• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Recent Issues
      • January/February 2023January/February 2023
      • November/December 2022November/December 2022
      • September/October 2022September/October 2022
      • July/August 2022July/August 2022
      • May/June 2022May/June 2022
      • March/April 2022March/April 2022
      • More…
  • Authors
      • Stuart OlyottStuart Olyott
      • Tony BrownTony Brown
      • Linda WebsterLinda Webster
      • Wayne ProbertWayne Probert
      • Steve NapperSteve Napper
      • Kerry OrchardKerry Orchard
      • Ceri DouglassCeri Douglass
      • Tom OlsonTom Olson
      • John SnyderJohn Snyder
      • Tom MartynTom Martyn
      • More…
  • Sections
      • Bible
      • Church
      • Comment
      • Faith
      • History
      • Life
      • Mission
      • My story
      • Prayer
      • Remembering
      • Reviews
      • Theology
  • Subscribe

How deep do you go?

Ian ParryIan Parry3 minute readJuly/August 2019, page 4

I love apologetics. But there’s no point rolling out a package from some other time or some other place and imagining that’s enough. Read 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. Paul’s message was always ‘Christ crucified’, but he understood that Greeks and Jews had different problems with that message. The Greeks loved wisdom, and to them the cross looked foolish. The Jews loved power, and to them it looked weak. So Paul preached ‘Christ crucified’ as the ‘power of God’ to the Jews and as the ‘wisdom of God’ to the Greeks.

The church must truly engage with the people around us. Someone once said it isn’t enough to have a vision for your church; you have to have a vision for your community. I think that’s right. We need to resist a tribal, siege mentality and have enough confidence in the gospel to reach out in humility and touch the community where it is hurting. And our communities are hurting.

All of this is important, but there is something more important –the quality of our lives as God’s people. I’m thinking about our character and our relationships with one another, with ourselves, and especially with God himself. Unless there is reality there, all we’ve got is sociology.

The deepest level

So the biggest question is, ‘how are things going at this level, the deepest level?’ Here are a few questions based on the book Outgrowing The Ingrown Church by C. John Miller to help us dig down a little into our lives and churches.

Is God working my life?

This is not about God doing things ‘for you’. It’s about him doing things ‘in you’, showing you more of himself. We are supposed to be dazzled by him, and if you are not being dazzled by him, then you can be sure you are being dazzled by something else – and whatever dazzles you runs your life.

Am I doing business with the cross every day?

The cross is the defrost button of the soul. You need to climb to Golgotha every day, bringing your cold heart with you – and your guilt. There, standing in the dark, you learn again to hate sin as you see where it will take you, and what it did to Jesus. You will also learn to love Jesus again, as you see how freely he went there instead.

Am I building my life on justification by faith, or am I loaded down with inward guilt?

Those are the only options. Either Jesus is my righteousness and I take my stand every day on the solid rock of his life, death and resurrection on my behalf, or I am managing my sin myself by minimising it, or blaming others for it, or hiding from it, or pretending it isn’t so bad. The first brings a robust joy and generates a spiritual magnetism the world finds compelling. The second will just make you and your church anxious.

Am I repenting every day?

The closer you get to the light, the more clearly you see your sin and the more glad you are to repent of it. This generates in us a broken and contrite heart that keeps us in the love of Jesus and brings God the Father very near.

Am I forgiving someone every day?

We are constantly experiencing low-level sleights that need to be instantly forgiven and dismissed as a factor in our lives. Sometimes we experience much bigger things that require a great struggle to forgive, and then an ongoing commitment to forgiveness every time the memory of it invades our hearts. Either way, we need to be forgiving someone every day.

What is it I do simply because I love Jesus?

The two big motives of the fallen human heart are fear and pride. The gospel gives a new motive – love for Jesus and desire for his glory. If you can get there, you are really getting somewhere.

Is the Spirit of God a known and felt reality in your life?

Galatians is pretty clear. We are either walking with the Spirit, conscious of him, honouring him, and bearing the fruit he produces in us; or we are doing the works of the flesh and will reap the destruction that such works bring. And then there is that other dimension: the outpouring of the Spirit. God works through the ordinary, everyday means of grace at all times. Believe that. But there are also extraordinary times when the Holy Spirit moves powerfully in an individual, a congregation or a community. I’m not sure we believe this anymore. Not when you measure it by our prayers. As we think about the importance of knowing the times our biggest need is the rediscovery of this reality. In the end, our churches and our communities need God himself among us, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Nothing less will do.

 

 

 

 

 

Found this helpful? Like, share or tweet

Want more like this? Get the latest articles direct by email every week:

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Your personal details are safe. We won’t spam you, or pass your details onto anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time.

About the author

Ian Parry
Ian Parry is the pastor of Grangetown Baptist Church, Cardiff.

Read next

What’s going on in Europe?
by Ian Parry
54 likes
Making The Most Of Modern Christmas Carols
by James Hughes
The Delights And Dangers Of Conference Going
by Jeremy Bailey
The 'R' Day
by Bernard Lewis
5 likes
A vision of change
by Tom Brand
3 likes
Vaccines are good but they are not God
by Graham Nicholls
1 like
Leadership In A Culture That Doesn't Trust Authority
by Matt Francis
Ultimate Resilience
by Ian Parry

Primary Sidebar

Like us on Facebook

Evangelical Magazine

Latest issue

Other popular articles

  • What is ‘praying in the Spirit’ and how do we pray in this way? by Stuart Olyott
    97 likes
  • Golgotha - Why was Jesus crucified outside the city? by Mark Barnes
    32 likes
  • Until we meet again by Alun Ebenezer
    182 likes
  • Sharing Jesus with Mormon Missionaries by Tony Brown
    48 likes
  • Living With Untreatable Cancer by Linda Webster
  • Sharing Jesus with a Jehovah’s Witness by Tony Brown
    107 likes
  • Door-to-door with a difference by Sheila Stephen
    18 likes
  • Why was Jesus baptised in the River Jordan? by Mark Barnes
    76 likes
  • From bare-knuckle fighter to Sunday school teacher by Wayne Probert
    461 likes
  • How to secure your church's online Zoom meeting by Mark Barnes
    26 likes

The Evangelical Magazine is published by the Evangelical Movement of Wales.
Waterton Cross Business Park, South Road, Bridgend CF31 3UL.
Registered charity number 222407. View our privacy policy.