Autumn 2010 at mbc

30 Aug 2010 | | Posted in Uncategorized1 Comment

No matter what they tell us
No matter what they do
No matter what they teach us
What we believe is true

At first listen, it is easy to dismiss Andrew Lloyd Webber and Boyzone as being immature philosophers.

There is a sense, however, that they are right! What we believe so influences the relationships, decisions and actions of our lives that it acts as truth for us – even if it is not!

If we believe that God is all powerful, can do anything, wants to be dynamically involved in our lives, could not love us more etc…. then these thoughts have deep and radical implications for the whole of our lives, because they direct our paths.

Conversely, if we view God as disinterested, impersonal, inactive etc…, or even as we view ourselves as one outside the orbit of this divine attention, then the direction, outcome and the success of our lives is negatively affected.

In this time of change and challenge, of exciting opportunities and major decisions, we would do well to ground ourselves more firmly in the grace and truth of the good news we have received and we would be wise to be ever and increasingly open to the Holy Spirit (who leads us into all truth!)

With this in mind, I would like to recommend two things to us all:

  1. Starting in October, the inter:act team will be reading through the whole Bible in a year. This year, the Elders, Staff and Apprentice Pastors will be joining them. Can I encourage all of us to engage with this discipline and to do so together? There will be a daily blog entry to encourage us in this venture.
  2. Our two sermon series during this autumn term are  designed to stimulate us to live out of truth. ‘Wise’ is a series based, unsurprisingly, in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament and is designed to help us make godly decisions as we walk through this world. Our evening series is based in the gospel of John and will be a great opportunity for us to bring our friends to meet Jesus.

Looking forward to a fantastic autumn at mbc!

- Karl

Invest

4 Jun 2010 | | Posted in UncategorizedNo Comments

June 2010
A letter from our Senior Pastor, Karl Martin

I am so excited to be part of this Church we call MBC, and to have the privilege and responsibility to lead.  I have delighted in seeing the movement in the church towards an intentional missional DNA, towards a love of the city in which we live and a desire to place ourselves individually and collectively at the centre of all God is doing in this world.  I love seeing a growing knowledge of Father God and a deepening confidence in the gospel in us, I love that together we are increasingly looking like Jesus.  All this is His plan for us and through us for the world.

It is against the backdrop of all that Father God is doing in us and wants to do through us, that we made a bold and faith filled decision to offer for the Methodist Central Hall at Tollcross.  We see this building as part of God’s plan for us as a church.  We see it as a base for our Missional Expression activity, we see it as a training centre for our calling to be transformed and transformation for Edinburgh and Scotland.  You may wish to listen again to the vision talks on the website and read the vision documents there.

We would love to encourage you to Invest with us in this venture.  We believe it is right to buy Central Hall and to make some minor alterations to make it fit for missional purpose.  This will cost us up to £1.85m and will need all of us to examine our hearts and bank accounts and to give as we are led.  We will have a gift day on June 20th and another in September, and would love by then to have raised 50% of the monies needed so we can proceed with confidence.

Can I ask you to pray about what you can give or pledge to give.  We will need one-off donations as well as ongoing gifts, month on month.  It may be that now is the time to consider selling some item of value –  a house, a car, some jewelry, art?   It could be that some of us will be called to give something up, foreign holidays, some luxury….

It might be that you know others who have been blessed by MBC or would share this vision and would like the opportunity to invest themselves, please encourage them.

It is important to understand 3 things.

  1. No gift is too small or too large – everyone will be able to afford different amounts – all gifts are equally appreciated.
  2. MBC does not have significant reserves – we will not be able to buy this building unless we all give sacrificially.
  3. This is not ultimately about a building its about the ministry that will flow out of this building – it’s about the missional training that will happen in the building.

This Building will be a Power Station

This Building will be a Lifeboat Station

This Building and the way it is used is a statement of the life of God in this city and in this nation.

So I want to invite you to invest with me. There is a sense in which I am asking a generous people to be generous again – a people who have sacrificed to sacrifice again.  I am not inviting you just to giving but to investment - there is a difference, however subtle.

  • I am inviting you to invest in God’s Kingdom – trusting that he can take care of us.
  • I am inviting you to invest in this City, not just to take from it - invest in it’s life,  invest in its redemption – its transformation.
  • I am inviting you to invest in legacy – our children and our children’s children and generations of those who will come to know Father God because we invested now!
  • I am inviting us to invest generously and sacrificially in response to the generosity and sacrifice of the Lord we serve and for the sake of the majority who have never heard of Him let alone encountered Him.
If not us, then who? If  not this, then what?   If not now, then when?

1 Timothy 6:17 -19

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Your Pastor,
Karl

You can send a cheque or transfer funds or set up a regular standing order to our separate premises bank account. The bank account details are:

Account: 06004840,
Sort Code: 80-02-85,
cheques payable to “Morningside Baptist Church”.

You can also pledge to give in the future and a form is available. If you have not signed a gift aid form and are a UK tax payer, please complete one and send it to the Finance Deacon so we can add value to your gift.

Prayer – Luke 11

19 May 2010 | | Posted in Word Words1 Comment

As a church family we have experienced at least 2 births recently.  It has got me thinking that the way we grow spiritually is almost exactly opposite to the way we grow in the physical.  Physically growing up means moving increasingly towards independence from our mother and our father but growing up spiritually is actually about moving towards dependence on our heavenly father.

 Jesus teaches us how to pray – and His lesson is a lesson in moving us towards dependence.  Prayer is the conduit of this relationship – it’s the life-giving communication heaven to earth. 

 So Jesus begins by re-affirming this relationship.  The prayer starts with ABBA and not KINGDOM.  Jesus wants to remind us  that our lives consist in, revolve around, and will only have power in this relationship.  The God whose name is to be hallowed – (and He has so many amazing names depicting His power and character) –  is DADDY. 

 It is His Kingdom and He has and is bringing it.  As we pray we get to participate in heaven coming to earth.  The prayer is that all the things that are not in heaven (check out Revelation 21 and Revelation 22) are not on earth, and all things that are in heaven, are on earth.  Of course the kingdom of God now is opposed and one day Kingdom is all there will be.  But, through prayer, we still get to see breakthrough.  And as we move towards dependence, increasingly we find our prayers are prayers attuned to the heart and will of our Father, and heaven touches earth.

As we follow  this prayer through, we learn that the characteristics of this relationship are PROVISION, PURITY AND PROTECTION .. (Give us this day…. forgive us …. lead us not into temptation … )

But the core teaching, to my mind, is that this is a relationship available to us of Dependence, with a heavenly Father who loves us, wants to provide for us, wants to continue to save us and enable us to live out of that salvation, and wants to protect us from the tempter.

 So Jesus is able to close this teaching with a story and a commentary – the story about the neighbour and the bread at midnight,  and the commentary about what a wonderful, giving Father we have. 

I think we are being encouraged to live a life of Ask and Receive … a life of dependence through the Holy Spirit.  We learn to persist because we know He is this kind of Father who gives these kind of good things and we need His intervention.  Consequently mission becomes very simply a direct expression of this dependent relationship.  You have a friend who needs bread – you know a Father who has bread and gives bread. 

  •  Which areas of our lives do we find ourselves being more self-reliant rather than dependent on God? Why is this the case?
  • How can we move towards greater dependence on our Father God?
  • Are there areas of our lives where we need greater perseverance until we see our prayers answered? Spend some time praying for those things now.

- Karl

Mandate – Luke 4

14 Apr 2010 | | Posted in Word Words1 Comment

Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit makes a pretty clear statement of intent at the outset of his earthly ministry … this is me, this is who I am, this is what I’m about.

After baptism by John in the Jordan with the  subsequent confirmation from his Father – “this is my son with whom I am well pleased - and immediately following his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus returns in the power of the Holy Spirit to begin his ministry. He goes home to Nazareth declaring:

“‘The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

WOW! …. This is what I am about! The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in me!

His friends and family, his home town mates, all spoke well of him and were amazed at his words of grace. They were blown away!  Could it be that the fulfilment of all they had been waiting for – the Kingdom of God, the reign and rule and freedom of their God – was coming and was being ushered in by one of their own?  They were excited …. and amazed!

But Jesus dosen’t stop speaking there. He says “this is not just for you” and reminds them of their history. During Elijah and Elisha’s time, God showed that he was interested in blessing the outsiders, and not always the insiders….

At best, guys, this is not just for you!  And at worst, it’s just for you to give away!

This was enough to have them so mad that they wanted rid of his message, and they wanted rid of him.

As I preached on this passage recently, we asserted that not only do we have Jesus’ power and Jesus’ commission  – we are the body of Christ,  called to be Jesus,  and we are  to expect the same results ( miracles, signs and wonders, salvations and transformations) – but also the same opposition.

When word and spirit combine, supernatural transformation happens; and as transformation happens, opposition follows.

It comes most devastatingly from the people of God who have forgotten what it means to be the people of God and what they are the people of God for.

The people of Nazareth, those in the synagogue, were the good guys – not the bad guys – and yet they end up opposing the work of God.

The people of Israel, chosen to be a ‘light to the nations’, had kept whatever light they had to themselves. They therefore found the message ‘It’s not just for you’ not only disturbing, but also condeming. They found themselves in opposition to the Kingdom and, more specifically, to the Kingdom’s King.

This week, think about your missional expression.

  • How can we best be good news to the poor that we are called to reach?
  • How are we best placed to release prisoners?
  • How do we open blind eyes?
  • What does the mandate look like practically for your ME?

Have you ever found yourself in opposition to the Kingdom of God, and the mandate of the Kingdom’s King? How?

Read through the rest of Luke 4.

What are the evidences of the Kingdom commission and the Holy Spirit’s power?

- Karl

Living Full and Dying Empty

23 Mar 2010 | | Posted in FlyNo Comments

So we have come to the end of a series that we have called Fly, and we closed with a number of personal testimonies to the way in which Father God has been at work in so many lives. It was so encouraging!

BUT…

I want MORE!

I know it sounds greedy, but I want more. I want more of God, more of his power, more of his love. I want to co-operate more with what God is doing in the world and represent him better. I want more. I want to walk in my inheritance, I want to live full – and because I have then given myself away so completely, to die empty.

God wants more for you! Have you ever considered that although you have so much in Jesus, God still has more for you. More for you to enjoy, more for you to participate in. More!

In the first part of Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul explains the wonderful identity of the believer, declaring them in verse 13 to be “included in Christ”  and “marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit”.

In verses 15-23 he goes on to write:

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul prays that they might have more!

Greater knowledge - He prays that they will know the Father better. God wants you to have an increased intimacy with him. To walk with him, to operate out of the security and privilege of sonship. He helps us realize that relationship with Father God is an experience, it’s to know him with our hearts.

Greater Power – Paul prays that we might know and move in his power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is in us. This power is a missional, supernatural power and it is for us – in us. This power makes it possible for ordinary believers to continue the work of Jesus.

Do you want MORE?!

Because I do!

In fact the people of this More – they are the church, the body of Christ. Paul describes the body as “the fullness of Christ”. There is nothing in Jesus that is not in us – power, calling, anointing, authority.  As we know the Father, as we appropriate the power of the Son, as we are filled with his Spirit – we are the body of Christ.

And as the body of Christ, as we look increasingly like Jesus, we become the transformation that this world needs. Do you want more? He always has more for us!

He wants us to be full – full of him.  To live full and to die empty.

Why don’t you ask him for more and make it your ambition to do so daily?  “Father, let us live full and die empty.”

Some questions for your small group if you have time:

  • We cannot embrace the kingdom unless we know the King. What difference does it make to the way we live when our love for Jesus and relationship with him is strong
  • Jesus is indivisible from his church and he still loves it – it’s his only plan for this world. What difference should this make to how we “do’ church?

No Armour for the Back!

23 Feb 2010 | | Posted in FlyNo Comments

As we have been studying together in our ‘Fly’ series we have discovered not only that Father God created us to fly in an intimate relationship with Him, not only that we are to operate out of a ‘oneness’ relationship with the Godhead, but that we have an enemy – because he has an enemy.

His name Satan, the deceiver, the opposer of God and the things of God, the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the enemy of the Kingdom of God. Part of his job is to prevent you flying, to keep you bound.

He does this by attempting to rob you of your identity – ‘You are a Son of God’, and convince you to operate out of an orphan spirit. He does it by encouraging you to step out of line with his grace and step into an arena of justice and rights. When you do so, you give him a foothold (Ephesians 4: 24-26). Eventually he wants to establish a ‘stronghold’ (2 Corinthians 10: 4-5) from which he can wreak havoc in your life and in those around you.

We give him a foothold when we operate in any way that it inconsistent with the grace, love and forgiveness of God. When we open doors, or doors are opened into our lives, permission is given for Satan to mess with us.

Knowing this helps us recognise and oppose Satan’s plans to bind us. It helps us begin to put in place strategies to continue to stand, advance and live out the kingdom in hostile territory – to fly even.

Ephesians 6: 12-13 says:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand.

Paul goes on, recognising this spiritual war we find ourselves in , to suggest that we put on and keep on armour that helps us stand and advance:

  • Belt of truth
  • Breastplate of righteousness
  • Boots of peace
  • Shield of Faith
  • Helmet of Salvation
  • Sword of the Spirit

So what Paul is saying is that Satan flees when we stand dressed and equipped, when we realise our authority and strength in Christ. When we believe and live out of truth, when we protect our heart (which gets so easily damaged), when we express the courage of faith of our forefathers (check out Hebrews 11), when we advance with the life-giving news of Jesus, when we protect our minds from the invidious thoughts that Satan would use to gain a foothold (you are insignificant, a failure, can never experience the love of God etc) walking instead in the opposite spirit as we live out the truth of the word of God as our ‘authority’ and living guide. We find not only that Satan flees, but that we fly.

Let me leave you with one thought! There is no armour for the back! Which makes me think that two things are true.

  1. We are supposed to advance or stand – but never run (we need not be afraid – the victory belongs to the Lord and therefore to us)
  2. We are supposed to watch each other’s backs.

My friends this is not a time for disharmony, disunity, division or to abandon one-another. In so doing we easily allow the enemy to pick us off. Rather it is a time for family, for community, for developing small groups of discipleship and care within our Missional Expressions that enable us to minister as a body, to encourage one another in this journey and to strike out and take ground.

A few questions for you to think about:

  • What have been the things which have preventing you flying?
  • Where have doors been opened by you or others which caused Satan to have a hold in your life? Pray for one another as you close doors and live knowing Satan has no authority in these areas.
  • What opposition do you anticipate meeting as you venture out as an ME?
  • Encourage one another with experiences of standing firm in the face of opposition, how has God protected you?

Let us fly!

Karl

Romans 8:1-17

28 Jan 2010 | | Posted in FlyNo Comments

Fly….

As many of you will know, we have just begun a very exciting and important series of sermons in the church (check out the mbc website for details: www.mbc.org.uk). It has the potential to release so many of us from the chains – expectations, sin, lifestyle and culture – that keep us bound in beliefs and patterns of behavrious that are a direct denial of how Father God sees us, of who we are in Christ and the power we have in the Holy Spirit.

Over the past few weeks, we have built a strong and really exciting base from which we can stop “taxi-ing” and get “lift-off”.

We talked about the Father, and what it means that we are sons of God. Understanding that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of man might become the sons of God means that many of us are increasingly realising and living out of experiental sonship and not just positional sonship.

We spent some time recognising that our openness to receiving the perfect love of our heavenly Father is directly related to the way in which we have been fathered. Many took very brave steps to actively forgive our dads and ask Father God to “daddy” us.

We also opened the scriptures to Colossians 3 and worked through what it means for you and I to be “in Christ”. It is mind-frying and heart-exciting to understand that Jesus actively decided to minister and operate solely out of his humanity (See Philippians 2). Every time he healed someone, every time he spoke with prophetic authority, he did so out of his humanity, under the authority of the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Can it be true that we get to operate under the same authority – to have the same anointing and the same power? (See Ephesians 1:19-21)

We taught around “Flying with the Dove” and proposed that you and I will never fly unless ‘powered’. We just invited the Holy Spirit to come, asking the Father to give his good gift  (Luke 11) - and He came!

A few questions for you to think about:

  • What are the things that keep you grounded?
  • Are there ‘clothes’ that you wear that are incompatible with Jesus Christ in you?
  • What does operating out of Jesus’ anointing – the Father’s authority and the Holy Spirit’s power – look like practically for you?

- Karl

Romans – taking a break!

10 Dec 2009 | | Posted in RomansNo Comments

I’m taking  a break from blogging ’til after Christmas – more  to come in 2010!

A very happy Christmas to you all!

God bless!

- Karl

Romans – Day 51

8 Dec 2009 | | Posted in RomansNo Comments

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [Romans 6: 1-4]

Before we get into this incredible passage of scripture it would be wise for us to recap around the experience of the life of a believer in Christ.  This chapter of scripture is going to be really helpful in enabling us to live the good news.  And living the good news is so vital.

Many of us come to know Christ, get some good teaching and then are assured of our salvation; then we seek occasionally to tell other people about Jesus – often in stilted and unnatural conversations.  But then we wonder why we are not as successful as the early church in seeing people come to a saving, dynamic faith.

Perhaps it’s because it’s not so dynamic for us?

Paul has been teaching by using a number of concepts around the spiritual life:

JUSTIFICATION:  being set free from the penalty of sin

SANCTIFICATION:  being set free to live sin-free

GLORIFICATION:  being set free from sin all together – its effects – its power – it!

Now there are three problems as I see it.

Problem number 1

Christians who want to move from justification to glorification and bypass sanctification (this can happen,  but only God can do it; he does it by removing you from this earth early). These brothers and sisters miss out spiritual transformation, the deep inner work of the spirit of God who cleans us up, sorts us out, heals us, gifts us and produces wonderful fruit in us, propelling us into this busted world to be transformation for everyone and everything else.  These guys miss out,  big style! They may still have their ‘get out of hell free cards’ but they don’t really live.

Problem number 2

Christians who see these three events as linear and progressive:

I have been justified (that’s done – don’t have to worry about that anymore);

I am being sanctified (being transformed now) ;

One day I will be glorified (when I get to heaven).

I am not sure how helpful this is.  Whilst there is significant truth here, I would see these events as much more fluid and far more dynamic.  I have been justified – but I need to keep coming back to the cross, keep in the grace of Jesus, keep forgiving and being forgiven (this doesn’t in any way damage my trust in my salvation, but sees it as a necessary dynamic event – I am being saved -  it also deals seriously with sin).

I am being, have been, and will be sanctified –  in the same way,  I am being NOW glorified although it is only in part;  I am looking like Jesus, heaven is coming to earth, in Christ, in me.

Problem number 3

Christians who have been justified are being sanctified, will be glorified and know that this is the grace and activity of God, but act as if they are the ones doing it now.

“I have to justify myself – I need to clean my act up – I can somehow be good enough for glory.”

Or alternatively we see all this as a work of God,  lie back, bask in his grace and pray that soon he calls or comes.

Rather this is a divine work of co-operative grace:  his ability - your availability, his power –  your co-operation,  his spirit – your willingness to go with his promptings.

“Lord, change me and I will change” –- “Lord, send me and I will go” –- “Lord, speak to me and I will speak”

Get this right and he will transform you and you will be his incredible transforming agents in this world NOW.

- Karl

Romans – Day 50

7 Dec 2009 | | Posted in RomansNo Comments

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more  [Romans 5:20]

Today, here is an amazing verse. I think it is best understood thus – ‘when the law was introduced we realised just how awful our sin and rebellion and lives actually are – but where sin increased, grace increased in greater measure.’

I am sure the Bible teaches that this world we live in is going to get worse. We can see the fruit of this all around us – war, drugs, pandemics, environmental destruction, debt, depresssion….  (feel free to develop the list). Paul seems to suggest that as this happens, GRACE happens MORE. I think if we look carefully we can also see the fruit of this in our world. The Church is growing (think Africa, Asia, Latin America -  even some small pockets in Scotland). People are getting saved, communities are being influenced, miracles are happening … (once again you complete the list).  God is on the move and will increasingly be on the move. Does this excite you? Because it does me!

Today,  why don’t you go online and google growing churches or miracles and then pray that as a church we might move in the MORE GRACE and shine increasingly brightly in the developing darkness.

- Karl

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