I cannot thank Henry and Tara enough, their dedication to the gospel – their confidence to preach Christ and Him crucified, sin and Hell.

I was fortunate enough to find opportunity to take some photos during some of the events.  Below a couple of favourites, the others as always can be viewed on flickr:

Something I’ve come to admire so much of Piper is his almost blinkered, whole centered, obsession with God’s glory, and desire for having a Biblical practicing of it.

I’m becoming more convicted each day of the truth that if we as Christians could find more enjoyment in God, if we could find out satisfaction purely in Him, that is absolutely to say in scrapping TVs, game consoles, unnecessary holidays, loans, gadgets and the rest, we would become more human. We would become more satisfied, more excited, more joyful, more complete, more as we were designed to be.

A superb sermon yesterday evening looking at an introduction to prayer, considering that God promises that if we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart. That’s powerful, deep stuff. God will always without hesitation satisfy fully, most completely, without restraint, our desire for Him. So if we solely seek satisfaction in God, our good and holy, perfect God, we will be made totally satisfied.

As my fallen nature encourages me to struggle through this life by my own futile strength, seeking satisfaction in money, relationships, jobs, and often even knowledge or experience, I become more and more dissatisfied, and I’m starting, just starting, to understand why that is. I know it at an intellectual level, but not at a real, applied one.

So my prayer today and forever until He returns or calls me home is that me and all my brothers and sisters would find more delight in the Lord each day. And for those who are no yet saved, that God would graciously and mercifully reveal His glory to them, so they may too find real satisfaction for an eternity.

~

Something else, slightly off topic which had never occurred to me, is that humanity is immortal.

Now that needs to be expanded because upon first reading it may sound like we are God. We are not God. All I said was, we are immortal.

We are immortal, because God designed us so. We are both physical and spiritual beings, one and at the same time. As Christians we know that when we die, we will go to be with our Lord forever. But those who are not elect don’t just cease to exist. On the contrary: they exist for eternity too. In turmoil.

So again, I’m reminded to be careful in what I say. Our fallen human bodies are not immortal, but our persons are. That is a powerful statement for evangelism.

Note: this entry is brief and possibly not well expressed. I will continue to expand upon it, rewrite badly put parts and add more references as time goes on. Please feel free to contact me or leave a comment if there’s something you particularly agree or disagree with. (Or to point out a mistake)

Suggested reading: “Let the nations be glad” — John Piper

I write this in response to the increasingly common Christian attitude that the chief end of man, (i.e. our single, designed purpose) is evangelism. I’ve seen it taught inside the Essex University Christian Union, and worryingly by some UCCF representatives too.

The attitude is (firstly wrong, because it contradicts the Bible, but also) problematic because it robs God of His glory and depresses us as Christians.

When we evangelize, if we make the saving of souls our single most important goal, we feel that we’ve failed when people don’t turn to Christ. We also don’t grow as Christians, because all we’re ever teaching and learning is the “nutshell gospel”. Worse still, we have every reason to remove God’s wrath, hell and sin from our proclamation! Can you see where this is going? A theology that states our single aim is to evangelize (which is, subtly, even worse that solely aiming to seeing people saved) isn’t what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that everything is for God’s glory, and His glory alone, by us finding our delight in Him (Isaiah 60:21, Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 6:20,31, Revelation 4:11, Phillipians 4:4). Then, because of that enlightenment, we realize that we have to evangelize, because:

• We’ll be obeying God’s command.
• People who repent will glorify Him. Forever.
• Those who reject us will be judged justly, and we will be blessed for our suffering.

Where do we go with rejection? That’s simple, if you grasp God’s authority. God is Just, and the Judge of all. Before Him every knee will bow. Those who reject God in this life will be justly punished (Genesis 18:24-26, Jude 1:14-16). We preach Christ crucified, and God opens eyes. It’s God’s choice as to who He saves (Romans 8:28-30)! And the rejection we receive isn’t against us, it’s against God.

So what should a Christian Union look like? Well, it should be pushing students into good churches, teaching the Bible regularly, (and in it’s entirety), and providing opportunity for students to glorify God on their campus. It should be set apart; teaching that Christian girls should be fully clothed with no underwear or unnecessary flesh showing, that Christian student language should be unquestionably clean, their choice of TV and films should be different, the way they react toward one another in love, the list goes on.

Evangelism should naturally spring out of this. Driven by local churches, the CU should be seeking to love God so much that their desire to please Him and do His will (which is not just evangelism) should occur straight away without hesitance. The problem is, the CU currently teaches this set of laws, that you “should be in a church” and “you need to do your evangelism”, completely misaligned! There is one rule, and that is to love God! And that shouldn’t be considered a law, because we should be so overwhelmed with His saving and common grace that we can’t help but love Him!

If CUs were to get into this mindset, I believe wholeheartedly that they would be seeing more happen.

There’s also the problem that Christians won’t preach that sin is wrong, that we’re headed for hell, and that being a Christian really isn’t all that easy. It’s good, it’s the best thing! But it’s not easy. That shocks me. But it’s for another time.