Living and speaking for Jesus

Month: October 2012

If Martin Luther were a student today…

Christian students today face increasing hostility, the more so as they cling to the ever-offensive gospel.  Luther faced the wrath of the Emperor, the Pope, burning at the stake and the prospect of hell ever after if he was wrong.  To all this he managed to reply: ‘I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.  I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.   I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.’

 It was no mere bluster or passing bravado.  Luther saw that it is precisely when the gospel is most under attack that God’s people must do theology – and thus bind themselves to the Scriptures – with all the more urgency.

Happy Reformation Day.

Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that rich and pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils and supplying her with all His good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her Husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying, “If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine,” as it is written, “My beloved is mine, and I am His”.

I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Saviour is my brother; every Christian is my brother too. Say it over and over to yourself first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, any time your mind is free, and ask that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true.

Adoption

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1a)

By nature, we are his enemies: souls turned inwards, away from his light. Our hearts are hard; our minds are closed; our wills are bound. Lost, in darkest night, thinking we know the way home. Slaves to sin, and slaves to our own efforts. Captured.

In Christ, we are his children: souls looking outwards, reflecting his glory. We have new hearts; we have renewed minds; our joy is to do his will. Rescued by one who descended into the valley of death to bring us home to our Father. Sons of righteousness, our love a response to his love poured into our hearts. Captivated.

We are sons. Not because God is sexist (after all, men are also called the “bride of Christ”) but because we share the very sonship of the Son himself. Jesus shares with us what is his: not just a right standing before God, but his own perfect relationship with his Father. “You have loved them, Father, even as you have loved me.” No room for boasting: men, women, rich, poor, public sinners and hidden Pharisees, we are all utterly depraved yet amazingly loved.

Worried? Take heart: it is your Father’s delight to give you the kingdom. Despairing? Your Father has given you new birth into a living hope. Lonely? Know that you’re part of a Royal Family of eternal fellowship. Guilty? Your Father sets his love on the unlovely, and sent Jesus to take your sin away.

Adopted. Brought near. Carried into the Father’s presence. Dearly loved children of Almighty God. That is what we are!

(Reflections from Transformission 2012; download the talks for more.)

Be of good comfort

On this day in 1555, two men were executed in the centre of Oxford. Their crime: believing that our salvation rests on the finished work of Christ, not on anything we do ourselves. Their punishment: to be burnt at the stake.

Amongst their dying words, these ones of Latimer’s are the most famous:

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as (I trust) shall never be put out.

Latimer was vindicated: to this day, their Protestant faith has survived in the UK, lasting through persecution, civil war, opposition from outside, and false teaching from within. The faith that gave them courage to face an excruciating death is still alive today.

And yet…

How often do we fall into believing those old, old lies: that our good works are what save us, not Christ?

When we sin, do we run to Jesus for forgiveness, or do we feel the need to earn it first? It’s so easy to think that we need to do something good to outweigh the bad before he’ll listen to us again. Easy, but deadly.

When we see someone else mess up, do we respond with grace, or do we feel good about ourselves because we didn’t fail? You know the kind of thoughts: “God must be more pleased with me; after all, I’m not as bad as that.”

No! The Protestant martyrs died defending the truth that nothing we do can make us acceptable to God. Whether we’ve had a fantastic day of walking in Christian freedom, or a shocking day feeling enslaved to sin, we would still be as far away from God as ever, if he had not come close to us. Jesus, King of the universe, stepped down, down even to death, in order to bring us up with him to his Father. He takes our sin, and gives us his perfect obedience. In him, we are as loved by the Father as he has been since eternity past.

How can we still think a quiet time is going to earn us extra credit? That it’ll make up for our daily rejection of Jesus? That we can somehow add to the perfect obedience of Christ?

The old, old lies are still around, too. But be of good comfort; God’s grace is the same as it ever was. Are you burdened with guilt? Run to Jesus, and he will forgive you. Are you proud of your holiness? Look to Jesus, and let him humble you. Do you feel distant from God? Come to Jesus, and let him bring you near.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Keep the candle burning.

Have you realised that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you….

You must say to your soul: ‘Why are you cast down?’ – what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Put your hope in God’ – instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.’

Talking to yourself

Every morning, I face a spiritual battle. Who am I going to believe today?

  • Jesus promises that his word brings life; my flesh tells me that it’s boring and irrelevant.
  • The Spirit assures me that I am an adopted child of God; my flesh says “Really? After the day you had yesterday?”
  • Jesus promises to take my prayers before his Father, who loves to listen; my flesh tells me that God is aloof and distant.
  • The Spirit reminds me of all the spiritual blessings I have in Christ, freely given; my flesh tells me that I’m owed an easy life and shows me all the ways my life is a disappointment.
  • Jesus tells me that he is the bread of life; my flesh says “but what you really need is a girlfriend”.
  • Jesus says to work as if I were working for him; my flesh tells me that my job is pointless, and I should do as little as possible.

As I emerge from sleep, it’s so easy to listen to the devil’s lies. Lying there in bed, my flesh can be very persuasive. I might succeed in dragging myself downstairs and opening the Bible, but even then these thoughts can crowd in: “You don’t really believe this, do you? It makes no sense. Wouldn’t you rather watch TV?” “Why pray for her? It’s not going to change anything.”

So many of my problems come from listening to myself. Instead, I need to talk to myself. In Psalm 103, David does just that:

Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits –
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

David talks to himself, telling his soul not to forget all the Lord has done for him. When my flesh is telling me to doubt God’s promises, I can talk back. “Self: you say that God is uninterested and far away; but I tell you, he is my Father, and loves to listen. You say I’ll never get recognition at work and should give up; but I tell you that my Father sees what is done in secret and will reward me. You say that I’ll never fit in, that I’ll always be lonely; but I tell you that I am adopted into the family of God. You say that God wants to spoil our fun; but I tell you, in his words are life to the full.”

Each morning, rather than dwelling on all the mess inside my head, I can tell myself of the one who has blessed me immeasurably. The more I do it, the less persuasive the voices sound.

As a wise man once said, “Talking to yourself isn’t the first sign of madness – it’s the first sign of wisdom.”

What to do as a Christian fresher

Across the country, new students are settling into life in halls and houses. Based on the advice of many people over the years, here’s my advice for Christian students.

Join a church

No one can make it alone as a Christian, and living as a student is no exception. You’ll probably be challenged about what you believe, whether in lectures or down the pub. There will be pressure to conform to a sinful culture; many Christians flirt with temptation rather than fleeing, and regret it later. You need people to support you and challenge you because they love and care for you. As a Christian you’re already part of God’s worldwide church, so make it a priority to join a local church community. Church will help you grow as a Christian, so find somewhere where as God’s Word is taught people grow to love Jesus more, love each other more and love the lost more.

Join the CU

Christian Unions are mission teams made up of students from different local churches, united around the gospel in order to better reach students with the good news of Jesus. In short, they exist to make Christ known on campus. Join your CU to get involved in student mission; to be better equipped to reach your friends with the gospel; and to be encouraged as you work as a team to bring others to know Jesus. Find out more on the UCCF website.

Join other societies/do other things!

God’s made a good world, with so many great things in it. Don’t do what I did in my first year and do so many Christian things you don’t have time to play football/sing in a choir/join the wine circle/get involved in student politics/act in a play/go to the pub with coursemates. Not only is it wrong to think such things are “less spiritual” (all of life is for God’s glory!), if you throw yourself into loads of Christian meetings to the exclusion of all else, you’ll find opportunities for mission few and far between. This is my biggest regret about my first year at university. Do something to get outside of the Christian bubble, even if it’s simply spending time with your flatmates!

Work hard, rest well

It may not feel like it sometimes, but you’re at university to study for a degree. This is a good thing to do! Your attitude to your work is a great witness to others, but more importantly God asks us to work as if working for him. My experience is that you actually enjoy your work more the more effort you put in; this is possibly my second biggest regret of my first year, as I didn’t get much out of it academically.

You also need rest, which may seem impossible during freshers’ week, but getting into good habits early on really does help. The temptation is to stay up late like everyone else, because you feel like you’ll miss out on making friendships, especially early on. God knows what you need though, and one of those things is sleep; you will not lose all your friends if you go to bed before them! (You may well find they’re waiting for someone else to suggest going to bed…) Naps are also useful, if you have been up late; caffeine less so.

Learn to love

Your flatmates might “borrow” your food, or not do the washing up, or wake you up after a late night out. Your lecturers might not be very good, or overly harsh, and can sometimes be ridiculed or hated by others. You might meet people in the CU with whom you disagree: on theology, on style of meeting, on whether Jesus would have joined the Conservative or Labour Party, on all sorts of things you hold dear. God hasn’t put you with these people and in these situations to annoy you: he’s given you an opportunity to learn to love people. This is important with non-Christians, but possibly even more so with Christians. If members of the CU don’t love each other, that’s not a good witness. If they do love each other, learning to put aside secondary issues because they agree on the core truths of the gospel, it’s a far better witness. Francis Schaeffer said:

Love – and the unity it attests to – is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father. (Francis Shaeffer, in Graham Beynon, God’s New Community (IVP), p92.)

Remember grace

You may have great intentions, but as a sinful human being you’re going to mess up. Don’t forget the gospel. Jesus died for you, and his perfect righteousness is enough to cover even the most spectacular failings. I was far from perfect at university, and needed daily reminders of God’s grace to me. (Also related: joining a church!) Living in close proximity with others, it’s reasonably sure they’ll get to see your sins and struggles – so take the opportunity to tell them of Jesus, who accepts sinners like you and them.

Summary

University is a great opportunity for so many things, but above all to grow to know and love Jesus more, and so love other people more, through living and speaking for him in your academic work, your time with friends, your CU involvement and in your church family. My prayer is that you’ll do just that!

A new beginning

Welcome to the all new Audience of One! Do take a seat.

For those new to the blog, a warm welcome. I’ve been doing this blogging thing on/off since about 2001, and on this website since 2005. However the time has come for a fresh start. I’ve written a lot of stuff here over the years – some worth preserving, some best forgotten. The idea behind the relaunch is that I can repost some of the good stuff alongside new entries.

I write as a follower of Jesus, whose aim is to live my whole life – at work, at home, with family, friends or colleagues – for him, the audience of one from whom this website takes its name. My hope is that this blog will be read by those who know and love the Lord Jesus and want to know and love him more. I want to share the best of what I’m hearing from others, as well as contributing myself. A common focus will be issues relating to university students, but my aim is not to be exclusive in my audience.

I hope you find it encouraging!

© 2024 Tune My Heart

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑