Food for thought - Pointless faith

(Local Newspaper Column - I'm writing my holiday articles at the moment so I thought I'd post a few of them this week.)

Socrates, the Greek thinker, reputedly said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

You could also say that the unexamined faith is not worth having.

I suppose if you were to ask most people in Ireland they would say, "Oh, I've got my faith." And if you pressed them about how they came to this faith, they'd say, "Well I was born a ______________ (fill in your own religion), and I'll die a _______________."? Why? Have they thought about it? How do they know that that is the best one?

We all have a tendency to grow up believing what our parents believed. But how many have actually looked at what they believe? Perhaps many are banking on what they've been told being right. What if it's not?

If your father fervently believed that running naked through a field of nettles was a great cure for a cold, would you blindly continue his tradition or would look for some manner of proof before you committed yourself wholeheartedly to following his course?

Nevertheless, many Irish people, Protestant and Catholic, do this in matters of religion. They hold blindly to what their fathers and mothers believed. But they have never examined it themselves. They have never asked any questions. For example:

Does it make sense? How does it measure up with what the Bible says, about man, about God, about salvation? Don't take it for granted just because your minister or priest or pastor says it, get your Bible out and check for yourself. The Bible nowhere commands us to accept everything we hear, instead it urges us to:

"Test everything." - 1 Thessalonians 5:21

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" - 1 John 4:1

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." - Acts 17:11

The next obvious question is, "How do I know the Bible is true?" Have you looked at that one? Or perhaps like many you just assume that it is a load of fairy tales with no basis in history, and that it has been largely disproved by scientists? How wrong you would be!

The unexamined belief is not worth having. It isn't worth the paper your baptism certificate, membership certificate, confirmation certificate, communion certificate is written on. Because unless we examine what we believe and make sure that it is right, and that it personally applies to us, then it will not save us.

Those two qualifications are important. We must make sure that what we believe is true. It isn't enough to be sincere in what we belief. We could be sincerely wrong. God has made it clear enough in his word what the way of salvation is - he wants us to examine his word and make sure we have heard what he says.

And it isn't enough that we know we have the right beliefs, because a head knowledge doesn't save either. It takes a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ to save. You can grow up in a church where the true gospel is taught and be just as lost as the next man, because you haven't taken time to think it over for yourself.

The unexamined faith is not worth having.

Abortion, Murder, and a crazy legal situation

Great article by Tim Challies about a sad yet absurd situation in America. Go Read it.

Food for thought - The week that was

(Local Newspaper Column)
And here is last week's news:

"Porn Star in training" - that's the slogan on a t-shirt aimed at pre-teen girls and upwards. The actress Liz Hurley wore a t-shirt with the slogan recently, and now it seems the 'in thing'. Is it just me, or is that asking for trouble?

In a world of increasing child abuse it is almost beyond belief that a company could make and market such a t-shirt. But what really beggars belief is that a parent would buy it or allow their child to wear it.

But then again, maybe not…

Former singer, Coleen Nolan, promised her son sex with a prostitute if he passed his GCSEs. She was appearing on ITV's lunchtime show, 'Loose Women' when she made the claim. Not only that, but her fiancé is going on the trip, and she says she has no problem with him having a one-night stand too.

Is it just me or…?

She has defended her position in the press by saying, "her son wanted to go to Amsterdam because it was 'every teenager's fantasy'". She claims she isn't irresponsible because he has already had sex, so this is just more of the same.

It could be argued that it isn't every teenager's fantasy, and that other teenagers have different fantasies, some fantasize about having the biggest fastest car and driving it recklessly on the roads - and we wouldn't for a moment think of indulging them. Others, it would seem from recent events in England, have much darker fantasies, about murdering younger children. Is it our job to indulge our children's fantasies, whatever they are?

I think it's a fair comment that we live in a sex-mad world. A cursory glance at the TV guide will tell you that: Sex in the City, Celebrity Love Island, Desperate Housewives, and I see that Big Brother is back again.

Add to that the very public acts performed on the streets of Letterkenny and most other Irish towns on a Friday or Saturday evening. Not only do we live in a sex-mad world, but in an unashamedly sex-mad world. Everything revolves around it. It has become the be-all and end-all of life.

And at the other end of the scale in this week's news: A Leicester hospital has set out to ban Bibles from the patients' bedsides, on the grounds that it was insulting to other religions and could spread diseases. This is despite the fact that not one complaint has ever been received from someone having been insulted by the provision of a Gideon Bible. And despite the fact that Muslim and Sikh leaders in Leicester said that it is a good thing to have spiritual books at the bedside of sick people. As for the dreaded MRSA, that probably has far more to do with the hygiene of hospital procedure than hospital reading material - are they going to ban newspapers too?

We live in a world that has turned things upside-down. We call evil, good. We have made something vulgar into a fashion accessory. We have made something precious and beautiful into something common and cheap. We have made a god out of the gift rather than worshipping the giver of the gift. And we have turned our backs on God's word, and wish to stop others reading it too.

It might be shocking to us, but God had long ago predicted it in his word:

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them… For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened… Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is for ever praised. Amen…" - Romans 1:18ff

What we are seeing, is not just a world departing from God, but a world under God's judgment. Romans 1:28 "Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." In other words, when we see such wickedness around us, it should be a real wake up call, that God is judging Ireland. Because we don't think his opinion matters, he has given us over to living in our own mess. And people wonder why so many disasters occur and would insist that we don't deserve it!

Ireland, and the UK, need to repent, before it gets worse.

Mark Loughridge is the minister of Milford Reformed Presbyterian Church and Letterkenny New Life Fellowship.

Haloscan - Who commented where?

Sometimes some of you people are nice enough to comment on my posts. Sometimes, some of you even go the extra mile and comment on old posts. Unfortunately Haloscan doesnt tell you which post a comment belongs to.

So I was poking around on the discussion forum and found someone who has come up with a little button for your toolbar that will enable you to find which comment belongs to which post. It works really well (if you follow his instructions).

Here it is - for any of you out there who might find it useful.

Ps I haven't looked at anything else on his site, so don't take this as an endorsement for anything else that might be lurking there!

Obnoxious Calvinism

Phil Johnson starts his blog of with a belter post. As an unashamed Calvinist, I concur wholeheartedly with his assessment.

If you are new to the Reformed Faith, or a young person who has just started to grasp these truths - go and read this.

Obnoxious Calvinists annoy me more than obnoxious Arminians - and I'm meant to be on their side (the Calvinists', that is!).

Is your reading broad enough?

A few years ago I decided to start keeping a record of the books I read each year. This was partly inspired by a comment by my late great-uncle that he read on average one hundred books a year, and partly by the fact that I'm quite sad and like keeping a record of this sort of thing.

Once I started keeping a list of the books I had read, I noticed a pattern: There were areas of Christian reading that I never touched at all. I suppose we all have our own favourite types of writing that we automatically reach for. So I decided to break the list down into categories and keep a record. That way I could make sure my natural tendancies didnt cause me to leave out whole sections of the library - eg. biography, and church history.

Anyhow, I thought I'd give you my list of categories (in which I also include secular reading, since I dont want to become a complete hermit). Feel free to add and develop as you see fit.

Christian
Theology
Biography
Commentaries
Devotional
Christian Living
Apologetics
Church History
General

Non-Christian
Biography
Non-fiction
Novels

Books in Process


Happy Reading!

PS the nearest I've come to by great-uncle's total is 65. I found his notebook, where he kept a record and I see that the highest he achieved was 143!

Self-Esteem and coincidence

Sometimes a few random strings all happen to fall together…

Some random strings:

Banner of Truth Magazine lands through the letterbox
Buy London Times newspaper to do number puzzle.
Books loaned to me by a pastor away on missionary service in Peru

The weaving

In a number of contexts recently I've been thinking about self-esteem. I'm fairly convinced it's a pile of nonsense. The Christian is a worthless sinner, useless in the universe, but for some reason God has set His love on them and He esteems them. That is where their esteem comes from.

Saturday - I need input for help in counselling so I pull down a Rich Ganz book from my shelves. PsychoBabble, published by Crossway. Its not mine, but belongs to Tim Donachie a minister working in Peru. I read through most of it in one sitting. Great help. Well basically it told me stuff I should have known. More accurately it told me that when God's people use God's word to help people with their lives, they will do better than psychologists who pay no attention to the manufacturer's instructions.

Monday - Banner of Truth magazine plops on the doormat. This is a publication that excites me as much as Brussel sprouts. Anyhow - I do often read the news items and book reviews. And under News items this month was the news (strangely enough!) that Mt Olive tape library has been turned into MP3 and put on SermonAudio.com. Never having heard of Mt Olive Tape Library, I looked it up to find among their list of speakers - Ted Donnelly, Sinclair Ferguson, Eric Alexander, Geoff Thomas and, you've guessed it - Rich Ganz. So I clicked on the link for Rich and there staring me in the face was a talk entitled "Self Esteem - Myth or Marvel". I haven't listened yet, but I intend to give it a go asap.

Tuesday - I'm down at the hospital visiting, and I buy The Times to kill some time and do their number puzzle. As I flick through the rest of the paper the T2 section falls out and their on the front cover is a women kissing herself in the mirror with the headline: The Myth of Self Esteem - Why thinking you are great will get you nowhere. It was a really interesting article - here's the link, but since The Times have a habit of moving stuff, I've included the most of the article below.

Sometimes it's strange what patterns come together from seemingly disparate threads.

The Article

Forget self-esteem and learn some humility
Contrary to the received wisdom, showering yourself, your children or your employees with praise is counter-productive

IN THE film Meet the Fockers, a proud Bernie Focker attempts to impress the parents of his son's fiancée by waving to a shelf of trophies. "I didn't know they made ninth-place ribbons," says the bemused would-be father-in-law.

"They have them up to tenth place," Focker replies earnestly. "There's a bunch on the 'A for Effort' shelf there."

Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller, represents a generation of American kids reared in the 1980s on the philosophy that any achievement, however slight, deserved a ribbon. Plaudits replaced punishment; criticism became a dirty word. In Texas, teachers were advised to avoid using red ink, the colour of reprimand. In California, a task force was set up to inject the concept of self-worth into the education system. Swathing youngsters in a sturdy shield of self-esteem, went the philosophy, would protect them from the nasty things in life, such as bad school grades, underage sex, drug abuse, dead-end jobs and criminality. Even the taxman would benefit - those kids would supposedly go on to earn more. And so the National Association for Self-Esteem rolled out the feel-good mantra across the States.

Except that the ninth-place ribbons are in danger of strangling the very children they were supposed to help. America's obsession with self-esteem - like all developments in psychology, it gradually filtered its way to Britain - has turned children who were showered with compliments into adults who crumple at even the mildest brickbats. Deborah Stipek, dean of education at Stanford University, revealed recently how she keeps a box of Kleenex in her office for students who, for the first time in their lives, receive tough feedback and can't deal with it. Many believe that the feel-good culture has risen at the expense of traditional education, an opinion espoused in a new book, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add, by the conservative commentator Charles Sykes.

Not only that, but the foundations on which the self-esteem industry is built are being exposed as decidedly shaky. Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at Florida State University and once a self-esteem enthusiast, is now pioneering a revision of the populist orthodoxy. "After all these years, I'm sorry to say, my recommendation is this: forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline," he wrote recently. "Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society - and might even be able to fill some of those promises that self- esteem once made but could not keep."

In 2001, at the invitation of the American Psychological Association, Baumeister and three other academics came together to review the self-esteem literature to investigate whether a positive opinion of oneself really did trigger an avalanche of measurable benefits. After all, given that the bandwagon started rolling in the Eighties, it should be clear if the intellectual policy was paying practical dividends. The result, Baumeister says, was "one of the biggest disappointments of my career".

The take-home messages were these: high self-esteem does not of itself earn children higher grades (although high grades cause self-esteem to rise); it does not make people better at their jobs, although employees with a strong sense of self-worth may erroneously think they are more competent than their less confident colleagues (much to their colleagues' annoyance); a survey for the Harvard Business Review found that humility, rather than self-regard, is a better predictor of who will make a successful leader; far from having a low sense of self-worth, bullies and other aggressors tend to have an inflated sense of their own importance; praising a child constantly won't stop him from cheating, stealing, engaging in risky sex or abusing drugs; adults who think highly of themselves do not have better love lives, and are not necessarily more popular with their peer group than adults who don't think much of themselves.

It is not unadulterated bad news - people with high self-esteem tend to be happier, show more initiative and are less prone to eating disorders. Even so, Baumeister was unable to uncover proof that ratcheting up an individual's self-esteem could either increase happiness or reduce depression. In other words, the link is there but the evidence of causality is not. As Baumeister puts it: "Those (benefits) are nice, but they are far less than we had once hoped for, and it is very questionable whether they justify the effort and expense that schools, parents and therapists have put into raising self-esteem."

In a comprehensive article for Scientific American, Baumeister reveals that much self-esteem work is flawed because researchers have asked people to rate themselves, and psychologists accept that we are not always as truthful or impartial as we should be (psychometric tests even include questions designed to elicit the extent to which a candidate is bending the truth to appear socially desirable).

For example, when people are asked to judge both their own looks and self-esteem, a clear correlation emerges. People who rate themselves as attractive also report high self-esteem, while those who consider themselves unappealing report low self-esteem. It sounds plausible - beautiful people appear to be valued more highly in society and treated better, which may well lead to high self-esteem.

But when objective assessments are carried out - with a panel of judges deciding the attractiveness scores - the link between prettiness and self-esteem vanishes. "Clearly, those with high self-esteem are gorgeous in their own eyes but not necessarily so to others," he sums up. In fact, whenever a correlation crops up between a self-reported positive attribute and high self-esteem, it may just reflect that people who think highly of themselves rate themselves highly in other areas, perhaps without justification.

Only 200 out of around 15,000 studies used objective measures, all but emptying the pool of reliable data on self-esteem. The remaining puddle, Baumeister argues, just doesn't provide proof that self-esteem can steer an unswerving course towards fulfilment. Not only that, but an unjustifiably high self-esteem can tip over into narcissism (excessive self-love). A failure by others to return this unearned high regard can result in violence. The data on bullies, for example, shows that they report less anxiety than other children.

Baumeister concludes: "We have found little to indicate that indiscriminately promoting self-esteem in today's children or adults, just for being themselves, offers society any compensatory benefits beyond the seductive pleasure it brings to those engaged in the exercise."

On Boys and Bikinis

(Hat-tip to Adrian Warnock) I thought some of you might appreciate this. Some of you might still be in utter agreement! (My tongue was firmly in cheek!)

Wittingshire: On Boys and Bikinis shares a conversation had with her eight year old son:

"'Why do girls go around in bikinis?' he groused. 'Of all the dumb things to wear.'

This struck me as funny, which provoked him still further.

'It's just like underwear,' he said. 'They wouldn't go walking down the street in their underthings, would they? So why go around in bikinis?'

'Girls wear bikinis because boys like them,' I said.

He stopped short and stared at me, incredulous.

'Not boys your age,' I went on. 'Teenagers, and grown up men. They think women look pretty in bikinis--but that doesn't mean they think women should wear them in public.'

He was still staring at me, utterly flabbergasted. Finally he found his tongue: 'It disturbs me,' he said formally, 'that you are telling me that one day I will think girls look pretty in bikinis. That disturbs me. I know what I think, and I don't think that.'

By this point I was laughing out loud. He was so serious, and so affronted.

'It isn't funny,' he said. 'Why on earth would I suddenly think girls in bikinis look pretty? They look cold. They look naked. Skin is just skin, and tummy skin isn't any prettier than arm skin. That's what I think. Why would I ever think different?'"

Too good to miss

I got an email from ChristianBook.com - They obviously dont read my blog! They were offering Charnock's Existence and Attributes of God for $9.99. An amazing $30 off.

In case anyone out there wants to avail of this stupendous offer here's the link

They also usually sell Calvin's Commentaries at a ridiculous price

These were the guys I got my NIV audio bible from. It was about £60 including postage - while the best the UK NIV people could do it for was £139. It really gets up my nose when people try to make big money out of the bible.

So you could probably put together a really worthwhile order and make the most of getting Charnock.

Not mad after all

This came into my inbox today from John Piper's Fresh Words email. The book looks like a good read, but I thought you all might like to read his article:

The Good, Insane Concordance Maker

May 11, 2005 — Fresh Words Edition

By John Piper

Permanent Link

There’s a catch to this story that comes later. I hope you read to the end. I think you’ll be encouraged. I was. I read in a recent issue of Books and Culture a review (by Timothy Larsen) of a new biography of Alexander Cruden, the man who single-handedly wrote one of the early concordances to the King James Bible (Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Who Unwrote the Bible by Julia Keay). That means he recorded every one of the 777,746 words in the Bible and made a note of every place where it occurs. For example, the word “him” (6,667 occurrences), “her” (1,994 occurrences), “God” (4,444 occurrences), etc.

In the mid-1720s, Alexander Cruden took on a self-imposed task of Herculean proportions, Himalayan tedium, and inhuman meticulousness: he decided to compile the most thorough concordance of the King James Version of the Bible to date. The first edition of Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737. How could he have possibly completed such a project? Every similar undertaking before or since has been the work of a vast team of people—in recent times made incomparably easier by computers. Cruden worked alone in his lodgings, writing the whole thing out by hand. The KJV has 777,746 words, all of which needed to be put in their proper place. Cruden even wrote explanatory entries on many of the words—in effect, including a Bible dictionary as a bonus. The word “Synagogue,” for example, prompted a 4,000-word essay.

Furthermore, Cruden’s day job was as a “Corrector of the Press” (proofreader). He would give hawk-eyed attention to prose all day long. Then he would come home at night, not to rest his eyes and enjoy some relaxation, but rather to read the Bible—stopping at every single word to secure the right sheet from the tens of thousands of pieces of paper all around him and to record accurately the reference in its appropriate place. He had no patron, no publisher, no financial backers: his only commission was a divine one.

Cruden’s Concordance has never been out of print. Some hundred editions have been published, many of which have been reprinted untold times; shoppers at a popular online bookstore today can choose from 18 different in-print versions of Cruden’s.

For this, thousands of lovers of the Bible thank God. They have studied the Bible seriously for almost three hundred years with Cruden’s help. If this is all we knew, we would simply be amazed at his industry and give thanks. But here’s the catch. He was, if not insane, utterly maladjusted.

Cruden was institutionalized for madness four times in his life. His behavior was often bizarre.

On another occasion, Cruden had apparently gone to break up a brawl but ended up spending the best part of an hour admonishing disorderly soldiers not to swear while periodically whacking them on the head with a shovel. He also would propose to women with whom he had established no romantic bond (one such intended he had not even met). Being unable to take no for an answer, he would then turn himself into a persistent nuisance, if not a stalker.

Eventually he decided that God’s call on his life was to reform the morals of Britain. “He therefore started a one-man campaign to have the King name him to a position hitherto unknown in British government, ‘Corrector of the People.’ He then went rambling about the country admonishing strangers to observe the Sabbath.”

He simply could not discern what was fitting and probable. This meant he did foolish things. But not all foolish things are bad. “He did not know—as all normal people do—that when a man gets propositioned he can feel sad for the plight of the prostitute, but there is really nothing he can do to help. Cruden instead hired her to do legitimate work, and she lived a respectable and grateful life thereafter.”

On another occasion “Cruden did not know that a prisoner’s case was never reconsidered when he was only a few days away from execution. He went at this campaign in his usual obsessive and forthright way and pulled off a political miracle—the man’s sentence was reduced to deportation.”

What encourages me about this is to realize that God’s ways are strange. “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). And in this strangeness, sinful and sick and broken people fit into God’s designs. He has purposes for the mentally ill and for the emotionally unstable and for the socially maladjusted. And he has purposes for you.

As Timothy Larson observes, Cruden did not have the sense to know that “one man working alone in his bedroom could not produce a complete concordance of the Bible.” And from this folly millions have been blessed. Beware of belittling God’s crooked sticks. With them he may write the message that that makes a thousand people glad.

Looking for merciful design everywhere,

Pastor John

A Message worth listening to

Sorry I havent been writing for a while. Life is busy at present. Hopefully I'll be back in a day or two.

In the meantime I would recommend that you all listen to some of these audio files

Hell's best kept Secret - Ray Comfort
This one is a real eye opener on a more biblical way to do evangelism. Have a listen

http://www.livingwaters.com/listenwatch.shtml

Dick Lucas on the Psalms
I havent listened to these yet, but I heard him speak at another conference recently from Psalm 42, 43 and if that was anything to go on then these should be good

http://www.atthecastle.org.uk/audio/

Look for the Christmas at the Castle 04 series

Don Carson on Revelation
Also from the same site is a series on Revelation that I have listened to. These are great.
Just scroll down to the talks labelled 'Carson'
http://www.atthecastle.org.uk/audio/

Happy listening

The Wrath of God (2)

God's wrath is utterly terrible
What does the wrath of God entail? What is it?

As we think about this we need to keep at the forefront of our minds that God is not cruel, his wrath is not a loss of self-control, it is not wounded pride lashing out, not a bad temper. It is God's just reaction to our sin. It will be utterly fair. "God is only angry where anger is called for" (Packer).

In this just wrath there are four elements:

(Headings taken from Edward Donnelly's book on Heaven and Hell)

God's wrath means Absolute Poverty
2 Thessalonians 1:9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power

Hell is a place of separation from God. That doesn't sound so bad a thing. Many people would want to be separate from God. They think that Hell will be a place of fun and games, with no big brother looking over them with a disapproving eye.

But what they fail to realise is that every moment of pleasure, everything that is enjoyable - the very ability to enjoy anything is a gift from God. Here on earth we are surrounded and blessed with God's goodness and his gifts. In Hell there will be nothing that is good, nothing that is pleasurable.

Everything that makes life worthwhile will be taken away. It will be absolute poverty in every sense. Nothing pleasurable to look at, to hear, to taste, to smell, to think about, to touch. In this life every good and pleasant thing comes from God. It is God's goodness that makes life pleasing to us.

Sometimes people say things like, "I would rather be in Hell because all my friends are there." But there will be no friends in Hell. Friendship is a blessing from God. There you will hate the people who have been your friends here on earth, because you will see that their friendship came between you and God. In Hell there will be no laughter, no enjoyment of any kind.

God's wrath means you will be stripped of any and every blessing.

God's wrath means Agonising Pain
But there is something worse. There is pain amidst the poverty.

Revelation 14:10 He will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever."

Fire, smoke, burning sulphur. Elsewhere it speaks about a worm that does not die.

The imagery of Revelation isn't literal. When it speaks of fire and burning sulphur, and of worms eating at the damned, like the rest of Revelation it is using symbolic language. But that symbolism corresponds to something real. And in Revelation the reality is always cranked up a gear from the picture.

It speaks to us of pain, pain beyond anything we can imagine. Perhaps the pain of a stinging conscience, that will rebuke and it will be like a worm that gnaws at our memories. And will it be that the damned will remember every person who displayed Christian love to them, and every sermon, and every person who witnessed to them, and it will seem so clear to them and they will cry out, "Why didn't I see it? Why did I ignore what was so obvious?"?

The weeping and gnashing of teeth. How often have we wept over something that has broken us, or when we have been unbearably lonely? Jesus says that there will be such weeping in Hell as people face the wrath of God, as they find themselves unbearably lonely.

There will be agonising pain. But it is worse than that.

God's wrath means an Angry Presence
God is not absent from Hell. Often we are told that Hell is where God is not. That is wrong. Hell is part of God's creation, and he is present everywhere. Rev 14:10 tells us that he is present in Hell. This makes Hell infinitely worse. The essence of Hell is the fire of God's holy and righteous anger poured out unrelentingly on sinners. Popular opinion has the devil as the master of Hell, where he rules and gives out pleasure to his cronies. Scripture teaches something more awful. God rules even in Hell. He has prepared Hell for the devil and his angels. (Matt 25:41)

Perhaps this is what it means that they will be tormented. The same word is used of Lot as he lived in Sodom. It says that his righteous soul was tormented as he saw the wickedness of men around him. Have you ever felt that? Have you seen the foulness of men's sins and it has burned itself into your mind and it has made you want to weep. Perhaps as you have looked at what is done in abortion, or in countries where children have been murdered. And the images of wickedness have lingered in your mind and tormented you.

As the wicked live for ever in the presence of God they will be tormented by the sight of his holy righteousness. It will blind them with its dazzling purity. It will be a sickening terror to them. No matter where they run to they will not be able to escape. The presence that should have comforted them anywhere in this world will hunt and haunt them. The righteous that could have been applied to cover their sins will always be before them accusing them.

And it will be utterly just.

But more than that. Hell is the mighty releasing of God's wrath, unrelenting and unrestrained and indescribable. In v 19 we have a picture of the utterly appalling nature of it. Its taken from the vineyards of Palestine. The harvesters would go out and fill their baskets with grapes plucked from the vines. Then they would return and tip these baskets into a huge press, where the servant girls took off their shoes and trampled through the grapes, thousands and thousands of them, crushing them until the juice ran out through the fine holes in the floor and ran in rivers through channels and into vats where it was collected.

Here it is angels harvesting the earth, and it is not grapes but people, and they are tipped into the press, thousands of people, and there why face the wrath of God. And it is so vast and terrible that the blood rises to a height of 6ft for nearly 200 miles all around.

The treading of the winepress is meant to convey the violent thoroughness of God's wrath when it is finally poured out. It's only an image. But it is an image that is meant to convey a reality that is beyond our imagining. It is utterly terrible.

Here is the ultimate horror of Hell, the presence of an angry God. And still there is more.

God's wrath means an Awful Prospect
It will never end.

Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."

"Hell is as eternal as Heaven. In life, even in the darkest moments, there is always the hope that things will get better. There is no such hope in Hell." (Jeffery)

"Oh eternity! If all the body of the earth and sea were turned to sand, and all the air up to the starry heaven were nothing but sand, and a little bird should come every thousand years, and fetch away in her bill but the tenth part of a grain of all that heap of sand, what numberless years would be spent before that vast heap of sand would be fetched away! Yet, if at the end of all that time, the sinner might come out of hell, there would be some hope; but that word 'Ever' breaks the heart. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up 'for ever and ever.' "

There will be no rest. What an awful phrase - no rest for the wicked. We use it in jest. But behind it lies an awful truth. Wanting with every fibre of your being to stop, to slow down to rest, but not able to.

God's wrath will never let up. The wicked have trampled over the Eternal Son, and his sacrifice planned in eternity, they have offended the eternal God. And therefore their punishment will be eternal.

Lessons we need to learn
Turn to Jesus Christ now, while you have time
The Bible labours to point out that God is good to those who trust in him, and terrible to those who do not. If you haven't turned from living life your way and turned to following Jesus, and trusted in him to take you punishment, then you will find out how terrible he is.

Come now. Then it will be too late. Why would you risk all. Don't think for a moment that you can come to him later. Each day you continue in sin you slap Almighty God in the face. And then some day you expect to be able to turn to him and say, "I'm ready now, please forgive me now". God doesn't respond to demands like that. He says, "Come to me today, while there is time. The offer is on the table now - It may well be withdrawn tomorrow."

How thankful we should be to Jesus
If you have put your trust in Jesus, then this wrath has been faced. You don't have to face it. Jesus took the eternity of your deserved wrath on himself when he hung on the cross. Oh thank you Lord Jesus. Oh how we should praise him and love him and delight to serve him.

How this should draw our soul into fervent praise to Jesus.

There is nothing more important than Heaven and Hell
This vision establishes what it important - there is nothing more important than Heaven and Hell. People are going to Hell. Your friends and neighbours and family members are going to Hell. Nothing is more important than that fact.

Not our reputations, not our comfort, not our standing in the community.

Those nice people you look at day-by-day sitting in cars, walking on the pavement, drinking coffee - God is as angry with them at this moment as he is with the damned in Hell. Does it bother you? Does it bring tears to your eyes? There can be no glee or pleasure in this. We can only think of these truths with tears in our eyes.

God sends us out to beseech, to plead to urge them to turn from their rejection of him and turn to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Too often we are afraid of what people will think of us, we might offend, we might insult them, we might irritate them. Now I'm not suggesting that you stop everyone you meet and announce that they are going to Hell. Everyone is not your responsibility. But there are those whom God has placed in your circle of contacts - family, neighbours, friends - that are your responsibility.

We need to help them see the awful danger that they are in.

There can be no delight, only sorrow
Nor am I suggesting that you have to announce to them in a self righteous voice that they are going to Hell. But it has to bother us that they are. It has to trouble us that they are under the almighty eternal wrath of God. And when it really starts to bother us we will find ways of telling them, and they will see that nothing matters more to us than their eternal welfare. They will see that we love them. They will see that we are only doing this because we care.

And here is where it starts by grasping the immensity of God's wrath, and seeing that it is directed at real people, that we know. And pleading on our knees before God for them.

Tomorrow, someone may ask you what you did at the weekend. What will you say? You could say, "I went to church and the minister spoke to us about the fearful wrath of God." And see where it leads you. They might then say, "You don't believe all that do you?" And you could ask, "why did Jesus come to die then?".

We need to help people see that our greatest problem in life is God because of our sin, and he is the only solution to our sin.

Some people think that it isn't loving to talk about these things. But it is the most loving thing we can do.

The Wrath of God (1)

If we arrived home late one night and saw our neighbours house on fire and no sign of them outside. We wouldn't worry and shouting and yelling and embarrassing ourselves. We would do all we could to alert them to the danger.

But when it comes to the gospel, we don't. And perhaps part of the reason that we don't is that we aren't sufficiently convinced of the danger people are in.

Some people think it is wrong to speak about Hell and God's wrath, because we are scaring people into Heaven. They think that we should speak only of the love of God, and the wonder of being loved. What nonsense! When someone's house is on fire you don't stand outside telling them that really the grass is a wonderful place to stand, and that the view is better outside, and that the people are much nicer here. You tell them to get out because their house is on fire. And they thank you for it.

So it is with the gospel. Some people think that you shouldn't talk about sin, and Hell, and God's anger. But rather that you should talk only about his love and mercy and acceptance.

And then we are surprised when no-one is remotely interested.

The wrath of God is often played down by Christians today. It is a topic you will seldom hear preached on in churches. Yet the Bible speaks constantly of wrath. It labours the point that God is good to those who trust him, but terrible to those who do not.

But why do we need to think about it? Can we not just move on to nicer pastures? No, it is essential that we pause here and look at this aspect of God too.

We need to think about it for three reasons:

Because it is real
Because it applies to every human being
Because it is terrible

Our text is: Rev 14:9-11

"If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."

God's wrath is real
It shouldn't take much to convince us that God's wrath is real. Although many people have tried to ignore this, or hide from it, or pretend it isn't there, it is present the length and breadth of scripture.

Nahum 1:2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies… 5 The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. 6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.

Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Revelation 6:16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

God's wrath is as real as the passages that speak of his love and mercy.

We see glimpses of God's wrath throughout scripture - the curse for one sin of Adam and Eve. The flood. Sodom & Gomorrah. Egypt, the plagues, and the destruction of Pharaoh's army. The fall of Jerusalem in 587BC, the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. God's wrath is real and severe.

God's wrath is real. But it is more terrible than we imagine. What we have seen up to now has been greatly diluted. But in Rev 14v10 we are told that in Hell God's wrath will be poured out "full strength".

We need to think about it because the Bible speaks so much about it. And if the Bible speaks so much about it, then I cannot be silent. It would be nothing short of deceitful and sinful to preach about the character of God and not mention his wrath. And churches or ministers that fail to teach this doctrine, or who are embarrassed by it, or who see it as a blemish on the character of God have created for themselves an idol, a false god.

God's wrath falls on everyone who fails to follow Jesus
Who is it that God's wrath falls on? This chapter talks about two groups of people.

V1-5 tell us about a group of 144,000 people - that number is a symbolic number in the book of revelation, it refers to all the people of God in the Old Testament (12 tribes) and the people of God in New Testament times (under the 12 apostles) times 1000(a number depicting vastness) - in other words the fullness of all the people of God in all times. These 144,000, not a literal number, have been redeemed (v3), and they have the fathers name on their foreheads. This name on their foreheads in imagery taken from Ezekiel where God is about to judge the city of Jerusalem, and Ezekiel sees in a vision a scribe sent out to put a mark on the foreheads of the true followers of God to identify them as God's people.

V6ff describes a second group - this group are also identified by a mark on their head or on their hand. It is the mark of the beast, the anti-God figure in the book of Revelation. Again it is not a literal mark, and we see its roots in the previous chapter. The beast mimics God's judgment in Ezekiel. He is about to pour out his anger on the followers of Jesus, and before he does he puts a mark on all who have refused to follow Jesus. They will be exempt from the anger of the beast.

But ch14 shows that although God people have to face anger and hardship in this life, they are exempt from it in Heaven. And it shows that those who fail to follow God in this life, who are not redeemed by Jesus are exempt fromt he wrath of the beast in this life, but they suffer the wrath of God in the next.

There is wrath to be faced by every human being, the question is "Whose wrath will it be?" - Will it be Satan's wrath because you follow God, or will it be God's wrath because you have ignored him and gone your own way?

You see everyone is marked out in some way. There are only two types of people in the world. Those who follow Jesus and have been redeemed by Jesus, and those who don't. Those who don't are automatically marked down as being against God. And they will face his wrath.

There is no third category of nice decent people, who although they didn't follow Jesus, were particularly bad. Ch 13:16 tells us that everyone was forced to receive the mark of the beast, except those who had refused to worship him - ie those who worshipped Jesus instead.

Who does God's wrath fall on - yes the extremely wicked, but it also falls on your nice next door neighbour who doesn't follow Jesus. It falls on the man behind the counter in the shop. It falls on the person sitting next to you in church it they have not subjected themselves to the authority of King Jesus. It falls on the person across the breakfast table from you.

There is a false notion that goes around that God hates sin and loves the sinner. It is only a half truth. Because while God loves the sinner enough to provide a means of salvation, he also hates him because of his sin. We cannot detach sin and the sinner. They cannot be detached. If only they could then Christ would not have had to go to the cross, but God's wrath is on the sinner. Scripture reminds over and over again, God abhors the liar, God hates the sinner. God's anger in on the wicked. The Psalms repeatedly make this point:

Psalm 5:5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. 6 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.

Psalm 11:5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.

Friends how we need to keep it before us. We can't hide behind half truths. We need to remember that God's wrath is on the wicked for their sins. They committed them. They will be punished. It is real people with real names and real faces.

The wrath of God falls on anyone, and everyone who has not been redeemed - bought by Jesus. Rescued by Jesus. Jesus came to save people from the wrath they deserved. He himself took that wrath for those who would ask him to stand in their place. That wrath was poured out in all its fullness. But there yet remains the wrath due for the sins of all the other people. Their rebellion has not been paid for.

How this should affect our hearts! When we look at people we should see the word 'wrath' written across their foreheads.

Book Reviews

One of the problems of using Blogger is that it's hard to index things. Over the last while I've reviewed a number of books - Here are all the links gathered together into one post. I'll stick a permanent link to this on the sidebar and add all other book reviews to it.

Commentaries
The Power & the Fury - Dale Ralph Davis (2 Kings)
Apostasy, Destruction and Hope -Roger Ellsworth (2 Kings)
Basics for Believers - DA Carson (Philippians)
Be Patient: God hasn't finished with me yet - Roger Ellsworth (Jacob)
A House of Prayer - Andrew Stewart (1 Chronicles)


Evangelism
Corner Conversations - Randy Newman
Questioning Evangelism - Randy Newman - Kregel Publications


Preaching & Church Issues
Preaching Christ - Edgar Andrews
The Big Picture for Small Churches by John Benton - Evangelical Press


Christian Living
Being a Christian Husband - Colin Hamer
Humility: True Greatness - CJ Mahaney
Sex, Romance & the Glory Of God by C. J. Mahaney
Why does being a Christian have to be so hard - Peter Golding - Evangelical Press
Not even a Hint - Joshua Harris
Don't Waste your Life - John Piper - Crossway


Biography
War and Grace - Don Stephens


Doctrine
The Potter's Freedom - James White
God, Satan & the Jews - F.S. Leahy
The Bond of Love - David McKay - Christian Focus
The End Times made Simple - Sam Waldron - Calvary Press
The Biblical Doctrine of Heaven and Hell - Edward Donnelly - Banner of Truth
The Existence and attributes of God - Stephen Charnock - Baker Books


Devotional
The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God - John Piper with photography by Ric Ergenbright
The Cross he Bore - Fredrick Leahy - Banner of Truth


Apologetics
The DaVinci Code on Trial by Stephen Clark - Evangelical Press of Wales
Cracking DaVinci's Code - James Garlow, Peter Jones
The Da Vinci Code – From Dan Brown’s Fiction to Mary Magdalene’s Faith
Garry Williams
The Edge of Known Reality and Beyond – Jonathan Skinner

And here's a link to another couple of posts on reading

• 5 Books that changed my thinking
• Build your own Library

Your God is Patient (3)

God's patience has a limit
One of the old Saxon kings set out with an army to put down a rebellion in a distant province of his kingdom. When the insurrection had been quelled, and the army of the rebels defeated, the king placed a candle over the archway of the castle where he had his headquarters. Lighting the candle, announced through a herald to all who had been in rebellion against him that those who surrendered and took the oath of loyalty while the candle was burning would be spared. The king offered them his clemency and mercy, but the offer was limited to the life of the candle.

Exodus 34:7 reads:

"Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

"Yet" - There is a time when God's patience will cease. And it will not be because he has become impatient. He will have displayed his patience so long with people that no-one will be able to accuse him of being rash or hasty. But his patience will come to an end. For it has a limit.

It had a limit in the days of Noah - Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man for ever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

It had a limit in the days of the Children of Israel - after experiencing God's patience in many ways, after trying it most severely, God said, enough, and hundreds of thousands of them perished outside the Promised Land.

God's patience has a limit. And this limit isn't just a limit for the world, when he will finally come in judgment. Each human being has their own personal limit. There is a marker in each of our lives.

That dam that holds back the reservoirs of God's wrath will be removed, and the full weight of the wrath of God will fall on those who haven't made use of God's patience to seize the salvation offered to them in Christ.

Unbelievers need to be helped to see on how slender a thread their lives hang.

Charnock writes "When he is invaded in all his attributes, it is astonishing that this single one of patience and meekness should withstand the assault of all the rest of his perfections; his being, which is attacked by sin, speaks for vengeance; his justice cannot be imagined to stand silent without charging the sinner. His holiness cannot but encourage his justice to urge its pleas, and be an advocate for it. His omniscience proves the truth of all the charge, and his abused mercy hath little encouragement to make opposition to the indictment; nothing but patience stands in the gap to keep off the arrest of judgment upon the sinner"

And the more patience God shows, the more guilty boys and girls and men and women will become. And the less excuse they will have. The more patience is abused, the more severe his wrath will be. And his justice will take account from the hands of patience before exacting punishment.

Justice will ask patience, how patient have you been with these people? How much time have they had? And patience will explain the times God held back his judgment to give time, time and more time.

And because there has been so much opportunity wrath will be increased.

Chartnock again writes: "All the time men are abusing his patience, God is whetting his sword, and the longer it is whetting the sharper will be the edge."

And when he puts an end to his patience, his wrath will be swift. We each live our lives as a man looking at a clock with no hands. It still works, but we don't know where the hands are. The hour maybe about to strike when God's patience will reach its limit. And when that happens the hour will strike with unavoidable swiftness.

Make the most of today. Today is the only day you can be sure of God's patience.

And fellow believers, let us learn to delight in this attribute while we can. In Heaven we will have no opportunity to enjoy his patience. "For this perfection hath the shortest time to act its part of any, it hath no stage but this world to move in; mercy hath a Heaven, justice hath a Hell, to display itself to eternity, but longsuffering hath only a short lived earth for the compass of its operation."

We should think often on his patience and if we do we will grow to see God as a loving father, we will be more convinced of his friendliness and kindness. It will help us to be patient with others when we consider how much God is patient with us.

And lets not abuse this patience, even those of us who are Christians, by continuing to sin once we are aware of it, presuming on his patience.

Your God is Patient (2)

God's patience has a purpose
Why is God patient? It isn't that he lacks power. He has enough weapons in his armoury to ruin us instantly.

Peter explains it to us:

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

There is a purpose to his patience. He isn't just sitting in Heaven twiddling his thumbs waiting until the time for Christ's return. Peter tells us that he is giving people time to repent.

This is an awesome privilege that mankind has. We rebel, and God gives us a chance to mend our ways, to seek forgiveness. That's the purpose of it. Think about that for a moment. It is simply stunning. God owes us nothing. We don't deserve a second chance.

Even the angels didn't get a second chance. When they sinned, all it took was one sin for the fallen angels to be cast out of Heaven, never to be given a chance to repent. Charnock writes, "O admirable patience that would bear with me under so many, while he would not bear with the sinning angels for one."

"Let it be considered, that that God that would not wait upon the fallen one instant after their sin, nor give them a moments space of repentance, hath prolonged the life of many a sinner in the world to innumerable moments, to 420,000 minutes in the space of a year, to 8,400,000 minutes in the space of twenty years. The damned in Hell would think it a great kindness to have but, a year's, month's, nay, day's respite, as a space to repent in."

With us, instead he doesn't punish each sin instantly. Instead he holds back, and back, and back. Providing opportunities for repentance. He does this with our world.

All the warnings that he gives in his patience are continual invitations to repent. Public disasters, personal calamities, are all much less than we deserve - and God lightens the stroke of his judgment in order that we might survive, so that we might repent. And all the blessings he gives as well as the problems, all of these have a purpose in mind - repent, repent.

This most glorious attribute reminds us that divine justice is not a vindictive thing. Charnock again: "Who can charge God with an eagerness to revenge, that sends so many heralds, and so often before he strikes, that he might be prevented from striking… Hereby he shows, that he would be rather pleased with the conversion, than the destruction of men."

He delays fitting the arrow to the bow, he draws his aim slowly, he hesitates before releasing - all to give the sinner time to repent.

How does this apply?

Obviously - Repent, if you haven't already done so. That's why you are still breathing. God is giving you time. Why hasn't he struck you down? Repent. That means - turn completely around in your life, stop living without God, and start living for him. Come to Jesus and seek forgiveness, and believe in him.

Don't think that God hasn't noticed you, or that because nothing has happened to you that somehow he mustn't be too concerned or angry with you. Don't mistake his patience for indifference

What about those of us who are Christians? God's patience has a purpose for us too - we can't think that we are so holy that God doesn't need to be patient with us too. We have a long way to go. And we should be immensely thankful for his patience. We need to repent too. Repentance is a daily feature of the Christians life. We are a repenting people.

There is comfort here for the Christian. When we look around us at the world, with all the injustice and suffering, we can wonder what God is doing. Here we see - it isn't that he is inactive, or powerless, or careless, or uncaring, or unloving. He is displaying his patience to sinful rebels.

And often those sinful rebels are quite close to home - they live next door to us, they are on our Christmas card lists, they are at our breakfast table, they are at our family get-together's. We talk to them on the phone, we sit across the desk from them at work, we cut silage along with them, or mind their children. They are respectable rebels, but they are rebels. And God is being patient with them, but his patience has a purpose - and we need to help them to see that they are dangling on a very slender thread.

Your God is patient (1)

How come you are alive today? How come I'm alive today? I'm a sinner, you're all sinners, already today we have disobeyed God, let him down, left things undone. I want to know, how come we're still here?

You've probably never thought about it have you? But it's a miracle!

Have you ever wondered why does God allow suffering? Or how could a God of love send people to Hell?

These are important questions that need an answer. But they start off with a wrong assumption. They assume that we deserve something other than suffering. They assume that we deserve to go to Heaven.

And really a much better version of the two questions is:

Why do sinful people enjoy so much pleasure in life for so long? And How come a holy God hasn't sent us all the Hell much sooner? How come God's world is filled with people who defy his commands minute after minute after minute?

Either he isn't powerful enough to do anything, or there must be another reason

That other reason is that he is patient. In Ex 34 God gives us his self portrait. He describes himself to Moses in these words

"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

God is not a God who ignores sin, he will act, but in the meantime he is slow to anger.

What a great phrase. It should be the cause of praise for every human being. We owe our every breath to this attribute. There are three things that this verse teaches us about God's patience.

God's patience is great
Often we are forced to be patient in circumstances because we are powerless to do anything else. We can't change circumstances, and we have no choice but to grin and bear it, or be crushed by it.

Such patience is commendable. But it isn't half as amazing as God's patience. God is slow to anger. He is longsuffering. Not because he has to be. Not because he has no choice, and he just has to tolerate sin. Not because he is short of power and has to wait until his batteries recharge before he is strong enough to do anything about his rebel subjects. God's patience is the most real, and most incredible patience in the universe. Because it is a powerful patience. He could wipe us out in an instant. Nothing is beyond his control.

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power - Nahum 1:3

But he doesn't wipe us out, because God's patience is real. It is his choice. That's actually quite frightening. Each of us is hanging here suspended between life and death, heaven and Hell by a slender thread, and that slender thread is the patience of God. And the astonishing thing is that some people attack the very thread that holds them and supports them.

Scripture is filled with examples of God's patience. We see it in Gen 3 when Adam and Eve introduce sin into God's perfect creation, and God comes into the Garden, and he knows Adam and Eve sinned, he knows where they are hiding, and yet he doesn't wipe them out.

We see it in Gen 6. God looks at the earth and sees that every inclination of man's heart was only evil all the time. And he declares that he is going to judge this wicked world, and destroy it. In 120 years time. During which he will send a preacher to warn them, and provide a way of salvation so that these rebels need not perish.

We see it over and over again in the story of the exodus, that forms the background to these verses.

God had rescued 2 and a half million people from slavery and cruelty in Egypt. They got to the Red Sea, and what did they do? Grumbled!

And what did he do? We was patient with them and rescued them.

A few verses later we read, "When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. So the people grumbled. And God was patient with these grumbling people. He gave them water.

Next chapter Ex 16: "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt!" And God was patient and provided food.

And so it goes. Ch 17 they quarrelled about water. Guess what? God is patient.

They are camped at Mt Sinai, and they make a golden calf, and God threatens to destroy them. But he doesn't, why? Because he is patient.

And it is just after this incident that he proclaims to Moses, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger…"

Slow to anger - I'm sure Moses said the Hebrew equivalent of "You bet". God is patient.

But stop a moment and marvel at the greatness of his patience.

It's a great patience. We see the greatness of God's patience in the fact that he gives warnings about his anger and his judgments. He sent prophet after prophet after prophet to Israel, he has sent preachers all over the world. Like a father who says, "Don't make me have to get up to you" instead of just reacting instantly. He warned Nineveh, he warned the world in Noah's day. He warns us.

We see his patience in the fact that he delays sending judgment despite great provocation. We see his patience in that he often continues to send blessings and happiness and pleasure to his rebel creatures.

He warns, the world ignores, he warns, it ignores, he sends little reminders - storms, floods, sicknesses - the world ignores, and still he is patient. And when he does send these mini judgments "he doesn't empty the quiver of his arrows" (Charnock). And he doesn't reel in his blessings from this rebel world. He still sends rain, he still gives laughter.

We see his greatness in the multitude of sins that he is patient with daily. Peter thought he was doing well if he was to be patient with his brother 7 times for the same offence. Jesus said "more like 77 times." Think how vast the multitude of sins that rise each day from this earth towards heaven. 6.5 billion people who sin daily, and who sin by not doing what they should as well doing what they shouldn't, in thought word and deed. Lets say a bare minimum of 1 wrong thing per person per day. 6.5 billion sins per day. 45 billion per week. 2 trillion 400 billion sins per year. And its been nearly 2000 years since God the son came to this earth to die to set people free from their sin.

And when we grasp that each person commits more than 1 per day. We sin often daily in thought word and deed. We sin often by doing wrong and not doing right. And when we add to that the immense insult that every sin is to the holiness of God.

Can you see the greatness of his patience? Peter's 'generosity' in forgiving his brother 7 times seems microscopic in comparison.

And it is even more amazing when you consider that the vast majority of people on this planet have no time for Jesus, the beloved one and only son of God, that they couldn't care less that he took the wrath of Hell on us so that we don't have to face it. And when you consider how much the son went through and how much the son means to the father, it is an unbelievable miracle that most of this world isn't struck down instantly for rejecting such a magnificent offer, that was bought at such a high price.

Hebrews 10:29 "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"

But still he is patient with you.

And fellow Christians - we can't just point the finger at all the unbelievers out there and speak about how they are really pushing God's patience.

Look at us - we whom Christ has died for, who should know better, who have had that precious blood poured out for us, who have been set free from the power of sin, who don't have to sin anymore, and we do, we return to our sins like a dog to vomit, and we should know better. And God is patient with us.

At the cross, and since the cross we see God's patience in a whole new light.

It is a great patience.

Encouragement here for believers.

It is encouraging when we look at our lives and we feel so unworthy and so unfit to be loved, and times we feel so deserving of judgment. We have a God who has great stocks of patience.

It gives us great comfort to trust him.

"If he hath so rich a patience to exercise towards his enemies, he hath a greater treasure to bestow upon his friends." (Charnock)

If he is so patient with unbelievers, how much more certain is our salvation.

God's patience is great

Some Photos from Donegal

Ok, so I downloaded the picture software and wanted to try it out! But for those of you on the far side of the world, here is some of the scenery around here.

Milford, Co Donegal


Evening at Glenveagh, Co Donegal


Sunset at Kerrykeel, Co. Donegal

Pope John Paul II

Many tributes have been paid to Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II. And rightly so, for he was a great man. Among the world leaders in the later half of the twentieth century he stands head and shoulders above many. While other leaders were concerned about their popularity and appeal to the masses, the Pope was concerned for those who had no voice, for the underprivileged, for the unborn, for the poor, for the sick, for the oppressed.

His input into the downfall of communism especially in Poland have been highlighted often in the past few days. He was a man who, more than any other pope, spent himself in travelling to other countries, 129 in total. His third overseas visit was here to Ireland in 1979.

He was not afraid to take a stand and to say what needed to be said on issues like abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia etc. It was refreshing to see someone who took their standards from God's word, and not from the opinion makers of popular culture.

He was a great man. And we need men like him to be leaders in the world today.

But he was still only a man.

And Jesus himself said, "No man comes to the father, except through me." (John 14:6)

You see it isn't how much good we do that gets us into Heaven, rather it is coming through Jesus, and trusting in him that gets us there.

There is no denying that Pope John Paul II did a lot of good in his life. But if he is in Heaven, it will not be because of the good he did, but simply because of Jesus. Over and over again the Bible tells us that it is not the amount of good we do that gets us into Heaven, but rather whether or not we have asked Jesus to be our saviour.

This is wonderfully comforting because not many of us could live as influential a life as the Pope, and we might be inclined to think that we haven't a chance of getting into Heaven.

But it doesn't depend on us, but on Jesus. He said, "whoever comes to me I will never drive away." (John 6:37).

It was Jesus who said to a murderous thief who hung on the cross next to him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." That man had no time to do enough good to outweigh the bad, if such a thing were possible. Instead he threw himself on the mercy of Jesus, and asked for forgiveness and peace from him. And Jesus holds that offer out to each of us today.

And yet if Jesus said that a thief and murderer could enter Heaven "Today", why are all the prayers and masses being said for Pope John Paul? Apparently they are to speed his journey into Heaven.

Where is he if he isn't already in Heaven? Saint Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that when the believer is absent from the body, he is immediately present with the Lord. For the person who has trusted Jesus as their saviour there is no journey, just an immediate appearing in God's presence.

Again, I find this wonderfully comforting - no journey of the soul through some shady underworld; just immediate transportation to the present of God.

I would ask my Catholic readers seriously to consider this question: Why are you praying for the Pope? Does the Pope require the prayers of 1.1 billion Catholics to get him into Heaven, after all his good deeds? If so, what hope is there for the ordinary man or woman? What about you; are you trusting in the good life you are living, and relying on the prayers and masses of loved ones after you die to get you into Heaven?

It doesn't have to be like that. Saint Paul writes, "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory."

Notice that it is our faith in what Jesus has done for us that saves us, not our good works. And notice also that the "highest privilege" and the confident expectation of being in Heaven are a present reality for the believer.

There is no uncertainty for those who turn from their own efforts to please God and who come to Jesus seeking his salvation.