I was recently directed to this excerpt of a book written by Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Elisabeth Cary, an international student and friend who was a part of our church earlier this year while she studied in Bristol.

I doubt it will be a new concept to a lot of you but it is a vital practice for everyday life and something which we must remind ourselves to do regularly.

“Preach to yourself” by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Yourself is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’…

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’”

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965/2002), pages 20-21.

In the wake of our “Christianity Explored” course starting tonight, I am sure that many of us have had invitations rejected. Maybe you faced being mock and ridiculed for inviting someone along or trying to share the gospel with them.

In these kind of moments I find that 1 Peter 2:4-8 gives great encouragement when doing evangelism, especially when it doesn’t seem effective in our eyes:

1 Peter 2:4-8 (ESV)

4As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
8and

“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Here are a few reasons why I find it encouraging:

1. We are loved by God. In verses 4 and 5, Peter writes about how we are both chosen and precious, a holy priesthood. This acceptance by God means that the rejection talked about in verse 4 pales in significance. We will care less and less that we are rejected by the worldly ways of man when we know better that we are accepted by the creator of the universe.
2. We know that some will reject Jesus, the cornerstone and the rock of offense. Verses 7 and 8 are quite clear that people will reject the word of God. Talking of it will cause them to stumble. We are also told by Peter that this is what they were destined for. This can give us confidence that as we share the gospel some will outright reject us and our message. This can give us resilience, knowing that some will reject the gospel no matter what we do.
3. Christians are chosen by God. This is a wonderful truth shared in verse 4, and again in verses 9 and 10. We are not only loved by God but he chose us to be loved by Him. This personally is the greatest encouragement out there when doing evangelism. Knowing that it is God who chooses us and not the other way round.  This truth gives us a confidence when telling others about Christ. I can know from this, that it is God who saves through the proclamation of His word, not us. I find this takes a huge pressure off my shoulders and frees me to, through His strength, try and make the most of opportunities as they arise.

I hope this helps you, as it does me, not to lose heart when sharing the gospel.

Please remember it still isn’t too late to be inviting people to Christianity Explored. This week is an introduction to the course, it kicks off properly next week.: Tuesday 2nd February a we explore the question: Who Is Jesus?

A week today Christianity Explored starts.

Held at the Vassel Centre at 8pm.

This is a great opportunity for our friends, neighbours and colleagues to engage with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ — the one who has redeemed and justified us, reconciling us back to the God we so quickly desert for false gods and idols.

Christianity Explored – which starts next Tuesday, 26th January — is a great informal way to engage and explore the Christian faith. By using Mark’s gospel it shows participants the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the most important message that they, like us, will ever hear. Showing Jesus for who he truly is, is the sole purpose of Mark’s gospel.

The very first verse in Marks gospel, says this:

Mark 1:1 – ’The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’

Please be praying for one or two people you’d like to invite along and then invite them. This course is an opportunity for all who attend to engage with the gospel, ask their questions and allow God’s Holy Spirit to work in their hearts through his word.

At this time of year it is great to remember why we are celebrating.

As we have been looking at the incarnation over the last few weeks it has caused me to reflect on our Lord, God and King Jesus Christ.

Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, gives a wonderful account of the person of Jesus Christ as both eternal God and mortal man. In these few verses we get a glimpse of how magnificent and glorious Jesus is. Over the next few weeks I want to highlight some of the characteristics of Jesus and show why he deserves to be praised.

This week I’d like to highlight Colossians 1:15 and the glorious truth that Jesus is God.  Paul writes: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

This verse kicks starts a wonderful torrent of proclamation as wave upon wave of truths come from Paul. It is also a pivotal verse as everything proceeding hinges on it. “He is the image of the invisible God.”  This monumental statement not only claims that Jesus (a man, who had only a few years earlier died on a cross) is not only the representative of God, but that he is in everyway God.

This is truth is magnified in verse 19, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” He cannot be any more God.

This is something that I can become over familiarised with. Something that I know because it is the most basic aspect of the Christian faith. Either that or it becomes something that I need to tell non-Christians, but neglect to regularly remind myself of.

Let’s rejoice in the fact that Jesus is God: The one who saved us from the wrath of God. The one who paid the price for our sins. The one who restored our relationship with God. The one who rose from the dead and the one who we will one day spend eternity with.

What a wonderful truth — Jesus is God!

This is probably the busiest time of the year for most of us.  Christmas is fast approaching!

Weariness and dark mornings, Christmas shopping, deadlines looming for students and kids ready to finish school, are all creeping up on us.

This time of year it can feel necessary to just get your head down and power through until the holidays. We can think that if we don’t, we won’t make it — like a car running out of fuel: we must drive more carefully, rev the engine less and accelerate slower if we are going to make it to our destination on time.

If you feel like that today (and also if you don’t!) I would like to encourage you in your evangelism during this season.

Speaking up for Jesus is hard at the best of times and now, like me, it probably isn’t too close to the top of your priorities. However, this Christmas you and I actually have a great opportunity to speak up for Jesus.

For starters, Grace Church has four events over the Christmas week:

• “Rocking Around the Christmas tree” on December 19th;

• “Community Carol Service” on December 20th, complete with carols, drama, mince pies and a visit from Father Christmas for the kids;

• “Christmas Eve Service” on December 24th;

• “Christmas Continues” service on the 27th.

Christmas and Easter are the two points in the year that people are often more open to the gospel, and an invitation to church — many will actually seek out going to a church by themselves — so, let us make the most of it.

Why not be thinking and praying about who you are going to invite along to an event. Let us be bold this Christmas. Let us remember the great hope that we have and make time to declare Jesus Christ as Lord over the next few weeks.

Recently, I have been reading the book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I.Packer. It is a great little book!

In chapter 2,  Packer outlines what the evangelistic message we must proclaim is:

“In a word, the evangelistic message is the gospel of Christ, Him crucified; the message of man’s sin and God’s grace, of human guilt and divine forgiveness, of new birth and new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit” (p. 57)

He then goes on to outline ” Four essential ingredients”.

• The gospel is a message about God. Especially when talking to non-theists, we must show them that it is not man they have wronged but the creator God who is perfect, just and holy.

• The gospel message is about sin. That is sin against God, sin then makes us filthy and guilty before him and sin then removes any hope of relationship with Him.

• The gospel is a message about Christ. “Christ the Son of God incarnate; Christ the Lamb of God, dying for sin; Christ the risen Lord; Christ the perfect saviour.”

• The gospel message is about faith and repentance. There is no point is turning from sinful ways if faith is not the means in which we do this. An example given is that of Martin Luther who was incredibly religious and pious before he came to faith in the Lord Jesus. However there is no point is merely having faith in the saving work of Christ Jesus if it does not lead to repentance. Both must come together.

I have found it incredibly helpful to revisit the core truths that we must declare when proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. Just as we see in 2 Corinthians 4:5-6:

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Let us pray that over the next few weeks, in the lead up to Christmas, we would have opportunities to share this gospel message with friends, family and colleagues.

As we do this let’s be praying and trusting that God will do as He promises; that he will shine the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ into their hearts.