No Condemnation Now I Dread! (A New Book by Ryan Rufus)

I can't think of a better way to begin a review of a new and wonderful book by Ryan Rufus (pastor in City Church International in Hong Kong) - "Extra Virgin Grace" - than with the favourite lines of a well known hymn;

"No condemnation now I dread - Jesus and all in Him is mine!

Alive in Him - my living Head and clothed in righteousness divine!

Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own!

Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own!".

The hymn has to be heard to be appreciated so I've put the link to the video here of it being sung on the BBC programme; "Songs of Praise". I didn't post it - because I wish the gathered singers looked more happy! I can't sing this hymn without crying! The point is this;

"No condemnation now I dread! Jesus and ALL in HIM is mine! ... clothed in righteousness divine!".

These truths form the very essence of Ryan's new book; "Extra Virgin Grace". He writes in the foreword;

"My conviction is that free people will free people. Therefore the greater the freedom we come into the greater the freedom we'll be able to bring others into. The essence of freedom is to know that you are 100% set free from the law and are 100% righteous in Christ - 100% of the time. Bondage is to believe that you are still under the law and not always righteous".

It's so simply obvious. Why haven't we seen more conversions? Because we're not truly free and the answers are here! Ryan writes;

"Get ready to be armed with a key that will unlock many difficult Scriptures and distorted doctrines. What is this key? It is the key of discernment between the gift of righteousness and self-righteousness".

There are many different topics addressed in the book but the "golden thread" (as C H Spurgeon called grace) runs through it all giving the book such amazing unity. A couple of thoughts about this great book.

1. Ryan writes strongly.

I have no shadow of doubt that this book will offend some. But this strength is required! Ryan's father - Rob Rufus - wrote in the foreword;

"Intellectual preaching from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has flooded this world and drowned entire nations in religious lies. These wholesale deceptions that have grossly misrepresented the true loving nature of God require and demand to be confronted with concentrated pure grace clarity. This book does that. Any sincere seeker will find the truth in these pages extremely emancipating. The grace revolution is accelerating. The earth is groaning for this message".

It is my suspicion that your reaction to this book will actually mark out where you are at in your spiritual walk. If you are offended because all your spiritual disciplines and righteous deeds are called "nothing" - then there it is. But if you are filled with hope and wonder because you see hope - then you are indeed a "sincere seeker" as Rob writes!

2. Ryan writes compassionately (as a true pastor).

His chapters 12 and 13 on "Rest" are the most loving compassionate chapters I have ever read on this. So much of Christianity these days is focused on "work" and "mission" and driving to see the lost saved. Of course this is true and must be done - but Ryan writes so rightly that you will accomplish far more if you are rested and sane - than exhausted and weary!

The reader knows that those under Ryan's pastoring (and I know this is true of CCI) will not be constantly made guilty by "applications" after sermons that demand more of them. "Come to the prayer meeting .... give more ..... do this .... do that". I know for a fact that there is no such guilt-driven exhorting in the church and we too are allowed to enjoy this!

3. Ryan writes as a teacher who writes what he lives not just what he believes.

So many books I've read are by men and women who don't really write with conviction. Especially those who are striving to "live more holy lives" under God! They come up with ideas and lists of "daily disciplines" to live more Cross-centred lives and so on. But there isn't a real heart of conviction there - because deep down, they too must admit; "I've blown it". Ryan's book is amazing because you read it and know he has begun to experience the thrilling joy of the freedom that grace brings. And it makes you want to experience that too! This book rings true!

4. Ryan isn't afraid to dispel wrong historical teaching!

My favourite chapter in this book is chapter 6 - his treatment of the Sermon on the Mount. I must admit as I have taken my baby steps into the gospel of grace since I encountered Rob Rufus properly in 2007, I have been worried by the Beatitudes and their implications for the Christian life. Many of the books in my library on the "Sermon on the Mount" take this historical approach that Ryan dispels.

For example, the great Dr Martyn Ll0yd-Jones wrote his collection of sermons on the Sermon and the book opens; "The Sermon on the Mount is not a code of ethics or of morals; it is a description of what Christians are meant to be". And that's how I've always read it!

Ryan writes masterfully however - going through each of the Beatitudes and explaining in context what each actually means. Here's a segment about the Sermon on the Mount;

"Matthew 5:1–7:29 is the "Sermon on the Mount". Is this sermon in-tended for the church? Absolutely not! It's intended for the self-righteous. It‟s a pre-salvation preach that exposes self-righteous pride and performance and reveals the need for God's righteousness as a gift through faith in order to see the Kingdom and become children of God ... He wasn't preaching to a church. He wasn't preaching to born again believers. He was preaching to Jews where the climate of the day was a striving for righteousness through works.".

So what do the various points Jesus makes in the Sermon actually refer to? For example Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God". Ryan said;

"Jesus wasn't saying that keeping most of the law is good enough. He was saying that if you want to live by the law then you can never break it. Not even once. The smallest transgression of the law brings about impurity in your heart and means you‟ll never see God. So if your “seeing God” is based on the purity level of your law keeping, then you better make sure you‟ve kept the law 100% of your entire life. Anything less and you‟re doomed! If that sounds rather extreme it‟s because it is. It‟s because it‟s meant to break down self-righteousness".

Here is a brief synopsis of each chapter and what it brings in Ryan's words;

Chapter 1: The Olive Tree vs. the Fig Tree.

The Olive Tree represents Christ, His gift of righteousness, faith, grace, The Spirit and the New Covenant. The Fig Tree represents flesh, self righteousness, works, legalism, human effort, unbelief and the Old Covenant. This chapter is a call to the Church to not repeat Adam and Eve‟s sin of trying to be more like God in eating from the Fig Tree but to rest in the Olive Tree and see the fruit of grace manifesting in your life.

Chapter 2: Re-defining What Renewing The Mind Is.

Renewing your mind is essentially about learning how to surrender your mind to your reborn spirit so that you become “spirit-led”. Transformation is becoming “spirit-led”. When you are led by your reborn spirit in fellowship with the Holy Spirit then you will walk in the perfect will of God manifesting all the riches of your salvation here on earth.

Chapter 3: A Moment Within God’s Eternal Grace Covenant.

If you‟ve ever struggled with understanding why God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden or why Israel suffered for so long under the Law covenant then this chapter is for you, and makes it very clear. You‟ll discover how grace has always been Gods intent for relationship with Him and how the Law is but a brief moment in time and for a very clear and specific purpose.

Chapter 4: The New Way Of The Spirit vs. The Old Way Of The Letter.

The letter is a religious system of external pressure and motivation to get you to serve God whereas the spirit is an internal transformation and empowered ability to serve God. Under the letter you are forced to serve God. Under the spirit it becomes your desire to serve God. For born again believers it is no longer,“Do this in order to be blessed, or don‟t do that in order to avoid punishment.” Now it is, “This is who you truly are, perfect and complete in Christ” and “This is what is available for you now, a miraculous and victorious life!”

Chapter 5: Galatians 5 Explained In Context.

Because of the confusion around this chapter, many Christians have been taken into fear and legalism, but this is a glorious chapter that God is once again shining His brilliant gospel light on to reveal what it truly means to walk in the Spirit.

Chapter 6: The Beatitudes Are For The Self Righteous!

Matthew 5:1–7:29 is the „Sermon on the Mount‟. Is this sermon intended for the church? Absolutely not! It‟s intended for the self righteous. It‟s a pre-salvation preach that exposes self righteous pride and performance and reveals the need for God‟s righteousness as a gift through faith in order to see the Kingdom and become children of God. Unless you really understand grace, don‟t go near the Beatitudes. They will mess you up! Teaching the Beatitudes to Christians produces legalism and religious pride or condemnation in them.

Chapter 7: Re-defining What Holiness Is.

Holiness has got nothing to do with sinning or not sinning. If that is what we think, then we think that we are the cause of our holiness. There is only one person who is the cause of our holiness and his name is Jesus Christ! And if you are in him, then you are holy. You don't have to try and be holy or get holy, you are holy!

Chapter 8: Hebrews 12: Understanding God’s Disciplines Through Grace.

Many people read Hebrews 12 in a very negative way that causes fear in their hearts and in the hearts of others. But actually these verses were written to encourage believers and fill them with confidence. What is fundamentally important to see when reading Hebrews 12:5-11 is that firstly, it‟s not God doing the chastising and secondly, that the chastising was not coming because of moral sins but because these Hebrews were standing for the Gospel!

Chapter 9: Romans 5, 6, 7 & 8 Unlocked.

I believe these four chapters are the bedrock chapters of understanding grace. They form a solid foundation of what the Gospel is, and will give you confidence to stand in the grace of God. The more you study them and understand them, the more you will be able to look at other verses that seem to pose a “problem” for grace, that contradict grace, and unlock their true meaning.

Chapter 10: Hebrews 5 & 6: The Impossibility Of Losing Your Salvation.

To fall away means to spiritually die again. If Christ can‟t die again and we are united with Christ, it means that we can‟t die again. If we can‟t die again then it means that we can never fall away! I believe this Scripture is written to show the Hebrews, and us, how perfect our salvation is and how impossible it is to lose it, based on the fact that Christ can never die again! And it‟s written to help us come into an amazing confidence that God is for us, always relates to us through grace, and therefore we can walk intimately with him with boldness and confidence in this life.

Chapter 11: The Theology And Experience Of Rest.

Rest is about knowing where you are seated and why you are seated there. You are seated with Christ on his throne because you have become his perfect and complete righteousness. You are not standing and working but are seated and resting. And the Holy Spirit doesn‟t just want you to know where you are, he wants you to experience where you are.

Chapter 12: More Gets Done When You Rest!

When we‟re not living in the sweet spot of resting in the finished work of Christ, life seems harder, ineffective and frustrating. But when we live from a place of rest we find life becomes increasingly more enjoyable and effective. God wants us to live from the sweet spot. He wants us to enter his rest and live from that place.

Appendix: Keywords and Scriptures in Context.

This chapter is more of a study tool to help you unlock certain Scriptures rather than a read-through chapter. It focuses on a number of words like: sin, faith, lust of the flesh, fear of God etc that usually get interpreted incorrectly and explains their proper meaning. This chapter isn‟t thorough or in depth but will certainly assist you in your own studies by triggering helpful patterns of thought.

Session 2 - Grace and Glory Conference Hong Kong - Rob Rufus

This is the 2nd session of the 2010 Glory and Grace Conference held in Hong Kong preached by Rob Rufus - it is the best gospel presentation I have heard on the true effects of preaching and living a gospel-centered life. It unveils the stupidity of trying to bring a "little law" and performance-presentation and mask that as gospel living;

"Looking through the lenses of the Cross"

I want to talk on the wonderful Cross this afternoon. There is so much Scripture we could read but we are going to read just one verse. 1 Corinthians 1:17;

"For Christ did not send me to baptise but to preach the Gospel - not with words of human wisdom - less the Cross of Christ be emptied of it's power".

It is an astounding insight to me that the Cross can be emptied of it's living power! As soon as we rely on human wisdom or intellectual power - we empty the Cross of it's supernatural content. Later in this chapter Paul said that God will frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent.

Intellectual preaching of the Cross is no gospel at all!

Paul said he wanted to know only Christ and Him crucified. Preaching and demonstration of His power so that men's faith would not rely on man's wisdom.

The scandal of the Cross is it's simplicity. The Cross is so simple - it confuses clever people.

Yet the Cross is the wisdom of God. The Cross is profound! The Cross is deep! Yet it is in simplicity - we preach the Cross and we believe on the Cross of Christ. When the Galatian church started leaving the Cross and going into Moses law like many Christians today - for them the Cross is just that baby thing. It is for immature believers. Paul wrote a letter immediately to the Galatians and all his apostolic passion and in the complete absence of political correctness or diplomacy - he said; "You foolish idiots! Who has bewitched you?! Christ was clearly betrayed before your very eyes as crucified!".

I want to ask you unreflecting idiots - does God move among and do miracles because you obey the law or because you believe the message of the Cross?

Paul is making it very clear that when the Cross of Christ is not central to all we preach - the power of God stops moving in the church and through the church!

When we repent of our intellectual arrogance, and understand that the Greeks want great philosophy and the Jews want signs and wonders and the world is divided between those that are brain-centered and those are that are intuitive and feeling-centered - and the answer for that is not to flatter this side or that side but to hold our line boldly and preach the message of the Cross that is foolishness by the arrogance of this world's standards - but it is the wisdom of God.

The wisdom of God is what I want. The wisdom of God and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Bible says that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. The Cross is the lense that we must look at life through. When you look at principalities and powers through the lense of the Cross - you see them only defeated! You see the devil so small and the ruling spirit over Hong Kong is the Holy Spirit! All others were triumphed over at the Cross! Jesus took no prisoners.

He stripped them all of their authority, disarmed them, when you look at people through the lense of the Cross you see objects of God's love and affection. When you look at sickness through the Cross you see that all things are possible, when you look at the nations through the Cross, you KNOW it is possible to disciple nations! China can be discipled by the gospel of grace! Australia can! Africa can! All the nations will be! There will be cultural changes in government and education through the Cross.

Will all the world obey God? No. Will evil get worse? I don't know it can - but possibly. But this I know - that the greatest sign of the end of the age - the greatest sign of history being summed up at the consummation of the ages is not a temple on the Rock in Jerusalem! It has got nothing to do with "666" or the Anti-Christ! In Matthew 24:14 Jesus said in answer to the question what will be the sign of the end of the age - the gospel will be preached as a sign to all nations and then the end will come!

The greatest sign at the end of the age is a restored gospel of the Kingdom.

You say; "Rob why are you preaching with such intensity - can't you just chill and relax a bit?". No - it is because the Cross does that to my blood. Everything from the Old Covenant has to come through the lenses of the Cross. It changes before it goes into the New! Every church needs to have the lense - the filter of the Cross in place! There are certain night clubs that you cannot get into unless you have something to get in there with. There is a bouncer in the door that won't let you get in.

The Cross is God's defense to protect the Church from the ministry of death!

2 Corinthians 3:7 says the law is a ministry of death!

The law was meant to kill us and crush us and curse us and condemn us and pour wrath on us and stir up more sin in us! How many pastors in their right minds would let THAT into their congregation? Any preaching designed to perform and deserve is preaching the Law!

I don't care if you don't dress up in Levitical priestly clothes and don't say "Moses said ..." - when we preach to believers that we have to earn and deserve the blessing - we are preaching the Law. We heard this morning - preach the gospel of grace and stir believers to respond with faith and the power of the Cross will be released.

The Cross is the bouncer that won't let Old Covenant truths past through the Cross into New Covenant without them being changed.

Circumcision comes to the Cross and praise God - it doesn't get through easily! At the Cross - the bouncer made it irrelevant to have the snip on the tip! They used to snip on the tip and through it away - they never stuck it back on again with glue. Circumcision comes to the Cross and it changes as it comes through into the New Covenant! Now it is not the snip on the tip - it is circumcision of the heart!

Colossians chapter 2 says that old sinful nature which is really a nature of unbelief in the goodness of God - a nature driven to rebellion against God through unbelief in His goodness - that old nature was cut away, circumcised and thrown away - never to be brought back!

The power of the Cross removes the sinful nature from the unbeliever and gives us a new nature which is righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

A nature that does not want to sin! A nature that is just like Jesus! Identical to Jesus! That is powerful! A watered-down or powerless preaching of the Cross has produced millions of counterfeit conversions.

The Cross produces radical salvations! The curse of the law comes through the Cross and says; "I want to get into the New Covenant!". The Cross says; "No! I cancel you! You will not condemn God's people! You will not manipulate them with guilt! You will not control them with religious demons! It is for freedom that Christ has set you free! Stand free and refuse to submit to a yoke of slavery!".

What is the yoke of slavery Rob? Very simple: it tells us right there in the chapter before. Slavery is bondage from Mount Sinai. Paul goes on in that same chapter of Galatians 5 and says in verse 4 if you Christians already in Christ seek to be justified by the law then you have been alienated from Christ and you have fallen from grace! Grace is infinitely higher than the law because if you go back to law, then it means you have fallen to something low down and it means that someone hasn't been safe-guarding you with the bouncer of the Cross! Or you haven't been safe-guarding your own heart because the Cross and power will never let the law through that has been cancelled theoretically and potentially - there is now therefore NO condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus!

Every Christian should be dancing their way through life with NO condemnation! I just went into a trance there. I just saw multiple millions of believers in Christ dancing their way through life without condemnation! I saw one billion, 400 million Chinese experiencing what is God's heart before time began to hear this gospel and not an inadequate or false gospel mixed with law and grace.

To mix law and grace is to preach NO gospel at all.

For if law can get through the Cross, then it is not the cry of the Cross of Christ that is being preached. Colossians 2:14 said God cancelled the law at the Cross! To preach what has been cancelled - the Holy Spirit will not help you. The Holy Spirit will not help you preach something the Father cancelled at the Cross! The world is under the law - not those in Christ. To preach the law to the believers is to preach with whatever power it is - but it is not God. It is the power of human wisdom emptying the Cross - it is the power of human ability and the power of devils and witchcraft. The Cross is not baby steps towards some maturity.

The Cross is only one step. It is God's one-step programme. We didn't take that one step. God took that step. It was a divine loving step in Christ Jesus through the Cross. In that loving step He came right to us - so all the fullness of Who God is stepped through that Cross towards us totally available to us! And He didn't wait for us to have enough faith to step through the Cross to us. We heard this morning that before we had any faith God absolutely and fully in Christ Jesus stepped towards us through the Cross and everything God is - is with us right now. When God stepped through the Cross in fullness to us - all the heavens were opened.

The height, breadth, depth and length of heaven was open to us believers in Christ!

So when you hear believers today praying these kind of prayers; "Oh God rend the heavens and come down!" - I think God goes; "Eh? I have ripped the veil, I have ripped the heavens and stepped towards you through the Cross - I am here fully!". To say; "God rend the heavens and come down is an insult to the Cross!".

It is not judgement on my condemning anybody. I have been preaching a mixture of law and grace.

But the fact is that the majority of the body of Christ on the planet today is under performance pressure - is a sign to me that the Cross has been emptied of it's power.

Every imaginable idea by God's people - every formula is out there on the market. God stepped through that Cross in Christ Jesus towards us and He took an oath in Isaiah 54. I am paraphrasing it but it is true to Scripture;

"I take an oath that I will never step back away from you through the Cross backwards - in all My fullness I am here with you all the time whether you can feel it or not - I am here! In fullness! With you".

Who hasn't sinned in the last 3 weeks? Not once! Glenda keep your hand down!

God's Presence is as much with you when you fail, mess up or make a mistake or even sin. We do not encourage sin. It is just silly to sin. It is not what our new creation nature wants. But we are all learning to walk this walk. And it is not our sin, our short-comings and our failings that causes Christ to be alienated from us. It is coming back under law.

People said when these great revivals came to the end, it was because there was too much sin. Friends - revival started in times of terrible sinning! Legalistic religion stirs up sinning! It is when people come back into grace that the power of Christ is operating in their lives - that is revival!

And the church would never need another revival if they would just stay in the power of the Cross!

It is like you want to get every pastor on the planet and say "Listen - there is a way for us to stay in the flow of God's Presence and power!". We are taking about 70 leaders away after this conference and we want to learn from each other the wisdom of how to administrate local church in grace. It is like Andrew Wommack said this morning - people get into extremes of both sides. This message of the gospel has to be so protected that local churches flourish in this gospel! We don't want to end up like the Galatians or end up like the Corinthians! People in grace are starting to say - listen I can be undisciplined, I don't need to go to church or read my Bible - just live loose! That is not the Cross!

If your heart doesn't beat with a passion to see the nations saved then you haven't understood grace! If the Bible isn't alive to you then you haven't understood grace! If local church isn't exciting to you then you haven't understood grace!

"But Rob I don't want to go to church that mixes law and grace!". We don't want "Grace Pharisees" who are so judgmental about everything - but if you can't a church that preaches the Cross in power then start one! There are enough of us to come help you! You can be a man or a woman, or any colour, it doesn't matter if you are not a preacher - start one! And if you are not stupid or a grace Pharisee then we will come help you! Anywhere in the world!

God's people have got to be assured of this. It is a one-step programme. There are no backward steps. Galatians 2, Colossians chapter 2 and Ephesians chapter 2, Romans chapter and Romans chapter 8 tells us why God will not step back from you. He is stuck with you even when you mess up and sin sometimes! On that Cross Christ was not crucified by Himself! Jesus said; "Take up your Cross and follow Me". Deny yourself - self-righteousness, religious arrogance, hypocrisy and come to Me those who are heavy laden and I will give you rest for My yoke is easy and My burden is light! Come to Me! And every person on the planet - the Bible says in those verses - we were co-crucified with Christ. We were co-buried with Christ, we were co-raised with Christ! We were co-ascended with Christ! We were co-seated with Christ in the heavenly realms! We are co-equal heirs with Christ!

God cannot go anywhere without you! For Christ to step away from you - He has to step away from Himself! 1st Corinthians 6:17 says;

"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him".

So everywhere God is - you are there! When your shadow heals the sick, it is no big mystery! When your words carry miracle life and power - it is no mystery! You start this Christian race at the finishing line as a winner.

The spirit of suicide and the spirit of demonic religion is one and the same thing. Religion is occupied with trying to get us to die to ourselves.

"Come on - die to that flesh. Die to yourself!". If we believe that then we are admitting that Jesus didn't really die on the Cross. How can you die to yourself - when you have already been fully crucified with Christ? He fully died on that Cross! And your old sinful nature fully died on that Cross! And you have fully been raised from the dead in Christ! How can you die to yourself? "Rob I have heard Paul say - I die daily". Probably Tuesday morning, God allowing - I want to take Hebrews 5 and Hebrews 6 and in two sessions unpack those two chapters. We are going to hit verses 4, 5 and 6 in Hebrews 6. It says that those who fall away, it is impossible to be restored to repentance. We are going to show how many lies have been preached through not reading Scripture in context.

When Paul said; "I die daily" - he was not contradicting when he said; "I have been crucified with Christ". When Paul said; "I die daily" - he was not talking about his old nature having to be crucified again. The context was persecution for preaching this gospel. It caused him to be lashed many times and rejected by false brothers and imprisoned and go hungry, naked and sleepless. Let me promise you this - if you preach the gospel Paul preached, not in an arrogant way there will be things coming against you and attacking you and THAT is what Paul is talking about. Some days you will feel like you are dying!

For me resurrection is not a doctrine anymore! It is a daily life necessity! All the intense attacks are absolutely worth it to preach this gospel! This gospel is worth it! Come on - let's give the Lord a shout in this place!

Fighting For This Love

Or in Biblical terms (Jude 20,21);

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God".

It's puzzled me for the last few months of struggling with depression - if love drove the Son of God to Calvary and if love motivated God in His grand salvation plan then why does it sometimes seem so hard to experience and encounter that love? There is no doubting the abundant love of God - so therefore the problem must be on our side.

Then I was just cooking in the kitchen and this song by Cheryl Cole came on; "Fight for this Love";

"Anything that's worth having, sure enough worth fighting for.

Quitting's out of the question - when it gets tough, gotta fight some more".

The verse from Jude 20, 21; "Keep yourself in the love of God" really seems to tie in with this song. Why would Jude write; "Keep yourself in the love of God" - if effort at times were not implied? Matthew Henry in his wonderful commentary writes;

"[1.] "Keep up the grace of love to God in its lively vigorous actings and exercises in your souls.'' [2.] "Take heed of throwing yourselves out of the love of God to you, or its delightful, cheering, strengthening manifestations; keep yourselves in the way of God, if you would continue in his love.''

Henry writes; "Take heed of throwing yourselves OUT of the love of God". So it is possible to throw ourselves out of God's love? This is clearly not a passive thing and as Cheryl Cole sings - if it's worth having, then it's worth fighting for! So that's all well and good. How then do we "DO" it?

1. Look to the greatest demonstration ever seen of God's love to us - the Cross of Calvary.

C H Spurgeon said;

"My hearer, whensoever thy soul is clouded, turn thou to these wounds which shine like a constellation of five bright stars. Look not to thine own wounds, nor to thine own pains, or sins, or prayers, or tears, but remember that "with his stripes we are healed." Gaze, then; intently gaze, upon thy Redeemer's wounds it thou wouldest find comfort".

Later in the sermon he calls it; "study much the story of your Saviour's death". In another sermon, C H Spurgeon said;

"He did not die because he must; he died because he would. The only "must" that came upon him was a necessity of all-conquering love".

But that's not all. It can't be all - because if it was then why would we need anything but a detailed account (which we have) of the events of Calvary? Why would the Holy Spirit be poured out at Pentecost if there was not some divine plan to make all this experiential - the word that conservative reformed religious types love to hate?

2. Drink deep of the Holy Spirit who makes all this real.

Spurgeon says it best;

"Let us try to abide under the influence of the Holy Spirit. To than end, let us think very reverently of him. Some never think of him at all. How many sermons there are without even an allusion to him! Shame on the preachers of such discourses! If any hearers come without praying for the Holy Spirit, shame on such hearers! We know and we confess that he is everything to our spiritual life; then why do we not remember him with greater love, and worship him with greater honour, and think of him continually with greater reverence?".

Incredible - whole conferences are still held without mention or experience of the Holy Spirit. May it never be true of us.

You Tore the Veil!!

I still haven't found a better way for piercing through the clouds of depression than worship songs that are truly anointed. It really does seem to work again and again - keep hearing and seeing people caught in worship and the words of truth just never fail to lift my spirit.

Here's one of my most recent favourite songs - led by the wonderful Darlene Zschech and the Hillsongs crowds. "At the Cross" - just encapsulates the most wonderous truths of the Gospel. And it reminds me again how stupid people are who don't allow women to lead worship - God has truly gifted them to be sensitive to the movings of His Spirit.

Here's the video:



My favourite line of the song is; "You tore the veil - You made a way - when You said that it is done!". It just sums up the complete triumph and victory of the Gospel. Most Christian depression springs from a belief and an experience that God is silent - heaven is silent and that something is wrong. If the Gospel is to be believed then heaven is NEVER silent! God is never silent again!

Rob Rufus has just begun an exciting new series at his home church in Hong Kong called; "Being Part of a Generation that Will Restore Revelation of God in the Church". I listened to the first sermon yesterday and it is ALL about the vitality of the Presence of God. I was tremendously struck by the non-negotiable fact of the Presence of God to Rob. He said he would rather die than go through life without ever experiencing God. And that's true! I'm scared to admit it - because I so rarely seem to conciously experience God's manifest Presence - but it is true - are we married to the Bridegroom or not? What marriage would even survive without intimacy?

Terry Virgo prophesied at Stoneleigh Bible Week 2000;

"I don't call you on to cold morality. I call you to please Me, to think of Me when temptation knocks at the door and other eyes are looking. I don't want you to think of the code; I want you to think of Me. I want you to think of My love and My smile. I want you to look forward to seeing My face, not in fear of blurring your vision that you should come with any sense of shame - when I am lookign forward to meeting with you! You are married! You are spoken for!

Discover the secrets of My love. Come with Me into every increasing wonder, come into My courts, come receive My love, come and be enthralled in My Presence; come find Your heart bursting for joy. Let Me share with you what only I can share! I want you pre-occupied, I want you fascinated and I want you enthralled. "You are married" says the Lord. "Live the married life, fellowship with Me and enjoy My love" says the Lord.

Speak Tenderly to My Bride ...

"Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path"

- Galatians 6:1 - New Living Translation.

"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned".

- Isaiah 40:2 - New Living Translation.

I have a suspicion that there is a quantity of nameless and faceless Christians hiding among the church ranks bearing varying amounts of guilt and shame because they are doing things that the church ranks as unacceptable behaviour. Most religious churches will call it "sin" - and will even unconciously rank various sins as "worse".

Whatever our views on grace and righteousness - whether we believe that Jesus Christ took ALL sin at Calvary and dealt with it or whether we believe in indwelling sin and an life-long mortification of sin battle - the fact is that these people are in churches hoping desperately that they will never be found out, seen, discovered because they fear the consequences. Sadly I am becoming increasingly aware that when they ARE found out - the church responds and deals with them harshly and abruptly. That discovery can come if the struggling individual is "foolish" enough to confess their struggles to a church leader. It can happen if they are spotted by a nosy elder's wife. The way it happens is irrelevant. The response is what I am thinking about. Because that response - I believe - can scare many off church for life.

Let's get an obvious caveat out the way;

There is behaviour that I am not endorsing and never will. Behaviour that Jesus Christ went to Calvary for. Behaviour that Terry Virgo calls; "sin as a saint with all the sadness and inappropriateness of it". Behaviour - let me make clear - that I have and still do slip into from time to time! You will not hear me say that grace makes it "okay" to sin.

But what I AM saying is that I do not believe there is any good news in lambasting the church by telling them they are sinners. I AM saying that church leaders who swiftly respond with harsh church discipline on sinners are hypocrites. If ... they have not taken the time and effort with tears and prayer to plead with the individual to abandon their way of life.

I have been so so utterly encouraged to hear Pete Greasley (pastor of an SGM church in Wales) say several times in his preaching something to the effect of; "I'm just like you! I am beside you - not above you!". Sadly - that is a rare thing to hear.

So here is what I heard recently. I heard that a church leader in this country has scared young people under his control because he said something to the effect of if he found his child was seeing a non-Christian girlfriend, he would throw them out of his home. Of course I heard that comment out of context. I heard that comment third hand. And I HOPE that I misunderstood that comment and it was highly overexaggerated. I hope that no parent would EVER contemplate throwing their child out of their home and disfellowshipping them from the family.

Maybe that church leader meant he would do so regretfully and after much tears and pleading and only if the young person in question would persist in the relationship. But what worried me is that there are young people who are now scared to admit they are seeing non-Christian girlfriends or boyfriends for fear that the church leader in question will tell their parents to throw them out of the house. But if these young people are even THINKING that such a thing is a possibility then surely something is drastically wrong in the church. Fear? Threats? Surely such behaviour cannot be further removed from the behaviour of Jesus Christ and a self-respecting New Covenant church.

Did or would Jesus Christ ever behave like that? Did He ever cast people from His Presence or endorse that parents do this? How did He behave towards people "caught in sin"? I thought of a few examples;

1. Let's imagine a worst-case scenario in a Western church. A man full of demons who keeps screaming out and beating up the church members and ripping his clothes. How would most Western churches respond? Sure - at first we would probably try and ignore the person - but I am sure it wouldn't be too long before the stewards were instructed to bar the doors. Jesus?

"When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!".

Did Jesus condone the "sin" or deny it's existance? No. Did He condemn the man? Certainly not. Did He excommunicate or disfellowship the man? No - the man was already pretty much disfellowshipped from the community among graves. What did Jesus do? He solved the problem with a living word.

An interesting point - when the demonised man saw Jesus - "He ran and fell on his knees in front of Him". Even with a legion of demons, the man could still recognise the bringer of grace. I wonder what would have happened if the Pharisees had landed on the shore - would he have run to them? Possibly - but only to beat them up.

2. Let's imagine another pretty-bad case scenario. A renowned and well known prostitute is a regular attender at a Western church. Something keeps her coming and sometimes she preys on men in the church and flirts with them. Everyone knows what she does but no one "talks" about it. What is the most likely response? Most probably again discipline and disfellowshipping for the "safety" of the church. The experience of Jesus reminds me of what I imagine most churches would do;

"He came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?".

What did Jesus do?

"But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not ... When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more".

I don't imagine that my ranting and raving here on a blog will persuade many - certainly not elderly church leaders set in their legalistic ways. I've got no particular interest in trying to get them to think whether what they are doing is truly Christ-like because my experiences tells me that they are usually quite sure that they are "pursuing righteousness".

A final point - do I believe there is a place for "putting such a one out to Satan"? I completely agree with a comment Pete Greasley made when we met for lunch. He said that such an action should be done - oh, so cautiously - and only after much prayer, tears, thought, and effort. Maybe there is a time where that has to be done, but I seriously fear for the church leader who finds it easy to take such an action. I know I for one wouldn't ever want to be in that position.

I want to speak to those "caught in sin" - WHATEVER sin that may be - and that's simply to say that I understand and have been there. REALLY been there. And have experienced the wrath of a church that has dragged me to Jesus and reminded Him of the law and demanded my "spiritual" death. And that's to say - you are always welcome here. I will always have a place in my heart and in my time for those who have been abandoned by the church or family. I will never say "enough". I will never say "Begone from me". As long as you want to put up with me - I will put up with you. And yes - I have got people in my mind when I am writing this. I will speak truth to you (or try to). I will remind you that you are a new creation and have the power to break sinful habits that bring you down.

But I won't spend much time talking to you about your struggles or habits. Most importantly of all I prefer to remind you that;

"The Cross does not have to be centred around me and be sustained by reflecting on my own personal failure! ... To insist on still calling myself a sinner could not add value to the Cross for me. Indeed, to call myself essentially a sinner actually dishonours the wonder of the gospel".

By Your Underlining Shall Ye Know Them ...

I always know if a sermon is going to be a fair one, a good one or an AWESOME one by the amount of bold and underlining it receives! I listened to a sermon today that got LOADS of underlining and bold - and it was by Pete Greasley - senior pastor of Christchurch in Wales speaking at New Word Alive. It was so good I actually transcribed the whole thing. Before I post some of my notes (I don't want to post the whole thing as I am concious that I had to pay for the download from the NWA site and don't want to rob any of their income) - I just want to apply a prophecy that Rob Rufus gave recently.

"I have a word of prophecy for someone here today; you have become cynical and sceptical and you feel it is normal and acceptable because of legalism in your past and the religious church world that you have rejected. You don’t almost feel that church is relevant anymore and so you are sceptical and cynical. And the Lord says in a loving way; “You feel this is okay because the religious world and legalism is so bad that you now can live cynically about church”. The Lord says; “The reason you are cynical is not because of the religious world – it is because you don’t believe totally the gospel of pure grace".

I'm tired of being angry at SGM. I'm tired of the whole "SGM-thing". I was the only family member not to be invited to a family birthday party this month. The reason? Because my parent's SGM pastors were there. That hurts.

But I don't want to be in the place where I am cynical and skeptical because I don't believe in the gospel of pure grace! So I listened to this sermon of Pete Greasley's primarily because I was interested to see what he said at New Word Alive and how often he said; "My friend C J" (only once for the record). But I ended up being floored by the pure grace preaching that came out of his expounding of Psalm 103. Grace from SGM?! Yep.

There may be some who have been hurt by SGM (and there are thousands I know of) who refuse to accept that "can anything good come out of SGM". I know - I was one of them for quite a few years! But the thing about being in a desert is that when someone offers you a glass of water - you become remarkably "unfussy" about who you accept it from. Many of us are in a legalistic desert and are hungering for "pure grace" preachers of the Word of God who don't mix law and grace - but unveil the Gospel in it's glorious truth.

I have to say thus far - in my estimation - Pete Greasley is one such guy. Here's why (and as I said - these are my notes. The download is only £1 and I do recommend it strongly to everyone!);

The context of Psalm 103:

"You look into 2 Samuel 7 and you see this wonderful situation with King David where he is made king and he is suddenly carrying this responsibility and he is also pumped up with what he is going to do for God. You have this situation where he is pacing the floor and calls in Nathan the prophet ... !”. Then God comes and speaks to Nathan and says; “David, I took you from the sheepfold when you were nothing and I took the initiative and I brought you this far (past grace) and I have kept you – all your life has been soaked in My grace to you (present grace)”. And then He says;

“David – you won’t build Me a house – I will build you a house. It is not about what you are going to do for Me – it is about what I have done, what I am doing and I will do for you”.

THAT is what this Psalm is about. So I have five points – five ways that we see grace outworking in this;

1. Essential Grace.

From there he opens the whole Psalm up and this is a man amazed by grace. Staggered by it! He looked at essential grace – who God is. A W Tozer says in his book; “The Knowledge of the Holy”;

“What comes to a man’s mind when he thinks about God is the greatest thing about him”.

When you imagine how God considers you – when you really on your own and not at a conference in your home – have you ever pleaded; “Don’t quit on me. Am I even looking like a Christian? What kind of a man am I? What kind of life do I lead?”. How does God see me? So often I imagine God as being austere and disappointed. To be honest – I would be disappointed with me. I am disappointed with me.

I know you know these things but to know it here in your head and here in your heart are two different things. You know whether you feel it in your heart here and experience and live and apply it – when you mess up.

2. Merciful Grace.

Whatever happens to you – if you are in Christ – I do not deal with you according to your sin. Jerry Bridges says in your best day you are not beyond the need for God’s grace and on your worst day you are not beyond the reach of God’s grace.

Here’s the good news tonight – because of Christ and because of what He has done for us there is never a day – the worst day of your life (and I hope it has been) – the day you know you have messed up worse than anyone and you think “How can this be?” – You are NOT beyond the reach of God’s grace and because of Christ He does not deal with you according to your sin. He does deal with sin – but He does not deal with us.

He is not even saying from the north to the south and thank God for that! That is a long way! You start at the South Pole and walk north; sooner or later you will come to the North Pole and end up walking south again. You start walking east? You will never start walking west.

Not getting grace so it impacts us and changes us. David wants us to get it, feel it, live it and be amazed by it!

3. Compassionate Grace.

I have got three grown up children now and they are all grown up and doing their thing. For most of you, you won’t get this yet because you are not parents – when you become a parent you will feel this and it will impact you. You will know that there is NOTHING my son or daughter can do. They may disappoint me and may at times grieve me. But there is nothing that will stop me passionately loving them, caring them, sacrificing for them – THAT is the kind of grace we experience that David is talking about.

We have got to feel this. This is one of the problems we have in some evangelical/reformed circles;

We GET the doctrine. But the doctrine doesn’t GET us.

It is not enough to hold to this and see the Fatherhood of God. God wants us to experience and know this – to know we are adopted into His family through Christ and this is how He looks at me – as a Father and to experience and know this.

4. Understanding Grace.

(v14) – “For He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust”. He know at times we fail and He knows at times we fall. He knows that we are not yet sinless. He remembers we are dust! We spend our lives trying to remember how good I am and trying to remind everyone else about how good I am.

5. Unending Grace.

How can all this Psalm be ours? You know how! But I will tell you – it is ours because God in love sent His Son to die on a Cross for you and me. It is ours! We look at this Psalm from this side of the Cross – not that. We don’t come to that point and think; “Forfeited!”. God is just! He proclaimed His Name to Moses and proclaimed mercy and the desire to forgive but justice!

To grow in Christ means to be more amazed at what He has done for you!

It is scandalous! Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones said if you are preaching grace RIGHT then people will accuse you of making it too easy. I hope you leave here and say “No this is too dangerous – he said it is all free! He is saying you can live like we like?”. I hope you thought that! Because if you haven’t ever thought that – then you have never got it! They accused Paul of that – and he says; “By no means!”. Doctor used to say if you are not accused of that, then you are not preaching grace!

The biggest issue is not what you do – but what He has done for you and living in the good of it!

Pete then ended the message with one of the most amusing analogies I have EVER heard - and having a nurse's rather darker sense of humour, it tremendously appealed to me. He was appealing to the listeners to preach and hear the Gospel daily. He said;

"If you want to reach people with the gospel then feel it, live it, love it! If you are not like that – restrict your diet and eat the prune juice of grace until you are just flowing! If you are blocked up with religion then feed yourself the gospel!

In this day and age - we do not have the right to be "fussy" where we drink of the Gospel of grace. The Gospel is too important and too life-changing. We need to drink of every life-saving drop we can get! Or at least I do - and I resolve to. And I for one am so glad I heard this amazing message from this amazing servant of God today.

Death Could NOT Hold Him!!

A very, very HAPPY and joyful Easter to you all! I am sitting here alone in my parent's house (alone again!) while they go to their church for a shorter Easter Day service. I was hoping to be able to get over to my sister's church in Newport again (after I so enjoyed the wonderful dedication of my nephew) but alas - could not get a lift!

So I am enjoying the sun and peace thinking about this - the most monumental day on the Christian calender. Today was the day when the two Roman soldiers were stunned by the angels rolling back the stone. Today was the day when Mary was asked; "Woman - why do you weep?". Today was the day when (I imagine) the whole of hell trembled as it's demonic lord screamed in absolute frustration and anger because he knew his doom was sealed - the Son of God had risen from the dead!

I don't think there is a better song to sum up today other than Stuart Townend's; "The Power of the Cross". The Cross only has it's power because of today. If Jesus Christ had not stepped out of the tomb in triumph then the Cross would have remained simply a notorious form of execution. But because dawn came on Easter Sunday morning - the Cross for us will now be forever the moment when Jesus Christ obliterated our sin forever and destroyed our identity as sinners! The Cross now becomes the moment when death itself was made a mockery of because it's power over us is lost!

Jesus Christ is risen today and forever - and is not hanging broken on a Cross but is risen seated and ruling at the right hand of the Father on high waiting for the moment when His enemies will be made His footstool by His glorious Bride - the Church! And to accomplish that - He has poured out His Holy Spirit on each and everyone of us to go forth in His royal identity! Saints!

Cross or Crucified - does it really matter?

My thoughts have been caught up with the cross, the resurrection - all aspects of the gospel at the moment. I suppose there couldn't be a much better topic! Before I get onto what provoked this post, I have been reading quite a few books and blog posts specifically on the resurrection. I like the way Adrian Warnock put it in writing here;

"We must remember that the cross is just as empty as the tomb, and Christ is now glorified, having completed his work. The truth is, we cannot be truly cross-centered without also being empty grave-centered! Jesus was not just our prophet and priest—he is our reigning King. At the cross we learn true humility, our hopeless sinfulness, and our need of God. At the empty tomb we fully appreciate what Christ has achieved for us and receive power to live for him. A deeper, fuller insight into the truth of Jesus’ resurrection will cause our lives to be radically transformed".

So I wrote a post called; "A Truncated Gospel?" and the friend I learn so much from (and sometimes disagree with!) - Janelle - made a very valid comment. She said;

"Paul said that he preaches nothing else but Christ crucified, but we also know that when he says that he was talking about the whole gospel, not just literally the cross".

What got me thinking was her choice of words. She quite rightly said that Paul says he preaches nothing but "Christ crucified" (verb) and then said; "The cross" (noun). Paul was declaring that he would preach nothing but the action - the verb - what Christ did on the Cross. Was Paul saying that he would preach nothing but describing the historical event, time, date and detail of what happened there? I wonder ...

To change tack slightly - the popstar Madonna (who I like by the way) - caused great controversy in one of her recent tours; "Confessions on a Dancefloor". During the show the popstar appeared on a sparkling and glittering cross as though she was being crucified. Here she is;



So the question I have is:

Was that performance blasphemous? Or beautiful?

The bulk of the controversy was among Catholics - to whom of course the icon of the Cross is seen as sacred. Madonna achieved her goal - she wanted people to talk about the song and her passion for bringing awareness to the orphans dying in Africa and religious people argued and disapproved of her (something she doesn't care very much about). But what about the song? Is there anything sacred about the actual "cross" itself?

I would argue not.

Crucifixion was a well-known practice of execution designed not simply to kill the condemned but to mutiliate and dishonour them in the worst possible way. It was such that the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 21:23) actually said; "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree". The thousands upon thousands who were crucified by the Romans died in shame - but none of them achieved anything for us. Only one crucifixion (verb) achieved salvation for all mankind - and that was of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God was prepared to literally die the worst death - so we could experience the best life!

"He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race".


He took love to Calvary! People often wonder what drives and motivates martyrs to walk with their heads held high to their deaths. I really believe it is nothing but love. Again I am prepared to fully conceed here that this is a too particular a discussion. Much of my concern lies with those (such as SGM) who to me over-emphasise the Cross at the expense of other aspects of the Gospel. But I fully admit that I am not privy to the preaching day-to-day that goes in in the USA churches and maybe the balance there is fully corrected. In which case - praise God!


The gospel is so completely gloriously wonderful in all its facets - why on earth would we want to single out one part? The life of Christ is indeed awesome. He lived and walked this very earth and experienced and suffered and was tempted in all points like as we - yet He sinned not. His death was unspeakably awful (and one that we could never and should never think we can imagine or grasp) - but love compelled Him there. His resurrection was glorious and triumphant as the powers of hell groaned in defeat. His ascension was something we can only dream of as He took His seat at the right hand of God and poured forth the Holy Spirit - "this which you now see and hear".

For us!

Why Stand Ye Gazing?

This post is very interesting - it occured to me over Christmas. Then last night at work I had a few quiet moments so I got to reading C J Mahaney's blog which he writes standing in the very stead of God although from the cheap seats. Quite how God can speak from the cheap seats ... I don't know. Maybe it's a sports thing I don't get! Mahaney had a take on Christmas that I guess would tie in with his theology of the Cross. He writes;

"The purpose of his birth was his death. Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God".

And then again;

"Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights".

This is nothing new - when I was a member of Sovereign Grace Ministries church I got progressively disturbed about the seeming obsession with the Cross (as opposed to the Christ). Sure it sounded plaudible at first. But is it? Is a "gazing" at the Cross - the object on which Jesus Christ died - the right place to fix our focus? Did Jesus really only go through the Incarnation and 33 years purely to die? Or have we stopped short?

I was doing some research on the place of the Cross in the entire Gospel picture and found an amazing sermon by C H Spurgeon (someone Mahaney calls his 'historical hero'). Spurgeon was preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1884 on Acts 1:10, 11 - the disciples were standing watching Jesus go up into heaven at the great ascension and when the clouds hid Him from them. Two angels appeared and in great Biblical irony, two angels appeared in white and said to them;

"Why stand ye gazing?".

I could think of a few answers to that. "Why?! Er .. we've just seen our Master levitate ...". But moving on. Spurgeon took Acts 1:10 and 11 as his text and said the following comments;

"Four great events shine out brightly in our Saviour's story. All Christian minds delight to dwell upon his birth, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. These make four rounds in that ladder of light, the foot of which is upon the earth, but the top whereof reacheth to heaven. We could not afford to dispense with any one of those four events, nor would it be profitable for us to forget, or to under-estimate the value of any one of them".

I think Spurgeon sums up excellently my problem. I DO NOT have an issue with thinking about the Cross at Calvary. Growing up in a reformed charismatic church, we duly celebrated Easter and had services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I didn't really enjoy Good Friday - I always found it quite depressing and sad, but loved Easter Sunday and the thought of Jesus Christ rising gloriously from the dead. I watched "The Passion of the Christ" and found it incredibly painful to watch - but got goosebumps in the final scene when the face of Christ appeared and He stepped forth risen.

My question is - why have two wooden planks been singled out for sole focus of our gaze? Before we get into that - let Spurgeon continue having his say. He made a comment during his sermon about what both the Cross and Christ's death - and the resurrection and Christ's triumph bring us;

"That Jesus once suffered unto the death for our sins, and thereby made a full atonement for us, is the rest and life of our spirits. The manger and the cross together are divine seals of love. That the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead is the warrant of our justification, and also a transcendently delightful assurance of the resurrection of all his people, and of their eternal life in him ... The resurrection of Christ is the morning star of our future glory".

I love that so much. His birth and the Cross are divine seals of love. John Hosier once prayed when we were at CCK; "Love constrained the Son of God to go to Calvary". But the resurrection - the glorious resurrection - where He conquered death is the "warrant of our justification". Without Him rising from the dead - "our faith is in vain". Or as Spurgeon so eloquently put it;

"The resurrection of Christ is the morning star of our future glory".

So we may argue this is just semantics. The fact is Christ isn't in a manager, He isn't hanging bleeding and dying on a Cross - He is risen, ascended and glorified in heaven preparing a place for us and interceding for us at the right hand of the Father! But surely it does matter how we imagine the Lord Jesus Christ - because where we fix our vision will affect our faith and how we live our lives.

After all - why else would the angels appear to move the disciples on from where they stood gazing? If I was one of the disciples I would have built a church right there on the Mount as the place where Jesus Christ was last seen. Maybe framed the plot of land where His feet had last been before they lifted off! But no - the angels appeared and told them to move along. Why? Spurgeon explains;

"The truth is, there was nothing wrong in their looking up into heaven; but they went a little further than looking; they stood "gazing." A little excess in right may be faulty. It may be wise to look, but foolish to gaze. There is a gazing which is not commendable, when the look becomes not that of reverent worship, but of an overweening curiosity; when there mingles with the desire to know what should be known, a prying into that which it is for God's glory to conceal.

We had better abstain from acts which serve no practical purpose; for in this life we have neither time nor strength to waste in fruitless action. The disciples would be wise to cease gazing, for nobody would be benefitted by it, and they would not themselves be blessed. What is the use of gazing when there is nothing to see?".

And there is my point. Can it be possible to gaze a little too much at the empty Cross where Christ died? While in Sovereign Grace Ministries I heard frequently; "We will never move on from the Cross" and other similar semantic statements. But something occured to me only today - is it necessary to look at the Cross to remember His sacrificial death for us? I don't believe it is. Revelation 5:6 shows us a divine vision;

"And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain".

It just isn't necessary to gaze at the Cross to remember the sacrificial atoning death of Jesus Christ. I don't exactly know what "as if slain" means - because I can't pretend to have seen the risen Christ in a vision. But I suspect He appears with maybe wounds in His hands and feet that are unhealed even in His glorious state. Whatever it may be - gazing at Him in His risen, ascended and glorious state does not mean that we are "moving on from the Cross".

I think C H Spurgeon sums up the issue perfectly for me;

"Again, put another question,—What precept were they obeying when they stood gazing up into heaven? If you have a command from God to do a certain thing, you need not inquire into the reason of the command, it is disobedient to begin to canvas God's will; but when there is no precept whatever, why persevere in an act which evidently does not promise to bring any blessing? Who bade them stand gazing up into heaven? For He had strictly charged them that they should tarry at Jerusalem till they were "endued with power from on high." So what they did was not justifiable".

So ... the question then is, is there anything particular about Calvary's Cross that demands our earnest gazing? Of course Paul said; "We preach Christ crucified". I know that. But Paul did not say; "We preach the crucifiction". He said; "We preach CHRIST ... crucified". The emphasis being (I believe) on why drove Christ to go through what He did for "the joy set before Him".

So there we have my thoughts - I am not saying that we should not fix our gaze on the events of Calvary and what Christ went through. Rather I think we should confess we will NEVER know the true horrors of Calvary - the agony of being seperated from His Father. But I propose that our gaze should be upon the full events of Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection. As Spurgeon put it;

"Four great events shine out brightly in our Saviour's story. All Christian minds delight to dwell upon his birth, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension".

One of my favourite choruses back in the 1980's as I grew up (and still is) remains this;

"For we see Jesus enthroned on high
Clothed in His righteousness, we worship Him
Glory and honour we give unto You
We see You in Your holiness
And bow before Your throne
You are the Lord
Your name endures forever
Jesus the Name high over all".

Are We Just STUPID?!

I swear this verse from the Bible is going to haunt me. Mark 9:43, 45, 47;

"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire ... If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell ... If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell".

I was sitting on the bus going into work yesterday and was sitting behind what was obviously a very zealous Christian woman. From what I overheard she was a mother and was speaking on the phone to her son/daughter (I guessed son). The mother was extremely upset because it sounded like she had discovered pornography on the history section of the internet at their home. She was speaking very angrily and upset and used the above verse and said something like;

"I am NOT going to lose my child to hell! You must do this! The Bible says if your eye causes you to sin then PLUCK it out! You are SINNING by looking at this stuff and God is ANGRY! PLUCK it out!!".

Although I could appreciate the mother's sincere love for her (what sounds like) a quite normal teenage son, I felt like tapping her on the shoulder and saying;

"Excuse me madam. I couldn't help but overhearing you. How would you feel if you got home from work today and found your son slumped in the chair with two empty eyeball sockets with blood streaming from them? And the two gouged eyeballs lying on your dining room table? Do you think that action would STOP your son lusting with his mind? And how about you madam? Have you ever looked at another person's possessions and envied them? Have you ever got so angry with someone you love that you felt like you could hit them? Why have you not gouged out your eyes or cut off your hands? That rather makes you a hypocrite does it not?".

I didn't do that and I wouldn't have. But WHEN is the church going to start thinking LOGICALLY about this statement that Jesus said? When are we going to stop being so STUPID? Do we really believe that bodily mutilation is a sufficient enough sacrifice to save us from HELL? Is that how little we think of our sin? That our body parts are an acceptable sacrifice to God to buy us a pass into heaven? Do we really think that by losing our hands and eyes and feet then we will lose the "sinning" parts of our body?

What about our MINDS? Jesus Himself said if we look at a woman and lust after her then we have already committed adultery! Why did the Lord Jesus not instruct us to perform a lobotomy?

Don't get me wrong.

This verse IS showing how radically God thinks and hates sin.

This verse IS showing the radical nature of the Law.

But the only, only, only, ONLY acceptable answer to the demands of the Law in this verse could and were met 2,000 years ago at Calvary on a hill called Golgotha. It's done already! So the radical demands of the Law have already been met! God's wrath is satisfied! And He does not want, demand or require the mutilation of our body parts to try and "stop" sinning! Because even if we did perform those drastic actions then it still would not stop sinning! And even if we did perform those drastic actions then the Law is STILL not satisfied.

Do I sound angry? I am angry. I'm angry because in MY lifetime I have heard a church pastor who boasts about being a "man of the Word" use this verse against myself and my behaviour. And I have heard this woman on the bus use this verse to condemn her son. I have heard Terry Virgo use this verse in a sermon to wrongly (I believe) illustrate something he was saying. I am angry because I think about the (possibly) secretly afraid teenager on the other end of that phone. I am angry thinking about the many thousands who could be plunged into clinical depression and guilt because they know that they are not brave enough to mutilate their bodies in this way.

I'm angry that I am 31 and I have only JUST heard true grace teaching from Hong Kong that has made it so abundantly clear that Jesus is talking about the extreme demands of the Law here - but thereby demonstrating that the demands and requirements of the Law have been met and have been met in ONLY one way! Because only ONE way could meet them!

To those who have read this and still persist in believing that this verse applies to Christians today - then I say only this. Stop being such a hypocrite. Stop talking the talk. Get a scalpel out and start walking the walk. If you really believe Jesus Christ is setting a precident for your behaviour today then send me pictures of your hewn body parts and send an accompanying testimony telling me if you are now sin-free.

To those - like me - who have secretly trembled when you have heard this verse preached or used in a condemning manner, then have hope! Jesus was talking to the worse form of legalists around and He was showing them that even this extreme behaviour was NOT sufficient enough to stop sin completely in their lives. But He did provide the answer. When He said "It is finished!" - He meant it. Put your scalpel away! Jesus loves you with all His heart! He loves you so much that He was mutilated so that you would not have to be. He had His side pierced and His hands and feet pierced so you would not even have to contemplate this.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour! (P.S: If the picture offends you then I don't apologise. If you believe that Christians should be complying with this verse literally then you are going to have to get used to sights like this).

It's Better to Receive Than Give ...

This post was generated by a comment that my friend Julie Morris - the grace champion - sent me on Facebook. I was feeling pretty grotty and miserable. I've had a week where I've leant loads of money to people and just generally felt used and abused. So very much in the flesh, I wrote my status as saying something rather grumpy like "whoever said it's better to give than receive obviously never gave!". But Julie brought it back to God and all day I've been thinking as to actually is the proverb; "It is better to give than receieve" - an Old Covenant statement?

Is the essence of the New Covenant that God wants us to realise that actually it's more blessed to RECEIVE (from Him) than to try and give to Him?

All day I've been thinking about the Cross. And all the brilliant Cross-centred quotes I've heard have been going through my head. Here's a few;

"Love constrained the Son of God to go to the Cross" - John Hosier

"What is the obvious clear message of what happened on the Cross? Simply this - that Jesus was crushed so that God would never crush you. Jesus was pierced so that God will never ever pierce you with sorrows or with sickness or with poverty. Jesus was punished so it is a guarantee that God will never ever punish you! Jesus was made a guilt offering by God so you will never feel guilty" - Rob Rufus

"Paul gloried in the ‘old rugged’ cross not in nostalgic reflection but in triumph and glorious emancipation" - Terry Virgo

Everything that happened - everything Christ did on the Cross was for US. Why does Christianity persist in refusing to accept that? Why has law so successfully ingrained in us that we somehow have to "pay God back"? I wonder why Jesus spoke in the Gospels about "becoming like children". The funny thing about children is that they never have any trouble receiving gifts. Just watching my beautiful nieces and nephews at Christmas proves that! The smiles that light up their faces just does something right inside me when they rip open the paper!

I was driving back from work listening to CCK Brighton's latest wonderful album; "Have You Heard" and the most heavenly song by Paul Oakley and Lex Loizides hit me like an Exocet missile. Funnily enough Julie's latest post bemoaned the lack of true grace songs. I think this beautiful song - "This is for Me" - will fit the requirements Julie! I can't urge you enough to get this album and listen to this song again and again. Even better CCK have made this particular track available free off their website.

Here's the words;

"How can I resist, this love that draws my heart,

This Voice that calls my name, I'll never be the same again,

And how could I deny, this King who took my place,

The One who bore my shame, I run into these arms of grace;

How can I refuse? I choose to follow You!

This is for me, this blood of Christ, washing all my stains,

Breaking all my chains! This is for me! This death He died,

Taking all my sin - giving me a chance to live again.

I choose to follow You! You gave Your life for me - I choose to follow You!

Jesus I believe".

I remember when I was in my home church in Dunstable a number of us wanted to see Darlene Zschech's song; "My Jesus, My Saviour". The elders (rapidly becoming anti-charismatic at the time) wouldn't allow it to be song because it was "too personal". Sadly they missed the whole point. The whole point of the Gospel. The whole point of everything. Another line in the same CCK album by Stuart Townend and Keith and Kristyn Getty says;

"Creation gazed upon His face, the ageless One in time's embrace.

Unveiled the Father's plan of reconciling God to man".

I wonder still on Julie's post whether the reason why there are so few "grace" worship songs is because the church has embraced the "debtor's ethic" worldwide and is suspicious of any songs that sing of our feelings and our emotions that are evoked at the wonder of the Gospel. Maybe song-writers and theologians need to learn how to become like children again and learn;

The joy of receiving.

The Power, Terror and Danger of Fear

A while back I once did a Bible study for my mum on how many times the Bible commands that "we do not fear". I can't quite remember the exact amount but I know for a fact that the Bible verses stretched to at least four A4 pages. That means that when Jesus said "Don't fear" - it was a command that carries the same weight under law as other more popular commands such as "do not murder". So essentially if you are living under an Old Covenant mentality or a mixture of law and grace - if you fear ANYTHING then you are as guilty as though you had murdered or committed adultery.

So thank God we are no longer under law!!! Because I don't know about you - but I fear ... frequently!

Why is fear so absolutely powerful and terrible yet so against all that God is? I learnt something about fear this week. I've been working at the Children's Hospital on the Swine Flu response team - and it has involved taking a multitude of phone calls from worried and sometimes frantic parents, staff and children who "fear" that they may have come into contact with swine flu, who "fear" that they have caught swine flu, who "fear" that if they have swine flu then they may die - a multitude of fears! And I confess I caught something of that burden upon them. Each individual I spoke to broke my heart hearing the worry and the concern in their tone. One person rang back frequently throughout the day desperate for an answer as to whether they were swine flu positive or not.

My dearest friend Ursula describes fear so vividly;

"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!!" ... 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".

Ursula then went on (I believe) to prophesy;

"God is raising up a people who will throw off the shackles of fear, who are allergic to fear".

I think I sensed that today and quite surprisingly. I always wrongly imagined that getting rid of fear would involve "discipline" and "Bible study" and "quiet times". Pete Day blogs only when he has something to say - and boy did he have something to say about the glory returning! The same principle is true of getting rid of fear. I was driving through the torrential Birmingham rain home and I was listening to the Prom Praise album featuring Keith Getty. The assembled Royal Albert Hall crowds were singing the glorious hymn; "And Can It Be?". And the words blasted out (I never have my music quiet in the car!);

"I woke, the dungeon flamed with light - My chains fell off! My heart was free! I rose, went forth and followed Thee! No condemnation now I dread! Jesus and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him my living Head and clothed in righteousness divine! Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own!".

Not familiar with it? Here's a choir singing it;



And I felt an awesome sense of light flaming the car as I drove. Suddenly I realised why the devil hates and fears the truth of grace so much. "Perfect love casts OUT fear". Once we grasp exactly how much the Father loves us so unconditionally and irrationally - then fear cannot keep it's "tarry, sticky" hold on us anymore. It just lets go. Why else does the Bible say; "Keep yourself in the love of God?". That's not a legalistic command! It's a life-saving call! Love isn't a nice, sloppy sentimental option! Love casts out fear. Love and fear cannot co-exist. If we know God's love, we just will find fear grows less and less.

How many of us can claim that we boldly approach the eternal throne and claim a crown!? To all those out there who like me have felt the sticky, revolting touch of fear and long for the dungeon to flame with light and find our chains are OFF and our hearts are FREE!!