I LOVE YOU BUT YOUR BODY MAKES ME SICK.

Dear Oaks,

in John 3:19 Jesus says “people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

This weeks devotional is entitled:
I LOVE YOU BUT YOUR BODY MAKES ME SICK.

After 22 years as a church leader I have grown very used to people turning their back on the church.  Sometimes, even quite often, they have cited some way in which the church has let them down.  Other times they have spoken of intellectual reasons or scientific discoveries as to why they can no longer believe.

I always want to take seriously what they say since the church has always to be open to where we can love people better.  I also need to hear the issues around reason and intellect that undermine faith in some.

But I am convinced that the main reason people turn their back on church is that they are in fact rejecting Jesus as their Lord.  Many want him as their saviour but not as their king.

In the verse I began with we see one of the explanations Jesus gives as to their rejection of him.  The reason is that they prefer the darkness to the light; their sin is preferred to discipleship.  So often we might be tempted to blame ourselves when people walk away from the community that is the church but we must always remember that it is not necessarily us they reject but rather the call to The One who is the God of holiness.

Of course I have also heard people say that they love God but they just cannot hack the church.  Whilst we all may have some sympathy at times with this view, it really does not stand up to scriptural examination.  The church is the body of Christ.  It would be like a husband saying to his wife “I love you but your body makes me sick.”

However failed the church might be it is still, and always will be the body of Christ.  As apprentices of Jesus we have no option but to be totally committed to church.  By this I do not mean Sunday services.  Church is much more than that!

But it does include Sunday Services.  This is the one time in the whole week when we can come together as the whole family to worship, to learn and to encourage one another.  It is also the one time in the week when visitors and enquirers can come in and see if God is really up to something or not.

But back to the main point.  The proof of loving God is to be able to love one another.  If people reject the church they are in fact rejecting Jesus.  How do I know?

Let me allow scripture to make the point.
Anyone who does not love his brother or sister (in Christ), whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”

So why do people turn their backs on church?  Either because there was no real love for God in the first place or because they prefer the darkness to the light, for darkness gives cover to their rebellion.

As for us let us rejoice that God is adding to our number those that are learning both to love God and to live it out in committed community with one another.

Every blessing,

Mark

Hot Thanks

Dear Oaks,

God’s timing is certainly different to ours.

Dear Oaks,

Those of you who were in church last Sunday will have heard me say that the opening of 216, our new church building, has been delayed for two weeks.  Instead of our hoped for opening on 16 January we are now looking at 30 January 2011.  Even so that is only 13 weeks away!

This is due to the builders being instructed by the building inspector to dig deeper foundations.  A very good reason if that is what required, I am sure you will agree.

Sadly it means that 216 will still be a building site over the Christmas period and we shall not be able to use it.  So for one last Christmas our carol service will be at Twyford on 19 December and if you are in Acton on Christmas Day then grace one of the other local churches with your presence!

I wonder if you have ever prayed this prayer? “Lord help me to be patient but Lord do it NOW.”

We live in an instant society and patience is not easily fostered and certainly not esteemed.  But the Bible is full of examples of waiting.  Just think of the delay in getting God’s people out of slavery as Pharoah first ignored Moses cry for freedom; then agreed and then repeatedly changed his mind.  Even when they got out they spent 40 years wondering in the desert.

Or how about the 6-7 centuries between the prophecies of Isaiah and others of the coming of the Messiah and the actual incarnation as Christ was born in Bethlehem.  God’s timing is certainly different to ours.

So what are you asking God for that is surely according to his will?  What are you waiting for?  Perhaps you have even given up expectant waiting and hope has died?

Well in the time I have I cannot examine all of the different reasons for waiting.  But just maybe its because God who is both architect, builder and resident of the building of your life is demanding deeper foundations.

Well you knew there had to be a sermon in there somewhere! So Lord give us patience and in our waiting we shall pray in certain expectation that he who is the one who said he would “build his church” will indeed deliver in Acton with perfect timing.  And it will be much more than bricks and mortar!

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

In the Fathers love,

Mark

Madonna is an idol to many

21 Days of Gratitude – Day 1

Today Oak Tree is thankful for:

The joy of technology to build community.

You can join in with us on Facebook or in the forum on the website by telling us:

What are You thankful for?

Last week, the staff took some time out of the busy office to pray and worship together. We had a brilliant time and  our speaker for the day, Mark Philps from Christ Church in Harrow, shared his insights into the role of thanksgiving in keeping us close to God. Mark Aldridge mentioned this in his blog last week too.

Mark Philps told us his congregation had had 21 Days of Gratitude to help them engage again with being thankful and we loved the idea. So we would love you to join us in making time each day for the next 21 days to reflect on what you are thankful to God for in the previous 24 hours, or in general. We will be putting a blog up with our thoughts and reflections each week day.

(img src: affirmyourlife.blogspot.com)

Gratitude is a gateway

Dear Oaks,

As a staff team we went away on Tuesday for a day of prayer, worship, reflection and eating!  Sadly Teresa who is on honeymoon and Tony who is on a course could not join us.  But Mark, Carrie, Ruth and Thalie joined me for an enjoyable and profitable day.

As part of it we asked Mark Philps a local vicar to come and speak to us.  The Lord led him to talk about thanksgiving, it was a very timely word!

I don’t know if you are a half full or half empty sort of person but all of us are prone to forgetting and overlooking the goodness of God.  As in any relationship so much can be taken for granted.

It is thanksgiving that corrects our perspective on life when we can only see the disappointments and it takes us from a place of discouragement to a place of praise. The psalmist tells us

“let us come before him with thanksgiving” and “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100).

Gratitude is a gateway in to the presence of God.

We are looking at ways that we can post daily “thank yous” on our OT web site so look out for this new feature!  In the meantime a man called Ignatius did what he called a prayer of examine.  This required him looking back over his day and taking stock of every little thing he could thank God for.  Why not give it a go?

And finally, on Sunday we shall be having a South African Service, with food from that country available to nibble throughout. So if you like Biltong or want to try a SA pudding leave a space in your stomach.  Our guest speaker will be the excellent Nigel Juckes who leads the New Wine work in that country.

In the Fathers love,

Mark

How are we winning?

Dear Oaks,

I have noticed how increasingly the church tries to attract people to its services. We add to the fact that we come to worship God and encounter Him, all sorts of other “goodies”. Food is an obvious one but we might add visual stimulation and good music and of course friendship.

On surveying my previous church as to why they came on a Sunday the result was: 1 Friendship 2 The worship 3 The sermons! (oh well at least a bronze medal!)

I believe all of those things are important but every now and then I do have to ask if we are really communicating that God is not a big enough attraction in Himself?

A W Tozer called this approach to presenting the faith as “The striped-candy technique”. He said that we justify it on the grounds that it gets people in to church and under the sound of the gospel, but to what are we really winning them too?

Is it to true discipleship? cross carrying? To holy living? To total commitment to Christ both as Saviour and Lord?

Well just in case you are worried I have no desire to stop trying to attract people to Oak Tree and for the totality of their experience being a good one. Indeed in our new building I intend there to be more opportunities to practice hospitality and to enjoy life with one another.

But Tozer has a very valid point. Are some Christians bored with God? And before you say that you are not or that it is the church that makes God seem boring, remember you are the church. Please feel free to come to church so overflowing with his life that the presence of God spills out through prophetic words, healings of the sick and the winning of the lost.

Let us go on seeking to carry the presence of God wherever we go in such a way as to be a holy contagious people. Even this Sunday let us join together in proclaiming to one another and to any visitors that God is certainly not a boring God but rather the most dynamic being you could ever wish to meet.

And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Luke 24:52f

Every blessing,

Mark

Going further up and further in

Dear Oaks,

God appeared to Solomon one night (2 Chronicles 1:7) and said “ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

Solomon asked not for riches, power, good looks or even for Bristol Rovers to get in to the Premier League (my choice left to the flesh!). He asks for wisdom and knowledge to lead the people (verse 10).

In fact God gives him even more than he asks for. To discover something of Gods enormous generosity read verses 11 and 12!

My question to you, dear Oak, is what would be the one thing you would ask of God?

Like Oliver Twist my answer would be “More”. In The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis we read ‘Don’t stop! Further up and further in,’ called Farsight…Jewel also cried out: ‘Don’t stop. Further up and further in! Take it in your stride.’

Later on we read ‘they all found they were swimming straight for the waterfall itself.’

Simon Ponsonby has written “if we could hear the angels, we would hear them crying ‘Don’t stop! Further up and further in!’ and if we could hear the voice of God, we would hear him bid us come -’Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls’ (psalm 42:7).

I would ask for more intimacy with God. More power to impart salvation in all its forms. More Christ likeness, more love, more holiness, more, more, more of him!

Is that selfish? Absolutely not! God loves us to ask for more of him.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil (compared with the holiness of God), know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

On Wednesday evening it is our next Church Central (everyone welcome at Acton Green Church, Cunnington Street, W4 at 8pm). We shall discover ways to go further up and further in to the life and ministry of Jesus.

In the Fathers love,

Mark

Dear Saints

Dear Oaks, (or after my sermon on Sunday should that be “Dear Saints”),

I am really enjoying studying and thinking about the subject of holiness. God is lovingly and mercifully challenging me to kill off any and every counterfeit god. It is a bit of mystery to me as to how this works for it is at the same time both painful and incredibly liberating.

Idols are slave masters that demand a great deal. When the idols (the counterfeit gods) are smashed there is such a wonderful sense of peace. Pain and peace are not often found in close proximity but that is how it seems to me.

Paradox is found everywhere in the Christian life. one of the contradictions that we must understand is that we are both holy already and still being made holy. We are both saints and sinners. We are both guilty and declared innocent.

Romans 3:25-26 says “God presented him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand un-punished, he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Complicated stuff! Well not really if you are prepared to take God at his word.

Put simply we have sinned but they have been deliberately left unpunished. Or more precisely someone else (Christ) was made the sacrificial Lamb who carries the can for all of us. Or more precisely again, for those who have faith in Jesus and his innocent blood shed as the ransom price in order for us to go free.

A penalty was paid (the death penalty imposed on Gods only begotten Son) and so justice was demonstrated. At least in God’s eyes whereas to my natural eyes it seems an injustice for Jesus to die for my crime. But with God mercy always triumphs over justice.

So if you have faith in Jesus and the penalty he bore for you on the cross then sin is dealt with and thus you are justified (declared not guilty). The not guilty are classified as holy; the saints.

So the cross of Christ has changed everything. We are both holy for God gave us righteousness in exchange when he took our sin, and yet we sin.

Now we must become what God already says we are. We cannot lose the deal is done! But we can either live in the freedom of deep love for the one who saved us, or we can labour under the slave masters that the bible calls idols.

It is a paradox or so it seems but it is time to take God at his word. So you saints get rejoicing!

See you Sunday if not before. Love,

Mark

Holiness

Dear Oaks,

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