01/06/2010

True Spirituality

True spirituality is the work of the Spirit of truth - the Holy Spirit. But many in our society seek an experience of spirituality without the Christian Gospel - their experience may well be 'spiritual' but it's not true!

'The Spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient' (Ephesions 2 verse2) will gladly deceive any who wish to have spiritual experiences! This is what had happened to the Corinthians, when they were 'led astray' to worship mute idols, and the Colossians, who needed to be warned against being taken captive by 'hollow & deceptive philosophy'.

Jesus repeatedly calls the Holy Spirit ' the Spirit of truth'. He is the one who leads us into truth, and who inspires the word of truth in the Bible.

By Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit is poured out in the new age of the kingdom of God. In the Old Testament, the kingdom of God was composed of the nation of Israel, but only some of them like the prophets experienced the work of the Spirit. The New Testament kingdom of God is composed of people from every nation, and what unites them is not their natural birth but their spiritual birth - each one reborn by the Spirit of God (John 3 verse 3)

But how do we know whether the spirit in our lives is the spirit of truth, or the spirit of error and deceit? One of the common errors (Christians and non-Christians alike) is to try and judge spirituality by experiences. To hear how somebody was moved, overwhelmed, astonished, transported or

whatever by some spiritual experience is no guide at all as to whether the experience is of God or not.

So how do we 'test the spirits to see whether they are from God? (1 John 4 verse1)?' The spirit of truth will lead us into the truth of Jesus. He will move us to listen to the words of Scripture that he inspired. He will move us to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. He will correct us of sin, righteousness and judgement (John 16 verse 8). He will enable us to call the judge of the entire world 'father' (Romans 8 verse 15)

True spirituality, therefore, is not the mystic journey into your inner soul, nor the spectacular miracle, nor the overwhelming personal experiences that people speak about. True spirituality is being moved by the Holy Spirit in the ways the Bible teaches us the spirit will move us - to the truth that Jesus is Lord, to the knowledge of God as our father, to the acceptance of the authority of God's Word, and to the rejection of sin in our lives.

So beware of 'experiencing the spirit' and the looking in the Bible to find your experience!! Beware of those who testify to their experience of the Spirit and then find it in the Bible. Instead, follow the Spirit by reading his Word and from that determine what to expect about what he will teach you. Then you will understand your experiences by the Bible, rather than the Bible by your experiences. Then you will be led by the spirit of truth.

Yours, as ever

Simon

01/05/2010

'We don't do God'

Christian involvement in politics is often met with disapproval in the media. Remember how anxious Alistair Campbell was to assure us that "We don't do God", or how the "evangelical vote" was almost exclusively "blamed" for George Bush being re-elected for a second term. It's as if a democracy is where everybody is entitled to have a say except those who believe in God! Apparently only those with religious beliefs are biased and therefore unfit for government!

But such attitudes demand a rewriting of our history! ...

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01/04/2010

Not just belief!

Have you watched the Passion for Life DVD "Exploring the real meaning of Easter"? (There are still a few copies in the church porch, please help yourself). In it the speaker, Rico Tice, likens someone who has never understood the resurrection of Jesus to someone who lives perpetually on Easter Saturday - like the disciples, full of doubts and fears, not knowing the joy which Jesus' resurrection brought.

When Jesus was crucified, his followers were discouraged and depressed. So they dispersed. The Jesus movement had all but stopped in ...

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01/03/2010

God's Passion for Us!

As I write we're just a couple of weeks away from our special "Passion for Life" week which has been 15 months in the planning, and by the time you read this we'll be in the midst of it!

It certainly has all the makings of an exciting week with many home-based events taking place across the parish, and great opportunities for Lee McMun and the team to share something of the amazing news of Jesus Christ in the high school, at Astra Zeneca as well as our own Jazz Cafe events.

All of this is only possible through the hard wor ...

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01/01/2010

A Passion for Life

It's hard to believe that our special "Passion for life" week is almost upon us - less than 8 weeks away by the time you read this!

We began our preparations over a year ago, with each homegroup benefiting from the preparation material - "Pray!", "Engage!" and "Prepare". We've already seen many good things such as the Networking events and the Divorce Recovery Workshops coming out of these homegroup studies, and overall it has been valuable preparation for our special mission week at the beginning of ...

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01/12/2009

Glory to the Newborn King!

"Glory" is the fame, adoration and praise we give to someone or something we consider important - an old fashioned word perhaps, but a contemporary reality.

Today we glorify things like celebrity, success, science, technology, power, money sport, pleasure, thrills, physical beauty - the list goes on. But the truth is everybody glorifies something or someone, even if it is only our own selves. And what we glorify tends to become our master, consuming our time, money or even our whole lives as we search for more of it.

...

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30/11/2009

EVOLUTION: why so much controversy?

In this year of Darwin anniversaries (200 years since his birth 150 years since 'The Origin of Species' was first published) the question of evolution seems to provoke as much debate as ever. With the film 'Creation' currently showing in the cinemas, and various repeats of Richard Dawkins programmes on TV it is certainly getting plenty of coverage. Earlier in the year I attempted to expose some of the myths surrounding the popular version of the 'Darwin vs Christianity' story. Please give me a ring if you would like a copy. But why should evolutionary theory arouse such passion?

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04/09/2009

God's passion for our life in Christ

When the church council decided in January of this year to take part in a nation-wide mission initiative culminating around Easter 2010 it seemed an exciting possibility to make the good news of Jesus Christ known in a compelling and attractive way, but still a long way off ... "No need to worry about that yet, it's almost 18 months away!"

But that's no longer the case! Our special mission week is booked for 1 - 7 March 2010, which by the time you're reading this will be only 6 months away! We are delighted that Rev Lee McMunn has ...

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01/07/2009

What are we to make of the Old Testament?

We are currently looking at the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy in our main Sunday morning services, and that will be followed by part of
2 Samuel in our all-age 'Summer Specials', but what are we to make of the Old Testament?

Clearly the Old Testament is not a simple text, it is not uniform in character. It's made up of 39 different books, containing many different styles of literature. It has many different human authors, yet claims to have one divine author. Like the New Testament it claims to be the Word of God. Jesus quoted ...

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01/06/2009

The gift of each other

God is not stingy; Generosity is one of his characteristics. The Bible talks of this generosity as "grace" his graciousness is his generous nature. His generosity is seen in creation and life itself - all the good things he gives to us. But the greatest act of his generosity towards us is the death of his own Son on our behalf.

Closely connected to his generosity are his mercy and forgiveness.

To treat people not as they deserve but in mercy - to forgive them - is grace and generosity itself. This is particularly so as our sin is ag ...

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01/04/2009

Mother's Day

Motherhood used to be one of those things that nobody questioned, but these days it is often undermined in the media. One such report, dealing with the myth of the maternal instinct, noted that some animals, birds and insects are cruel to their young - ergo, there is no such thing as maternal instinct. Even so, I still would not want to come between a mother bear and her cubs!

However, I agree that maternity has got very little to do with instinct. Many women find raising children hard work. It involves a profound element of self-service ...

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01/03/2009

God's passion for our life in Christ

A Passion for Life is about God's mission: God's passion for our life in Christ

'A Passion for Life' is a recently launched nation wide mission initiative leading up to Easter 2010, with which we aim to be actively involved here at St John's.

I hope as you read what follows (taken from the vision booklet - please ask if you would like a copy) you'll begin to get excited!!

A Passion for Life is all about God the Father - furthering his purpose of redeeming a great multi-cultural people for life in his Son, by stirring up local churches across the land to ...

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01/01/2008

God in our shoes

Men and women throughout history have tried to imagine what God is like. The many religions around the world are the result of the very best of human endeavour. But it is vital to realise that Christianity has never claimed to be part of that search. In fact, just the opposite.

At the heart of Christmas is the claim that all our religious imagination is just that - imagination. It's a kind of cosmic guessing game. But we cannot guess our way to God, so God had to make his way to us. That's what the story of Christmas is all abou ...

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01/11/2007

Christian Influence in a Secular World

That’s the strapline of the Christian Institute and we’re delighted to be hosting one of their meetings here at St John’s on Thursday 8th November. Full details are elsewhere in this magazine. It promises to be a stimulating evening for all who are concerned to apply

biblical values to some of the issues in today’s world. As a taster of the insightful thinking we can expect here’s a letter from their director Colin Hart, first published in their recent ’Update’ magazine.

Cloning Humans

Everyone agrees.&r ...

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01/09/2007

To Those Who Used to Come

Did you, or someone you know, used to be regular at church? Perhaps you attended Sunday School? Perhaps you used to sing in the choir? Perhaps you came when you brought your children to Sunday School?

On 30 September the Church of England is running a nationwide initiative for people just like you! It’s called "Back to Church Sunday" (B2CS) when anyone who used to come to church is being given an open invitation to come back! If that’s you, let me extend a warm welcome to you to join us for our 10 am morning service on that s ...

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01/06/2007

'The God Delusion'

Over the years Richard Dawkins has established himself as one of the most successful and skilful scientific popularisers. He has made evolutionary biology accessible and interesting to a new generation of readers. His writings have been marked by clarity, helpful analogues and an entertaining style.

But his latest book ’The God Delusion’, together with a recent TV series, marks a significant departure.. It has established him as the world’s most high-profile atheist. He directs his withering attack against every form of religion. It is a book which has been wid ...

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01/04/2007

ENVIRONMENTALISM : A MODERN MYTH EXPOSED

Many people think that Christianity is full of myths, but actually the real myths are the ones about Christianity! For example, the myth that the Bible is at the root of global exploitation.

On 26 December 1966, the historian Lynn White addressed the American Association for the Advancement of Science on ’The historical roots of our ecological crisis.’ He argued that the destructive effects of modern technology are ’at least partly to be explained.... as a realisation of the Christian dogma of man’s transcendence of, and rightful mastery over, nature!&rsqu ...

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01/02/2007

Decisions, Decisions

Don’t ask me how, but someone has worked out that on an ordinary day we make approximately 317,000! Although many of these will be as trivial as "what socks shall I wear today?" decision making is unavoidable and can be a constant source of worry - especially for the indecisive! For the Christian, it can seem even more complex as we ask the question ’What does God want me to do?’ Whatever stage of life, there are always big decisions to make.

I like to think of the whole guidance issue as doing a jigsaw, the thousands of tiny pieces representing each ...

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01/01/2007

When the decorations come down!

I’m writing at the beginning of December and over the next few days many of us will be putting up our Christmas decorations - cards on the mantlepiece, Christmas tree in the hall, holly wreath on the front door, and fake snow on the windows (its been very mild so far!) But by the time you read this it will all be over - the Christmas tree in the green bin, the turkey carcass in the black bin, the wrapping paper in the bag and the bottles in the box!

It didn’t last very long, did it?! For a couple of weeks the tinsel was shining, the Christmas lights were twinkling and ...

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