EVANGELICALS

'This sadly is the world of much contemporary evangelicalism. We exalt the platform speakers who perform at Christian conferences. We prize the eloquence that Paul rejected (I Corinthians 2:1-5). We value degrees whereas Jesus ignored his disciples' lack of education when choosing the twelve (Acts 4:13). We follow numerical success. We pursue career paths. Church leaders look like company directors. Conference speakers look like entertainers. We've taken the word "minister" and somehow turned it into a designation of status, even though it actually means "servant". We reject the title "Father" on the basis of Matthew 23:8-11, but adopt other status titles like "Reverend" and "Pastor". Evelyn Astley suggests that, while in the West we're not scandalized by the cross itself, we are scandalized by leadership modelled on the cross: "leadership that displays human weakness, human limitation, human suffering, and human fragility, but functions in God's power". "Somewhere along the line, we seem to have fallen into the same trap as the Corinthian church. We have come to value power, control and success."'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.153.

JESUS

'Thou lovely source of true delight,
whom I unseen adore,
unveil thy beauties to my sight
that I might love thee more.

Thy glory o'er creation shines,
but in thy sacred Word
I read in fairer, brighter lines
my bleeding, dying Lord.

'Tis here, whene'er my comforts droop
and sin and sorrow rise,
thy love with cheering beams of hope
my fainting heart supplies.

But ah! Too soon the pleasing scene
is clouded o'er with pain.
My gloomy fears rise dark between
and I again complain.

Jesus, my Lord, my life, my light,
oh come with blissful ray.
Break radiant through the shades of night
and chase my fears away.

Then shall my soul with rapture trace
the wonders of thy love.
But the full glories of thy face
are only known above.'
Anne Steele in Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.128.

SUFFERING

'We expect God to keep us healthy and safe. So when trouble comes - as Jesus promises it will (John 16:33) - we not only struggle to cope with the problem; we also can't make sense of what God is doing. "Why doesn't he answer my prayers?" "Is my faith too weak?" The result is that people struggling with turmoil in their circumstances are beset at the same time with turmoil in their hearts - a crisis that could have been avoided by a proper eschatology.'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.126.

DISCIPLESHIP

'In the West we often take an incremental approach to discipleship. A person is converted and we begin to ratchet up their commitment to Christ. We start them off with prayer and Bible reading. We then encourage them to "come out" to friends and share the gosple. Later we might ask them to serve in church. If they prove very keen, we might encourage them to think about cross-cultural missionary service. We don't even ask people to live among the poor, though we're impressed when they do. Martyrdom is a distant prospect. Through a series of steps, we increase what it means to follow Jesus.

But in persecuted churches, martyrdom is written into the call to conversion. A decision to become a Christian might well mean persecution, ostracization or imprisonment. To decide for Christ is to decide for death. Now think about how Jesus issued his evangelistic invitation: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). It was an invitation to die.

When the decision for Christ means a decision for martyrdom, everything else is effectively decided. A thousand decisions about money, service, career, lifestyle, reputation are all already made in that one decision to follow Jesus to the end. The choice for martyrdom contains within it a whole life of cross-centred discipleship. And that is the point: not that we should look to be martyred, but that we should call people to cross-shaped lives of self-denial.'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.56.

GOD'S LOVE

'Jesus Christ is the beam of his Father's love and through him the Father's love reaches down and touches us.

It is God's will that he should always be seen as gentle, kind, tender, loving and unchangeable. It is his will that we see him as the Father, and the great fountain and resevoir of all grace and love...Believers learn that it was God's will and purpose to love them everlasting to everlasting in Christ, and that all reason for God to be angry with us and treat us as his enemies has been taken away. The believer, being brought by Christ into the bosom of the Father, rests in the full assurance of God's love and of never being separated from that love.

Many saints have no greater burden in their lives than that their hearts do not constantly delight and rejoice in God. There is still in them a resistance to walking close with God...So do this: set your thoughts on the eternal love of the Father and see if your heart is not aroused to delight in him. Sit down for a while at this delightful spring of living water and you will soon find its streams sweet and delightful. You who used to run from God will not now be able, even for a second, to keep at any distance from him.'

John Owen in Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.45.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'...when the New Testament writers tell us how we should live, they don't often point back to the life of Jesus. Instead they take us again and again to the cross and resurrection. Whether they're talking about marriage or conflict or community or money or opposition or leadership or temptation or work or suffering, they look to the cross and resurrection. So if you want to know how to live as a Christian, you need to understand how the cross and resurrection shape our lives. The pattern of the cross and resurrection needs to become our reflex, our habit, our instinct. We need to live the cross and resurrection.'

Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero: Living the cross and resurrection, p.11.

MATERIALISM

'In my view, the single biggest cause of stalled churches in the UK is the belief that material comfort can be normative for Christians. It is the opposite of radical commitment to Christ.'

Marcus Honeysett, Evangelicals Now, February 2010.

DESPAIR

'...the gospel tells us not only how bad pride is; it says the same about despair...'
Lewis Smedes in Cornelius Platinga Jr., Beyond Doubt, p.95.

IDENTITY

'Many of us look only at our own depravity and not at our renewal. We have been writing our continuing sinfulness in capital letters, and our newness in Christ in small letters. We believe in our depravity so strongly we think we have to practice it, while we hardly dare to believe in our newness.'

Anthony Hoekema in Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Beyond Doubt, p.95.

IDENTITY

'People tend to make two mistakes when they think about the redeemed life. The first is to understimate the sin that remains in us; it's still there and it can still hurt us. The second is underestimate the strength of God's grace; God is determined to make us new.

As a result, all Christians need to say two things. We admit that we are redeemed sinners. But we also say boldly and joyously that we are redeemed sinners.'

Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Beyond Dioubt: Faith-Building Devotions on Questions Christians Ask, p.89.