Life used to be more straightforward than this! I used to spend weeks getting ready for our annual Stoneleigh Bible Weeks, preach and pray my way through them, and then collapse for the rest of August on a nice long holiday break.
Now everything has changed. Together on a Mission comes in July and for me this was followed by Rendezvous, our very enjoyable French Bible Week held in the South of France with hundreds of enthusiastic wonderful French believers plus some zealous English French-speakers who serve them with great joy and varying degrees of bi-lingual skill.
A highlight for me was my final lunch with the nucleus of the Newfrontiers Paris church plant. Gordon and Kerry Neal, George and Gill Tee, and a number of friends are enthusiastically anticipating this exciting development. Gordon and Kerry have now left Switzerland and bought their house in Paris, and George and Gill brightly testified that they had left Brighton’s Together on a Mission pulling their trailer behind their car and were now living in their trailer in Paris! Talk about pioneers! We can be so proud of these guys as they press on in obedience to the Lord.
Off to the wild west
Following one day at home, we took off for the USA and enjoyed a phenomenal time in Montana with Lee and Stacey Yarbrough, preaching at the Clark Fork church in Missoula, now part of the Newfrontiers family. A bright and happy crowd, they are so pleased to have Lee and Stacey among them.
Wendy and I then got over our jetlag with a three-day break in a magnificent part of Montana and I was delighted to overcome my problem with heights as we took a coach to the top of a mountain with me sitting next to the driver taking photographs from the open window, looking down over a sheer 1,500’ drop! You would have been proud of me! I was! And happily, on this occasion, pride didn’t come before a fall!
I then had a super time preaching in Idaho with Ted and Jeanne Hoit, who had been with us at TOAM in Brighton and are leading their church in Coeur d’Alene to become part of our Newfrontiers family. They are an outstanding couple and their church is a joy to be with. Several of their guys told to me how much they have enjoyed reading No Well-Worn Paths and several had been tapping in to our websites with real enthusiasm.
Another three-day break meant that Ted, Jeanne, Wendy and I drove the five hours to Canada and again were exposed to magnificent sights in the breathtaking views of the Rockies there. (Actually all the driving was done by Ted whose navigational skills are celebrated by his affectionately-given nickname ‘Wrong Way Hoit’.)
Finally, speaking at our Newfrontiers North West camp, hosted in Silverton, Oregon by Rob Barnes and overseen by John Lanferman, which gathered some hundreds of people from our churches there, accompanied by new friends including Keith and Warren Stroup from the church in Lebanon, which meets in a phenomenally massive former Wal-Mart store. I have never seen such a vast entrance lobby in any church! They are super people who again are expressing desire to be involved with us.
We were accompanied for most of our time by Sam and Marlene Poe, and it was great to see Bo and Alexis from our church plant in Tacoma, which has enjoyed a number of fresh visitors as a result of Mark Driscoll’s enthusiastic public praise of Newfrontiers.
Back to Europe
Now, after a couple of days in the office, Wendy and I take off for the Newfrontiers Wessex Together at the New Forest with Guy Miller and team and about 1,000 people. We look forward to a great time with them, immediately followed by Wendy’s and my holiday, which is a rather special one since we will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on a twelve-day cruise in the Mediterranean. This is a very new experience for us and a once-in-a-lifetime special! We look forward to joining up with Giovanni Traettino in Naples and Helmut and Judith Frank in Izmir, Turkey, who oversee our Newfrontiers church there. So I am hoping for a happier time in the Mediterranean than the Apostle Paul had!
Once you’ve been set free from your childhood submission to the law and have received full rights as a son (Gal. 4:5), Paul urges you not to submit again to your former master. Now that you enjoy the privileges of sonship you’re invited into a direct relationship with God as your Father. You no longer have to keep your eye on the child-minder who previously kept you in check.
Who then will keep you in check? God in his great love will act as a true Father and provide his own discipline. Indeed if you know nothing of God’s fatherly discipline you have reason to question whether you’re a true son of God. ‘What son is not disciplined by his father?’ the writer to the Hebrews asks (Heb. 12:7).
Not many people volunteer for discipline. At my old school I can still remember the apprehensive queue of boys lining up outside the headmaster’s room to receive his particular form of discipline!
God Deals with you as Sons
The writer to the Hebrews urges his readers to receive God’s fatherly discipline with gratitude and understanding. First, he wants them to realise that by being disciplined ’God is treating you as sons’ (Heb. 12:7) and goes on to argue that discipline is actually a proof of sonship. A father has no responsibility for every child in his street and feels no obligation to correct a neighbour’s offspring (though he might like to do so). But he does feel parental responsibility for his own. It’s a mark of sonship to experience discipline. It’s proof that you belong!
The Lord ‘punishes every one he accepts as a son’ (Heb. 12:6). Though you’ve received the full rights of sonship through the cross, this doesn’t mean that you’ve become mature overnight! By grace you have a new standing in God’s presence, but God still has work to do in you. It could be said that he loves you as you are, but he loves you too much to leave you as you are! He wants mature sons and daughters and discipline trains you into that maturity.
Discipline is Unpleasant but Profitable
The writer to the Hebrews is right when he says, ‘No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful’ (Heb. 12:11). When you’re experiencing an enemy attack you should discern it, stand firm in faith and resist the devil, who will flee. However, when you go through painful, unpleasant difficulties you have to ask yourself if God is at work in your life. The pain you are currently experiencing may be the result of unforeseen circumstances or even other people’s sin, but it’s important for you, God’s child, to consider the possibility that this is a God-appointed training session.
For instance, Joseph’s sufferings were evidently the outcome of his brothers’ envy and jealousy. They were the human instruments, but although they intended to harm Joseph, ‘God intended it for good’ (Gen. 50:20). God was at work even through the sinfulness of men, disciplining and preparing his servant for great future responsibility.
Training is tough, but later ‘it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’ (Heb 12:11). Discipline has purpose. It produces a ‘later harvest’ of good food. Your responsibility is to receive discipline well and to be trained by it. Sadly, you can miss the training and gain nothing from the painful experiences that you pass through.
Never forget that you belong to God and that he always treats you as his beloved son or daughter. You aren’t merely a plaything of circumstance and random events. You’re in your Father’s hands and no one can snatch you out of them (John 10:29). He watches over you every day and is making things work together for your good (Rom. 8:28). So if something difficult crosses your path, don’t get confused. Stop, remember your identity, consider that this might be one of those occasions when God wants to discipline you, and work out how you’re going to respond.
Grace teaches me that I should view the world as ‘the present age’ (Titus 2:12). It’s not permanent; rather, it’s passing away. What happens here takes place only for a short while. If I thought that this life was going to last forever I might live differently, but I know that it’s transitory. I’m like a flower that buds, opens, fades and falls. Eternity awaits. The new heavens and the new earth are ahead. Grace opens my eyes to this reality.
I’m an alien
I often travel internationally and stay briefly in other countries. Often I don’t fully unpack my case or learn the language. Sometimes, if I’m on a quick visit to continental Europe, I don’t even change any money or adjust my watch. Walking down the street I probably look like anyone else, but actually I don’t fit in. I don’t fully identify. In a few days or hours I won’t be there; I’ll be flying home again. I belong somewhere else.
Grace teaches me not to get my roots down too deeply in this temporary scene. It tells me that it’s easy to say ‘No’ when I’m not really part of the culture, when I’m a visiting alien whose citizenship is elsewhere.
I’m a foreigner; I don’t belong; grace has appeared to me (Titus 2:11), but I’m anticipating another appearance, ‘the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ’ (Titus 2:13). One day this full revelation will burst upon the world. He’ll come ‘to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed’ (2 Thess. 1:10).
I adopt alien behaviour
When grace instructs me, it makes good sense to say ‘No’ to the world, the flesh and the Devil. When I’m told, ‘You’re an heir of eternal life’ (Titus 3:7), I tend to lose interest in the ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ mentality. Instead I feel like fixing my hope on the grace that’s coming to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
People instructed by grace will make decisions that emerge from their renewed hearts. Grace teaches us to say ‘No’. This is very different from reluctantly yielding to an external law, which forcefully and unyieldingly communicates, ‘Thou shalt not!’
Sadly, when Christians haven’t discovered the riches of grace, they often give the impression that they’re externally bound and even reluctant in their law keeping. Then they communicate to the unbeliever, ‘Christians simply don’t do those sorts of things. I’m not allowed to do what worldly people do any more.’ But maybe they also betray a hint that they only wish they could.
Often our failure to demonstrate wholehearted and joyful acceptance of God’s holy standards communicates to the onlooker that we’re unhappy and frustrated people, chafing against the imposition of religious rules, which we’re obliged to keep. The transformation which grace accomplishes is altogether different. Grace persuades and instructs us inwardly. It opens our eyes to the wonders of God’s kindness and the attractiveness of his ways.
Grace doesn’t drop the standards and fudge issues. It doesn’t tell us to forget about righteousness because God has changed the rules and accommodated our weakness, turning a blind eye and making do with compromising Christians. In stark contrast grace liberates, instructs and calls us higher. It enables us to live an altogether different life flooded with gratitude, revelation and the enjoyment of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wasn’t kidding when he spoke of a righteousness that surpassed the righteousness of the Pharisees and teachers of the law (Matt. 5:20). His kingdom brings in a different righteousness altogether.
Grace instructs about many things. Grace tells you that God didn’t save you by mistake. He wasn’t forced to take you in a ‘job lot’. It is not simply that your parents were Christian so you automatically were included. He chose you ‘before the creation of the world’ (Eph. 1:4). He foreknew you and predestined you (Eph. 1:11) to be his ‘very own’ (Titus 2:14). God has a particular and personal delight in you (Is. 62:4) and wants you for his very own possession. He will always love and cherish you.
He Gave Himself
Grace teaches us about the terrible price that was paid for our salvation. Some kind people might give a present, or even a fortune, but Jesus ‘gave himself’ (Titus 2:14). These simple words are hardly adequate to describe the glorious sacrifice that Jesus made for us. He gave himself to the human race. He gave himself to a motley band of followers who denied him when he needed them. He gave himself to Satan’s hour.
He was appalled in Gethsemane and shuddered at the shocking revelation of the bitterness of the task ahead. ‘His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44) as he pleaded with his Father to remove the cup from him. But he ‘offered (his) back to those who beat (him); (his) cheeks to those who pulled out (his) beard; (he) did not hide (his) face from mocking and spitting’ (Is. 50:6). He prevailed, determined to save us. ‘For the joy set before him (he) endured the cross, scorning its shame’ (Heb. 12:2) and became the object of mockery from men and demons. He gave himself to the full wrath of a holy God who hates sin with perfect loathing and reacts to it with sheer fury. He gave himself without reserve to the total curse of the law. ‘The Son of God … loved me and gave himself for me’ (Gal. 2:20).
Here’s the crux of the matter (Latin ‘crux’: ‘cross’). From the cross came the excruciating cry (ex: ‘from’, crux: ‘cross’), ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46). Was there ever a more excruciating cry than the one that pierced the heavens on that terrible day? Grace reveals the enormity of the price that was paid.
We Give Ourselves
Grace also teaches us what a glorious goal God has in mind. He wants a people ‘eager to do what is good’ (Titus 2:14). God hates lukewarmness. It makes him vomit (Rev. 3:16). Cold or hot is preferable to tepid. He’s looking for zealots, passionate people burning with motivation and wholehearted in commitment. He gave his own life as our example. Zeal for his Father’s house consumed him (John 2:17).
God has ‘prepared (good works) in advance for us to do’ (Eph. 2:10). He’s handpicked them for us. He isn’t after mere busyness or hectic activity. Rather, he’s longing to see us finding out what the works are and red hot in doing them. He’s looking towards the day when he can finally and enthusiastically receive us into his eternal kingdom with the glorious words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matt. 25:21).
‘Should we apply grace or righteousness?’ I was being asked a question at an open forum for leaders and this one provided a real shock to my system. The questioner explained that an unmarried co-habiting couple were asking about the possibility of being baptised at his church. What should he say? For him grace and righteousness were evidently alternatives!
When God declared the Old Covenant obsolete (Heb. 8:13) and introduced a New Covenant he wasn’t giving up on the battle against sin; he was revealing a new and better way of overcoming it. When Jesus arrived on earth, grace suddenly ‘appeared’ (Titus 2:11. Greek epiphany ‘shone out’), not to lower the standards but to equip believers to rise to unprecedented heights.
God has always been gracious
Even under the Old Covenant the Lord was undoubtedly gracious. When Moses asked for a revelation of God he was told, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name’ (Exod. 33:19). How did he manifest himself? ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness’ (Exod. 34:6).
While God has always been gracious, grace was particularly displayed in Christ’s coming. ‘From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’ (John 1:16,17). Grace doesn’t come to lower the standard but to motivate and enable us to live a totally new life.
Grace to live right
Paul told Titus that the grace of God ‘teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions’ (Titus 2:12). ‘No’ is a word that we must be instructed to say, an anti-social word that goes against the tide. But saying ‘No’ is a vital part of holy living. If we don’t learn to say it, we’ll be dragged down by the downward gravitational pull of human society and will soon be in trouble.
Young person, if you don’t learn to say ‘No’ you’ll quickly be compromised by the opposite sex or lured into experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Potential gossips, revenge-seekers and sluggards – the word is ‘No’. Tele-addicts, Facebook lovers and shopaholics – there’s a place for the TV, for computers and clothes, but there’s also a time to say ‘No’. You need courage, commitment and strong motivation to say it. And grace motivates powerfully.
How does grace instruct us? It begins by telling us that we’re totally acceptable to God through our faith in Christ. We’re justified freely as a gift, winners before we start, accepted before we’ve done anything at all. Isn’t that just such a magnificent relief? Indeed, some might argue, a dangerous one – but they don’t understand.
God will test us later, but he qualifies us first. We start accepted, qualified, justified as a gift. The righteousness of Christ is ours not only to start our Christian life but every day of our life – and he’s the same yesterday, today and forever. His totally righteous life of magnificent decisions, perfect holy choices, steadfast purity in the face of fierce temptation, is unreservedly credited to our account.
This news is so encouraging that it’s almost too good to be true. When I first grasped the grace of God I felt like the early witnesses of the resurrection of whom it says, They ‘did not believe because of joy and amazement’ (Luke 24:41). For some time I’d lived in a school of tough and zealous commitment and was often overshadowed by condemnation. The often-repeated school report phrases, ‘could do better’ and ‘should try harder’ dictated how I should live the Christian life. Success came only through extra effort.
Then one day I saw it! God’s grace covers my failure and sin and justifies me freely as a gift. This revelation exploded into joy, thanksgiving and praise! Grace instructs me first by telling me that I’m a winner before I start.
(This is an extract from study 54 on the Bible Insight section of my website, which is regularly being added to. http://www.terryvirgo.org/bible-insight.html You can also download and listen to a message of the same title, which I recently preached at King’s Church Eastbourne, which you will find in the Resources section http://www.terryvirgo.org/resources1.html)
Well, he came and he’s gone – but we certainly know he was here!
Mark Driscoll packs a punch.
What did I especially appreciate about him?
His straightforwardness. Nothing hidden and no hiding, so, like the Apostle Paul, his forthrightness commended himself to our consciences. Because of his transparency it’s not difficult to feel that you know him personally, though you may have been lost in the vast crowd and never had the privilege of any one-to-one time.
He loves the truth and he loves Jesus and wants to make him known to 21st century people.
Pettiness and small-mindedness don’t stand a chance when he cuts loose with his burning desire to see Christ glorified in our generation. His radical priorities and decision-making are deeply rooted in a passion to confront our contemporaries with gospel truth.
Being convinced of the authority of Scripture and the sovereignty of God, his driven urgency does not yield to a pragmatism that cuts corners. Big Biblical principles shape his thinking and his practice.
Few can be ahead of him in his radical application of modern means of communication. Literally millions of downloads of his preaching are being made all around the world and his commitment to multi-campus church speaks of a brilliant entrepreneurial style.
His humour, often expressed in hilarious one-liners, makes him so fascinating to listen to. One example: ‘A guy who won’t take responsibility is not really a man, he’s just a boy who shaves.’
Biting relevance also characterises him, whether he is challenging young people about moral purity or confronting a movement about its need to face the future not with nostalgia but with courage and decisiveness. He really gets under your skin! He could have simply given us a few good sermons, but he certainly didn’t settle for that!
What’s more, he is a really nice guy and I like him a lot and feel profoundly indebted to him.
Once again God has blessed Newfrontiers by sending another of His choice servants our way. I constantly thank God for the friendships we have enjoyed over the years with such stars as CJ Mahaney, Kriengsak, John Wimber, Rambabu, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Rob Rufus and others, all men of distinctive and diverse styles but whose devotion to Christ is primary and whose friendships I have treasured.
We look forward very much to more fellowship with Mark in the days ahead and are delighted that plans are in place for Newfrontiers leaders to have fellowship with Tim Keller, another choice servant of God, in February 2009, details of which will become available in due course.
Last year downloads from Together on a Mission exceeded 52,000. I hope you will take advantage of them when they appear on our Newfrontiers website soon. I believe the content will be really worthwhile.
We are so looking forward to Mark Driscoll’s contribution and are delighted with our speaking team and the many training tracks that they are taking, covering a very wide circle of subjects – once again see our Newfrontiers website.
For myself, God has impressed upon me to do my two main sessions on Stephen and Philip, those two New Testament luminaries who shone so brightly, particularly at the beginning of Acts when the church was breaking out in such awesome power and glory.
May God come amongst us and reproduce many Stephens and Philips to His great praise!
Next week we welcome approximately 5,000 people from over 50 nations to our conference in Brighton, Together on a Mission.
A week before they were due to go to Calcutta to get visas to be with us in Brighton, John and Esther Pradhan, who are church planting in Nepal, had a terrifying experience.
John and Esther had gone to a graveyard for the funeral of a child in the church, with their daughter, Aradhana, who is 2½. Aradhana fell down a narrow and very deep crevasse nearby. Newspaper reports say it was 60 metres deep at least. Because it was so deep and dark they were unable to see anything. At first they could hear her crying out, but after a while there was no sound.
The police were called in, and then the army, but the crevasse was so narrow, it was impossible to tunnel down. By now, darkness was closing in. To add to their fears, it was monsoon season, and if it rained, water could rise in the hole adding another terrible possibility of drowning.
Many prayed all night
John had contacted all his relatives in India, who in turn contacted friends literally all round the world, and believers began to intercede, both for her rescue and that there would be no rain. Many prayed all night.
An expert team was dispatched from Kathmandu, who encountered another hazard: a huge boulder inside the pit further impeded access, yet to break it up could be very risky. Aradhana could be hit by falling rock. To their great joy, around 3 a.m., Aradhana’s voice was heard again, and attempts were made to lower food and water to her.
By morning light, some progress had been made in digging, but it was disheartening to discover that the crevasse was in an L shape, and the food and drink had failed to reach her. The rescue crew kept everyone away from the spot, but Nepal TV were covering their efforts.
All adult men were too big to squeeze through the narrow aperture but just before noon, a young boy of 12 or 13 volunteered to be lowered down. He managed to crawl over to where she was and found her curled up in a corner, alive.
“Who are you?” she asked innocently. He helped her to crawl along to a space where she was visible to the team and they dropped down a harness which the boy strapped on to her, and they were then able to lift her out, covered in mud but otherwise unharmed. She had been in the pit for 22 hours without food, water, and limited oxygen. Her father, John, held her in his arms, tears pouring down his face. “Don’t cry, Papa,” she said, “I’m fine.”
National TV
The news went out on national TV and was labelled “miraculous”. John was interviewed clutching his daughter, and used the opportunity to say it was an answer to prayer, and to preach Jesus to them. Another miraculous aspect was that it had rained in all the surrounding region, but that particular area had stayed dry!
The family is full of thanksgiving to God for preserving Aradhana, and desire to honour all who helped in rescuing her, especially the boy. They are also grateful to all who poured out their hearts in prayer.
Terry is based at Church of Christ the King, Brighton, UK and is the founder of Newfrontiers, a worldwide family of churches together on a mission to establish the kingdom of God by restoring the church, making disciples, training leaders and planting churches. He and his team serve nearly 500 churches worldwide.
A well-known Bible teacher, Terry speaks at conferences internationally and hosts the annual Together on a Mission conference in the UK, which draws thousands of delegates from around the world.
Terry has written several books, including No Well-Worn Paths, which is his biography and the story of Newfrontiers.
