Keep Families Free

Exodus 14:14 - What a Fighter!

At the Red Sea the Israelites were granted the rare privilege of seeing God at work.

Our daily battle is to turn and trust God and let Him fight for us.

There are areas of our lives that we don't want Jesus near at all.

The key to the fight is "Lord, I can't..."

"I can't fight that"

The Lord fights for you. Turn and trust. You don't have to stay as you are with your bunch of excuses.

God will fight for you if you will just turn to Him and trust.

(Listen to the sermon at http://www.townhill.org.uk/index.php?title=Sermons)

Repentance, Remorse and Regret

Sermon from church this evening. Pastor Allan Rees was preaching on 2 Corinthians 7: 8-10. He also read Luke 13: 1-5. Here are my notes:

Repentance is first of all thinking right about yourself and God. It makes you return to God.
How much emphasis is there today on repentance in our churches?
John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter and Paul all preached 'Repent!'
Repentance = turning back to the One who loves you because you see things as they really are.
Repentance is not just for conversion. We're to repent daily as Christians.
Truth is vital. Unless truth is preached we're not sure who to turn to.
Worldly sorrow: Remorse/Regret which leads to death
Godly sorrow: Repentance leading to life

Luke 15:10 - the angels love it when someone repents
In 1 Samuel 15 Saul says "I'm sorry, but..." this isn't real repentance.

The counterfeit of joy in our churches is fun.

A 110m hurdler doesn't start out a race thinking I hope I only hit a few hurdles, he/she doesn't want to hit any! Similarly in the Christian life we should be seeking to avoid all setbacks, distractions and temptations.

Psalm 23 - 'He restores my soul' - think of a French polisher who when given an old table can restore it into something renewed and beautiful. The work of the French polisher is abrasive, scraping off what shouldn't be there. When your soul is restored it can be painful.

How can we be sure we'll enjoy Jesus in Heaven if we're not enjoying Him now?

Quiet Time Blessings

In my quiet time today I read Genesis 38 which is about Judah and Tamar. Judah leaves his brothers and went off to the Adullamites to find a wife. He married and had three boys. The first son married Tamar but eventually he died after wickedness in the sight of God. So, as was the tradition, Tamar was then married to the second son. He too was wicked in the sight of God and he died. The third son was too young to marry Tamar so Judah told Tamar to wait as a widow until the third son was old enough. When the third son grew up Judah sinned in going back on his promise and not giving the third son to Tamar to marry. So Tamar tricked Judah into sleeping with her and making her pregnant. Eventually she had twins (and their birth was similar to that of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25) and Judah discovered the boys were his. That's the story. The amazing thing about it all? Judah's firstborn son Perez is one of the descendents of the Lord Jesus (see Matthew 1:3). The genealogy of Jesus is a list of sinners - men and women who failed, in often massive ways, to obey God. It is a reminder again that we can never be good enough for God but He is sovereign and when we are called into the family of Christ it is not because of anything good in us but completely due to His amazing grace.

I also read Mark 8. This is a chapter where the disciples fail to completely understand what Jesus came to do and a number of stories are used to illustrate this. The big challenge is in verse 34 - 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' I read what Don Carson had to say in For The Love of God about it:

Only for a few will this commitment entail loss of physical life; for all of us it means death to self, discipleship to Jesus. And that includes a glad confession of Jesus, and principal refusal to be ashamed of Jesus and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation.

I then read what may well be my favourite chapter in the Bible. I think I could write loads about it here but I will just focus on one aspect. That chapter is Romans 8. I was particularly struck by verses 16-18:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

I mention these verses in particular because of the link with the verse in Mark 8 that I mentioned. In Mark 8 it talks about taking up our cross and in Romans 8 it assumes suffering for Christ as a normal part of the Christian life. It made me think about the fact that I have been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus, and that my life is now not my own. The more I orientate my life around myself, the less I will know of God and what He has saved me for. This ties in with a lot of what I have been thinking about since Aber (I haven't posted those thoughts yet!) Life is all about Christ, not about me. As John Piper would say "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisified in Him". I couldn't agree more with that.

Colossians 1 - Facebook - Allan Rees

Here are my notes from church on Sunday. Allan gave his sermon the title 'Facebook' because he was trying to get over a picture of who Christ is from the book of Colossians.

Main text v15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

The Colossian church had a problem. We're not sure what that problem was but it was something to do with the clarity of who Jesus is.

Every point begins with the letter B

Before all things. Firstborn had rights of inheritance. Everything belongs to Jesus.

Beginning (v18) Jesus is the beginning of everything. He is the firstborn from the dead! He is the only one raised with a resurrection body so far.

Body (v22) All the fullness of God dwells in Him. He is still a man. His body was butchered for our salvation. Jesus is head of the body, the church. He loves His church.

Beyond - more than just a good person. If you've seen Jesus, you've seen God. He created everything just by speaking. The purpose of salvation (v18) is the Jesus has the preeminence in all things. It's all about Him.

Blameless (v22) One day even though I am an ugly, dirty sinner and He is absolutely holy (see Isaiah 6), I will see Him as He is and I will be like Him.

But (v23) The blessing is only for those who continue living in the faith.

James 4 vs 1-10

Tonight in church Mark Cole from Libanus Evangelical Church, Morriston preached on James 4 vs 1-10. His main text was James 4 v 7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1. Know the fight

TV anaesthetises our consciences.
God is letting our country do whatever it wants.
But we claim to know God
We are God's chosen battleground to defend his honour.
Satan knows that the more we take in of our culture the more we will be like it.
Giving in to temptation damages our relationships with God.
When God distances himself from us to discipline us, all the joy is sucked out of life.
There is no room for anyone else in our relationship with God.

2. Know yourself

James 1 vs 14,15: But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

We like to think that we're strong enough to fight but if we stand on our own to fight temptation we're not going to stand for long.

James 4 vs 1-3 - These verses are written to Christians!

v7: Flee and submit to God

3. Know victory

We must fix our eyes on God and keep them fixed.

James 4 v 10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Neglect time with God and become very easy pickings for the devil.
You are what you are when noone is around to see what you are doing.

How can you not give sin time?
Cultivate a desire for good books, cultivate a desire to spend time with Christian people, listen to/watch sermons in your free time. Fill your life with the things of God. We discussed after church whether this is the best solution for everybody. Also you can be so busy that you don't spend any time with God one-on-one which completely defeats the purpose of being busy. You must find the best way to not give sin time that suits you but remember that God couldn't be more for you in this. Ask him for help and then trust that he will help you and look for his leadings.

Learn to run from danger. Watch for Satan's ambushes and avoid those places/situations.
Living with sin on your shoulders is incredibly miserable.
We don't even need to resist much. If we resist the devil for even an instance, God is right there with us to fight for us.

Before the Throne: New Word Alive 2009 Worship Album

On Saturday my copy of the New Word Alive 2009 Worship Album 'Before the throne' landed on my mat. I love it!

It contains 13 tracks from the two New Word Alive 2009 weeks where the worship was led by Stuart Townend, the Gettys and Lou Fellingham.

The whole album is fantastic but for me the stand out tracks are:

5 Hear O Israel
6 Come People Of The Risen King
10 Hear The Call Of The Kingdom
12 Loved Before The Dawn Of Time

My favourite is track 6, Come People of the Risen King, led by the Gettys. It is a fantastic, joyful song of praise and exhortation to rejoice! Here are the lyrics:

Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.

REFRAIN
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.

Come, young and old from every land -
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands -
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing -
Shore to shore we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
“Our God is all in all”!
Keith & Kristyn Getty & Stuart Townend

A couple great song quotes

In the car today I listened to O Sacred King by Matt Redman. I thought I would share a couple of great truths from that song:

O Sacred friend, O Holy friend
I don't take what You give lightly
Friendship instead of disgrace.

For it's the mystery of the universe
You're the God of holiness,
Yet You welcome souls like me.

Awesome stuff. I love the gospel!

Also I was reminded tonight of another of my favourite hymns (O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing - sung to the Lyngham tune preferably but I also like the Lydia Phillips tune) and these lines in particular:

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

The whole hymn is fantastic but these lines in bold (in their verse contexts) in particular I find a real joy to sing. In fact when singing these lines with others I usually well up with joyful emotion!

Change of name!

Today I have decided to change the name of my blog. So gone now is "A Pilgrim's Progress" and welcome to "A Work in Progress". I was inspired by Philippians 1v6 for this new title:

I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

My new title points to the fact that it is God who does the work in growing me. I have learned recently that I just need to give Him quality time and that work will continue.