8 quotes on the Queen's Christian faith for her 91st birthday

The Queen will celebrate her 91st birthday in private today with her official birthday celebrations held in June.

The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery will fire 41 volleys in her honour at midday in Hyde Park. A further 62 volleys will be fired at the Tower of London an hour later.

Her Majesty has been stalwart in her faith since she committed herself to a life of service under God in a radio broadcast on her 21st birthday.

The Queen has two birthdays – her actual date of birth which is April 21 and her official birthday usually on the second Saturday in June.

 

On this day in 1947 she said: 'I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

'But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given.

'God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share it.'

Here are nine quotes from Her Majesty which demonstrate her Christian faith, drawn from the Christmas messages in which she speaks directly to the nation. 

1. 'It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it"... Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ's unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another' (Christmas message, 2015).

2. 'For me, the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose birth we celebrate today, is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out his hands in love, acceptance and healing. Christ's example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people, of whatever faith or none' (Christmas message, 2014).

3. 'For Christians, as for all people of faith, reflection, meditation and prayer help us to renew ourselves in God's love, as we strive daily to become better people. The Christmas message shows us that this love is for everyone. There is no one beyond its reach' (Christmas message, 2013).

 

 The Queen hands out the traditional Maundy money at Leicester Cathedral last Thursday.

 

4. 'This is the time of year when we remember that God sent his only son 'to serve, not to be served'. He restored love and service to the centre of our lives in the person of Jesus Christ. It is my prayer this Christmas Day that his example and teaching will continue to bring people together to give the best of themselves in the service of others. The carol, In The Bleak Midwinter, ends by asking a question of all of us who know the Christmas story, of how God gave himself to us in humble service: 'What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part'. The carol gives the answer: 'Yet what I can I give him – give my heart'' (Christmas message, 2012).

5. 'Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive... It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord' (Christmas message, 2011).

6. 'For me, as a Christian, one of the most important of these teachings is contained in the parable of the Good Samaritan, when Jesus answers the question, 'Who is my neighbour?' It is a timeless story of a victim of a mugging who was ignored by his own countrymen but helped by a foreigner – and a despised foreigner at that. The implication drawn by Jesus is clear. Everyone is our neighbour, no matter what race, creed or colour. The need to look after a fellow human being is far more important than any cultural or religious differences' (Christmas message, 2004).

7. 'To many of us our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example' (Christmas message, 2000).

8. 'I know just how much I rely on my own faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God. Like others of you who draw inspiration from your own faith, I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel' (Christmas message, 2002).  

 

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What is the grace of God? Here's what it's not

Understanding the grace of God is no longer as simple as most would hope. Many wrong mindsets and false doctrines have come out to distort the image of grace affecting our thoughts and actions.

There's nothing complicated about grace. The problem is that sin has come to complicate it- just as it complicates practically everything. As a result, we have people- even Christians- walking through life with a wrong understanding of the grace of God.

It's important that we understand fully the nature of God's grace as upon it rests all we do and all we are. Grace is not just a Christian option. It's the only way to walk by faith in Christ and His finished work. To understand grace, we must learn to understand what it is not. Here are four misconceptions about grace that we must break today.

Grace is not a license to sin

One of the common ways people get grace wrong is to use it as a crutch to keep sinning. Romans 6:1 tells us, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" Grace is however not only a free pass around the consequence of sin, but an unlimited motivating power to teach our hearts to progressively abandon sin issues we face all together (As Titus 2:11-12 tells us.)

God's grace is not limited

Once in a while, the devil will come to try and deceive you into thinking that we have run out of God's grace- that we've sinned too many times, asked for refuge too often or depend to God a little too much. He wants you to think God's grace has a limit, but it does not.

Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Grace is not compensation

Grace gives us power to change and a right to receive. And the good news is that all of these come freely! It's not because grace is of little value to God. In fact, it's so high in value that someone had to pay the full price. That someone was Jesus. We no longer have to treat grace as compensation for our good works. They come when we simply receive Christ's finished work and believe that what He did was enough.

Grace shouldn't be a comfort zone

Being in the middle of God's grace gives us solace, rest and refuge, but it also empowers us to go on a mission. As much as God's grace gives rest to the burdened and weary (Matthew 11:28), it also gives us power to become witnesses (Acts 1:8). Grace, therefore is not a reason to slack of and not participate but to be empowered to do great things for others through God.

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Why do Christians undergo water baptism?

Do you remember the day you were baptized in water? What benefit did you get out of it? For some Christians, water baptism was a life-changing and memorable encounter, but there are those Christians who don't esteem their baptism experience as high as others.

Regardless of the feelings evoked or memories created, one thing is for sure - water baptism provides for us a set of benefits. If it did not then the Bible wouldn't be full of scriptures that encourage us to undergo water baptism. Is it a prerequisite to salvation? Not necessarily. But it does provide us with advantages both in the spiritual and the natural.

Water baptism is so important that even Jesus took the effort to be baptized as well. He said, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." (Matthew 3:15) There is a fulfillment that follows water baptism, but how? Here are three immediate and lasting benefits to water baptism.

Greater celebration

I've always liked thinking water baptism as a parallel to a spiritual wedding with Christ. Think of it this way: the only requirement to a marriage in a legal sense is a marriage contract, but why do so many couples go out of their way to prepare a wedding ceremony and reception?

That's because declarations are celebrations. Likewise, water baptism is the culmination of our marriage through Christ by membership into His body. That's a declaration we would like to make publicly and in the presence of others so as to have greater celebration.

Public declaration

Public declarations have an intrinsic effect upon our inner faith. What we declare publicly we start to internalize more. That's why water baptism actually has an effect on our spiritual growth.

1 Chronicles 16:24 tells us, "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!" Declarations are powerful. What we declare we start living out more and more. When we declare our baptism into Christ through water, it works into our internal faith.

Vivid reminder

Water baptism is primarily a symbol. What does it symbolize? It stands for the burial and resurrection. Just as Christ was buried stained with our sin and risen glorified, we too are buried in water as we are baptized declaring that we now arise as new creation. Romans 6:4 tells us, "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Symbolisms are powerful reminders of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the implications it has over our natural and spiritual life.

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Preaching, not worship, takes priority for US churchgoers – but why?

Surveys suggest that the sermon is the key factor affecting US church attendance.

Recent surveys suggest that the sermon – not the musical worship – is the main factor affecting the church attendance of US Christians.

The preaching, in both its application of Scripture and relevance to life, takes ultimate priority for both Protestant and Catholic worshippers, according to a Gallup poll released last week.

In contrast, the quality or style of church music was comparatively unimportant. Forty-four per cent of Protestants called it a major factor, and just 29 per cent of Catholics said the same.

In a more general survey of Muslims, Jews and Christians, three in four of those polled said that the sermon was a major factor in their religious attendance. The least significant 'major factor' was quality worship music (38 per cent), 36 per cent of those polled said it was a minor factor.

So why is this the case? It's an assumption of many that, in an age where Christian music has expanded into a vast, hugely popular and prolific enterprise, the kind of worship music in church might be a key consideration for worshippers. But it isn't, and it's the sermon (often joked about as the most boring part of church) that holds the most importance for the average worshipper. Here are three reasons the sermon reigns supreme on Sunday.

1. Mixed messages

Contemporary culture is awash with preachers – they just don't all wear clerical robes. Watch any TV ad break, scroll the internet for a minute, read a magazine – everyone's selling something and promoting their vision of the world. Like any good sermon, their messages invite and aim to attract. They assume values about the world, usually some vision of the 'good life'. They may insist you need a sleek new vehicle to drive, or that you need to change your diet, your fashion or your friends to be happy. Hollywood offers idyllic visions of romance and fulfilment, and politicians too promote their vision of a better world.

It can all be too much. For the religious in particular, they want to know what God has to say about it all. The Sunday service may be one of the only chances God's word gets to be heard. For 10, 20 or 40 minutes, congregations hear a different vision of the world and the 'good life'.

Sermons provide a rare chance for a community to gather and listen together - and could be the key to reversing waning church attendance.

2. The rare fruit of wisdom

Preachers will tend to spend hours preparing their words, studying ancient texts and ideas in advance of their address. When you hear it, you only have to sit back and receive the gift they have prepared. Admittedly some sermons may not feel like a gift. But the best are like fresh air, a rare opportunity to hear someone's considered, prayerful reflections on God and human existence. There's really no other context in life in which that happens, which makes sermons rather special.

3. Back to school

Hearing a sermon is a little like going back to school. Human beings are intellectual creatures, which means that we thrive on understanding new ideas. Some (especially preachers) are particularly geared toward this kind of thinking, but we all have brains, and we all want to learn and understand. The sermon gives a rare opportunity for an articulated, intellectual expression of reality and our place in it. The messages of popular culture and advertising are consumed more unthinkingly – they come with assumptions, but they don't stop to explain them. A good sermon can be profound because it enlightens, it explains our purpose in life, and gives us a story whereby we can understand the world. Like school or university, in church we learn together. We listen to God's word as a community and discuss it together, a radical rarity in our individualised society.

None of this undoes the profound value of music, children's work or different rituals and traditions in churches. Each plays a vital role in making the Church the Church. We're not just brains in a box, and so merely preaching alone wouldn't be right. Nonetheless, it's interesting that preaching seems to have such an obvious, and perhaps surprising, appeal in the lives of churchgoers. It may be an encouragement for some churches to reconsider their approach to preaching, especially if they're struggling with attendance.

As an ancient prophet once said: 'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news' (Isaiah 52:7).

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Is sucide a sin? And is it forgivable?

We've recently had a pastor and businessman attend one of our services for quite a while now and receive counseling and discipleship. He and his family had just come from a great loss after their eldest son committed suicide.

There are definitely many questions coming out from the family, but probably the hardest of all questions is the one a lot of people are asking today: "Will heaven's gates open wide for a believer who died at his or her own hands?"

While most hope to receive a simple "yes" or "no," the answer to a question such as this would only be an oversimplification if that's all that we are to offer especially to those loved ones of suicide victims who seek both solace and truth.

The hard truth is this: that there is a possibility that people who die committing suicide will not receive eternal life. But in the same light there is also hope for some who do. The Biblical basis? Romans 8:32-32 tells us, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."

The most common misconception to this topic is that suicide victims can't possibly go to heaven because they died committing a sin (murder of the self) that they did not repent from. This argument holds no grounds as the Bible never tells us that it is the act of confession that saves us from sin but rather faith in the finished work of Christ.

 

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

The only way to eternal life is a heart fully surrendered to Christ and His goodness which we humans can never truly judge. A person who dies through sickness or the hands of the other who doesn't put his or her hope in Christ will meet the same fate as a suicidal who finds no hope in Christ either. And in the same way, anyone who dies in any possible way with a heart fully committed to Christ can and will spend eternity with God.

The argument that now exists is whether a person who commits suicide- who found no hope in life itself- could ever find hope in Christ. The only person who can know such a thing is God Himself. Only He can look into the deepest recesses of our hearts and know where our hope truly lies.
But if it is possible - and it probably is - that a suicide victim can still pass with a hope in Christ embedded deep in their soul, then there is no stopping God from saving any soul that is taken by one's own doing.

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What is Heaven like?

The heavenly pillars

Try as theologians might to explain the wonders of heaven, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church said it's impossible because some experiences are just unexplainable.

"We can't compare Heaven to anything we've experienced on earth. The planet where we now reside is just a poor — very poor — carbon copy of the place God has prepared for us in eternity," he wrote on his website.

However, Warren said people can know a little about what Heaven will be like, thanks to the Bible. First, Warren said they will be reunited with every other believer once in Heaven. Every person who ever made the decision to follow Jesus will be there, including the children who never had the opportunity to make that decision.

Next, Christians will have rewards in Heaven. "You'll be rewarded for your good actions — your generosity, your good character, and your service," said Warren. "God watches everything. You have to decide where you want to be rewarded: on this temporary side of eternity or on the side that lasts forever."

The third thing Warren shared is that Christians will have their own responsibilities in Heaven. Work still exists there, but Warren said it will be different because believers will feel "100 percent fulfilled by the work" they do.

And lastly, there will be a lot of rejoicing in Heaven. Warren guaranteed Christians that they will enjoy being with God in Heaven, and it will be a "party for eternity" when God and His followers unite.

Meanwhile, Warren earlier said that those who are headed to Heaven will find themselves changed for the better. Heaven has a way of changing the way people live today, and their value system will undergo a huge shift.

"Your value system changes. Instead of living for the here and now, you'll live for eternity. You can also live knowing your future is secure. No matter what happens on earth, you'll spend an eternity with God in the most amazing place you've ever been," he said.

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