The song that I want to remember this week: "To the ends of the earth". Full lyrics here.

The Hillsongs song "Hosanna" keeps playing in my mind. The bridge in particular is a beautiful prayer:

"Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity"

If anyone is interested, it's on the Hillsongs record Saviour King, and it's sung by Brooke Fraser. (You'll find the lyrics here.)

I have said elsewhere that it's a common misconception that academic life and Christianity don't mix. I am thus really excited that I recently discovered two books that, if I were keeping a list of books that academics should read, would surely make the list.

First, I was just browsing in a bookstore when I stumbled upon John Stott's absolutely brilliant little book entitled Your mind matters, which patiently and persuasively sets out the argument that God made us to think, and He expects us to use our minds. John Stott is a great writer, and his argument is careful and logical. Not only is this a book about how our minds matter to God, it is also a book which reflects a highly intelligent mind. 

The second book is Nick Pollard's Evangelism made slightly less difficult: How to interest people who aren't interested. This book, I also stumbled upon, when I was trying to find a book for a friend about how to tell family members about Christ. I didn't find the book I was looking for, but came home with Nick Pollard's book instead. Pollard works to pique interest in Christ in university campuses in the UK, a context in which there is often either very little interest in, or outright opposition to, Things Christian. [I spent five years in the British academic context, and I know that's not an exaggeration.] It is a context which prizes questioning and intellectual thought, and at one point, Pollard says something about how he had to prepare for 10 hours in order to answer 10 minutes worth of questions. [I can believe that too.]

Anyway, Pollard offers a completely different take on evangelism. It probably won't be for everyone, but that's why God made us all with different giftings. I'm glad there are people like Nick Pollard around who can do what he does. Here are two excerpts from his book: Where do I start? and It's not for me.

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Our pastor in church a couple of weeks ago brought up the English expression "to nail one's colours to the mast". The phrase has a nautical origin - "Colours" referred to flags, and ships would "lower their colours" if they wanted to surrender to the enemy, or if they spotted a ship approaching and couldn't see yet whether it was a friend or an enemy. Occasionally, to con an enemy, a ship might lower her own colours and raise false colours instead, masking her real identity.

There were times, though, when the captain of a ship would tell his crew to "nail our colours to the mast", effectively making it impossible to lower their flag, and thus indicating that they had no intention of ever surrendering and no intention of ever disguising who they were (regardless of whether they ran into an enemy on the waters or not).

Our pastor challenged us as Christians to nail our colours to the mast, not to be one kind of person when we are with fellow believers and a different kind of person when we are with non-believers, but to always fly the flag of Jesus even in the face of opposition. That message really struck me. 

Many years ago (in the pre-Internet-explosion era), I heard a song entitled "The Mission" when I was in church. I found out then that it was on an album by Judy McComb, but I was never able to get a copy of that song. Last night, I was listening to a (different) CD by Judy McComb, and I suddenly thought of that song again, so I decided to search for it on the web. And I think I found it. It's written by Jon Mohr and Randall Dennis, and this version that I found was performed by Jamie Rivera.

"To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission,

The spring from which our service overflows.

Across the street or around the world,

The mission's still the same -

Proclaim and live the Truth

In Jesus's name."

Some songs which have been on my mind lately:

I will run to you (Darlene Zschech, Hillsong)

Consuming Fire (Tim Hughes)

Still (Hillsong)

And I know that it is nowhere near Christmas, but somehow, after Easter, I found myself singing this song to myself repeatedly:

Mary, did you know? (Mark Lowry)

 

"Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new,

This child that you delivered will soon deliver you?"

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“There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

In his book Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels starts by writing about his chats with a sailing buddy of his called Tom – a man who initially had no interest whatsoever in spiritual matters but who over the years of friendship with Hybels gradually opened up to talking about the bible and Christianity. Hybels writes:

“I’ll never forget those talks with Tom. They were unpredictable, they were risky, they were exhilarating, they were give-and-take, they were up and down. And they reminded me of something I’d known for a long time: There’s nothing in life that’s as exciting as befriending, loving, and leading wayward people toward faith in Christ. Nothing.”

You know what? Bill Hybels is absolutely absolutely absolutely right.

I like his books - Becoming a Contagious Christian (co-authored with Mark Mittelberg) and Just Walk Across the Room. The first chapter of Just Walk Across the Room is available here.

In January 1996, Pastor Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas state senate. He ended up delivering a prayer that no one expected. I first read the KANSAS SENATE PRAYER some years ago, and for some reason, recently thought of it again. I think it speaks for itself. 

In Lee Strobel’s book The Case for Faith, he addresses some of the common objections that pre-believers raise to justify their inability to take that step to commit to Jesus and the Christian faith. Objection number 8 in the book is “I still have doubts, so I can’t be a Christian”. 

In this chapter, Strobel talks to Lynn Anderson about the issue of “doubt”, and I would highly recommend this chapter to anyone who wants to believe in Jesus but doesn’t quite believe yet.

However, the part of the chapter that made the biggest impression on me was when Anderson tells Strobel that he’s reached a point in his life where he just knows that Jesus is real:

“You could probably come up with a hundred questions about God that I wouldn’t know how to answer. But do you know what? It doesn’t matter, because I’ve discovered that this is true. … Every time I discover a new insight, every time Jesus speaks to me personally in ways I can’t even articulate, every time I practise his teachings and experience the results—well, after a while I don’t care how many intellectual questions you have about why this can’t be true. I know it’s true.”

For many years, there was no way that I could have said anything remotely like what Anderson said, but, by the grace of God, I’m now starting to understand what he means. The bible says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Christianity is not a “religion”. It is a relationship with Jesus. Until you’re in it, you are not going to know how good it gets.

** Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. **

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