Healing Service - My biggest blog ever!

First - apologies - this is a big blog!

Recently our church announced we are planning to have a kind of Healing Service. That is a service where we will invite people to come to be prayed for, for healing.

Among conservative evangelical I know, this has caused a few ripples. People think we have lost the plot and have no theological basis. Therefore I decided to write a blog on the subject. Then at least those who judge will do so on the basis of what is, and not half-baked ideas and impressions they may have.

The first thing to say is that the inspiration for this came through exegeting a text of the Bible. Now I know that fact does not make it sound - all good heresies begin with the bible. But so do good theology and good practise. So it is a good start!

Secondly, although God seems to work with and through people on the basis of faith over correct theology, that is not an excuse for having bad theology. 

Why would we hold ‘Healing Services?

This question raises two more important questions.

1. What is the biblical, theological basis for such practise?
2. What is meant by ‘Healing Service’?

I will answer (1) first.

1) What is the biblical, theological basis for such a practise?

This is not an issue of being ‘Charismatic’ or ‘non-charismatic. It is not a question of Orthodoxy but more orthopraxy.

In other words, the relevant scriptures and underlying theology for the practise is probably the agreed on by most conservative, evangelical, calvinist churches. The practical expression of that theology is what is in question.

So how do I justify the practise of going out and inviting all and sundry to a church service where we will pray for their healing?

Well, to ask the question “How do I justify…” kind of assumes I first had the idea or practise, then tried to find scripture and a theology to underpin it (a bit like those who hold to covenant theology). That is not the case. How I came to it was through exegeting two texts of scripture. The story of Jonathan and his armour bearer and the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman.

Having been inspired by those scriptures, I then looked more closely and broadly to see if this might be a legitimate way to serve God. I then suggested it to the church Leadership and we all scrutinised it together. At first my brothers were hesitant, but when they understood what I had in mind and was able to demonstrate theologically that this is not only ‘allowed’ but would be good to do, they climbed on board rather than posturing and becoming entrenched.

So, here is how I put it to my leadership.

1. I assert that Jesus in His earthly Ministry engaged in a ministry of miraculous signs. The signs included miraculous feedings, healing, casting out demons, calming storms, flattening waves etc. 
2. This ministry was intentionally aimed exclusively at Jews who were heirs of the promise and were waiting for their Messianic King to appear.
3. These signs to the Jews served specific purposes. They demonstrated the Kingdom Jesus was preaching. They evidenced that Jesus Himself is the Messiah, the King of the kingdom. And they demonstrated that in His coming Kingdom, there will be no poverty and need (Feeding of the 5000), there will be no natural disasters (calming seas and storms), there will be no spiritual forces of evil (casting out demons), there will be no sickness (healing the sick and lame), there will be no more death (raising the dead).
4. This particular ministry was for a season and was completed within Jesus earthly life. (John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do). 
5. The claim made by some that because  “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever”, He must be doing the same. However, In John 17:4 He is clear that He has now completed one work (of glorifying God through that part of His earthly ministry), and the immediate surrounding verses make it clear He was about to begin another work to glorify God - that is he was about to demonstrate the eternal love, justice and mercy of God through the cross. Jesus was the self-same Jesus in His public ministry as on the cross, but He was not doing the same thing. It was the same person - Jesus - doing different things. It does not follow that, because Jesus is the same, He must always do the same. So while Jesus most certainly is the same, yesterday, today and forever (in terms of faithfulness, reliability and character), He is not necessarily doing the same each and every day. So, that Jesus is the same, is not an argument for signs and wonders today.
6. The claim made by some that, just because Jesus taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” means we can reason thus: There is no sickness, suffering, sadness and disease in heaven and we are to pray that it will be on earth ‘as it is in heaven’, so we should be praying for an end to those things on earth now, and because we are instructed so to pray, it must mean Jesus is going to do it - This a fallacious argument. Jesus was teaching us to pray for His return in Kingdom glory, and to be praying that His will (that is the unfolding of His redemptive plan) will continue speedily until completion at His return. The ‘Lord’s Prayer’ is not a basis for seeing miracles of healing today.
7. Although signs and wonders did continue with the ministry of the apostles (Acts 2:43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.) it is reasonable to conclude that theirs, was by definition a unique ministry in establishing the church and the gospel and body of christian doctrine (or at least the necessary teaching for such) for the first time on the earth. Their signs and wonders authenticated them as true servants and Apostles sent by Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. 
8. Jesus Primary Ministry through His church now, is not a ministry of signs and wonders but of recruiting unbelievers into Jesus’ Kingdom through the preaching of the gospel and through the making of disciples.

So that is what we are doing, seeking to preach the gospel of Jesus to the lost and disciple those He gives to us.

Not All Jesus Miraculous Healings were Signs

However, notwithstanding any of the above, it is also true to say that not all of Jesus’ healings were wrought to serve as ‘signs’ of the kingdom. Some clearly were. Eg, the healing of the paralytic was clearly a sign. “That you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6) and John 9:3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Also the effect of Jesus miracles served clearly as signs, e.g. “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” (Luke 8:25).

But on other occasions he commanded those freed or healed to tell no-one. They were not publicity stunts but acts of compassion, love and kindness. That was not his primary way of demonstrating His love, that would happen later at the cross and then ultimately in the new heavens and earth. But that did not stop Jesus, out of love and compassion ministering healing at that time which was outside of the ‘signs’ miracles.

Then the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman shows us that Jesus had no basis at all in His ministerial purpose or God’s redemptive plan at that time for healing the woman’s daughter. In other words, He came into the earth at that time for a reason, to do something for a certain group of people within a certain circle (Jews), but she was not in that circle. She had no right or claim, no reason to expect Jesus to heal, except out of compassion, mercy and love.

Her pleas were first met with silence, second with mild rejection to say the least “I was sent for the lost sheep of Israel”, in other words “I have nothing to do with you.” and then with a moral reason with an insult thrown in “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs”. Jesus gave her no hope at all.

But, the woman knew Jesus could heal her - and that was all she needed to desperately persist - and faith got its reward.

Jesus healed the woman’s daughter, not as a sign but because of her faith which drove her.

God Does Not Answer The Prayers of Unbelievers

It is true that as a general rule, God does not respond to the prayers of unbelievers, but many Christians go too far in absolutising what is a valid principle. It would seem fairer to say that as a rule God does not answer the prayers of unbelievers, but in His sovereignty He can if He wills. There is no theological reason for him not to do so. The argument that He cannot answer them because of their sins is not accurate. The oft-quoted text in Isaiah 59:1 which tells us “Your sins have separated you from your God, your iniquities have hidden His face from you” are written specifically to God’s covenant people (Isaiah 58:1b) … 

“Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.” 

Isaiah 59:1 is not directed at the world. The text also tells us he “‘will’ not”, not that he ‘cannot’ and there is a difference. In the case of Israel, God decided He will not answer their prayers until they, as His covenant people and in keeping with His covenant, repent. An unbeliever is not in covenant with God. 

God Will Only Punish Unbelievers

The argument that God owes unbelievers nothing but judgement is true, but it does not preclude His temporal acts of grace such as healing in the here and now. Judgement will be meted out later when the Lord returns as judge. So, theologically, it would appear there is no reason to absolutise the principle that God will not answer the prayers of unbelievers except the sinners prayer.

All the above means, God can and so might heal unbelievers. Not because He must, not because it is ‘what He is doing now’, but because He may or may not choose to. If an unbeliever believes there may be a God who could heal them and on that basis prays for healing, while affirming God is not bound to heal, I see no reason to say He will not heal. Not unless there has been a prophetic word on the matter.

I think it is fair to say, that in most cases we would not expect Him to heal - at least not in an extraordinary way. But when healing occurs, it is a pleasant surprise in keeping with God’s character.

Now, if the above is true, it would mean we should not expect God to answer every prayer for healing with an extraordinary miracle of healing. Jesus Himself did not heal everyone, the Apostles certainly didn’t and in most cases we don’t see God’s covenant people healed in an extraordinary way - but that does not stop us praying for them.

We also give thanks to God when believers have been healed through natural means such as medication. Why should we not have the same attitude to unbelievers? In fact, I’ll bet every christian with an unbelieving loved one who is sick would pray for their healing. 

But You’re Inviting Them In

What about going out and inviting people to a service where we will pray for people to be healed (among other things). This involves telling people, ‘Jesus has the power to heal’ and ‘If we ask Him, He might heal you’ and ‘If you come to church we will be praying for people.’

Is this right to do? I see nothing wrong with it. Again, the story of the Syro-Pheneceon, according to Mark we read 

Mark 7:24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.[g] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.

The woman came to Jesus as soon as she heard about Him. Somehow, somewhere along the line it seems someone has told her about this Jesus who heals and that He is in town. She heard!

We will be going around the houses, knocking on people’s doors, making sure people hear that they can come to Church, that Jesus is present, that Jesus has the power to heal. We will be careful to explain that it is unusual - but not that unusual. 

Of course we could tell them to just pray for themselves, and we don’t want to give the impression that Jesus hangs out down St Georges Hall and we cannot pray anywhere else. That would reinforce false doctrine in people’s minds. However - they got far worse doctrine about God than that. We want them to come to church because we want to pray for them but we want more than that for them. We want them to understand questions about suffering and we want them to know God and be informed. Those ends are better served in the context of Church than them on their own in their home or us on their door step.

Also, we will be praying for them, not them praying for themselves, and I’m sure none of us have a problem with believers praying. 

We will be doing this over two weeks and will be preaching the x4 W gospel.

Week 1 

Why does God allow sickness, suffering and bad things (Fallen, sinful, God-rejecting world) and What has He done about it? (sent Jesus to pay the price for all sin)

Week 2

Who will benefit from what God has done (All who rely on Jesus as Lord and Saviour) and When? (The promise is for complete healing in the new heavens and earth).

During the service we will pray for anyone who wants prayer, and we will provide follow up, hopefully beginning home visits doing home Bible studies etc.

The Real Danger

Of course there is one real danger and it is a concern. That is the danger of mis-communicating through publicity, or setting up false expectations that lead to disillusionment. For these reasons we will not shove tracts through people’s doors but will give personal invitations verbally and give the flyer for details. Second, we will be teaching about it as best we can. Third, perhaps someone will get healed, perhaps someone will begin the journey to faith. Rather than allow fear of danger stop us doing it, we believe the potential benefits are worth the risk, so we will do our best to minimise the dangers, pray like a storm, then take the step of faith.

Every time we have  taken risky steps of faith in the past, God has been thrilled us with what He has done and it has been a joy and blessing to the church and unbelievers too. That does not guarantee success on this occasion - but if we fail, we will have failed in faith!

God and Fairies - what's the difference?

Is it reasonable to be closed minded about God like we might be about, say, Fairies at the bottom of the garden?

Imagine your 4 year old daughter found a toy wand and a tiny, frilly dolls dress at the bottom of your garden. She is convinced by this that there are fairies at the bottom of the garden - but you can never be convinced because you are mature and wise and not childish. Some people treat the idea of God like that. But God and Fairies are not comparable and here's why.

Billions of lives have been changed by the Christian faith, marriages saved, criminals transformed, the course of history has been determined by it. It has produced some of the worlds greatest ever minds. It has produced some of the world’s greatest institutions such as schools, universities, hospitals, orphanages etc. Wars have been fought over it. People have been martyred for it. More academic volumes have been written about it than any other subject. We could go on. The same cannot be said of fairies or Father Christmas or any other fairy tale stuff. Anyway, parents knowingly pretend about fairies to their little children, no-one is pretending about God. 

God and fairies are not comparable. That is why it is reasonable to be closed minded about fairies - but not about God!

Honestly, are you open minded about God? 

Christian perspective on the struggle of Life on Estates

Life on council estates is a Kingdom of STRUGGLE, but there is an alternative for you!

If you live on a council estate, the fact is, you are among the 13.5 million poorest and exploited of our unjust society. Your job prospects are rubbish, minimum wage, short term contracts if any at all, no rights whatsoever, no holiday pay, long hours, benefits that are complicated and meagre, it's almost impossible to build a descent life for yourself and your children - It's relentless and wrong and I hate it!

People should know, a lack of motivation to work is not necessarily a sign of laziness. The fact is, no-one really wants to do the jobs that are on offer because they are exploitative. People  are treated like spongers, not because they don't wanna work, but because they understanably don't want to be exploited. It's not the work in itself, it's the abusive nature of the work. Pressure to work through breaks, eyes on you all the time, worked like a dog for a pittance, basically, people are treated like crap. Why should anyone have to put up with it!

All this is bad enough, and although few may be able to get out of the poverty trap and exploitation, for most on estates, perhaps for you, life is marked by a big STRUGGLE on every front.

Raising children with no money - struggle.

Work - struggle

Paying bills - struggle

Poor food and clothes budget - struggle

Doing the shopping - struggle

Juggling work and child care - struggle

Unemployed? - struggle

Getting rubbish to the tip - struggle without a car

Running a car - struggle!

All this struggle is a result of sin. It ravages lives. Much of it is the sin of the selfish rich in exploiting the poor. 

Another Way

But this world we live in is not all there is! There is another community you can be part of, another 'Kingdom' that Jesus is establishing. You can be part of that. And as I once read somewhere, His Kingdom is not just pie in the sky when you die, but meat on your plate while you wait! Jesus' Kingdom is not just a promise for the future, but He makes a substantial difference now too.

Jesus alternative Kingdom began 2000 years ago, you can become part of it now. It is a kingdom of righteousness and justice, goodness, fairness, hope and grace. Most of all, entering that Kingdom means all your own guilt gets dealt with.

Yes, you are a victim of the system and you have been sinned against. But the truth is, you are not just a victim, others have been your victim. You have also 'sinned', think of all the people you have hurt in life - that's sin and you, like me and everyone else, need a new, fresh start, free of guilt. You may not feel like that but one day you will know it's true - because we will all give an account to God.

On that day, it would be the worst of tragedies if you - having been exploited by the rich in this life, then find you are shut out from God's kingdom for eternity because you never dealt with your own sin in this life.

That is why I live here in Moulsecoomb. I want the exploited of this world to at least know the hope, joy and promise of God's coming Kingdom and to begin entering now. No matter what your situation, and despite your very real STRUGGLE, you can know genuine peace, hope, strength, stability, purpose and meaning, forgiveness and freedom from guilt. These are what the Christian faith offer. Don't dismiss it out of hand. If you wanna know more - ask me! jrebera.nlc@gmail.com or 07534987583

Christian perspective on the struggle of 'Life on Estates'

Life on council estates is a Kingdom of STRUGGLE, but there is an alternative for you!

If you live on a council estate, the fact is, you are among the 13.5 million poorest and exploited of our unjust society. Your job prospects are rubbish, minimum wage, short term contracts if any at all, no rights whatsoever, no holiday pay, long hours, benefits that are complicated and meagre, it's almost impossible to build a descent life for yourself and your children - It's relentless and wrong and I hate it!

People should know, a lack of motivation to work is not necessarily a sign of laziness. The fact is, no-one really wants to do the jobs that are on offer because they are exploitative. People  are treated like spongers, not because they don't wanna work, but because they understanably don't want to be exploited. It's not the work in itself, it's the abusive nature of the work. Pressure to work through breaks, eyes on you all the time, worked like a dog for a pittance, basically, people are treated like crap. Why should anyone have to put up with it!

All this is bad enough, and although few may be able to get out of the poverty trap and exploitation, for most on estates, perhaps for you, life is marked by a big STRUGGLE on every front.

Raising children with no money - struggle.

Work - struggle

Paying bills - struggle

Poor food and clothes budget - struggle

Doing the shopping - struggle

Juggling work and child care - struggle

Unemployed? - struggle

Getting rubbish to the tip - struggle without a car

Running a car - struggle!

All this struggle is a result of sin. It ravages lives. Much of it is the sin of the selfish rich in exploiting the poor. 

Another Way

But this world we live in is not all there is! There is another community you can be part of, another 'Kingdom' that Jesus is establishing. You can be part of that. And as I once read somewhere, His Kingdom is not just pie in the sky when you die, but meat on your plate while you wait! Jesus' Kingdom is not just a promise for the future, but He makes a substantial difference now too.

Jesus alternative Kingdom began 2000 years ago, you can become part of it now. It is a kingdom of righteousness and justice, goodness, fairness, hope and grace. Most of all, entering that Kingdom means all your own guilt gets dealt with.

Yes, you are a victim of the system and you have been sinned against. But the truth is, you are not just a victim, others have been your victim. You have also 'sinned', think of all the people you have hurt in life - that's sin and you, like me and everyone else, need a new, fresh start, free of guilt. You may not feel like that but one day you will know it's true - because we will all give an account to God.

On that day, it would be the worst of tragedies if you - having been exploited by the rich in this life, then find you are shut out from God's kingdom for eternity because you never dealt with your own sin in this life.

That is why I live here in Moulsecoomb. I want the exploited of this world to at least know the hope, joy and promise of God's coming Kingdom and to begin entering now. No matter what your situation, and despite your very real STRUGGLE, you can know genuine peace, hope, strength, stability, purpose and meaning, forgiveness and freedom from guilt. These are what the Christian faith offer. Don't dismiss it out of hand. If you wanna know more - ask me! jrebera.nlc@gmail.com or 07534987583

Boko Haram chants "Allahu Akbar" [God is great], a Christian response

Rather than follow on from my last post, I felt I should comment on Boko Haram. This is a long post, but it is a big subject.

I am quite public about my faith in God. So it surprises me that people don't ask and challenge me ... "Julian, where is your God?" I wish they would ask me. Atrocities such as Boko Haram's should cause people to ask questions of people like me. Perhaps people are too polite so I thought I'd answer the questions anyway.

Boko Haram (BH) is a fundamental islamist group operating lout of North East Nigeria. BH has recently emerged from obscurity to become an international household name. Not fame but infamy. Their crime, the kidnapping of girls from a school in Nigeria three weeks ago.

Less known is the fact that, just last Monday BH unleashed hell on a busy market in North East Nigeria, indiscriminately spraying bullets in all directions. Those not killed ran for cover by locking themselves in shops. BH's response? Burn the shops! The death toll is at 310 civillians shot or burned to death.

During the massacre the BH shouted and chanted the words "Allahu Akbar" which means  "God is great".

This massacre, like the recent abduction was in God's name. 

As Christians we maintain that God is essentially Love, and is all powerful, All wise, All seeing, Sovereign (meaning nothing at all, past, present and future is hidden from Him. Nothing can surprise Him or scupper His plans, nothing is outside of His control). 

So how can an all powerful God of love sit back idly in heaven, watching BH commit his atrocities in God's name? How can God see where these poor girls are being held, yet do nothing? What kind of a God is He? Surely the fact that this happened proves that either there is no God, or if there is he doesn't care, or if he does he isn't powerful and so can't help. My answer to that is, such a God would be useless and not worth spitting on.

BH is right about one thing, God is Great, but BH knows nothing of God.

God is great, He is Love, all power belongs to Him. God can totally obliterate Boko Haram and set free those girls. God could easily have intervened and prevented BH slaughtering 310 on Monday. 

So why hasn't God intervened? Why doesn't He intervene? These are the questions I want to answer.

1) GOD IS GREAT! My starting point is to underline what the Bible teaches. God is Great! All powerful, All seeing, All wise, unstoppable, indestructible, pure, righteous and good in every conceivable way.

2) SOMETHING IS WRONG: BH and their atrocities (and a million other examples can be given) show us our world is seriously, very, very seriously corrupt, screwed up and that SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG.

3) NO-ONE CAN FIX IT. Even if those girls are all rescued unharmed, and I pray they are, they have been seriously traumatised. They are already damaged. Insecurity has already devastated their lives. They may learn to live again but damage has been done and nothing can undo it. This world is full of the walking wounded. Full of devastated lives.

4) IT WILL NOT STOP. Even if BH is stamped out, and I pray it is, others will rise up in their place. Apart from that, a million other permeations of total evil are rife from the trafficking of little girls and boys as sex slaves to so-called legitimate wars and regime change with the terrible wickedness and suffering that all brings.

Why then does God allow it?

God allows it because we, you and I, all of us, that is this world, have, on the whole chosen to reject God. That is the truth.  We reject God as God but we would have Him as our Servant. Those are our terms. We all would like a God more like a Genie, who will grant unlimited wishes. We do not want a God who rules over us. We want to rule our own lives, our own families, our own destinies. True? Therefore we reject God.

God, in all His love wants to be in relationship with us, he wants to rule over our lives and this world because He loves us and because He can make all things good. But He will not force himself on the world or anyone in it. He accepts our choice to live without Him.

The story of the Prodigal Son in the Bible is helpful. (Click this link to read it) in this story the son takes his inheritance from his father, blows it, gets into severe trouble and hardship, then comes to his senses and returns to his father.

God wants us to come to our senses. He wants us to realise we cannot rule the world without Him without severe consequences for humanity. Of course, God could intervene whenever bad stuff is going to happen. We would love that. We would live our godless lives, getting all the benefits of God whilst rejecting Him. We would happily use God when we want him and discard Him like a worthless piece of rubbish when we're done with Him, until of course we want Him again. 

If God did stuff on our terms He would cease to be God. He would be pathetic. But God is Great! And He will not compromise His greatness.

So he does grant mankind's main wish, that we be in charge of this world. This is the world you and I have chosen. A godless world full of godless people living godless lives doing godless things, sometimes, like BH, in the name of God.

Most of us would have God intervene, deal with BH and then He can "piss off" again so that we can do whatever we want.

My question is this. How bad, evil, wicked and cruel do things have to get before the world turns to Jesus? How bad has it got to get before the world realises it is in desperate need of God? I think the answer is this: The world, as a whole will never turn back to God. As long as the majority have enough of what they want out of this life - the world will not turn to God - despite the fact our neighbours pay a terrible price of suffering - as long as it's not me. That is the problem, we are all very selfish. The Bible calls this SIN.


Apart from the wickedness of mankind, there are other powerful spiritual forces of evil at work too - demonic spirits.

I realise this sounds ridiculous. But there are such spirit creatures, limited in number, invisible, but their effects are clearly visible. Boko Haram, far from representing God is doubtless demonically driven. Ordinary people don't do the stuff they are doing. There is an evil force behind them and they don't even know it. It is the same evil force at work in men who abuse children, it is the same demonic evil influence that fills people to want to eat other people, torture them and be unspeakably wicked.

We have rejected God and so live in a world at the mercy of demonic spirits at work in both our world system and in individuals, and we are at the mercy of basically selfish people - that's all of us.

SO WHAT THEN? But this is God's world. He created it and He will not allow it to go on forever as it is. He has set a time when He will return and put an end to all evil and suffering and will establish His Kingdom over which He Himself will rule with love and Justic forever. He will rid the world or all evil once for all.

WHAT HAS GOD DONE? When we see the evil in the world we respond by posting protest posters on Face Book, perhaps you send the odd £20 to alleviate suffering, maybe you give £2 per month to sponsor a child in poverty. While we respond in our way, we wonder, "Why doesn't this so-called God do something?". But He has. When God saw the human misery that exists as a result of our SIN and evil, He sent His Son into the world, to demonstrate the goodness of God and His power and His Kingdom, and then to take upon Himself all our SIN, to pay the price for it so that we can know full healing, full forgiveness, and be united with God.

WHAT IS GOD DOING RIGHT NOW? Right now God is recruiting people into His Kingdom. Through the message of the gospel we get to come back to God, be totally forgiven so that in this world we can begin to live under His rule. Then when He returns, we will have a place in His new world.

All who continue to reject, will continue to get what they want - a world without God - but then (when He returns) it will not be this world. God will have taken back everything that is His, that is everything that is good. What will be left, Bible calls hell. Hell is the inheritance of all who reject God because Hell is all there is without Him.

If God intervenes now, the question is, are you in His Kingdom, or outside of it?

Wanna know more, message any questions.

What is truly worth dying for?

A great Christian man called DL Moody reportedly said, "If you have nothing worth dying for, then you have nothing worth living for". Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Surely we all want things in life that are so good, so precious they are worth dying for. Those are things really worth living for.

We humans, despite being wonderfully endowed with massive brain power and ability to think carefully in a way unmatched by any other creature known to us in the universe, too often act and even think instinctively as though we are just like all the lower animals not having the power of thought we posses.

So, most commonly we answer DL Moody's words instinctively (not thoughtfully) by saying things like, "my children are what is most precious, they are worth dying for so they are worth living for".

There is no doubt that all human life is precious, and it is natural and right to feel strongly about our children. But that is an animalistic response, it is instinctive and emotional, and very powerful. But it does not use our highest faculty - thought.

What if we think about it rather than react instinctively? Then I think rational reasoning would go like this...

D L Moody "If you've got nothing worth dying for then you've got nothing worth living for"

Us "I do have something worth dying for, that is my children, so I do have something worth living for, that is, my children".

D L Moody "What's so great about your children that their lives are of more value than yours? If your child goes on to find the cure for Malaria or cancer, or if your child is going to end wars, or if your child is going to eradicate pornography and human trafficking, yeah, that is a really important and significant life worth dying for. But if your child is going to be mostly selfish, bum around, be a bit of a bully, spend his best time playing X Box, perhaps doing an ordinary job that earns his living, is that really a life worth dying for? 

If we say our children are worth dying for and so worth living for, then, rationally speaking, either we place a huge burden upon them to do something great with their lives, or if they live trivial lives, we have wasted and trivialised our own precious lives living for their trivial lives.

As much as I love my wife and four beautiful daughters, I am not persuaded that they are living lives that are particularly better than anyone else's, and neither do I want to shoulder them with a burden of feeling they must achieve greatness. But neither do I want to trivialise my own precious life.

There has got to be a 'reason' for living. A rational purpose that makes life worthwhile. And it has got to be more than just my children. After all, they will probably live for their children, who will live for their children, and so on until humanity and eventually all life dies out. Then what? Then it will be that we all lived for something that came to nothing.

A great man in the Bible reflected on this and wrote ...

"Man who is born of a woman, flowers and then fads away, like a shadow that flees at the sunset, in a lifetime that's just like a day". (Job)

And Shakespeare sums up most of our lives well, 

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"

In other words, ultimately, life is absurd and meaningless. There's surely more to life than this!

In my next blog I will explain how Jesus rationally, emotionally, mentally and spiritually can give ultimate meaning to all our lives.

Working for the Gospel

This Easter, we at New Life Church are putting on a community 3 day Easter Event. We are a small church and so for us, this is a big deal. A small number of people will be working really hard over those three days to make the event the best event we have ever done. An even smaller group have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes.

Why do this stuff? That is an important question since we usually have mixed motives and sometimes, mainly wrong motives. An example would be - 

"We are doing it because we feel, we suppose we ought to. It is an obligation as part of the church."

That motive has nothing good about it in God's eyes because there is no heart or pleasure in it. It is like a burden that we reluctantly take on and look forward to unloading so that we have got it out of the way and done our part.

Another motive which seems better - certainly sounds good, but in the end is potentially no good at all is ... 

"We are doing it for the sake of the gospel, we want people to know about Jesus". 

How can that be a wrong motive? I can hear you say, "Julian, don't you often say things like, "this is for the sake of the gospel"?

The problem is, we intellectually agree the gospel is primary, but a lot of the time our hearts prefer other things. So we know in our heads we should do this or that for the gospel, but our hearts are not in it. We do it just because we know we "ought" to do it.

When we talk about doing something for the sake of the gospel, it becomes a right motive when our hearts are in it, when we mean something like,

"I have been captivated by Jesus, He is wonderful in my eyes. My heart is thrilled by Him. When I consider what He has done for me I just want to give myself to Him completely. And when I realise most people do not know anything about this wonderful treasure - Jesus and what He has done and what He is like, I will do anything to help them see what I see that they too may share with me in this joy."

In that situation a person is filled with the gospel, compelled by it, joyfully given to it and motivated by it, for it, they cannot think of anything better than the gospel, it makes their hearts fill up and overflow.

That is what you might call a gospel person. That is what every Christian should be. But to be a gospel person, we must fight battles and discipline ourselves to keep ourselves in the conscious love and joy of Jesus. That is what is meant by 'for the sake of the gospel'.

A gospel person with an overflowing heart sees the kind of events we are doing as an opportunity to do something with the overflow of their hearts. For a gospel person, doing something for the sake of the gospel is not even a sacrifice because it is where their hearts are at. It is a sacrifice when our hearts prefer other things to Jesus, because then we are sacrificing what we really love for something we feel obliged to do - that feels like a cost. But when the gospel person works hard for the sake of the gospel he says like Hudson Taylor, "I never made a sacrifice".

So as we engage in gospel work, check your own heart. if you're heart's not in it, what is the answer? We'll answer that tomo.