You thought it was a bench, didn't you...

Have you ever been to an art gallery and sat an a piece of art, mistaking it for a bench? Or have you spend a long time examining the bench as if it were the main exhibit, only to see someone come and sit on it and look at the painting behind you? And then you see loads of similar benches around the room.

Maybe you've not been in those particular situations - but if you're anything like me, you've been to art galleries and felt out of place and a bit of an ignoramus.

Maybe you don't care - just so long as you know what you like... But why?

Today, I'm starting an exciting new project called "I thought it was a bench..." which you can find by clicking HERE.

It's going to be a fascinating journey of discovery as we learn more and more about art and truth.

More details about what it is and how it'll work will be posted over there at midday (BST). For regular updates, you can subscribe to the blog, follow it on blogger or NetworkedBlogs, join the fanpage on Facebook or even follow the project on twitter. For details - head over to the site.

"He does not deal with us according to our sins..."

Today is my last day as a Relay Worker. For the past 10 months I've been working with the Christian Union in Bangor and I've been trained and discipled and taught to be strong in grace.

I remember the first session we had at our first training conference back on August 26th in the Quinta. Mo, the Relay Co-ordinator, told us something along these lines:

"Some of you might be worried that, during this year, we'll discover that you're dirty, rotten sinners... well don't worry... we know you're dirty, rotten sinners... that's the point"

And it was indeed the point and how liberating it was to begin to grow in my understanding of how liberating the Bible is, how honest it allows us to be. Yes, we're sinners, the Lord knows that better than any of us - but the point is he punished his Son instead of me - such is the extent of his grace.

Part of doing Relay has been meeting up with my staffworker Mike each week and that has always involved some time of Bible study. The first term we read Ephesians and these last two terms we read through 1 & 2 Samuel and I've loved it. The life of David was one shot through with sin and darkness but also one blessed by God's amazing grace, his unmerited love.

A few weeks ago we looked at the lowest low of his life - the Uriah/Bathsheba years which led on to Amnon (his son) raping Tamar (his daughter - Amnon's half-sister), then Absolom murdering Amnon and then conspiring against David, then Absolom's death and a lot of mess. He clearly learned a lot from those times and over the past few weeks we saw him grow in grace and show grace to people who'd sinned against him.

Then today, in my final supervision, we got to the end of 2 Samuel and we saw David mess up again. He lost his faith and had the men of his kingdom counted. At the end of his life, he was still a dirty, rotten sinner - just like I am at the end of this year. But that doesn't mean he hadn't changed - he had.

He had learnt that God does not treat us as our sins deserve (just as he wrote in Psalm 103) even to the extent that in 2 Samuel 22 (and Psalm 18) he could say in verses 21-22:

The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not wickedly departed from my God.

That's pretty amazing trust in God's grace. He showed this again when he had to face his sin. He was given the option, as punishment for conducting the census, either three years of famine, three months of running from his enemies, or three days of pestilence. His response is staggering (24:14):

Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.

He has a great sense of God's justice compared with the justice of other men, and also of God's grace. He trusts that he will not treat him as his sins deserve.

And that's certainly what happens - the angel of the Lord stays his hand and doesn't strike Jerusalem and David raises and altar and sacrifices - showing that he understands that grace costs (v24). Of course, the reason he doesn't treat us according to our sins is that, a few centuries later, the angel of the Lord comes as a man, as David's son and suffers God's justice, not three days of pestilence but three hours of God's eternal wrath.

So David was still a sinner but he had developed a great, weighty, grasp both of the holiness and of the deep grace of God. That's what made him different from Saul. That's what enabled David to say, as his last words (23:2-7):

The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue.
The God of Israel has spoken;
the Rock of Israel has said to me:
When one rules justly over men,
ruling in the fear of God,
he dawns on them like the morning light,
like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
For does not my house stand so with God?
For he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and secure.
For will he not cause to prosper
all my help and my desire?
But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away,
for they cannot be taken with the hand;
but the man who touches them
arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear,
and they are utterly consumed with fire.

I'm still a sinner too - I've not achieved perfection this year - but that's not the point. I have come to a better understanding of God's grace over the year. Thanks to UCCF and to all the wonderful people who had some input into my year as a Relay worker. And ultimately, thanks be to him who removes our transgression from us as far as the east is from the west.

Keeping the faith...

It's not very often that I'm encouraged by a TV programme. But it happened last night.

During my school years, on the last Friday of each month, I used to go to the house of some friends of mine from church - Ben and Bethan Thomas - who hosted the monthly French Bible study. It's still going on although it seems that half of the people who used to attend suddenly all moved up to North Wales! I came up to Bangor in September; over the summer, Stuart Olyott who usually led the study, moved up North. And about the same time, Ben and Bethan moved up to Criccieth after a few years working in London as evangelists in Covent Garden. They moved because Ben was called to be a pastor of Criccieth Family Church.

Last night, S4C showed a documentary about their last few weeks in London and their first few months in Criccieth. You can watch it here: http://tinyurl.com/lsntkd - It's in Welsh but if you click on the owl, you can get subtitles.

It's a really encouraging documentary and Ben and Bethan get lots of opportunity to explain the gospel, to express their faith in the Lord and their gratitude to him and to share some of their experiences of some of the really tough times they've faced over the years and how the Lord has kept them in that. I recommend watching it! It was also nice to see lots of people from my home church, including my pastor, near the beginning of the programme in Ben's ordination. Plus you get to hear lots of Welsh.

Ben used to be a journalist for the BBC. He started off on 'ffeil' - the Welsh equivalent of newsround, then went on to Wales Today for a bit (BBC regional show). He even made it onto Auntie's Bloomers once - and from then on, he was in the closing credits every week! Ben has kindly/foolishly posted his performance on YouTube:

Prostituted...

I just stumbled across this great clip from a John Piper sermon. I found it very helpful. Feel free to watch it and be helped by it as well.

Getting bored?

Last week I was reading my Bible reading notes which are taking me through Hebrews at the moment. That day, they began thus: "Ready to move on to the next subject in Hebrews? Well, not the author! If you're struggling to stay interested at this point, this thought may help..." and then they give an excellent quote by G. K. Chesterton which I just had to share:

"A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

Paul Tripp back on the blogger...

I mentioned a while back that I was very much looking forward to May because May brought the publication of Paul Tripp's latest book, "A Shelter in the Time of Storm". I got it - and I'm enjoying it very much! It's challenging but extremely helpful. I'm pretty sure that Paul Tripp is one of my favourite authors at the moment.

A few weeks ago I was very pleased to see that he's started to blog again. At the moment he's posting up a load of meditations on Psalm 73 and if his books of meditations on Psalms 51 and 27 are anything to go by, they should all be great. So do go over to his blog to check it out!

The God who is there...

As I've mentioned before, I've recently been enjoying watching and reading some Francis Schaeffer. It's really helped me begin to get my head around the centrality of God and our total dependance on our Creator in every sense. On Saturday night, while doing the dishes, I was re-watching a clip from a conference address John Piper gave a few years ago on youtube (which is at the bottom of this post), and something really struck me...

As a Christian, I can often think that, because I centre my life on an historical person - Jesus Christ, the claims of a relativist, though I don't agree with them, can sometimes sound somewhat plausible. "You base your life on this person, I base my life on that person". I just believe Jesus because he seemed to tell the truth and the other options didn't do enough. And I suppose that's not untrue. But I follow Jesus not just because he got it right.

It struck me on Saturday night that Jesus is the God who is there. That's who he is first. He chose to become that historical man. The God who is there chose to become a human being and die for me, and rose again as the Lord of all. That's why he is Lord - not because he's just better than other people - but because he is the God who created the universe - because he is the king. The incarnation really is important isn't it!

I know, I can almost hear you all say, "Well, duh!" But I love it when I'm reminded of some of such basic things - they're huge and amazing. Praise the Lord!

I'm off to the Quinta later today until Friday for the last of our Relay training conferences. The other two have been amazing events where I've learnt loads and I always love catching up with the other relay workers and the staff workers on the Relay training team. Do pray for Mo, as he gives talks and generally leads the conference and for Rosemary as she leads my fellowship group. And do pray for everyone there as we learn this week - pray that we'd be an encouragement to each other and use what we learn for God's glory.