A Call To Spiritual Reformation

I don't often read books that I can truthfully say have transformed the way I do things, but this is one of those books. Before, I thought I "got" prayer but after reading this I realise I didn't - it has transformed the way I think about and do prayer.

In eleven chapters, Don Carson takes us through Paul's prayers in his letters in the New Testament, showing us Paul's view of God, his view of prayer and how he prays before looking at lessons we can take and apply to our prayer lives.

One chapter I found particularly interesting and challenging was on how prayer relates to God's sovereignty and to our human responsibility.

If God is completely sovereign, do our prayers do anything? Put another way, if things are going to happen because God has decided they should, then surely they would happen without our prayers? How do we reconcile this with the fact that the Bible tells us we are to pray for things and that God answers these prayers?

I'm still thinking this through so don't hunt me down for any heresies below! But, I think the way that Carson explains it is as follows (this is from memory so it might not be accurate!)

• If we pray for something, our prayers have already been ordained by God to happen at a certain time in order that they might bring about a certain result that he has already decided will happen.
• If we don't pray for something, God has already decided that we wouldn't pray, and that result that might have been brought about had we prayed had already been ordained by God not to happen.
• Therefore our prayer or lack of prayer from a human point of view brings about the result or lack of result - we are responsible for praying and to some extent whether or not something happens.
  
• But, from God's point of view, as he is sovereign he has decided whether or not we should pray. He also decides whether or not to answer the prayer - he's not a machine! So the responsibility is 100% his for whether or not things happen in relation to prayers made or not made.
  

This is something that I have only just started thinking about in any depth, so I'd love to hear thoughts and I'm sure will come up again in a while when God's sovereignty is covered in my Relay study.

Either way, whether I've heresied above or not, please read this book. It's by Don Carson, and it's sound (but please don't take my word for it - always be Berean and check against the Bible!) and it will probably change the way you view prayer!

Call to Spiritual Reformation by Don Carson is available at IVP books, and has a much better cover than before. It will cost you about £10.

The Bondage of the Will

Just posted some opening thoughts on Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will over at Manchester Dead Theologians Society.

Manchester Dead Theologians #1

The Manchester Dead Theologians Society met up for the first time yesterday. We meet semi regularly (every 5-6 weeks in uni term time) to discuss one of the great books written by the Puritans and Reformers in order to expand our understanding of Scripture and love for and devotion to our Lord and Saviour.

We had been reading (or at least the others had - more below!) Jonathan Edwards' History of the Work of Redemption and we had some good conversations! It sounded amazing and I'm pretty gutted I didn't decide to read it at the same time as the others!

I decided against reading the book because of a heavy work load (finals are fast approaching) and the fact that I've already got a whole bunch of Christian books to read... But as I said, I now wish I had read it, so I've just ordered the next book we'll discuss, Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will.

I think I might start doing as C.S. Lewis' suggested: "It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

Subscribe to the Manchester Dead Theologians blog to hear more of our thoughts and discussions on these books!

God's Part and Our Part in Evangelism

Have you...
...ever wondered about giving up sharing the gospel because no one seems to respond?
...ever thought about stopping trying to evangelise because as God is in control there's no point in us doing anything?

We have to remember that all the time, God is completely sovereign in evangelism:

• He gave us the Gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16)
• He convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8)
• He gives repentance to people which leads to life - (Acts 5:31, 11:18, Ephesians 2:8)

This takes a huge weight off our shoulders: God, the sovereign God who created, sustains and directs the universe, has the responsibility of doing the hardest parts in evangelism. He convinces sinful humans - free willed creatures that are predisposed to be against God and against doing his will - to believe and trust in the Gospel, a series of events that happened two thousand years ago in a distant part of the world.

But although God is sovereign in evangelism, he has chosen to use Christians as his tools:

• We are to share the gospel - after all how can people believe in him they haven't heard? (Romans 10:13-17)

What are the implications for us of all of this?

We should persevere! We are told to just share the gospel. God does the hard work in the people we share it with. God is infinitely powerful and is sovereign. If he wants to save someone, he will do. Paul says in (2 Tim 2:8-10) that he endures everything (he was in jail for doing evangelism) for the sake of the elect (the people that God has decided to save) that they may obtain salvation. We should persevere in our evangelism because our evangelism won't fail - God will save those that he has decided to save.

We should pray! We are told to share the gospel. God does the hard work. But our part can be hard and we should pray about it and for it. In Acts 4:29-31, the church in Jerusalem prayed for boldness to continue to speak whilst they were facing opposition in evangelism. God granted them boldness and they continued evangelising! In Ephesians 6:18-20, Paul asks for prayer for him to have words to share the gospel boldly. I think it's a real encouragement that even Paul asked God for help in evangelism - none of us should be doing this in our own strength, but rather we should ask God to equip us!

We should do it! We are told to share the gospel. God does the hard work. Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 to go out and share the gospel. We must obey Jesus in this. We need to always be looking for opportunities to share the gospel.

Theological Word of the Day

Parchment and Pen have a theological word of the day which you can sign up to recieve in your email inbox each day. It's a great way to find more out about theology in tiny bitesize chunks - one theological term a day and a very brief paragraph explaining its meaning!

Hymns Rule!

I love hymns. I love singing timeless truths about Christ which have been sung for hundreds of years. I love the way that hymns are jam packed with theology, unlike many (although not all) contemporary Christian songs. I love realising that I am part of a church which spans millenia when I sing these songs along with the church through the ages. I also love that the men and women that wrote these timeless songs were no different to us: they lived for Jesus and spoke for Jesus, they suffered but persevered, they loved theology and clamoured to know their Lord and Saviour better.

Recently I came across Red Mountain Church from the US and found some of their music online. They also love hymns and have been playing them to really cool new music. Over the next week or so, I'm going to post some of their lyrics and MP3 clips of their songs for you to listen to and ponder the words. Enjoy!

Hymns Rule #1

There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints, immortal reign.
Infinite day excludes the night
And pleasures banish pain.

Could we but climb where Moses stood
And view the landscape o’er.
Not Jordan’s streams north death’s cold flood
Should fright us from this shore.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers:
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heav’nly land from ours.

O could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy thoughts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes!

MP3

There Is A Land of Pure Delight
Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal # 1022
Words – Issac Watts, 1707
Music – Brian T. Murphy and Benj Pocta, 2006.
© 2007 Red Mountain Music
www.redmountainmusic.com

theologynetwork.org

Woop! At long last, theologynetwork.org has been launched. So from now on I will mostly be spending my bus journeys to uni learning about theology. That might sound pretty dull, but basically its learning more about God i.e. who he is and what he's done for us. I think I'm going to start by spending a bit of time looking at the cross and justification, which is, I think you'll agree, slightly more worthwhile than staring out of windows at stationary traffic.

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