"Scriptural" Call to Worship for Harvest

As I’m not wildly impressed by the tiny Scriptures snippets suggested in Common Worship Times and Seasons for Harvest, here are some words adapted from the Good News Bible version of Psalm 104 which I thought I might use as a call to worship in our all age Harvest Family Service tomorrow:

V1:
Praise the LORD, my soul.

O LORD, my God, how great you are!
you are clothed with majesty and glory….

Vv 13-15:
From the sky you send rain on the hills,
and the earth is filled with your blessings.
You make grass grow for the cattle
and plants for man to use,
so that he can grow his crops
and produce wine to make him happy,
olive-oil to make him cheerful,
and bread to give him strength.

V24:
LORD, you have made so many things!
How wisely you made them all!
The earth is filled with your creatures.

Vv27-28:
All of them depend on you
to give them food when they need it.
You give it to them and they eat it;
you provide food, and they are satisfied.

V31:
May the glory of the LORD last for ever!
May the LORD be happy with what he has made!

V33:
I will sing to the LORD all my life;
As long as I live I will sing praises to my God.
May he be pleased with my song,
For my gladness comes from him.

V35b:
Praise the LORD, my soul!
Praise the LORD!

I’m sure the whole of Psalm 104 would feel too lengthy but I think I’d like a bit more than just a single sentence. Is my attempt still a bit long?

What do you think about editing and adapting Scripture for use in worship? I’m very unhappy if it’s done for a lectionary or reading but is it okay if its for a particular purpose in a service, such as praise, thanksgiving or confession? Is some Scripture better than none (provided you don’t make a rule of excluding particular doctrines)?

I have basically edited the Psalm to keep it happy and kinda harvest thanksgivingy and relatively child friendly and understandable. I’ve wimped out from including verses like “may sinners be destroyed from the earth; may the wicked be no more” (v35) and haven’t troubled people with the “hyrax” (v18), but I would certainly be happy to pray v35 in other circumstances and I’ve noting against conies / rock badgers.

I was tempted to change the Psalm to make it more corporate too (“we”s instead of “I”s and so on)?

Perhaps there is a more appropriate passage in Scripture to use that I wouldn’t feel the need to muck about with? I’m keen for our services to begin with a call to worship from the Word of God.

What do you think? Is it okay to mess with Scripture like this? Would a hymn or poem not taken Scripture be better than a “bowdlerized” version? I would probably introduce it as “some words from Psalm 104”.

The most famous verse in the Bible

Here's the text of my handout for a sermon on John 3:16. The "D"s are stolen from 4 advent sermons by John Piper (1994). My sermon can be heard on our church website.

(1) Everyone’s DANGER:

Perishing without Christ

V18 – condemned

V36 – under the wrath of God

No automatic Christians – a real danger

(2) God’s DESIGN:

So loving the world that he gives His only begotten Son

God loves the whole world

God loves the wicked world

Giving: incarnation & crucifixion – 1 John 4:9-10

(3) Our DUTY:

Believing in Jesus

Believing certain objective truths

Personal trust and dependence – vv14-15 (cf. Num 21:4-9)

For whoever – 3:36

An ongoing duty

(4) Believers’ DESTINY:

To have eternal life

quantity & quality

10:10 – full life

17:3 – eternal life = knowing God

There was some discussion about whether or not John 3:16 is really the most famous verse in the Bible. Someone suggested "The Lord Is My Shepherd...". I reckon the Lord's Prayer may actually be better known.

Satisfactory means unsatisfactory

OFSTED has been complaining about maths teaching. According to the BBC News website:

The effectiveness of work in maths was judged to be outstanding in 11%, good in 44% and satisfactory in 40% - by an inspectorate which regards "satisfactory" as not being good enough.

Satisfactory obviously means unsatisfactory.

Jesus Saved The World

John 3:17 tells us that God’s intention in sending Jesus was to save the world through Him.

Surely God’s intention was fulfilled. Jesus successfully completed his mission: what he was sent to do, he did. God saved the world through Jesus.

Clearly this does not mean that all individuals without exception are saved. Those who do not believe in the Son will perish (v16). God’s wrath remains on them (v36).

We could say that all manner of people are saved. A great number from every nation will saved. This is undoubtedly true.

Yet the verse seems to make more sense if the vast majority of humankind are eventually saved (as the gospel progresses and more and more people put their trust in Jesus).

And it seems appropriate to this verse that this world should be saved. Jesus’ death is not just about rescuing individuals but about restoring the whole cosmos. The created order will be redeemed. The curse has been drawn. God's plans for the world he made will be fulfilled.

On the great final day we will be able to say that the world has indeed been saved though Jesus.

Reading on Things Charismatic

Someone asked me what he might read on questions charismatic. I’ve not read all of these but perhaps:

Don Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Fleming H. Revell / Paternoster, 1987)

Edmund P. Clowney, The Church Contours of Christian Theology Series (Leicester, IVP, 1996) – esp. chapters on the gifts of the Spirit in the church and the gift of prophecy in the church

Sinclair Fergson, The Holy Spirit Contours of Christian Theology Series (Leicester, IVP, 1996) – felt stodgey in places

Richard Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost (P & R, 1979)

Keneth L. Gentry, The Charismatic Gift of Prophecy: A Reformed Response to Wayne Grudem (Wimpf & Stock, 1999)

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (IVP) – consult the relevant sections for a sane Reformed Charismatic perspective

Jensen and Payne, Guidance and the Voice of God (St Matthias Press) – at least a useful corrective

John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Zondervan, new edition 1993) – hardline, American (context possibly more extreme than the UK?)

Peter Masters – The Charismatic Phenomenon, (The Wakeman Trust, 1988) hardline

James Packer, Keep In Step With The Spirit (IVP)

James Packer, Quest For Godliness / Among God’s Giants – about the Puritans, some relevant stuff, historical approach

R. L. Saucy, C. Samuel Storms, Douglas A. Oss, and Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?: Four Views Counterpoints: Exploring Theology Series (Zondervan, 1996)

John Stott, Baptism and Fullness (IVP)

B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles

Any other suggestions welcome. What is the one best book from a conservative perspective?

Faith

Faith surely involves the due use of God given and appointed means.

You probably know the old gag:

A man is trapped on his roof in a flood with the waters rising around him. Men in boats and then men in helicoptors attempt to rescue him but he sends them away saying, "No, I have faith: I'm trusting in the LORD to rescue me." He dies in the flood and meets his maker and angrily asks God why He didn't save him. "I sent you boats and helicoptors", God replies, "but you wouldn't get it".

I used to think this joke attacked something of a straw man, but now I'm not so sure.

God's Words on God's Words

For anyone who might be interested (!) he's the first chapter (to be written) of the PhD I'm working on (which is intended to form chapter 2 of the final thesis). Entitled 'God's Words on God's Words: An outline and sketch of a standard Reformed Evangelical doctrine of scripture with developments from the philosophy of language and literary theory' (21 500 words). It summarises B. B. Warfield's doctrine of Scripture then summarises and evaluates the contribution that semiotics and speech act theory might make to a Reformed Evangelical doctrine of Scripture.

Christendom 2.0

What exactly are criticisms of Christendom 1 that must be avoided in Christendom 2.0?

(1) It was sometimes repressive / opressive / co-ercive. Christendom 2.0 must be voluntary through the spread of the gospel by the power of the Spirit as rulers and people become attentive to the Word of God, join the church and ask for help to be obedient to God as public as well as private persons, citizens and governors.

(2) It sometimes forgot Christ for the sake of the -dom. Christendom 2.0 must remain distinctively Christians and never compromise or sell out to the world. It must remember the antithesis, the lack of neutrality, the absolute crown rights of King Jesus to be Lord of All if he is to be Lord at all and the sufficiency of God's inerrant Word for all areas of public and private life.

Anything else or are we all signed up for this project (a.k.a. gospel work, doing ministry, discipling the nations) already?

fess up

I learnt from Mark Mason of Chichester University at Initial Ministerial Education on Saturday the expression “fess up”. I tried it out on Mrs Lloyd and a couple of people at church and it was old hat to them, but to me it was a revelation.

The phrase, which I believe is common among the young people, is not a Turkish greeting and does not involve raising one’s head gear but means to confess or admit. For example, “I must fess up at the beginning of this lecture that I am a Christian and therefore I don’t buy into all this postmodern mumbo-jumbo I am going to seek to explain to you.”

Mr Mason belongs to an emerging church and I have no idea whether they also use the expression in a liturgical context, fessing up their sins in the fess before they abs them off, perhaps? This could be a Fresh Expression indeed.

doing ministry

On page 14 of the UK edition of The Briefing (Sept 08, Issue 360) we learn that "in our last issue, we looked at the difference between stratergy and tactics. In this article, David Shead tells the story of how he was forced to change tactics while doing ministry in Slovenia."

I think it would be strategic, as I may have mentioned before (!), if Mr Shead were forced to say that he "ministered" in Slovenia. We serve people and the Lord Jesus. We do not do ministry. I hope it is a grammatical (as well as potentially a theological) crime to say that one "does ministry"?

Thanks for putting up with my rant. I feel much better now.

Warfield on the Eucharist as Sacrifice

Liam Beadle has some striking quotations from B B Warfield (a hot Prot!) on the Supper as a Sacrifice.

I've added some bleeding chunks on Warfield to the comments which I reproduce here.

On Warfield's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, see further:

Selected Shorter Writings, ed. Meeter, John E., vol 1, (Nutley, NJ, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1970) 37. 'The Fundamental Significance of the Lord’s Supper' (p332ff).

Warfield argues that: The Lord’s Supper is the Christian Passover, a perpetual sacrificial feast in which the sacrifice of our Lord is not repeated but applied, not merely commemorated. (p336)

“All who partake of this bread and (p336) wine, the appointed symbols of his body and blood, therefore, are symbolically partaking of the victim offered on the altar of the cross, and are by this act professing themselves offerers of the sacrifice and seeking to become beneficiaries of it. This is the fundamental significance of the Lord’s Supper. Whenever the Lord’s Supper is spread before us we are invited to take our place at the sacrificial feast, the substance of which is the flesh and blood of the victim which has been sacrificed once for all at Calvary; and as we eat of these in their symbols, we are – certainly not repeating his sacrifice, nor yet prolonging it – but continuing that solemn festival upon it instituted by Christ, by which we testify our “participation in the altar” and claim our part in the benefits bought by the offering immolated on it. The sacrificial feast is not the sacrifice, in the sense of the thing offered, that is eaten in it: and therefore it is presuppositive of the sacrifice in the sense of the act of offering and implies that this offering has already been performed. The Lord’s Supper as a sacrificial feast is accordingly not the sacrifice, that is, the act of offering up Christ’s body and blood: it is however, the sacrifice, that is the body and blood of Christ that were offered, which is eaten in it: and therefore it is presuppositive of the sacrifice as an act of offering and implies that this act has already been performed once for all.” (p337)

His only other comments on the Supper I know of are in 23. 'The Posture of Recipients at the Lord’s Supper: A Footnote to the History of Reformed Usages' (p351ff)

“The fundamental fact, determinative of all such questions for the Reformed, is that the Supper is a feast and is to be administered at a table.” (p351)
“From the very beginning of their existence, the Reformed churches had insisted that the Supper is s meal and is to be administered at a table.” (p352)
Our Lord recumbent recipients (p352)
In antiquity elements received standing, the typical posture for prayer and praise (p353)
Leeuwaarden church in Frisia receive elements walking to suggest readiness for service (p353)
Seated usual reformed position (p353)
Kneeling suggests humility (p353) – Romanists, many German Protestants, C of E, Bohemians
Normally receive in their places – going up to altar a Laudian innovation (p358)
Scots would “sit at the table as guests at the festival of the Lord” (p359)
Gillespie says that “the nature of a feast requireth that the guests be set at table, and that all the guests be set about it, for the use of a table is not for some, but for all the guests, else no table is necessary but a cupboard.” Sub-committee of Westminster Assembly on Directory of Public Worship, Miscellany Questions, XVIII (p360)
The debate on communicating at the table at the Assembly took three weeks (p363)

I'd love to be pointed to more.

Some new old heroes?

Some evangelicals can sometimes give the impression that nothing much good happened in the church between Augustine of Hippo and Luther.

Could anyone suggest some heroes from that period of church history?

Could you recommend places to start in their writings or good (especially readable) biographies of them?

I guess a few condidates (though I know very little about some of them), in no particular order, could be Augustine of Canterbury, Boniface, Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Patrick, Bede, Thomas Becket, Edward the Confessor, Tyndale & Wycliffe (of course).

Encouraged

I think speaking to Christians who are sick, struggling or suffering in some way yet persevering can be one of the most encouraging things there is. A few times I've been to minister to such people and found that they've been a great blessing to me. I hope if I find myself in such a situation I will speak openly and joyfully about the Lord Jesus Christ as my rock and fortress and that I'll be able to witness to others of his love and grace.

Sovereign Treacle

Thomas Watson comments:

He is the only wise God; he knows how to make evil things work for good to his children. Rom viii 28. He can make a sovereign treacle of poison.

The Lord's Prayer (Banner of Truth, 1965) p4

You Must Be Born Again, (Israel) (Again)

In thinking about a corporate understanding of John 3:1-15, I came across this:




Descent from Father Abraham and membership of one of the twelve tribes of Israel will no longer count for membership in the people of God…. Easily missed is the fact that Jesus is actually addressing the nation of Israel in the person of this noted individual. This point emerges where we translate the Greek literally:

verse 7 Marvel not that I say unto thee,
‘You (plural) must be born from above’.

verse 11 ‘… you (plural) do not receive our witness’.

In effect, Jesus is addressing Israel with an announcement that is at the same time bad news and good news. It is bad news because it declares that Israel is not the Kingdom of God, but it is good news because it points to the door into the Kingdom. That ‘door’ is through the one who now speaks to Nicodemus, Jesus himself.

In turn this bears on the meaning of the words, ‘born of water and the Spirit’ (verse 5). Most likely Jesus is referring to God’s promise to gather together his scattered people into their true homeland and to wash them with water and give them his Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-28). In other words, God promises to forgive those sins that caused them to be scattered and to give them his inner strength to please him from now on.” (p42)

Paul Barnett, John: The Shepherd King Reading The Bible Today Series (Sydney, Aquila Press, 2005)

He Shall Have Dominion

A live blog from camp!

All is going well - through many dangers, toils and snares, and with His strength made perfect in weakness and so on. Thanks if you prayed and to the Lord and to all the team!

We've been having excellent times in Psalms 1 & 8 so far thanks to Mr Ken MacDonald.

I was especially struck by how dominion was seen partly in Adam, lost, exercised fully in Christ, progressively in us and perfectly in the future.

Think of Jesus domion over nature: He calms the storm and walks on water.

And over the beasts of the field: He rides an unbroken donkey no one else has ever ridden and the pigs rush to their death as He allows demons to enter them.

And over the fish of the sea: they climb into nets at His command, they pay His taxes and he serves them up.

And over the birds of the air: the Spirit comes on Him in the form of a dove and not a bird falls from the heavens except at His Father's command.

I just have to go and exercise a bit of dominion over Mr Dan Ritchie who is a very naughty leader. He just said there was some man outside the main building to see me. I took off my Christmas tree hair band, picked up my official looking folder and pen and marched out, where upon a group of boys water bombed me. Vengance may be the Lord's but a bit of corrective "punishment" might be in order...

Camp

We’re off on our CPAS Ventures camp first thing in the morning, for which we’d very much appreciate your prayers.

It’s a camp which is not really a camp, since we’re staying in a boarding school. Though it will be a little more like camping than usual since, in a radical move for us, some leaders will have to sleep on the floor, although I understand this is normal at some camps.

Its Romsey 1, which is not Romsey 1 since I believe it follows on from Romsey 2. Its no longer in Romsey at Hampshire Collegiate School this year but at Cumnor House School in Danehill in East Sussex. The site is new to us.

Though it's high summer and the weather will of course be glorious sunshine all week, we’re having Christmas and New Year.

The preaching and Bible Studies will be sequential edited highlights from John’s Gospel. I'm giving the first talk on John 20:31 entitled "Reading The Last Page First".

As a leadership team we'll be studying selected Psalms and I'll speak on a couple of Psalms from the Book of Common Prayer that I preached on recently.

I’ll be acting a adjutant (the main up front leadership for the kids) for the first time. Mrs Lloyd will be looking after Master Lloyd for the first time at camp. A kind church member will be looking after Caleb, oh, and Esther, for the first time at the curatage.

We’ll have 26 leaders (including cooks and a junior leader, quite a few of whom are new to our camp) and 44 eleven to fourteen year olds. Oh, and one baby, of course.

Proc Trust Autumn Ministers' Conference

I have just looked myself onto the Proc Trust Autumn joint ministers' conference, but don't let that put you off going.

I understand the food is lovely and plentiful and there is a good bar. Mrs Lloyd has cased the joint.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Little Ones In Church

Thanks to Mrs Lloyd for directing me to Mrs Wilson's blog post on little ones in church.

http://femina.reformedblogs.com/2008/07/24/little-ones-in-church/#more-418

I would love to see all our children with us in church for the whole service and admitted to the Lord's Table, but I think we might be a generation away from that as a congregation. Who knows. How would you move a church in that direction? Do you have experience of doing it in a church where others don't? It would be great if we could manage it with our little Jono. I don't really want to see him exiled or excommunicated.

Mrs Wilson's post should also be read in conjunction with Pastor Wilson's post on children in worship, which as I remember argues something like that whilst it is not a sin for the church to gather without the children and there are times when age specific teaching / addressing male heads of households / those who can understand etc. might be appropriate, as a norm the kids should we welcomed and included.

The Sunday School movement in the UK is a fairly recent invention and rather a mixed blessing in my view.

Mrs Wilson's post also shows the value of large families and long term settled ministries it seems to me. If, say, by the grace of God we had 4 kids who each had 4 kids, and the grandchildren and parents came to church, we would have a pretty sizable congregation. And if we had 4 other families like that in our church...

Some jottings on John

For what they're worth (which I'm afraid probably isn't very much) here's a Word Document with some notes I prepared for the leaders on Romsey 1 (a camp for 11-14 year olds) to help them prepare 6 Bible Studies on John 1:1-4, 35-51; 3:1-15; 6:1-24; 12:20-36; 19:16b-27