Read Numbers ch. 24 v17.
Matthew ch. 2 v 1.

Narrator
Seeking the Truth
In a world full of lies
In a world full of fools
They called them wise.
They studied the writings
The stars and the sightings
But never quite knew the score
Till it- entered their minds,
By signals and signs.
No thing of its kind
Had they ever known, before.

Voice of a Wise Man
It filled us.
And thrilled us.
The hope nearly killed us.
It led us
And fed us
With feelings of dread as
We realised that we were sure,
That this thing,
Was something,
More than anything
Else, and still it was more.

And it, in its kindness
Looked down from its fineness
And started to show us some more.
And that’s when it was that we saw,
It wasn’t a thing, but a King
That filled us with awe.

Those like us, seers and sages
Looked for the King, down through the ages,
Blind at first, seeing in stages.
Was there a message, hidden in pages
Of all history?

They started to answer unanswered questions.
Noticed the hints and the suggestions,
Fit into place, section by section,
They feel He revealed concealed connections
Of the mystery.

There are kings with cities,
Glittering pretty,
Kings with nations
In adoration,
Empr’ors with empire,
Intact and entire.
But this one—had his own star.

Down through all hist’ry
They’d followed the myst’ry.
However hard, how far.
They had to follow the star.

They hired guards—charted courses.
Saddled up—camels, horses.
Took on water—hired porters.
Goodbye sons—goodbye daughters
Goodbye wives—goodbye friends.
Chase a star to world’s end.
Chase a star to world’s end.

With streaming banners,
Flying crests,
Camels, stallions
With golden medallions,
And sovereign gifts in treasure chests,
Like desert galleons
Sailing west,
Past jackal’s lair
And snakes’ nest,
Star-bitten;
Rock and ruin and desolation,
Star- smitten;
Landscape without limitation,
Star-stricken,
Till they reached the Hebrew nation;
They took their quest.

Ever seen one of those lists, the one where you list your priorities in order. Often for the Christian they look like this:

1. God
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Church
5. Job

But if we were honest they’d probably look like this:

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Church
4. God
5. Job

Maybe not exactly but you get the idea. Didn’t Jesus come to free us from this kind of mindless legalism? Have we missed a trick by promoting this kind of priority style list? I mean we all know that God should be number one, but is a list the best way to motivate us? And how does this work out on a day to day basis? Like a to do list? Can we tick off the God part and then move onto our other priorities? Because if that’s the case isn’t it actually our jobs that comes out top? How do we balance God with these other important parts of our lives?

What if instead of making God a part of a list we made him the centre of our lives instead. What if we got rid of the list and instead let God flow into those other areas, if we recognised that God is intricately interested in every minute detail of our lives. If we made God central and placed everything else around Him, would we even need to talk about priorities in the same way? Jesus does say put God at the top of a list. In John 15 he says:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Out with the list and in with the remaining.

It struck me the other day that we sing an awful lot about Jesus being everything, that it’s all about Jesus. And let’s face it they are both excellent sentiments but do they tell the whole story? I mean I know we should give our entire heart to Jesus and He should be our main focus, but is it really all about Jesus? Didn’t Jesus Himself say that we needed to love others as much as we love ourselves?

Could it be that in the act of sacrificially loving others we meet and learn to love Jesus on a whole new level? It seems that focusing on Jesus can be an excuse to ignore the plight of our fellow travellers while still convincing ourselves that we are ‘right with God’.

Maybe when we truly live all for Jesus we will find that our love for fellow man increases, but let’s not be naive – it will take some action on our part. If following Jesus doesn’t change the world or at least benefit everyone, including those who don’t believe, then what’s the point? I know we must prioritise Jesus, but if that doesn’t inspire us to love others then perhaps we need to take another look at the Jesus we have prioritised? Maybe this year living for Jesus can mean living for others too?

Matthew 22: 37-39 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I’ve noticed a trend among Christians that’s starting to make me feel grumpy.

It may just be the people or organisations that I ‘follow’, but as I look through my Twitter feed I notice that the vast majority of comments are on issues such as justice, food banks, trafficking, gender issues, politics etc.

All of this is of course very good indeed. Before you get grumpy with me, yes I do think that Christians should be engaged with the world, and yes I do think we should be leading the charge in many of these areas. It’s fantastic that Christian leaders (mostly, if not exclusively women, in fact) comment on the papers on BBC News and Sky TV. It’s great that the Evangelical Alliance has staff who are engaged with parliament and it’s fantastic there are big ministries engaged with family life, politics, trafficking and poverty.

There is however a noticeable and surprising absence in all the comment. The stories of radical transformation through the proclamation of the gospel. Sure, there are some, but in no way to the same frequency as the other stuff. I’ve started to wonder why this is.

After all, any speed-read through the gospels and you soon notice that most of the content is about finding and saving the lost. Yeah ok, it’s old-school terminology, but that’s what Jesus calls people who don’t know him, so thats good enough for me. So I ask the question: “If the majority of the content of the gospels is about salvation, why isn’t that reflected in our activity and comment?”

Have we lost confidence in the fact that the simple proclamation of the gospel has the power to radically transform lives? I don’t think it’s a lack of confidence in the gospel that is at the heart of the problem. The problem is that we have drowned out the message of the cross through lots of activity that was inspired by the cross in the first place.

In a nutshell – have we stopped actually telling people about Jesus?

Also, have we stopped believing that the radical transformation of society and the end of injustice will come through people meeting Jesus Christ?

It may be that you haven’t personally done this, but let me tell you that when I talk to Christians about evangelism, I soon discover that most Christians have never led anyone to Christ and most don’t have any non-Christian friends. Even people I know who get asked to speak on evangelism have privately told me that they don’t have friends who aren’t Christians. I find this troubling.

Here’s another truth: when budgets get tight the first thing denominations and mission agencies do is axe the evangelism/mission department. I suspect it’s because it doesn’t attract the money in the same way that other departments do. It’s time to think again.

The thing is that I’m discovering more and more that people are searching for God and that divine opportunities are all around us, all the time.

A few months ago I was speaking at a curry night in a small village with 22 men in attendance. One bloke stood out. Skinhead, tattoos, piercings, aggressive stare all the way through my talk. To cut a long story short we had a chat at the bar afterwards. It turned out he was a ‘general’ in the extreme far-right movement. He asked me if Jesus could forgive anything. I said yes, then he left.

It turns out that he didn’t sleep all night. The next morning, he went to a local church and found the pastor in his study. Moments later he was on his knees giving his life to Jesus Christ. I met him last week. He had renounced his old life, started afresh and gave me some tips on witnessing to people. I saw him in the corner (it was another curry night) praying with three other men, arms around each other. A transformed life, leading to a transformed society.

God is a God of justice and yes we need action to fix a broken world. But let’s not stop telling people about the one who can fix it and them.

This blog was first published here…

Can we know anything about God outside of the Bible or the historical record? That’s what we’re looking into with this mini-series. What does the information we know about the Universe tell us? Where does the evidence lead?

In this first of three classical arguments for the existence of God we want to suggest that there are good reasons to believe in the existence of God, and that these arguments begin to get some way to describing what that God is like.

In the beginning … 

Not so long ago it was popular to believe that the universe simply always existed. Carl Sagan famously stated that,

“The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”

But then along came a chap by the name of Georges Lemaître – working with ideas from one Albert Einstein – who said said that actually, it looks like the scientific evidence points towards a starting point. We now commonly refer to this point in history as ‘The Big Bang’.

Science  – and our experience – points to the fact that the Universe began to exist, and this is where we jump into our argument for the existence of God with one version of the cosmological argument, ‘The Kalam Cosmological Argument’.

1st Point: Whatever begins to exist has a cause

Think of something, anything. Anything at all. Now think about how that ‘thing’ got there. In your mind or in reality, we instinctively know that things do not just pop into existence out of nothing.

My credit card bill is proof of this. It didn’t just get appear out of nowhere, it is very the result of a cause (rightly or wrongly, but that’s a different argument). Likewise, the means to pay my bill won’t just spontaneously appear out of thin air, no matter how hard I wish. Things that begin to exist have a cause.

2nd Point: The Universe has a beginning

Cue Einstein and friends with their scientific research. Science, as the exploration of what is, is of great help to us with this point. Established scientific theories today, such as the redshifts found by Hubble (the man, not the telescope), point towards a beginning for the universe. This is very much in agreement – not opposition – with faith.

(By the way, if you’re interested, we’ve looked at Science vs. Faith in two previous articles: ‘Hasn’t Science Disproved God?’ and ‘Religion vs. Science’)

Additionally, we can take this second point to be true outside of science by employing a bit of logic.

If the Universe has always existed and did not have a beginning than the history of the universe would be infinite. Sounds good, but as none of us possess the talents of Mr Buzz Lightyear, it’s impossible for us to traverse an actual infinite.

Let my try to explain. Mr Chris Evans, of current BBC Radio 2 radio fame, is known for his large collection of Ferraris, all painted that classic Ferrari colour, white. Imagine that one morning Chris wakes up and finds that his collection has expanded and now he possess an infinite number of Ferraris (for some of us, believing in owning one Ferrari as akin to believing in owning an infinite number of those beautiful machines).

Chris is happy and as he muses over this increase in his collection he decides to break his own rules and paint every other car in his (infinitely long) garage, oh, I don’t know, red. Chris now has one red Ferrari sitting next to a white Ferrari and on and on …

Some time (in the not-too-distant future, perhaps), the BBC is faced with budget cuts, Chris has to take a pay-cut and decides to self off half of his beloved collection. The red cars must go. So Chris sells all of his red Ferraris and is left with just the white. But how many cars is Chris left with? He had an infinite amount of cars and removed half of them. What is half of infinity? It’s not a number, like 3, because that could be doubled to produce another number, which would not be infinity. Chris still has an infinite amount of white cars. So what happened with those red ones? What exactly did Chris lose?

The reality is, actual infinite series of anything just don’t exist. In this way, logically, the universe cannot have existed for ever and had an infinite series of past events leading to the present moment.

3rd Point: The Universe therefore has a cause

So we have shown the universe to have a beginning, and in point one we showed that all things that have a beginning have a cause. Great. Let’s think about the nature of this cause …

The cause of the existence of the Universe must have been very powerful (to create the Universe from nothing), outside of time (the cause created time as well), as well as existing infinitely. We’re not quite yet at Jesus of Nazareth but you can definitely see a strong shape of a higher power coming into focus

What’s more, this first cause, as well as having amazing attributes, must also be in some way personal because it chose to create the universe. An eternal, extremely-powerful thing doesn’t have to do anything. Nothing can compel something that large to do anything, in much the same say that I can’t force Martin Johnson to smile – or do anything for that matter – unless he wants to do it himself (ps – thank you for 10 years ago, today).

Let there be light

As we’ve noted before, Blaise Pascal said that, ‘there is enough light for those who only desire to see …’ The Kalam Cosmological Argument doesn’t reveal a specific deity nor point to only one religion, but what it does do is turn on a light.

Over the next two weeks we’ll add a couple of further arguments to this one, building a cumulative case for the existence of God, outside of Scripture and the historical record. As these lights turn on, take a look, see what they reveal. Perhaps they will lend themselves as starting points on a journey. We hope that you will discover that there are good signs within this universe that point to the existence of the divine, outside of space and time, incredibly large, complex, and powerful, who we call, God.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument from Reasonable Faith

The Christian philosopher William Lane Craig has done much work on the Kalam Cosmological Argument. He has written about it in several places and his team at Reasonable Faith have put together this great little video on the argument:

I have been a fan of Nottingham forest for many years now. In the past, the glory days, I saw them (under the management of Brian Clough) win two European cups and a league championship. I bought the team strip and wore it proudly, sang the team songs on the terraces and for many years I was a committed fan. However, I never put on the team jersey and played for them. (That could have been fun though!)

It is one thing to be a fan of Jesus it is another to be a follower. It is not a bad thing that we are a fan of Jesus. To appreciate his example, his profound teaching and to marvel at the signs and wonders that he performed. No bad thing to be special fan of Jesus especially as he secured salvation for those who live in a covenant relationship with him.

I have never been that good at setting aside regular time to read the Bible and pray. It’s not that I haven’t tried – I have. I have tried when I wake up, when I go to bed, before I eat and so on. Every time the same thing happens, I start off strongly but sooner or later I miss a day. One day becomes two and two becomes three I end up giving up what I have started.

Recently however I have managed half a year of quiet times without ceasing. How have I done this? By realising it is all about Jesus whether I realised it or not. My priority became spending time with Jesus not finding time to spend with Jesus, there is a subtle difference. When I prioritise the relationship rather than the arrangement I find it easier to maintain both. I don’t hold myself to a legalistic schedule, I operate grace and somehow it has worked.

I’m currently reading a book called ‘The God Lab’ by Roger Bretherton and he puts it like this: ‘There was a time in my life when I aimed to carry God through my day. It was an admirable aspiration, I think. I just wanted to remain conscious of him in every moment of the day. But it never quite worked. Within two seconds of arriving at work, I was completely immersed in the demands of the day and barely gave God a thought until lunch, when I realised I’d been spiritually oblivious for hours.

But it started to dawn on me that God’s existence didn’t depend on my concentration. He didn’t disappear in a puff of smoke the moment I thought about something else. Irrespective of my attentiveness to him, God often came running to meet me over the course of the day – an answered prayer, a remarkable conversation, a gesture of kindness, a moment of courage or peace. I began to trust that God was in my day whether I knew it or not.

My premise had been wrong. I didn’t need to carry God through my day. He wasn’t some poor cripple who needed my help to get about. God’s already out there, dancing and weaving and doing his thing. And if I have the eyes to notice him, I can join in.’

Bretherton is right. And similarly it is all about Jesus, whether we recognise it or not.

Colossians 1:15-20 ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.’

In case you missed it, today is International Men’s Day.

It’s not an officially sanctioned United Nations day but it’s now recognised in over 60 nations around the world, so let’s get behind it!

This year the focus is as follows :-

‘Keeping Men and Boys Safe’

The five challenges for 2013:
1. Tackling male suicide
2. Keeping men and boys safe to allow them to become tomorrow’s role models
3. End tolerance of violence towards men and boys
4. Boost men’s life expectancy by keeping men and boys safe from avoidable illness
5. Keeping men and boys safe by promoting fathers and male role models

Statistically, men are much, much more likely to commit suicide. Men and boys globally are also much more likely to be killed as a result of violence. Did you know that 7 out of 10 murders victims in the UK are men? The majority of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world are boys, (yes it’s true that girls are also used as child soliders and that is, of course, also horrific), but violence is a way of life for hundreds of thousands of young boys. Tragically, every hour there are around 150 acts of violence against men and boys. In fact, according to the office of national statistics, last year a staggering 800,000 men were victims of domestic violence (as opposed to 1.2 million women). Of course, men are not very likely to speak out about this … nor are the 1 in 6 boys who are sexually abused … yes, 1 in 6.

CVM exists to go to the heart causes of these issues. We believe that true transformation comes from an encounter with Jesus Christ. You can see a great testimony here: http://www.yesheis.com/en/v/rob-sanassis-story

In the mean time, please consider how you might be able to help contribute to the change that we desperately need to see.

Ps. CVM salutes everyone, men and women, who are always cheering men on – not just on International Mens Day!