Peace in a perfect time to panic

In the first Toy Story film, Woody and Buzz find themselves far from their owner Andy's house. Stuck in a petrol station, Woody begins to despair that they will never make it back before Andy and his family move in two days' time. Buzz looks at Woody with a cool, calm gaze and says "This is no time to panic." Woody throws up his hands in the air and explodes, "This is the perfect time to panic!"

I don't know about you but I often find myself in situations where panic seems not only inevitable but even appropriate. What makes the scene in Toy Story so funny is that Buzz is convinced that he is the real Buzz Lightyear and the fate of the galaxy rests on his shoulders. To him, Woody's concern about Andy is trivial compared to his own quest. What we don't want to hear when we are in meltdown is some cool removed advice from someone so fixed on what is 'out of this world' that they are unmoved by our predicament. Perhaps Christians can be like Buzz at times. Not delusional, but all we can offer to those tied up in fear is some detached promise of another galaxy ie heaven.

So it's great news that Jesus offers us very real comfort and peace without taking away the tricky situations we often find ourselves in. In John's gospel, Jesus talks to His disciples before going to the garden of Gethsemane, where He would be betrayed and arrested. Jesus knows what is going to happen; in fact, in his gospel, John is at pains to reiterate that Jesus is choosing this path of the cross. Jesus is teaching and preparing His disciples not just for what is about to occur, but for their future ministry once He is risen and ascended to His Father. What I noticed is that Jesus repeats that they should not let their hearts be troubled (chapter 14 verse 1 and verse 27). In fact, they should have peace: 'peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.' (verse 27). Risen from the dead, Jesus says 'Peace be with you' in Luke 24:36; John adds this: 'as the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.' (John 20:21) What is it that links both sections in John's gospel that brings peace? It is the presence of Jesus Himself through the Holy Spirit.

If you're looking for a peace that is unshakable, you don't need to go on a retreat. You don't need to practice Buddhist meditation or yoga or become some kind of monk. That's the kind of peace the world chases, but the real peace that Jesus offers is so precious because it comes from Him being with us in all of our chaos. Jesus doesn't promise an end to all the things that make us panic and fear. He doesn't promise an end to war or pain or suffering or death until His second coming (see Revelation 21). Therefore we need a peace that is not based on circumstances, because if my peace is dependent on having a certain measure of health, happiness or success, then my peace will be fragile indeed. If my peace depends on my family, my job, my money, my status, my appearance or anything I possess, then it is not the peace of Christ. But if Christ Himself could face the cross with a holy peace that came from knowing who He was and what He was doing, and He offers me that same peace, then I can face anything.

The peace of the Holy Spirit
In John 14, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit 'Counsellor'. 'He will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you' (verse 26). This gives us the peace of verse 27. In verse 30, Jesus speaks of His enemy, 'the prince of this world', but says 'he has no hold on me.' That is what we need to remember: if we are in Christ the enemy has no hold on us either, unless we give him that hold through fear or sin. How do we combat fear and sin? Chapter 15 goes on: 'I am the true vine... Remain in Me and I will remain in you.' Sometimes with these well known passages we tend to just look them up as standalone statements, but to do that loses the significant context Jesus speaks into. He knows He is going; He knows He is sending us; He knows we need Him. His words in John 15 give us the key to how to live in Him and through Him and for Him. We need to obey Him and we need to love each other. We need to testify about Jesus, even when it means rejection and dangerous to our lives (chapter 16 verse 2).

But let's get back to Buzz. In some ways we do need to comfort ourselves with the fact that Jesus is coming soon and He is going to take us to be with him and He's prepared a place for us (John 14:2-3). But let's not lose the fact that He is with us now by His Spirit and so we are never alone. Jesus concludes: 'I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.' (John 16:33). I'm going to memorize that one and next time I have a perfect time to panic, I'll remind myself that is a perfect time for peace in Him.

Feeling guilty?

At Faithfit today we were talking about our goals for health and fitness, and we talked about our varying struggles with guilt when we fail to meet those goals. At the prayer meeting on Sunday night, we were talking about the need generally for more conviction of sin in order to see more fruitfulness in the church. As I've been thinking about it, it seems to me that there's a lot of guilt around, but not much true conviction. It got me reading up on what conviction really is and how we should deal with it biblically.

Guilt is a common emotion we all experience (Christian or not) when we do something wrong we are ashamed of. But conviction is something only the Holy Spirit can work (see John 16:8). Conviction is seeing God's holiness and feeling an utter dread of sin when we see how it offends God. The devil wants us at this point to feel paralysed in condemnation, but the Holy Spirit uses our conviction to drive us to the cross of Jesus. Our conviction helps us to value the cross as we should, because it is through the cross that Jesus took on the wrath of God upon sin so that we wouldn't have to experience it ourselves, if we are trusting in Him. Our conviction also helps us correctly to view God, and not view Him simply as a kind Friend. He is our Friend, but He is also awesome in His majesty and perfection. We need that sense of awe too.

Conviction of sin is necessary for someone to come to true faith in Jesus, but it doesn't stop at a one-time conversion experience. Conviction is continuous in our lives as long as we are living on earth, because we still sin. Our sin is paid for at the cross, full stop, but as part of our sanctification, God is making us to be more like Jesus every day, and conviction is an integral part of that process.

Nancy Leigh deMoss teaches on brokenness, and she explains it as a lifestyle of responding in humility and obedience to the conviction of God's Spirit and His Word. True conviction means there's no more blame on anyone else, no more ifs or buts, no comparison game, but just broken humility like the tax collector: ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13) I definitely find it easier to be the Pharisee in this story! He's the one who compares himself to everyone else and finds himself to be in the right before God, but he fails to see his own self-righteousness. He's so busy being religious and fasting and giving money that he's neglected to search his own heart.

It can be tempting, growing up in a Christian home or a 'respectable' family, to view sin as something that somebody else does. To view sin as the big mess-ups, like stealing or cheating or drug addiction or adultery. Nancy's list of 'respectable sins' really convicts me: wasting time, self protection, talking too much, eating or drinking too much, having a sharp tongue or a critical spirit, overspending, fear, worry, selfish motives and complaining. Some of the goals we've been making at Faithfit aren't really to do with sinning - like my goal to drink more water! But some of our goals are to do with character traits we want to build to be more like Jesus, such as self control. While I don't think we should use our goals as a legalistic measuring standard of how well we're doing before God, perhaps there is room for us to reflect on whether the barriers to us meeting our goals could be sinful patterns of behaviour in our lives, or even idolatry.

So let's keep it up, ladies, because our motive is to glorify Him! And when we do fail, let's take a moment to see if this is something we should feel convicted about - in which case we need to take it to the cross, confess it to the Lord and to each other, then move on in freedom.

'Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,
but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.' Proverbs 28:13

1 & 2 Timothy- Hold on to the truth

I love coming back to these pastoral epistles of Paul because they sound a klaxon call to me of what is really important in the Christian life. And with so many voices in the media, some even claiming to be genuine believers, giving so many opinions which seem to contradict the Word of God, these two letters give a timely reminder to us today to hold on to the truth. In both letters, Paul keeps coming back to the prevalence and danger of false teachers ('remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine' - 1 Tim 1:3; 'Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons' - 1 Tim 4:1). Why does he repeat these warnings? Why does it matter that some people out there are saying different things about God, Jesus and the gospel? It's clear from Paul's language that it's not something we should take lightly. In fact, these false ideas and wrong messages are from the realm of the demonic.

The fact is, however clear of the gospel we are when we are saved, we so easily forget the simplicity and yet depth of the truth of salvation. We are prone to grow cold in our appreciation of what Christ has done for us. I think it's interesting that Paul in these letters gives several 'trustworthy sayings' which may have been used like creeds in the early church, statements to memorise and say together as a group of believers, reinforcing the basic doctrine of God. There are also some more poetic sections which may have been sung as hymns. Either way, their function was to give a bite-size statement of what we believe as Christians, what makes us distinctive. The first 'saying' is this:

'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners' (1 Tim 1:15).

It's a fundamental truth that reminds us that we are all in need of a rescuer. Paul used to be a religious fanatic, zealous for the law of God, and yet he recognises that none of it is good enough to achieve his salvation (see Philippians 3:4-8); the reality is that he was 'a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent opponent' (1 Tim 1:13).

The message Paul has been 'appointed a preacher' for (1 Tim 2:7) is that 'there is one God... one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5). Paul emphasises that he is 'telling the truth' (v7) here- the gospel is not another lie. We have to remember the truth of the gospel, because as soon as we start moving away from it, we start giving ourselves credit for our own salvation or losing our assurance and hope. Paul writes: 'If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.' (1 Tim 6:3-4) False teaching is linked to arrogance, because it's a re-invention of the truth or a distortion of it, and also to corrupt motives.

By contrast, truth in the pastoral epistles is linked with purity and living an exemplary life for the gospel. In his descriptions of the qualities of an elder and deacon, Paul writes that they must 'keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience' (1 Tim 3:9, NIV). There's a clear link between knowing the truth, teaching the truth, and obedience, just as there is a link between sin and lying and deceit. Paul says that if Timothy closely watches himself for right conduct and truthful teaching, he will save himself and his hearers (1 Tim 4:16). Similarly, in 2 Tim 3:10 Paul refers to his teaching and his way of life in the same breath as things which validate his ministry. Truth must be lived out; if it isn't, then it isn't really believed.

As a leader and a teacher in the church, Timothy is told repeatedly to 'guard' the truth that he knows (1 Tim 6:20-21, 2 Tim 1:11-14) and to be a 'workman who correctly handles the word of truth' (2 Tim 2:15). The Scriptures have to be our start and end point for knowing truth; they are a gift to us from God revealing everything we need for life and godliness (2 Tim 3:16-17). We have to hold on to the truth and church leaders need to keep preaching the truth, despite any negative reaction (2 Tim 4:2-3). Truth is something we have to pass on when training up future leaders (2 Tim 2:2), to protect the church from falling away from Christ and into sin. Paul also says that Timothy should be 'using truth to gently instruct those who oppose you, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.' (2 Tim 3:25). This suggests that we need humble conviction to see and accept God's truth, a work which can only be done by the Holy Spirit. The job of the messenger is simply to pass on the truth to the hearer; the rest is up to God.

Knowing the truth is the most freeing thing about being a Christian. Finally we can stand before God knowing we are accepted in Christ. We can receive God's good gifts with thanksgiving, because we are freed from legalism and false shackles (1 Tim 4:3-5). We hold on to the truth because it sets us free (John 8:32).

Lies we believe about sin

It's easy to listen to that voice in your head instead of the truth of Scripture. Here's three lies we may get trapped into believing, instead of the reality of being in Christ.

1. "I'm a good person". OK most Christians admit that they are a sinner, but how often is that just a technicality? Really, we see ourselves as basically upright citizens who actually do a lot of good things... Essentially we believe that we are good people just like any non-Christian who gives to charity and does his neighbour a favour every now and then. The problem with this lie is that at its heart, it's comparative. What do we base the fact that we are 'good' on, except for being able to find someone who seems 'worse'? But labelling ourselves as 'good', we are thinking about the people who are easy to label as 'bad' - the prostitutes, the swindlers. But oh wait, those guys, those 'bad' people, those real 'sinners', are the ones Jesus was always hanging out with! (see Luke 15:1-2) It's the elder brother vs the prodigal (read the rest of Luke 15). If you're not the humbled sinner coming home, you're susceptible to be the wrongly aggrieved one standing in the background with arms folded. You'll miss out on the joy of grace and the party. And this standpoint has just as much sin in it as the colourful history of the prodigal; it just looks different. As JI Packer writes in 'Respectable Sins': 'every sin that we commit, even the subtle sin we don't even think about, was laid upon Christ as He bore the curse of God in our place.' We can't start 'grading' sins. The truth is that even our 'righteousness' is as filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6).

2. "My sin doesn't matter, I'm saved by grace." Perhaps we get flippant sometimes because we know God will forgive us. Look at what Paul writes in Romans 6:

'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.' (Rom 6:1-4)

To wilfully keep on sinning means we haven't really understood the gospel, and we have to realise that sin has a hardening effect on our hearts. Read Hebrews 6 for a sobering reminder of the result of apostasy: being cut off from God. A true fear of God will lead us to obedience. We can have no assurance of our salvation if we live lives that are unchanged by the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. "I can't beat this sin." Going back to Romans 6, Paul says that we are 'set free from sin' (v7). This is not to say we attain sinless perfection this side of glory, but it does mean that we now have power NOT to sin, whereas before we were sinners, in darkness, and without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to sanctify us. It is possible for us to say no to sin, not in human strength but by being 'strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might' (Eph 6:10). Sometimes the reason we aren't seeing victory over sin is because we haven't confessed to others and asked for prayer and accountability.

So there you have it, three lies we get duped into believing about sin. It's only the truth of Jesus in His Word that sets us free, so learn some key Scriptures which will help you fight this battle.

Seeking Spiritual Experiences

In our Church Bible study last night, we looked at Revelation 1 where John is 'in the Spirit' and sees the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. He receives a message for the church, given by an angel, from Jesus and ultimately from God the Father. Someone pointed out that John was probably doing hard labour each day as part of the penal colony on Patmos. It wasn't perhaps the place where you would expect such a revelation to occur. We thought then about Paul and Silas in prison, and the whole place shaking with the power of God (Acts 16). The point was, that you can experience God anywhere and in any circumstances.

It made me think about the tendency towards pilgrimage in Christianity as well as other religions. Last week we were on holiday and went to St David's in West Wales, where there is a cathedral and many stories of Saint David (apparently when he was baptised there was a great light). People go to these places because they want a spiritual experience.

We could also think about Elijah- after the great victory over Baal at Mt Carmel (1 Kings 18), Jezebel sought his life and he fled to Horeb, that great mountain where Moses had experienced God. God appeared and asked 'Why are you here, Elijah?' In His grace, God revealed Himself again (and not in the great wind, but in the still, small voice), but the point remained that Elijah shouldn't have been afraid and run there seeking a spiritual experience. He should have trusted in God.

Jesus appears to John in Revelation to give seven letters, one for each of the seven churches referred to in Chapter 1. And the letters seem to warn the churches not to get caught up in 'being spiritual', but to seek more of Jesus. The church at Ephesus is told not to lose their 'first love' (Rev 2:4). It doesn't matter how many good deeds we do, or how hard we work- if we do not do them out of love for Christ, they are worthless (see also 1 Cor 13, where Paul suggests that even martyrdom itself is worthless if I have not love).

It can be tempting, then, to seek after a spiritual experience of God- perhaps at a certain church, or a certain type of meeting, or on a mountain top, or amongst certain people. But the Bible tells us that God is with us wherever we go, and we just need to seek Him. If Jesus' walk on earth took Him from the affirmation of God at His baptism to the loneliness of the wilderness and temptation, and from the shining beauty of His transfiguration to the rejection of the cross, we cannot expect every day to be a Mount Carmel. But if we learn obedience in the tough places, our joy will abound even more. (Rom 5:1-11)

Old and New Covenant: What's the Difference?

It's always a danger that we, as Christians, use complicated terms from the Bible without really understanding what they mean, as well as being totally unintelligible for the world outside. The trap of Christian jargon is sometimes really difficult to escape from. Salvation, atonement, penal substitution... All these words mean wonderful things and yet can also be very confusing.

As I study for my Moore College Christian Worship module, I have been looking at the Old and New Covenants of the Bible. And 'covenant' is one such jargon-word. It basically means 'promise', but it does have more weight than that. In Bible times, an oral culture where the spoken word was much more meaningful and binding than in today's world, a covenant was serious business. It involved conditions. It was not easily broken.

The Old Testament relates to us how God called the people of Israel into covenant with Him (having made a covenant with Abraham, and they were his descendants). On Mount Sinai He gave them the Law, and the essence of the covenant was this:

'Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.' Deuteronomy 11:1

The conditions were that if Israel followed God's commands and stayed faithful to Him, He would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, and rest from all their enemies. But if they failed, then He would send famine and drought, routers, and eventually send them into exile. And sadly, this is what actually happened. After the exile, a remnant returned, but it was clear that Israel had problems with keeping the covenant because the post-exilic prophets (such as Malachi) spoke of their continued corruption and failure to obey God.

It is into this situation -a crushed people under the Roman empire, a disobedient people who had failed to keep God's law- that Jesus came. And with Him, He brought what is known as the New Covenant: a new way of relating to God.

Jesus changed:
The PLACE of worship
The MEANS of worship

Let's unpack that.

In the Old Testament, there were two important central places of worship. First, there was the Tabernacle (built under Moses in the time of being in the wilderness). This was a sort of tent, a central meeting place, where the Ark of the Covenant (a box containing the 10 Commandments and the Law) was kept. It was where God's presence dwelled- this is why Exodus ends climactically with the cloud of God's presence filling the place (Ex 40).

Once Israel had claimed the Promised Land and achieved rest from their enemies, the Temple was built (under the direction of Solomon, David's son). This was a much more permanent building, lavishly constructed, and provided the central place of worship where sacrifices were offered.

Jesus changed all of this by REPLACING the temple (place of worship), along with the sacrifices (means of worship). By offering Himself, dying an innocent death on the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins, once for all. His blood justifies the guilty (Rom 5:8-9). There is no need now for any more sacrifices to be made. Jesus' sacrifice was enough to pay for all sins: past, present and future.

'He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him.' (Heb 7:25)

So Jesus IS the sacrifice, but Jesus is also the TEMPLE itself. The Temple represented God's rule, and God's will to bless Israel and other nations through them. In Jesus 'one greater than the temple' arrived (Mt 12:6). He embodied God's presence and authority, because He was the Son of God. In Him we find salvation and through Him all nations can be blessed (this is how God fulfilled His promise to Abraham from Genesis 12). We don't need a temple now to access God, because we have Jesus. This is why the Temple curtain was torn from top to bottom when Christ died on the cross (Mt 27:51).

True Christianity is all about presenting ourselves to God IN JESUS CHRIST. It's about coming to God, knowing you have NOTHING TO OFFER Him except a sinful soul, and asking for His forgiveness which is available to you THROUGH JESUS' SACRIFICE.

But once we have done that, we CAN offer God our lives. Romans 12:1 teaches that we are to become 'living sacrifices'- not trying to win our own salvation or our place in heaven by doing good things, but demonstrating in our LIFESTYLE that our relationship with God has been restored, and we are RIGHTEOUS in His sight (absolutely pure). Every sphere of our lives as Christians gives us the opportunity to glorify and serve God, in grateful response to the work of Jesus.

Therefore we "worship" not only in times of singing songs and reading the Bible and praying, but in obedience, loving others, showing hospitality, being faithful in marriage, witnessing to others (see Hebrews and Romans 12-15). Our worship is much more than what we do in church on a Sunday, or in our daily "quiet time" or personal devotions to God. It is our whole life.

That is not necessarily ABSENT from the Old covenant. God made it clear that He wanted His people to love Him all of the time, not just on a Sabbath day. He made it clear through the prophets that sacrifices were worthless unless they were accompanied by true repentance (1 Sam 15:22). But Jesus brought a whole new experience of worship for us, because He revealed to us in His very person the TRUTH about God, and He sent us His SPIRIT to aid us in crying out to God in our hearts (Rom 8:15). This is what Jesus meant when He said:

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24

In Jesus we see a full revelation of who God is, because Jesus is 'the exact representation of his being' (Heb 1:3). In Jesus we not only receive a new PLACE of worship (ie. in Himself, not in a physical building), and a new MEANS of worship (through His sacrifice), but we also receive a full picture of the GOD we worship. We can worship Jesus because He is God; He is part of the Trinity, the three-person God who is Father, Son and Spirit. And as Christians, our aim is to bring others to worship Christ and make Him their own Lord and Saviour.

Is Christianity about being good? Part 2

Having established that we are saved by God's grace through Jesus, not by anything we do ourselves, it is important to look at the place of 'being good' in the life of a Christian.

After taking that step of faith to trust in Jesus, and giving your life over to Him, the way you live as a Christian is vitally important for yourself, for others and for God's glory.

When you become a Christian, you essentially undergo a complete transformation of identity. Before, you were a sinner, trapped in darkness. After, you are perfect in God's sight through Jesus, in the light. Before, you had no power to stop sinning. After, you now have the ability to say no to temptation, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit within you.

To become a Christian involves a realisation of how awful sin is. Believing the gospel message means believing that your sin is terrible and deserves God's judgement. Therefore it makes no sense for a Christian to go back to living life the way they want it, regardless of God. As Paul writes,

'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?' (Romans 6:1-2)

Peter argues that we should 'make every effort to add to your faith goodness... knowledge... self-control... perseverance... godliness' (2 Peter 1:5-6). These qualities prevent us from being 'ineffective and unproductive' in our knowledge of Jesus (2 Peter 1:8). This is a crucial point: if we as Christians carry on sinning without any repentance, we are not allowing God to change us, and we are being a very poor example to others of what being a Christian really means. How can you tell people that they need God's forgiveness if you're flouting His gift of grace by deliberately rebelling against His Word? The gospel message becomes 'ineffective' in us if we refuse to let it change every aspect of our lives. We can't just give God Sundays and then use the rest of the week however we want to.

The Christian life should revolve around giving God glory. He is not glorified when we live against Him. He is glorified when we praise Him for His grace in Jesus, and when we seek to live as Jesus did.

'This is how we know we are in Him: whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.' (1 John 2:5-6)

Notice the first part of that verse. John's basically saying that anyone can say they're a Christian. The real proof is in how they actually live life. Christians will still mess up and struggle with sin and their 'old self' (Rom 6:6, Eph 4:22), but the key word there is 'struggle'. Someone who isn't a Christian will not 'struggle' with sin. They'll just do it, without caring what God thinks.

In the light of Jesus' imminent return, we should live 'holy and godly lives' (2 Pet 3:11) to be found 'spotless, blameless and at peace with Him' (2 Pet 3:14). Imagine the embarrassment of Jesus returning and finding you doing something you shouldn't be doing!

And the key to fighting sin is really in replacing it with godly pursuits. Jesus says we should 'abide' in Him and bear fruit (John 15), so we should be seeking to use our lives to get to know Him better by reading His Word, share the good news of the gospel with others, and serve Him in everything we do by doing it whole-heartedly and for His glory, not our own.

Avoiding the spiritual barometer (Review of Terry Virgo's 'God's Lavish Grace')

Ever had a week like this:
Sunday- go to church, sing joyful songs of praise, hear an encouraging and challenging sermon about fighting sin, leave with renewed resolution to obey God and beat temptation.
Monday- make time to read the Bible and pray, fight with sin going well, feel close to God.
Tuesday- managed to scan over a Bible passage before running for the bus, feel flustered but still trying to live whole-heartedly for God.
Wednesday- busy day, no time to pray, feeling weak.
Thursday- give in to temptation, feel like a rubbish Christian.

And so it goes on.

In this commentary, the person constantly measures their spiritual success by their own achievements or failures. If they made time to pray, they feel good about where they stand with God. If they mess up, they feel ashamed. To them, the way God sees them fluctuates like a spiritual barometer. When they're doing well, He's smiling. When they're not, He's angry.

Terry Virgo's book 'God's Lavish Grace' is a fantastic smash-down to this way of thinking, which ensnares so many Christians today.

Virgo's main point is that Jesus has obtained a place for us to stand in grace, a place of total acceptance and security. He goes through the book of Romans to demonstrate that
'they which receive abundance of grace... shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.' Rom 5:17

Therefore your daily walk with God is not about your spirituality or performance, but about your position in Christ.

Christ's unchanging righteousness is yours every day and is not in the least dependent on your feelings or your performance!

God has not called us to a life of slavery but one of overcoming. We need to KNOW that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse us from every sin (past, present and future); the cross is ENOUGH for us to be forgiven. We can't earn God's approval by our 'good deeds'. On the cross, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' (John 19:30) He dealt with our sin completely. All that is left for us to do is to rejoice in the fact that we are totally accepted by God through Jesus, and then live a life liberated to serve Him, with the empowering help of the Spirit to fight sin.

Virgo's conversational style is engaging and uplifting as he opens up the life-changing truth of God's Word in this book. He shows us how susceptible we are to rely on our own amazingness rather than God's amazingness. He calls us to stop making excuses about human nature and start beating sin out of our lives, because Jesus has given us the freedom NOT to sin. As Christians, we have to believe in that freedom. We can't be fatalistic. We need to sort out sin so that we can properly live up to our status as God's children, and get out there to spread the message of God's lavish grace to a world that desperately needs to hear it.

How salty are you? (Matt 5)

'You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.' Matt 5:13

Every day we make decisions to either share God's light or not. Every missed opportunity is like the salt without its taste; in choosing to sin instead of to do good, we take the goodness out of the salt. We will never have the opportunity to re-live that decision. Once salt has lost its flavour, it doesn't regain it.

Moreover, sin makes us vulnerable to be trampled on. Salt preserves, just as the Spirit within us keeps the Word strong in our hearts. When we sin, we reject the Spirit and the barriers have broken down so Satan can get at us. We may lose our passion for God.

But the good news is that the Holy Spirit is constantly renewing us. Every time we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, God gives us another chance and we are a new creation, full of life and flavour. We just need to work on staying salty for as long as possible.

'God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.' Rom 5:5