Recipe for a 20 minute ‘Quiet Time’

Close your eyes.
Imagine yourself kneeling at the side of Christ’s throne, head on His chest, His arm around your shoulder.
Christ is speaking.  He’s addressing His Father.
And this is what He’s saying: Psalm 119.
Listen in. This really is the one thing you must do.  Listen.
Add your Amens and your Thankyous as He speaks.
Find a verse or [...]

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Why should I let you into my heaven?

From Doug Wilson:
I was talking to a woman one time… and she told me sheepishly about her first reaction to that great grace question hypothetically presented at the pearly gates — “why should I let you into heaven?” The right answer of course is a variant of “because of the blood of Jesus Christ, plus [...]

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Amazing Grace

How sweet the sound.
66 minutes of the marvellous Menon on grace.  He plunges us to the depths then takes us to the heights.  Balm for the soul, as Will would say.
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Thawed out Thursday – The Way of the LORD

A re-post
From Genesis 1, the way of the LORD has always been forming, then filling.
The filled-out reality is there by anticipation even in the forming. The intention for filling is included in the forming. But still the order is ‘form, then fill.’:

In Gen 1:2 – a formless and empty creation is then formed (days 1-3) [...]

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He rescued me because He delighted in me

I preached that verse about a month ago (Ps 18:19).  And you know my first reaction as I was preparing?
Hmmm, tricky, how on earth should we understand this…?
I hope you’re all saying: But why Glen – it seems perfectly straightforward.
Well, there’s the slightly tricky part about how we take the verse on our own lips.  [...]

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Cardboard testimonies

Really, really moving.

And a cool way to teach Luke 16 too.
From Paul Blackham
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Public displays of affection

How do you respond to PDAs?
Cringe? 
Tut-tut? 
Feel superior?
What about PDAs for Jesus?
What if someone expresses costly, counter-cultural public affection for Jesus in your workplace, in your family, on the streets or even in church. Do you cringe?
In Mark 14:1-11 we see a woman break open a jar of perfume worth tens of thousands of pounds. And [...]

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In My Name

What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name?
 
Here’s Jesus Himself using the phrase ‘in my name’:
 
Many will come in my name, saying ‘I am He’ and will lead many astray.  (Mark 13:6)
 
Here’s a very strong understanding of ‘in my name’.  Here to act “in Jesus’ name” is to act as Jesus and to appear to [...]

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I am in Christ AND Christ is in me

Something I think the Lord has been teaching me recently is to prize both these truths:
I am in Christ
 and
Christ is in me
I am clothed in an alien righteousness but also filled with an outworking Power.  My standing before God is entirely outside myself – in Jesus.  Yet my walk in the world is enabled [...]

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God is waiting for you to despair

From Watchman Nee’s Sit, Walk, Stand.
“An engineer living in a large city in the West left his homeland for the Far East. He was away for two or three years, and during his absence his wife was unfaithful to him and went off with one of his best friends. On his return home he found [...]

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How He has loved us

For Thawed-out Thursdays – this one from 18 months ago
Three pictures of how we are loved from the upper room. The waterfall, promotion, God’s compass. They all deserve reflection as we immerse ourselves in the love of the triune God.
.
First, the waterfall:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” (John 15:9)
Here the [...]

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99 Balloons

I’m absolutely blown away by this.

What gets me is the combination of sadness without any self-pity.
It’s utterly tragic but not told as a tragedy.  Somehow the whole thing is a celebration shot through with praise, thanksgiving and gospel hope.
Praise Jesus.
.

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The fruit of the Spirit as works of the flesh

For years I prayed for the fruit of the Spirit every day.  (Galatians 5:22f)  Yet, looking back, I prayed for the fruit in an altogether fleshly way.
How so?  Well basically my prayers were petitions for the moral character of ‘love, joy, peace…’ as abstract qualities. I would judge my own spiritual walk that week by how loving, [...]

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Where’s the turning point?

Where’s the turning point in the parable of the two sons?  (Yes, that again).
Is it ‘coming to himself’ in the pig-sty?

If that’s the turning point in the son’s life, repentance will look like weighing things up and choosing obedience.
What’s wrong with that?  Well for one it effectively makes the prodigal his own saviour. 
But aside from this.  Let’s [...]

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The Glory of the Bloodied God

Here’s a hymn.  Not sure it’s finished – not happy with switch to first person in final verse.  Critique happily received (very new to this).
It fits with any common metre tune – maybe one of these: Worcester, Moravia, Martyrdom, Manoah, Leicester, Faith, Dundee, Dunfermline, Crimond, Cheshire. Burford, Bradford. Belmont
 
The glory of the bloodied God
His fruitfulness [...]

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What do you give the person who has everything?

Penicillin.
arf arf.
But seriously folks… Nick Cornell, fellow Eastbourne curate, asked us last night at our joint prayer meeting: What do you give to a people who already have everything?
Because Ephesians 1:3 says we are that people.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual [...]

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Four surprises in Mark 8

(I’ll get back to the series soon, just thought I’d break things up).
I was reading some very familiar words again:
 Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after [...]

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What does spiritual health look like?

Praying the Lord’s prayer recently I was thinking about what the prayer assumes about the character of God: Father, in heaven, holy, etc.  Then I thought, what does it assume about the character of the one praying it?
 
Here are some thoughts:

Childlike
Reverent 
Expectant 
Guileless
Obedient
No agenda of our own
Desperate
Dependent for all things
Confident of mercy
Acknowledging sin
Repentant
Merciful
Having a deep appreciation of [...]

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Gethsemane

He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  (Matt 26:37-38)
He fell with His face to the ground and prayed.  (Matt 26:39)
“Abba, Father,” He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but [...]

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Fear not little flock

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)
We think of ourselves as battle-weary soldiers, securing the kingdom for a grudging commanding officer. The Good Shepherd calls us little sheep who are given heaven and earth by a happy and generous Father!
Now if that doesn’t revolutionize [...]

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Trusting Him – Walking as He walked

After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, [...]

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How He has loved us

Bobby’s just commented on a brilliant Richard Sibbes quotation re participation in the trinitarian communion of love.  Go read it. 
It got me thinking about the upper room, before Jesus died.  Here Jesus gives us three pictures of how we are loved.  The waterfall, promotion, God’s compass.  They all deserve reflection as we immerse ourselves in how we [...]

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Trusting God’s Sovereignty – Trusting God’s Son

When times are tough – what is your comfort?  When comforting others, where do you point them?
In the circles in which I move the encouragements of choice involve variations on the theme of ‘God’s got a plan.’  Many’s the time when a well-meaning brother (usually a brother) has said ‘I guess at moments like this, all [...]

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Why is God breaking you down?

Sometimes, when I’m sharing with Christians about tough times, I ask them: ‘Why do you think God is breaking you down like this?’
Almost without fail they say something like, ‘I know, I know, it’s to make me stronger.’
No!  No, no, no, a thousand times no!
He’s breaking you down to make you broken.  Don’t, whatever you [...]

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The Way of the LORD

From Genesis 1, the way of the LORD has always been forming, then filling.
The filled-out reality is there by anticipation even in the forming. The intention for filling is included in the forming. But still the order is ‘form, then fill.’:

In Gen 1:2 – a formless and empty creation is then formed (days 1-3) and [...]

Read Full Post »