9Marks comes to Scotland

Charlotte Chapel are hosting 9Marks Scotland 2010, a conference aimed at Building Healthes Churches. The speakers are Mark Dever, Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington D.C and founder of 9Marks ministries, together with Paul Rees of Charlotte Chapel and Liam Garvie of St. Andrews Baptist Church.

This is a really welcome development in Scotland and Paul and Liam are to be thanked for making it happen. The Conference will take place on the 12th and 13th February 2010 and full details can be found here

Food for Thought - Martin Lloyd-Jones

"The man who is trying to be a Christian is trying to hold on to something. The man who is a Christian feels that he is being held by something. It has been put to him, it is there; it may even seem to be in spite of him, but it is there. It is not what he is doing that matters to him; it is what has been done to him." - Martyn Lloyd-Jones What do you think?

The Night the Wall Came Down

Do you remember where you were the night the wall came down? I was at home in the first flat my wife and I had after getting married. I watched the news in disbelief as the Berlin wall crumbled and fell with joyous East German’s clambering over it to celebrate freedom.

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s the ‘cold war’ was rarely off the news. Phrases like, ‘mutually assured destruction’ were well known and there was even the occasional TV advert about what to do in the event of a nuclear war! Somehow I remember thinking hiding behind the couch wouldn’t quite do it. Then on this November night in 1989 the wall fell, the cold war thawed out and a reasonably peaceful revolution swept Eastern Europe consigning European communism to the dustbin of history.

Watching the 20th anniversary coverage of this momentous event recently made me think of the night another wall was torn down. It was a night two thousand or so years ago and there was no TV to cover it, but on a hill as Jesus hung on a cross and bled and died to pay the price for the sins of his people and to bear the punishment for that sin a wall was torn down.

Across town in the temple there was a great wall of curtain. That sounds silly doesn’t it; a wall of curtain! But it was as thick as the span of a man’s hand and it hung in the temple separating the ‘holies of holies’ off from the rest of temple. Only one man could ever go beyond this curtain into the presence of God and he was the High Priest and he could only go beyond it into the presence of God once per year. It was like a big no entry sign; a big keep out sign. Sinful men and women separated from a holy God. But as Jesus died on the cross for sin; at the moment of his death, this wall of curtain was supernaturally torn down from top to bottom and the way into the presence of God open.

Jesus death on the cross smashed the wall of sin that separates us from a holy God and makes it possible that sinful people like us might have a relationship with the awesome God of the universe. Since then countless millions from every nation on the planet have celebrated the freedom that comes from faith in Christ.

About 18 months before the Berlin wall came down God convicted me of my sin. God showed me that going my own way would lead to my spending forever in hell. He showed me that ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’. He showed me that Jesus paid a price I could never pay. I remember praying to him and asking him to forgive me; to come into my life and to be my Lord and Saviour. And he smashed the wall of sin forever. I thank God for the night the wall came down.

Maybe you would like to use the comments section to tell of the night (or day) that the wall came down in your life.

Food for Thought

"The life of a Christian is one perpetual good work which God begins, continues, and completes." - Ulrich Zwingli (1484 - 1531)Discuss

Songs of Heaven

Worship has been a theme that has emerged here on several occasions. I wonder have you noticed the songs of heaven in Revelation 5. I don’t know about you, but whenever I read Revelation 5 my focus tends (probably rightly) to be on the first nine verses. They paint an awesome picture of heaven where there seems to be no-one worthy to open the scroll. John weeps and weeps until one of the elders says to him, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed”. John lifts his head and saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain. It is hard to take your eyes off of Jesus in this passage.

That is exactly the experience of those who were there in that vision, they couldn’t take their eyes off of Jesus and so they worshipped him. There are three songs sung in Revelation 5. The first is “The Gospel Song”. The four living creatures and the 24 elders sang a new song:
“"You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth."
This first song sings of the gospel and of how Jesus was slain and with his shed blood on the cross purchased men and women from all over the globe for God. It is the gospel song and there are only a few singing it; the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders. But the song grows!

The second song is, “The Glory Song”. John says that he looked and heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands, No! Ten thousand upon ten thousand! All the heavenly host have joined in the song; all the heavenly host can’t take their eyes of Jesus and they sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!"
All of heaven focused on Jesus the Lamb who was slain; all the heavenly host singing the praise of the King, the one who is to receive all power and wealth and wisdom and strength. But still the song grows! How can it grow beyond ten thousand times ten thousand angelic beings?

The third song is, “The Global Song”. Just when it seems that things can’t get anymore awesome John says then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing. This song now encapsulates every living thing that ever has been whether spiritual or physical, all that there is will praise the Lord in this global song!
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honour and glory and power,
for ever and ever!"
All that there is or ever has been singing praise, honour, glory and power be to the Lamb for ever and ever. And the heavenly song grows!

I wonder if the clearer we see the heavenly scene; the more exuberantly we will sing the heavenly song.