The most popular game in town!

No, its not football or rugby or tennis or snooker.  If only it were,things would not be so bad.  But the most popular game in town today, within religious society, the game called 'Playing Church.'

Away back in the eighties, I spoke to the children in my church, and asked what the most game was.  All kinds of answers were proffered but no one got the answer that I wanted to speak upon.  When I mentioned that 'Playing Church' was a most popular game, played mostly by adults. there was tremendous silence in the service.  I never professed to very good at giving childrens' talks, but this one really caught people's attention.

Sometime later, an elder accused me of being quite cynical about the religious situation, but I argued that I believe this to be close to reality.  'Playing Church' is a most popular game.

Do you agree with me?  Is church just a game for most people who attend a place of worship?  So long as they keep the rules, all is fine.  So long as they last the 60 minutes, well.  They can then go home and return to their normal way of living, with no change in their lives apparent.  Do you like 'Playing Church'?  Are you good at it?  Have you been it long? Do you practice 'playing church' every week, or just on the set occasions?

Are you like the politicians, prime ministers and other VIPs who like to be at the front of the church and in view of the TV cameras?  Do you like to be seen at church?  Do you go to church just to 'put in an appearance'?  Just why do you go to church at all?  Is there any reality in this practice?  When you hear what Christian or non-Christian people have to listen to each week, you give them credit for not entering a church building at all! 

It is time to stop 'playing church' and to start being real Christians who are dedicated to the worship of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and get back to being people of the Book.  Will you start today?

The Victims of Religion Without Power

There is such a thing as 'religion without power.'  It is not a nice thing to see, but it pleases most church goers and ministers today.  Religion is the big thing in town, despite the fact that only about 6% attend any place of worship in the UK once a month.  The real percentage is probably much lower.

Religion without power suits most church people today. Thankfully, there are those who know the difference between mechanical worship and Spirit-filled and Spirit-led worship.  But most do not.  I visited what used to be one of the best evangelical churches in Belfast, NI, quite recently, imagining, in my naivety, that it would still be along the same evangelical and reformed lines that I had known it to be.  What I discovered on entering the church sanctuary was to see at the front of the church building a drum kit, surrounded by all the usual paraphernalia of worldly worship within 21st century evangelicalism.

But this suits church people well.  It attracts the younger people, so we are told, and keeps them within the church.  It offers 'religion without power.'  It keeps people in a dwindling church-attending society, on board - at least temporarily.  But it is 'religion without power.'

Paul 'complained' about powerless religion and powerless preaching when he visited Corinth, and conceded that you can have such a thing a Spiritless preaching.  Preaching that is devoid of spiritual power.  Genuine Spirit-filled Christians are aware that this is the norm within many churches today, and loathe it.  They know that there is no point in bringing this unacceptable situation to the eldership because they will be told that this is how it is being done, and that's that!  The leadership does not give a toss about how God is worshipped, or about the presence of powerless religion in their midst.  They have forgotten that this is being done under their watch, and one day they will give account to the Lord of how they exercised their ministries.

Why does 'religion without power' suit most church people today?  Well, the answer is not hard to find.  It does not face them up with their spiritual responsibilities to God and before God.  It does not challenge the way they live their lives, nor does it challenge the way the church conducts her affairs.  It allows people to live as they please, to worship in a way that imitates the world, to speak blasphemously if that is how they were brought up by their parents to speak, to curse and to swear to their heart's content, to use the coarsest language imaginable, and to do as much harm to genuine believers and to the cause of the Gospel of which they are capable.  They can enjoy their positions within the church, because there is no power of God present to convict them of their godlessness.  And so on the list could go.  But I think you get the general picture. 

'Religion without power.'  The only alternative to such an ecclesiastical perversion is religion that is infused with Spiritual power and presence.  Unless the Spirit of God comes upon the churches very soon, there will be nothing but a hint of biblical Christianity left.  God's people have been crying out for the revival of genuine religion in our land, but God does not seem to hear their cries!  Why not?  because despite their orthodox cries for God to pour put His blessings upon the church, in their heart of hearts they do not want anything to change.  They want God to come, but without bringing changes to their comfortable religious lifestyle.  This is not going to happen!  The church needs to 'waken up and smell the coffee,' to coin a phrase,because time is running out.  She must put in lace whatever changes are needed, and that right early. For until she sees the depth of the need and how offensive she is to Almighty God, He will continue to turn His face from her, and let her wallow in the mire.

Until this happens, many poor deluded church people will continue to be the willing victims of 'religion without power.'

Donald Macleod: Striking the wrong note on psalm singing

Published Date: 06 May 2010

THIS has nothing to do with attracting dissidents from the Church of Scotland, and even less with any financial problems facing the Church. I've been arguing for this change for 20 years.

If there is any element of pragmatism to the discussion it is that many talented people in the Free Church feel unable to accept office under the current rules. The problem is that the vows Free Church ministers take on ordination can be interpreted to mean that exclusive, unaccompanied psalmody is the only "pure" way of worshipping God. Many of us don't believe that; and we don't even believe that that is what our ordination vows bind us to.

What worries us even more is the claim that exclusive psalmody is so much part of the church that it cannot be discussed. Those of us in favour of change argue, first of all, that it is no small thing to be out of step with the rest of Christendom. Is it we alone who have the Holy Spirit? We argue, secondly, that the New Testament requires us to sing, not only psalms, but "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs". And we argue, above all, that, magnificent though the psalms are, they belong to the Old Testament, and we are now living in the age of the New.

The big fear is discord and fragmentation. Let there be no threats to secede nor to expel.

• Professor Donald Macleod is Principal of the Free Church of Scotland College, Edinburgh

The Latimer Syndrome

The innocent victims of IRA terrorism are livid and deeply hurt over the appearance of Rev Dr David Latimer at the Sinn Fein conference last weekend. The plaudits he heaped on Martin McGuinness were nauseating in the extreme. The fact that a Presbyterian minister would even contemplate accepting an invitation to speak at such a conference beggars belief. Had he gone there with the purpose of holding SF/IRA to account for its bloody past (and current) activities, its murderous campaign against decent, hard-working, law-abiding people - and some of those activities not too far into the past - was clearly not his intention. Many of those murdered by McGuinness' 'death squads' were members of Dr Latimer's denomination, a fact of which he would have been well aware, only adds insult to injury. Had Dr Latimer gone there as a Gospel minister and called on IRA/SF to acknowledge the wrong it had done, and to repent of that wrong, then it might have been worthwhile; but he went there and paid tribute to this killing machine and to one of its senior officers. Utterly shameful.

Does he not care how the innocent victims of IRA terrorism in his own area and throughout the country feel? Is their hurt of no account to him whatever? Was the loss of young men's lives in the service of their country a matter of no concern to this part-time army officer? It appears not. Indeed, I have not heard a word of condemnation of his actions from his own denomination, leading one to believe that they supported his involvement with IRA/SF last weekend. This is something that members of that denomination ought to consider very seriously. One Presbyterian victim of terrorism said he was disgusted, though not surprised, at his church's lack of support at this time.

Victims of terrorism are still reeling over Dr Latimer's involvement at this conference. I had a representative of the Claudy families in contact with me, very angry that a minister from his denomination should insult him and his family in such a callous manner; and we remember, of course, that McGuinness was in charge of the 'Derry' brigade of the IRA at that time (1972) when the three bombs were exploded in the Co. Londonderry village. Indeed, very recently, the IRA's partners in terrorist crime planted a bomb at a GP's home in that same village. McGuinness' refusal to name those known to him to have been involved in the 1972 atrocity demonstrated that he was not remotely interested in helping these victims get the justice they deserve. The member suggested that Dr Latimer, as a soldier, is working for the government, hence his decision to act in such a way as to inflict further hurt on IRA victims. It is so disappointing that there are those whose purpose in life is to inflict as much pain on the victims of terrorism as possible. And Dr Latimer's delusional action indicates that those trying to further hurt the victims of terrorism come from very surprising quarters.

My youngest brother, Ken, was murdered by the IRA in 1977, the organisation headed up by McGuinness; and to hear him being regaled by David Latimer as one of the great leaders of modern times, was profoundly hurtful. Obviously Dr Latimer is working to a totally different agenda to that appreciated by terrorist victims.

It is surely time for our country and our politicians to waken up and see that it is being led by the nose down IRA/SF's republican track, and, as McGuinness said, they are working to an eventual united Ireland. And it would now be most opportune for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to issue a statement telling the country, and its own members, what its view of Dr Latimer's action is. They surely deserve no less than that!

They experienced God.

Brother Lawrence wrote a book, called, Practicing the Presence of God.  It is a devotional book that warms and challenges the heart.  It helps Christians live in the conscious presence of God. 

It is this that alone explains the prophets and saints of God in past times.  They experienced God.  It was this that accounts for their amazing power that has impacted over many generations. These believers walked in conscious communion with Christ, and felt His real presence close to them.  When they prayed, they were addressing Someone Who was actually there.

The church today could not be more different from those olden days.  Without doubt, she has experienced, not God, but the loss of God from her midst.  She has tried all the mod cons there are to try to keep the young people especially within her doors, but to no avail.  She has tried to woo the world by being increasingly like the world, but has failed here too. She thought that by modernising the Scriptures and making them easier to understand, the multitudes would respond positively; but they haven't.  In fact, the church in the wealthy west is poorer today than at any time in the past 2000 years.  There is a real dearth of true spirituality within her doors that is impossible to miss.

Yet, there are few who seem to notice the blindingly obvious, and who want to put matters right. Few see the need to come to the Fountainhead, and drink from there.  Few know what it means to prevail with God in prayer, but multitudes know how to say their prayers.  The church has forgotten that knowing God is eternal life.  Not knowing about God, but knowing God.  Experiencing God.  Nothing but this explains the powerful progress of the Gospel in the early days of the Christian Church - the apostles knew God.

We are stumbling about from one ecclesiastical crisis to another, not knowing where to turn or what to do.  But is it just possible that the church's rejection of God's Word has resulted in His rejection of her, and His withdrawal from her? Yes, we can theologise all we like, but realities must be faced!  God is not in the midst of her, therefore she is being rocketed by every circumstance.  The only discipline she exercises is against Gospel ministers, the liberals and ecumenicals getting away with murder.

If, as Ps. 46:5 says, "God is in the midst of her," why is she doing what she is doing?  Why is she being tossed about by every wind of doctrine?  Just because she has a confessional standard means nothing, because this is flouted at will by ministers.  There is no defence against careless indifference to the truth of the Gospel by saying that those who flout the church's teaching will have only themselves to answer for on the last day. But when large tracts of the church no longer believe in a Day of reckoning, this will count for nothing with them.

The God who is THERE!

"We cannot think rightly of God until we begin to think of Him as always being there, and there first."  So wrote A. W. Tozer in hs book, The Divine Conquest. The God whom Christians worship and serve has always been, and always will be. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, the First and Last, the All in All, and in whom we are complete. This is our God!  God dwells in timeless existence which is permanent.  If we look back into the furthest limits of the past, away back in our imaginations to the pre-creation void, there is God.  Look into the future, all of it yet to be, and there is God.  But so often we stop there! What about the present?  Is God the God of the present, too?  Of course, He is.  But we have to wait for Him and seek Him and wait for Him.  So often we skip though the corridors of the kingdom of God like little children playing their games, without as much as one moment's contemplation of the God ho is there.  But
THE MAN WHO WOULD KNOW GOD MUST GIVE TIME TO HIM!  This is Dr Tozer's message to the world; and it's mine also.  "We must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance."

Do you, Christian, spend time getting to know God? Is His acquaintance importance to you?  Do you really know God, or just know about Him?  Do you just know the Bible's facts and stories and teachings, but not their Author?  Intimacy with the Lord takes time and effort; but so often we are too busy with what we regard as the really important things - what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, what to have our next holiday, which car to buy, where to live, etc.  But time for God?  Well, there just isn't any.  Poor you!

Now, where are you seeking God?  In books?  CDs?  DVDs?  In church?  Well, there's an interesting point.  This is where Christians ought to expect to meet with God, but do they?  Do you meet with God when you go to Church?  Or, do you merely meet with other people, who are just as needy as you are.  When you enter your church, do you do so with the consciousness that there you will meet personally with the living God?  Is this what you want when you go to Church?  Do you experience God in the worship service?  Are you disappointed when you don't meet God?

The frightening thing is that for many Christian people today, the church is the last place where they can meet with God.  The Church's Lord and King and Head has been pushed outside the church doors, and we can see Him today knocking to get in (Rev.3:20); but no one seems to hear Him. They are all too busy running their organisations, and promoting their church, that her Lord is nowhere to be seen.  Nor can His voice be heard in the humdrum of modern church life!  He has been pushed outside, unwanted, unheeded, and certainly unwelcome! Many are saying in their hearts, 'He's better outside the church, because if He comes in, He will only mess up our programmes.'The church today does not want a God who is there.

If the church is to survive, there has to be, not only a new type of preacher, but a new type of preaching.  There has also to be a new reformation of the church according to God's Word. Such a reformation will bring God back into His church, and He will be there!  The one thing the church needs more than bigger numbers, bigger and better buildings, more sophisticated organisations for everyone in the church,  to be experienced in the services of worship.  Christ's holy Bride needs a man who will give worshippers a sense of God.  God is looking for such a man.  Are you that man?

The Dove - Symbol of “peace” and “innocence.”

The Bible has much to teach us about life in all its complexity.  One of the truths it teaches is found in Hos.7:11, where reference is made to the “silly dove.”  This is a strange description of the bird that, for many, represents true peace. 

But there is another side to the dove that we do well to remember.  This feathered friend displays its madness, its lack of wisdom, its innocence, its naivety, and lack of concern for others, in a remarkable way.  How?  By not clinging to what it knows to be its duty, and that it to put others before self.  Like Israel of old, and God’s people of today, the dove illustrates peace and concord, but it wants these at any price.  Even if a predator attacks its nest and eats its young, what does it do to maintain its personal peace?  It simply flies off, builds another nest, produces more young, and when another predator comes, flees in the face of danger or challenge – anything for a quiet, peaceful life. 

As the dove betrays its foolishness by fleeing in alarm from its nest, so mermerised by keeping its own peace is it that it falls into the net of the fowler.  Likewise Israel, and God’s professing people of today, even though warned that foreign alliances would be their ruin, rushes into such alliances with their known and sworn enemies.

The dove, then, is a picture of the “peace at any price” brigade.  It represents, in picture form, what is essentially a selfish type of person, the person who will not allow anything, no matter how bad or distressful it might be, to upset his personal peace.  Such a person will not take a stand for what is right, but will melt away into the background, keeping his head down.  This is a very apt picture of the self-centred individual who pretends to care about others, but in reality is concerned only to maintain his own ‘peace’ at all costs. 

Next time you look at, or think about, the dove, this symbol of ‘peace,’ think also about what it will do to preserve its peace, and keep a great distance between you and that "silly" attitude.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is described in the Scriptures as the Prince of Peace.  True peace means thinking as He thought, and living as He lived.