, the truth and the life” in John 14:6, then our deeds must be in response to Christ who is alive and all things done through Him, by Him for Him as we are His little children!

And what a humbling thought that is, that regardless of our knowledge of church history, reformed theology and so forth, it is the Lord who has called us His little children. We are one in Christ, let us never become so prideful in our own attained knowledge of reformed theology that we forget great things like this. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning attaining such knowledge but that knowledge can breed pride. As Proverbs 11:2 says: “When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom. So let us continue to reflect the things that humble us, the things that destroy our pride, our self-boasting. May we strive to continue in both truth and good deeds for the glory of the Lord.

Jews hellbound without Christ

Continuing in Sola's Roman series of chapter 9 in Romans, this sermon focuses on verses 4-5.

This is the trailer to Nefarious: Merchant of Souls. It's a documentary done by the Christian group Exodus Cry that looks at the deep problem with human trafficking. I have this documentary, I highly recommend purchasing it from Exodus cry, all proceeds go to the continual ongoing work of abolishing modern day slavery. Visit http://exoduscry.com if you wish to purchase their documentary DVD or if you wish to make a donation.