On this day in 1517

On this day in 1517 a German monk, Martin Luther nailed 95 statements to a door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany, to protest against and challenge erroneous thinking by the Catholic church. For the most part the reaction was against the church selling indulgences. These are basically 'get out of jail free' cards sold by the catholic leadership that could forgive the sins of a person who had already died. It was a terrible mockery of God's grace that comes through Jesus alone. Luther, inspired by passages in the bible that tell us we are saved by grace alone through faith alone could not bear to see people misled by the church. He wanted people to see that forgiveness, salvation and resurrection was found in Christ and him alone!

There are absolute gems of Biblical gracious Christian truth in his 95 statements, and in memory of what he did in liberating the church from religiousness. I encourage you to reflect on some of  them today:


When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.


It is certainly possible that when the money clinks in the bottom of the chest avarice and greed increase; but when the church offers intercession, all depends in the will of God.


Any true Christian whatsoever, living or dead, participates in all the benefits of Christ and the Church; and this participation is granted to him by God without letters of indulgence.


Any Christian whatsoever, who is truly repentant, enjoys plenary remission from penalty and guilt, and this is given him without letters of indulgence


The true treasure of the church is the Holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.


Christians should be exhorted to be zealous to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hells

The gates of hell will not prevail!

This is from one of our members who was at worship on Sunday, I think it worth some prayerful reflection

Sunday morning I came to worship with a song in my heart.  As we started, I was interceding for various people attending that morning. The Holy Spirit burdened me with an incredible sadness for the church, or for so many people there that morning. The tears were literally streaming down my face as I continued to pray and worship. Then the Lord showed me arms in ancient shackles and the gates of ancient jails and I could hear Him say “the gates of hell will not prevail against My church” and He showed me how the shackles broke open and fell to the ground and how the jail gate just fell forward to the ground, setting free those who were jailed or captured. Yet the sadness remained throughout the service. I was intensely aware of Jesus’ heart for His people and His sadness over so many that claim to be part of His church, but who do not grasp how MUCH, how incredibly much He loves them and that He is right by their side serving them, waiting for them to look up and see Him and be changed.

Conversations for discipleship

I want to do a series of posts using some material that has been borrowed from Marshillchurch.org on discipleship. There will be seven posts in the series and whilst they are helpful for us all in leadership I would particularly like to commend them to the home group leaders.

What is discipleship?
There are many errors we can make in believing in Jesus. In my experience in a room of twenty Christians when asked who is a disciple, less than ten will answer in the affirmative. That seems strange when the instruction given to Jesus church is to make disciples. If we're not making disciples then what are we making? Whilst the answer is worth another post, I believe that we've made converts and not disciples. Converts believe in Jesus, but they dont' follow him or live like him. Jesus calls us and empowers us through the Spirit to follow him as he gives his life up for others and proclaims the coming kingdom of God.

Are we theological bots

Worth reading as it raises some really serious questions about training our minds... Are We Theological Bots?

Consumerism vs evangelism?

I like this! are you ready to do EVERYTHING for the glory of God? Someone in my homegroup once quipped "So you want us to live our lives intentionally?" - exactly! Live all of life for God - always be ready for a reason for the hope that lives within you,trust the Holy Spirit to do the rest...

Off the Agenda: Consumerism as Evangelism?

Habitat for humanity day three

This is hilarious!  In case you forget we're really a Reformed church.

from Reclaiming the mind

Conversion to what?

A number of conversations with various folk and listening to a number of developing conversations in the blogosphere like that on Scot McKnights site have got me thinking about the gospel again, and particularly how we witness to people about it.

I would believe that all gospel centred, reformed thinkers (that would be you I hope!) believe that Jesus died to save us from our sin through a substitutionary atonement (1 John 2:2) and we agree that we want people to be saved by God and that Christ's sacrifice might be for them too. The Bible reminds us that God desires all people to be saved. And so our desire is to be part of that great call to salvation in Jesus.

Every leader of every ministry and every HomeGroup leader should be helping those under their guidance to bring the gospel to all in need of being saved. And just in case you're not certain: yes it is your job to be Jesus witness, and yes millions will die this year outside of saving faith in Jesus. The time is now friends!

But here is my thought: our gospel is often smaller than the biblical gospel and our call to respond to it is often not quite what the bible presents. How so? well let me make just two points and hopefully they will get you thinking a bit.

1. The gospel is not just a call to be saved it is a call to live saved. The gospel is applicable to all of life. In fact the gospel is a call to live as part of God's great redemptive story for the earth. Sure it is about being saved, but also about living saved. The gospel has implications in how I live my marriage out, how I parent my kids, spend my money, take holidays, do business and how I spend my time. The gospel of the bible is a rich, full gospel of which repentance and salvation by grace are the start. It is about living by gospel grace too. Which brings me to my second point.

2. The reason so many people live such half hearted Christian lives is that we've called them to believe in Jesus, but we've not called them to follow Jesus. Do you follow me? It's easy to say I believe, its hard to live that belief out daily. Because our gospel is so anaemic we have created Christians who think they are saved because they have believed something, rather than having followed someone. 

Forty four Times in the ESV Jesus tells people to "Come follow me". The modern idea of belief is not what the biblical authors intended. The biblical idea of belief is richer than merely intellectual agreement. Perhaps as we witness to people the call should be "come follow Jesus and you will be saved" of course lets not deny that we are saved by grace and that we have little hope of success in our following him, hence the need of God's mercy.

But the call is still and will always remain to pick up our cross and to follow Christ. Many will say they believe, few will actually carry there crosses and follow their saviour to a death of self. But then Jesus did remind us that the way is narrow to eternal life and few will find it.

May you be one of those few and may you do all you can to get others to journey with you. For God's glory alone!

Building a plan for your Home Group

Brad House recently wrote an excellent book on community that we will be getting for our home group leaders soon. Here is an article by him that will help you give your group some gas.
Don’t Run Out of Gas: Building a Plan for Your Community Group

Habitat for Humanity: End of day two

Well done to our teams who have been led by Derek...great job!