Mum & Dad’s Landmark Lockdown Testimony

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone!

We thought you’d like to listen to the recent testimony of our parents, Ant & Pam Franks, who have walked with the Lord faithfully for more than 50 years.

Lockdown has been a golden opportunity for us all to reassess what we are committed to, how we understand “church” and whether or not we are really living with Jesus’ return in mind.

Mum & Dad talk very openly, honestly and authentically about their “struggle” with the problematic prospect of returning to a system and understanding of church that is fundamentally void of any power to change society, but, rather, an all too familiar pattern of conformity to the ways of the world.

In short, there must be more than this; indeed there is.

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As High As

So good to be next to you, Mairi. (I couldn’t have hoped for someone more beautiful, tender-hearted & gracious).

I’m eternally grateful that you’re next to me. Hold me close. I love you.

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103: 10-12

{film made for JesusCome! Community by Nicholas Franks Digital)

Why Should We Take Jesus Seriously?

Hello everyone!

This is a special episode of the Into the Pray podcast specifically with our neighbours in mind! 

Listen to Why Should We Take Jesus Seriously?


Thank you for making the effort to come through to listen to this episode and we hope that we’ve managed to strike the right balance in both how and what we discuss. Thanks also to Gareth Hides for joining Nick to make this episode happen. 

Our priority in this podcast as a whole is to address the “chaos of the Church” – and the Church is more chaotic that any of us are currently able to see. (We’ve discussed this at length in the early parts of season 1).

This chaotic landscape, (ie one church saying one thing, another church saying something very different, a lack of unity around the things that Jesus actually said), probably means that you’re not interested in attending any of the churches in your village, town or city.

We completely understand that. 

We understand that there is often hypocrisy, contradiction, confusion and compromise regarding what the Church stands for (and doesn’t stand for);  we understand that there is often no real substance or power to what is currently understood to be “the Church”.

We are deeply and profoundly sorry that this is the way it has become, especially in recent decades in Britain. As such, as part of the Church ourselves, we apologise unreservedly on behalf of the Church. 

However, there also remains spectacularly, (incomparably!) good news that will never spoil or fade…

Continue reading “Why Should We Take Jesus Seriously?”

When We Talked to Ann Widdecombe

This week’s episode of the Into the Pray podcast features British Politician and TV celebrity, Ann Widdecombe (MEP).

Ann has featured in British politics for decades and will be known to many for her appearance on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

More info on Ann here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Widdecombe

Podcast in full, and other content, here:

As we continue to embark on this “Work for Reformers” we are increasingly finding ourselves out of our depth in terms of space, capacity and time. Therefore, if you’re interested in helping to regularly support what we’re doing, please consider regular giving here.

Thank you!

City of Temples

Are you looking for some meaty, fatty Bible studies that you can chew on for weeks?

Our study through the book of 1 Corinthians – City of Temples – might be just what you’re looking for.

Episode 9 has just gone live today and it’s not too late to catch up; the series will finish sometime in Spring 2021.

All episodes available via: http://podcast.firebrandnotes.com/

The Sacrilege of (Closed) English Churches Calling for Judicial Review

Were the entire world to disagree with me, I would still have no choice but to be faithful to the conviction of my heart before the God of heaven and Earth Who, “Keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to Him“:

It is sacrilege for any church leader in England to summon the Government of the United Kingdom to account for “over-stepping” their authority (“restricting religious liberty”/closing the churches) all the while refusing to repent for their abdicating complicity in allowing British society to have plunged into the state we are now in.

Why? Because it is a false assumption – a “sunk cost fallacy” – that God wouldn’t call the damaging unfaithfulness of the witness of the Church to stop, to die and then to revive in wholeheartedness. Because repentance is intended by Him to be a profound, ongoing, accumulative, increasing way of life that we have substituted for an occasional, isolated event. Because we can not expect the unsaved population of Great Britain to behave as though they were saved – as though they were the redeemed of the LORD.

When British church leaders resist our closing, we are resisting what God is wanting to finally happen:- a coming to the end of ourselves in a historic posture of Body Zero. (This is the sole purpose of my book available here).

When the global Church resists the closing of the churches, we resist the truth that, “…this thing is from Him”.

It seems very clear indeed that we don’t believe that God is this radical and yet, biblically, He always, always wants to get to the very roots of a problem. (See Jeremiah 1:9-10).

Only the Penitent Church Will Stand

God is asking us to look at our chaotic reflection in the mirror of His word and to act accordingly/proportionally. Indeed, it was the late Sean Connery who once famously said on set to his son, (Indiana Jones), “Only the penitent man will pass…”. 

Only the penitent Church will stand. And we are certainly not penitent. 

Although there will undoubtedly be elements of discrimination towards Christians in the mix of what’s going on, (I’m not completely arguing against that), this specific issue of church closures has got nothing to do with true persecution. 

Not As Unified As You Might Think

Although a signed petition by a conclave of Christian leaders submitted to the highest Government authority of the land strongly suggests Christian unity, (as did a certain music video back a few months), the actual reality is that there is not the kind of Christian unity beneath the surface that commands the blessing of God.

Eh?

It is an obvious and fundamental problem that these churches – these leaders – want to pool their collective powers of persuasion and outrage regarding the closure of churches – the hiatus to their “business as usual” – but they don’t want to protest (or teach) about the heinous evil of abortion, the disgrace of “marriage redefined” or of the plague of pornography pilfering society.

God Wants Separation

It is extremely short-sighted, biblically illiterate and naive to think that God would never orchestrate division or, indeed, closure.

The Church are commanding the Government to repent all the while refusing to repent themselves. This is beyond hypocrisy…