Heading Westward

 

Latest News…

I’ve just been accepted to study Theology at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology for two years, hopefully culminating in an MA. If you’d like more details, please feel free to get in touch.

www.west.org.uk

How do you read blogs?

I am currently investigating how people read blogs. By virtue of the fact you are currently reading this, you count as a blog reader - a Biblog reader, no less!

Someone mentioned to me the other day how he read my articles through RSS feeds. Does anyone else use RSS feeds to read this blog? Please let me know if so!

To access this blog via RSS use the feed code: http://simonhutton.wordpress.com/feed

It is my intention to start upping the posting frequency as I figured people only revisit the blog if they think that there’s a chance of something new being up there. My particular idea is to blog for a while on youth work, especially considering ‘what is effective youth work’. Stay tuned (or RSSed!) and feel free to join the discussion!

In Christ Alone

Earlier on this evening our youth group banded together to produce some recordings of In Christ Alone.

Classic Version:

‘Slightly more upbeat’ Version:

Please note - you may have to turn the volume on the speakers up a bit

Life through the philosophical lens

Imagine life without God. Imagine (if you can) that Dawins is right. There is no God. Life came about by chance. So what is the purpose of life?

Watch this:

Surely, life to the athiest is just a glorified version of the above mobile phone game? One big game of survival. Eventually - game over. Fortunately there is a God and He sent Jesus so that human beings might have life - life to the full! (John 10 v 10).

I have just written this as an article fully on my evangelistic blog: www.just-curious.co.uk - click there to see it.

New blog postponed

Thanks to those of you who checked out my new blog idea last month… but I unfortunately I got nearly no take up from people I approached to contribute (which I guess is somewhat understandable!) so the project’s on hold for the time being - but watch this space… you never know!

Prove it!

The origin of the world is a debate that is stronger today than it has ever been. The theories of evolution and the so called ‘Big Bang’ are now a fundamental part of the secondary school science curriculum, and any school who dares to teach creation as an alternative can find itself on the national news and stir up controversy.

There is, however, one decisive factor in the comparison of the creation account and the theory of evolution. It is just that – the theory of evolution, compared to the account of how God created the universe and its contents in 6 literal days.

Theory is second rate to fact. Fact is provable; theory by definition is yet to be proved. When a theory is proved it ceases to become such, and is deemed to be fact.

Debate creation with an evolutionist and they are quite likely debating with you the existence of God. Having decided that there is no God, they turn to science to fill the cataclysmic problems that present themselves when He is taken out of the equation of life.

How then should the believer answer the atheist on the matter of the existence of God? Many an unwise (or ignorant) Christian has brashly claimed to be able to prove the existence of the God whom they follow. To them it is fact, and fact is provable. Therefore God’s existence must be provable, the logic suggests.

The writer to the Hebrews suggests otherwise. “He that comes to God must believe that He is” (11 v 6). Without faith, the verse teaches, it is impossible to please Him, which leads us to ask – what is the meaning of faith? “Faith is the evidence of things not seen” (v 1) This being the case, how then can we claim that the existence of God is provable?

If we could prove (show beyond all doubt) that there is God, then faith would not be needed. Faith is believing what has not been proved, so you cannot prove the existence of God.

That said, the evidence for His existence is somewhat overwhelming. The complexity of the human body, the perfect order of the cosmos, the harmony of the biblical authors and the indisputable miracles of Jesus Christ all should lead the rational mind to realise the existence of God. But for all the evidence (and the fact that fallen man has a responsibility to recognise God and believe in Him) His existence cannot be mathematically, logically proved.

But what is man’s logic? Is the divine God who inhabits eternity and whose glory fills the heavens limited to the mind of human beings? The potter is not subject to restrictions placed upon Him by the clay; God cannot be expressed in human logic, He has His own divine ‘logic’ (for want of a better word), He is beyond all knowing and His mind is not our mind.

“We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God”, and such understanding is not the product of precise logic, but simple faith.

Sweaters and Trainers or Suits and Ties?

In a recent letter to the British Church Newspaper, Gwynne Davies berated the declining standards of formal dress for church services today. The rut, apparently, started with many women not wearing hats to church. This “thin end of the wedge” means that “what we have now is utter disrespect in the Sanctuary of the Lord.”

Everyone is entitled to his opinion, but such statements as made above need to be examined in the light of scriptural principles.

The problem with Gwynne’s assertion is that it is trying to force the New Testament church into an Old Testament model. Where in the New Testament do we read of the importance of the “Sanctuary of the Lord”? The buildings in which we meet are meant to be our servants not our masters. They are to be a practical aid in the collective worship of God, not a major factor in determining how we worship, including our apparel.

The church is God’s new temple (see 1 Corinthians 3 v 9 – 16), God dwells inside our hearts, they are His ‘house’ and we must keep this in mind when dealing with such matters.

Furthermore, no-where in the New Testament are we commanded to dress up for church services. In fact, Christ heaped scorn on the Pharisees for their dressing up in such a way as to be seen by all. “Would we,” asks Gwynne, “go into the presence of the Sovereign dressed casually?”. Actually, yes I do. Before I go to sleep at night I pray. Must I wear a suit and tie?! The very thought is absurd. 

Doubtless, the comment was intended only to talk about formal church meetings; but I must point out that our experiences of God’s presence should not be limited to within the four walls of our church building. We are not Aaronic Priests who must enter the ‘Holy of Holies’ to meet with God. We can enter it by prayer at any time, dressed in any way.

“Remember the way we dress… mirrors our inward attitude”, says Gwynne. Whilst there is some truth in this, we must be very careful not to create an environment in our churches where people are judged by their clothing. As soon as someone feels obliged to dress up to ‘fit in’ we have committed a great sin in putting a stumbling block in his way and therefore stifle the liberty we should enjoy in Christ.

It is therefore wrong for us to judge someone’s spiritual character, or attitude to worship, by his or her dress. I am most grateful that whilst man looks at the outward appearance, God directs His vision straight at the heart. God does not judge a man by his apparel in church, but by his attitude to Christ.

So, should we worship God in casual wear or smart clothes? To me, that is not the issue. True worship is not defined as sweatshirts and trainers, or suits and ties; but rather spirit and truth. Those who worship in spirit and truth are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks (John 4 v 23).

Don’t let Satan get a Suntan

Just before Jesus left this earth He said that His disciples should go into all the world and preach the gospel. Us Brits are very proud of our nation, in fact we think the world of it!

Therefore, we should be active in preaching the gospel to the people of our nation. As any conscientious Christian will know, witnessing to work colleagues, neighbours and friends is hard. People are busy and often seem to have no time to consider the things that really matter, let alone talk at length about them. This, of course, must not deter us from trying.

In addition to personal evangelism, we can reach out using open air work, door to door work, church events and such like. I would like to use this post to introduce you to another form of reaching out that includes both the relationship building element as well as presenting the gospel directly and clearly: beach missions.

In the summer the British public flock to the coasts and fill the sandy beaches in their droves. On holiday… laid back… time to chat… so why not chat to them about the gospel? United Beach Missions run over 50 weeks of mission in this country, as well as missions in Ireland and Europe. Why not consider joining a team?

* Any Christian can join regardless of age, ability or experience
* It is family centred evangelism with activities for children, teenagers and adults
* Evangelism training will be given on the week
* It is great fun and a unique opportunity to take the gospel to families

Interested?! Go to their website for more info and a booking form. Not interested? Then still go to the website anyway and hopefully you will be interested as well!!

www.ubm.org.uk

Don’t let Satan get a Suntan - beat him on the beaches by reaching holiday makers with the good news of Jesus!

Cre@tion & E-volution

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So where did Biblog come from in the first place?!

Well… when the internet first became popular I began to experiment with designing webpages and publishing them. My first endeavour was a small site called Beginnings which summarised the Biblical account of how to world began, and refuted some of the popular theories around. I did this for a purpose, to get my net-crazy acquaintances to look at my creation site and thereby generate discussion on the topic. It was e-vangelism, and it was effective in getting people to read the facts and then discuss it with me.

When I left home and went to university I saw the need to develop a more general evangelistic site. Being involved in the outreach of a local church and organising events through student and youth organisations led me to create Just Curious. This was a simple gospel presentation, going through creation, sin, Jesus, the cross, eternity, personal salvation.  The web address for this was used on numerous tracts, notice boards, emails and such like.

After a few years I changed the design of the site and added lots of other resources, for use in churches, missions and for individual believers. This site proved popular, over 1500 hits. For a while I have felt that the site needed splitting. With blogging so popular now and so easy to do, I have seperated the evangelistic elements from the edication ones and created two blogs: Just Curious and Biblog.

So here it is. Biblog, and now you know where it came from. Aren’t you the lucky ones (well… sort of!)

Welcome to Biblog!

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I am a maths teacher. I love equations.
I am a Christian. I love the Bible.
I am a computer user. I love the internet.

Hence what you see now is a culmination of those three: 

Bible + Blog = Biblog

This is Biblog. A blog designed to talk about the Bible. If you like, this is really my sounding board for thoughts. I sometimes muse on a verse, or a theme in the Bible and hasten to write it down lest it falls out of my brain like flour through a sieve.

This blog, then is my thoughts out loud. I am also a preacher of the gospel and my sermons tend to start as a thought which then develops like a seed that grows into a plant. This blog will contain illustrative material (word pictures), exposition of verses and passages, poems/hymns, photos, book reviews, and anything else I can think of to share.

The aim is to use my thoughts to help me and others understand the Bible. To this end I present to you, Biblog.