The Free Offer of the Gospel

I recently chatted to my good friend Donald John Maclean about his new book 'All thing are Ready.'  You can order it via Free Church Books when it comes out.  Here is the Ragged Theology Podcast of our discussion.  Below is a short article form Donald John on the free offer.

What is the free offer of the gospel? It is good news all are invited to embrace without any worthiness or merit in themselves. It is the message that the church has been commissioned to take and preach to all nations. It is a message of hope, of reconciliation, of salvation, against the dark background of human sin and alienation from God. The free offer is the call to all to come to Jesus Christ and find in him the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the one in and through whom our sins can be forgiven. lt is the most important message in the world, and one that all need to hear preached with compassion and grace.

However, from time to time, questions arise over how this universal gospel invitation is consistent with God's sovereignty. How can God sincerely invite all to salvation if he has chosen that not all will be saved? The answer to this question is vital. The sovereignty of God cannot be minimised, but nor can his invitation to all or his compassion for all. The two must be held together because scripture teaches them both. On the one hand, those who are saved have been ‘predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will’ (Eph. 1:11). But equally the God of sovereign salvation declares, ‘Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ezek. 33:11). God does not desire in or delight in the death of any.

If one of these truths is held out of scriptural balance then unhappy results must follow. If God's sovereignty is diminished then he is robbed of his glory and our confidence that sinners will be saved by God's grace is removed. But on the other hand if the gospel offer is denied, or hedged in so that it is no longer a loving invitation and pleading expressive of God's character but a mere announcing of truth, the pastoral consequences are disastrous. If I cannot be told that God invites me, and wants me to be saved, then how can I have the confidence to receive Jesus Christ as saviour? And if the preacher does not believe God desires the salvation of all, how can he lovingly plead on God's behalf for all to be saved? (2 Cor. 5:20) Where the well meant gospel offer is not believed and preached, the compassionate heart of the gospel is missing.

The best theologians of the past have preached the free offer in full confidence that the sovereign God would use the gospel invitation to reveal his compassion, and to save many. The great Scottish preacher and theologian Samuel Rutherford certainly preached this way in the seventeenth century: "It is ordinary for a man to beg from God, for we are but His beggars; but it is a miracle to see God beg at man. Yet here is the Potter begging from the clay; the Saviour seeking from sinners." May we share the gospel in the same spirit today.

A Free Scotland?

This article was written by Michael Veitch, Parliamentary Officer, CARE for Scotland.

The Hate Crime & Public Order (Scotland) Bill, passed by the Scottish Parliament by a margin of 82 to 32 votes last week, occupies the category of a well-intentioned but misguided piece of legislation. While all right-thinking people would of course wish to take a very firm stand against those who would stir up hatred towards others, the problem with Bill is the obvious danger that legitimate, but potentially deeply offensive, free speech be unduly inhibited.

The final stage debate on the Bill last Wednesday night turned out to be one of the best debates held within the Holyrood chamber for many years. Though many MSPs were forced to participate via video link due to Covid restrictions, this is no way inhibited what turned out to be robust and fiery discussion of the fundamental issues at stake.

The outstanding contributions of the night came from left-wing feminist MSPs, angered by a perceived lack of recognition for the status of women in the legislation. Johann Lamont, Elaine Smith and Jenny Marra (all Labour) and Joan McAlpine (SNP) were especially brave in their remarks, which are well worth consulting in the Official Report. Liam Kerr and the Justice Committee Convenor Adam Tomkins (both Conservative) attempted to ‘lead the line’ on the main free speech amendments, including attempts to persuade Parliament of the need for a ‘dwelling defence’ to protect the basic human right to privacy when conducting conversation in one’s own home. 

While excellent and very strong free speech amendments from Lamont and McAlpine were ultimately voted down, together with the ‘dwelling defence’ amendments from Kerr and Tomkins, Christians and others concerned about free speech can take heart that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf, had brought forward a relatively strong free speech amendment of his own, which was accepted, alongside an additional free speech amendment from Tomkins. In the event, the final vote on the Bill split largely (and predictably) upon party lines, with only the Scottish Conservatives, and a handful of others, voting against the Bill. It seemed that while many were keen to speak the language of free speech, few were prepared to vote for it.

We can and should be thankful that the Bill, as passed last week, was far less of a threat to free speech than when it was originally lodged. That said, it will be critical to monitor its implementation going forward, lest those who are ideologically opposed to the free expression of ideas deemed ‘hateful’ by some, seek to use the new powers in the Bill to shut down the free expression of opinion in churches or elsewhere.

 

The Mission Man

Some pieces of news just knock the stuffing out of you.  The text from my good friend Benny Anderson on 13th February 2021 that our mutual friend Bill McGillivray was moving to a hospice just floored me. I knew Bill wasn't well but I hadn't appreciated how serious the situation was.  A wave of grief came over me as I realised that Bill was nearing the end of his earthly journey.  It was a feeling not dissimilar to the depth of grief I felt when my own father died on 1st April 2020.  In many ways Bill has been a father figure to me and to so many others.  He has always been there, always full of energy, always smiling, always so generous with his time.  The thought of a world without Bill is hard to come to terms with.  Bill finally died this morning, at 11:10, 12th March 2021.  As 2 Corinthians 5 v 6 says 'he is away from the body but present with the Lord.'  Our hearts are heavy but we do not mourn as those who have no hope.

I first met Bill when I started working for the Edinburgh City Mission in September 1990.  My family had recently moved to Edinburgh from Oban.  I was a disaster at school and was at a loss as to what to do with my life so I was a bit lost and directionless.  I wasn't smart enough for university but I loved people so a year with ECM looked like a good option.  I joined the 'Year Team' and was placed in Gorgie and then West Pilton.

The Christian Centre

I still remember the first time I walked in to the West Pilton Christian Centre.  It was basically a small ground floor flat but it was a hive of activity.  The café would churn out toasties in industrial quantities, clothes were being distributed, food would be given out, the pool table never stopped.  In the middle of it all was Bill.  West Pilton in the early 1990's was quite a place:  drugs, violence, abuse, poverty and lots of very, very lost people.  It would have overwhelmed the best of men, but not Bill.  I can still see him now in the back room holding forth on any and every subject.  Jesus seemed to pour out of every part of him.  A battered NIV Bible was never far away and he would think nothing of opening it to chat about an issue he had been asked about.  He would just bring the gospel in to conversation in the most natural way.  As a young 19 year old who could hardly string two sentences together in evangelism, I was constantly amazed at Bills natural capacity to share the gospel.

A Niddrie Boy

Born in 1942, Bill was an Edinburgh man through and through.  He grew up in Niddrie with his brother Robert and John.  Bill's mother had tragically died in 1945 when Bill was only three and his father remarried in the late 1940's.  Bill came in to contact with the Niddrie Mission then run by Alex Dunbar.  Bill came to know Christ in his early teens and 'The Mission' would never really leave Bill.  He always had a love to reach the marginalised and the poor.  After a stint as a fencer Bill started his own fruit and veg business before joining ICI in Livingston.  Bill eventually felt a call to Christian service and entered service with the Edinburgh City Mission in 1984.  Bill had married Helen in 1962 and had two daughters, Joy and Julie, but his wife tragically died of cancer in June 1979.  Little did any of us understand the deep sorrow that Bill had gone through when he breezed in and out of the mission day after day.  It can't have been easy bringing up two girls on his own but I never once heard Bill complain or question God's purposes in his life.  As his current minister once said at a service I was at in  Glasgow, 'never trust a leader who doesn't limp'.  Bill's deep sorrow gave him an incredible empathy for others and also an incredible Christ like humility that drew people around him. He was a natural leader but one with the deep imprint of sorrow.

As I look back over 30 years now, those early years of the 1990's in West Pilton were life changing.  People were being remarkably saved from addiction, violence and profound brokenness.  One of my best friends, Benny Anderson, was a violent thief but was converted through the witness of his brother who came to faith in Shotts Prison.  Benny's brother and wife attended the West Pilton Christian Centre and Bill's unashamed gospel witness had much to do with Benny's discipleship. Benny would be the first to admit that his conversion was not straightforward and Bill discipled Benny through those first rocky years.  Benny and I have remained friends.  We have one of the most unlikely friendships - a Free Church ministers son from Argyll and one of the most feared men in Edinburgh now united in the gospel.  Bill brought us and many others together and many of those friendships have lasted for decades.  

Children's Work

Children loved Bill.  He was authentic, genuine and had little sense of self.  Most of all he always had time for kids.  The children's work was vibrant in the 1990's with regular clubs, outings and the most incredible camps to locations like Glenshee.  A modern day health and safety officer would have had a hairy fit at some of the things we did but the kids loved it.  Many kids had hardly been out of West Pilton never mind Edinburgh.  My own children can hardly believe the stories of throwing live frogs in to the girls dorm at 1am and the classic felt tip doodles on  the faces of some poor sleeping kid.  It used to take them ages when they wandered down for breakfast as to why the whole camp were in stiches.  But there was also real solid Bible teaching at these camps.  I vividly remember acting out Pilgrims Progress with the kids one year as we battled Apollyon and made it to the Celestial City with my tin foil shield.  Looking back they were some of my best, most formative memories, and Bill was at the centre of it all.  No activity was too silly, no problem was too small, Bill embraced everything with an infectious enthusiasm.

Sunday Nights

I can still see Bill on those Sunday night services.  Coming from a Free Church background I was used to fairly reserved Psalm singing.  West Pilton Christian Centre used to raise the roof most Sunday evenings with the most incredible praise songs and boy could those people sing!  They came with all their brokenness, sometimes with tears streaming down their faces and they sang their lungs out:  Majesty, God Sent His Son, He has Made me Glad, How Great Thou Art, There is a Redeemer and many more.  Giles and Benny on the guitar, a couple of tambourines and that little Christian Centre would be bursting with raw, heart felt praise.  Problems were shared, prayer was real and God was present.  When you preached in Pilton, people didn't glaze over like they did in most churches, they were actually hungry for the Bible.  People told you exactly what they thought of your sermon (sometimes during the sermon).  Bill and I had many differences in our theology but he preached the good news of the gospel with more passion and reality than I will ever do. 

Highs and Lows

But there were plenty of disappointments.  Bill frequently dealt with horrific situations of abuse and many who started out well soon fell away.  Abuse and trauma were intergenerational and while the gospel would have a big impact, there were years of painstaking discipleship.  Bill was optimistic, but always realistic. He knew the dark heart of man and his ministry was often a rollercoaster of highs and lows.  The centre was a constant target for vandalism and Bill operated on a tight budget.  Bill was always very circumspect but I always had the feeling that Bill's bold vision was not always matched by others.  Bill always called a spade a spade which didn't always make him very popular.  He was a man of integrity who had no time for politics and bureaucracy.  People were literally dying in West Pilton and Bill was always more comfortable at the coal face than in committees.  He was delighted to see Benny and Amanda Anderson commissioned into work with the City Mission in 2002.  In many ways it was what the mission was all about - the transformation of a violent thief into a city missionary. Bill was was delighted when Duncan Cuthill took over the Edinburgh City Mission in 2017 and began to breath fresh vision and energy into the work.  

The Magic Man

From that first meeting in 1990, Bill went on to become a life long friend.  Sometimes we wouldn't see each other for months, but like all good friendships, when we did, we picked up where we had left off.  I often confided in Bill and never doubted that I could trust him with anything.  He was a wise councillor, always steady and measured with his advice.  He became a regular visitor to our house in Livingston at Christmas.  My five boys loved him like an uncle.  His magic tricks were legendary with the kids mesmerised by ropes, hankies and cards.  Over the last three years Bill was a regular at the Safe Families Fun Day at Arniston House.  Dozens of families would attend from a a whole range of backgrounds and Bill would entertain them and put them at ease.

Leadership and Legacy

I recently worked through the life of Joseph with my team.  I asked them to write down the three most inspirational leaders they had met.  The first name I wrote down on my list was Bill McGillivray.  It was an honour to know him.  He was humble, approachable, kind and generous.  As a young, slightly unsure 19 year old, Bill took me under his wing.  I still remember spinning around all over Edinburgh in his little Nissan Micra with Bill sharing his wisdom on anything and everything.  I wasn't aware at the time but Bill was laying the foundation of so much of what I would go on to do.  Many of the convictions I hold today were forged in those early days in West Pilton.  Here are just a few of them:

• Keep the main things, the main things.  Don't go down theological rabbit holes.  Stay gospel focussed and rooted in truth.  
• Truth and love need to be held in balance. 
• Be generous to other believers.  Bill was an Episcopalian by conviction but he worked with Christians from all sorts of backgrounds who loved the Lord.
• Love the marginalised and the broken.  
• Invest in others.  Bill inspired me to become a social worker and a leader in the Third Sector.  
• Never give up hope.  He showed me that communities and individuals could be redeemed and transformed and nobody was beyond help.
• Leadership matters.  The success of West Pilton was down to great Christ centred servant leadership.  Some of the best leaders have been broken and shaped by God through suffering.  Bill knew the deep waters of suffering and it made him uniquely vulnerable, humble and compassionate.
• A passion for souls.  Bill loved people.  He didn't run programmes he just lived out his life in a needy community and taught the Bible.
• Fruitfulness needs to be accompanied by faithfulness.  In an age when Christian leaders are regularly compromised, Bill lived a consistent, circumspect life.  
• Be bold with the gospel.  Benny told me about a meeting with Bill after he had just been stealing.  Bill had no idea what Benny had done but spoke to him about standing before the judgement seat of Christ thankful that Jesus was his Saviour.  The message impacted Benny and he remembers it 30 years later.
• Stay the course.  Bill ministered in West Pilton for 23 years.  it wasn't glamorous but Bill was faithful over a long time.  
• Know when to move on.  Bill knew when it was time to go.  He retired in 2007 and enjoyed 13 years of retirement.  He travelled, he volunteered, he invested in friends and he had the joy of seeing his grandchildren grow.

Dying Well

Bill used to tell me that he often prayed for his mother to 'die well'.  That is what I prayed for Bill in his last few weeks.  While the destination may be certain, the process of death is still painful and horrible.  Death is still the last enemy.  But like all believers Bill can now proclaim 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.  Where, death is your victory?  Where, death, is your sting?' (1 Cor 15 v 54-55). The pain is for those left behind.  We pray for comfort for his two daughters, Joy and Julie, and his 4 grandchildren in America and Australia as well as his brother and wife here in Scotland.  Bills race is now done, he has finished his course he has heard those words 'well done, good and faithful servant'.  Now it is up to us to take up his mantle and tell the next generation the good news of Jesus Christ.  

10 Takeaway's from the Life of Joseph

I've been really enjoying studying and teaching the life of Joseph recently. It is exactly the teaching I needed as I deal with the setbacks and disappointments of lockdown.  I've already written about Joseph in my article 'Leadership in Lockdown' here.  As we stand back and look at Joseph with a wide angle lens what are the big themes of his life?  Here are 10 takeaways.

1. God keeps his promises.

We see in Genesis 37 that God gives him two dreams. In Genesis 41 and 42 these dreams come true.  We see this theme in the OT – God makes a promise and then he fulfils it.  Sometimes he takes 100’s of years, sometimes he works in seconds, but his promises are always fulfilled.  God works through covenant – he shows himself again and again as a faithful God.

2. God is doing a lot more than we think.

When we look at young Joseph, he was talented but he seemed arrogant.  Then he was a slave and then a prisoner - his life seemed to be a disaster.  Yet at each twist and turn God was testing him, refining him and preparing him for greatness. God was interested in how Joseph was as a slave, how he responded to menial work, how he responded to false allegations, how he treated his fellow prisoners.

God was working all the time, maybe Joseph couldn’t see it but God was at work.

3. Great leaders always lead with a limp.

If I asked you to list your three best leaders who would they be?  Many of the best leaders have been through great suffering.  One of my inspirational leaders lost his wife when he was 35 and brought up two young girls by himself.  He ministered in one of the most difficult housing schemes in Edinburgh for 23 years before urban evangelism was trendy.  Great leadership is often coupled with great brokenness and tragedy.  Humility makes us trust in a great God, it helps us to see that any talent we have is a gift and it makes us prayerful.

4. God’s best jewels are always forged in the fire of affliction.

Affliction can lead to bitterness and cynicism but in Joseph’s case it led to selflessness and God centeredness.  Robert Murray McCheyne said that 'the sweetest flowers sometimes need to be broken before they emit a beautiful smell'.  There is a Biblical principle that when we are weak, then we are strong.  When Joseph stood before Pharaoh he had nothing and he was nothing but just at that moment he was filled with the spirit.

O God, the Eternal All, help me to know that

all things are shadows, but thou art substance,

all things are quicksand's, but thou art mountain,

all things are shifting, but thou art anchor,

all things are ignorance, but thou art wisdom

If my life is to be a crucible amid burning heat, so be it, 

but do thou sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore 

that nothing be lost.

Purification, The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth

5. Never despise the path of service

Joseph became a great leader through learning how to serve.  Great leaders are ultimately servants. They hold power lightly because they recognise that power and positions are gifts.  Servant leadership empowers, it cares and it embraces responsibility.

6. Don’t waste your suffering – Ephraim and Manasseh

Joseph could have made his life story into a huge story of grievance, but he didn’t.  We see this in the names of his two sons:  Ephraim – God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction and Manasseh – God has made me forget all my affliction.  After 13 years of suffering Joseph says it is all forgotten – it was all part of Gods purpose for my life.

7. God works slow and fast

When Josephs brothers appeared before him it had taken God 22 years so fulfil his dream.  Does God do the impossible? Yes.  But often God takes years, decades and centuries to work out his purposes.  That way God gets all the glory.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

8. Never underestimate what grace can do

God works in an evil and dysfunctional family.  We read in 42 v 28 ‘What is this that God has done to us?’  It took Joseph ‘speaking roughly’ to them to awaken their consciousness and bring them back to God.

9. Forgiveness and redemption are beautiful.

We see in chapter 45 v 14, 15 a beautiful picture of redemption and reconciliation.

22 years on the brothers embrace and weep.  All the lies, the deceit, the bitterness are over. God's redemptive love wins.  ‘You planned evil against me: God planned it for good to bring about the present result – the survival of many people.’

10. Joseph points to somebody else

Every page in the life of Joseph is pointing us to the greater Joseph.  The brothers thought that Joseph had died and he almost did.  He lost everything to bring life to a hungry world.  Joseph is pointing us to Jesus who gives hope in despair, light in darkness and truth in confusion.  Joseph points us to the true bread of life.

The Bridge Battersea

Last year I caught up with Tom Dowding from The Bridge in Battersea.  Tom was interested in Thomas Guthrie and his Parochial model in Edinburgh in the 19th century.  I was so excited to hear what Tom was up to I asked him to write about his work in the blog post below.  Please pray for Tom and the team in Battersea.

I serve at The Bridge Battersea - a small church on the Surrey Lane council estate in Battersea, London. We’re in a multicultural urban community characterised by high levels of economic and social deprivation, and many of the ills that go with that: drug and alcohol abuse are rife, broken families more common than not, mental health problems affect a great proportion, and knife culture has contributed to two tragic murders in the last couple of years.

So it was with a keen interest that I listened to Andrew Murray talking about the life of Thomas Guthrie on a 20Schemes podcast earlier this year. To hear of his radical heart for the marginalised and destitute, his biblical conviction that the gospel is good news for the poor, his horror that Christianity might be kept to those with ‘respectable’ lives and his incarnational connection with the social issues of the day (even as gospel proclamation was prioritised) were music to my ears, and broadened my vision for how I’d love to pursue ministry. Guthrie’s setting up of a savings bank and a library in the parish of Arbirlot, for example, where he was brought ‘into familiar and frequent and kindly contact with my people’ is just the sort of pioneering evangelistic creativity that we need to be pursuing in a time where churches are increasingly viewed with disinterest, suspicion, or outright contempt.

When our church was planted 9 years ago one of the clear issues in our estates was absentee fathers, and the adverse effects this had on particularly young boys growing up. When Guthrie spoke in the 19th Century of a young boy in Edinburgh “launched on a sea of human passions and exposed to a thousand temptations… left by society, more criminal than he, to become a criminal, and then punished for his fate, not his fault” he could very well be describing the young lads growing up fatherless in Battersea. Without dads around their influences and role models often tend to be the ‘olders’ in local gangs, and routes from there towards teenage years of school expulsion and immersed in drugs and knife crime are sadly all too common. Into this situation the ‘RISE academy’ was launched to mentor young men, teaching them the gospel and life-skills such as cooking or computer programming. Time and funding wise it’s not as full scale as the Ragged Schools of Edinburgh, but like Guthrie the mentoring Christian men hope to give off something of what he termed the ‘almost omnipotent power of Christian kindness’.

And this era of COVID19 and lockdown is a time when we at The Bridge really want to redouble efforts to move towards those around us. We’ve recently been door-knocking on Sundays as a church, and have come across some who have had bad situations exacerbated by the pandemic (even in an area already dominated with mental health problems, it was a saddening shock to hear one local mother tell of how she’d been so anxious about the virus she was washing her hands with bleach). Others we come across profess largely to be fine, even as they remain sleepwalking in sin towards death and judgement. Not much different, then, to the crowds the Lord Jesus looked out at and felt a deep compassion for, ‘because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ (Matt 9:36).

It is this heart of the Lord Jesus for the lost that inspires us in thinking how we might reach out as labourers in his harvest field. I was struck and encouraged by Guthrie’s organising towards all members of the local church ‘working in harmony, like bees in a hive’ – reaching the thousands on our estate needs a whole church, not just one or two evangelists. So as a staff team we are planning to soon unveil 6 new outreach endeavours, praying that we can be a mission minded community with everyone in some way playing a part. Through these we aim to build new relationships with those around us, to love and care for those with pressing practical needs, and ultimately to share the good news of Christ.

I’d love to ask for brother and sisters reading this to pray for us as we seek to reach out to our hard pressed community this Autumn/Winter. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for the harvest fields! And ask that many are won by the Christ who came to bring good news to the poor, even as the good deeds of his church bring glory to his Father in heaven. When sitting in crowded flats or walking up weed-engulfed tower block staircases it is burdening to see the sights of young boys moving into gang life, men and women crushed by addictions, and Muslims hoping in a god who cannot save. But praise God that through your prayers many lives and eternities could be changed. It remains, as Thomas Chalmers might say, ‘a fine field of operation’!

Hope in the Face of Suffering

I recently interviewed Jeremy Marshall author of a book of 20 devotions entitled 'Hope in the face of Suffering'.  You can listen to the podcast here.  Jeremy is living with incurable cancer.  Shielding is nothing new for him as any infection can lead to very serious complications for him.  I can't think of anyone more uniquely qualified to write a book of devotions about fear, suffering and death.    

If the coronavirus has taught us anything it has shown us that life is fragile.  Our society thought that science and modern medicine protected us from any nasty surprises but the last year has shown us that even they have limits.  In a chapter entitled 'All Aboard' he compares the last few months to being on a boat: 'I felt like I was being endlessly tossed around in a boat in a stormy sea, quarantined, cut off from others, fearful, lonely, wondering how long this would go on for and whether I would ever see 'dry land' again.'  I think we can all relate to that feeling.

In 20 short, simple chapters Jeremy takes the reader through Genesis, Job, the Psalms, 2 Kings, the Gospels and finally Revelation.  He reminds us that suffering and death were not part of the original plan but is a result of the fall.  Suffering can be bewildering and overwhelming but the gospel gives us hope.  it is at the cross that we see a suffering Saviour taking our punishment and we are enabled, even in a limited way, to make sense of suffering in a fallen world.  Yes the seas are choppy, but just like Noah in the ark, God has a destination for His people: 'For no one can cross the sea of this world unless carried over it on the cross of Christ.'

The book is accessible, encouraging and very, very real.  Marshall points us back again and again in the book to the ultimate answer to pain and suffering, God Himself.  In the midst of suffering God's promises become real, His word speaks to us in new ways and we look to him for grace and strength.  As Corrie Ten Boom says in 'The Hiding Place': 'I only realised that Christ was all I needed when Christ was all I had.' 

You might expect a series of devotions on suffering and death to be depressing but 'Hope in the Face of Suffering' is far from bleak.  It is filled with gospel hope and encouragement.  In his chapter entitled 'The Medicine Chest' Marshall quotes the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was jailed and ultimately executed by the Nazi's.  Shortly before his death Bonhoeffer smuggled out a scrap of paper that read 'Only a suffering God can help us.'  It is only through the suffering of God incarnate at the cross that we can make sense of suffering.  This book takes us back again and again to the cross.  God became human and suffered on a cross to reconcile sinful man to a holy God.  He came to conquer fear and death.  Yes His children face suffering in this life but we have his precious promises and we have the gospel hope of an eternity with Christ.  

The book finishes in Revelation where we are reminded that Christ holds the keys of death.  But how do we face death?  Well we have the assurance that we will not be alone.  Marshall quotes Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones when he was at the deathbed of an old man whose face shone with the glory of where he was going.  Lloyd Jones says:

We are going to be with Christ...Our greatest trouble is that we really don't believe the Bible...exactly what it says - exceeding great and precious promises.  We think we know it, but we do not really appropriate this and actually believe it is true.  Here, we have no continuing city. Our light affliction is but for a moment.  We have to take these statements literally.  They are facts, they are not merely ideas.  

This is a great little book and so appropriate for the time in which we are living.  When people are asking questions about fear, death and suffering, why not give them this little book and point them to the God who suffered and died and will one day wipe away every tear for those who are in Christ?  Why not think about buying multiple copies and sending them to family and friends?  This book has been a great help to me and I am confident that it will be a great comfort to you too.  To order the book via Free Church Books please follow this link.