O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honours of Thy name.

This morning as I sat at the piano for a short devotional time I picked up the hymn book and on turning a few pages in was once again drawn to read the following words of John Wesley as he lays out his Directions on Singing.

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Reformed guys tend to argue that the baptism in the Spirit is equivalent to the work of the Spirit in us called ‘regeneration’, or the ‘new birth’. From this they deduce that all believers in Jesus (those who are genuinely born again) have already been baptised in the Spirit.

Depending on their particular degree of conservatism, they may argue for fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit as something experiential and known to you, the recipient, (check out some ‘Third Wave’ Reformed Charismatics like Wayne Grudem and Sam Storms). Or, they may simply not expect any felt experience of the Spirit whatsoever in the Christian life. You get it all at conversion. No doubt there are many nuanced positions somewhere in between.

Following on from a previous post about Authentic Worship, I recently watched this really helpful video short featuring Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries talking about and encouraging the use of our bodies in our worship as we respond to Christ.

How would you personally respond to the question that Bob posed to Mark Dever and then further extends to you?

Really wanted to expand the reach of this great, encouraging testimony that was shared at our recent baptism service. May it stir your love for God and passion to share the gospel!

My name’s XXXX. I’ve been coming here for about 3 months after completing the Alpha Course, and this is my testimony: I thought I was happy before… I had dreams, most of which changed on a daily basis. CEO; Club-Owner… I remember one of my mates back at uni saying I should become a WWF wrestler once. It didn’t stick!

No matter where I was going in my life, or what was the top of my list for that day, God never featured. I believed there was something out there, but was never sure what, and it didn’t bother me. I had heard the name of Jesus, but he wasn’t a part of my life.

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A few of us have been reading Just Walk Across the Room by pastor-evangelist Bill Hybels. It is a provocative challenge to be bold and prepared in our personal evangelism. One of the ways Hybels encourages believers to be prepared is to have their own before-and-after story refined and ready for use.

“When people living far from God throw open the door and ask sincere questions about your faith, you don’t need to freeze up. You also don’t need to fire off machine-gun bursts of Scripture verses that make no sense to them. Or jump on a soapbox about how they need to start flying straight. Or launch into any sermonettes…Instead, you can train your mind so that your default response exhibits … “radical inclusiveness” … Then, with that heart posture fully engaged, you can learn to tell your story – your simple, personal story that conveys the impact Jesus Christ has had in your life. Who knows? You might just give the Holy Spirit something to work with in drawing that person to God.”

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