Archive of December 2009
Christmas poems
Posted at 7:37 PM
Given that I’ve been posting so much poetry recently (and following a challenge to write all my entries in verse) I decided I’d try to write my own Christmas poem. The first attempt wasn’t very good, but I thought the second and third would be worth posting. (Critique welcomed! I know they’re not perfect.)
One of the recurring themes about my Christmases is noticing how the incredible familiarity of the story (made so through nativity plays and twee carols) often masking the reality, which should be life-changing. The first poem is my attempt to convey this.
Again: the same old story, blandly told;
The shepherds, come to praise the new born King;
The wise men, with their frankincense and gold;
A children’s tale; a cute, pathetic thing.
Again we come to celebrate the birth
Of Christ – and yet, it leaves us cold.
For what’s an infant in our world of hurt?
How can a child heal wounds? Not one year old!
But God became a child, took on our flesh
And in his body takes away our sin.
The man who calls to people: “Come and rest!”
Is crowned the Lord of all, yet calls us kin!
Again, we bow the knee in awe and praise.
For God himself, as man, came down to save.
The second, a more traditional reflection on Hebrews 1:1-4 and Hebrews 2:5-18.
The Wisdom, the eternal Word of God,
Before whom one day every knee will bow,
The King of all creation, Jesse’s rod,
Who made the heavens above, the sea below,
And all between: yet man alone he blessed,
And chose on him his image to bestow -
What mystery! This God now takes our flesh;
Weak limitation – in our nature clothed;
Became our brother; spurning majesty
To live a perfect life as Adam’s race;
So then to break the chain of slavery
To sin and death, by dying in our place.
Now raised to glory, crowned, his victory won -
Him we proclaim: Christ, God’s incarnate Son.
A very happy Christmas to you all.
Calvinist Confessions
I’m a Pharisee. And I’m a Calvinist.
Those things should not go together. But they do in far too many instances. The Calvinist should be the last to become a Pharisee. Our theology should keep us humble. Or, so we’re told.
But I’m a Pharisee. And I’m a Calvinist. Which means I’m a bad Calvinist.
Thabiti Anyabwile writes on something that’s a great temptation for me, too. Great article, with more to follow it seems.
Mighty Mercy
Why did He choose a northern maid
From Nazareth, who had to trade
Her Galilee for Judah just
To get Messiah where He must
Be born? A strange and roundabout
Procedure for a God, no doubt,
Who values His efficiency
And rules the world from sea to sea!
Things you might not know about John Piper: he writes in iambic tetrameter and rhyming couplets. Fun poem. And I’ll stop posting verse soon, I promise.
Christmas poem
Timothy Dudley-Smith, quoted by Ed Shaw:
Child of the stable’s secret birth.
the Lord by right of the lords of earth;
let angels sing of a king new-born -
the world is weaving a crown of thorn:
a crown of thorn for that infant head.
cradled soft in the manger bed.
Good poem – follow the link for the rest. I’m not sure: it might have been a song originally, but it’s crying out for a musical setting if not.
Review: Lifted, by Sam Allberry
Posted at 3:59 PM
For many years now I seem to remember hearing a very similar sermon on Easter Sunday. It goes something like this: “There is plenty of evidence to show that Jesus truly rose from the dead. It is not only reasonable to believe, but a good idea. You should become a Christian.” Okay, I’m dreadfully paraphrasing and almost mocking such a sermon, but for many years when I thought of the resurrection this was it. I gave a talk to my year group at school on evidence for the resurrection of Christ. I got into conversations with friends about it. All this was good, but my thinking about what the resurrection means for me, and not just an unconvinced unbeliever, was very much in its infancy.
I guess it’s for people like me, then, that Sam Allberry wrote Lifted: Experiencing the resurrection life. Because as Sam writes so clearly, the resurrection is not just something to celebrate one day a year; the resurrection of Christ is profoundly relevant to the believer throughout their life. In the introduction he writes: “The resurrection changes everything. It guarantees our forgiveness, empowers us to change, and gives us a hope for the future and an urgent mission in the present.” It’s these four areas that he explores in the rest of the book, and I was struck in turn by each. What I particularly appreciated was the Old Testament context given for many of the things Sam writes about, but also the way that he teases out so many implications of the fact that Christ has been raised. He does what he sets out to do, in showing how important the resurrection was for the writers of the New Testament, and how it should be important to us.
I’m not going to summarise the book, but here’s a few people who will find it particularly helpful. Firstly, the struggling Christian. Buy this book and let the assurance that Christ’s resurrection brings encourage you and spur you on. Let the confidence in God’s transforming work change your attitude to the inevitableness of sin. Let the hope of a new creation help you face the trials of this life. Secondly, the confident Christian. Buy this book and remind yourself of the miracle of new life that’s yours in Christ. Dig down deep into the Bible’s teaching on resurrection. Remind yourself that there is a life to come, and therefore an urgency in mission. Thirdly, the new Christian. Perhaps it was the resurrection of Christ that finally convinced you that he was who he said. Take that further, and see all the astounding truths that God declared by raising Christ from the dead. See what being raised with Christ means more fully. Finally, anyone who has never really stopped to think about the implications of the resurrection. I’d say I was probably one of these, and that this book has been fantastic to see all that God was doing through raising Christ from the dead.
The New Testament is saturated with Christ’s resurrection. We follow a Lord and Saviour who declares that he is “the resurrection and the life”. Sam Allberry’s book would be a fantastic way to grasp that truth further and let it shape your life. Above all, whether you fit one of my examples above or not, let this book move you to praise and proclaim Christ, the risen king!
(Lifted is released on the 15th January 2010, published by IVP.)
Dos and don’ts when dealing with the downcast
I have been talking with a long-term friend of mine in recent weeks. He’s a believer, who has had a harder-than-average road to walk. That, combined with some bad Christian teaching and an inherent susceptibility, has finally created a perfect storm of mental ill health.
The thing that surprised me when talking to him recently is that as he begins the process of recovering from a depressive/anxiety breakdown, he has had to avoid his Christian friends and family. The reason? They care.
Mark Baddeley over at the Sola Panel writes of how to help a depressive. He’s absolutely spot on. If ever you’ve known someone to struggle with anxiety or depression and didn’t know how to help, you need to read this.
Spirits Soaring – Or Not?
I love Christmas but too often get left with an anti-climatic “well is that it then?” wishing that it had been rather more than it was. More wonderful, more gripping, more thrilling. I want a time when my spirit soars, when my pulse races. Family parties and nativities and presents are lovely but they don’t do that to me.
I think the reason is that Christians have turned Christmas into so much less than it is.
Go read Marcus Honeysett on the life-changing, worldview-shaping, earth-shattering, heart-racingly good news of Christmas.
The meaning of Eid al-Adha
Love this from Glen Scrivener about Eid:
Islam celebrates father Abraham, Ishmael and the sacrifice that saved him. But this is not the true Eid – the true sacrifice. All of this points to the true Father who did not spare His Son. To the true Child of Promise who was willing to lay down His life and to the true Sacrifice that was provided for all.
Go read and see depths in the Old Testament that you perhaps never realised were there. More importantly, praise Jesus that he was the true child of promise, willing to lay down his life for us. The gospel is good!