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Mustard Seed Soul Band comes to PBC

2010-02-22T17:49:00Z

The Mustard Seed Soul Band will be performing at Paulsgrove Baptist Church this Saturday.

Tickets are still available at £5 each - either book online at www.mustardseedsongs.org.uk or phone 023 9232 5944 during office hours. (Tickets will be available for purchase on the door, but at the higher price of £6).

Salvation and the county Jail

2010-02-20T09:00:00Z

Read Acts 16:25-40

The jailer's conversion is as sudden as it is unexpected: and yet the result is the same. His heart, now open to the gospel, leads him immediately to be concerned for Paul and his companions (he washes their wounds) and immediately gets baptised. Not only do all his household follow suit, but they rejoice with him at the good news that is now theirs.

Paul experienced the joy of seeing his jailer become his brother because he was ready to praise God and preach the gospel (singing songs while shackled?! Inmate preaching to a prison governor?!).

Are there places you go, or situations you find yourself in where you don't feel as though the gospel is relevant? Or people that you're hesitant to share the gospel with because you don't know how they'll react?

Consider how you would have reacted, had you been in Paul's situation: beaten unjustly, chained in the most secure cell in the prison – and all of it an illegal violation of your rights as a citizen! Maybe your vision of God is too small? Maybe your expectations of God are too low?

Ask God to fill you with the confidence and boldness to trust Him in every place and with everyone.

A dangerous deliverance

2010-02-19T09:00:00Z

Read Acts 16:16-24

The slave girl is at the bottom of the pile. She is enslaved by men who use her for profit, enslaved by an evil spirit who enables her to know things that she shouldn't be able to know. And the spirit in her is not happy – because followers of Jesus have just turned up in their city. Paul takes his time before intervening – it's not safe to mess with people's profit margins. Not then, not now. (Like missionary William Carey, who went to preach the gospel in India and was unable to preach it in the parts of India controlled by Britain at the time because they feared that it might cause trouble and adversely affect the economy).

The bible says that Christ came to bring us freedom – but we would be wise to remember that this world profits from people being enslaved. Liberating people often threatens existing financial interests and results in serious opposition.

From slander to murder, we should not be surprised by the opposition that the liberating truth of the gospel brings.

God opened her heart

2010-02-18T09:00:00Z

Read Acts 16:11-15

Lydia has all the hallmarks of a seeker: she was already interested in spiritual things, she had some knowledge of God, was a worshipper of God, presumably had (at least) some knowledge of the bible and was looking for more. But the bible does not say “she opened her heart” - rather it declares that “God opened” it.

If Lydia can't make it on her own, who can? The answer is no-one. No-one will ever become a Christian without the intervention of God. We simply don't have the power to open people's hearts – only God does.

Think of the non-Christians you know: how often do you pray for them? After all – prayer is how we call on God to act and to save.

But what means does God use to open her heart? He could have used a vision, or a dream or writing in the sky. But it didn't: God chose the moment that Paul was sharing the gospel with her. Having prayed – and trusting God to come through – get ready to be bold, step out in faith. Because God's top choice for opening people's hearts to the gospel is the point in time that someone is telling them about Jesus.

When God changes your plans

2010-02-17T09:00:00Z

Read Acts 16:6-10

The plan was to go with Barnabas, but he's gone to Cyprus. The plan was to encourage existing churches, but he's being called to an unreached city. The plan was to cover familiar ground, but he's travelling to a new continent. God just changed the plan.

How do you imagine Paul felt – leaving the security of having a guy like Barnabas around to encourage him and back him up – out on a mission that is no longer viable?
How differently do you think he felt when he looked back with the benefit of hindsight?

Thank God that he is in control. And that he loves you more than you love yourself – and chooses what is better for you than you would choose yourself.

Building tomorrow's church

2010-02-16T09:00:00Z

Read Acts 16:1-5

Paul started off as Barnabas's protégé and learns from him. As soon as he gets the opportunity, he calls Timothy to join his group and starts to mentor him.

If you've followed Jesus for any period of time, there will be people who can benefit from your help, encouragement and experience. Jesus discipled and trained men to succeed him in ministry. As did the apostles after them. As Paul encouraged Timothy himself to do in 2 Timothy 2:2.

The church should continue to grow. If you want you ministry to have an impact, you need to invest time in training and encouraging and discipling other Christians. All Christians should be both disciples (following Jesus) and discipling (making followers of Jesus) – Matthew 28:18-20.

Pray for the younger members of the church and those who have not been Christians for so long. And ask God for opportunities to get alongside them to help them grow and mature in their faith.

Sin and the sovereignty of God

2010-02-15T09:00:00Z

Read Acts 15:36-41

Despite having made plans to go on a trip to help build up/consolidate the churches they've already worked with, Paul and Barnabas have a “sharp disagreement” about whether Barnabas's cousin, John Mark, should accompany them on their planned trip. So they split.

But they both go on living lives that are totally committed to God.

What impact does it have when godly people fall out with each other?
Are God's plans held back by their disagreement?
What failures have you had or seen that God has used to further his kingdom?

Joseph, whose brother's sold him into slavery, experienced God's power this way: He says to them in Genesis 50:20 “ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. ” Praise the God who can use even our most spectacular sins, grievous mistakes and abject failures for good: to the point of using the murder of his Son to save the species that killed him.

Husbands, love your wives....

2010-02-10T16:06:00Z

We just published our Men's Ministry Valentine's Day reminder: Don't take your marriage for granted.

Feel free to check it out.

If the bible says do it, do I have to?

2010-02-08T22:00:00Z

It's helpful to make a distinction between three things that we mean when we talk about the laws, rules and regulations in the Bible. They are (1) the legal system of ancient Israel, (2) the ceremonial law of the Old Covenant and (3) the moral law.

Legal: The legal system of ancient Israel are the laws about how people should live as God's people in the land that God gave to the Israelites. Things like how adultery, theft, blasphemy and murder should be punished.

Religious: The ceremonial law of the Old Covenant specified what had to be done in order to relate to God – which sacrifices should be made, by whom and when etc. Things like what the High Priest would do on the day of atonement, or circumcision, or the kind of offering you make to say thank you to God after the birth of a child.

Moral: The moral law is about what is right and what is wrong. How do good people behave? What behaviour is acceptable in God's eyes? How should I treat my neighbour?

The legal system of ancient Israel became redundant when the nation was taken into captivity. You have to have authority to govern in order to administer a legal system – and they didn't have that. Hence even Jesus was not bound by it: he told people to pay taxes to Caesar (which Jewish Law didn't demand, but Roman law did – Matthew 22:17-22) and refused to stone a woman caught in adultery (John 8:2-11) even though the law demanded it (Lev 20:10).

The ceremonial law of the Old Covenant became redundant because Jesus made a new covenant: Hebrews 10:1 points out “The Jewish Law is not a full and faithful model of the real things; it is only a faint outline of the good things to come.” and in Hebrews 8:13 he says “By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear.” The author of Hebrews spends most of the time from chapter 7 through to chapter 10 explaining how the Old Covenant was like a human model to help us understand what Christ did for real.

The moral law is the stuff that doesn't change – it includes stuff that Moses is told which is re-affirmed by Jesus (e.g. Matthew 5-7, Sermon on the Mount) and Paul (e.g. Ephesians 5-6).

It's not always easy putting stuff into neat boxes – adultery, for example, is a definite no-no for all time (ie. Moral law) but the death penalty for adultery is part of the legal system of ancient Israel – not ours (ie. Legal). Hence it would be totally wrong for us to stone adulterers. Laws about purification after sex are part of the ceremonial law (ie. Religious) and hence do not apply either: we are made clean by the blood of Christ. Simulating it with water is useless and would just encourage superstition.

When trying to work out which category a particular instruction falls into, it's helpful to look at where it is in scripture:

If it's in the letters in the New Testament, it almost certainly applies to us (unless, for example, it's Paul asking Timothy to bring him his cloak & parchments – 2 Tim 4:13).
If it's Jesus speaking then it's highly likely – although there are times when he's talking to the Pharisees about how to keep the Old Covenant which fall under the Ceremonial Law.
If it's in the Old Testament, then what kind of instruction is it? Is it part of the legal system, or is it a religious regulation that Jesus has replaced, or is it about the way the world should be, ie. moral?

It's also worth asking – even when the instruction is doesn't apply directly to you – whether there's some transferable principle that does.

New Men's Ministry Devo

2010-01-18T19:36:00Z

The latest devotional from our Men's Ministry 'By any means possible' is now online.

All things are better in Koine

2009-11-03T18:19:00Z

Genius.

Acts 1 Study Questions

2009-10-26T11:21:00Z

We've just kicked off a new series in the book of Acts at church - here's the young adults study guide to accompany this week's section: Acts 1 Study Guide.

Principles of exposition

2009-10-16T16:25:00Z

Thought this article on the principles of exposition from the Simeon Trust was worth linking to.

That's all.

Men's Bible Study

2009-09-07T16:49:00Z

PBC men: the Monday night men's bible study kicks off again tonight. Studies in Hebrews. 8pm @ PBC.

The battle between emotion and reason

2009-07-27T18:09:00Z

In the battle between emotion and reason, emotion wins most of the time for most people: the heart trumps the head because it is more difficult to live with bad feelings than bad logic. Few are the souls tortured by bad reasoning; many are those tortured by guilt. However overwhelming the evidence, people believe what they want to believe, and find it very difficult to believe what they don't want to.
The Retreat of Reason, Anthony Browne, p14