I was so glad to hear that Sie Yan, Naomi and Jennie had chosen the subject of friendship for the women’s day tomorrow. I’m slightly jealous as it sounds like they have a great day planned. I’ve been thinking recently about the essentialness of deep and committed friendships in my own life and wanted to write to you all to provoke us to think about being more intentional in this regard.
Religion causes so many of humanity's greatest problems. Division. Intolerance. Conflict. We no longer think that faith is a harmless choice; it is now seen as a dangerous delusion. And yet, religious people report higher levels of personal satisfaction and meaning. How can both be true? Is Christianity part of the problem or is it the solution?
When Peter is preaching in the book of Acts he uses this striking phrase, times of refreshing, to capture the promise of the gospel.
Your soul is not capable of surviving outside of God’s sustaining grace. It is vulnerable and will shrivel and dry out. You will have experienced this in different seasons of life.
Dealing with pride and ambition can be unbelievably difficult. We live in a sin-soaked world in which glory hunting is the norm, and humility is somewhat passé. We barely blink when we hear people boast about their talents, or preen and pose on social media displaying some aspect of their enviable life. This atmosphere we breath can make ambition seem totally normal and acceptable. Who would even question whether it’s okay or not to be driven by ambition?
Last Sunday, I preached three times on conflict and then got home and had an argument with Jen (my wife). As you no doubt will be, I was immediately struck by the irony of the situation! It was over pretty quickly (neither of us enjoys conflict very much to want it to go on very long), but like many conflicts, it stemmed from the problem of ego (mine in this case).
We had a sweet time at Upper Room this week. I particularly enjoyed praying together for our city. One person shared a beautiful poem that resonated with me. It began, ‘The Lord reigns over London. Mercy, justice and righteousness flow from his throne’. It reminded me of the prophetic picture of the river of life that Ezekiel describes in Ezekiel 47. He describes a river that flows from the altar of the temple, where ‘everything will live where the river goes’ (47.9). It is literally the river of life! It’s a prefiguring of the Holy Spirit, the living water that will come from Christ and, of course, bring true life to all who receive Him!
If we focus excessively on what God can do through us, we might miss another important emphasis, of what God wants to do in us. For those of us more drawn towards activism in the name of Christ, we must remember God’s overarching purpose to form Christlikeness in us, quite apart from any impact that we might hope to have on the world. When churches or Christians focus excessively on impact and mission, they risk ignoring the vital work that God wants to do in each of us, on our character and personal holiness.
The more I reflect on it, the more I’m convinced that this season should be viewed as a slow trek through the desert. You might feel a little weary and sometimes lack motivation, but you need to keep going because the last thing you want to do is collapse in the desert! I’m convinced that this season requires us to develop good habits that help us to persevere! Here are four.
Whilst we’re still in the early days of this Coronavirus crisis, I think there’s a good argument to consider this time as a significant evangelistic opportunity.
At a time when peoples’ functional idols of health and wealth have been threatened, perhaps they will be more willing to reconsider the fundamental questions of life. The illusion of control has been taken away from us. Amidst the anxiety that folk are experiencing, it’s very possible that they will be more willing to consider the Christian faith and whether it provides the comfort and reassurance that we all naturally desire right now.
This is a crisis moment unlike anything any of us have ever experienced before. Any time of extraordinary change or disruption reveals what we are made of. The choice in front of us is this: if the church is a gathering and a community, do we now fade into irrelevance as all of our relationships are massively disrupted, or do we double down and run towards God and the church family with renewed zeal?
We are going to be taking church online in the days ahead. This means all of our gatherings are cancelled for the time being, including Life Groups.
However, we are passionate about continuing to find ways of meaningfully practicing community. We will be in touch in the coming days to explain how we hope to achieve this.
We are a church, an ekklesia, an assembly or gathering, which means that part of our identity comes from being together physically as one people. The nature of the church has no real meaning if we aren’t able to make contact, to love one another, to speak to each other and allow the word of God to spread among us and infect us and do its dangerous and transformative work in our lives.
If you’ve been around Grace for a while, you’ll no doubt be aware of the value that we put on community. We’re deeply committed to the idea that church shouldn’t be a crowd, but a community of brothers and sisters invested in each others’ lives.
Alongside committing to community, I’d encourage you to develop spiritual friendships in the church. It’s easy to confuse this with community, but I have something different in mind.
Many Christians struggle with the Old Testament. It feels like an alien book (or set of books). When you consider the Levitical purity laws or the detailed history of the people of Israel, most people assume that it has limited relevance for modern life. Some of you have given up reading the Old Testament. Others persist with reading it but with a limited understanding of how it connects with your life.
When you consider the popularity of Christianity in a country like the UK, the dominant trend is one of religious decline and secularisation. According to the British Social Attitude Survey in 2019, a majority of Brits do not belong to any religion (52%) or attend religious services (66%). There is a prevailing sense that religion causes conflict and is out of step with modern morality. It’s easy to get the impression that Christianity is on the way out.
