|
|
Well, here we are. I feel that the month has gone past quickly, and I’ve certainly not found it hard to write a piece each day. And I’m glad that the month finishes on a Sunday – with the people of God together in worship. Prayer and worship are never very far apart; true worship will soon turn into prayer, and real prayer quickly grows into worship. Paul’s great prayer for the Ephesian Christians is worth including in full here:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Paul’s prayer turns into worship – because he has confidence that the God to whom he prays will answer the prayer. We’ve been seeking God’s direction for mission – and it’s most likely that a great part of the answer will be found in a release of the gifts and talents of the people God has already placed here. Are we ready for that? For if we really ask, then we can praise God for answering – but the implications will be immense, for the church and for each of its component members. I hope you are ready to pray this last prayer of the month with me – a prayer from the re-dedication service.
‘I am no longer my own but yours. 
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.’
And may the blessing of God rest on each of us, and the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, now and for ever- Amen.
A very simple request today.
Today, the Deacons are at Woodhouse Eaves for an awayday. We’re starting early – with breakfast – and spending time listening to what God wants to say to us about the way we engage in Ministry and Mission over the coming years.
You’ve asked the diaconate to discern, present and implement what we believe to be God’s plans and purposes for this church. But to do that they need you to be covenant partners with them. Praying for those in leadership is an obligation:
John Wesley is frequently quoted as saying, “God will do nothing on earth except in answer to believing prayer.” You and I help to determine what happens to our leadership—blessing or cursing—whether God’s goodness is released in their ministries or whether the power of sin and Satan is permitted to influence them!
The apostle Paul knew the importance of praying for leaders. He requested prayer five different times in his epistles.
“Brethren, pray for us” (I Thessalonians 5:25, NKJV). Paul told the Thessalonians that he was praying for them and affirming their gifts of faith, hope, and love (I Thessalonians 1:2-3). At the end he asked them to pray for him, probably expecting them to pray for his faith, hope, and love to be increased.
“Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me” (Romans 15:30, NKJV). This is a more specific request for personal intercession. He asked them to pray that his trip to Jerusalem would be successful and that he would be protected from enemies waiting for him there.
“You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many” (II Corinthians 1:11, NKJV). In the preceding verse of Scripture Paul spoke of being delivered from death. As Paul asked the Corinthian believers for prayer, he knew intercession could be a matter of life and death.
“For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:19, NKJV). Paul depended on the prayers of others for justice to be done and for him to be released from prison.
“I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you” (Philemon 22, NKJV). This reference could easily be overlooked, but Paul again wrote from prison and wanted to visit his friend Philemon. He had faith that God would answer Philemon’s prayers to that effect.
Prayer for leadership is not an option, but rather a necessity!
Sorry that this post is, technically speaking, late – it’s 1:20 am as I write, and I’ve just finished unloading all the PA gear from my car after Dave Ford’s folk night. Yesterday (Friday) was busier than usual, with a funeral as well.
I promised that I would start talking in this post about our personal response. I’ve noticed that when people feel there is a problem with the way we do church, then they’ll say to me ‘the trouble with your church (or ‘your deacons’ or ‘your worship group’) is this…’ When they are excited about something, or something good has happened, then it suddenly becomes ‘Did I tell you what we did at our church this week?’
We want to own the things we approve of, and disown the things we don’t like. But we can’t have it both ways – and my challenge for your praying is this: Pray that God will give you the grace to claim the mistakes as well as the successes.
Lord – you have placed me here.
And this church is made up of people like me,
who get some things right and other things wrong.
Remind me that we are brothers and sisters together,
and give me grace to own both good and bad alike.
Forgive me for wanting to ‘pick and choose’,
as if the church were some kind of supermarket.
Help me to remember that this is family,
And teach me to love those who are easy to love,
and those who are not.
 It seems incredible that we should be almost at the end of this month of prayer. I’ve got more topics left than I have days!
We prayed yesterday for the prayer life of the church, and on Monday for the ministries we’re involved with. One more aspect of church life, then tomorrow I’m going to begin talking about our personal response.
So – today I want to ask you to pray about the fringes. Every church has a fringe – those people who are on the edge of things. Not all that involved, maybe not all that familiar with what Christian faith is all about.
Fringes can be made up of people travelling in either direction, or not moving at all. What I mean is that some people are on the fringe of the church who have once been more involved – they are travelling away. Some are gradually moving inwards. And some have been on that fringe for ages.
Please think of, and pray for, someone you know who seems to be in the ‘moving away’ category. They may well need encouragement – a friendly word to draw them back. And who better than you, since you’re now praying for them. Determine that you’re going to get in touch with one person who seems to have been missing a lot lately.
And then those who have been at the edge for ages. Pray for someone you know like that – maybe the husband or wife of someone who comes frequently. How about asking them round for a meal?
And finally – those folk who have appeared on the fringe, and you don’t know yet. People who are moving towards commitment really need befriending, and that’s a responsibility we all share. Start by speaking to someone you don’t recognise, and then offer to pray for them. Ask them what they would like prayer for.
Fringes need careful looking after!
Yesterday I was asking you to pray that the ‘spiritual temperature’ of our church might rise. I’d like to explore what that means, and how it might happen.
Ironic, actually – because I spent a good part of the last two days in a church building in London that was really cold! And the building had a grate right in the centre, through which hot air was pumped to warm the whole building. But there just wasn’t enough heat coming through from the boiler down in the basement.
Let me remind you of the much-quoted story about Spurgeon. The story goes that a group of American ministers travelled to England in the nineteenth century to hear the great Charles Spurgeon preach and to tour his church’s facilities. After showing them through the massive sanctuary and remarkable buildings, Spurgeon asked whether they would like to see the “boiler room.” The visitors politely declined, but the pastor insisted. He then led them to the church’s basement, where they found a hundred people on their faces in prayer. “This,” Spurgeon said with a smile, “is my boiler room.”
Now Spurgeon was certainly fond of calling the Prayer Meeting the ‘Boiler Room’ of the church – but I suspect that the story is just a nice story. Whether it happened or not, it’s still true that effective, corporate prayer drives the work of the church. Not least because praying together about our ministry helps us have a shared vision of that work.
So let’s pray for two ways in which we have a shared prayer life. Pray for the three Prayer Meetings we have – the first Saturday morning of each month; every Tuesday morning; and the Mission Prayer meeting. I’m grateful for all the people who support these meetings, but there needs to be more! This is where the fire will start – so come along if you can!
Folks – sorry that this post is website only – I’m away from home tonight, and don’t have the full email list with me. If anyone asks you, please let them know that the post is here!
Here’s the thing I’d like you to pray about. A long time ago, I spent some time in prayer. And God left me thinking about temperature. There’s a familiar phrase about being ‘on fire for God’ – and I was challenged, both on a personal level and also with regard to the Church. Is the spiritual temperature at which we operate as high as it should be?
Making iron into steel demands high temperatures – over 1000 degrees – in order for the steel to become as strong as is needed. Lower temperatures result in weaker steels; significantly lower temperatures leave impurities in the metal. And if God is going to make something strong and pure from us, then we need to seek the ‘refiner’s fire.’
At the re-dedication service this Sunday, we’re going to be praying for the fire of God to fall; that we might be the people He wants us to be. But that will involve transformation for each of us as individuals, and renewal for us as a people.
Folks – I had planned for the next few days to move into praying for our own church – so I’m going to begin today just by asking you to pray for any ministry or activity which you are involved with – pray for the leaders of that activity, pray for the people who are involved in it. Working within the life of the church is demanding – and all too often we can find that we are giving out without also being nourished ourselves. Pray for the spiritual growth and development of those who lead.
I was planning on talking more about this today – but then I received this urgent prayer request from Peru:
Dear praying friends, please pray for the region of Cusco. The Urubamba river has flooded, bridges have collapsed and there are terrible mudslides. Many homes made of adobe (mud and straw) have been washed away; some people have died in the mudslides, others have lost their homes and livelihoods. Today the Cusco region was declared a state of emergency for the next 60 days. Some of our missionary colleagues living in the countryside have experienced terrible damage to their property. We in the city are only experiencing minor annoyances with travel disruption and water shortages but we urge you to pray for those who are so badly affected and the response that the Baptist convention and other churches will make to reach out to those suffering. Thankyou
Scott and Anjanette
‘Pray also for me…’ Paul asked the Church at Ephesus [6:19-20]. And that’s the key to praying for ‘the ends of the earth’. Praying for places is so hard to sustain; praying for people is challenging, vibrant, exciting, demanding. Praying for ‘an orphanage in India’ is hard; praying for the children at the orphanage that Elizabeth is involved with is much easier. Prayer is about people – so we remember them.
 The Church as a whole supports a number of folk – Moses Ndeto in Kenya (who is almost 20, but still in school – sorry Moses, don’t have a current picture of you!), the Williamsons in Peru, Elizabeth Toon in India, and so on. But I hope that you as an individual take the time to build up your own network of people. Angela and I pray for a missionary couple working in Belgium (Phil and Viv Hatton, based in Brussels); we’ve visited them, we correspond with them; we’ve even borrowed their flat for a holiday! It helps us as we pray, because they are not just names on a Prayer Letter, they are friends.
 Phil and Viv have just been in touch to say they have folk in their congregation who are concerned about friends in Haiti – here’s their prayer letter:
To bring the world closer takes just a point of contact, a person.
We continue to think about ‘the ends of the earth’ in our praying. An email I received today reminds me that the separation between ourselves and others is often nothing to do with the number of miles between us. Blaby District Street Pastors are ‘up and running’ now, and will be going out into the villages of our area week by week.
Ann Murphy, who is the group’s co-ordinator, sends this report (edited a little):
Many thanks to those of you who sent encouraging messages as we went out on our first night.
As we met – I read out the various greetings from text and email, the team filled their pockets with tissues and gloves, pens and notebooks etc and we waited for the call to inform us about where the "hotspots" were. The call didn’t come, so we looked at the maps of the area and chose 2 villages to visit – just as we had worked out a route, the phone rang!
Then we were off – Dave’s team walked through Blaby and out towards the garage, which a group of teenagers were drinking and sitting and chatting – but to passers by, they looked intimidating and the "chatting" volume was louder than perhaps local residents would have preferred. The banter quietened down and a positive conversation was had. A new one for us "Street Pastilles", but it was an opener into a conversation.
Mike and Ann and crew went to Countesthorpe when we passed a large group of teens by the college. The dozen or so teenagers swelled to about 20 with the arrival of an older friend in a car and they were friendly enough, but some people would be put off trying to burst through a large group to get into the Pizza shop. We had chance to talk to the takeaway staff when the group dispersed and were told of some nights of being intimidated, nothing really bad, but after 2 hours of having snowballs thrown at the shop window it gets tedious. The various shop staff seemed pleased to know we would be around from time to time.
Before that though, when we approached the youngsters and just let them know who we were, they were polite and curious. One of the group, a younger boy on a bike, rode round the square a few minutes later and as he passed us walking away he called out a cheery "hello Street Pastors". We were asked if we were like "Jesus Christians" and it was acceptable to them that we said yes. We had 42 conversation style encounters in total.
The team swept up some broken glass and removed some glass bottles from harms way. A good 1st night, for 9 of us in about 2 hours a it stopped raining for most of that time!
Shalom from Ann and the team
So – pray for those who are working ‘to the ends of the earth’, and maybe even ask if God is prompting you to join them!
Dangerous – that’s the word that comes to mind. Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.’ Of course, we shouldn’t be too quick to cry ‘persecution.’ To compare what happens when, for example, the neighbours of a church building seek to have noise limits placed on a church that worships rather loudly on a Sunday with the kind of real physical danger faced by believers in some parts of the far east is to invite ridicule.
 But it is still dangerous to serve Christ. Only last Sunday a BMS worker, Fay Martin, died in Afghanistan. Fay was working on agricultural projects in the North-West of the country, but was in Kabul when she died. (click on the picture to read more)
Or consider the situation of the MAF pilots working in Haiti just now. Daniel, aged just 24, who worked as one of the local team, was killed when the earthquake destroyed the University building where he was studying.
 Take a look here to see what MAF are doing in Haiti.
What strikes me is that so many people are prepared to take risks for Jesus. In our risk-averse country, we are becoming paralysed by fear of the consequences of any action – and that isn’t what Jesus asks of us. 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (NKJV)
So maybe today, as we pray for those in Afghanistan and Haiti, we should pray to be set free from fear, and for the courage to take risks for Christ.
|
|
