Gone has come back

On Wednesday morning I woke early after dreaming that Gone was back at the door. At 10:00am heavy footsteps outside my study made my heart leap and then the bell rang. It was my church warden.

This morning, as I sat in my living room praying, I heard a clunk and a cough outside. I thought, “it can’t be Gone.” It was. He didn’t even check in to Betel, because he says he met people from his past who scared him.

We need to put our contingency plan into action. The problem is, we don’t have one. At least the vicar’s wife returns later today. If nothing else, normal service will resume on our blogs.

Gone has gone

The vicar’s wife is on blog leave this week. If you’ve been following the story of Gone, please pray for him. He is in Betel where we pray God will transform him from one degree of glory into another.

Does faith save us?

In what way does faith save us? Here Ebenezer Erskine gives the best summary I have found of saving faith in the object and person of Christ. Faith as obedience to the law but not work. Faith as living in me but not self generated:

Does faith save us ? Yes it does: but then it turns the glory of salvation over upon the author thereof, saying, “Our God is the God of salvation.” Does the just man live by faith? Yes: but then faith steps in with “It is not I:” Gal. ii.20 . “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Does faith justify ? Yes, it dose: but then its language is, “Surely in the Lord have I righteousness, in him will I be justified, and in him alone will I glory.” Can faith do everything ? Yes, but it is by leaning on the arm of omnipotency. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Thus, I say, faith arrogates [attributes to another] and claims nothing to itself, but gives unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. And so zealous is faith to have God alone exalted, particularly the freedom of his grace in the justification and salvation of a sinner, that, though believing be the highest and greatest act of obedience that a person can yield unto the moral law, yet that boasting may be for ever excluded, it excludes and shuts out itself from the rank and category of works, or acts of obedience, Rom. iv. 5. “To him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith (objectively considered) is counted for righteousness.” It is the peculiar excellency of faith, that it sinks its own act, that its blessed object, CHRIST, may be “all in all; it rejoices in Christ Jesus, and triumphs always in him.” And though, as I was saying, it be the poorest, lowest, and most beggarly of all the other graces; yet it is a grace that prides itself in the Lord Jesus, and by his blood enters with boldness into the holiest.

The BBC: too narrow and negative

I blogged last week on the danger of a gospel denying fault line in the Anglican Communion and am sad to see that the BBC is exacerbating the fault line by its narrow and negative reporting of the matter.

Headlines on radio 4 like and the BBC website are focused only on the moral debate over homosexuality. This quote is from the BBC website on Sunday:

A traditionalist Anglican group has warned the issue of homosexuality could split the Church of England the way the Episcopal Church has done in the US.

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will be launched in the UK on Monday.

The group has campaigned against active homosexuality in the Anglican Communion after being established last year.

If the liberal chattering classes who run the BBC were replaced with Christ-centred hacks, perhaps the headline would read:

A mainstream Anglican group has been formed to bring glory and honour to Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest and King in a denomination which is seen by many as losing sight of true and living faith in Him.

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will be launched in the UK on Monday.

The group has promoted real knowledge of Christ, faith in Christ, love of Christ and obedience to Christ in the Anglican Communion after being established last year.

Bring on the day.

From the vicarage July 2009

From the vicarage published in the church magazine in July 2009 (this month as I write).

It’s hard to escape the news this week that Jordon and Pete Andre have split up. Apparently Pete has had enough of the way Jordan treats him. When they first met, Pete was confident and funny and today he’s angry and hurt.

Jordan is reported in the News of the World as saying

“I’m in complete hell, this is a living nightmare for me. I could never imagine life without Pete.”

But despite her fury, Jordan admitted how SHE had started to drive a wedge between the couple.

“I always thought I treated him well but maybe I did take him for granted and could be cruel sometimes. But I never thought he had it in him to do this.”

Pete Andre’s sense of confidence and fun seems to have melted away because of Jordan’s sharp-edged tongue and cruelty. It is sad that their marriage only lasted four years.

There is a pattern in many of today’s relationships which begin when confident, happy, fun men attract powerful, beautiful women. Once in a relationship, the power of the woman quickly saps the man’s confidence and with that confidence gone, the relationship ends.

This is what seems to have happened to Madonna and Guy Ritchie. His “Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels” confidence was sapped by Madonna’s power.

In our politically correct world where women rightly expect to be treated as equals in the work place, there is lots of discussion about men and women having exchangeable roles and even attributes. In this brave new world women can be macho and men can be gentle. So women can run companies and men can stay at home with the kids. Those sorts of situations exist and work well where the character and skills of the couple work that way.

There is another area which needs to be discussed but which has either been misunderstood or swept under the carpet. In relationships who holds the power? What are we to do with power in relationships? It’s fine for women to be the boss in the workplace, but when women boss men around in the home, men become emasculated. They stop acting like men and lose their nerve and spine. That’s partly what happened to Pete Andre and Guy Ritchie.

What’s the alternative? A return to the days when the man was the boss in the house? No, never, ever. Male dominance is not the answer either. Men should never exert power over women in relationships.

In Ephesians chapter 5 in the bible, God gives us a beautiful solution to the issue of power in marriage. Men must not rule like tyrants but be like Christ. Men are to die to themselves for the sake of their wife and family. Men should ask “what must I do to love, protect, care for, nurture and enjoy my family?” We men must be willing to give things up that we enjoy for the sake of our wives. In return for this self-sacrificing love, women should love their husbands. Husband and wife must discuss her needs and when he has listened, discussed, thought and prayed things through, she should gladly let the man continue to take responsibility by shaping the spiritual life and direction of the family.

In the film the Titanic, Kate Winslet plays Rose, whose fiancé Cal is a selfish, domineering man. Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is the opposite. He wants what’s best for Rose. With the exception of his sexual weakness, he is a brave and selfless man.

Cal only wants to save himself. He bribes an officer to let him and Rose into a lifeboat. When she returns to the ship to find Jack, Cal chases them trying to kill Jack. When Cal realises that he’s lost Rose, he finally succeeds in saving himself by pretending to carry an abandoned child onto the lifeboat.

Meanwhile, Jack and Rose find themselves on board a sinking ship with no lifeboats. They slide into the water and cling a piece of wood which can only support one of them. Jack hoists Rose onto the plank and slowly dies of hypothermia, slipping quietly away beneath the waves. Rose survives and is rescued.

Every day, men can be like Jack in little ways for the sake of their wives. Every day, women can love their men for dying for them. This is God’s way of stopping men from bossing their wives around like Cal. It is also the way God gives us of stopping women ripping the spine out of their men.

With love

Neil

From the vicarage June 2009

Here’s the third of four, “From the vicarage” first published in the church magazine in June 2009.

We each have a story and I have been reminded of mine as I read Psalm 107 this week. After leaving home aged 17, I spent six or seven years in a downward spiral. I kept messing up relationships with people I cared about. The more I messed things up, the angrier I got, and the angrier I got, the more I messed things up. Old friends, girlfriends, work colleagues, it didn’t matter who it was, I always seemed to blow it by doing something stupid, spiteful or deliberately unkind. On the outside I remained positive and upbeat but on the inside I began to not like myself. At the end of this road my Christian grandmother took her own life, and I found myself crying out to God by the river where her body was found. Here was me, a sworn atheist, someone who hated the idea of God, crying “God, if you are there, will you save me?”

In Psalm 107, three sorts of people cry out the same prayer.

1.The spiritually lost. Wandering without a home.

Psalm 107:4-5 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.

2.People who are prisoners of their own rebellion.

Psalm 107:10-11 Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, 11 for they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.

3.Fools, who do stupid things and so hurt themselves and others

Psalm 107:17-18 Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. 18 They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death.

All these people cry out the same cry to God and the Lord always acts.

Psalm 107:13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.

The spiritually lost find a home with God. The prisoners chains fall off. Fools are healed by God’s word. And so they all respond the same way to God.

Psalm 107:15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.

From my cry for help, God heard and answered my prayer. From that point on, things began to change. I met loads of great Christians, who were confident, joyful, honest, humble, willing to say sorry when they messed things up. They were everything I wanted to be and knew that I wasn’t. I started meeting with a church where the bible was taught by a Spirit filled 83 year old preacher. Very soon, I thanked God for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. The most wonderful deed of all was when I came to believe in my heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross for all my stupidity, spite and hurt. He gave me a sure and certain hope of eternal life with God by rising victorious from the grave.

I am not, and never will be the perfect vicar. I will make all sorts of stupid mistakes. And I will continue to cry our to God in my trouble and know that he has saved me. When trouble comes your way, because of things you’ve done. If you feel lost, separated from God, wandering without a home. If sin ties you down like heavy chains, then is the time cry out to God in your trouble, he has promised to save you. All you need to do is be open to answers.

Neil,

From the vicarage May 2009

This is the second of fourth, “From the vicarage”, first published in the church magazine in May 2009.

I’ve been in post for a whole six weeks. It seems much longer to me, as it might to you. I am beginning to come back to earth after all the disruption of moving (to our eighth home in 14 years of marriage). The dust is settling. I’m beginning to get to know people and become part of church and community life. I have seen various needs and my head spins with ideas and possibilities for church and community. As my feet hit the ground I need to remember to walk before I run. And so this letter is a request to be patient with me as I work out with the wardens and others just what is important and what is possible.

As always, God has reminded me to be patient as I have read his word this week. As keen as I am to rush on, God says “get perspective” and he gives us that right perspective in Psalm 90.

Psalm 90:1-6 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as, a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. (© English Standard Version. With permission)

God has been around for much longer than me, longer than Holy Trinity church, longer than anyone, even before the mountains were made. Our life is here today and gone tomorrow but God is from everlasting to everlasting. To him a thousand years are like a day. And so, as God is eternal he sees things from a different perspective and God’s perspective should be our perspective too.

So what are we to do? What am I to do? The end of Psalm 90 gives us the answer:

Psalm 90:12-17 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (© English Standard Version. With permission)

Will you pray this Psalm with me? Pray for a heart of wisdom. Pray that we’ll be able to number our days, prioritise, work out how much time we have to do what’s important. Pray for that deep satisfaction of God’s love, shown to us when Jesus died for our sins, that he’ll make us truly glad. Ask God to show us his work for us and that he’ll establish that work and make it prosper.

Thank you for praying this with me as we look to God for perspective, wisdom and priorities.

With love

Neil

Job Ad: Ministry Trainee Post on-line

The advert for the post of ministry trainee at Holy Trinity is now on the Lichfield Diocesan website vacancies page.

If you are someone or know someone who wants to test and develop gifts of bible teaching, leadership and service please call me to discuss the post. My contact details are on the application form on the link above.

Neil

From the Vicarage April 2009

I thought I’d post my parish magazine letters, “From the Vicarage.” Here’s the first of four so far.

Dear Friends

I would like to thank everyone who has made me and the whole Robbie family feel so welcome as we moved from Wolverhampton to West Bromwich. If you read the Express and Star on the day after my induction you’ll know that we love the Black Country for the friendliness of its people.

When a new vicar arrives in a parish there can be questions about what sort of person he’ll be. Will he be friendly, approachable, easy to get along with? I hope I am nearly always all those things, though I know that sometimes I will need both God’s forgiveness and yours.

Some people wonder if the new vicar will make a difference or just hide behind the curtains. I’m not intending to tuck myself away in my study so do come and see me at the vicarage. I hope that things will change but I know that I won’t be the one who makes the changes. It is God who works wonders and makes his might known as the psalmist sings:

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
Psalm 77:11-14

Just as the psalmist remembered God’s wonders of old, his work and mighty deeds, so I pray that God will work wonders among all the peoples of West Bromwich. I pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There is one mighty deed in particular which makes all the difference; one wonder of old by which God works miracles today. As we approach Easter we have a very good opportunity to remember this deed and ponder it: the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who gave his life on the cross that I might live. He lived the perfect, holy life that I cannot live and died the death that I should have died to make me right with God. This is the wonder of old which changes our eternity and transforms the hearts of sinners who truly trust in him.

I pray that this Easter will be a special one for you, that you will receive the blessing of God. That blessing is peace beyond all understanding as you fall into the strong arms of Christ our Saviour.

With love and prayer

Neil.

When division in the church is illegitimate

Evangelicals in Britain are at present dividing over various (arguably secondary) issues and yet are uniting with Anglo-Catholics and charismatics. These three groups have been historically suspicious of each other and yet they have been brought together by a common sense of outrage at the way liberals have walked all over the historic faith, especially with respect to sexual ethics.

Evangelicals have also formed networks, partnerships, clubs, cliques and parties which put some distance between themselves and other groups. The issues at the heart of these divisions are often complex and nuanced, requiring detailed theological explanation which generally results in greater confusion rather than clarity. Federal Vision, PCA, old school, new school, alumni of various colleges and so on have grown suspicious of each other for reasons which seem rooted in gossip, rumour and labelling.

The following Venn diagram sets out the legitimate boundaries for unity and division. I hope to show that these categories are derived from Paul’s letters to the Romans and Ephesians, both of which were written to avoid illegitimate division in the church.

Christian unity begins and ends with God’s acceptance of sinners through their faith union with the person of Christ. God accepts Jew and Gentile, with all their external differences, on the basis of an acknowledgement of their sin before God and their faith in Christ alone as Saviour and Lord. Thus, anyone who falls within the central yellow circle of the diagram is united to Christ as head (Ephesians 1:10 and 4:15) and should not divide from anyone else who professes the same basic faith in Christ.

Romans 10:10-11 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Everyone in the yellow circle is saved. The weakest believer and strongest saint are one in Christ (Gal 3:28). The blue, orange, green and purple circles represent various areas of emphasis in the Christian life, all of which are important but which we struggle to keep in balance because of deficiencies in our personalities. But these deficiencies must not divide those who are united by faith in Christ as the righteous one who died for the unrighteous (1 Pet 3:18).

And so we find, in Rome, that a group of culturally, experientially, morally and epistemologically disparate believers were told by Paul to accept and love each other with brotherly affection, despite their differences, because the sacrificial love required to love someone who doesn’t think, feel, act or know like us is what makes God look glorious:

Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another (Jew and Gentile) as Christ has welcomed you (as penitent sinners), for the glory of God.

The only legitimate question Christians have as a basis for unity is “do you believe in your heart that you are a sinner by nature, saved from the wrath of God by God through the gift of faith in Jesus Christ and for his glory?” If both parties admit their total dependence on Christ for salvation then they are to work toward practical unity without dividing for as long as they maintain their personal confession of faith in Christ. And so, Paul tells Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ not to separate into church networks of their own but remain united in Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:8-9-4:1-15 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast…therefore…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ

Christian unity is found in the person of Christ and his work alone. Illegitimate division is, therefore, along any fault-line other than saving faith in Christ alone. The tendency, however, is for Christians to divide over matters of obedience to the law, experience, ecclesiastical practice or epistemology. It won’t do. It doesn’t exalt the Christ who died for sinners with all our deficiencies.