Adoption

As me and Chrissi prepare to adopt kids, we've been reflecting on what a huge theme it is in the Bible as we see how God relates to his people...

1. God adopted Israel in the Old Testament.  Romans 9:1-5
'Theirs is the adoption to sonship...' Paul is talking about the Israelites. Since Genesis 12, God had chosen them out of all the nations in the world to be his people - his kids - and to be a blessing to the rest of the world. They were meant to belong to God, to know him, be loved and nurtured by him, love him back and grow to be like him by being in his family.

2. God was adopted so we could be adopted.  Galatians 4:4-7
'...that we might receive adoption to sonship.'  Jesus was born to an unmarried teenage mum in a barn in the least significant town in Israel and adopted by Joseph so that he could live, die in our place for our sin and rise again to make a way for us to become God's children - forgiven, right with God and becoming like him because his Spirit lives in us and empowering us to live the life we were made for.

3. God chose us to be adopted into his family.  Ephesians 1:3-14

'In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship in Jesus...'  God has made choices about who will be his people, who will trust and follow Jesus and know him personally and be in his family. Our wills are real and important too but not before or more so than God's. In love he chooses his kids. We don't earn it because it's all about God's grace to us. God gives us dignity, value and worth we didn't have before and could never have without him.

4. God adopts us spiritually when we trust and follow Jesus.  Romans 8:14-17

'...the Spirit you received brought about your adoption...'  God himself moves into our hearts when we decide to trust and follow Jesus. He awakens love for him inside us and we have the strong assurance that we are part of his family forever. We are loved, safe and protected. We can call God our Dad.

5. God adopts us physically when we get to heaven.  Romans 8:22-25'...we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.'  One day, the spiritual reality of our belonging in God's family will become a physical reality for us forever. All sin, shame, suffering an struggle will be gone. We will be made whole and be perfectly like our heavenly Father. Family forever with God.

Bring it on!

Romans 1:1-4 - All about Jesus

Even Paul's introduction of himself is itself a challenge to any Christian.  He's all about Jesus and his identity, value and purpose is in Jesus.  If we're trusting and following Jesus, how do we introduce or identify ourselves?  And how do we think about our work?  For Paul, it's all for Jesus.

Romans 1:1-4

The way Paul serves Jesus is as an apostle, which means he's someone whose gift is to make disciples and plant churches in places where there are none.  Jesus told Paul to do this job and Paul is doing as he's told because he lives to serve Jesus.

Paul then mentions three things about Jesus...

First, he reminds the Christians in Rome that Jesus came to fulfill ancient prophecy.  Throughout the Old Testament there are hundreds of prophecies predicting the arrival of the 'messiah' - God's chosen rescuer.  Jesus fulfills them all because they were all about him!  God knows and plans the future, told the prophets in advance and kept his promises to come and rescue his people!

Second, Paul says that Jesus was a real human man from the family line of David, just as the prophets promised.  Jesus was fully human.  He cried, got tired, got hungry and thirsty and felt pain like anyone else would.  Being genuinely human means that Jesus could live a life like we do but without sin and properly represent human beings when he died in our place for our sin on the cross.

Third, Paul explains that Jesus was not just a man but was the 'God-man'.  Jesus wasn't a man who became God but God who became a man.  Jesus is 'Immanuel', which means 'God with us.'  And Paul is saying that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves that this is true.  How else would it happen?  Unless Jesus was fully God, he would not have lived a sinless life and his death on the cross would not have been anything special, let alone payment for the sin of the whole human race.

Paul starts as he means to go on.  He's all about Jesus and he wants to teach us more about this man who is God - Jesus Christ 'our Lord'.

Romans blog

Uncover by UCCF

UCCF have produced a brilliant pocket-sized version of the gospel of Luke for anyone looking into Jesus and there's some excellent accompanying videos online featuring various qualified experts answering some of the big questions people have.  Check them out and forward them on!

Uncover - An introduction

1. How do we know Luke's account of the life of Jesus is reliable?

2. Doesn't science rule out miracles?

3. How can an all-powerful and loving God allow people to suffer?

4. Aren't Christians arrogant to believe that Jesus is the only way to God?

5. Doesn't faith contradict reason?

6. Is living a good life enough?

7. Did the resurrection really happen in history?

Responses to the evidence for Jesus

This is a reply too lengthy to include on a Soul Pancake forum so I thought I'd blog it instead and then it might be helpful for others too.  It's responding to questions not included here but hopefully it should still make some sense to everyone who might be interested.

Ok, I've done some exploring, had a think and I think this will be a long one but I hope it's ok to make the effort and you've been doing the same so I hope you won't mind reading some more! :)

Thanks for the point about the lack of external links in my blog on the evidence for the reliability of the gospels.  I don't want people to take my word for it.  I must get around to adding some useful links to decent research that's been done.  Thanks!


It's a good point you raise about the truth of the gospels.  For this, the first thing I would look at is the intention of the authors.  Were they trying to write literal history?  As I mention in my blog, Luke is most clear about his intentions to get an accurate account of recent events and he mentions interviewing eye-witnesses too (Luke 1:1-4).  The next thing I would consider is the dating of the gospels.  All of them were written within living memory of Jesus (Wiki article on this) and so Luke's first readers would have been eye-witness and well-able and well-motivated to disprove what he wrote.  The Roman authorities were especially keen to stop Christianity spreading.  Christians were killed often.  If their writings were clearly false and easy to disprove, they would not have been believed, died for or lasted credibly beyond that culture.  These are the some of the things that convince me of the truth of the accounts.  More on why I believe in God

Responses to your questions/comments:

1. External evidence for Jesus

Having started looking into archaeological evidence for Jesus, I found this article.  It seems the evidence is not conclusive (I wouldn't expect archaeological evidence alone to prove everything) but it is compelling for the people and events described in the gospels and for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.  I certainly don't think it's true to say there's no archaeological evidence for Jesus.  Have a look at the article.  I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it. :)

2. Hiding Jesus' body in the dessert

It sounds like a plausible point you make about the possibility of hiding the body in the dessert but there are a number of things that would also need explaining for that to be possible.  People saw the 'stolen body' hoax coming a mile off and that's why a guard was posted (Matthew 27:62-66).  And there's still hundreds of people who claim they saw him alive after he died.  Over 500 at once on one occasion (1 Corinthians 15:3-7).  If the accounts are reliable (and I'm convinced they are), this still needs explanation. 

3. The far-fetched-ness (definitely should be a word) of the 'seeing things' and 'swoon' theories

These came about presumably because the evidence was hard to deny and people felt the need try and explain it in ways that meant Jesus didn't really rise from the dead.  The 'swoon' theory seems to have got started in the 18th century without any actual evidence other than the presupposition that the resurrection was impossible and there must be alternative explanations for all the evidence pointing to it.  The Wiki article on this is very useful.

4. People dying for stuff doesn't make it true
Absolutely right but the point I was making in my blog about this was that the first Christians surely wouldn't have died for something they knew to be a lie.  I certainly wouldn't.  So this isn't proof it's true but it does help rule out the idea that they were part of a deliberate conspiracy.  It brought them no advantages whatsoever.  So you're right.  People do die for untruths but usually because they don't realise.

So I hope that's helpful.  I'm aware that a lot of the above is my personal response but I hope it has value to you.  And there are some external links to explore too so hopefully that's helpful.  It's been a while since I read it but the book 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel was really helpful to me.  It's an investigative journalist whose wife became a Christian and he set out to disprove it but ended up becoming a Christian himself and writing a book about all his findings.  Have you read it? 

Romans blog

  1. Intro - Great good news!
  2. Romans 1:1-4 - All about Jesus
  3. Romans 1:5-17 - All about the gospel  
  4. Romans 1:18-32 - God's anger and hatred
  5. Romans 2:1-16 - God is right and we are wrong!  
  6. Romans 2:17-29 - It's not about foreskins!
  7. Romans 3:1-20 - There are no good people!
  8. Romans 3:21-31 - Made right through faith!
  9. Romans 4 - Believing God  
  10. Romans 5:1-11 - Three big words
  11. Romans 5:12-21 - Two men  
  12. Romans 6:1-14 - Sin, grace and baptism
  13. Romans 6:15-23 - Free to serve  
  14. Romans 7:1-6 - Dying to be free
  15. Romans 7:7-25 - God's law and our sinful nature  
  16. Romans 8:1-17 - Two ways to live
  17. Romans 8:18-30 - In the end  
  18. Romans 8:31-39 - As bad as it gets
  19. Romans 9 - God's choice and ours  
  20. Romans 10 - Close but so far away
  21. Romans 11 - What about Israel?  
  22. Romans 12 - What is true and proper worship?
  23. Romans 13:1-7 - Christians and governments  
  24. Romans 13:8-14 - Loving and living for Jesus
  25. Romans 14 - Family is family  
  26. Romans 15:1-13 - Loving the family
  27. Romans 15:14-33 - First things first  
  28. Romans 16 - Signing off but not checking out!
Back to Bible book blogs

Romans Blog - GREAT GOOD NEWS!

Having finished the Mark blog today, I'm breathing a big sigh of relief but I want to try and keep reading my Bible and knowing Jesus better so I'm committing myself now to start blogging my way through Romans. 

Romans is mega!  It's a big book full of big stuff about Jesus and what his death 2000 years ago really means for us today.  It's a book that hits on some controversial issues and causes many arguments in and out of the church.  I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with it and I hope it will be helpful stuff for anyone else who wants to read it too!

Romans blog

Mark 16 - Jesus is alive!

Every other religion has a dead guy.  Christianity has Jesus who came back from the dead.  Without this fact, Christianity crumbles and is the same as any other religion or belief system: man-made.  But if the resurrection of Jesus is real, then he's telling the truth and God has done something to save us all into a relationship with him that outlasts this broken world.  The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:14... And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead (and the evidence for it) changes everything and demands a response from each of us!  

Mark 16

We see the dedicated women again first thing in the morning, going to attend to Jesus' dead body.  God gives great dignity, value and worth to women in a sexist culture by letting them be the first to discover the empty tomb (v4).  They're also the first to see Jesus alive again after he died (v9).   

The stone that blocked the entrance to Jesus' tomb would have taken five men to move it.  It was very secure.  The three women would not have been able to move it.  It's also one of the facts that scuppers what's called the 'swoon theory' that says Jesus only fainted on the cross and later escaped from the tomb.  A half dead Jesus is definitely not going to move a stone that big!  Oh and then there's the guard to take on and the fact that Romans were expert killers in the first place and the challenge of convincing everyone he's really risen from the dead and in no need of urgent medical attention and... well you get the idea.  You can look at the article I've done on the evidence for the resurrection for more about that.   

The women are surprised and worried when they see the tomb is empty and a shiny white man (an angel appearance I think) sitting casually by the entrance.  The angel's message is simple.  Jesus has risen from the dead just as he said he would (several times actually).  He tells them to tell the disciples and especially mentions to tell Peter, presumably because God really wanted Peter to know Jesus had risen and that Peter's earlier denials could be forgiven.

And then we have a slight ending issue.

The first ending we have is verse 8 where Mark finishes quite abruptly (in true Mark style) by telling us the women ran off scared.  Not much of an ending in some ways but Mark has been fast and urgent throughout his gospel and has missed out lots of details that the other gospels will include later.  He's just bashing out the essentials.  Just enough so people can be sure of what happened and trust and follow Jesus who rose from the dead.

The second ending we have is not found in the earliest manuscripts.  We don't have the original stuff Mark wrote - only copies of copies of copies.  The earliest copies are the most reliable and so that's why we have the little note here in our Bibles explaining this alternate ending.  It's possible that someone added it in to round things off based on other details they knew to be true.  There's nothing significant here that's absent from all the other gospels (Jesus appearing to people, commissioning disciples to tell the good news, ascending into heaven) but it's possible that Mark wasn't the one who wrote it.  None of this affects the historical reliability of the gospels.  The Bible scholars aren't trying to hide anything but explain the facts just as they are.

And so we have, in this alternate ending, three big things going on...

First, we have mentions of appearances of Jesus alive after he died.  The women see him first (more details in John 20:11-18), then two disciples on the road to Emmaus (more details in Luke 24:13-35) and then the rest of the group (again more details in Luke 24:36-49).  People were seeing Jesus alive again, walking and talking with him, eating meals with him, touching his scars.  He was really back from the dead and truly alive. 

Second, we have Jesus telling his followers to tell this great good news to everyone.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is indeed good news.  It means Jesus really is God and that he really was dying on the cross in our place for our sins so we could have forgiveness (Mark 2:5), friendship with God (John 15:15), life to the full (John 10:10) and life forever (John 3:16).  Keeping this life-saving good news to ourselves is the worst kind of selfishness.  Jesus wants everyone to know!

Third, we have the ascension of Jesus up into heaven, which, as far as I can tell, means he physically started floating up into the sky!  Very weird, but having seen him come back from the dead, flying is really not that big a deal!  Besides, Jesus had told them he would have to leave them so that the Holy Spirit would come to live in them (John 14:15-17) and I guess he wanted to make it clear that this time he was really leaving.  Having had God with them, they now had a big job to do and they needed God in them.  And so do we!

Mark blog

Facebook and Twitter - The Opportunities and the Risks

This is the unedited version (I wrote too much) of an article I wrote for a magazine recently...

Facebook is the largest social networking website in the world and has grown massively in the 8 years it has existed. Today Facebook has over 955 million active users. [1]  That’s 13.7% of the world’s population.  If Facebook was a country, its population would be 3 times larger than the USA.  It’s as popular with the girls as it is with the guys and the average user is on Facebook around half an hour a day.  Young people are well represented on Facebook: 20% of users are aged 13-17.  The youth leaders are on there too: 26% are 18-25 and another 26% are 26-34. [2] The co-creator, co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is the world’s 2nd youngest self-made billionaire. [3]  And Facebook even has its own feature film – ‘The Social Network’, released in 2010. In short: Facebook is HUGE.

Twitter (a micro-blogging website that allows registered users to ‘tweet’ short messages of 140 characters or less) is now one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world.  It has over 500 million active users. 63% of Twitter users are aged under 35 and millions follow the tweets of the celebrities who make up the ranks of the twitterati.  Right now Ricky Gervais is dispensing advice: ‘It sometimes takes 10 to 15 years to become an overnight sensation.  Don’t give up too easily.’  Oprah Winfrey wants us to know that ‘the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are’.  And Justin Bieber (the second most followed celebrity on Twitter with over 27 million people signing up to get his thoughts) wants us to know he’s at his house ‘cookin some noodles’.  Wow.        

So what are the best opportunities of Facebook and Twitter, especially for youth workers?  And what are the pitfalls and risks?  For what it’s worth, here are my top 5 likes and dislikes…

Like 1: People!
The best thing about Facebook and Twitter is they’re all about people! Have you ever stood in an art gallery and spent most of your time staring at other people instead of the paintings?  Maybe it’s just me.  God has made people in his image and they’re fascinating, creative, surprising, enterprising, compassionate, touching and funny!  Facebook connects us with family and friends we wouldn’t otherwise see or speak to much or at all.  Twitter allows us to connect to the latest from the minds of people who are famous for their wisdom, wit and humour.  Social connectivity and cultural enlightenment at the touch of a button. Brilliant!  For me as a youth worker, Facebook is basically a second email account for getting hold of young people who either don’t have email or do but never check it.  Facebook is where they are so that’s where I have to go.  Or take my friend Sarah for example who managed to build such great friendships on Twitter with Strictly fans that they went away on holiday together.  Great stuff.

Like 2: Interest
If you’re someone who wants to take an interest in people or like me, a youth worker who’s always thinking about people in the group, wondering how they’re doing, what they’re up to and what they’re talking about, Facebook is a great thing.  And when a young person’s on Twitter it’s usually because they’ve got things they want to say.  And it’s all in the name of ‘sharing’ so it’s not spying at all!  And when you notice people are happy, sad, worried or whatever, you can show your interest by messaging, commenting, sending prayers or asking questions so they know you care about what they’re on about. As youth workers although it’s entirely possible to do without these things and just deal with people on phones and face-to-face, I think we’re missing a unique opportunity if we’re not also connected with our young people on Facebook/Twitter.  It’s one of the main places they share their lives openly so why wouldn’t we be interested in that?

Like 3: Invitation
Another great thing about Facebook (more so than Twitter) is using it to invite people to stuff.  Set up an event page, make it look awesome and then start telling everyone on Facebook about it so they can RSVP.  Admittedly people on Facebook are renowned for saying they’ll come to stuff when all they mean is ‘I like the sound of that’ but it’s a useful indicator of who’s at least interested in what you’re putting on.  I still do flyers as well but it’s got to the stage where I’m convinced people pay more attention to me on Facebook than they do to the bits of paper I hand out.  And it’s not just events.  Recently, my friend skateboarded 1000km across Holland to raise money for LIV Village. I spent half an hour inviting 1300 people to consider giving online and something like an extra £150 was donated as a result.  Not overwhelming but definitely worth half an hour!

Like 4: Integrity
This one is debated among some youth workers.  Some say we should stay off Facebook or go on it with a fake name so we’re not found by young people.  Some youth workers even have two Facebook identities – one for adult friends and one for connecting with their young people.  Others use Twitter instead because it only shares a few words at a time and they wouldn’t want young people seeing all their photos of them having fun with their friends.  I have to say all this makes me feel disappointed.  If we don’t want to be hypocrites leading double lives with double standards in physical reality, why would we do it online?  Our integrity as youth workers should mean that we don’t have anything in our public life that we should want to hide from our young people.  They’re not stupid.  They’ll find out what you get up to one way or the other and you’ll be influencing them if they look up to you at all.  The best thing is when youth workers model life-sharing on Facebook so young people can know them better and see what it looks like to share well.

Like 5: Influence
People are influencing each other all the time on Facebook and Twitter.  When things ‘trend’ it’s because millions of people are paying attention to something.  But it’s not just about trending.  As youth workers serving Jesus, we care about influencing and leading individuals and sharing things that will help them.  I know one youth worker in Exeter who reads his Bible every day and shares one line on Facebook each time summing up what he’s read and how it applies so people in his group (and others) can see it.  As for me, I’ve been blogging my way through Mark’s gospel for a while and tweeting links to every new post so people on Twitter and Facebook get pointed to the Bible.  I’m not reaching millions but I do know that 22 people read my last article and that’s a lot better than keeping it to myself.  When Jesus gave us the great commission, I think he had the Facebook nation in mind as well as everywhere else.

Dislike 1: People!
The best and worst thing about Facebook and Twitter is the people.  People are a mixed bag and it doesn’t change when they’re online.  People online can be fascinating, fun, thoughtful, kind and compassionate human beings but they can also be offensive, idiotic, boring and cruel bullies.  Lonely young people post their mobile numbers regularly because they’re so desperate for attention.   Spiteful people slag others off publicly on their walls.  Celebrities tweet mind-numbingly useless information for sheer vanity, knowing millions will read it because they’re famous.  There’s a real sadness and brokenness about it because it’s full of people. 

Dislike 2: Junk
How many times have I been on Facebook and seen yet another group called ‘Let’s get a million people to join and Steve will shave off all his body hair!’ or something like that?  What a waste of time!  I guess it’s a cry for community but it’s no substitute.

Dislike 3: Fronts
People can be whoever they want online and this is liberating but usually in the worst possible way.  People are too big for their boots when they comment or tweet things they’d never dream of saying face-to-face.  Or they take photos of themselves and photoshop it to portray a version of themselves that is exaggerated or false. Sometimes it’s done for obvious fun and that’s fine but sometimes it’s fake and people are lying to others and themselves about who they really are and what they really want to say.

Dislike 4: Secrecy
Youth workers have to think about Child Protection and develop and follow policies that help keep people safe.  Secrecy online between a youth worker and a young person where no records are kept is as inappropriate as meeting them one-to-one in a bedroom somewhere with the door closed. Private message conversations can easily be had on Facebook and deleting them is an easy trap to fall into, especially if you like a nice tidy ‘inbox’ but we must resist the urge.  False accusations can be quickly cleared up and proven false if the transcript is there but if it’s not, it can lead to trouble.

Dislike 5: Distraction
Too many people would rather deal with people online than in person.  Face-to-face or even phone conversation is so much better when it comes to significant conversation.  And the number of times I see people in public ignoring each other to look at their mobile devices is incredibly sad.   The irony is that Facebook and Twitter are about connecting to people but they can also distract us from opportunities to truly and deeply do so.

Conclusion
Facebook and Twitter (like all other forms of communication) are essentially about people sharing stuff and that is the single best and worst thing about them.  People are made in the image of God and are valuable so Facebook and Twitter provide opportunities to share their lives and care for others.  But people are also sinful and broken so Facebook and Twitter fill up with this stuff too.  Like any other forum, we need to mentally filter everything we absorb in order to get the best from it and so that we can put our best in.  God came all the way down right into our messy world as a human being to rescue people.  The least we can do is wade through the mess online if it means connecting to people meaningfully.  It could even save lives.