When Mark Dever speaks, I find it’s usually a good idea to listen. Here’s one example as he discusses good and bad reasons for leaving a church.

I just came across this post from the excellent 9 Marks blog, where they interviewed the pastor of a church in Tennessee that ‘disciplined’ 575 of its ‘members’.

I’m not 100 per cent sold on the Baptist model of church membership, but I have to admit that the Anglican denomination (of which I’m part) has been very weak in the important area of church discipline. It’s not true of every Anglican church, but unfortunately it’s true of many.

Whatever you think about Baptist membership models, insights like this are really helpful: “Inactive membership is contrary to what the New Testament teaches about the life of the church.” Or, to put it another way, ‘inactive membership’ is a contradiction in terms when it comes to church. Now isn’t that what a lot of people in churches today need to hear?

If you’re reading this and have any thoughts on church membership and/or church discipline, I’d be very interested to read them.

The Australian dollar is almost equal in value with the US Dollar (unheard of, at least in my memory). That’s all good, and nice if you want to order stuff online – except that now my wife (a big ‘Gilmore Girls’ fan) has started asking me to order her stuff like THIS:

Thanks very much for that, Aussie Dollar!

😉

Here’s a very brief reflection on what God’s word says to us in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake. This was written for the weekly newsletter at St Stephen’s (which only has room for a short reflection – hence the brevity). I hope to post something more substantial in the next few days, which I hope might be helpful to anyone who wants to think about what the Bible says to us at times like this.

Well, where do we start!? What do we say after a week like that?

As we try to process the physical and emotional toll of the last week, God’s word has so many things to say to us that it really is hard to know where to start. In the days and weeks ahead, I hope we can prayerfully reflect on more of these things together. But for now, I thought I’d point us to one passage that came to mind for me this week.

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches his disciples how to handle the anxieties of life. I’m sure these words now speak to us like never before: “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? … And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matt 6:25, 27)

Jesus doesn’t ask us to bury our heads in the sand (or should that be the silt?) and pretend life is easy. He knows that all kinds of things will make us feel anxious. But he gives us the alternative: in the face of anxiety, look to our heavenly Father, who not only knows all our needs but loves us and provides for us.

On top of this, Jesus says we’ll be ready to handle anxiety if we’re focusing on what matters most. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” Jesus tells us, “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust [nor earthquake] destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matt 6:19-20)

These are not meant to be easy answers, and there is so much more to say. But in the midst of everything else going on, and as we continue to support each other, let’s pray that God would use this time to help us “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” knowing that, as we do that, “all these things will be added to us.” (Matt 6:33)

Here’s an update on our experience of the Christchurch earthquake. Thanks for reading this and praying for us!

If you’ve been at CMS Summer School this week, you might have heard Mike Raiter encourage Christians to deepen their prayer life by using prayers written by other Christians down through the centuries. As an example, Mike quoted from a book called ‘The Valley of Vision‘. I was gonna post one of these prayers on Facebook, but it turns out they’re a little too long. So I’m using my blog to post one here. Make this prayer your own.

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley.

If you want to find some more, buy the book, or take a look here.

A fascinating story, weird, and horribly sad. The ‘balloon boy’ story was just a hoax.

I couldn’t help thinking about another story – one from a long time ago – that seemed far more amazing, and which a lot of people also thought must have been faked.

Falcon Heene’s parents are both trained actors, and it took all of three days for their simple hoax to be exposed. But two thousand years ago, eleven fishermen and a few of their friends apparently concocted an elaborate hoax to try to convince the world that a guy rose from the dead. And they pulled it off…!?

Okay, I know Jesus’ followers never had to deal with Wolf Blitzer and CNN. But they did have to deal with some very powerful people who had a massive vested interest in proving them wrong. And yet their story survived.

You also gotta ask yourself: when the chips were down, would the Heenes have died for their lie?

Embedded video from CNN Video

Brilliant! Here’s hoping you possess “all the tools to worship God properly … or to at least appear so.”

Mostly for my own interest (but hopefully to gently encourage you to move further towards the bottom of this list!), please take a moment to answer the poll about personal Bible reading. Feel free to leave any comments about your personal Bible reading / why you think reading the Bible is a good idea or a waste of time, etc.