Few of us would admit it. But most of us have them. Doubts are a normal part of the Christian life.

But what are doubts? Are they helpful or harmful? And how should we respond when they hit?

If you've ever asked yourself any of these questions, why not check out the great seminar that Trevor Archer gave at the recent Bible-centred youthworker conference? Click here for the audio and here for the handout.

I've been enjoying more than my fair share of 50th birthday parties, and a common theme of discussion is the desire to just "slow down a little." It's notable that I need just a bit more sleep, and that I can't pull the long hours that I used to do even in my late 40s. I'm tempted to think that I deserve an easier life now, "because I've earned it."

John Wesley felt the same, but I was shamed to see at what age!

• The great preacher averaged three sermons a day for fifty-four years preaching all-told more than 44,000 times. In doing this he traveled by horseback and carriage more than 200,000 miles, or about 5,000 miles a year.
• His published words include a four-volume commentary on the whole Bible, a dictionary of the English language, a five-volume work on natural philosophy, a four-volume work on church history; histories of England and Rome; grammars on the Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French and English languages; three works on medicine, six volumes of church music; seven volumes of sermons and controversial papers. He also edited a library of fifty volumes known as “The Christian Library.”
• He routinely arose at 4:00 A.M., and worked solidly through to 10:00 P.M., allowing brief periods for meals.
• At age 83, he was piqued to discover that he could not write more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes; and at the age of 86 he was ashamed to admit that he could not preach more than twice a day.
• In his 86th year, he preached in almost every shire in England and Wales, and often rode thirty to fifty miles a day.

Just reading the list exhausts me! Of course, such frenetic activity can be motivated by fear, but in this case, Wesley was motivated by God's grace to him, and the understanding that every waking moment must be spent in the saviour's service. Of course we need to be sensible with rest, and make sure we are "working for the Lord" for the right reasons, but this remarkable example encourages me to seek productive activity for the sake of Christ, not self indulgent sloth, because he's earned my rest, not me.

1. Reflections on the Church in Great Britain
Don Carson shares a few of his reflections on the diverse ministries that have prospered, or floundered, here in the UK. 2. Now and Now Yet by Matt Searles
Performed by Miriam Jones, check out this new album by Matt Searles. 3. The Iron Lady: A Truly Meaningful Film
Carl Trueman reviews the new biographical British film about Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady 4. The Viral Power of Spoken Word Poetry
An article from The Gospel Coalition all about the spoken word art form. 5. And finally...
Our video of the week straight from the Open Up the Bible website. Reading the Bible around the breakfast table:
Found something that you think should make it on to the On to a Good Thing weekly round-up? Send it to: ontoagoodthing@thegoodbook.co.uk

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4 v 16-18)

However we suffer now, these things are just momentary compared to the wonders of eternal life that are coming in Christ. As Christians we need to live in the present, but in the light of the future. What we see is not all there is. And what we can't see, but know is on its way, is eternal and glorious — brilliiant news!

To go along with our Open up the Bible campaign we're doing an amazing 50% off current or first issues of our daily Bible reading notes. This great offer comes to an end on the 31st of January so don't miss out!!

We have also launched the Explore App. It's already been downloaded by thousands of users and it's only be out 10 days. To read reviews and download it for yourself visit iTunes or the Android Market.

This week was our tenth Bible-Centred Youthwork Conference for (mainly) full-time children’s and youth workers. For those on the team it’s four days – long hours – draining – challenging – humbling – inspiring. And a joy and privilege…

A joy:

• to see faithful workers who’ve been coming 6, 8, even 10 years – to see how the Lord has been working in their lives, growing and challenging them, developing their gifts, making them more like Jesus
• to meet new children’s and youth workers, often in their first year, who are on fire for the Lord and passionate about sharing the gospel
• to watch those who are new to unpacking Bible passages have their eyes opened to the joy of understanding and teaching God’s Word
• to to be fed with fantastic Bible teaching (all the main sessions and seminars are recorded, and will be available for free download from this website in a couple of weeks)

A privilege:

• to serve godly men and women who are so committed to the ministry God has given them
• to listen to those who are struggling or hurting; to walk alongside them for a while and pray with them
• to be excited for those whose ministry is bearing fruit, or have a growing passion to serve the Lord in new ways

I always come back exhausted – but also thrilled by seeing God at work, and being with so many of His workers in the harvest field. Forgive me if it sounds overly pious, but it genuinely is a joy and privilege every year.

Tim Challies has posted a helpful PDF listing some of God's attributes, including:

• beauty
• aseity
• mercy
• peace
• unity
• will

Would make a great basis for prayer.

Get the Hi Res version or the PDF

If your youth and children's worker has gone missing this week, there's a good chance they may be in Hertfordshire. No - they're not on holiday. Nor have they been kidnapped. They've probably joined the 162 leaders who work with under 18s meeting together at High Leigh for the 2012 Bible-centred youthworker conference. A great chance for them to get inspired and equipped for the ministry that lies ahead of them this year!

Throughout this week we'll be blogging on what's going on at High Leigh. But first, a quick reminder of what went on last year:

• If you have a heart to help teenage girls grow in godliness, why not check out the notes from Sarah Bradley's great seminar?
• Or if you are involved in leading short children's spots in the main Sunday service, Andy Byfields practical principles may help guide your prep
• If you struggle with time management, these notes from Carl Laferton's seminar will help tame your diary
• And, of course, it's always good to be reminded how not to do youthwork....!

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

 

For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

 

Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care. (Psalm 95 v 1-7)

If you’re a smartphone person, have you got the Explore app yet?

It’s been encouraging to see the reviews for the app, launched this week, from users. We were hoping that delivering Bible-study notes straight to people’s phones would make reading God’s word easier, quicker and more flexible—and it’s looking like it has:

“What your iPhone has been waiting for: This is a GREAT development—the iPhone is an ideal medium for getting hold of Bible-reading notes, and these are great notes. What’s not to like?”

“Explore was always great but to now have it at all times is great! No internet connection needed once downloaded and Bible passage included. Thanks team.”

It’s dead easy to get—just go here to start accessing Explore wherever you are, whenever you want!

A couple of people have asked us why, in the UK, the monthly rate for Explore on the app (£1.49) is a bit more than it is when you buy the paper version (£1.33). Which is a great question! Essentially, there are three reasons:

• Apple take 30% commission for every sale made through their App store. So every time we sell an app rather than a paper version, we actually receive less money.
• Apple insist all apps are priced at particular price points. Currently these are 69p, £1.49, £1.99 and it rises from there. So if we didn’t charge £1.49, once Apple took their share we’d be losing over 50% more.
• We do save on print and postage costs when we sell an app rather than a paper Explore—but these are a tiny part of the overall cost to us of producing Explore. The major part of the cost is in the writing, editing, laying out, proofing and design. Selling Explore as an app doesn’t cut any of these costs at all!

And as ever, any profit we do make on the app, as with the paper version, will be ploughed straight back in to developing resources for the future; with getting to you Bible-centered products which make a loss but which are vital for ministry, such as children’s Bible-study notes; and with providing virtually-free resources for to Bible teachers in the developing world who otherwise couldn’t afford them.

Your £1.49 goes quite a long way—and it’s only half the cost of a large Starbucks coffee!

If you’ve got the app already, as many of you have, do let us know what you think of it on Apple’s app store or Android’s Market.

1 Peter is a book we’re covering in Explore later this year, and so it’s been much in my mind recently. And it strikes me that it’s written to Christians in a culture very similar to the UK in 2012—and perhaps one the US is increasingly moving towards, too.

It’s a book written to a church who were a tiny minority in a sea of other religions. Who faced not only apathy but outright hostility to the way they lived their lives. Who faced sustained, trenchant and unfair criticism for being Christ’s followers.

And right in the middle of this wonderful book comes one of the more “famous” bits:

“In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3 v 15-16).

We often look at just the first two sentences, which are a great encouragement to live for Christ and then answering people who are intrigued by our life.

But that doesn’t really seem to be what Peter’s talking about. He’s talking about people speaking maliciously against our behaving as our King commands. About people who see someone living as a Christian, and have a go at them for it, asking how on earth they would think it a good idea to follow Jesus, how on earth they can hold the beliefs that they do.

These verses are about how to deal Christianly with criticism of our life, our beliefs, our Lord. And Peter says if we let Christ, rather than ourselves, be Lord in our hearts, we’ll respond in two ways:

• we won’t be silent. We’ll explain our reasons for living as we do and thinking what we do.
• we won’t fight back. Even if we think the criticism is malicious, the only things they’ll get from us are gentleness and respect.

Christianity is not about keeping quiet when criticised. But equally, it’s not about biting back, either. We’re not trying to win an argument and look good—we’re trying to win people to considering Christ, so that He might look good.

And if that’s the standard for how we deal with aggressive criticism from outsiders, then presumably that’s also the minimum standard for when Christians call each other to account (whether it seems unfair or not).

And it just seems that this week, 1 Peter 3 v 15-16 might be particularly relevant. The Christian internet world and twittersphere has been more than usually full of criticism, and responses to criticism, from high-profile Christians, and it’s really helpful to have 1 Peter 3 v 15-16 to help us think both about the manner of the criticism, and the way it’s been dealt with.

You can see the exchanges here:

• Between Kevin deyoung, a pastor in Michigan, and Jefferson Bethke, who released a viral youtube video called “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus". Kevin critiqued the video’s content, and then blogged on the response he’d had from Jefferson about Kevin's criticism.
• Between a journalist from UK-based Christianity Magazine and Mark Driscoll, a pastor in Seattle, about a new book he’s co-authored, and his wider ministry. You can listen to extracts of the article here, and see Mark’s response to what he felt was a critical article here. For some secular response to the book itself, see CNN's website, and again for response to criticism, see paragraph 11.