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The Emmanuel Bristol Blog has now moved to www.emmanuelbristol.org.uk/blog so do head over there to see all the latest posts.

Correction!

In yesterday’s sermon I incorrectly said that a tiger, lion and a horse were “clean” animals which Jews were allowed to eat.  Afterwards someone helpfully pointed out that that’s not the case.

In Leviticus 11:2-3 the Lord says: 

“Say to the Israelites: “Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat:  you may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.”

Lions, tigers and horses clearly don’t have divided hooves!  Apologies for the mistake.

On another note – if you’ve got 5 minutes listen to Dick Lucas powerfully explain Acts 10:42-43 here

Jesus is alive!

What is the historical evidence that Jesus Christ lived and died?

Great article in The Guardian  by my friend Simon Gathercole answering this question. Have a read here.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Intimacy Day - Saturday 22nd April

There's been a lot of talk about our need for intimacy at the Emmanuel churches recently. But what exactly is intimacy?!

The quotation below defines it as a feeling of "oneness" which might help some of us grasp what we've been talking about. Another way of explaining it might be to say that it's all about feeling completely "at home with" someone or something.

Why do we need to work hard at getting our hearts and minds around the concept? Theologian Scott McKnight helps us work out why:

Nothing in the Bible makes sense if one does not begin with the garden of Eden as a life of oneness - human beings in union with God and in communion with the self, with one another, and with the world around them. Life is about "oneness" - oneness with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. When the oneness is lived out, God is glorified and humans delight in that glory.' 

All this talk of intimacy with God, other people and place is all about glorifying God. It's about seeking to return to Eden as much as we can this side of the new heaven and the new earth. It really matters if we want to live life to the full in the here and now and attract unbelievers to the promise of enjoying perfect intimacy for all of eternity.

But what does this present intimacy look like, feel like in daily reality? How can I enjoy oneness with God, with friends, with this world? How can I feel at home with Jesus, with church family, with myself?

On Saturday 22nd April we'll be running what we're calling an Intimacy Day to help us all develop practical ways of not just talking about intimacy a lot but experiencing it too. It's part of this years Growing Disciples course but we'd like to open it up to everyone else in the Emmanuel Bristol family of churches.

It will be running at the Emmanuel Meeting House starting at 9.30am (prompt!) and ending at 4.30pm. You just need to bring a pen, a Bible, your own lunch and something fun to share with others (cake/ biscuits/ fruit/ drink).

And let us know that you are coming here. Hope to see you there!

Sex with God?!

I love this story that my friend Christopher West recounts in one of his many excellent books:

A modern mystic-nun, after giving a presentation in which she shared something of her experience of "nuptial union" with God, was rebuked by an agnostic psychologist: "You're sick!" he insisted. "What you really want is sex. But you're disguising your desire for sex with all this ridiculous talk about union with God." She responded firmly: "Oh no. I beg to differ. What the world really wants is union with God, but it's disguising that desire with all this ridiculous sex." Who do you think was right?' 

Well who do you think was right? I think the psychologist’s response to the nun’s talk of intimacy with God is not far off the response many of us have had to our current series on Song of Songs. The erotic language and imagery of the love poetry that we have been looking at together has been bad enough but comparing intimacy with God to the sexual intimacy of a husband and wife has disgusted some of us. To talk of the church’s eternal union with Christ being better than marital sex in the here and now has been seen as sick to many: are we really saying that we are going to enjoy sex with God? Surely such talk is sacrilegious?

Well God himself is guilty of introducing the comparison – have a read of his spokesman introducing and developing sexual language and imagery to describe his relationship with his people in passages like Ezekiel 16 and Hosea 1-3 (to take just two of many examples). This talk of deep intimacy with God in Christ isn’t just the embarrassing fantasy of your sex-starved single pastor (which I guess has been some people’s worry!) it is God’s chosen language to communicate how passionately he loves his chosen people. Including, of course, you and me.

Indeed as the scriptures continue it becomes clearer and clearer that the main point of marriage and sex on this earth is to trail where human history is heading: to a new heaven and earth where God’s Son Jesus will get married to God’s people the church. We first get a sneak preview of this destiny as early as Isaiah and then it is, of course, developed fully in the closing chapters of Revelation. No follower of the Lord Jesus will be unmarried then – we will all be united to him forever (making sense of why Jesus says there will be no human marriage in heaven in Mark 12:25).

So are we really going to personally experience some form of genital union with God in Christ come the new creation? No! Worrying like this is taking the imagery too far by forgetting the fact that God in Christ will be united to his bride the church – this is a corporate union with him not an individual one. We’re not talking about any of us individually having sex with God.

But what the scriptures do seem to be saying is that no experience of sexual intimacy in the here and now is going to anything in comparison with the eternal intimacy of our union with Jesus then. So we can talk about life with him then being better than sex now.

Which is nice thought isn’t it? A nice thought for those of us enjoying sex now – you are just enjoying a small taster of what is to come. But it’s also a nice thought for those of us who aren’t enjoying any sex now – we have the great wedding banquet and the bliss that will be ours then to look forward to.

Turns out that the modern mystic-nun was on the right tracks (something that won’t always be the case!). We have sex in creation to point us back to our Creator and the prospect of being united forever to him in his new creation. We’re not going to have sex with God but we are going to enjoy a far better intimate relationship with him in Christ forever. That’s not disgusting or sick but the reason to join in the prayer the Bible ends with: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20 ).

Life in a Foreign Country

The Gospel Coalition have published an edited version of an article I wrote last year entitled Life in a Foreign Country: Navigating Our Culture’s Change on Sexuality. It ties in with a lot of what Glynn was saying at the Better Story event the other week. Have a read here.

A Prayer for Lent

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

These famous words were written by American missionary Jim Elliott in his journal. Discover the story behind them in a BBC news article here.

Digging into Isaiah

If our series in Isaiah over the last 6 weeks has got your wanting to dig further into the treasures of this precious Bible book - here are a couple of resources that you might find help as you do so:

Isaiah by the Day. An unsual and really helpful book - it's a 'devotional translation' of Isaiah by Alec Motyer - who has made the book of Isaiah his life's work.

The message of Isaiah. A surprisingly accessible commentary on the book of Isaiah by Barry Webb.

Why we should fear the LORD?

Our series in Isaiah has kept calling us to fear the LORD and to see this as a good thing. Why? German pastor, theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer helps us:

...the first command of the gospel. "Fear God and you will have nothing less to fear." Don't fear other people. Don't fear violence and power, even when it comes to you personally and can rob you of your life. Don't fear the high and mighty in the world. Don't fear yourself. Don't fear your sins. All these fears will die. From all these fears you will be set free. For they are no longer there. But fear God and him alone. For he has the power over all the powers of this world. The whole world is in fear of God. He has the power to give us life or to destroy us. All other powers are a mere game. God alone is real, seriously real. Fear God seriously and "give him the glory." 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christmas Sermons, p.111.

Everyday Discipleship

Jesus has called us to follow him everyday - and with everything. All in response to everything that he has already done for us.

But we really struggle to do this and so during March we will be seeking to help each other in three particular everyday contexts where we often fail to follow him most. In:

• Understanding our Bibles
• Helping the needy
• Using our money 

Over four Thursday evenings (7.45pm for 8-9.30pm on 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th March) we will be running three courses to encourage and equip each other in our everyday discipleship in these particular areas. We'd like everyone across the Emmanuel church families to consider signing up for one of these four-week options.

For further details - and to sign up - please keep reading:

1) How to read the Bible for all it is worth

The Bible is God’s sweet gift to all His people, but many of us are missing out because we feel ill-equipped to open it up and read it. The aim of this course is to give us confidence that, with the help of the Holy Spirit and with some simple tips on what to look out for, we can all enjoy feasting on God’s Word for ourselves. 

This course will be taking place at the Church of Good Shepherd BS7 8NA.

2) Helping without Hurting

Thinking together about questions like - How should we as churches respond to the social needs of our city? What does the Bible say about ‘social action’? What kinds of charities should we support? What is the best way to help alleviate poverty? Should I give money to people who ask me for it on the street? 

This course will be running at the Emmanuel Meeting House BS1 2NN.

3) The CAP Money Course 

Will teach you budgeting skills and a simple, cash-based system that works. Whether you feel pretty organised or whether it's like a lucky dip every time you try to withdraw cash from your account, the CAP Money Course will help you take complete control of your finances so you can budget, save and prevent debt.

This course will also be taking place at the Meeting House BS1 2NN.

Sign up for one these courses here.

Thursday's Reflection

Read Isaiah 7:13-16. "Immanuel" is (in the first instance) the faithful remnant of people that Jerusalem gives birth. It is as the Lord promised: there will be a remnant. How does the fact of the remnant help you to trust the Lord this week?

A Better Story - An Evening with Glynn Harrison (22nd February)

The last few decades have witnessed a radical and far reaching transformation of western attitudes to sex, marriage, and gender. 

Caught off-guard, Christians often react defensively, rather than offering a compelling vision of their own.

Emmanuel Westbury church family member Glynn Harrison's most recent book seeks to remind us that we have a better story. It aims to help Christians recover their confidence in the biblical vision for flourishing in the sphere of sex and relationships. How can we revitalize a vision capable of winning the hearts and minds of a new generation? And what will that better story look like?

On Wednesday 22nd February Glynn will be giving us an evening to introduce us to this better story - and answer our questions.

This event will be taking place in the new Emmanuel Meeting House (Lewins Mead BS1 2NN) - doors open and tea and coffee available at 7.45pm for an 8pm start. We will have finished by 9.30pm. Do join us.

NB: Parking is only available at local multi-story car parks or on a few streets nearby. But we have plenty of cycle racks and public transport links are good.

Glynn Harrison was formerly Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, where he was also a practising Consultant Psychiatrist. 

He now speaks widely on issues at the interface between Christian  faith and psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry.

Don't waste your life

"If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all..." Isaiah 7:9

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty...

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted,seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King,the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1-5

Getting your head round Isaiah

You may find this video helpful as we continue our preaching series in Isaiah 1-12 this week -

No, I'm not "fine thanks"

If you ask me at church over coffee how I am doing, I will probably tell you that I am “fine.”

If there is acute suffering, then I will tell you. If I have a toothache, I will tell you. If you had asked when my friend had just died, I would have told you I was not fine, and I would have told you why.

But otherwise… “I’m fine thanks”.

Except, what if I’m not? Nothing is “majorly wrong” but I’m just a bit, well… disappointed? How do I tell you that I am disappointed in my work, my family life, my church; in myself, and maybe even in God? You know the feeling. That creeping sense of dissatisfaction. A joyless weariness that colours each day. There are no words for it, no quick ones anyway. So, yeah, I’m fine...

Read on here.

A flavour of Life Explored

If you’re planning on inviting someone along to the Westbury/Bishopston Life Explored Course over the next few days I thought it might be useful to know the question we’ll be discussing together at the beginning of each session.

Sharing some of these questions with your friend might help them decide whether the course is for them of not!

Week 1:               What’s the best gift God could give you?

Week 2:               What’s your current view of God and how did you reach that viewpoint?

Week 3:               What keeps you going in difficult situations?

Week 4:               Often we feel our lives would be happier “if only” we had someone or something.  What’s your “if only”?

Week 5:               What are you hoping will bring you fulfilment in life?

Week 6:               What, if you lost it, would make you feel that life wasn’t worth living?

For more information and to see an introductory video go here

For a fuller lowdown on Life Explored go here