Teams of two for revival

I am reading an incredible book at the moment. My pastor gave me this book a few years ago. Actually, thinking about it, I think he obviously gave me the book for a reason but at the time made it seem like he just had some books to give away. Crafty! The book is called The Calvary Road - Exploring Christianity by Roy Hession. It was originally published in 1950 and I am really finding it very insightful and helpful. The chapters are very short and each take a theme based on those truths 'by which God has restored His Church to new life in the hours of her dryness and need' (quote taken from the introduction). I have read only 3 chapters so far and am already finding it amazing.

The chapter I read today was entitled 'The Way of Fellowship'. Here are some of the most striking quotes:

...it is utterly impossible for us to be walking in any degree of darkness and have fellowship with God. While we are in that condition of darkness, we cannot have true fellowship with our brother either - for we are not real with him, and no one can have fellowship with an unreal person. A wall of reserve separates him and us.

Are we willing to be in the open with our brother - and be so in word when God tells us to? That is the " armour of light " - true transparency. This may sometimes be humbling, but it will help us to a new reality with Christ, and to a new self-knowledge. We have become so used to the fact that God knows all about us that it does not seem to register with us, and we inevitably end by not knowing the truth about ourselves. But let a man begin to be absolutely honest about himself with but one other, as God guides him, and he will come to a knowledge of himself and his sins that he never had before, and he will begin to see more clearly than ever before where the redemption of Christ has got to be applied progressively to his life. This is the reason why James tells us to put ourselves under the discipline of " confessing our faults one to another."

Jesus wants you to begin walking in the light with Him in a new way today. Join with one other - your Christian friend, the person you live with, your wife, your husband. Drop the mask. God has doubtless convicted you of one thing more than another that you have got to be honest with them about. Start there. Be a team of two to work for revival amongst your circle.

The bits that I have highlighted are particularly interesting. Get this book and read it for yourself! If you click the link of the book's name above you can read it all online, which is good innit?

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it

I seem to be quoting a lot of hymns in this blog. I am about to do so again. I was reminded of an incredible verse of a hymn in a sermon I was listening to recently. The hymn is called Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing and the verse follows:

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to thee:

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O, take and seal it;

Seal it for thy courts above.

The truly wise person knows that the only joy and only freedom that we can experience in life is only found when we are following closely the Lord Jesus. Left to our own devices we will wander away from God. Therefore, again, the truly wise person will pray, or sing, that verse above to God, asking Him to bind them to Himself. I guess the unsaved person would look at a verse like that and think that Christianity is miserable and that it is all about being chained to something which really you would rather not be. The Christian knows that that verse speaks of great, great joy, as the Christian is no longer chained to sin but chained to a wonderful, loving, kind, sovereign, saving God.

Desiring God

What a great title for an organisation that is! I have recently been thinking about 'desires' thanks to another discussion at Swansea Youth Link. We were discussing the fact that desires are sinful if they are self-focused but are great if they are God-focussed.

However, my main point of this post was to mention that I have been greatly blessed recently by listening to Podcasts from Desiring God Radio. John Piper has recently been going through a series on Joy based on a booklet he has produced. The one I listened to this evening was entitled "Irrevocable Joy". It was based on the verse John 16:22 where Jesus says to the disciples:

"So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."

John Piper was saying that this can only be true of you if your joy is in Christ. I suppose we lose our joy as Christians when we start looking for joy elsewhere. I have been considering how much I like to experience momentary 'buzz'-es rather than knowing and believing that Christ is everything.

Oh that that was my motto in every situation in life!

To keep up the hymn quoting we sang possibly my favourite hymn today in church which has, again possibly, my favourite verse from a hymn:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

I'm so glad that verses like that still excite me! It reminds me that even in low spiritual times I know that I am still saved!

The Importance of Fellowship

I am learning (again!) the importance of fellowship in the life of a Christian. Fellowship, of course, is not simply Christians meeting together. It is Christians meeting together with the specific purpose of encouraging one another to go on in faith. I have found over the last 7 days the great value to a Christian of putting oneself in places where blessings are more likely to fall.

Last Saturday I went to Swansea Youth Link (YL) again. I have not been going regular for a long long time now. However, last week really encouraged me to start going again. We were discussing Titus 2. The most encouraging thing for me was just the fact that I was back in God's Word discussing it with others and seeing how it applies to our lives. It was great! Also, that morning, I went to the Saturday morning prayer meeting of Townhill Baptist Church for the first time in a very long time. On Wednesday this week I met with a friend to chat through Christian things and then this Saturday I went to the prayer meeting and YL again. Now I am not saying that going to meetings is what Christianity is about, not at all. I am saying that being where the blessing may fall is much better than not being there!

This evening's YL meeting was focused on Bible Study and Prayer. It was thrilling to be listening to someone speaking about how, when and, most importantly perhaps, why we should read the Bible. There were four points which were all very helpful. I summarise them here:

• Time - if we really want to know God we will set aside time to spend in His presence - without this we could never go on with Him
• Tremble - God is holy and the Bible is His Word - we can not just waltz into His presence
• Trust - we must realise, therefore, that we can only come in Christ and we trust in Him as we come
• Talk - not only do we read (or listen) but we also talk - our prayers should come out of what we are reading (so we turn our reading into prayer)

Hebrews 10: 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.