Talks By Nigel Lee

I was browsing UCCF's website yesterday and was impressed by the range of excellent audio downloads.

Particularly worth listening to are the talks on 1 John by Nigel Lee. If you never met or heard Nigel (who died last year), he was one of the great UK preachers of my lifetime. A prince among Bible teachers, who helped literally thousands of young people get into Christian leadership. Download anything you can find by him while its still around!

There are tons of other good talks on the UCCF site as well. Look out for John Risbridger, LIndsay Brown and Terry Virgo in particular. (Use the filter to narrow down to audio talks only)

Link to Nigel Lee talks on UCCF site

Being Filled with the Holy Spirit

I am preparing a Bible message to preach in a two Sunday's time. The prep. took me to Romans 15:13:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is amazing! Paul expects that:

1. God fills us with all joy and peace as we trust him

2. That therefore we will overflow with hope

3. That this is the power of the Holy Spirit at work

The Holy Spirit is making us overflow with hope, being filled with the joy and peace of God, through trusting him. That makes me want to expand my faith and learn to trust him more.

Suffering and Evil #1

The longer I have been a Christian the more it seems to me that the most profound question I know how to frame is: how come the existence of suffering and evil in the world make God more glorious rather than less glorious? I want to do a series of posts on this theme to see how many answers I can give to the question.

Its not an academic question. Not only does it go right to the heart of whether God: (a) exists; (b) is loving; and (c) is all-powerful, but it also one of the most common reasons I hear for people refusing to think about Christianity. It is easy to assume that suffering simply proves that the Bible's portrayal of God as both loving and powerful is untrue. You don't have to argue it, you don't have to provide evidence for it. Suffering is evidence enough on its own. And on top of that there is the issue of where is God when everything in life crumbles and life is terribly painful.

But there is a deeper question still for Christians who believe that he is all-powerful and all-loving. We believe that everything God does he does for the sake of his glory, in order that he will be famous and will be worshipped. We also believe that God is never wrong footed, never taken by surprise, never caught out or forced to concede anything he doesn't want to. But if these beliefs are both true, that means that suffering is, somehow, something that God allows (or that he causes, or that he doesn't prevent) for the sake of his glory.

That's the heart of my question. How can God be involved in suffering in such a way that it is for the sake of his glory rather than a diminishing of his glory? How is it that he is more glorious that evil and suffering be? And beyond that, how is that a help to us when we confront evil or when we suffer?

WELCOME

I am brand new to the world of blogging and have been putting off getting involved in the bloggosphere for years. What has changed to make me want to have a go? Simply that I have been convinced that the web is a great place to communicate a passion for the glory of God.

My prayer for this blog and the site as a whole is that something here will make you want to adore, delight in, pursue, hunger after and worship Jesus Christ with all your heart.

I can't think of a better way to begin a blog than with my favourite quote from a Christian writer. I first read these words from Howard Guiness over 20 years ago. They gripped and thrilled me. They still do: 

 

Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death? Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake – flinging them away for love of Him? Where are those who will live dangerously, and be reckless in His service? Where are his lovers – those who will love Him and the souls of men more than their own reputations or comfort or very life?

Where are the men who say “no” to self, who take up Christ’s Cross to bear it after Him; who are willing to be nailed to it in college or office, home or mission field; who are willing, if need be, to bleed, to suffer and die on it?

Where are the men of vision today? Where are the men of enduring vision? Where are the men who have seen the King in His beauty, by whom from henceforth all else is counted but refuse that they may win Christ? Where are the adventurers, the explorers, the buccaneers for God who count one human soul of far greater value than the rise or fall of an Empire? Where are the men who glory in God-sent loneliness, difficulties, persecutions, misunderstandings, discipline, sacrifice, death?

 Where are the men who are willing to pay the price of vision?

Where are the men of prayer? Where are the men who, like the Psalmist of old, count God’s Word of more importance to them than their daily food? Where are the men who, like Moses of old, commune with God face to face as a man speaks with his friend and unmistakably bear with them the fragrance of the meeting though the day?