The city of Cyrene comes up a few times in the New Testament. The man who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus was Simon of Cyrene ( Luke 23:26). The crowd at Pentecost included Jews from Cyrene (Acts 2:10). We read of men of Cyrene preaching the word (Acts 11:20). And Lucius of Cyrene was one of the prophets and teachers at the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1). What I hadn't realised until using the Barnabas Fund Lent prayer diary this morning is that Cyrene is actually in Libya. As we pray for the situation in Libya and for God's people there at this time of upheaval, these biblical references have a particular poignancy. The Lord has been at work in the past in people from that country and we pray that he may continue to do so, even through the current crisis.

A fishing-lesson from one of the Puritans, Thomas Brooks! 'One of Satan's devices to draw the soul into sin is to present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup and hide the poison; to present the sweet and the pleasure but hide from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow. By this device he took our first parents; the hides the hook - the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow.'

Twelve Christian Classics

I was recently asked to recommend twelve Christian classics that every Christian ought to aim to read at some point in their Christian lives. Here is my list, in no particular order.

1. Saint Augustine, Confessions
2. John Stott, The Cross of Christ
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
4. Thomas a Kempis, The imitation of Christ
5. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
6. Don Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation
7. JI Packer, Knowing God
8. CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
9. John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress
10. Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from Birmingham City Jail
11. John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad!
12. Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty

Feel free to make your own suggestions...

The first great secret of holiness

This week in our series in Galatians we came to look at Galatians 5v24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." We noticed that this is a crucifixion that we do - when we become Christians we nail our old way of life to the cross and turn away from it. And then now that we are Christians we need to be denying sin every day and not returning to it.

In his commentary on Galatians, John Stott says that understanding this is the "first great secret of holiness." This is his quote in full:

"The first great secret of holiness lies in the degree and the decisiveness of our repentance. If besetting sins persistently plague us, it is either because we have never truly repented, or because, having repented, we have not maintained our repentance. It is as if, having nailed our old nature to the cross, we keep wistfully returning to the scene of its execution. We begin to fondle it, to caress it, to long for its release, even to try to take it down again from the cross. We need to learn to leave it there. When some jealous, or proud, or malicious, or impure thought invades our minds we must kick it out at once. It is fatal to begin to examine it and consider whether we are going to give in to it or not. We have declared war on it; we are not going to resume negotiations. We have settled the issue for good; we are not going to reopen it. We have crucified the flesh; we are never going to draw the nails." (Bible Speaks Today Commentary, p151-152)

I think Stott is saying that the way that many of us approach sin is if it were a chocolate bar when we are on a diet. We keep it in the house, we take it out the cupboard and look at it, we unwrap it, we think about whether we are going to eat it or not, and of course we evantually do. However, Paul says that in the war against sin we must crucify it and then not return to hanging out with it or schmoozing up to it. Instead, as Stott says, we have crucified it and must not start pulling out the nails.

John Stott's daily prayer

I mentioned in the context of one of the recent sermons on prayer that set prayers can have their place and be a useful resource in our private prayers. Here is the one which John Stott has found beneficial in his own daily prayers. He writes, 'I have myself found it helpful for many years, at the very beginning of each day, to recite the following trinitarian liturgy which begins with praise and ends with prayer'.

Almighty and everlasting God,
Creator and Sustainer of the universe, I worship you.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Saviour and Lord of the world, I worship you.
Holy Spirit,
Sanctifier of the people of God, I worship you.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.


Heavenly Father, I pray that this day
I may live in your presence and please you more and more.
Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that this day
I may take up my cross and follow you.
Holy Spirit, I pray that this day your fruit may ripen in my life -
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Holy, blessed and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God, have mercy upon me. Amen.

The Dark Knight

Several people have asked me for a few comments on the new Batman film. So here goes:

This is the darkest Batman film so far and picks up again on the theme (see my previous comments on "No country for old men") of senseless evil. Heath Ledger plays a more-than-convincing Joker who kills on the flip of a coin and blows up a hospital to create havoc, his very randomness making him hard to predict, a powerful adversary and near impossible to stop.

Lurking just beneath the surface of course is the question of identity. Who are we? What would we be like if all the restraints were removed? How would we cope in the face of overwhelming darkness?

This portrays a world where common grace has been removed. Government is powerless in the face of the Joker and people begin turning in on themselves in anarchy. As he says at one point, "A world without rules and without morals."

The only relief we are given from this bleak view of human nature is a scene where the Joker designs a social experiment where two boats have to decide whether each is going to blow up the other or they will both be blown up by the Joker. Tension ensues, not least because one of the boats is filled with the scum of Gotham while in the other is its respectable citizenry. Without giving the game away, one suspects that Christopher Nolan needed to inject some basic human goodness back into the equation to combat the terror.

The most sobering note of the film is probably watching it in the light of Heath Ledger's reported struggles with the role of the Joker and his subsequent death due to an overdose of sleeping pills. This means that many scenes in the film take on a deeper significance, which will be disturbing to some: the line to a Gotham cop "you see what someone is really like in the moments before their death" is just one example.

One highlight of the film is its photography some of which is quite simply stunning - I was privileged to watch it in the building in Hong Kong featured in the movie, and for those who like dramatic cityscapes there are some exhilarating images.

One final thought is the role of Batman - here we have the superhero who is willing to be misunderstood and takes the massive evil of the city. The price, however, is that he is pursued, hounded, considered an outcast and a lawbreaker - echoes of Isaiah 53. The citizens do not recognise their protector and consider him anathema. There is at least a faint glimmer of the one person who took evil and did not hide behind his mask but revealed himself to all who had eyes to see.

That's another fine mess you got me into

Preaching on Ruth recently midweek gave me the chance to reflect again on Ruth 1:1-5.

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

When interpreting Ruth 1 we may be tempted to let Elimelech and his family off the hook too easily for the suffering they experienced. Consider the following:

1. The action takes place at the time of the Judges (v1); we are probably right then to infer that this famine in Israel (that clearly did not affect nearby Moab) was God's discipline as a covenant curse for the idolatry and degeneracy of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 28:23-24).

2. Moab was certainly an unusual choice for a devout Israelite family, given its origins in the sin of Lot (Genesis 19:30-38), its recent incursions into Israel (see Judges 3:15-30) and the fact that Moabites were not allowed in the assembly of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:3-6).

3. Elimelech's sons took Moabite wives and were therefore disobedient to God's law that forbade marriage to pagans (Deuteronomy 7). In fact, marriage to pagans was also considered a symptom of failing to keep God's Covenant (Deuteronomy 28:32).

4. In the Old Testament context, the barrenness of Ruth and Orpah after ten years was also considered to be part of God's judgement on national unfaithfulness to him (Deuteronomy 28:18). The implication is that Elimelech (whose name means "the Lord is my God") was not living up to his name, and sought refuge in Moab rather than in returning to the Lord.

In the light of this evidence it seems as if the tragedy that overtook Naomi's family in Moab is not an example of "innocent" suffering from the mysterious hand of God, but is rather something that Elimelech brought on them through disobedience. The sufferings of chapter 1:1-5, therefore, may be regarded as disciplinary in nature. The fact that God would one day bring both King David and King Jesus out of the self inflicted suffering of Elimelech's family only serves to magnify his greatness.

There is also an encouragement here for us: even when we get ourselves into a mess through disobedience, that suffering is not outwith God's control and it does not mean that we are now outside of his plan. The story of Ruth and Naomi has much to encourage us.