my life and my doctrine

Last night at St Matthias I was preaching on John 10.1-21 – Jesus the Good Shepherd. It reminds about how great a shepherd Jesus is, because he lay down his life for us. He did this when we were facing the threat of death. He did this for our sake, not his own, because he cares for his sheep. He did this willingly, not under compulsion or coercion.

Though the passage is primarily about the shepherd, the sheep aren’t totally passive. Sheep don’t follow thieves or robbers. Sheep follow their shepherd. And sheep know and hear the shepherd’s voice.

So, I mentioned that as sheep, the best way to hear our shepherd’s voice is to read his word. I publicly shared my new year’s resolution to read through the Bible in one year, and asked if others are keen to join me. (It’s only the 3rd, you can catch up!)

A few people have mentioned reading through the Bible in chronological order. I’m going to use the Blue Letter Bible reading plan that takes us through the Bible in the order the events historically took place ‘according to recent historical research’. I’ve also been pointed to this progress chart, which I’ll keep in my Bible to ‘check off’ chapters as they are read.

I also said in my sermon that I’m not likely to be a systematic few chapters every day kind of person. I expect I’ll do this in fits and starts. It’ll be fun and exciting to begin with. It’ll be a challenge at times. It’ll be easy to let it slide. However, I hope that this will be something I share with you about here, and maybe even you will come on this journey with me. Please let me know if you do, not so that I can check up on you, but that we may encourage each other to keep hearing the shepherd’s voice, in order to better follow this good shepherd.

It is bad enough when you gossip or slander or lie in a room or a hallway or at a restaurant table  with only another person or two around, but with a medium like Facebook these sins of speech go global.

Doug Phillips

I’ve often been challenged in how to think about Facebook and how to use it as a tool to build and develop relationships. The more I think about it, the more I realise that it seeks to be an online medium for relationships. Therefore, we need to be careful and even deliberate in how we present ourselves and how we relate to others. Doug Phillips, a guest poster on Kevin de Young’s blog, thinks through the importance of online sins of speech, motivated by Ephesians 4:29.

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph. 4:29 ESV)

One of the few blogs I regularly read is by Kevin de Young. He recently wrote about humility, in particular, humility in action.

There are hundreds of ways to love and a myriad of ways to demonstrate humility. But one of the most effective ways to accomplish both is to simply ask questions. True, it’s possible to be nothing but a smooth talking salesmen who cares little for the actual person across the table. But every virtue can be faked from time to time. So let’s not let that deter us from giving others the gift of our curiosity.

His post is worth reading in full.

There were two big questions raised after the sermon on Sunday night (Isaiah 6.1-7).

Firstly, I mentioned something about whether anxiety was a sin if we’re commanded in Philippians not to be anxious.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

This was abbreviating a book review of Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins which was recently reviewed in the Briefing. The book review made me think it is definitely worth reading, to be reminded again of how easily our Christianity takes on aspects of our worldview that God is against. Other areas mentioned are impatience, selfishness, favouritism …

I’m sorry if what I said was insensitive to those thinking of friends and family with medically diagnosed anxiety issues.

What I was and am keen to challenge us on is the little things we may worry about that are out of our control.

John Bartik’s reflections on Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy are worth a read.

Secondly, I ended with the reminder that we needn’t feel guilt about sin if we’re forgiven.

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.  7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:6-7)

I think there’s a difference between feeling guilty and feeling remorseful about sin. I understand remorse as something which also implies regret and repentance. ie a desire to not keep sinning.

I think feeling guilty about sin can lead to two problems.

1. You feel more and more guilt in which case you don’t trust God’s grace to forgive.
2. The guilt makes you want to try harder and be more godly so you don’t trust God’s grace to forgive.

The right response to recognising the sin in our lives is to repent, to say sorry to God and to ask him to forgive us. I think the danger is that all too often we want to say sorry and I won’t do it again, as though we can make ourselves more godly.

What do you think? Have I overstated my case?