Worse Geeky!!

I blame Pete Day for this one. We spent an awesome day together yesterday waiting on God in prayer and prophecy - seeking His will and His direction for our lives. We also got to go visit Spurgeon's tomb which was a very emotional experience. Pictures are here! But even worse he convinced me to join Twitter. Shame oh shame I know!

Even though I was quite tired from driving to London and back and I'm off to Bristol and back again today - I found myself up late seeking interesting people to follow! I found Barak Obama and Christianity Today and Hillsongs Church in Australia as well as some friends and the odd hero like Jon Daniel from Coastlands Church in Adelaide and Joseph Prince. If anyone is on Twitter then look me up and I'll follow you!

We'll see how it all turns out! Probably more random than Facebook! I was hoping to blog a bit this week as I'm off but it's packed out trying to catch up with friends and family. All normal service to resume next week!

John Piper on our One Hope

I've just started reading; "Pierced for Our Transgressions" by Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach. I've resisted reading this mainly due to my bad attitude towards how the church culture I was in presented the Gospel. Substitutory atonement has been something I've always taken for granted and saw no reason why Steve Chalke or anyone else should persuade me otherwise. However in light of my recent passion for learning more about true grace and imputed righteousness in our justification - I saw it on special offer and thought it would be an excellent read seeing as I've finished all my Christmas books.

John Piper wrote the foreword and instantly my eyes fell to an excellent quote;

"There was only one hope for us - that the infinite wisdom of God might make a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God so that I might become a son of God".

Only ONE hope! I'm still thinking and re-thinking the previous blog post from this morning and what God revealed to Joseph Prince. What is wrong with us Gentiles if the Roman centurion and the Caananite had no feeling of disqualification thanks to the law - yet we do? Why is it not said of us that we have "great faith"? I think it is because the mixed gospel of law and grace has led us to the distinct desire to "add" something to the only answer to our great need. Yes we have been justified and the righteousness of Jesus Christ has let us in - but now it must be our holiness, and our righteousness and our works that take us on.

Well that sounds pretty blasphemous to me. So the righteousness and sacrifice of Jesus Christ was good enough to commence us in the Christian life but not good enough to take us through gloriously to that moment when we will "meet Him in the air and be like Him"? John Piper is clear. "One hope". There was only "one hope" when we came to Christ and there still is only ONE hope for us now! That the love of God has satisfied the wrath of God! And that love is STILL abounding now and we can call Him "Abba! Daddy!" because are His SONS!!

One AWESOME Revelation from Joseph Prince!!

I wasn't very happy last night. I forgot my IPOD and so couldn't spend the hours from 02:00 to 06:00 when it's usually quiet transcribing the glorious messages of Rob Rufus! But it actually worked out pretty well - and I wonder if it was a divine coincidence in light of my last blog. It was as though my heavenly Father was having a laugh at my expense and making me sit quietly just reading. Because fortunately I had taken Joseph Prince's book; "Destined to Reign". So I finished reading it last night and WOW am I glad I reached the end!

He shared something so profound and so obvious that I sat back and laughed out loud to myself. I - who prided myself on being well-taught in the Word - had totally missed this! My doctor of theology senior pastor never preached this! But here it is!

"As I was reading these Scriptures one night, the Lord asked me; "Why did that man have great faith?". I immediately replied that it was because he, being a Roman centurion, was a man of authority and thus understood the authority of the Lord Jesus. I was confident of my reply, having been taught that to have great faith, we need to understand the Lord's authority and the authority He has given to the believer.

The Lord said to me; "Good and what about the other person who I said had great faith?". He was referring to the Syro-Phoenician woman who had a demon-possessed daughter ... The Lord continued; "Well if the centurion had great faith because he understood authority, what about this woman? She was not a soldier - she was a homemaker". Now the Lord had got me there ... then the Lord said to me; "Son, look for the common denominator between these two people and you will discover the secret to great faith".

Boy I was excited! I was about to discover the secret to having great faith! But after more than half an hour, I was still sitting in my study, searching for the common denominator. I was searching and searching to no avail. I simply could not find the answer. Finally my "lightning-fast" mind told me I should ask the Lord for the asnwer. So I said; "Lord, You have to show me because I cannot see it".

Then the Lord said this to me; "Both were Gentiles. They were not Jews. One was a Roman and the other a Caananite. Both of them were not under the law of Moses and therefore they did not disqualify themselves. They were not under condemnation and so they could have great faith to receive from Me".

Do you know that there is a verse in Galatians that says; "the law is not of faith?". In Romans, it also says, "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is of no effect". So clearly there is no way we can give people the law and yet expect them to have faith. The law will disqualify them from receiving any blessing from the Lord. It is only faith in His grace that will qualify God's people and cause them to have great faith to receive what they need from the Lord".

You might be asking quite rightly; "But what is faith?". Because the word can be understood in many ways. Perhaps the health-wealth-prosperity preachers have given the word a bit of a bad name. But despite the excesses I think they may have taken the word "faith" to - I still think they started off in their teaching with a point. Joseph Prince defines faith thus;

"Faith is not trying to make something that is not already there happen. Faith is bringing out of the spirit realm what is ALREADY there, what is ALREADY true of you. I am not telling you to confess something you are not".

And note this especially. It was so awesome I had to text it to Pete Day at some unearthly hour of the morning! And if I could have got online to blog it - I would have!

"Whether you confess that you are the righteousness of God in Christ or not, you are still the righteousness of God in Christ. But when you confess it, you become concious of it. You sense it and it becomes powerful and real in your life. You do not confess that you are righteous IN ORDER to become righteous. You confess you are righteous BECAUSE you are ALREADY righteous! ... That's not having faith in faith. It is faith in His goodness - faith in His grace".

Driving home with a big grin on my face looking stupid is becoming something of a habit only this morning I was repeating; "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus"! Oh and if you are wondering why I've put a couple of pictures of Darlene Zschech worshipping - it's because my response to these revelations is worship and adoration at His great grace. And no one sums up a posture of worship like this amazing woman - who is one of my favourite worship leaders along with Kate Simmonds! The Australians have certainly discovered the key to worship.

When He bares His teeth - Winter meets it's Death!

Many know of my love of the Chronicles of Narnia - I think my great new friend Jon Sidnell referred to it last year. I adore the books (and have done since I was a child) and also love the two films that have been brought out. Me being me - I must buck the trend - I don't like the favourite evangelical phrase that is over-used ("He's not a tame lion" ... yawn - yes we know!). I do indeed love the quote from the Silver Chair that Jon mentioned ("There is no other stream"). Time for another. This one is from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Here it is;

"This is no thaw' said the dwarf stopping suddenly. 'This is SPRING. What are we to do? Your winter has been destroyed, I tell you! This is Aslan's doing'".

I was struggling to find a way to convey the emotions of my heart over the past few days. I've been absolutely blown away by the kindness and the compassion of the comments in response to my post; "Grace Demands Radical Change ... !". I was fearing the worst. But through you I encountered the passion and the kindness and the love of God and I can't thank you all enough. Depression is quite frequently described as "the winter of the soul" and having experienced depression it's something I can identify with. So why do I take a step of faith to suggest that this is no thaw but spring has broken, not only in my heart and life but also in the world?

Firstly I am thrilled to be able to say that I've finally left my place of work at Acorns Childrens Hospice. I will always be grateful for the experience I had working there for a year. To see children facing death with the bravery they do is a life-changing experience. What is tragic is when they do not receive the care and the love that they are entitled to because there is more of an obsession with rules, policies and outward appearance. I handed in my notice on Tuesday and I cannot describe the feeling of relief that swept over me when it was done! Truly a cloud of darkness was lifting!

I then went out to town and indulged in some retail therapy to celebrate. Now for some people their idea of retail therapy may involve couture and labels! Mine tends to involve Christian books (I confess I did indulge in some underwear - but hey saves washing!) I brought three - one was called "A Radical Encounter with God" by Greg Haslam (a hero of mine). The second was called "The Gift of Prophetic Preaching" by Michael Eaton and the last was by Joseph Prince and was called; "Destined to Reign". I haven't read any of Joseph Prince before but I can tell he's going to become a hero - a true grace preacher in the shape of Rob Rufus. I haven't read Eaton's book yet but both Greg Haslam and Joseph Prince brought resounding messages into my life that I need to hear right NOW!! (I've posted a selection of quotes over on the "Post-it Notes" blog).

The second "event" was the sharing of a prophetic word from another really amazing individual I am proud to call friend - Ursula from Sydney. She read my post and had a prophetic insight into exactly how wonderful (NOT!) "fear" is! Here essentially is what fear is and what it does to the believer;

"During worship, one Sunday morning, I looked around and on about half of the church were these black demons. I'm going to try to describe it here. They were almost tar like, sticky, and they held onto the upper half of the peoples bodies. They clung with their legs around the bodies of their victims, their faces plastered over thier victims faces, covering their faces with black tar like goo, and their hands were plastered over their ears. I was so confused, and really concerned. I cried out to Jesus, "Jesus, what is this!!" I closed my eyes and tried to block it out, it was so disturbing, and spiritually the entire atmosphere was killing me! Everytime I opened my eyes I was confronted with these creatures.

Then the Holy Spirit answered me, in His beautiful voice of rushing waters He said to me, "Ursula, that is fear". I was like, "WHAT?". He explained to me that the demon I was seeing was fear. It clung like sticky tar, and stuck to everything that touched it. It was contagious. Transferable and imprisoning His people. He showed me that fear covered the faces of the people for various reasons. It covered their mouths and shut them. It covered their nose's and suffocated them. It covered their eyes, and closed them to things of the spirit, as well as ensuring that the people could not see past their fear. And it covered their ears, shutting them from hearing the truth and His voice. People that touched these people, were infected by this same fear, because it was so sticky, it just stuck to them! It was terrible, but showed me the truth of fear".

But she ends so biblically by reminding us that we are told simply not to fear! Simply this;

"The Holy Spirit reminded me, there is a reason He tells us not to fear. This demon imprisons people, and they can't see past the lie of fear itself. They can't see truth".

And the truth of the matter? Well let Joseph Prince answer what the TRUTH really is!

"Did Jesus die on the Cross to free us from committing sinful actions or harbouring sinful thoughts? If He did then allow me to conclude with reverence that He failed ... When David described the blessed man as one to whom the Lord will not impute sin, he meant that even when this man sins, God will not count his sin against him nor punish him for his iniquity. Too good to be true? That is why David defined this man as a blessed man! And this blessed man is you and me!".

And if "God is for us then WHO ... WHO .... WHO ... WHO ... WHO can be against us!?!?". No one! Not any man - not any church pastor or elder - not any work boss - not any demon of fear - not even Satan himself. God is for us! And He never will be against us because His Son died to ensure that we are adopted into the royal family of heaven! And once we are adopted - what cruel parent would "disfellowship" their child? It just wouldn't happen!

So back to why spring has brought an eternal, permament end to the winter of depression in my life! The third reason is that many of you may have noticed that my transcribing of Rob Rufus's sermons has slowed in the last few months. I couldn't explain why - other than my levels of concentration had totally gone. It was all I could do to sit and focus on the sermon for more than 5 minutes - and that is bearing in mind how utterly glorious Rob's sermons are! Since I handed in my notice at Acorns Hospice - it is like that dark cloud has vanished and my concentration is back and with a vengance! I spent the last couple of evenings glued to my IPOD and just soaking in the wonderful teaching of grace!

The sermon in particular that I've got to thank for this acceleration of spring's arrival is the first sermon that Rob preached in 2009 - "Being Established In The Gift Of Righteousness". This sermon is just ... incredible! Here's a quote that is so similar in theme and glory to Joseph Prince's book;

"If the main reason for Jesus dying on the Cross was to stop us sinning then He failed but if the main reason for Him dying on the Cross was so that your sins will never be imputed to you again because they have already been charged to Him - if the main reason He died was so that your sinning and sin can never again seperate you from the love of God then Jesus utterly succeeded in what He did".

I just love it. I can't hear it enough. "Who shall seperate us from the love of God?". No-one! It can't be done! Calvary was sufficient! God the Just was satisfied to look on Him and pardon me! I just have to re-post the clip of the most beautiful rendition of "Before the Throne of God" at Stoneleigh Bible Week - and the verse in particular that says;



"When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within upward I look and see Him there who made an END to ALL my sin!".

The question is - son or daughter (I did write "Christian" and then I had to come back and change it!) - do we really believe that "ALL" means all? Or are we content to almost blaspheme the Cross and suggest that Jesus gave us a good head-start but then we have to contribute and help finish off His mighty work with our works? That Paul by the way calls; "Dung!" or as Rob Rufus rather politely translates it; "POO!".

Let me finish - because I am finding I could really talk all day! Why has Spring come and brought an end to the eternal 1000 year winter of depression in my life, and in your life if you know something of what I am going through? Because of where we can look! "Upward". That heavenly song finishes with the verse;

"Behold Him there the risen Lamb - MY perfect SPOTLESS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
The great unchangable I AM - the King of glory and of grace!
One with Himself I cannot die! My soul is purchased with His blood!
My life is hid with Christ on high! With Christ my Saviour and my God!".

I have to say it's amazing - once you start to "get" the true gospel of grace it is like everything just "adjusts" into focus. I've sung and loved that song since 1998 when I first heard it on a Stoneleigh CD (and I didn't even know what Stoneleigh was or who Lou Fellingham was at that point!). But I am seeing these words clearly only just recently! My perfect spotless righteousness! Purchased with His blood! I know that while in heaven He stands - no tongue - no tongue - no tongue - no tongue - NO TONGUE (No one! Not any man - not any church pastor or elder - not any work boss - not any demon of fear - not even Satan himself) can bid me thence depart! Safe forever! NO FEAR!! With all of these glorious truths - what chance does winter have? I know it's not going to be long before I go to my G.P and he says there is no need for me to be on anti-depressants anymore. And I know once I am off them - I won't ever need to go back on them again!