I have been using this in my devotional time for the last week or so and it is a gem of a book. Motyer walks you through the Psalms of Ascent and combines a scholar’s eye for detail with an artist’s creative use of language. Motyer is a brilliant communicator and the whole thing oozes the warm faith of its author.

I love spending time in the Psalms, and just like his earlier volume Treasures of the King on Psalms from the life of David, this is a wonderful companion to help you savour their nourishment.

I recently had the privilege of attending a day on prayer run by Paul Miller and his team. It was a hugely encouraging and liberating day – great to know that I’m not the only one who struggles with prayer, and wonderful to have some helpful theological reminders and practical tips on how to pray.

Perhaps most helpful was the insight that the gospel affects prayer too. We don’t come to Jesus as people that have everything sorted, but as the weary and heavy-laden seeking rest, as the broken and sinful needing cleansing and redemption. So why should we expect our prayers to be perfect? The day was a wonderful reminder about the way we can approach God as His children – with messy and imperfect requests – and a loving Father who delights to give good gifts to His children.

And Paul has written a book which largely covers the same ground as the day seminar – called A Praying Life. I can’t recommend it enough!

This week I’m preparing a sermon all about ‘Why Christians Sing’ and have been considering the whole area of the ‘worship’ life of churches (and yes – I know that ‘worship’ is an all of life thing and not just about singing, but it is a helpful label here!). An outstandingly good book on the whole area of ‘Worship’ is called Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin.

Full of good theology and practical advice from someone with oodles of experience in this area. Well worth a look if you are involved in leading worship in church in any way – as a musician, pastor, service-leader etc.

Here are a few observations.

There is, at one level, something right about people’s expectations. Because Jesus expects much from those to whom much has been given (Luke 12:48). And Paul encourages undershepherds to watch our life and doctrine closely (1 Tim 4:16).

But on another level, these expectations place an impossible burden on a pastor. Because, like any member of the congregation, he is a sinful human being who though forgiven still struggles with sin.

As I reflected on this truth I realised that something similar can be going on in churches all the time. Though, as individuals, we are conscious of our own sinfulness (and our total reliance on God’s grace) we look around us and assume everyone else has got it sorted. It is as if I need grace but I assume YOU don’t. And that kind of false assumption is what stifles openness – as we’re terrified of sharing struggles that we assume no one else faces.

Another peculiar irony of this phenomenon is that it can lead to judgementalistm. So if I look at you and you present as if you’ve got it all sorted, then it is easy for me to become critical of the things which you obviously haven’t got sorted! When in fact we’re all in the same boat, none of us have it sorted, and we’re all utterly dependent on grace.

And all this is why we need to keep coming back to grace, revelling in it, and seeking to live out its implications in our interactions with one another. That is one of the reasons we have just started a series all about grace. You can hear the first in the series here. And you might find some further mulling on the above in the sermon on Sunday evening…

In other words, to say that I have got that area of sin in my life ‘under control’ isn’t the same as acknowledging in your heart that it is wrong and saying sorry to God for it and turning away from that particular pattern of behaviour or thought.

This is an incredibly helpful reminder. The deceitfulness of our hearts means that the longer we have struggled with a particular sin, the more likely we are just to have ‘accepted’ it. It has become familiar, normal. We are no longer horrified by it. And if our hearts will not own it for what it is, then true repentance is impossible.

Recently I was reading Psalm 32 and found a wonderful parallel to this thought. The first 4 verses speak of the blessing of forgiveness compared to the burden of unconfessed sin. Verse 5, the moment of confession and the wonderful response of forgiveness. 6-7 are an encouragement to others to follow the same path – to acknowledge their sins and discover the deliverance and protection that comes from the LORD.

But it was verses 8-9 that I found most helpful. Having repented of sin, then the LORD teaches us the right path to follow. Not to ‘manage’ the sin but to leave it behind. The challenge for me comes in verse 9. Are we going to willingly follow the new path the LORD is teaching, or will we need to be cajoled and dragged into obedience like the horse or mule which has no understanding?

Managing behaviour is not the same as repentant change. We will only willingly follow when our hearts have been truly changed. When our desires are no longer for the things of this world but we are satisfied only in God. Pray that more and more this would be true of each one of us.

A resource I have found extremely helpful is Don Carson’s For the Love of God. This is based on the McCheyne reading scheme and so gets you once through the Old Testament and twice through the New Testament in a year. I recently discovered that it is ‘blogged’ so that you can access the resource electronically on your clever i-this or electronic-that. So why not get yourself over to http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/loveofgod/ or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Or if prefer the feel of paper beneath your fingers, the book is still available:

(there is a second volume but this seems easier to find in the Kindle edition…)

Do you remember the scene? There’s a man who has been paralysed for thirty-eight years (v5) and Jesus tells him to get up and pick up his mat and walk (v8). And he does! Wonderful – praise the Lord – what an evidently good thing to have happened.

But rather than praising God for the wonderful work He has just done, the Jews immediately start grumbling about Sabbath-breaking (v10). You would think the first thing you might say to the man in this situation is ‘Halelujah!’ or ‘It’s great to see you on your feet’ or even ‘How are you feeling to have left the spot you have been lying for the last thirty-odd years?’, but their first recorded statement is an accusation about carrying his mat on a day that it was forbidden (**).

And then I realised that I often react in the same way. I hear of some new work or ministry – and my first thought is to question it because the people organising it might not share exactly the same theology as me. Shouldn’t I rather be praising God that a new work is starting? This is not a plea to be undiscerning, but it is a reminder to myself of the primacy of grace and the dangers of jumping to judgements and missing the joy.

Lord forgive my legalistic and judgemental spirit.

* Actually the text just refers to ‘the Jews’ but given the rest of the testimony of the NT it is not unreasonable to assume at least some of them were Pharisees.
** At least, on their understanding of the law it was forbidden, though that is certainly debatable whether this is really the sort of thing that the 4th commandment is about.

There is a striking parallel here with what happens a chapter earlier when Peter disowns Jesus three times. One of the surprising things is that this follower of Jesus is able to disown him, and this ‘enemy’ of Jesus defends him (though of course, ultimately, Pilate weakly capitulates to the demands of the crowd and goes against his own assessment of the situation).

It is a reminder of the complexity of living in a fallen world, but one in which there is common grace. The image of God in mankind – however distorted by the Fall – and God’s gracious and generous kindness to all kinds of people mean that even in the ‘worst’ of unbelievers it is still possible for there to be some truth and goodness in their actions. And correspondingly that even in the ‘best’ of believers it is still possible for there to be things that are wrong and displeasing to God.

It is worth remembering this truth. Too often we try and draw neat little circles – them and us – good and bad. The reality is rarely that simple. After all, no one is good – except God alone…

In addition to publishing a new edition of this great book (end of last year – this isn’t new news!) I am pleased to note that the website has also had a thorough overhaul. Basic information on the different countries is now available online (hurrah!) – which is very useful for last-minute prayer writing (ahem!). Could be a great resource for youth groups as well as for service leaders.

Head on over to http://www.operationworld.org/.

You can also buy the book here:

The ‘problem of evil’ – if put in simplistic terms – could be reduced to the question of how a good and all-powerful God can allow suffering in a world consisting of people He loves. Volumes have been written on the subject and I do not believe there are any ’simple’ answers to the problem. However, I do believe the Bible as a whole does address and answer the question on many different levels.

As a preliminary observation I note that the ‘problem’ as framed above provides an inadequate description of the world the Bible describes (and we inhabit). It seems to assume that a human observer has both an ‘objective position’ and a reliable understanding from which to assess ‘the good’ in any given situation. It is only from such a position that the ‘problem’ can even be raised! This is a profoundly un-Biblical view of the abilities of human beings which are limited both by our finitude and our fallenness.

The book of Job provides one of the most sustained opportunities to reflect on the issue. In it we see a “blameless and upright man” who suffers an extraordinary amount of suffering as a result of the machinations of the devil. It raises searching questions about causality – what is the difference between ‘causing’ and ‘allowing’ a course of events? It raises challenging questions about the ‘good’ which God is working for in Job’s life – though I would be reluctant to presume that I had a better understanding of ‘the good’ in this situation than the Almighty God who “laid the foundations of the earth”.

But there is one single angle I wish to mention today. Job and some of his ‘comforters’ both raise questions about why God doesn’t intervene when the wicked do wicked things. Surely it would be better if there were instant judgement? Why does the ‘temporal’ relationship between evil and judgement seem to be broken? Where is the comfort in only a future judgement?

Instant feedback for the wicked does indeed sound a much better idea… providing you are not one of the wicked. And there is the rub for anyone holding a Biblical view of the world. If we have a true understanding of God’s glory and God’s holiness, then it turns out that we are all committing a million offences against Him every day. Because whenever we fail to acknoweldge God for who He is then we are worthy of judgement. That is the nature of sin. We make ourselves Gods and reject/ignore/forget the real God.

Don Carson makes the point with typical clarity and brevity:

…at the very least we should acknowledge that instant judgement on every sin would have most of us in pretty constant pain, yelping like Pavlovian dogs to avoid hurt, but without inner transformation.”

(from For the Love of God:Volume 2, Feb 24)

Carson’s point about the absence of “inner transformation” is a crucial one here. But if anything the situation would be worse than he describes – because “most of us” should be “all of us” and rather than yelping in Pavlovian pain our lives would surely be ended?

When we have a correct view of ourselves and our own position in this world, then we won’t be demanding instantaneous judgement but we will be crying out for constant mercy. That is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is such good news – one has stood in our place and taken God’s judgement on Himself so that we don’t have to – either now or on the last day.