huttonline

As promised… new blog @ http://huttonline.wordpress.com

Spring Clean!

To all the faithful readers of this blog (and those who stumble across is when searching for Mr Motivator and other such unrelated items!)

At the start of the academic year 6 students on the same degree course at Theology School decided to club together and do group blogging. After the initial wave of auphoria subsided, it transpired that only 3 of us actually got round to posting anything and even that was sporadic at best. The demands of the course have prevented us from investing in blogging as we intended, so now the spring is here, it is time for a little spring clean. In fact, quite a big one. We’re not just wiping the cobwebs out from the back of the cupboards, we’re replacing the cupboards themselves! 

Let me explain… the domain name for this site needs to be renewed. The stats reveal that the vast majority of readers to this blog (about 20 a day on average) find the site through google searches or links from other blogs, not from the domain itself. The RSS readers (who don’t score on the stats) obviously don’t need the domain either. So, rather than spend precious pennies renewing it, it’ll just run out and die quietly. 

All is not lost though. We will continue blogging (perhaps more regularly than has been our custom here) but at seperate blogs, where we can better mix personal blog items with theological considerations and such like. So the biblog empire come micro-blog sphere will now look like this: 

Simon Hutton: I will start a new personal blog called huttonline, more details of which I’ll post on here when my exams are over and I can start it. My aim is to include regular photos, updates from my sporting endeavours, comment on and link to interasting news items and other blog posts, as  well as review the books I read and such like. I am also toying with the idea of starting a seperate blog investigating Pastoral Theology, but that depends on the particulars of my degree course next year. 

Andy McKenna: has his own personal blog @ http://mckennablog.org and Ralph Cunnington can be found @ http://cunningtonfamily.wordpress.com

This site will remain online @ http://simonhutton.wordpress.com, for the benefit of those who find things on her from previous posts through google etc. 

So, thanks for reading and see you elsewhere on the blogsphere!

Chow4now.

FITNA

BBC newsnight recently featured an interview, following the news story that broke around Kurt Wilder’s controversial anti-Isalmic film, FITNA. I post it on here, as one of the first questions that was asked to Keith Vaz, MP, was along the lines of “if you’ll ban a Dutch guy for publishing anti-Islamic material, why won’t you do the same for all the propogators of anti-Christian and anti-Bible material?!” 

It’s worth a watch. Jay Smith also gets a couple of good lines in from the Christian perspective. Click on the image above to view the video.

Looking back…over my shoulder

Here’s a question for you. What should be the greatest influence on our sanctification, on our determination to be holy as Christians? The past or the future? Where does the motivation to live holy lives come from?

I started thinking about this after listening to Tim Keller and Ed Clowney’s lectures Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World which are both highly recommended and free.

Speaking on the need for Christ-centred preaching and the dangers of moralistic preaching, Keller in particular is keen to preach Christ as the one who perfectly obeys and fulfils the law of God where we rebels will fail. The key to living holy lives then becomes not “try harder” but “trust in Jesus” and look to the cross. New Testament passages such as Philippians 2:1-13 highlight how central the influence of the cross is on our growth as Christians – after all, we’re following Jesus.

Let’s hear some J. I. Packer (with my italics towards the end)

The notion which the phrase ‘penal substitution’ expresses is that Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by a love that was determined to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the destructive divine judgment for which we were otherwise inescapably destined, and so won us forgiveness, adoption and glory. To affirm penal substitution is to say believers are in debt to Christ specifically for this, and that this is the mainspring of all their joy, peace and praise both now and for eternity.

Packer, J.I., ‘What did the cross achieve? The logic of penal substitution.’

But where’s the eschatology in all of this? Surely the Bible’s great tenor is one of the future breaking into the present and thus controlling the present from that future. There is plenty in God’s word that speaks of the great hope we have as Christians and how this is a motivation to holiness. For example,

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)

John Piper, amongst his tremendous service to the church at large, has helped many to see (as the title of one of his books says) the purifying power of living by faith in Future Grace. In  this particular work, Piper majors on the future grace of God being the thing that transforms our lives. Interestingly, he has a good chapter on ‘The Crucial Place of Bygone Grace’ which reminds us of the need to look back to what Jesus has done and to keep that in our panoramic vison of where everything is heading.

So, back to my question, to pick up the language of Packer, what is our mainspring for living holy lives? The past reality of the cross or the future reality of glory?

Or…here’s a thought. I don’t think that it is a) necessary and b) helpful to think of these things as mutually exclusive.  To emphasise this with a slight irony, as I look at the front cover of my copy of Future Grace I see a hearty commendation from someone called J.I. Packer!

Consider Revelation chapter 5. Probably the most hope-stirring passage in the whole Bible. How can churches live as holy communities in the face of severe trial and temptation? By lifting their eyes to John’s glorious vision of the future reality. But who is at the centre of this future reality?

Answer: the Lamb who was slain.

And so, my conclusion is as follows. As we look forward to our great hope, we purify ourselves just as he is pure. But we cannot miss the fact that our great hope centers on the Lamb who was slain and as we look back and consider his saving death – the gospel – we are empowered to be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy.

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there who made an end of all my sin
Because the sinless Saviour died – my sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

(C. Bancroft, 1863)

This post has turned into a much longer one than I aimed to write in the first place! Anybody else got any helpful thoughts?

Make your own bus slogan!

What a great idea… 

… try this site: http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/

See my post on the bus campaign: http://simonhutton.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/atheists-are-like-london-buses/#more-169

Check it out!!

Read the Wordle

When following Obama’s inauguration yesterday on the BBC website, I came across a word cloud generated by his speech. It looked rather cool and was generated by www.wordle.net, whcih I duly checked out. What a great website! You copy a load of text into the box, hit the button and out comes a word cloud. The higher the frequency of the word, the bigger it is. I’m currently looking at the letter of 1 Thessalonians, and it is interesting to stick the text through wordle to see instantly what Paul keeps saying! Click on the image below to see it full size. 

Update…

When I started at WEST I got excited that all the others would keep the blog going when I didn’t… but, alas, we are all so busy and we all kind of assume that everyone else will keep it going…!

So, to kick-start 2009, two weeks after the rest of the blogsphere…  here is an update:

What has amused me recently?

I had to chuckle at the news this morning that the government are offering the best teachers £10 000 if they stay in some of the worst performing secondary schools for three years. The scheme is called the ‘golden handcuffs’ as it effectively chains people to a job for the lure of cash.

Seeking to apply the best principles from the secular work place to pastoral ministry, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps the worst performing churches in the country could run a ‘golden handcuffs’ scheme to source and keep the best pastors?!  Any churches out there who are underperforming on their target rate of conversions?! On reflection though, I think that the scheme won’t work in our churches… some absent minded deacon will lose the key! 

What I have been reading lately?

In the Bible I’ve recently ploughed through Leviticus and Deuteronomy and actually quite enjoyed it. It must have been daunting for Israel to stand and listen to Moses’ sermon, going through the law again, and then at the end spelling out the blessings and cursings. Shame they didn’t pay much attention to it later on in their history…

I’ve also done quite a bit of studying in preparation for a new sermon series: 3 sermons on worship from Romans 11:33 – 12:2. 

Determined to read one ’secular’ book over the break, I requested ‘Tony’s Ten Years – memories of the Blair administration‘ and have nearly finished it. As one who has a mild interest in politics, I’ve been enjoying it. Lots of good sermon illustrations there as well! 

What I preached on recently?

Redemption from Colossians 1:12-14

Here’s hoping that this blog gets updated a bit more often in 2009! Next time I’ll perhaps share some thoughts on the New Perspective.  If, that is, some under performing church don’t come and arrest me first

Biblog and Biblos

 When you are at home twiddling your thumbs wondering what to do with yourself… why not check out this website? www.biblos.com is a wealth of good biblical information including a word-for-word (non version based) Greek interlinear tool, Bible dictionaries galore, free visuals to spice up those sermon PowerPoints… and loads more I haven’t yet tapped into.  Well worth a look are their selection of Bible maps: http://bibleatlas.org

There are also the usual free commentaries on there. Most of them are coventially sound – but please don’t spoil your holiday by spending too much time on the Scofield pages!  And as you unwrap your brand new PDA, the first link you need to tap into the touchscreen is biblos’ nifty mobile Bible (http://mbible.com). 

If you have any other useful sites, please feel free to post them as a comment. Between now and the New Year I hope to publish some lists of my top 10 things from the last year.

From glory to gory

I recently heard about a festive experience of a disturbing nature. You can now go and visit ‘Satan’s Grotto’… as an alternative to Santa’s grotto. As the official advertising states: 

Instead of Santa, kids can confess their innermost desires to the red-cloaked prince of darkness and cross his palm with silver to try the “yucky dip” in Satan’s Grotto. 

I knew that this country was going down the pan, with regards to de-spiritualising Christmas, but this goes further. Not only has Jesus been evicted, but now Santa has suffered the same fate and kids are encouraged to go to Satan instead. How much further can we go? Of course, we’ll hopefully  never get to the stage of seeing devils on Christmas cards or putting signs outside our houses saying “Satan, please stop here”, but still, this news is worrying. 

The most disturbing aspect, as pointed out by one of my lecturers at WEST who went and challenged his local ‘Satan’, is that the concept of Satan and evil are being sold to chuldren as harmless fun. No wonder people don’t mind going to hell, “because it’ll be a good laugh.” With the stigma of sin desensitised, the need for a Saviour is all but eradicated. 

Go back to the original Christmas song from the angels: Glory to God in the highest! How far have we gone from that today? Very far in fact. With Satan’s grotto, it would appear that we’ve gone from glory to gory. 

So, as Christians, this Christmas let’s remind people of glory. Let’s remind them of Jesus Christ, who came from the glory, on a mission to bring glory to God through the salvation of sinners.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today my Dad reached the grand age of 50. So the purpose of this post is, primarily, to say: happy birthday Dad! Since, however, this is not a family exclusive blog… and you probably want something edifying to read… how about we look in the Bible for references to big five-oh.

In Numbers chapter 4, God lays down the rule that priests were to retire at the age of 50. Even by today’s standards, that is rather early. But before my Dad gets too excited, and even thinks about leaving the world of work and becoming a pensioner, let me deal a hammer blow to such uptopia.

Under the Old Covenant, priests retired at 50. That covenant was temporary, as was each individual priest, and has now been superceded by the glorious New Covenant. So what of the priests? Well, they’re not needed any more either… because we now have Christ – the Great High Priest! Good news? Of course, but not for Dad’s early-retirement-utopian dream. The New Covenant priest doesn’t retire at 50… or 55… or 60… or even 65… in fact – He goes on for eternity! 

So, sorry Dad, you’ll be working for a lot longer yet. And even if you reject the priestly model, you can be assured that going by the way that the current government are stacking up national debt, you’ve about as much chance of a decent pension as you have of returning to your 40s…

“You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizidek…” Hebrews 5:6