BOOK: Paul Miller - A Praying Life

Chapter 1: What good does it do?

This chapter asks the question in the title about prayer. Miller identifies with a lot of our prayer-weariness and struggles to believe in prayer. He starts the chapter with a story of one of his daughters searching for her contact lens on the grass. When he suggests that they pray, she bursts into tears 'what good does it do?' she bawls, 'I've been asking God to help Kim to speak for a long time now, and still she can't' Kim is one of Paul's daughters who was born with several disabilities including severe autism.

Miller's advice in this chapter on how we need to rethink prayer is very helpful and refreshing. To begin with he points out how strange it is that we have an inbuilt desire to pray, that everyone who's ever lived looks to God at some point in their lives, but none of us find praying easy. On this observation he comments:

Something is wrong with us. Our natural desire to pray comes from Creation. We are made in the image of God. Our inability to pray comes from the Fall. Evil has marred the image. We want to talk to God but can't. The friction of our desire to pray, combined with our badly damaged prayer antennae leads to constant frustrations. It's as if we've had a stroke.

This is similar to something he concludes with in the final chapters when he says about Kim that 'when you're disabled, nothing feels natural at first' and then likens that to prayer since we're all born 'disabled' spiritually speaking.

On the effect of modern life on prayer:

America is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray. We are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We prize accomplishments, production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time. Every bone in our bodies screams, 'Get to work.'

When we aren't working, we are used to being entertained. Television, the internet, video games, and cell phones make free time as busy as work. When we do slow down, we slip into a stupor. Exhausted by the pace of life, we veg out in front of a screen or with earplugs.

If we try to be quiet, we are assaulted by what C.S. Lewis called 'the Kingdom of Noise.' Everywhere we go we hears background noise. If the noise isn't provided for us, we can bring our own via iPod.

Even our church services can have that same restless energy. There is little space to be still before God. We want our money's worth, so something should always be happening. We are uncomfortable with silence.

A further observation on another prayer-killer:

Because we can do life without God, praying seems nice but unnecessary. Money can do what prayer does, and it is quicker and less time-consuming. Our trust in ourselves and in our talents makes us structurally independent of God. As a result, exhortations to pray don't stick. 

He imagines going to see a 'prayer therapist'. The therapist asks him 'what does it mean that you are a son or daughter of God?' to which we reply with a theologically truthful answer:

The therapist smiles and says, 'That is right. You've done a wonderful job of describing the doctrine of Sonship. Now tell me what it is like for you to be with your Father? What is it like to talk with him? 

With this he begins at a diagnoses to our problem, namely that we don't have a close or intimate relationship with our Father in heaven.

The chapter ends with God answering their prayer to find Ashley's contact lens. God is a Father who cares.

Chapter 2: where we are headed

The praying life, Miller says, is like dinner with good friends. Conversation and communication flows not because we think about it but because we enjoy being with our friends. If we focus on the conversation, the conversation dries up. The praying life is about being with God, a person:

When Jesus describes the intimacy he wants with us, he talks about joining us for dinner. 'behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.' (Rev. 3:20)

A praying life feels like our family mealtimes because prayer is all about relationship. It's intimate and hints at eternity. We don't think about communication or words but about whom we are talking with. Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God.

...many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the centre is like making conversation the centre of a family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it. It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go. Conversation is only the vehicle through which we experience one another. Consequently, prayer is not the center of this book. Getting to know a person, God, is the centre.

He argues for working to not restrict prayer to a narrow part of our Christian life, 'a prayer time' but instead to view it as the way we build a relationship with God:

Because prayer is all about relationship, we can't work on prayer as an isolated part of life. That would be like going to the gym and working out just your left arm. You'd get a strong left arm, but it would look odd. 

A good piece of advice about the feeling of intimacy in prayer:

So don't hunt for a feeling in prayer. Deep in our psyches we want an experience with God or an experience in prayer. Once we make that our quest, we lose God. You don't experience God; you get to know him. You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is, after all, a person

 There's that regular refrain again: he is after all, a person.

People often talk about prayer as if it is disconnected from what God is doing in their lives. But we are actors in his drama, listening for our lines, quieting our hearts so we can hear the voice of the Playwright.

Many Christians haven't stopped believing in God; we have just become functional deists, living with God at a distance.

As you develop your relationship with him, it will change you. Or more specifically, he will change you. Real change is at the heart level.

Love changes us, just as love changed God:

We keep forgetting God is a person. We don't learn to love someone without it changing us. That is just the nature of love that reflects the heart of God. Because God's love is unchanging, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus of Nazareth, now has a scarred body. The Trinity is different because of love.

He identifies the lifeblood of a good prayer life when he says:

A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.

Learning to pray doesn't offer you a less busy life; it offers you a less busy heart. 

Part 1: Learning to pray like a child

Chapter 3: Become like a little child

come messy. Praying like children means, praying without pretence, without having it all together:

This is the gospel, the welcoming hear of God. God also cheers when we come to him with our wobbling, unsteady prayers. Jesus does not say, 'come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and will give you rest.' No. Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, 'come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and i will give you rest.' The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy.

I love that idea to do with 'come to me all who are weary' it's something we can easily forget. Come to Jesus with your mess and only with your mess, only as you are. Miller adds:

Private, personal prayer is one of the last great bastions of legalism. In order to pray like a child, you might need to unlearn nonpersonal, nonreal praying that you've been taught.

He's right. Unlearning how we've 'learnt' to pray is a crucial part of actually learning to pray. Great advice!

The only way to come to God is by taking off any spiritual mask. the real you has to meet the real God. He is a person 

That's the point of prayer.

Many Christians pray mechanically for God's kingdom, but all the while their lives are wrapped up in their own kingdoms. You can't add God's kingdom as an overlay to your own.

This is a call to lack of pretence in prayer again. Strip away religiosity and and formulaic praying and be yourself.


Below: Graphs I made based on the chapter in the book on story. Produced during our 'Killing Prayer' series in which I identified three 'killers' to prayer: religion, rebellion and restlessness. 

5 Big Preaching Questions...

From Andy Stanley.

1. Information. What do they need to know? try and get it into one key sentence.

2. Motivation. Why do they need to know it? answer this otherwise what you're saying is perceived to be irrelevant.

3. Application. What do they need to do? be highly specific if you can.

4. Inspiration. Why do they need to do it? imagine your family/school/workplace... think concentric circles of application (self, family, friends, workplace, community, country, world).

5. Reiteration. What can I do to help them remember? homework helps...

Another tool:

1. What question does this text answer?
2. What tension does this text resolve?
3. What mystery does this text solve?
4. What issue does this text address?

Quote: Before I draw people’s attention to a solution, I want to make sure they are emotionally engage with the problem. If the text answers a question, I dare not go there until everyone in the audience really wants to know the answer

Alister McGrath : Doubting

Quotes from the book and an outline of the points made:

From the forward an amusing example of why it is that a commitment to philosophical scepticism doesn't add up. Coming out of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment the hallmark of education today is skepticism, going back to Rene Descarters' belief that the only thing we can be certain of is doubt. However now, since people don't believe in God, we are all alone with our doubts. Searching for some level of certainty in his world of doubt Descartes coined the idea: cogito ergo sum "I thknk therefore I am." David Hume then chiseled away further at the certainty to say that we can only be sure of the thought and so it became 'I think therefore thinking exists.'

All this is reminiscent of the student at New York University who intimidatingly asked his professore, 'Sir, how do I know that I exist?' A linguiring pause preceded the professor's answer. He lowered his glasses, peered over the rim and riveted his eyes on the student. His simple response finally came, 'And whom shall I say is asking?' Fortunately or otherwise, some things in life are just undeniable. -- Ravi Zacharias in the foreword

Doubt is a struggle and a natural part of life. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that we 'see through a glass dimly'. Even C.S. Lewis struggled with doubt it seems. In a Christmas Eve letter to friend Arthur Greeves, he wrote:

I think the trouble with me is lack of faith. I have no rational ground for going back on the arguments that convinced me of God's existence: but the irrational deadweight of my old sceptical habits, and the spirit of the age, and the cares of the day, steal away all my lively feeling of the truth, and often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. Mind you I don't think so - the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so. -- C.S. Lewis

Chapter 1 : Doubt
What it is and what it isn't

In the first place doubt is not skepticism - the decision to doubt everything deliberately, as a matter of principle.

In the second, it's not unbelief - the decision not to have faith in God. 

McGrath says this about the presence of doubt in the life of a Christian:

Doubt is probably a permanent feature of the Christian life. It's like some kind of spiritual growing pain. Sometimes it recedes into the background; at other times is comes to the forefront, making its presence felt with a vengeance.

Coming to faith with unresolved doubts

Here's a great quote from a 17th Century philosopher named Francis Bacon from his 'Advancement of Learning':

If a man will begin with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he is content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties.

Doubt - a reminder of human sinfulness and frailty

And on the nature of salvation: The story is told of a little girl who asked a bishop whether he was saved: 'I have been saved from the penalty of sin, I am being saved from the power of sin, and one day I shall be saved from the presence of sin.'

We are still frail and sinful and our hearts and minds are prone to wander. Doubting God, like other sin is an ongoing lifelong struggle and natural part of a life that doesn't deal with absolute assurances and victories.For Paul, McGrath says, grace and sin are like two powers, battling it out within us... and faith is not just a willingness and ability to trust in God - it is the channel through which God's grace flows to us. Doubt then needs to be seen within its proper context - that of our struggle against sin.

A great story about Augustine watching a little boy on a beach is told to illustrate that we cannot expect to know with certainty everything about God:

Augustine found himself pacing the Mediterranean shoreline of his native North Africa, not far from the great city of Carthage. While wandering across the sand, he noticed a small boy scooping seawater into his hands and pouring as much as his small hands could hold into a hole he had earlier hollowed in the sand. Puzzled, Augustine watched as the lad repeated his action again and again.

Eventuall his curiosity got the better of him. What, he asked the boy, did he think he was doing? The reply probably perplexed him further. The boy informed him that he was in the process of emptying the ocean into the small cavity he had scooped out in the hot sand. Augustine laughed. How could such a vast body of water be contained in such a small hole? But the boy shot back his reply: how could Augustine expect to contain the vast mystery of God in the mere words of a book?

...There are limits placed on the human ability to grasp the things of God. And because we can't fully grasp something, we sometimes doubt that it is true. We misinterpret our inability to understand something as a sign that it is not true, or not real.

MCGrath then goes on to say explain this further: Of Course we have difficulties in trying to understand God and the world - but this doesn't mean that our faith is misplaced!

The stars don't need darkness to exist - but we need darkness if we are to see them and convince ourselves that they are still there! 

The above is a great quote and a very helpful illustration. He then says this: We need to understand what those limits are because in the end, doubt arises partly on account of our unrealistic expectations about certainty. 

The way we see things isn't necessarily the way things really are. Doubt often reflects a sense of unease about the way in which experience, reason, feeling and faith relate. 

I find that to be a very helpful idea. He separates our 'knowing' of things and our faith in things into four things:
             Experience
                            Reason
                                        Feeling
                                                  Faith
Understanding how they relate to one another and work together to form my view of things is crucial to understanding doubt.

Chapter 2 - Doubt and the vain search for certainty

Continuing on from where the previous chapter left us...

The things in life that really matter cannot be proven with certainty - whether they are ethical values (such as respect for human life), social attitudes (such as democracy) or religious belief (such as Christianity).

The beliefs that are really important in life concern such things as whether there is a God and what he is like, or the mystery of human nature and destiny. These - and a whole host of other important beliefs - have two basic features. In the first place, they are relevant to life. They matter, in that they affect the wat we think, live, hope and act. In the second place, by their very nature they make claims that cannot be proved (or disproved) with total certainty. At best we may hope to know them as probably true. There will always be an element of doubt in any statement that goes beyond the world of logic and self-evident propositions.Christianity is not unique in this respect: an atheist or Marxist is confronted with precisely the same dilemma. Anyone who wants to talk about the meaning of life has to make statements that rest on faith, not absolute certainty. Anyway, God isn't a proposition - he's a person!

Notice those two points about the -isms and beliefs we hold to and the questions we ask:
1 - They are relevant to life
2 - They cannot be proven with absolute certainty

Belief and non-belief both require faith, a leap one way or the other. Here's how God is involved in our faith:

God the Father makes those promised; God the Son confirms them in his words and deeds; and the Holy Spirit reassures us of their reliability and seals those promises within our hearts.

Here's a beautiful description of how one American writer named Sheldon Vanauken became a Christian whilst at University in Oxford:

There is a gap between the probable and the proved. How was I to cross it? If I were to stake my whole life on the risen Christ, I wanted proof. I wanted certainty. I wanted to see him eat a bit of flesh. I wanted letters of fire across the sky. I got none of these... It was a question of whether I was to accept him - or reject. My God! There was a gap behind me as well! Perhaps the leap to acceptance was a horrifying gamble-but what of the leap of rejection? There might be no certainty that Christ was God - but, by God, there was no certainty that he was not. This was not to be borne. I could not reject Jesus. There was only one thing to do once I had seen the gap behind me. I turned away from it, and flung myself over the gap towards Jesus. 

I love that. It really encapsulates the nature of deciding from Christ and choosing to commit oneself to follow him - beautiful.

Martin Luther said: Faith is a free surrender and a joyouse wager on the sunseen, untried and unknown goodness of God.

Chapter 3 - Doubt in other worldviews
The case for atheism  

You can't prove either by rational argument or by scientific investigation, what life is all about.

Why are people atheists? One reason could be because of their desire for autonomy.

Cultural historians have pointed out for many years, based on their analysis of European history from about 1780 to 1980, people often reject the idea of God because they long for autonomy - the right to do what they please, without any interference from God.

This point has been well made by the Polish Philosopher and writer Czeslaw Milosz, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980. Parodying the old Marxist idea that religion was the 'opium of the masses' he remarks in The Discreet Charm of Nihilism that a new opium has taken its place: rejectionof belief in God on account of its implications for our ultimate accountability. "A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death. The huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged."

Sire Peter Medawar won a Nobel Prize for medicine and describes in his paper 'The Limits of Science.'

The existence of a limit to science if, however, made clear by its inability to answer childlike elementary questions having to do with first and last things - questions such as 'how did everything begin?'; 'what are we all here for?'; 'what is the point of living?'

That's a great quote. It's true of course. When Riley starts wondering about life's meaning science has nothing to say to him and therefore he ventures into the realm of ideas and things that cannot be proven one way or the other.
McGrath says: The sciences can be spun in ways making them support disblieif in God, belief in God or skepticism. He's right of course as our recent teaching on God Vs Science has shown...

Stephen Jay Gould (widely regarded as America's greatest evolutionary biologist) was no religious believer but he wrote in Darwin's Revolution of Thought:

To say it for all my colleagues and for the umpteenth million time (from college bull session to learned treatises): science simply cannot (by its legitimate methods) adjudicate the issue of God's possible superintendence of nature. We neither affirm nor deny it; we simply can't comment on is as scientists.

Interestingly a survey was done in 1916 on the religious belief of some of the world's top scientists. 40% of them were theists. The same survey was done in 1996 and again 40% were theists.

McGrath writes again about the nature of faith:

Any worldview - atheist, Islamic, Jewish, Christian or whatever - ultimately depends on assumptions that cannot be proved.

A final quote from the chapter:

Everyone who believes anything significant or worthwhile about the meaning of life, does so as a matter of faith. 

Chapter 4 - The personal aspects of doubt

Who we are, where we've come from and what we've experienced affect us more than we care to admit. Being honest about this and aware of this is key:

Who you are and the experiences you've been through can have a quite definite effect on the anxieties and doubts you have in relation to your Christian faith.

...Our doubts, anxieties and difficulties often reflect our individuality. You may see things in a different way to your friends, simply because you are who you are.

Let's consider the nature of doubts. McGrath helpfully breaks them down into two types of doubt:

Type 1: Cognitive and intellectual
Type 2: Personal and relational

Type 1 is 'doubt-it' problem, Type 2 is a 'doubt-you' issue.

Chapter 5 - Doubt in the Bible
Analogies and images 

There are four main images used in the New Testament, each of which illustrates on angle of the concept of doubt:

1. Hesitation. Mt 28:17 resurrection appearances 'but some doubted' means 'to hold back'. Hesitation betrays a lack of trust.
2. Indecision. Mt. 21:21, Ro. 4:20, Acts 11:2 - the word here means 'to argue with yourself'.
3. Being in two minds. James 4:8 Doubters are described as 'double-minded' (dipsychos)
4. Doubt as a state of mind. Thomas in John 20:27 'do not doubt but believe.' This means 'keep on believing' to Thomas Jesus is saying 'stop doubting now, once and for all. And keep on believing.'

Two images are particularly helpful in thinking about the nature of doubt and belief:

- Walking in the dark. 

- Romans 13:11-12 'salvation is nearer to us now than when we first became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.'

- 2 Cor. 5:7 'we walk by faith, not by sight.'

- Illustration: Going for a night hike and trusting the path only to look back in daylight and see the hazards you missed.

- Pascal: In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.

- Martin Luther King Jr: Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

- McGrath: Even when we travel through the valley of the shadow of death, he is there. We may not fully understand the details of that journey, but we know he is with us, by our sides, as we travel.

- Rough sea.

- James 1:6 'the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.'

- Doubt is like seasickness and faith is an anchor that holds us.

Preaching: Alec Motyer

Good quotes from Motyer's book on preaching:

Not everyone can be what people call a 'good preacher', but no one need be a 'bad preacher'. That is one of the convictions which drove this little book!

Encouraging (in a perverse way!):

The fact is that I find sermon preparation such hard work that I actively 'back off' from starting! 

One part inspiration, nine parts perspiration.

The emphasis of the church is on proclamation. See Emmaus and Acts:

With Luke, we join the pair (surely husband and wife?) who walked to Emmaus. Their story is of fundamental significance: they were barred from seeing Jesus in His risen glory until they had first seen Him in the Scriptures.

Jesus comes and when he has at last., convinced his gathered disciples that it is indeed he, Luke tells us that He 'opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures' and he said 'thus is is written... that repentance and remission of sins should be preached'. The significance of these events is clear: we can neither know how and what to preach about him to the world except through the Scriptures. 

Note, in particular, the sequence: the risen Lord, the written Scriptures, the command to preach. If we are to be faithful to Him, the risen, exalted, supreme, authoritative Lord Jesus Christ, then we are to be Bible people and preaching people. This is all the authority and direction we need!

'Is it enough to tell them that it is all a matter of praying and preaching?' But that's it. God's method of church growth is preaching the Word, watered by believing prayer.

'The Growing Church' would be a more suitable title that 'Acts of the apostles'. Of the thirty-seven or so references, six associate growth with the quality of church life and of Christian character, seven link growth with the evidence of 'signs and wonders', and twenty-four link growth with the preaching of the Word of God.

In Acts 1 the church is 'under starters orders'; in Acts 2 the Starter's gun is fired.
This corresponds to the 'episodic' filling with the Spirit experienced in the Old Testament, and represents for us the readiness of the Holy Spirit to leap to our aid.

On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit clothed himself in visible form and his choice of 'tongues' established the special focus of the day: he came with the particular purpose of making the Church a speaking church, a communicating body, and Peter takes this theme up in his quotation from Joel. The outpouring of the Spirit is given for the particular purpose of creating 'prophets' - sons and daughter, menservants and maidservants all alike recipients of the Spirit and gifted for prophecy - that they too may speak intelligibly to the world of the 'wonderful works of God'

What a simple, compelling prospectus! What a satisfying, attractive and assuredly fruitful task! What a manageable calling! What a privilege - to inherit, possess, guard and absorb oneself in and preach what God has 'breathed out': His Word, our education to maturity, our message to the world! That in a word is what the church is 'all about'. This is the single point where so much of the NT converges. God's purpose of his people is proclamation.

This is a good point on the call of a preacher to be faithful:

Paul describes himself as a 'preacher' (gk: kyrux) which expresses an important idea. It is a 'town crier'

The kyrux does not make up what he says; he is not sharing his own best thought for the day; he is not a person of 'ifs' and 'maybes'. He is a 'man under authority', saying what he heard elsewhere, doing what he was told to do, faithful to a given message and task, and determined that all shall hear.

A helpful outline to bear in mind:

In each sermon:

• there is a central truth to be conveyed

• there is a planned method of setting that truth out

• there is a determination to bring that truth home with clarity, understanding, application and acceptability to the hearers.

'teaching and admonishing' where the latter word means something akin to our use of 'counselling', the gently application of the message; or 1 Timothy 6:2 'teach and exhort' where the second word always , as here, tends to include the warmth of 'encouraging' alongside clarity of exhortation.

Our goal is to first inform the mind, teach people, and then move to the heart, stir people, and then to affect the will, move people. Aim to go in that order:

In Matthew 13 Jesus faced his disciples with an unexpexted question: 'Have you understood all these things?'. He did not ask 'Did you enjoy the parables?' -  a question addressed to the emotions or the heart; nor did he ask 'what do you propose to do by way of response?' - a question addressed to the will; but 'have you understood?' - a questions to the mind. Have you grasped the truth? Have you been instructed? I have been teaching; have you been learning?

Note that the order of events: the mind was instructed, the heart burned, the feet were turned in a different direction, and the mouth was opened! That's the biblical sequence: through the mind to the heart, and on to a changed life and the word of testimony.

The manner in which to teach:

Paul adds a description of the context in which they are all alike to be executed: 'with all patience and teaching'. In other words, Paul knew the biblical psychology, and we who preach must learn his ways.

The task is instruction; the source is the Scriptures; and the art is presentation - the truth 'served up' in a way that is palatable and orderly - 'set out' in a coherent order and shape.

Good point about launching pads:

The Bible is not a launching pad but a deep freeze or a super-market. A launching pad is but a starting point from which a satellite goes into a trajectory which has no more link with the pad than that it started there! We have all heard sermons like that! The deep freeze and the supermarket are storehouses from which we bring out specific goods.

The way to work at our task is examination, analysis, orientation, harvesting, presentation and application, and this applies however short the time available, however meagre the help from other quarters. It is the way to 'work with the Word'.

Terry Virgo: Spirit-filled church

C1: You shall receive power

They reminded me that it was not God who spoke in tongues on the Day of Pentecost, but that the disciples themselves spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance

C2: I will be with you a little longer

If a bush burned for Moses, the whole mountain burst into life for the Israelite nation. Thunder, lightning, a glory cloud, a trumpet and a voice they all heard.

This was their claim to fame - a people distinguished by the manifest presence of God!

Tozer; Knowledge of the Holy

Chapter 1: Why we must think rightly about God

Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'what come into your mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow.

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be trace finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.

The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.

The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders it high opinion of God.

Chapter 2: The Incomprehensibility of God

Darkness to the intellect
But sunshine to the heart
 -- Frederick W. Faber

Chapter 3: The Holy Trinity

Love and faith are at home in the mystery of the Godhead. Let reason kneel in reverence outside.

The Nicene Creed also pays tribute to the Holy Spirit as being himself God and equal to the Father and the Son:
I believe in the Holy Spirit
The Lord and giver of life,
Which proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified.

"In this Trinity" runs the Creed, "nothing is before or after, nothing is greater or less: but all three Persons coeternal, together and equal."

The Person of the Godhead, being one, have one will. They work always together, and never one smallest act is done by one without the instant acquiescence of the other two. Every act of God is accomplished by the Trinity in Unity.

Trinity in the scriptures:

In the Holy Scriptures the work of creation is attributed to the Father (G1:1), to the Son (Col. 1:16), and to the Holy Spirit (Job 26:13 and Ps. 104:30). The incarnation is shown to have been accomplished by the three Persons in full accord (Luke 1:35), though only the Son became flesh to dwell among us. At Christ's baptism the Son came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon him and the Father's voice spoke from heaven (Matt 3:16-17). Probably the most beautiful description of the work of atonement is found in Hebrews 9:14 where it is stated that Christ, through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God; and there we behold the three persons operating together.

The resurrection of Christ is likewise attributed variously to the Father (Acts 2:32), to the Son (John 10:17-18) and to the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:4). The salvation of the individual man is shown by the apostle Peter to be the work of all three Persons of the Godhead (1Peter 1:2, and the indwelling of the Christian man's soul is said to be by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-23)

Chapter 21: The Holiness of God

Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over conditions around us as long as they do not get so far out of hand as to threaten our comfortable way of life. We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.

God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is bline to it. He may fear God's power and admire his wisdom, but his holiness he cannot even imagine.

Holy is the way God is. To be holy he does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is.

He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of her child.

Chapter 22: The Sovereignty of God

Perhaps a homely illustration might help us to understand. An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool. It destination has been determined by proper authorities. Nothing can change it. This is at least a faint picture of sovereignty.

On board the liner are several scores of passengers. These are not in chains, neither are their activities determined for them by decree. They are completely free to move about as they will. They eat., sleep, play, lounge about on the deck, read, talk, altogether as they please; but all the while the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined port.

Both freedom and sovereignty are present here and they do not contradict each other. So it is, I believe, with man's freedom and the sovereignty of God.

In the meanwhile things are not as smooth as this quick outline might suggest. The mystery of iniquity doth already work. Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will the deadly conflict of good with evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have his way in the whirlwind and the storm, but the storm and the whirlwind are here, and as responsible beings we must make our choice in the present moral situation.

2 Corinthians 13: Research

Tom Wright:

this has been controversial. Coming to the know the one true God in and through Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified and risen one, and coming to know this God, and this Jesus, in and through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, demands a change of heart, life, community and behaviour so thorough and costly that many back away from it.

Once the light has begun to illuminate the world around you, enabling you to see everything and everyone in a new way, the choice is clear. Either you must go forwards, at great cost, into that grace, love and fellowship; or you must step back into the darkness. Paul wrote this, his most deeply personal and heartfelt letter, to urge the Corinthians to do the former. He would wish no less for us.

Phil Moore:

after 29 chapters, two letters and two lost letters Paul signs off his writings to the Corinthians. How does he do so? (With a 'ICNU' - I see God at work in you.)

He is convinced that they will listen to his admonition over sexual immortality, because he sees christ Jesus in them and believes that they will not unite Jesus with any illicit sexual partners. He is convinced that they will defy the money-grubbing culture of Corinth, because Christ Jesus is in them and those who have Jesus are assured of all they need. He is convinced that they will renounce their pride and party politics, because Christ Jesus is in them and calls them to die to themselves and be raised to live for him and for others. Seeing Jesus admist the mess made a world of difference to Paul, and it would to the Corinthians too.

• restoration - katartizo, repairing nets.

Paul's letters worked:

• Paul wrote Romans from Corinth in early 57AD during the three months he spent there between Macedonia and Jerusalem and we find several clues that the crisis was resolved:
• 1- R15: 'the Macedonian and Achaian churches were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.' 
• 2- Paul wanted to go on to preach in Spain because 'there is no more place for me to work in these regions.' The Corinthians had clearly thrown off its division and sexual sin, disorder and worldliness because Paul felt that his work in that region was 'done'.

Can we see God in the midst of our mess.

• More chapters were written to Corinth in the NT that any other church.
• Of the western church The Independant wrote in April of 2000 'Church will be dead in forty years time'
• One Bishop is quoted as saying in 2000 'It is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years.' (Telegraph in June '09)

Arthur Puddy story:

Arthur Puddy a rifleman form Devon who fought in WWI. Dismissed as near dead by the doctors in 1917 out in a field hospital in Mesopotamia. To save room and free up a bed a doctor assessed his condition, saw the onset of sandfly fever (something that had already claimed the lives of many of his comrades) and declared 'this one won't make it 'til morning'. Two orderlies carried his limp body outside and laid him on a pile of dead bodies. Arthur Puddy lay there all night thinking of the wife he married only a few days before leaving for the war. As he lay there he remembered the words from a church service back home. God is faithful. God is faithful. As he lay there groaning he made those words his feverish prayer, laying hold of the only one who could save him from death.

Arthur Puddy survived. At first light a nurse noticed he was moving. He was loaded onto a stretcher moved back inside and nursed back to health in a comfortable bed. The man written off as too weak to survive returned to the front lines and helped win the war. The childless twenty-year old died eight decades later, surrounded by his family at the age of ninety-seven. Phil Moore married one of his great granddaughters and his father to four of his great great grandchildren and uncle to five more. God is faithful indeed.

Paul Barnett NCINT Commentary:

'Proof' - Paul's severe letter required proof of their loyalty to him which they did prove by disciplining the man who had wronged Paul. Something they did do. They now are saying that they require 'proof' that Christ is speaking in Paul. Much of the letter has been about that. Paul's reply to them is that they ought rather to be concerned with proof that they are in Christ, they need to be convinced for themselves that they are. He has offered them 'proofs' of his apostolic Christian leadership and so he says 'whether or not you consider these 'proofs' enough isn'y my primary concern. Instead we're mainly concerned that you pass the proofs test that your repentance and subsequent purity lines up with your profession of faith.

'Using the same blacksmith vocabulary in the next paragraph Paul expresses te hope that in his forthcoming visit he will not be 'disproved' in their eyes though he accepts that they my regard him as 'disproved'. It is more importnt, he says that you 'prove yourselves... understand within yourselves that Christ Jesus is in you.' That the Corinthians 'prove' themselves to be indwelt by Christ is more important than their opinion whether or not Christ speaks in Paul.

Weak powerful motif:
3b - Christ is not weak... he is powerful toward you
4a - He was crucified in weakness... lives through the power of God
4c - we also are weak in him... through the power of God
This serves as his second to last word of self-defence against their criticism.

crucified out of weakness is not weak it is powerful since christ's crucifixion was their forgiveness and power for transformation.

'Christ crucified is not weak' it is a powerful thing that transforms lives, confronts arrogance, heals, makes whole, restores. He was crucified in weakness yes but he is not weak, but strong and his crucifixion was not devoid of power but was in fact the power of God by which you/we have died to selves and now live for God.

Christ crucified is not a 'weak' message for 'weak' people: Thought they may despise as 'weak' the message of 'Christ... crucified' and the messenger who preached and embodied thagt message against the willful sinner, the reality was that Christ crucified is not weak in his impact ojnthe believer in his sins and pride.

weak in him, crucified in him, ineffective in discipling the rebellious Corinthians... yet by God's power.

One of the clearest proofs of his apostleship for Paul is the existence and establishment of them the Corinthians. If they approve of themselves as being 'in Christ' then they also must approve Paul as genuine.

Paul will not deviate one bit toward 'power' or imitating the SA because he is committed to the truth.

Kevin DeYoung:

• First paragraph is a warning - I'm coming for the third time and if you don't get this mess straightened out it's not going to be a fun visit! If they have sin there he is going to come and bring discipline, I won't spare you (excommunication).
• v5 - a call for self-examination. Two purposes. 1 - examine themselves to see if they're in the faith. 2 - provide confirmation for his ministry. He assumes that they'll pass the test and then realise in turn that he is genuine.
• It is fitting given the themes of the letter that he calls them to examine themselves. He has been under the microscope for a long time justifying his ministry and now he turns it on them - your turn.
• Greek order - Yourselves examine, yourselves test.
• We're very good at examining others: other drivers, the in-laws, the coaches, taught at school to critique and think critically and analytically, but we often don't look at ourselves (X Factor example perhaps). We've thought a lot about what's wrong with others but we haven't often thought to examine ourselves... what are we like? We put the emphasis on 'everybody else, examine' but how much pain and hurt could be avoided if we 'ourselves, examine'. There is nothing more important in the whole world for you than 'are you in the faith? are you a Christian?

• 1 John. 3 Categories of evidence: theological (what you believe), ethical (how you behave) and social (how you treat others) 
• 2 Corinthians same three issues: 
• Theological C11- stand fast in the gospel 'don't go after another Jesus'
• Ethical C12 - turn from your former sins
• Social - C2welcome back sinners, C9give generously

Order: Warns them calls for self-examination and concludes with some final instructions.

John Stott:

• most of us hate examinations - June & July the dreaded months for school children - because we hate examinations Paul's command to examination doesn't come as a welcome thing. 
• 3 times - examine yourselves, test yourselves, 'do you not know yourselves.' This is a proper test for us. The thing we're being called to is to know whether we are real Christians or not. Church attenders and members - examine yourselves, test yourselves. Are we true genuine authentic Christians?
• 6/7 times the verb 'to test' is used. After all the testing you're either 'approved' or 'disapproved' (blacksmith terminology). 
• Introspection is unhealthy but it's not the same thing as self-examination. To be turned in yourself and see introspection as the end in itself is unhealthy. Self-examination is an occasional discipline of the Christian who is normally turned outward but from time to time turns in on himself in order to serve Christ better.
• Assurance is the purpose of self-examination. Assurance is not presumptuous. 'Hope for the best' theology is not right, we can and should know - John's epistle 'that you may know' humbly and definitely know.
• Self examination is not introspection and need not lead to arrogance. 
• Tests: 
• Doctrine: v5 to see whether you are in the faith - 'the' faith is not something in us but something God has revealed, truth. The faith is the Christian faith. Are you standing in the Christian faith. The super-apostles Paul says were teaching 'another Jesus' not the true one/gospel. They were/are outside of the faith. Uses those three phrases in C11; another gospel/Jesus/spirit. This isn't the final test. It is possible to be orthodox and yet 'spurious'. We must be loyal to the faith. It is in believing in Jesus that we are saved and if we believe another Jesus we believe an anti-christ. The Creed 
• Experience: 'do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you.' The indwelling. 'I live and yet not I but Christ lives in me.' Galatians, 'I can do all things through Christ in me' philippians, 'Christ in you the hope of glory.' Colossians. Essential understanding of what a Christian is. Somebody in whom Jesus Christ lives. 'How do I know whether Jesus Christ is in me?' i) assuring us inwardly by his Spirit in us 'Spirit bears witness with our Spirit.' ii) by reproducing his character in us. not just a test of feeling but of character. 
• Fellowship: 12:20 'i worry that i won't find what i wish but instead will find jealousy, quarrelling...' how can you claim to be christians he says if these things are spoiling your church life. 13:11 'mend your ways' restore your nets. 'Agree with one another' Do we rejoice in our membership of the church, do we love the brethren? It is a test of our authenticity.
• God is a God of truth, righteousness and love.
• True or false? You've examined the leaders, now examine yourselves. 
• All of us will have to face a divine examination on the last day.

Rico Tice:

• There are some events in all our lives that cause us to stop and examine ourselves (like the death of a friend). It makes you stop. The whirlwind of activity that we call life stops. 1662 book of common prayer 'on sunday next i purpose through God's assistance i intend to administer communion next Sunday... my duty is to exhort you to consider the holy mystery and the great peril of unworthy receiving there of... that you may come holy and clean to such a feast. 
• 1Cor 11:28 'let a person examine himself.' before coming to communion meal. 13:5 'it's the burden of the whole letter' 13:5 is where it's all at - examine yourselves, test yourselves!
• They say... 'you don't take money as they do, you're not an orator as they are...' 'actually' he says 'it's you that needs to test yourselves.'
• most of us like to think that the days of examination and tests are over: driving tests have gone. This is a test we don't do on others, we do on ourselves. In Boots 'self-tests' like pregnancy tests and high-cholesterol tests 'I've not done either of them' but this is a self-test and it's not in Boots it's in the Bible. 
• This test is set by a friend not by Anne Robinson on the weakest link out to trip us up. Paul is a 'Spiritual Father' who will spend everything they have on his children... 
• he's a master builder doing a site visit. Is the building going to withstand the storms? 
• he's on his knees praying for them.
• This test is helpful it's positive to help them to see - Christ is in you. 
• This is not an entry exam to determine whether or not they are accepted by God. We have been made acceptable to God by Jesus, he has given us that qualification. Jesus gives me his perfection. 2Cor5:21 the great exchange. 
• at school in the 'self-tests' I did better when I could mark my own paper!
• God by his Spirit is insisting that we do it: 
• Belief and behaviour tests: Doctrinal and moral. They were so pleased with themselves, proud of themselves. Paul hopes they will past but he knows they need to examine yourselves. 

First: Belief: v5 - in the faith. Are you still in the parameters of the gospel? Don't assume it, test it. The false teacher's message may seem similar but it's a different gospel altogether. The Jesus who was crucified in weakness who brings me forgiveness, righteousness, reconciliation is the real Jesus.

• Two lies in our world are that we're accepted by our good works or by the act of dying. A third false belief is that we are victims and therefore don't need forgiveness.
• What is the faith in the culture that puts me right with God? in the newspapers/televisions/obituary page... 
• One lie = accepted by being a nice person (Lady Diana was so nice of course she's saved) 
• Second = lie, they're accepted by the actual act of dying. It's so horrible to die and for us to lose them that the pain they've gone through is their righteousness. 
• Third = my pain and difficult life means that I'm a victim and therefore don't need forgiveness. We are rebels as well as victims.

Does God come to fill you and meet your need or does he convict you? They had a gospel-lite. Have you let the culture walk in with you?

Second: Behaviour test.

• v5 - Christ is in you... unless of course you fail the test. Why mention this? The presence of Christ is in us individually and as a church and as a result sin is incompatible. Christ's presence in us is demonstrated by our repentance, by our driving out of sin from our lives. That sin is being driven out, that's our assurance? Oil and water do not mix. Oil will drive out water. Christ's presence will drive out sin. He's afraid he might flunk this test, that they don't drive out sin. Repentance is the proof that Christ's transforming presence is changing you. 
• Illus: A tourist visiting a small village a man asked someone 'were any great men born in this village?' 'no, only babies.' - there needs to be progress and development. 
• v11 - finally brothers... live together and God will be with you. God in their midst is the promise and their resource. Repent.